Traitor's Moon

harm to the Haman. Silly girl—talía. Though I should—” He gagged, then drew a labored breath. The mage light still cupped in his palm was failing. “I should like tohave bested Ulan, the old schemer, and beaten him at his own game for once. Aura forgive—”
    A spate of sour bile burst from the old man’s mouth, staining the front of his robe black in the moonlight. He shuddered violently and fell back in his chair. The mage light went out.
    Seregil felt the fleeting tingle of the departing khi as the cold hand went limp. “Poor old fool.” The silence of the garden seemed to thicken into something more ominous, and he lowered his voice to a cautious whisper. “He had too much atui to be good at murder.”
    â€œAtui?” muttered Alec. “After what he did?”
    â€œI don’t excuse it, but I understand.”
    Alec shrugged and reached for the bracelet. “At least he gave us what we need.
    â€œNo, don’t touch it. All this?” He gestured at the bracelet, the clay bowls, the cast-off sen’gai. “It’s as good as any confession. They don’t need us for that. Come on, let’s go back before we’re missed.”
    But Alec remained where he was, staring down at the dead man’s slumped form. Seregil couldn’t see his face, but heard a tremor in his voice when he said at last, “That could be you, if Nazien has his way.”
    â€œI’m not going to run away, Alec.” A fatalistic smile tugged at the corner of Seregil’s mouth. “At least not until I’m certain I have to.”
    Alec said nothing more as they hurried back to Bôkthersa tupa, but Seregil could feel his fear like a chilled blade against his skin. He wanted to reach out, offer some comfort, but had none to give, still driven by the stubborn resolve that had come to him in the mountains.
    He wouldn’t run away.
    Back in Bôkthersa tupa, they paused outside the guest house. Seregil searched for something to say, but Alec cut him off, grasping him fiercely by the neck and pressing his forehead to Seregil’s. Seregil hugged him close, fighting rigid limbs to drink in his lover’s warmth and comforting scent. “They’re not going to kill me, Alec,” he whispered into the soft hair pressed beneath his lips.
    â€œThey can.” No tears, but such misery.
    â€œThey won’t.” Seregil pressed his wounded hand to his friend’s cheek, letting him feel the pebbled rows of scabs. “They won’t kill me.”
    Alec rocked his head hard against Seregil’s shoulder, then pulled away and scaled the stable-yard wall without a backward glance.

55
J UDGMENT
    R eturning to his too empty room, Alec lit all the lamps, wanting to drive off the shadow of his own dark thoughts.
    Anything to block out the memory of that slumped figure, and the two bowls
.
    Caught between fear and anger, he threw together two small traveling packs, preparing for a quick escape if that’s what it took to keep Seregil from a headlong plunge into self-destruction. Time and again he went out to the balcony, but his friend’s dark window revealed nothing.
    What is he thinking?
he raged silently, pacing again.
    His own hopes and illusions mocked him now. He’d come to Aurënen to discover some part of his past, and Seregil’s. Yet what had it come to? The revelation of his mother’s sacrifice, the maiming of Klia, shame heaped on his friend, and now Seregil’s inexplicable resolve to face the Iia’sidra.
    Thero slipped in just then, looking as if he hadn’t been to bed yet, either. “I saw your light. Were you successful?”
    â€œAfter a fashion.” Alec told him what they’d found, and how Seregil had chosen to leave things.
    The wizard seemed satisfied with this turnof events. “It’s not over yet, my friend,” he said, resting a hand on Alec’s shoulder. “Sleep now.”
    Alec just had time to realize that this was a spell rather than a friendly suggestion before oblivion claimed him.
    Alec awoke with the first hint of dawn creeping in through the balcony door. Pushing off the blanket Thero had spread over him, he changed clothes and hurried downstairs.
    Noticing that Klia’s door stood open, he stopped to check on her. Ariani was with her, talking softly to Klia as she brushed her dark hair. Both women looked up as he entered. He hadn’t