Traitor's Moon

the Aurënfaie and Dravnian tribesmen who live in the mountains can pass over freely.”
    â€œHow are we supposed to get over a mountain pass blind?” Nikides muttered.
    â€œI’ll just move my patch over to my good eye,” Steb offered with a grin.
    â€œHe won’t let you come to any harm, Corporal,” Seregil assured Nikides, pointing to the Akhendi clansman sitting his horse nearby. “It would blemish his honor.”
    Nikides glowered at his escort. “I’ll be sure to beg his pardon when I’m falling to my death.”
    â€œHe’s worried about falling,” Alec explained to the Akhendi.
    â€œHe can ride double with me,” the man offered, patting his horse’s rump.
    Nikides scowled, needing no interpreter. “I’ll manage.”
    The man shrugged, “He can suit himself, but at least get him to accept this.” Pulling a piece of wild gingerroot from a belt pouch, he tossed it to Nikides, who examined it distrustfully. “And tell him my name is Vanos.”
    â€œSome get queasy riding blind,” Seregil explained. “Chew this if you do. And you might thank Vanos here for the consideration.”
    â€œThe word is ‘chypta’,” Alec added helpfully.
    Nikides turned rather sheepishly to his escort and held up the root. “Chypta.”
    â€œYou welkin,” Vanos replied with a friendly grin.
    â€œLooks like they’ll have lots to talk about,” Alec chuckled. “Hope you brought some of that root for me.”
    Seregil took a piece from a wallet at his belt and presented it to him. “A disgrace to one talímenios is a disgrace to both. It would reflect poorly on me if you showed up covered in puke. And don’t worry, most of the time you’ll ride with your eyes open.”
    Riding to the head of the column, they fell in behind Klia and her hosts.
    â€œMy friends, we now begin the last leg of your long journey,” Riagil announced. “It’s a well-traveled route, but there are dangers. First among these are the young dragons, those larger than a lizard but smaller than an ox. Should you meet with one, be still and avert your eyes. Under no circumstances must you hunt or attack them.”
    â€œAnd if they attack first?” Alec whispered, recalling what Seregil had told them aboard the
Zyria
.
    Seregil motioned him to silence.
    â€œThe youngest ones, fingerlings we call them, are fragile creatures,” Riagil continued. “If you kill one by accident, you must undergo several days purification. To willfully kill one invokes the curse of its brethen, and brings that curse on your clan unless your people see to it that you are punished.
    â€œAny animal that speaks is sacred and must not be harmed orhunted. These are the
khtir ’bai
, inhabited by the khi of great wizards and rhui’auros.”
    â€œIf we’re not supposed to harm anything, why are you all armed?” Alec asked one of their escort, who carried bows and longswords.
    â€œThere are other dangers,” he told him. “Rock lions, wolves, sometimes even
teth ’brimash.
”
    â€œTeth’ what?”
    â€œPeople cut off from their clan for some dishonor,” Seregil explained. “Some of them turn outlaw.”
    â€œI’m honored to guide you,” Riagil concluded. “You are the first Tír to visit Sarikali in centuries. Aura grant that this be the first of many journeys shared by our people.”
    The road into the mountains started out broad and level, but as it left the foothills and twisted along the edge of a jagged precipice, Alec began to share Nikides’s doubts about riding blind. Looking up, he could see the gleam of snow still clinging to the sides of peaks.
    Seregil had other concerns.
    â€œI’d say a bond was forming there, wouldn’t you?” he asked under his breath, his expression neutral as he nodded slightly toward Beka and the interpreter.
    â€œHe’s a handsome man, and a friendly one.” Alec rather liked the garrulous Ra’basi, in spite of Seregil’s reservations. For Beka’s sake, he hoped that his friend’s celebrated intuition was off its mark this time. “How old would you say he is?”
    Seregil shrugged. “Eighty or so.”
    â€œNot so old for her, then,” Alec observed.
    â€œBy the Light, don’t go marrying them off yet!”
    â€œWho said anything about