Part 12 (1/2)
”I STILL DON'T understand why he did it,” said Lute, playing a blue counter over his knuckles, disappearing it and re-appearing a yellow, a red, the blue again, and, in addition, a green
Moonhawk fed lanced up at the starry sky ”Guilt,” she said softly, ”and pain-he did love her, I think In his way But his as too sober for her-the heedless one, rehed at everyone” The fire flared and she ducked prudently back, keeping the blue cloak tightly around her
”It happened so quickly-like a bad dreahed ”May the Mother pity hilanced at her sharply ”And yourself? I find you whollyit with sohed and tossed her hair back over her shoulders ”My own self and no other,” she said softly
”Poor Master Lute But while ere together, I did-drean to her usual manner ”I was never a free woman, you know In the Circle, there is-duty
So I shall have think on them more fully, as Sister Laurel would have said”
”More fully,” Lute echoed and shook his head, vanishi+ng all four counters ”Well, take soic in the future Less dangerous More lucrative”
Moonhawk laughed and pulled the pan fros, Master Lute?”
So ends the second tale of Lute and Moonhawk
Moonphase
THE WOOD BENCH was cool beneath her bare buttocks, the stone cold under her bare toes No heat caht from the empty oil lah in the walls were open
She needn't see the walls, canted inward as they rose, to understand the h it was a word unsaid by the Sisters and the Mother herself
”You will be assigned more appropriate duties after you recant, Mendoza,” they'd told her, already stripping away the dignity of the name that had come to her unbidden the first time she'd bled
Mendoza, they called her now More properly, Priscilla Delacroix y Mendoza And what of Moonhawk?
She sighed, felt her dry skin shi+ver, and went to lessons of Intent to remove her concentration from the discomfort and center it on the reality
The reality she found was motion and what it ht breeze that chilled her bare breasts were odors of the evening: dinner s, the hint of expensive herbs burned by wealthy supplicants down on Mother's Row, the occasional acrid touch of e of the bay downriver
It all ht would be colder than last, and that in thethey would take her to the Mother s Chamber to say a confession she would not make
”You will recant,” had said the Mother; ”You will ad, that you've always stolen your power fro to do so You will be assigned to ”
In the meantihts, having left her only the earrings given her by a dead grandift of handwrought silver
What they had taken! They'd taken ath, stones that concentrated will Then they'd subjected her to spells of un, to other thefts
To think that they'd feared her so much! If only she had the bracelets, even now- She shi+vered Even now she needed food She needed drink She needed Moonhawk as never before and Moonhawk had been forced away froretted it No water here, no food They wanted a weak and beaten, near-na Every tear was in their favor
Now the breeze brought so else: the distant hum of voices, and now more, and then the City's te Tenth Chant
Priscilla felt her throat seek the words and was surprised by it-she'd sung no chant since she'd been thrown here She closed clamped her mouth on the words, and then relented Tenth Chant Wardsday was Moonhawk's Chant
She began then, low and quiet, eyes raised in the darkness But all was not dark: high up was the silverglow of ht on the cold stone walls
Priscilla had held the original of the chant in her own hands in the Library when she'd been permitted the boon of study of her namesake She covered the trail of history entire: Moonhawk had helped build the world she lived in, had helped create the chants, had designed spells, had defined powers-Moonhawk had been there over and over when the Tees of those chants, had seen that the words were penned by two hands, not one-and she'd never gotten an answer to that question of why the other hand was a masculine hand Sister Dwelva denied it, as she denied so much
Sister Dwelva refused to discuss the notation on the side of the chant, in that second hand: ”Here's a truth, for the survivor bold, always take silver, rather than gold, it's less the weight and ant- Yet the front of the page was purity itself, words and feeling so perfectly er to her throat she saw that page again in the ain- ”It was Lute, my dear,” came the voice in her head ”It was Lute who made me write that one down
Lute who knew the value of silver and saved , when they trapped you-aiiieee, girl; they have never let ain in all these centuries! And what shall we do for you now that they'd make you lie or have you stoned for truth?”
Priscilla never broke chant but she grasped her left wrist frantically, knowing the while that Moonhawk's bracelets had been torn away by ic and force-she'd first heard Moonhawk speak to her when she'd grasped the bracelet at Blood-test and had never been without it again until now- ”Look on the ster It carries silver and its path is a bracelet about the planet You have worked hard for me and it has cost you Think onfaded away But Priscilla's eyes saw thewary, tomorrow, too You'll not be stoned if I have ht”
There was a new sound as the city quieted after Tenth Chant The bars and taverns were closed now, except at the space port's foreign zone; the houses were darkening, but there was a new sound-a sound of birds ood to dwell on rats Priscilla knew this But Moonhawk's voice had told her to think on Moonhawk
The last time she'd been truly filled with Moonhawk's vision and force she'd killed a woman and stunned another senseless She'd left her post at the Temple and traveled-without perive stolen Temple secrets over to an outworlder And when she'd recovered the secrets, she'd let the surviving outworlders, o
And she'd given her word-Moonhaord-that they be safe The single death had beenatoneh, for the dead woman had been the cause of the theft in the first place
But Circle had wanted more: they'd wanted a show of power They'd intended to turn the thief or thieves over to the crowds for a proper stoning, to quell the cyclic complaints that the Temple ran far too much of Sintian life
Show of power? Instead now they would shoer by sending her to be stoned for heresy if she refused to recant, or send her to the Teht comfort to the men and women who'd lost their spouses if she did
”Politics, young one, politics You did well for one unused to that level of command Our whole order is based on proper use of intuition and the balance of life: but since the first coven was consecrated there's always been that other-the greed of power, of personal importance They'd not believe that I would let the starshi+p people go, but what had they done? Accessories, accidental as they were And thehim when the true trouble lay dead-aye, so you used a little too much force? It was at my behest, and the woman was dead before she arrived-that was in her eyes But you hadn't time to see that-they've trained you for ceremonies instead of duty! If only they'd train you properly, let you find your love even if it isn't Lute I looked for hi ins they alter history for convenience and forget the truth-that I was sent on Quest to get s and expect the sa was politics, this time, and I had no time to warn you, that's all”
”But what of the Temple property! Temple secrets! It was i room
”Temple secrets!” mocked the voice in her head ”Samples of what they call the 'catalyst hts They think it can make a Witch out of one without power Old secrets pulled from the shi+p records they hide Ah, they won't learn Politics! You-we-did right to stop the theft, but then we should have fixed all of the probleirl to choose-until you-for three hundred years!”
”Given! Don't you choose?”
”I won't discuss it with you now Later, if there's a way We ht!”
Priscilla stood then, knowing it was useless She was slender-scrawny said so with Moonhawk's aspect upon her-and fairly tall But the ths over her head, and the slant of the wails h
She tried standing on the bench that was her bed, and that was too short, as well And if she leaned the bench against the wall?
She tried it, willing tired muscles to push the heavy wood into place near the wall, and then tried to lean it-no Logic showed it could not work: the bench would wedge itself in and there was no way she could stand on the end of it then
She pushed the bench over; it fell with a crash, the low backpiece splintering noisily