Dark Moon Defender (Twelve Houses)

by Sharon Shinn

  “Coralinda Gisseltess doesn’t seem to see it that way,” Justin said.

  Senneth gave him a level look. “Only one of the many things that Coralinda has gotten wrong.”

  Tayse pushed himself away from the wall. “All right. So we stay a day and then reassess. Donnal, your idea was a good one. If you would reappear a few times styled as your friends, I think we might cause less of a stir. Cammon, you and I should go buy another horse. The rest of you—sleep and mend. We’ll convene again at dinnertime and see where we stand.”

  Donnal and Cammon were the first ones out the door, Cammon chattering and Donnal listening. Kirra stayed where she was, lolling on the bed as if too exhausted to move, and Senneth crossed the room to kneel on the mattress beside her. Justin got up and followed Tayse out the door, shutting it behind them. Cammon and Donnal had already disappeared down a narrow stairway. The inn appeared to be relatively sizable. Justin hoped there were not a large number of other lodgers this particular week, since their party of seven must be taking up a good number of available rooms.

  Tayse turned when he realized Justin wanted a private conversation, and waited in silence. Justin took a deep breath. “Are you angry with me?”

  Tayse seemed to consider a moment, his face impassive, and then he shook his head. “I knew that day would come sometime.”

  “The day I disobeyed a direct order?”

  “The day something mattered to you more than my opinion.”

  “No. I will always value what you say. I can’t imagine any other situation in which I wouldn’t listen to you. But, Tayse— Ellynor—”

  Tayse’s smile was faintly sad and faintly proud. He clapped a hand on Justin’s shoulder. “Ellynor,” he repeated. “You had no choice. Although if you had died in that fire, I don’t think I would have ever stopped grieving.”

  “I would have been happy to die,” Justin whispered, “to save her.”

  Tayse nodded. “And that’s why you had no choice.” He dropped his hand. “But if you countermand me again, I’ll have you cut from the Riders.” But he was smiling when he said it.

  Justin laughed. “Only the king can have a Rider dismissed.”

  “And you think I have no pull with Baryn? I’ll tell him to offer your place to Senneth.”

  “That would appeal to him,” Justin agreed. “I’d better behave.”

  Tayse jerked his head toward the door. “You’d better get rested. I’d like to leave tomorrow if we can.”

  Justin paused with his hand on the door. “It’s not entirely comfortable, being healed by magic,” he said. “As I’m sure you’ll learn someday.”

  “There’s very little about magic that I find entirely comfortable,” Tayse retorted. “But it has too many uses for me to want to throw it aside. Go on in. Sleep. We’ll talk again over dinner.”

  It was a strange scene to walk into, Justin thought a moment later as he stepped inside and rather doubtfully surveyed the room. The three women were all sitting on the bed, heads together, so that the white-blond hair contrasted vividly with the tangled golden curls and the painted black locks. They were whispering until he came in, and then they glanced over at him and began laughing. Even Senneth, who could generally be counted on not to mock, and Ellynor, who possessed not the slightest trace of malice.

  “I think I’ll go look for Cammon and Donnal,” Justin said, and made as if to step back in the hall.

  But Senneth waved him over. “No, no, no, come sit here for a while. We’re going to make you well. Don’t be afraid, poor frail human boy. The three of us are mystics, but we mean you no harm at all. . . .”

  CHAPTER 41

  ELLYNOR spent the rest of the day waiting for Justin to wake up. It seemed as if she couldn’t think, couldn’t act, couldn’t really exist unless he was beside her to share her thoughts and experiences.

  When had that happened? When had she stopped being a complete and self-reliant person and instead become merely a fraction of one, dependent on someone else’s breath and heartbeat for her own survival? When she saved Justin’s life, she supposed. When she turned her body into the instrument that kept his functioning. But by rights, then, he should be the one who needed her to live, not the other way around.

  He was still far from whole. The desperate flight from the convent had sapped his body of most of its strength, and he had still been suffering from wounds sustained in the battle with the guards. It would be days before he was fully recovered.

  “I want to try something,” Senneth had said as soon as Justin had fallen asleep again. They had crept back into the room and positioned themselves on either side of the bed, Senneth on the right side of his body, Ellynor on the left. “Your goddess is the Black Mother, mine is the Bright Mother. Night and day. Perhaps we can create a rhythm to our healing that mimics the passing of time. Let me fill him first with sunshine, and you fill him next with starlight. It might not work, but I can’t see that it will hurt.”

  So they alternated their gifts of power, Senneth sending pulses of fire through Justin’s veins, Ellynor granting him rest and calm. Again. Again. He stirred and occasionally grunted, but did not wake up while the sorcery sifted down to his bones. It was fascinating and a little frightening to watch his face contract with a twinge of pain at each onslaught of magic, and then smooth out as the healing erased another sore spot, another bruise. His face, which had been entirely too pale, began to take on its usual rosy cast. The set lines around his mouth relaxed.

  “I’ll be interested to see how he feels when he wakes up,” Senneth said at last, folding her hands and resting them on the coverlet.

  “Should we try the same thing with Kirra?” Ellynor asked.

  Senneth laughed. “Kirra has amazing recuperative powers,” she said. “She’ll be fine by tomorrow morning with no help from us.”

  So they left the room, carefully shutting the door behind them, and Senneth went off to find Tayse. Ellynor was left with nothing to do.

  She explored the building they were in, which turned out to be a two-story inn with six rooms upstairs and a taproom downstairs. She quickly figured out that her own party had appropriated half the rooms—Justin in one, the women in one, and the other three men sharing the third. Two of the others were occupied by strangers—an older man traveling alone, and a family of four. She hoped none of them were the curious types.

  Downstairs, the scent of food made her almost faint with hunger. She could scarcely remember the last time she’d eaten a meal, since she hadn’t been served breakfast at the Gisseltess house, the Lestra had not bothered feeding her, and she’d been unable to summon an appetite while she waited on the side of the road for Justin and Kirra to return. How did one buy food in a roadside tavern? She didn’t have any money. She didn’t even know what anything cost.

  Fortunately, Cammon was coming in the front as she stood outside the taproom, wondering what to do. “You look like you’re starving,” he said.

  She nodded. “I am. Is there food here? How can we get it?”

  He laughed. “Don’t they have taverns in the Lirrens? Come on, I’ll eat with you. You can ask me questions about Justin, and I’ll tell you everything I know.”

  This sounded like an agreeable plan, and Cammon was the least alarming of Justin’s friends, which made the prospect even more pleasant. They settled around a scarred wooden table in the middle of the taproom, half full with other lodgers and assorted travelers. Cammon helped her order a meal, which turned out to be delicious. He had no trouble doing all the talking while she consumed huge portions of potatoes and chicken, too hungry to bother holding up her end of the conversation. Besides, she had so much to learn. About Justin, about Gillengaria, about everything.

  “Well, I’ve only lived in the country about a year myself, so I’m still figuring some of it out,” he told her. “It’s almost impossible to keep track of the Houses and who’s friends with whom and who hates mystics and who doesn’t. But what you need to know for sure is that Coralinda G
isseltess and her brother, Halchon, hate us all.”

  Ellynor sighed. “I think I learned that on my own.”

  “But the king likes us, so that almost makes up for it.”

  The door to the taproom opened, and Justin strode in, the sunlight outside turning his bulky body into a solid silhouette. He looked as healthy and powerful as the day Ellynor had first met him on the streets of Neft. She dropped her fork with a clatter. “Justin! What are you doing down here?”

  Cammon glanced at Justin, glanced back at Ellynor, and kicked her lightly under the table. “Donnal,” he whispered, and then he waved. “Justin! Over here! About time you arrived.”

  Donnal-as-Justin strode over to their table with all of Justin’s self-assurance, pulled out a chair, reversed it, and sat down. He grinned at them both, cocky and amused. “I thought you’d have gotten farther down the road than this,” he observed in Justin’s voice. “I’ve been backtracking all morning.”

  Ellynor could not keep her eyes off of him. He was perfect in every detail, from the color of his eyes to the texture of his skin. If Cammon had not been there to keep her from making a fool of herself, she would have flung herself into his arms. “We needed the rest. It’s been a long trip,” Cammon said, for the benefit of anyone who might be listening. “Where’s Kirra?”

  “About a half hour behind me. Has Donnal arrived yet?”

  Cammon shook his head. “We’re expecting him today, too.”

  “Travel on in the morning then?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  “Well, let me eat something and then I’ll go up and sleep. I’ve been in motion since about midnight.”

  “I’ll give you the key to my room.”

  Donnal ate quickly and departed, disappearing out the door and, Ellynor supposed, up the stairs. About thirty minutes later, she overheard voices in the hall as Senneth arrived at the door just as Donnal returned in Kirra’s form. Senneth, however, was not fooled.

  “Serra Kirra,” she greeted Donnal in a laughing voice. “So glad you could join us! Let me take you upstairs where I’ve already got a room.”

  “I’d appreciate that. When did you arrive? I assume Tayse and Cammon are with you?” Donnal replied, and their voices trailed off as they moved out of earshot.

  Ellynor looked at Cammon. “I’m starting to feel dizzy.”

  He was grinning. “You get used to it after a while.”

  Tayse shouldered his way into the taproom, spotted them, and came to sit at their table. He took up entirely too much space and caught the attention of every other patron of the bar. Ellynor saw the men eye him as if trying to gauge their chances of besting him in a fight. The women in the room looked just as intrigued, but their speculations appeared to be of an entirely different nature.

  “Have all our friends arrived?” Tayse asked.

  “Still waiting for Donnal,” Cammon replied.

  “I’ll be glad to be on the move again tomorrow,” Tayse said. “Senneth and I just finished buying supplies for the road. We’ll be ready to go at daybreak.”

  “It’s been a long trip,” Cammon said. “Ghosenhall to Storian to Neft to Coravann Keep to Neft to Brassen Court to Danan Hall to Neft to here. And still not on the way home.”

  Tayse’s grim features arranged themselves into what Ellynor supposed was a smile. “In my experience, every journey with Senneth turns out to be longer than expected.”

  Cammon laughed. “You’re not complaining,” he challenged.

  Senneth herself came into the taproom at that moment, looked around for them, and approached. Tayse was watching her, and his expression softened. “No,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade an hour.”

  Senneth pulled up a chair. “I’m bored,” she said. “Who wants to play cards?”

  CAMMON helped Ellynor learn the rules to the card game, but even so, she played disastrously and didn’t much enjoy the exercise. Donnal arrived in his true form about twenty minutes later and she gladly yielded him her place.

  “I think I’ll go upstairs for a while,” she said, silently adding, and check on Justin.

  “I’ll go out for a walk with you if you want to see the town,” Cammon offered. “Not that there’s much to see.”

  Tayse looked up at that. “Perhaps not,” he said. “We don’t know who might be passing through.”

  “She’s been stuck inside all day,” Cammon answered.

  “I’m fine,” she said hastily, standing up. “I’ll get plenty of exercise tomorrow.”

  Senneth sent her a smile. “Maybe you should get some rest,” she said. “I’m sure Kirra wouldn’t mind sharing the room with you.”

  That was a joke, Ellynor realized. All of them knew she was going upstairs to curl on the bed next to Justin. “Thank you, I will,” she said, and headed for the door.

  “Come back down for dinner!” Cammon called after her, but she was already in the hall.

  On the stairs, at the door, silently stepping inside the room where Justin still lay sleeping. She lowered herself carefully on the mattress next to him, put her hand on his chest to check for his heartbeat, and fell asleep.

  WHEN she woke, Justin was sitting up and watching her, her hand folded between both of his. “So you do sleep,” he said instantly. “Usually I’m the one lying here dreaming, and I wake up and there you are, staring at me.”

  She scrambled upright but didn’t free her hand. She could tell her hair was completely loose around her shoulders and she had a suspicion that Justin might have pulled out a few pins while she was slumbering. “How do you feel? You look well.”

  “I feel superb,” he said. He freed one hand to make a hard fist. “I feel better than I have since the last night I spent at the convent, after we’d hauled in supplies. I feel like I could fight ten of the Lestra’s guards—and beat them all, too.”

  “Let’s hope you don’t have to.”

  “What did you do? Somebody must have practiced magic on me while I was sleeping.”

  “Senneth and I together. It’s hard to explain.”

  “Well, it worked, whatever you did.” He pulled her over so he could hold her against him, one arm around her shoulder, one hand holding hers, and he kissed the top of her head. “So tomorrow we leave for the Lirrens,” he said in a low voice. “How long will it take us to get to your family’s place?”

  That was just like Justin, she thought. No hesitation, no pausing to mull things over. I’m healed; now let’s go meet your father. One task completed, the next one faced head-on. “Maybe a week,” she said. “Maybe longer, depending on the weather. The terrain’s pretty rocky and we have to go slow.”

  “Do we camp? Stay at inns? Bed down with other clan members along the way?”

  “Camping’s safest,” she said.

  He leaned back a little to look down at her. “Safest?”

  She picked her words with care. “Until we’ve made it to my family’s house and received their blessing—until I have been formally declared bahta-lo—anyone from the sebahta who happens to come across us traveling together might feel an obligation to challenge you. You’re an outsider, you’re not an acceptable escort for a young woman of the Lirrens. It will be better if we keep off the roads and don’t interact much with others.”

  He absorbed this a moment in silence. “Should we bring Tayse and Senneth with us then?” he asked. “All the way to your father’s place? I don’t want to have a pitched battle with a clan of Lirren men, but if there’s going to be a fight on the road, I’d rather have Tayse at my side.”