Ten Crescent Moons (Moonquest) (23 page)

His beard
was caked with straw and mud from their night's exertions. She reached up to
her own hair, realizing that she must now look a mess. And she wore no masque
to hide behind.

With a
start, she put her hand to her face.

"My
masque..." she began.

"Is
gone, and good riddance," Kalos finished for her. He removed her hand, and
caressed her cheek. "I believe it was the sight of your divine face,
unmarred by any paint, as you floated there in the water that showed me at last
who you really were."

"You
were spying on me before you declared your presence?"

"Oh
yes," Kalos admitted. "For a very, very long time. I watched you surrounded
with a glow of such complete serenity. And purity. Something I have never seen
before in any being. No masques. And no games. It was the real you, Adalginza.
The woman I suspected was there all along. The woman I knew I had to have."

"And if
I had said no?" Adalginza raised herself upon one elbow.

Kalos
smiled. "A knight from the House of the Fifth Crescent would have taken
you anyway, for you had declared your intent for me long ago. There would have
been no taking it back."

"But
you are from the House of the Ninth Crescent Moon."

"Because
of my father's alliance with the Fifth House, I am equally close to your House
and those of your blood. But it mattered not whether I was a knight of the
Fifth House or the Ninth. I knew you would not turn me down."

Adalginza
sat up, and pretended anger as she modestly wrapped an edge of the blanket
around her. "You are still conceited!"

"Conceited,
but in love."

Adalginza
laughed down at him, where he now lay with arms folded under his head.

Remembering
his promise, her heart beat wildly in anticipation of their future together.

"And a
man of your word, I hope. You will stay with me? As you vowed last night?"

"I have
pledged myself to thee forever, my lady."

Kalos leaped
to his feet, and reached down a hand to help her to her feet. Then, he began to
don his clothing.

Adalginza
gathered up the heavy skirts she had shed the night before, and also finished
dressing.

"It
will be a fine life," she said, chattering like a child. "I know much
about the frontier. I know which herbs have medicinal qualities. I know which
plants to gather for food that can last us the winter. I know where the animals
go to water. And I know how to avoid the savages."

Kalos was
now brushing down the Golden, inspecting the animal's cuts and bruises. He
reached down the leathery right front leg and pulled out a thorn triumphantly.

"I
thought the animal was lame," Adalginza said.

"Not
lame. Just hurting. He should be fine now."

"I have
a salve. I'll put it on the wound." Adalginza reached into the pack, and
then joined Kalos to apply the ointment.

"One of
your secret potions from being a child of the wilderness?" Kalos asked
teasingly.

Adalginza
smiled in return. "I have many skills that will keep us alive."

"And I
admire you for them," Kalos said. He gave her a puzzled look. "But
despite your enthusiasm, I do not see much need for them in Sola Re."

"Sola
Re?" Adalginza asked, shocked.

His words
punctured her joy, as surely as a village water bladder where well rations were
stored had been punctured by sword. Kalos was now watching her curiously over
the back of the Golden.

"What
is wrong?"

"You — you
promised me," Adalginza said.

She backed
away from him a few steps.

Kalos walked
over to her and gently took her hand, leading her to the symbols that had been
drawn in the earth prior to the passion of the previous night. He carefully
removed the Crescent sword from where it had been so deeply embedded in soft
ground.

"You
are not familiar with the bonding ritual of the Ninth House?" he asked.

"No. I
am not."

Kalos
laughed gently, and wrapped one arm around her to bring her close to him.

"The ritual
of bonding is a private ceremony performed only between the two people involved.
Afterwards, the pledge is formally announced and celebrated. I asked your
consent. And you gave it."

He grinned
at her.

"I
would not be surprised if after this past night you were with child. And I
would not give you a child, without willingness to take my share of the
responsibility for it."

"A
child?" Adalginza repeated dumbly.

"Did
your mother not teach you anything?" Kalos asked lightly. "No.
Please. Do not look so offended. I did not mean it in that way. We are scholars
in the Ninth House. Rationalists. Perhaps not as romantic as the men of some of
the other Houses. But we believe strongly in commitment. In the marriage vow."

"Vow?"
Adalginza was still trying to grasp what had just happened here.

Kalos
regarded her with growing concern.

"It is
not proper that child rearing fall strictly upon the shoulders of the woman
alone. The burden is too heavy. Adalginza, had we not exchanged vows, I would have
made sure that we were more careful. Understand? I am sorry. I thought you knew
the mating customs of the different Houses."

"We are
married?" Adalginza dabbed with the back of her hand at the tears now
streaming from her eyes.

Kalos looked
worried.

"You
are happy about this? Are you not? Please tell me this is why you are crying."

"Of
course I am happy!" Adalginza sobbed. "I love you!"

Kalos
sighed, as if in relief, and then leaned the sword carefully against a nearby
tree before wrapping her in both arms.

"We
will have a good life. And many children."

"We
will?"

Adalginza
whispered the question, wondering if now was the time to tell him the awful
truth that children for her could never be.

"I will
be proud to bring you home upon my arm. My mother — and Kalos — will be honored
to accept you into our House."

Adalginza
pulled away from Kalos, regarding him as though he had suddenly grown fangs.

"What's
wrong now?" Kalos asked worriedly. "What did I say? I know Lady
Redolo can seem fearsome at times, but be assured that there is a very soft
place in her heart for you. You will never replace the daughters she already
lost, but you will become another for her. She will share the household with
you quite willingly. She is a very generous person."

"But you
promised me that we would stay here together. Just the two of us. Forever."

"But,
my love, the words we exchanged last night. The idea of being together forever.
I didn't think you really meant here. At this very spot."

"But I
did mean that! It's exactly what I said!"

Kalos held
out both hands in a gesture symbolizing an effort at reasonableness.

"You
and me. Here? Eating herbs and flowers and seeds. Making love day and night.
Raising a family. Never returning to civilization. Never seeing our own friends
and family again. Ever? This is what you meant?"

"Yes!"

"That
is the most utterly ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Get your things. We're
leaving."

He walked
back over to the sturmon and began saddling the animal.

Adalginza
placed both hands on her hips.

"Do not
take that tone with me. You are leaving. I will stay."

"You
are my wife."

"I have
changed my mind."

"It
doesn't work that way. We made a vow."

And so, just
like that, the fantasy was already over. Reality rushed in, like a flood gone
wild.

"You
don't understand."

"What
is it I don't understand?"

Adalginza
decided it was time for at least part of the truth.

"If you
take me with you, you will die. You, your mother, and your nephew. All of you
will die. And all because of me."

"Nonsense."

It was at
times like this that Adalginza found the captain's arrogance beyond
infuriating.

"You
must believe me. It may not happen right away. But eventually. If you value
your life and theirs, forget you ever met me."

He patted
the Golden's shoulder and gave her an odd, fond smile.

"There
will be no forgetting you, Lady Adalginza."

"If you
have never believed me before, please believe the truth of what I am telling
you now."

Kalos gave
her a pitying look.

"I know
you better than you think. You are saying these things only because of your
past. You fear that you are a curse upon the people you love."

"No. That
is
not
it!"

"Of
course it is," Kalos replied confidently. "You are fearful about
commitment. And loss. But what you believe about yourself is not true. And no
matter what you say, there is no way I am leaving my new bride behind and alone
in the middle of the wilderness to fend for herself."

Adalginza
cast wildly about in her mind for words — any words — that would so disgust
Kalos that he would be forced to abandon her to her freedom, lonely as it might
be.

Impulsively,
she reached for the first desperate lie that occurred to her, and one that
Kalos had hinted at earlier.

"Benfaaro
was my lover! I really did have his child!"

The look of
profound shock on the captain's face encouraged her to plunge forward with the
ridiculous tale.

"I was
very, very young. Just as you said. So you see? I am not the pure virgin you
thought you saw floating in the moonlight. It was all an illusion, a trick of
the light. I am more despicable than you could ever imagine."

Because she
so passionately believed the last part of the words she spoke, they carried the
ring of truth. And she saw that Kalos believed her.

First, he
looked stricken. Then enraged.

"What
about the child? Girl or boy?"

He asked the
question hoarsely, as he moved toward her from the other side of the sturmon.

"A
little girl. He took her. And kept her with him to raise." She gave Kalos
a beseeching look. "Now. You know the truth at last. You are released from
your vows, for no one knows they were ever exchanged except you and me. Go. Or
kill me. I do not care which."

"This
is why you ran away from me."

His voice
was toneless, though his face was still blanched with anger.

Adalginza
said nothing.

Kalos could
barely choke out his next words. "You thought yourself unworthy of my
love. You thought yourself tainted. By Benfaaro."

Adalginza
dropped her head in shame, regretting her lie and wondering what to say next.

"If you
had been interested in me only as a bedmate, I could serve this purpose for
you. But what has transpired between us — this sacred vow of yours — must be
undone. It is wrong. It is a mockery."

This, at
least, was the truth.

When she saw
Kalos take the sword in his hand, she wondered if her fate now was death. Death
for her betrayal. Death for all her lies.

She knew she
deserved whatever he intended, and she steeled herself for it. As Kalos raised
the sword, Adalginza could not help but flinch away from the steel blade.

"Look
at me!" he shouted.

Adalginza gazed
into dark eyes so crazed with rage that she felt genuine terror. But then Kalos
lowered his voice.

"This
sword is not for you. Understand me? This sword is for a man who takes a girl
who is not even of an age to be wooed, and who then rewards her for the child
she gives him by trying to murder her."

"Kalos…"

"No,
let me finish." He fiercely interrupted her before she could correct her
lie, as she intended to do. "This sword is for a man so much the coward
that he kills an innocent woman, your mother, who is ill with madness. And then
he also murders his friend and teacher, a revered gnostic, who trusted him."

"Please
just leave it be."

With a
growing sense of horror, Adalginza realized that her fabrication had made
things far, far worse for her brother.

"No. I
will not leave it be. This sword is for Benfaaro. And I swear by every breath
that I take, by every plan that I make, that I will avenge you. Do you hear me,
Adalginza? I will avenge you and your family. And my family."

"Very
well," Adalginza said wearily. "Do what you must. Now will you just
take the Golden and go?"

"You
are still not hearing me. I hold you blameless for all that has transpired
before. You are my bride. You are under my protection now and forever."