Traitor's Moon

Adzriel’s tupa. I’m sure she’d welcome you in her house.”
    The Ra’basi hesitated. “May we speak privately?”
    Beka ushered him into her side room and closed the door. “What’s the problem?”
    â€œIt is not the Bôkthersans who would not welcome me, Captain, but the Akhendi. More specifically, their khirnari, Rhaish í Arlisandin. You see, Amali ä Yassara and I were lovers for a time, before she married him.”
    The news sank in like a kick in the gut.
What’s the matter with me? I barely know the man!
Beka thought, struggling to remain dispassionate. Instead, she suddenly recalled with merciless clarity how Nyal had kept his distance from Amali during the journey from Gedre when he had been so friendly with everyone else, and how he had faded into the background when her husband appeared at the Vhadäsoori.
    â€œAre you still in love with her?” She wished the words back as soon as she spoke them.
    Nyal looked away with a sad, shy smile. “I regret the choice she made, and will always consider myself her friend.”
    Yes, then
. Beka folded her arms and sighed. “It must have been uncomfortable—being thrown together again this way.”
    Nyal shrugged. “She and I—it was a long time ago, and most agreed that she made a wise choice. Still, her husband is jealous, the way old men are. It’s best that I stay in tonight.”
    â€œVery well.” On impulse, she laid a hand on his arm as he turned to go. “And thank you for telling me this.”
    â€œOh, I think it would have been necessary sooner or later to say something,” he murmured, and was gone.
    Sakor’s Flame, woman, are you losing your mind?
Beka berated herself silently, pacing the tiny room.
You barely know the man and you’re mooning over him like a jealous kitchen maid. Once this mission is over you’ll never see him again
.
    Ah, but those eyes, and that voice! her mutinous heart replied.
    He’s a Ra ’basi, for all his traveling
, she countered. By all reports that clan was expected to support Virésse. And Seregil obviously distrusted Nyal, though he hadn’t come out and said so.
    â€œToo many months without a man,” Beka growled aloud. Thatwas easy enough to remedy, and without all the bother of falling in love. Love, she’d learned through harsh experience, was a luxury she could not afford.
    Freshly bathed and brushed, Alec and Seregil headed downstairs to meet the others in the main hall.
    Reaching the landing at the second floor, however, Seregil paused. “I’d feel better if we were down here, closer to Klia,” he noted, walking the length of the crooked corridor where the other guest rooms lay. At the far end was another stairway, with a window overlooking the rear yard. “This goes down to the kitchen, as I recall,” said Seregil, following it down.
    Wending their way past baskets of vegetables, they greeted the cooks and were directed down a passageway to the main hall at the front of the house. Klia, Kheeta, and Thero were there already, sitting next to a cheerful blaze on the hearth.
    â€œIt’s too bad, having Akhendi there his first night with—” Thero was saying to Kheeta, but broke off when he caught sight of them.
    â€œHospitality must be served,” Kheeta murmured tactfully, giving Seregil a knowing look that sent a niggling little jolt through Alec’s gut. The two men may not have seen each other for forty years, but an undeniable rapport remained between them.
    â€œOf course,” Seregil agreed, brushing the matter aside. “Waiting for Lord Torsin, are we?”
    And changing the subject as quickly as ever, too, thought Alec.
    â€œHe should be down in a moment,” Klia said. The sound of cheers echoing down the back corridor just then.
    â€œAh, yes, and Captain Beka, too,” Klia added with a knowing wink.
    A moment later Beka strode in dressed in a brown velvet gown. Her unbound hair had been brushed until it shone and she even had on golden earrings and a necklace. It suited her, but if her expression was anything to go by, she didn’t agree. Sergeant Mercalle came in just behind her, grinning broadly at her captain’s unease.
    â€œNo wonder your riders were cheering,” Kheeta exclaimed. “For a moment there I scarcely recognized you.”
    â€œAdzriel sent word that I was included among the guests,”