Lost Moon

by Dana Davis

  The boy came quietly, his fear replaced with awe over the coin in his hand and probably thinking he had won the lottery, if Selenea had any such thing. He seemed to forget about Kepriah’s intended violence against him as they mounted the jabbers, and Patrice suspected that he had a mental disability of some kind. She kept Larisa in sight and the two stayed close to their eldest sister as they rode farther from the filthy, unnerving village.

  ****

  They stopped just before dark and set up camp between two large trees that dominated the sparse area. They were far enough off the road so as not to alarm any who might pass.

  Kepriah’s temper flared against Patrice’s senses as the woman paced near the fire and cursed.

  “Kepriah,” Larisa said. “Will you please calm down? You are giving me a headache.”

  Patrice nodded. “I’ll second that.” She had no idea what they were to do now, but her sister’s passionate outbursts didn’t help matters.

  “I want to know who made this sarding thing,” Kepriah demanded and she shoved the scroll at Patrice. “Who is playing with us?”

  Patrice studied the genealogical chart again. It seemed an awful lot of trouble for a mere joke. There was even a Cities of Sleep seal embossed into the bottom of it. On Earth, someone could have punched this out of a computer in no time, but Selenea wasn’t exactly known for its technological advances. “Have you considered it might be real?” Kepriah froze and Patrice steeled herself for the woman’s anger again. Larisa gave her a “why did you say that?” look.

  “I mean,” she added as her eldest sister advanced on her, “you don’t know who your biological parents are, right? Maybe this isn’t a joke. The boy said he was doing a job for the Moirai and the Sacred Eye sent us on this trip to find him.” She held up the scroll. “Maybe this is why. I mean how coincidental is it that we just happen to be in the same town at the same time and in the same exact alley as a boy who carried this very chart with your name on it?” She held it out to Kepriah, all the while expecting the woman to haul off and slug her.

  No one was more surprised than Patrice when Kepriah snatched the chart and dropped onto the ground to study it. Her anger faded as several other emotions took its place. “How could I be Damon’s sister?”

  “Half-sister,” Patrice corrected. “According to that, you have different fathers.”

  Kepriah’s sharp eyes turned on Patrice and the woman said in a dangerous voice, “That would make me a bloody, cock-sucking, good-for-nothing royal.

  Patrice raised a brow and offered a smirk. “Well, I don’t know about the cock-sucking, but you’re not bloody or good-for-nothing.”

  Kepriah’s face froze just before she threw her head back and screamed with laughter. Jakon and the others joined her and it was enough to break the tension and get the woman’s mind off attacking someone. At least for now.

  “Ow,” she said when Kepriah stood and clapped her on the shoulder. That made everyone laugh again. They were all in tears by the time the guffaws turned to snickers and giggles. Patrice’s stomach and jaws ached and she wiped at her eyes.

  “You cannot believe I am a royal,” Kepriah finally said.

  Patrice shrugged. “Why the hell not? You expect me to believe I was hauled from Earth through some magical doorway, but you don’t believe some royal guy was your father?”

  Kepriah’s emotions crossed from surprise to curiosity to annoyance. “Larisa, surely you see the nonsense in this. You were born on Selenea.”

  Their blonde sister sent out empathy and hesitation before taking in a deep breath. “Well, you and Damon do share similar features.”

  “Like hell and Hollow we do.” Kepriah paused and furrowed her brow. “You are serious.”

  “Yes. The two of you could pass for relatives. That crossed my mind the first time I saw him. But many people share similar features, so I never considered you actual blood relations. Until now. If you are Damon’s blood relative, a royal by blood, think of what you could do. No bounty hunter in all of Selenea would dare come after you.”

  “But a royal?” Kepriah shook her head.

  Gail, who prepared a dinner of skewered rabbit parts and tubers, sat nearby, eyeing Kepriah with an unreadable expression as everyone quietly ate.

  “Algen?” Kepriah said after a while.

  The boy flinched. “Ma’am?”

  “Who gave you this scroll?”

  He shrugged. “Was a man in a cloak?”

  Anger tapped Patrice’s senses and she could see Kepriah’s jaw ripple even in the firelight.

  Larisa scooted closer to the boy. “Algen. Describe what this cloaked man looked like. What color hair did he have? Do you remember?”

  The boy scrunched his face and studied the others. “Like him.” He pointed to Palith.

  “Dark with gray in it?”

  “Yup.”

  “Okay. That is very good.”

  Algen grinned and ripped some of the rabbit off with his dingy teeth.

  “What about his skin color?”

  “Um. Like his and his.” This time he pointed to Ched then Jakon.

  Patrice glanced at the two men. Jakon’s skin was dark like a rich coffee and Ched’s more of a milk chocolate complexion. Coffee and chocolate comparisons? Really, Patrice? She shoved away her sudden cravings and said, “They’re not exactly the same.”

  Larisa shushed her. “Algen? Do you mean the man was darker than Ched but lighter than Jakon?”

  “Yup. That be about right.”

  Kepriah gave a pointed look to Jakon. “Flatlander?”

  “Could be, First. They are known for delivering messages all over Selenea. Even during war times.”

  “I remember.” Kepriah focused on the boy again, her anger now gone. “Did this man have an emblem on his cloak, Algen? A colorful patch?”

  “Oh, yes!” Algen said with excitement. “Pretty one it was, too. All gold with red and purple stars. Very pretty.”

  Kepriah took in a long breath. “A flatlander all right. But how would he get his hands on the chart? Providing the thing is real. And why wait until now to deliver it? If I am a royal, I should have been raised in the Cities of Sleep, like Damon.”

  Jakon shook his head, his black braid swinging behind him. “Not if your life was in danger. There was a lot of turmoil in the royal houses twenty-five years ago. If your mother slept with someone other than her husband and became pregnant—”

  “She might have been killed.”

  Patrice gasped. “What? Why would someone kill her just because she had sex with another man? That’s not right.” She had read things like that and knew they’d happened in historical times. Hell, they happened in some not-so-developed Earth countries even now. But to be faced with it in reality like this shocked her, especially when the woman in question was her sister’s mother.

  Jakon shrugged. “Royals are very protective of their bloodlines, Third. If Kepriah was born a bastard royal then she and her mother would have been in great danger.”

  “But I met Damon’s father,” Kepriah said. “He did not seem like a man who would kill his wife.”

  “Then perhaps he chose his wife over you. Forced her to give you up.”

  “Why not just raise her as his own daughter?” Patrice interjected. “Nobody would have to know any different. From what you’ve told me, royals have power to do all sorts of things. If anybody knew, he could have ordered them to stay quiet.”

  “We may never know the answer to that, Third. But if the chart is true, First Noble can claim her share of the family estate.”

  “That still does not explain how the flatlanders got their hands on it,” Kepriah uttered.

  “Someone must have archived it with them, First. They are renowned for their libraries.”

  That caught Patrice’s ears. Libraries? Oh, how I’d love to be around books again. She hoped they might visit this flatland sometime. Larisa gave her a smile.

  “But why give it to me now, Jakon?” Kepriah said.
“Why not when I turned seventeen? And who would have known to leave it with Algen? Only a true seer would have known about the future.”

  “Yes, Noble. I suggest we pay another visit to the seer.”

  Kepriah cursed. “Agreed. Especially since we still have a boy to find.” She flipped her head to Gail, but the girl was finishing her dinner and correcting Algen’s bad manners. “We cannot go to the Abandoned City without a male successor. And we are running out of time.”

  “Yes, First. I suggest we get straight to bed after we have eaten and get on the road at sunup.”

  Patrice prepared for sleep with uneasy thoughts rattling around in her brain.

  ****

  Kepriah managed to open several archways that got them to the seer’s place within a matter of hours. Getting to Abandoned City would be another problem since the cold spots seemed more pronounced in that direction, a problem she could not afford to think about just now.

  The apprentice had let them in without question and now they sat in the seer’s sparse home, Kepriah’s patience near its end, but it was rude to refuse offered tea here in this place. She waited until the old man waved his apprentice off and sat before handing him the chart. Questions burned in her mind like hot pokers.

  The old seer eyed the chart for a long moment then focused his hazy gaze on her. His face appeared like old leather from a lifetime of meditating in the sun and some of his teeth were missing. “I have been waiting for you to return, Kepriah of Landerbury. You wish to know whether this chart is truthful. Yes, it is.”

  Kepriah’s heart leapt and a jumble of emotions flooded her. She realized they were not all hers and glanced at her sisters, then back to the old man. She knew it was useless to ask why he did not offer this information the last time they were here. He only told what was needed at the time.

  “Your mother had this drawn up just after your birth,” the seer said. “She was a handsome woman. Looked a bit like you.” He moved his gaze to Jakon. “She sent it off someplace safe with the Nyanan of her time.”

  “Honor?” Jakon uttered.

  The old seer nodded. “Honor, yes. She was Nyanan. No longer, though.”

  Kepriah and her sisters exchanged glances with Jakon but he seemed just as surprised that Honor had known Kepriah’s origins. “Honor must have archived the chart with the flatlanders and given them orders to deliver it to us. If she knew about me, she may have been after more than my magic.” Honor had also been a seer, though a much lesser one than this man, and would have had visions to guide her. That certainly explained how she knew so much about the Trine.

  The seer focused on Kepriah again. “Nyanan traveled back and forth to Danuel’s estate to converse with Catrin and Efigen.”

  “Efigen?” The only woman Kepriah knew by that name was Damon’s old nursemaid. The woman died a few years ago.

  “She was your brother’s nursemaid. You have met your brother Damon?” One thin finger pointed to the chart.

  “Yes. So, he really is my half-brother?”

  “Oh, yes. No mistake in that.” The seer took a long drink from his cup. “And just as the chart states, Catrin was your mother and Filigren your father, a distant cousin to Danuel. Your mother loved him, but she was forced to marry Danuel to unite the Cities of Sleep. Her father was dying and wanted to make certain his daughter had a safe and prosperous future. You see, at that time, no woman could rule The Cities of Sleep alone. She had to have a living male relative sign for the estate. And Damon was not born, yet.”

  Patrice made a sound of disgust and Kepriah threw her a dirty look. They could get angry about unfair politics later. Right now, Kepriah needed answers. She wanted answers to her blood parentage. “Go on, Seer.”

  “Well, sick as he was about it, Danuel had Filigren put to death and you exiled.”

  “But she was just a baby,” Patrice interjected. She seemed to ignore Kepriah’s look deliberately this time.

  “Yes, daughter of the sister world.” The old seer did not seem the least bit offended by her outburst. “And that is why he did not have her killed. Instead, he told his wife to find a home for her. Catrin knew better than to argue with her husband. She knew she had no choice if she wanted her daughter to survive. She came to me, asking for my advice and my blessing. I saw that you would be important, Kepriah of Landerbury, and I knew you needed training. Though at the time, the visions did not show me that you would become one of the famed Trine.

  “I had Nyanan take you east and deliver you to Nefith. She was the toughest female warrior of her day and in need of an apprentice. Nyanan gave her a few suggestions to keep her curiosity at bay so no one would learn who you really are.”

  Kepriah felt stunned and it took a few seconds to realize Larisa had a hand on her arm. She had explained to her sisters that she was taken in as a baby when her parents died, but now she realized her mother had survived. Anger swelled. Her early childhood had been full and she had never gone hungry, but it was a hard life being raised by a warrior. And when Nefith died, Kepriah had no one to watch over her. Or did she?

  “Seer.” She tried to keep the commanding tone from her voice but it was difficult. “Did Sorinieve know who I was?”

  “The Keeper of the Faytools? No. Not until you became of age to receive the scepter did she see you in her visions. As well as your sisters. But she never knew about your parentage.”

  “That is true, Nobles,” Jakon said. “Sorinieve told me everything. She knew you three had been born and that was all, until your twenty-fifth birthdays when she saw you would become the Trine.”

  “But Honor must have known I would be one of the Trine.”

  “No,” the seer told her. “Her visions, like mine, did not reveal your destiny until your twenty-fifth birthday. She simply kept up with you because of your connection to the royals. Efigen, Damon’s nurse, was friends with Nyanan and would have been your nurse had you been raised with your brother. Nyanan kept her apprised of your progress, and Efigen would then deliver those messages to your mother, Catrin.”

  Anger welled up again. “If you knew about Nyanan, why did you not warn us?” This time Jakon placed a hand on her arm and she added, “Forgive my outburst, Seer.”

  “It was not my place to warn you, Kepriah of Landerbury. I was only to make certain you survived. The Moirai have a design for this world. Not even a seer is to disturb their plan.”

  “Then,” Larisa said. “You knew we would defeat Nyanan?”

  “No. I only knew that you would confront her. You had to figure out who she was without my interference. I send an occasional warning out, like the flooding of your village, Larisa of Donigere. But whether people listen to my warnings is not my concern. Unless the visions request me to interfere, I cannot offer anything else. If someone comes to me directly with a specific question, then I am obliged to tell what I know. Ask anything of me, Trine, and I will give the answer if I have it.”

  Kepriah said, “We are still searching for a boy who will sit on the Pewter Throne.”

  “Ah, yes. The one who will marry that girl out there.”

  At that moment, Kepriah was glad she had told Gail to wait outside. The girl did not need to know any of this just yet. She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “We saw that boy, Algen, in our visions and thought he was the future royal, but instead he gave me the chart that listed my parentage.”

  “Algen is not the one you seek now. His work is done. You must let him go.”

  “All right,” she said a bit hesitantly. “Then who is the boy we seek?”

  The old seer gave a wide grin. “You will find him in the Cities of Sleep.”

  Kepriah knew there were not many young men there now. Most had gone off in search of marriageable women. They did not have time to hunt down every man in Sleep, especially if the seer could give them more information. “Do you have a name for him, Seer?”

  “You already know his name.”

  Someone Kepriah already knew? Who? Then it hit her like a jabber
kick to the stomach. “Damon?”

  “Yes.”

  “Jabber shit on a hot day. Forgive my cursing, Seer.”

  He nodded and looked at her with humor from inside those crinkled sockets. “You have done well, Kepriah of Landerbury, but I have no more to tell you. You must complete that which the Moirai have bestowed upon you.”

  Patrice shifted her weight and frowned. “How do we convince Damon and Gail to marry, then travel to Abandoned City and take over the Pewter Throne? It’s not exactly an upward move. And Gail’s really not going to like this one bit.”

  “That is not my task, daughter of the sister world. But you must hurry. The final day of permitted hoisting grows near.”

  “Will we succeed?” Larisa sounded ill, and Kepriah felt her fear like cold needles against her skin.

  “Even I do not know the answer to that. I pray that you do.”

  Kepriah realized that they were not going to get more information out of the old seer, just as he had said. Still stunned about her relationship to Damon but certain she now had the truth, she thanked the seer, put several silver coins in his offering box, all that she could spare just now, and left the cottage with Jakon and her sisters following.

  “Why did he say to let Algen go?” Larisa said as they walked toward their jabbers and the rest of the group.

  Kepriah shook her head. “I do not know. But if there is one thing I have learned in my life, it is to trust the seer’s advice.”

  “That is very wise, First Noble,” Jakon said. “Sorinieve came to him many times in her youth to seek his council. He never once gave her false information.”

  “That would make him—well—really damn old,” Patrice uttered.

  Jakon chuckled. “Yes, Third, it would.”

  “Algen!” Kepriah called and the boy ran to her. “You need to go home now.” She would give him a jabber if she did not need every one of them so urgently. The boy would just have to walk the distance.

  He looked at her in a confused way and she pointed back to the village. “You need to go home. Gail, get him some food.”

  “That will not be necessary, Kepriah of Landerbury.” She turned to see the old seer standing in his doorway. “Algen. Come here, boy.” The boy obeyed. “You know about sheep?”