Traitor's Moon

with him that day can vouch for me. So can Nyal í Nhekai, Kheeta í Branín, and Beka Cavish.”
    â€œThis is absurd!” Elos í Orian objected. “How could Amali not know her own work had been tempered with?”
    â€œNyal gave my charm to Amali ä Yassara of Akhendi to restore it. I never saw it again, until I looked more closely at Klia’s bracelet after we’d left Sarikali.”
    â€œAmali would surely have known the difference,” Seregil pointed out. “We believe that she said nothing of it because it was she who switched the charms in the first place, seeking to dishonor the Haman in order to remove them from the vote.”
    All eyes turned to the Akhendi khirnari and Amali’s empty chair.
    â€œI refute the charge,” Rhaish said evenly. “She is unwell. Perhaps she made a mistake. She had offered to read it more deeply, but the Exile had already carried it away with him. Perhaps he exchanged the charms, and for the same reason. To dishonor the Haman.”
    â€œOh, Illior,” Alec murmured. Before either of them could draw breath to answer, however, the Khatme khirnari spoke again.
    â€œIf that were the case, then why would he be refuting the accusation against Emiel now?” she snapped. “And why accuse the Akhendi, who have supported the Skalan cause? Besides, who but an Akhendi could have made such an exchange without destroying the magic?” She turned back to Alec. “Do you know more of this?”
    â€œI—I think so, Khirnari,” he stammered. “I believe I saw Amali make the switch the morning of the hunt. Later, when I found the bracelet and brought it back, Rhaish í Arlisandin insisted that she read the charm, though he or another Akhendi could just as easily have done so. At the time, I thought nothing of it, since she was the maker.”
    â€œAnd you maintain that you knew nothing of this?” Brythir asked Rhaish.
    â€œNothing at all,” he replied.
    â€œThat may have been true at the time,” Seregil said. “She wouldn’t have told you that she had the charm because you might have guessed how she came by it and disapproved.”
    Rhaish colored angrily. “What are you saying?”
    â€œThat you are known to be jealous of her former lover, Nyal í Nhekai, and disapproved of their continued friendship. So you didn’t know what she’d done until it was too late, any more than she knew what you’d done, or she wouldn’t have meddled, would she? You certainly seem to have been at cross purposes.”
    â€œExplain yourself,” Brythir ordered sternly.
    â€œI can only conjecture, Honored One,” Seregil said. “After Torsin died and Klia fell ill, I was at a loss to discover their attackers. Such acts are rare here but I have, as you know, spent most of my life in Skala where it is common practice. I’ve had years to observe the ways of dishonor. I have even made my way there using that knowledge, though not in the manner some of you assume. I am not a murderer, but I know the minds of murderers, traitors, and assassins.
    â€œI didn’t expect to encounter them here, not in Aurënen or in Sarikali. My childish memories blinded me for too long, and kept me from asking the right questions. I kept thinking in terms of who stood to gain by Klia’s failure, instead of who would lose the most by it.”
    â€œAnd you claim that someone among the Akhendi is the murderer?”
    â€œYes, Khirnari. When Alec and I left Sarikali with Beka Cavish, we were careful to cover our tracks. Yet all three of us were attacked by Akhendi intent on killing us rather than capturing us. Alec and I were ambushed by a party of men waiting for us in the very pass I’dchosen to cross the mountains. Someone told them where to find us, someone with the power to track us, since I’d told no one which route I meant to take. After the attack we found these among the ambusher’s gear.”
    He pulled out the Akhendi sen’gai and held it up for all to see.
    â€œWe have only your word for that, Exile,” noted Ruen í Uri of Datsia.
    â€œYou have mine as well,” Nyal said, stepping forward. “I was tracking the Exile and his talímenios and came upon them just as they were attacked. With Alec’s help, I managed to rescue Seregil as he was about to be murdered, and together we drove off the others. The bodies of those we