The Moon Coin (The Moon Realm Series)

by Richard Due

  She opened her mouth to speak, but then an image of Tavin flashed before her eyes: Tavin, covered in gore.

  “Lily?” came a muffled female voice.

  Lily waited.

  “Please open the door. It’s Nima.” The specter of gory Tavin vanished.

  Lily shot the bolt and took a step back. Nima hurriedly entered, closing the door behind her. She looked exhausted and excited at the same time.

  “Listen, Lily. We’re about to wake Tavin, but there’s something we want to know, and we need your help to figure it out.”

  “What?” asked Lily, shrinking.

  Nima placed her hands on Lily’s shoulders, looking her straight in the eye.

  “Lily, I’ve quickened Curse’s release of him, of that I’m certain. But I can find nothing of you in Tavin’s memories. We want to do a little test. Are you game?”

  “For what?”

  “At breakfast, we want you to sit at the table just as though you belonged—like you were one of us. All we want is to see his reaction to you. Will you do it?”

  “Will Dubb be there?”

  “Of course.”

  Lily hesitated.

  “Lily,” Nima continued, “if Tavin doesn’t remember you, then you don’t have him to fear—”

  “—just Curse,” said Lily.

  “Yes! Just Curse,” said Nima encouragingly.

  “You know they’re kind of a package deal, right?” asked Lily.

  “Yes, but Curse can only take him in the wastes. Otherwise, he’s fine. You’re safe here, and you’ll be safe in Bairne.”

  “All right, I’ll do it,” Lily mumbled, already regretting it.

  The big wooden table from the night before was now set with serving plates piled high with fruits, sausages, eggs, and little flat cakes that looked a lot like pancakes. There were cups and silverware at every setting and big clay jugs at either end. Lily recognized some of the people at the table: Keegan; Pippa, the young girl who had greeted them on their arrival; Dubb. She guessed that the old woman next to Keegan must be his wife, but there were two others she didn’t know.

  Dubb stood at once on seeing them, motioning to the empty chair between him and Pippa. Everyone looked a bit nervous, except Dubb, whose freshly scrubbed face showed nothing but warmth and normality.

  “Sit. Sit,” said Keegan, speaking quickly. “Lily, this is my wife, Jessa; my granddaughter, Tam; and her husband, Aiden.”

  Lily tried to retain the names, but she had a hard time taking her eyes and attention off Nima as she disappeared down the hall to Tavin’s room.

  A moment later, Tavin’s voice sounded loudly, and the table went silent. All eyes turned to the hall. Next came Nima’s raised voice. Keegan and Dubb exchanged glances. It sounded like an argument. Dubb’s hand dropped to the grip of his sword. Tavin burst out of the little room, limping heavily, but moving under a full head of steam. Lily saw Dubb tense in his chair, as if he were about to bolt out of it and leap over the table.

  “No!” shouted Tavin. “The leg is fine!”

  Dubb relaxed and suppressed a chuckle. He reached out a hand for one of the platters, and as if on some prearranged signal, everyone at the table started talking and passing around food.

  Nima herded Tavin through the main room and toward the table.

  “It’s not fine,” said Nima, sounding concerned. “It’s a very bad cut, and you should let me have a better look at it!”

  Lily thought she sounded genuinely angry, but when Tavin was taking in all the faces at Keegan’s table, Nima caught Lily’s eye and gave her a wink.

  There were only two empty seats, both opposite Dubb, which meant that Nima would be sitting next to Tavin, a situation that did not appear to please him.

  Keegan didn’t stand. “Tavin, you’re up!” he said merrily.

  Tavin nodded and thanked him, but he seemed a bit lost and self-conscious as he pulled out his chair, wedging his stiff, injured leg under the table. He was wearing the dragon-scale breeches and a coarse, grimy shirt that might have once been white. There was a distinct line of demarcation just above his collar bones from where Nima had washed him the night before. His face and neck were clean; everywhere else he was covered in grunge. His sword, ever present, was belted to his side. Lily stiffened at the sight of it.

  As Nima took her seat, she turned away from Tavin, placing her hand over her nose.

  “For the love of moonlight, Tavin,” she said, under her breath, “you could use a good washing.”

  “Nima!” snapped Keegan. “After he’s eaten.”

  Tavin, barely raising his head from his chest, accepted a platter and began filling his plate. He said his thank yous softly and kept eye contact to a minimum, staring mostly into his breakfast.

  “You could cut him some slack, Nima; after all, it’s not every day you slay a dragon,” said Keegan.

  Tavin froze mid-chew, casting an alarmed glance at Dubb. Lily turned in Dubb’s direction, ostensibly to grab a piece of fruit. But her real plan was to catch a glimpse of Dubb’s face, which turned out to be too difficult to read.

  “Well,” began Dubb, splitting and buttering a roll, “it certainly began as a group effort. But it was Tavin who took the devil down with a single stroke.”

  Tavin choked on a piece of food. As he reached for his mug, Nima gave him a few good thumps on the back, then withdrew her hand, making a face. She threw in a few more thumps before giving up and setting to work on her dirtied palm with a napkin. Lily and Pippa laughed.

  Nima glanced at them, gravely at first, and then she too started to laugh. Tavin paid no heed to their amusement. His face had gone pale at the turn in the conversation.

  “Is that so, Tavin?” asked Jessa.

  Tavin dabbed his napkin to his lips.

  “Uh—” he began, glancing up at Dubb with large, appealing eyes.

  Dubb, for his part, let him hang.

  “I, uh . . . well . . .” Tavin squirmed in his chair, fighting to remember something, anything.

  Lily watched Dubb subtly touch his pinky finger to his heart while dabbing a napkin to his chin. It was a deft move. If she hadn’t been watching him carefully, she was certain she would have missed it. Tavin blinked back a look of shock. He placed his open hand on his chest, subtly mouthing the word “me?” to Dubb, whose eyes flashed slightly larger in response.

  Tavin, regaining some small amount of composure, said, “Really, Dubb is too kind. It was most certainly a group effort. And any one of us could have landed the . . . the—” Tavin glanced to Dubb, his voice becoming more uncertain, “—fatal blow to its heart?”

  Dubb confirmed this to be the case, and grim congratulations issued from all directions. Tavin expressed gratitude to everyone in turn, sneaking glances of disbelief toward Dubb whenever possible.

  After that, the conversation turned to other, more mundane topics, and Tavin began to look more at ease. He was taking a relaxed pull from his mug when Nima leaned forward and announced excitedly to the table, “And he singlehandedly destroyed an entire dragon clutch!”

  Tavin spewed his drink onto his cuff and began choking again.

  “That’s how he injured his leg!” she added, nodding.

  He continued coughing. This time, Nima grimaced and made an icky-waving gesture, unable to bring herself to thump his dirty back again.

  Tavin pushed himself away from the table. He examined the injured leg, prodding the wound with newfound interest. Breathing through his mouth, shoulders bowed, he appeared anxious and confused. Lily glanced at Dubb and saw that he looked pained.

  “Tavin?” said Keegan. “You’re not going, are you? You haven’t even finished your breakfast.”

  Tavin’s eyes darted here and there as though looking for something.

 
“Not hungry, Keegan.” He lifted himself from his chair and staggered away from the table toward the mud room, and then he was gone.

  Nima, obviously conflicted about the play they had just put on, threw down her napkin and rose to follow.

  “No,” hissed Dubb, “let him go.”

  Keegan turned to Dubb. “What are you thinking?”

  “I’ve seen that look before,” said Dubb. “Tavin has no idea what’s going on.”

  Keegan turned to Nima. “What say you, child?”

  “If he has any memories of the past few days, then Curse has hidden them beyond my power.”

  Lily thought this made an impression on Dubb, who pushed himself from the table.

  “Lily, after you finish your breakfast, make sure you’re ready for travel.”

  “So soon?” said Keegan.

  “He should spend the day here,” said Nima.

  Dubb nodded. “I agree. But he’s unsettled, and when Tavin’s unsettled he is . . . harder to predict. If he decides to leave in a hurry, there won’t be any stopping him. I want to be ready.”

  “But where are you going?” asked Keegan. “You haven’t finished, either.”

  “I think Tavin’s gone to the creek to bathe.”

  “Thank the moons,” said Nima, under her breath.

  “I’m going to join him,” Dubb continued. “I’ll try to occupy his mind with other things. He’ll have questions, but I fear my answers will only make him more restless. He’ll want to be in Bairne. He knows he can think in Bairne.”

  “Dubb,” said Nima, her voice now full of concern, “keep him there for a while, will you? Don’t take him out into the wastes again so soon.”

  “That won’t be hard. When Bairne learns a dragon’s been slain, they’ll want a celebration, and Tavin will want to lurk among the crowds. Somehow . . . it helps.” Halting at the entrance to the mud room, Dubb glanced back to the table. “Cruel, isn’t it? How the thing that heals him the most is the one thing he must hide from.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  To Bairne

  Lily followed Dubb like a second shadow. The steps cut into the hillside were large, making the descent swift. Lily could see Tavin at the bottom of the hill, with two horses and a pile of gear. How he had transported all the gear was a mystery. But as Lily was quickly learning, mysteries had a way of popping up around Tavin, and as with the severing of a hydra’s head, solving one only meant two more would take its place.

  “I’ll take good care of them, I promise,” he was saying.

  “Keegan did not give you permission to take Wax or Wane!” shouted an angry Pippa.

  Tavin’s hair and hands were now noticeably cleaner. He had been saddling one of the horses when Pippa discovered him. He stood uneasily before her wrath, his dark, tangled locks already mopping up the dust on his dirty armor.

  The steps ended, and Lily got her first good look at the horses. Unlike the poor animal they’d ridden from Perch, these two were magnificent. Dubb’s eyes shone appreciatively as he ran his fingers through Wane’s thick mane.

  Tavin let a pack drop to his side and leaned toward Pippa, displaying one of his most charming smiles.

  “Of course he did. Do I look like a horse thief to you?”

  “He did not say, take Wax or take Wane!”

  Tavin waved nonchalantly toward the main house.

  “If you feel so strongly about it, go ask him yourself. Keegan will tell you.”

  “And have you run off? I think not!”

  Tavin looked genuinely taken aback. Placing an open palm to his chest, he said, “I have no intention of running off. Besides, look at all this baggage that needs to be stowed.” Tavin waved at the packs strewn about him. “I couldn’t possibly prepare these horses before you get back.”

  Pippa eyed the baggage doubtfully. There was quite a lot of it.

  “Dubb—” she began.

  “Oh, no, Pippa,” said Dubb, raising his hand defensively. “Don’t get me involved in this,”

  Pippa narrowed her eyes at Tavin, squared her little shoulders, and pointed a finger at him. “If you leave while I’m gone,” she began, her blue eyes sparkling with cold vengeance, “you will live to regret it, dragonslayer.” She spit out the last word like a curse.

  Then Pippa turned on her heel and dashed up the steps, but not without looking back several times.

  Speaking through clenched teeth to hide the fact that he was talking, Tavin said, “Do you think she’ll double back on us?”

  Dubb, who was also tracking Pippa, smiled through his own clenched teeth. “Personally, I think you’d have an easier time stealing a faerie’s shadow.”

  “I knew I could count on you,” said Tavin.

  The instant Pippa stepped out of sight, he leapt back to Wax’s saddle and finished tightening the girth strap.

  “Oh, so now I’m helping you steal the faerie’s shadow?” asked Dubb.

  He shot a look at Lily. “This is always how it starts.” He snatched up a blanket and began saddling Wane. Their hands moved with an efficiency that Lily had previously thought possible only in highly-trained Indy 500 pit crews.

  “The only way I’d be helping would be if we were stealing back the faerie’s shadow from the one who stole it in the first place.”

  “A good deed?” grunted Tavin as he tied down another pack.

  Dubb adjusted Wane’s bridle. “Best kind.”

  “For a faerie?” added Tavin.

  “No faster way to improve your luck.”

  “I could use some good luck.”

  “Don’t I know it.”

  “Whoa!” said Lily. “What are you doing? Are you stealing these horses?”

  Dubb turned to face Lily, but his hands continued their swift work.

  “No, of course not,” said Dubb. “What do you take us for—common horse thieves?” He looked at Tavin. “You at least talked to Keegan, right?”

  “Yes, yes, yes,” said Tavin, lacing down a saddlebag and motioning for Lily to hand him another. “No.”

  Dubb hissed through his teeth. “Damn your darkward soul, Tavin,” he grumbled.

  “Keegan did say he would take care of that nag we rode in. Although I must admit, even I’m having trouble reckoning how that entitles us to Wax and Wane.”

  Lily stopped handing Tavin baggage. “So you are stealing them!” she accused indignantly.

  Dubb hoisted another pack to Wane’s saddle. “And if we can’t get them back? Can you reckon that?”

  “Can I reckon Keegan’s punishment for us? . . .We’d make it up to him.”

  “You mean like . . . the last time?” asked Dubb flatly.

  Tavin bit his lip. “Have you ever seen a finer-looking horse?” he asked, patting Wax’s flank.

  Dubb ignored him, but Lily cast an appraising eye as she stepped closer. “Wow. They really are magnificent, aren’t they?”

  Suddenly she shook her head, as if trying to break a spell. “No. This is wrong.”

  Tavin fit his last bag into place and pulled himself into the saddle as best he could with his wounded leg. He’d had a head start, and a little help from Lily, but Dubb had been no slouch, finishing just seconds behind Tavin.

  Tavin turned Wax northeast and was about to apply his spurs when he noticed that, although Dubb had mounted his horse, he was stalling.

  “Come on, man! The moons don’t wait!” urged Tavin.

  Dubb held out his hand to Lily. “Come on.”

  Lily crossed her arms. “I will not be part of horse stealing.”

  Tavin brought Wax closer. “What’s going on?” he asked, astonished. “What? Is this a passenger service now?”

  His face darkened, his demeanor changing. “You don’t expect he
r to ferry these horses back alone, do you? Healer or no, she’s just a girl! What if she wandered into a hive of leech beetles, or met up with a full-grown eetle?”

  Lily gave Tavin a hard look. His sudden concern for her safety meant nothing to her.

  “You two were fast, but Pippa’s sure to be back any second. She’ll see you,” said Lily.

  “Good point,” said Dubb. “I’m a bit surprised myself that she’s not back already.”

  Tavin glanced to the main house. “Perhaps Keegan is . . . stalling for us,” he suggested, somehow managing to keep a straight face.

  “Ha! And why would he do something like that?” asked Lily in irritation.

  “Why, Tavin, I do believe you’ve stumbled onto something,” remarked Dubb.

  “You can’t be serious!” Lily threw up her hands in frustration.

  “On the contrary,” said Dubb gravely. “I think from Pippa’s delay, we can easily derive Keegan’s tacit approval.”

  Lily threw up her hands in frustration. And with that, Dubb wheeled Wane in a tight circle, reached out his hand, and plucked Lily up by the forearm.

  “No!” she screamed, but as Wane continued to come about, Dubb locked Lily in place with an arm that may as well have been a bar of iron, while applying his spurs to Wane’s flanks. Before Lily could say or do another thing, they bolted away, and unlike the ride on Nimlinn, this one was bumpy.

  Dubb and Tavin ran out Wax and Wane for far longer than Lily thought they should, testing and measuring the horses’ strength and prowess. They took turns chasing each other as though they were boys at play rather than grown men. Lily scowled her disapproval even as she sensed that Wax and Wane were enjoying the romp more than anyone. They truly were magnificent animals, and Lily felt chagrined that she wanted a turn at the reins herself.

  After an hour or so, they slowed. Tavin moved up from behind, and they took the road—or what passed for one—two abreast.

  “Not trying to lose me, are you?” Tavin chuckled.

  Dubb was silent. Lily, still angry at the both of them, stared off into the distance. She had not spoken a single word since they left. When Tavin offered her water from a skin, she refused, even though she was thirsty.