Traitor's Moon

of a warm welcome, I headed for the closest village. Before I’d gotten a mile down the valley, though, I ran into a group of armed horsemen. All I saw at first was that they were wearing sen’gai. I greeted them in Aurënfaie, but they attacked and took me prisoner.”
    â€œWhat happened then?” Beka demanded as soon as he paused.
    â€œThey held me in a cellar for two days before I managed to escape.”
    â€œThat must have been a bitter disappointment,” Nyal remarked kindly.
    Seregil looked away and sighed. “It was a long time ago.”
    The column had slowed steadily as they talked, and now came to a complete halt.
    â€œThis is the first hidden stretch,” Nyal explained. “Captain, will you trust me as your guide?”
    Beka agreed just a tad too readily, Alec noted with amusement.
    Skalan riders paired off with Aurënfaie, handing over their reins and tying white cloth blindfolds over their eyes.
    A pair of Gedre riders approached Alec and Seregil.
    â€œWhat’s this?” asked Seregil as one of the men sidled his horse up next to Seregil’s and held out a blindfold.
    â€œAll Skalans must ride blind,” the man replied.
    Alec choked down a hard knot of resentment, almost grateful when his own blindfold hid the scene. How many more little ways would the ’faie find to underline the fact that Seregil was returning as an outsider?
    â€œReady, Alec í Amasa?” his own guide asked, clasping his shoulder.
    â€œReady.” Alec gripped the saddlebow, feeling off balance already. Renewed grumbling among the Skalans came from all sides, then a brief chorus of surprise as a peculiar sensation came over them, a tingle on the skin. Unable to resist, Alec lifted a corner of the blindfold just enough to peek out from under it, then pulled it hastily back into place as his eye was assaulted by a stinging burst of swirling color that sent a bolt of pain through his head.
    â€œI wouldn’t do that, my friend,” his guide chuckled. “The magic will hurt your eyes, without the covering.”
    To make amends to their guests, or perhaps to drown out the complaining, someone began to sing and others quickly joined in, voices echoing among the rocks.
    Once I loved a girl so fair, with ten charms woven in her hair
.
    Slim as the tip of the newborn moon
,
    Eyes the color of a mountain sky
.
    For a year I wooed her with my eyes
    And a year with all my heart
.
    A year with tears unshed
,
    A year with wandering feet
,
    A year with silent songs unsung
,
    A year with sighs replete
.
    A year until she was the wife of another and my safety was complete
.
    The play of sun and shadow across Alec’s skin told him that the trail twisted sharply and it wasn’t long before he dug in his pouch for the root Seregil had given him. It smelled of moist earth, and the pungent juice made his eyes water, but it did settle his stomach.
    â€œI didn’t think I’d be sick,” he said, spitting out the stringy pith. “It feels like we’re riding around in circles.”
    â€œThat’s the magic,” said Seregil. “Whole miles of the pass are like this.”
    â€œHow are you doing?” Alec asked softly, thinking of Seregil’s frequent difficulties with magic.
    Warm, ginger-scented breath bathed his cheek as Seregil leaned close and confessed, “I’m managing.”
    The blind ride went on for what seemed like a dark, lurching eternity. They traveled beside rushing water for a time, and at others Alec sensed walls closing in around them.
    Riagil finally called a halt, and the blindfolds were removed. Alecrubbed his eyes, blinking in the afternoon brightness. They were in a small meadow bounded on all sides by steep cliffs. Looking back, he saw nothing but the usual terrain.
    Seregil was bathing his face at a spring that bubbled up among the rocks a few yards away. Joining him, Alec drank as he studied the stunted bushes and clumps of tiny flowers and grasses clinging in clefts of rock. A few wild mountain sheep clattered among the rocks overhead.
    â€œWould fresh meat be welcome tonight?” Alec asked Riagil, who was standing nearby.
    The khirnari shook his head. “We have food enough with us for now. Leave these creatures for someone who needs them. Besides, I think you’d have a hard time making such a shot. They are a good distance off.”
    â€œI’d bet a Skalan sester he can shoot that