Traitor's Moon

rode on in silence for a few miles, then stopped to let the horse drink at a stream. Beka slid quickly off, still grasping her sword, and took a few steps back.
    Nyal dismounted but didn’t try to approach her. He just stood there, sword sheathed, arms folded across his chest.
    â€œWhere did you come from?” she demanded. “Were you tracking me down again?”
    â€œAfter a fashion,” he admitted. “I saw where you’d been ambushed. I was certain I’d find you dead, but instead picked up your trail where you eluded the others. I figured you wouldn’t be happy to see me, so I kept back, shadowing you to make sure you were safe. You did well, until the Akhendi jumped you. I wasn’t expecting that, either.”
    Beka ignored the compliment. “If you wanted me safe, then why track me down in the first place?”
    He gave her a rueful grin. “It seemed the best way to distract my fellow searchers from following your friends, whom I guessed rightly had business over the mountains.”
    â€œYou found them?”
    He nodded. “So did a gang of bandits, but we dealt with them. I sent Seregil and Alec on their way and came back to make certain you reached Sarikali safely.”
    â€œSo you say,” she growled.
    â€œTalía.” He stepped closer, and she spotted a dark stain on the front of his tunic, near the lower hem. It was blood, but too dry to have come from today’s fighting.
    â€œSo you let them go, did you?” she said, pointing.
    â€œAlec was wounded, shot through the leg,” Nyal told her, rubbing at the stain. “I bound the wound for him.”
    This was agony. She wanted to believe him, even had some reason to do so, but caution still held her back. “Why did the Akhendi attack me?”
    Turning away, Nyal sat down on a large stone next to the stream. “I don’t know,” he said, and she knew then that he was lying.
    â€œIt has something to do with Amali, doesn’t it?”
    This time there was no mistaking the guilty flush that suffused his face.
Seregil was right about him all along
, she thought miserably. “You’re in league with her, aren’t you?”
    â€œNo,” he said, resting his elbows on his knees and hanging his head wearily.
    She stared down at him, and her traitorous heart summoned memories of how his bare skin felt beneath her hands. She’d told Alec she wasn’t love-blind; now was the time to prove it. “Give me your weapons,” she ordered.
    Without a word, he unbuckled his sword belt and tossed it at her feet, then did the same with the knife at his belt. She hung them over her shoulder, and checked his boots and tunic for hidden blades.
    He was so patient, so passive, that she began to feel guilty. Before she could stop herself, she’d reached to brush a hand against his smooth cheek. He turned his head toward it, making the touch into a brief caress. She pulled back as if she’d been burned.
    â€œIf I’ve wronged you, I’m sorry,” she said through clenched teeth. “I have my duty.”
    He looked away again. “So you’ve always said. What do you want to do now?”
    â€œI have to get back to Klia.”
    â€œAt least in that, we are in agreement,” he replied, and she was certain she saw him smile as he turned away to mount his horse.
    Somehow, she doubted whether the ride would be any easier from here.

49
S URRENDER
    L ulled by the motion of the ship, Seregil slept deeply in spite of what lay ahead. He’d half hoped, half feared to dream again, but when he woke before dawn the following morning, he remembered nothing. Beside him, Alec frowned and muttered in his sleep, then came awake with a startled gasp when Seregil brushed his cheek.
    Glancing out the tiny window at the end of the bunk, Alec settled back on his elbows. “Feels like we’re still under sail.”
    Seregil shifted for a better look. “We’re a mile or two out. I can see lights in Gedre.”
    They said little as they dressed in borrowed clothes. With a pang of regret, Seregil took off Corruth’s ring and hung it around his neck on a string. The Akhendi bracelet was at the bottom of his old pack, wrapped in the Akhendi sen’gai they’d taken from the ambushers.
    â€œWhat about our weapons and tools?” Alec asked.
    â€œWear your sword,” Seregil said, buckling his own on. “Leave the rest