Nightrunners 03 - Traitor's Moon (76 page)

"Has Klia said anything about who attacked her?" asked Alec.

"She can't speak yet, but she's more herself today. She still refuses to demand vengeance against the Haman, though, or anyone else."

Seregil sighed. "That's just as well. I think we've discovered our poisoner. Come, I want to speak to Klia before the others wear her out."

Korathan sat next to his sister's bed. On the far side, Mydri bent over Klia's damaged hand, changing dressings.

"You're back sooner than I expected, Haba!" Mydri exclaimed, glancing up as he came in. "Should I be glad?"

"It was my own choosing," Seregil replied, approaching the bed.

Klia greeted him with a rueful little smile. She lay propped up against a pile of cushions, dressed in a loose blue gown. Her face was still deathly pale, the skin too slack, but her eyes were bright and alert.

When Mydri removed the last of the bandages, however, Seregil's stomach did a slow lurch.

"Maker's Mercy!" Alec whispered, echoing his own dismay.

Klia's first and middle fingers were gone. Mydri had cut away flesh and bone at an angle, from the knuckle of the ring finger to the base of the thumb. The raw edges were sewn together with heavy black silk, and although the flesh was still swollen and red, it appeared to be healing clean. The hand itself, once strong and slender, now looked like a splayed bird's claw.

"Those white patches spread and turned to dry gangrene, just as Nyal said they would," Mydri explained, applying a pungent unguent to the incision. "It would have killed her in time. We were

lucky, only having to do it once. I'm afraid she won't draw a bow again, though."

Seregil looked up to find Klia watching him with mute resignation.

"You only need one hand to wield a sword," Seregil told her. She gave him a wink.

"I've explained something of what you two did for her and for Skala," said Korathan. "I'll leave the rest of it to you."

He exchanged a look with Mydri and she withdrew.

"Thank you, my lord." With Alec's help, Seregil explained what had happened once they'd parted from Beka, showing Klia the Akhendi sen'gai and the sealed bottle. Tears glittered in her eyes as they outlined their suspicions against the khirnari and his wife.

Betrayed again,
Seregil thought sadly.

"I can't open the bottle just yet, as I don't want to give Rhaish any warning. Before I go to the Iia'sidra, I need you to think, Klia. Did the charm Amali gave you have any marks or cracks in the wood?"

Klia slowly shook her head.

"All right. Now then, did the Haman, Emiel, attack you during the hunt?"

She looked at him blankly.

"She remembers little of that day," Thero told him. "She was quite sick by then."

"That night at the Viresse banquet, do you recall feeling anything prick your hand?" Seregil asked her. "No? Any other time? Do you know when you might have been poisoned?"

Again no.

"Nyal said the snake's bite is painless," Alec reminded him. "The poison must deaden feeling. And the barb on the ring is tiny."

"The ring! Thero, were you able to learn anything more from it?"

"No. Whoever used it masked it well," the wizard replied.

"Just like the charm," Seregil mused, "And yet they were able to preserve the memory of Emiel in it, and turn it white again somehow without disturbing that memory."

"We were just discussing that," said Thero, who'd evidently warmed a bit toward the older wizard. "According to Wydonis, who is much more adept than I at this sort of thing, it's possible to mask the essence of a person, as has evidently been done with the ring. But it's virtually impossible, short of necromancy, to falsely imbue that essence."

Wydonis nodded. "Whoever had Alec's charm, they were careful only to mask its appearance, leaving Emiel's essence to be found when it changed again," Wydonis explained. "I grant you, it's difficult."

"But what made it turn black again, if Emiel didn't attack her?" asked Alec.

"Perhaps merely his proximity," the older wizard said. "As Thero has speculated, these are the doings of someone with greater than normal ability."

Thero passed the ring to the elder wizard. "Perhaps you could divine more than I have from this. We can't afford to miss anything."

Wydonis took the steel ring on his palm, breathed on it, then closed his fist around it. After a moment's concentration, he nodded slowly. "As you say, it reveals nothing of the murderer. However, I can tell you something—it was made in Plenimar, as you rightly suspected. At Riga, I think, by a one-legged smith who slakes his work in goat's urine. The ring was used for a time by a woman named—" He paused, brow furrowed. "She is of the house of Ashnazai, I believe. She used it to murder six people: four men, a woman, and an infant girl—all of them kin to the current Overlord—and then herself. More recently, it was used to kill several calves. It has something of Princess Klia's essence in it, too—blood perhaps—and Torsin's." He tried one last time, then raised an eyebrow at Seregil. "I also sense a fish of some sort, but whoever used the ring to poison the princess has left no trace."

"Could a Viresse or Haman do that?" Thero asked Seregil.

"The Viresse, perhaps, but probably not a Haman. Their gifts don't usually run in that vein. I think it's time we had a chat with Nyal. I'll ask Adzriel to have someone bring him to her house discreetly. We don't want to attract attention."

Korathan shot him a questioning look. "Who is this Nyal?"

"A confidant of Lady Amali's, my lord. These are delicate matters. It would be best if he thinks himself among friends," Seregil explained. "I'll have Adzriel, Alec, and Thero as witnesses. I think Klia will agree that this is best. My lady?"

Klia nodded slightly.

"Very well," Korathan said grudgingly.

"This shouldn't take long," Seregil promised. "Send word to the Iia'sidra that you'll meet with them in two hours." He paused. "Beka, do you want to be there for this?"

She hesitated, flushing a bit behind her freckles. "With my lord's permission?"

"Be my eyes and ears, Captain," said Korathan. "I'll expect a full report."

With that settled, Seregil left the others and found Adzriel waiting just down the corridor.

"I'll send Kheeta to fetch Nyal," she said. "I hope for Beka's sake that he hasn't betrayed you."

"So do I. But I suspect she's right about him knowing more than he's let on."

Adzriel went down the back stairs and he followed, motioning for Alec and the others to remain behind.

At the lower landing, just off the kitchen, he laid a hand on her arm. A ray of late-afternoon sun slanted in through the open door beyond, striking golden glints in her dark hair even as it highlighted the circles beneath her eyes. She looked older suddenly, and careworn.

"I have something for you," he told her, pressing Corruth's ring into her hand. "It belongs here. Who knows what the Iia'sidra will decide. . .." He faltered, unable for once to find the right words to shape his meaning.

The light struck the ring's large red stone, scattering bright spangles across her palm like tears of blood.

She looked down at it, then leaned forward and kissed him, first on the brow, then on the back of his bandaged hand. "I'm proud of you, my brother. Whatever judgment the Iia'sidra passes, you returned and I'm very proud of you." She touched his wounded hand again. "May I see?"

The teeth marks had scabbed over cleanly, each darkly ringed with blue lissik.

"Make certain the Iia'sidra see this," she advised. "Let them see that the dragons have claimed you. Whatever the khirnari may say, you will carry this mark of favor forever, here"—she touched a hand to his heart—"and here. Come over when you're ready. I'll see that Nyal is there."

Seregil kissed her cheek, then returned upstairs to find the others crowded around Klia's bed.

"She spoke!" Alec told him, making room. "She wants to go with us to the Iia'sidra."

"Is she strong enough?" Korathan asked, looking to Mydri.

"If we wrap her well and keep her from any jolts," his sister said. Looking down at Klia, she shook her head. "Is it important enough

to justify the risk, my dear? You're not strong enough to speak at any length."

"Must see me," Klia whispered, her brow furrowed with effort.

"She's right," Seregil said, giving the sick woman a smile. "Let them see just how badly the laws of hospitality have been breached." Leaning down, he clasped her sound hand and added softly, "If you weren't a princess, I'd have had you working with me long ago."

Her fingers tightened around his as she gave him a fleeting grin.

52

Long Ears

Adzriel opened her own sitting room for the interrogation. Seregil, Alec, Beka, and Thero were already in place when Kheeta ushered the Ra'basi in. Beka acknowledged him with a terse nod, remaining where she was in the embrasure of the window.

Nyal gaped in amazement at the two returned fugitives. "So you were captured after all?"

"No, we brought ourselves back," Alec told him.

"After all the trouble of getting away? Why?"

"We found out a few more things along the way," Seregil told him. "We need your help again. I'm hoping you'll give it as freely as you have in the past."

"Whatever I can do, my friends."

"Good. There are a few things we need to understand first. Tell us why Akhendi would attack not only me but Alec and Beka as well."

Nyal shifted uneasily in his chair. "Akhendi attacked you? When?"

Seregil took out the sen'gai. "We found these among the belongings of those so-called bandits after you left us."

"By the Light! But Rhaish said—"

"We know what he said," Seregil cut in. "I

also know about Alec's run-in with Emiel i Moranthi. You remember that, don't you? Alec says you took his warding charm to be restored? Did you give it to anyone?"

Nyal stared at him, "I gave it to Amali. What has that to do with anything?"

Seregil exchanged a glance with Alec. "Can you explain how that same charm—Alec's—ended up on the bracelet Amali wove for Klia? The very bracelet that she used to accuse Emiel? You see, Nyal, as much as I wanted to, I never believed the bastard laid a hand on her."

Nyal had gone ashen. "No, she would not—"

Alec placed a hand on Nyal's shoulder. "I know that you care for her. I've seen the two of you together several times, and that she shared some fear with you regarding her husband."

"You spied on me?"

"You're not the only one with long ears," Alec said evasively, but a betraying hint of color rose in his fair cheeks.

Nyal slumped back in his chair. "She did come to me, now and then. And you're right in thinking I would protect her. But we're not lovers. I swear it."

Still silent, Beka stared down at her hands.

"But you are her confidant?" said Seregil.

Nyal shrugged. "Before we met again in Gedre, I hadn't seen her for several years. Glad as I was for a chance to be near her without her husband glowering, I could tell that something was wrong. She told me of the child she carries, but also hinted at something amiss. We spoke several times on the journey, and again after we reached Sarikali. She was unhappy, that I could see, but she would only speak vaguely of her husband's fears for his clan, and for the outcome of the negotiations.

"She hinted that his behavior was sometimes alarming, that he was not himself. He grew more troubled after Queen Idrilain's death, but worse was to come. He'd become convinced that Lord Torsin was plotting secretly with Ulan, offering a different bargain, one in which Gedre would be closed again after Skala's war ended, leaving Akhendi as badly off as ever."

"Did you tell him this?" Seregil demanded, ignoring his sister's startled look.

Nyal lurched to his feet, angry now. "How could I, when I knew nothing of it? You have distrusted me from the beginning, but I am no spy! I worked among you in good faith, and resisted Amali's entreaties and even those of my own khirnari to pass on what I heard

among you. You know my gift, Seregil; it's one that can strain or destroy the possessor's atui if he doesn't learn restraint. I know when not to listen."

"But Amali did question you?" Seregil pressed.

"Of course she did! How could she not? I gave her what comfort I could and assured her that Klia was acting in good faith, even if Torsin was not."

"Why didn't you come to me about this?" Beka demanded.

"Because I didn't want you to think I was asking you to betray a confidence!" Nyal shot back. "Besides, I didn't believe it. Why would Torsin betray the woman he was sent to serve?"

"Did Amali ever mention Alec's charm after you gave it to her? Did you try to retrieve it?"

"I asked her about it once, not long after I'd given it to her, but she said she wanted to return it to Alec herself. I didn't think anything more of it."

"Would you swear that in front of a truth knower? " asked Thero.