Ten Crescent Moons (Moonquest) (25 page)

"I
believe that as well. Otherwise, I would be dead already. At your hands."

Benfaaro
took another casual sip of his tea, as though they were discussing whether the
next day would dawn cloudy or sunny.

"I have
lived with your hate so long now," he said. "I almost imagine I hear
your darkest and most private thoughts. It is as though you are more demon than
person, always haunting me. There is something about you. And something about
this place of death, this canyon. I even hear voices..."

"It's
just the wind," Adalginza said anxiously.

She clutched
her shawl closer and gazed warily around her. A sudden gust rattled the dry
leaves of the surrounding brush, which indeed sounded almost like the
whisperings of the dead.

The flames
of the fire then swirled and danced eerily, as though taking on an ominous life
of their own.

Benfaaro
struck a pose of intense listening, then fixed his gaze on his wife.

"It would
be easy for you to rule Talan, since he already is your lover." He smiled
grimly at Bruna's surprised look. "Did you think me a fool? I have always
suspected your foul little secret."

"Have
you?" Bruna asked coolly. "Then I will no longer bother to try to
hide it from you."

Adalginza
regarded Bruna in disgust. "You are despicable. And why do you assume that
I will marry Talan, as though I have no will of my own?"

Bruna
laughed wickedly, and nodded her head in Benfaaro's direction.

"Tell
her."

Benfaaro took
another sip of tea, and addressed his sister sadly.

"You
will marry Talan because I will decree it to be so. Nor will my word be
disputed when, through such a union, I transfer power through you to Talan. But
this power will exist for only as long as you are alive, because you are the
one Of The Blood."

"But
why would you do such a thing?" Adalginza was shocked at hearing these
words. "When last we spoke of this, you said that Talan was cruel and
ambitious. That he was not right for me."

Benfaaro
again appeared to be listening to whisperings only he could understand.

"Your
union with Talan will be necessary, for your own sake. I can protect you after
I am gone by giving those who would do you the most harm a reason to keep you
alive. And as long as one Of The Blood lives, the tribes will remain united.
Beyond that, I do not know what will happen…"

Adalginza
clenched both hands around the cup she held.

"But why
tolerate such treachery? Kill Bruna. Kill Talan. Or at the very least banish them
from the Tribe of the Circles."

At this
point, Adalginza did not care that Bruna heard these words.

But it was
Bruna herself who answered with the utmost confidence.

"Benfaaro
will not do this. He knows that, if he dies, you lack the strength of will to
take his place."

Benfaaro
nodded slowly in agreement.

"It is
true, little one. Without strong leadership, the tribes will not follow even
one Of the Blood. I am strong. I can rule. Talan is strong. Through you, he can
rule. With Bruna's
guidance
, of course."

"And how
are you so certain that I cannot do these things in your place?"

"You do
not know your own mind or heart." As he made his declaration, Benfaaro
regarded her without emotion. "Beyond that, you have indigo eyes and the
blood of our enemy in your veins. You are not entitled to a say in these
matters."

"And
why not?"

For the
first time since her marriage to Captain Kalos, Adalginza found herself strongly
moved beyond apathy.

"Because
I say so. So do not question."

Her brother
looked far away, as though he were now communing with the departed spirits that
still resided here.

"You
were born only to do our bidding. Accept this, and you will be more content."

"I am
Of The Blood." Adalginza felt her ire stirring as strongly now as the
winds gusting around them. "So do not dare to tell me that I am nothing. Do
not forget, dear brother.
I know about the The Prophecy of the Ancients
."

The silence
from Benfaaro and Bruna that greeted her words was as deep as though she had
slapped them both. Adalginza was shocked even at herself for daring to speak of
something that had been so long repressed in her own memory.

"It is
forbidden to speak of The Prophecy." Benfaaro's tone was menacing.

"Yet,
our people know of it. It was whispered to me long ago by a child of the Tribe
of the Circles."

"And I
told you then to never speak of it."

Almost as
though a force outside herself spurred her onward, Adalginza felt compelled to defy
her brother.

"The
Prophecy speaks of a woman with indigo eyes, a woman Of The Blood, who will lead
all the tribes. Surely this has meaning to all of us. Especially now."

"Enough!"
Benfaaro bellowed. "How dare you speak blasphemy? To repeat this foolishness
means death to any tribesman. Were you not my sister, I would slay you right
now."

"It
means death only because
you
decreed it to be so. And you are only a
mortal man. The Ancients meant for The Prophecy to be passed down through the ages."

"Be
careful, sister," Benfaaro warned.

"I have
indigo eyes," Adalginza continued stubbornly. "And I am Of The Blood.
This means something. I am certain of it."

Bruna's lip
curled into a sneer.

"Enough.
This pathetic delusion has gone too far. Hear me well, little one. You have
nothing to do with The Prophecy, because you are only what we ourselves created.
Benfaaro. And me. You belong to us."

"I
belong to
myself
."

"There
are no accidents. Think about it, Adalginza."

"Bruna!"
Benfaaro reached out and took his wife's wrist, as though to physically
restrain her. "This is not necessary. I know my sister better than you.
Adalginza will do as I say. She always does."

But Bruna
stood, pulling herself out of Benfaaro's grasp. She walked over to stand in
front of Adalginza, hovering over her like a giant, feathered carrion eater
about to devour a baby bird.

"Consider
this. Indigo eyes are found only in a few women of the Crescent Houses."

"Yes,"
Adalginza said cautiously. "I know."

"The
trait in the Crescent Houses is passed only from fathers to their sons or
daughters, but never from a mother to her children."

"I know
this, also. What is your point?"

"The
trait is uncommon. So in an outpost with very few citizens of the Crescent
Houses present, Lady Donzala's real baby had indigo eyes. As did you. What does
this tell you?"

Adalginza slowly
placed the cup she was holding on the rock beside her.

"Lady
Donzala's husband — the man who fathered her child. This was the man who violated
my mother?"

"It
wasn't quite like that," Bruna corrected her. She smiled in a nasty way.

"Don't,"
Benfaaro said.

Bruna
ignored his command.

"Before
Lady Donzala's husband was killed in battle, your real mother —Benfaaro's
mother — approached this man on many occasions. She sold the use of her body to
him. So that his seed would be planted in her. So that you could be born. And
used for our purposes."

"She
was — a harlot?" Adalginza asked.

Benfaaro
jumped to his feet in outrage.

"She
only pretended to be one. And I will have no more of this talk of our mother!
She sacrificed herself for our cause. Her memory should be honored."

Adalginza
stared into the fire, suddenly seeing within the flames the thicket of
suckleberry blossoms. And the tiny mound of dirt and stones where Lady Donzala's
baby had been buried.

Not a
stranger at all. But her true sister. By blood.

No wonder
Lady Donzala had treated Adalginza as her own. For Adalginza had, indeed, been
born from her husband's own seed. Through her madness, she must have somehow
recognized that.

"Adalginza!
Are you all right?"

Adalginza
looked up dazedly at Benfaaro. He reached out to take her shoulder and gently
squeeze it.

Bruna moved
away, standing by the fire where she stretched out her hands to warm them. She looked
back at Adalginza with seething contempt.

"Is all
of this really true?" Adalginza asked Benfaaro.

"It is,"
he said. "But it makes no difference."

Adalginza
gazed at her brother with growing awareness.

"Lady
Donzala loved me as dearly as any real mother would love her own child. My own
mother slept with the enemy, then gave me away — to the enemy."

Bruna's laughed
wickedly. "She could hardly bear to look at you after you were born. She
thought your indigo eyes were loathsome."

"It was
not like that," Benfaaro said gently. "I was there when you were
born. Our mother cried when you were taken from her arms."

"Nevertheless,
she let me go."

"She
was eager to be rid of you," Bruna interrupted with gleeful malice.

"Listen
well."

Benfaaro held
Adalginza's eyes, imploring her.

"It was
a great sacrifice for our mother to let you go. She died when you were only
three, or you would have known her as I knew her. But I remember that she would
hide in the thicket near the Place of the Circles and watch you play with the
animals. You had her gift. She was very proud of that."

"What
about you?" Adalginza asked. "How did you feel?"

Bruna
sneered at her. "You were nothing. The only reason he paid you any
attention at all was to further our plans."

"Not
so." Benfaaro regarded Adalginza sadly. "I have always cared about
you, little one. Was I not always in your life, reminding you of who you really
were?"

"And
who is that person? Even my own name does not belong to me."

Benfaaro
looked genuinely puzzled at her reaction.

"Before
my father died of the plague, he taught me that being Of The Blood is a heavy
burden. But I gladly accepted this responsibility, knowing that I would never
truly have a life of my own. And so should you. Your duty is to serve your
people. And to serve me. So what does it matter who you really are?"

 "It
matters to me."

Adalginza
shook her head slowly, as she gazed back into the fire.

"I may
not know who I am. But I know
what
I am. I am a murderer of innocent
children slaughtered in the caravans that have been ambushed, because of the
information I gave you."

"All
for a greater good. For our people. And for the glory of the moon gods."

"So you
say. But each time the man who calls me wife shares a confidence in our
marriage bed, I betray him to you. I ask you again. Who and what does that make
me
?"

"Medosa
was too much a part of your life," Benfaaro retorted angrily. "And
mine, too. Though I was older and much less vulnerable than you. His words warp
you still. I should have killed him much sooner."

"You
see?" Bruna addressed Benfaaro. "I told you she is weak. She has no
stomach for any of this. Bring her back with us now, so she can marry Talan.
You know we need her under our protection, if something happens to you. She
need only stay out of our way after she is wed."

Hearing the two
of them so casually discuss her future, as though she had no say in any of it, served
only to deepen Adalginza's despair.

Her next
argument sounded feeble even to her own ears.

"Killing
the innocent is never the answer. It does not please the gods. It angers them. And
I believe there is a better way."

Benfaaro
leaned his head back against a boulder, and peered up at the dark sky. He raised
his hands briefly, palms upward, as he consulted the wisdom of the deities of the
six visible crescent moons suspended overhead.

Then he
dropped his hands.

"When
we slaughter every man, woman, and child in each caravan that enters the
frontier, we send a message to the Crescent Houses on the Prime Continent. The
more horrible the deaths, the greater the fear. Who would want to come here to
steal our land, if torture and death are the prices that must be paid? This is
the only way."

"You
are wrong. What you are doing inflames hatred against us."

"Let
them hate us," Benfaaro answered. "At least hate is a form of
respect."

"No.
Please listen to me. I have learned much about the Crescent Houses. They are
many people and many voices."

"As are
we."

"Yes,
but they have far, far greater numbers. We once had many supporters on the
Prime Continent, people who wanted to protect our right to live in our own way
outside the jurisdiction of the Crescent Houses. The Prime Congress of the
Crescent Houses even once considered giving savages full right to property
ownership."