Dark Moon Defender

  Up the hill and there it was, the imposing home of Jenetta Gisseltess. Ellynor could not keep herself from glancing behind her once, right as she reached the front door. She was just in time to see Justin strolling past the high gate, eyes forward, mouth pursed in a whistle, hands carelessly in his back pockets. He did not look at her. He did not seem to be aware of her at all.

  Her heart made a little plunge of disappointment just as the door opened and Astira started shrieking.

  CHAPTER 6

  IT took about an hour to tell the whole household what had transpired on the streets, since not only Astira, but Darris and the Lestra had to hear the tale, and then the Lestra thought their hostess should know the details as well. “There is a civil guard in the city, and a magistrate who manages them, but I don’t know any nobles who put much faith in any protection but their own soldiers,” Jenetta said regretfully. “I will certainly send Faeber a message, but I don’t know that he will be able to find this young woman’s assailant.”

  Everyone had seemed to accept without question her tale of a teenage boy who had rescued her and a good-natured old woman who had taken her in. No one had bothered to ask how Ellynor had found her way home through streets that had baffled her once. The Lestra seemed most offended that the robes of a Daughter had not been enough to protect Ellynor from assault, and less worried about Ellynor herself. Jenetta continued to decry the dangers of the city streets, a sad commentary on the way the old king had allowed the realm to deteriorate.

  Only Astira really seemed concerned with Ellynor, and she demanded the whole story in greater detail when the two girls were alone in their room. By this time it was late afternoon, and Ellynor found she was both exhausted and hungry.

  “Do you realize what could have happened to you?” Astira demanded, helping Ellynor strip off her robe and investigate any bruises underneath. There were quite a few, mostly on her arms and ribs.

  “I have a pretty clear idea.”

  “It can be painful enough if it’s something you want, but to have a man take you against your will—” Astira shuddered. “Awful.”

  Ellynor opened her eyes wide. “So you’ve been with a man?” Unmarried Lirren girls found it hard to lose their virginity, since they could rarely evade their families’ scrutiny, and Ellynor had not ever been in the position to try.

  Astira busied herself checking the rips and tears in Ellynor’s garment. “Once or twice.”

  “A man that you wanted to be with?” Ellynor pressed. Astira nodded. “And what was it like?”

  Astira sighed. “Oh, it was wonderful and it was frightening and it was not at all what I expected. There was a lot more grunting and a lot more soreness,” she said. “Still, I thought the world would end when he said he didn’t love me.”

  “And your family didn’t hunt him down when he dishonored you?”

  Astira’s woeful look dissolved with a laugh. “Is that what happens when a man abandons a Lirren girl? I rather like the idea of a father or a brother going out to thrash my unfaithful lover.”

  “Thrashing would be the least of it,” Ellynor said.

  “But no, they didn’t. I didn’t tell them all the details, though I know my mother suspected. It was humiliating. I just wanted to get as far away as I could.”

  “The Lumanen Convent?” Ellynor guessed.

  Astira nodded. “That’s why I joined.”

  “And are you glad or sorry that you did?”

  “Oh, I’m very happy at the convent!” A pause. “Most days.” Another pause. “Sometimes I wish we had a little more freedom. But I love the Silver Lady. I would not have you think I’m complaining.”

  Ellynor had never been sure how much she could confide in Astira, and she still wasn’t sure. So she said lightly, “Oh, I think we all love the Silver Lady—and we all have days when we chafe somewhat. Even the Lestra must wish for a little more contact with the outside world from time to time.”

  Astira smiled and shook out Ellynor’s robe. “I don’t think you can put this back on,” she said. “I’ll give it to the servants, but I’m not sure they’ll be able to get it clean. Did you bring another?”

  “Yes, but only one. I hope it doesn’t get soiled.”

  “I brought three. You can wear one of mine if you have to. Though it will be too long on you.”

  “How much longer will we be here, do you know?”

  “Impossible to guess! Jenetta’s mother is so much better today. Everyone is amazed. There is some talk that she might actually recover.”

  “So are we to keep watches again tonight?”

  “Yes. The Lestra promised.”

  “Then I’ve got to get some sleep now. And some food! I think I must have missed a meal somewhere along the way.”

  Within the hour, Ellynor had eaten a simple meal and curled up on the mattress, Astira napping beside her. She had expected to fall directly to sleep, but instead she reviewed the events of the day. The lovely walk through Neft, with all its unfamiliar and fabulous sights. The few terrifying moments in her attacker’s power.

  The long talk with Justin. She could not decide why he appealed to her so much. Well, he had saved her virtue and possibly her life—she would have been grateful to anyone for such a service. But it was the conversation in the stables that had made her like him. She was comfortable around him, she thought, because he reminded her of men she knew—fiery men ready to skirmish at the slightest excuse, easily ruffled, quickly engaged, deadly with a sword. And his insistence on escorting her back had put her strongly in mind of her brothers’ own unceasing watchfulness. But there was something about Justin’s attitude that was different from her brothers’. He had accompanied her back to the Gisseltess house because he wanted her to be safe, not because he thought she was incapable of caring for herself. Because he valued her, not because he distrusted her.

  And he had talked to her as equal to equal, seeming to be unaware of any gulfs that might be caused by gender, social status, or intellect. He had said he was not much of one for dalliance, but she guessed he knew a few women even so. Whoever they were, they had taught him to treat women with easy acceptance and practical friendship. He did not seem ready to offer them either worship or disdain.

  She touched her lips, remembering how patiently he had held fresh water to her mouth. She thought he would be surprised to learn she considered him a kind man—she thought he probably did not think of himself that way. She thought perhaps he was not always kind. But he had been gentle with her. She had fallen in his path and he had taken her on as a responsibility, and he was clearly a man who discharged his responsibilities with utter thoroughness.

  And with an absolutely disarming smile.

  Remembering it, she smiled herself, and then smothered a sigh. Unlikely she would see that expression again, unlikely she would ever encounter Justin a second time. Better this way, both as devout Daughter and as obedient Lirren girl. No use courting trouble. Especially when it was so attractive.

  BY the evening of the following day, the Daughters were on their way back to the convent.

  The old woman had improved so markedly by morning— partly, Ellynor knew, due to her own secret ministrations—that it was clear to everyone she would not die after all. The Lestra had wanted to set out at noon, but some message arrived at the house, detaining them all, and so it was late afternoon before the cavalcade began its trip home. Ellynor thought the guards did not like the idea of traveling by night, but the Lestra had some reason for wanting to be at Lumanen early the following day. And so they were on their way, knowing nightfall would come before they were halfway home.

  Ellynor herself loved to travel at night, so she was not at all discomposed. It was the night of the new moon, so it was particularly dark out, and the icy stars seemed even more remote and unhelpful than usual. But she had no trouble seeing the path before them, following the shapes of the guards who rode in the lead, even discerning the shadowy silhouette of the Lestra in her black robes, almost inv
isible on her black horse.

  Astira was in some distress. “I feel like something is going to leap out from the trees and jump on me,” she whispered to Ellynor as they rode into the outer fringes of the forest. “And I can’t see anything. What if I trip over a fallen log? What if there’s a snake or a—a bat hanging in the tree, and I brush up against it as we ride by?”

  “Don’t worry. There’s nothing in the path ahead of us that will harm you,” Ellynor said in a soothing voice. “Here. I’ll describe it to you as we go. To your left is an oak tree—there’s a possum sleeping in the lower branches. It doesn’t want to hurt you. Birds are resting in the trees on the other side of the road—a whole flock of them—and there’s an owl circling overhead. It’s the only thing awake on this stretch of road except us. Now up ahead a little bit, there’s a low branch hanging over the road—you might want to duck when we get close, but I’ll give you warning—”

  She continued with her ongoing descriptions, painting the way ahead in such an unalarming light that Astira relaxed beside her. Both of them were surprised when the small party came to a halt and one of the lead soldiers reined back to warn the Lestra of possible trouble before them.

  “There’s a shape on the road—we can’t tell from here what it is—Daken’s going to check and make sure it’s not a body. Beast or man,” he added grimly.

  “I would hope it’s not a man,” the Lestra said sharply.

  The guard shrugged. “Well, since we lost Rostiff and them—”

  “It’s not a body,” Ellynor said, speaking before she’d paused to think. “It’s just a branch that’s fallen and broken on the road. And there’s a dark patch a little farther up, but that’s just a mudslick. I think there must have been a storm that moved through here and pulled down trees and left a lot of water behind.”

  The guard looked at her, probably not realizing how clearly she could see his slight sneer. “Don’t know how you can tell from here what’s ahead and what isn’t,” he said, his tone more polite than his expression.

  Ellynor shrugged, already sorry she’d opened her mouth, but feeling the need to defend herself. “I don’t have much trouble seeing at night,” she said.

  That comment earned her the full, complete attention of the Lestra, who turned in her saddle and motioned Ellynor closer. By starlight, the square face seemed even more broad and set, the dark eyes even more intent. Silver sparkled along the Lestra’s black robes, and moonstones cast a baleful glow around her throat and wrists.

  “You can see clearly in full dark?” the Lestra demanded.

  Ellynor nodded. “Pretty much so. Almost as clearly as in daylight. My brothers used to take me night hunting, sometimes, because I could always recognize game.”

  “So you have had this skill for how long?”

  “I can’t remember when I didn’t.”

  The Lestra was regarding her with a narrowed attention that was completely unnerving. Ellynor thought Coralinda Gisseltess didn’t have much trouble seeing in the dark, either. “It was you who watched with Jenetta’s mother in the blackest hours of the night, was it not?” the Lestra asked now.

  “Yes, my lady. Both nights.”

  “And she recovered some of her strength after you sat with her.”

  Alarm sparkled through Ellynor. She had never claimed any particular healing skill while she’d been at the convent and she did not want to take any credit now. She did not want to draw attention to herself. “We all sat with her the past two days, my lady,” she said in a subdued voice. “And we all prayed to the Pale Mother for mercy.”

  The Lestra nodded. “You know, do you not, that the Silver Lady marks some of her servants for greater honor, greater strength?” the older woman said now. “And that each of her Daughters feels a special relationship to her at a particular point in the Mother’s cycle? I, of course, am at my strongest— my mind is at its sharpest—when the moon is full and I can bathe in all her glory. I am the Lestra, the Whole Moon Daughter. Shavell and Darris are Split Moon Daughters, Shavell at her peak when the moon is halfway through its waning cycle, Darris when the moon is halfway to full. There are many who thrive under the three-quarter moon, who feel the Pale Mother’s power run silver through their veins when she takes a crescent shape. But I think you might be that rarest creature of all—one who is most closely bonded to the Pale Mother when she is at her most secretive and unknowable. I think you must be a Dark Moon Daughter.”

  Ellynor bowed her head. She wondered if the Black Mother was witnessing this scene, and if so, whether she was laughing. “I would be honored if that were true, my lady,” she said.

  “We cannot yet be sure,” the Lestra said. “But I will watch you, and I will judge. For tonight, can you make yourself useful? Can you ride ahead with the lead men, and help them determine where hazards lie?”

  “Gladly, my lady.”

  “Then lead us, my Daughter.”

  Ellynor spurred her horse forward to ride next to the surly guard, nodding her head civilly and hoping he would not blame her for how this hour had unfolded. “Just tell me what you see as you see it,” he said in a neutral voice. “I’ll decide if we need to stop or slow.”

  “All right,” she said, and began to recite for him all the sights of the night woods, much as she had for Astira. “There. See it? That shape in the woods? It’s a wolf, but it’s not watching us. And ahead, about twenty yards, there’s a dip in the road, pretty abrupt. We might have everyone be a little careful there. Don’t worry about that shadow hanging down—it looks like a snake, but it’s just a vine. Nothing that bites.”

  As she kept up her running commentary, which she was sure the soldiers did not appreciate, she reflected that she had one thing to be thankful for. She had caught the Lestra’s fierce and unrelenting attention, something she had hoped never to do; she had made herself visible to those unwinking black eyes. But the Lestra still did not know her name. Ellynor still might skate through her days at the convent anonymous as any other novice.

  As long as she kept herself out of trouble.

  CHAPTER 7

  IT had been a calculated move to rescue the novice as she fought against an unwanted embrace. Justin had taken only a split second to react, but in that space of time he had weighed what he might stand to gain from such an intervention, what he could potentially lose. There was no chance that he might be jeopardizing his own life by deciding to battle this clumsy stranger. However, he might win an ally at the Lumanen Convent. That was worth taking a risk for, he thought.

  Senneth would have wanted him to save the novice, whether or not he could turn such an action to his advantage. Cammon, too. But Tayse would have understood Justin’s overriding motive, and approved.

  It had been an unexpected bonus to be charmed by the girl who had so recently been a victim. She was small-boned and delicate (what was she thinking traipsing about a city like Neft entirely undefended?), but with a force of will that quickly made him stop viewing her as helpless. Not a beauty, not the way Kirra was, but with a pretty, dainty face and a creamy complexion. Her eyes were a blue so dark that at first he had thought they were black. And she had that incredible hair. He had never seen anything like it.

  The minute he left her behind at the Gisseltess mansion, Justin was sorry she had stepped out of his life.

  But he had so much more to do than think about a slim and smiling young woman, whether or not she was a Daughter of the Pale Mother. He had a job at the stables, for one thing, which took up a little more of his time than he would have liked.

  And he had a second job, which had yielded precious few results during the week he had been in Neft. Justin did not like a waiting game. He did not thrive on enforced inactivity. He liked to have a target, an enemy, a goal.

  This assignment in Neft was likely to drive him mad.