Dark Moon Defender (Twelve Houses) (28 page)

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Authors: Sharon Shinn

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Her attention returned to him. She appeared to be sneering. “I can pay for any services you might see fit to offer,” she said bitingly. “Now help me from the saddle, gutter boy.”
 
 
Justin had automatically raised his arms to lift her down, but at that, he froze. Impossible to tell by looking, of course, but he stared up at her a moment, letting his arms drop to his sides. “Kirra?” he asked in a disbelieving voice.
 
 
“Kirra? What? Is that some kind of insult, boy?” she demanded, but she couldn’t restrain the laughter anymore. “Help me down, I said! Or I’ll turn you into a field mouse, and you’ll be eaten by some kind of horrid creature.”
 
 
“Kirra!” he exclaimed. Now he grabbed her from the saddle and hauled her down, swinging her around in a circle so wildly that she actually squealed. “Who’d have believed that I’d actually be happy to see
you
? What are you doing in Neft?”
 
 
“Put me down! Ow—you’re bruising my ribs! Put me down!”
 
 
He did, but not until he’d given her a little scare, tossing her up in the air a few inches and catching her. He spun around to give the black horse an appraising look. “And is this Donnal? I suppose it must be.” The horse gave a whinny and pulled his mouth back, the equine version of a smile. “You shouldn’t let her treat you this way,” he said, leaning in, as if to whisper a secret in the horse’s ear. Donnal was Kirra’s constant companion, no matter what shape he took. “You’re her horse, you’re her dog—you need to remind her once in a while that you’re a man.”
 
 
“Oh, we were both wolves just this morning,” Kirra said. She had looked over her shoulder as if to be certain that no one was close enough to be watching, and even as she spoke she began a gradual transformation. The white hair turned gold, the pinched features grew youthful and gracious. When Donnal changed shapes, the alteration was so quick it was almost instantaneous, but Kirra shifted slowly enough that you could watch her body melt and reshape and redefine. “We only donned our present disguises for your benefit.”
 
 
“What are you doing in Neft?”
 
 
“Tayse said if we happened to be down by Nocklyn we should drop in on you,” she said carelessly. “And I said, well, it’s out of my way, of course, and I don’t much like Justin, but if it’s important to
you
, Tayse—”
 
 
He felt himself grinning. Kirra Danalustrous was an amazingly beautiful woman once she stood there inhabiting her own skin. But she was so wayward and so irritating that Justin had always been able to overlook her physical attractions. Indeed, the first three months he’d known her, he would have said he hated her. He still didn’t understand how it was that they were actually friends. Of a sort.
 
 
“Well, if you’re returning to Ghosenhall, you can take a message for me,” he said. “I just gave a report to one of Tayse’s men, but you could probably make it back more quickly.”
 
 
“Probably not,” she said. “We were just in Ghosenhall, then Rappengrass, and I think it’s time to head back to Danan Hall.” She glanced around. “Is there any urgent news from sleepy little Neft?”
 
 
“Halchon Gisseltess passed through a few days ago,” he said, and had the satisfaction of seeing her grow instantly serious.
 
 
“He
did
? But isn’t he under guard at Gissel Plain?”
 
 
“Apparently not. And there’s been all sorts of action down at the convent. If you—”
 
 
She stopped him with a lifted hand. “I want to hear it all. I do. But I’m starving. Can you tell me over dinner?”
 
 
“Of course,” he said. “We can go to the taproom, but—hmm.” He debated a moment. “Are you going to go as yourself?”
 
 
“What? Why shouldn’t I?”
 
 
“Well, the story I put out when I got here is that I left some marlord’s service because of a fight over his daughter.” He saw the look of mocking delight on her face and added, “It was Cammon’s idea. Anyway, if someone sees you, they might think you’re the one I was trying to seduce.”
 
 
“But, Justin, I’ve just been waiting for you to try,” she said soulfully. “All this time I thought, oh, if only Justin would notice that I’m a woman, and a woman who cares about him—”
 
 
He grinned. “Particularly as one day someone asked me
which
serramarra I’d been involved with, and the only ones I really know are from Danalustrous—”
 
 
“My father will be thrilled,” she informed him. “A match with a King’s Rider, while shockingly unequal, would still be better than a match with a peasant’s son.” She glanced at Donnal. “Who looks like a horse.”
 
 
“And then a few weeks ago I made friends with a novice from the convent, and I’ve seen her a few times,” he went on, a little self-consciously now. “So if
you
show up all of a sudden and start going to taprooms with me, well, people might notice how many women seem to be in my life.”
 
 
She had stepped back and was now gazing at him with a lurking smile. “Justin. A novice? From the
convent
? You
have
exceeded expectations! Come instantly and tell me everything. I’m starving, but this is a story I absolutely must hear.”
 
 
He gestured at the horse. “What about Donnal? He can’t exactly come like that.”
 
 
She was laughing. “Lead us into the stables, gutter boy. We’ll both change into shapes a little more appropriate.”
 
 
Twenty minutes later Justin was back at almost exactly the same table he’d sat at with Ellynor, sharing a meal with yet another woman masquerading as a man. Kirra’s disguise, however, was more convincing. She’d kept her fair coloring and aristocratic features, but taken on weight, added some stubble, altered her clothes, and deepened her voice. It was amazing how easy it was, still, to think of her as Kirra. Perhaps because Justin had seen her take so many shapes and retain, through every modification, her essential personality, sunny, charming, and lawless.
 
 
Donnal, on the other hand, was dark as the horse he’d first appeared to be, but far sleeker. He was of medium stature, with dark hair and eyes, a close beard, and a taciturn nature. He was almost as unlikely to talk whether he was fashioned as man or beast. His quiet intensity was a welcome counterfoil to Kirra’s bright restlessness.
 
 
“So,” Kirra said. “What’s been going on here?”
 
 
He described in detail the days he had spent spying on the convent and following the Lestra’s guardsmen the night they went burning down houses. Kirra looked exceedingly grim at the news. “I hadn’t heard that story yet. I wonder if it’s made its way to Ghosenhall? Do you know whose house it was?”
 
 
“Southern Nocklyn. I can describe the place and the people I talked to, but”—he shrugged—“I don’t know the nobility.”
 
 
“Well, this is proof, if Senneth wanted any, that the Lestra is engaged in murder. I can’t imagine that Baryn can just overlook such actions!”
 
 
“But if royal guards can’t keep Halchon on his estates, how will the king be able to control the Daughters?” Justin demanded. “When so many people worship the Pale Mother and would do anything the Lestra demanded?”
 
 
Donnal looked up. “There are a few who fear the Pale Mother, too,
and
the Daughters,” he said in his quiet voice. “If they fear the goddess more than they fear the king, they will act for the convent and not for the crown.”
 
 
“And what’s going on in Ghosenhall, anyway?” Justin said, a note of complaint in his voice. “I haven’t heard any kind of important news.”
 
 
“Well,” Kirra said, folding her hands around her glass of beer. “There was a summit recently—most of the marlords were there and Thirteenth House lords from all over the realm. It was organized by the regent.”
 
 
She gave Justin a fleeting glance and returned her attention to her hands. Last summer, Kirra had fallen madly in love with Romar Brendyn, the king’s regent and a married man. The affair had almost ended her friendship—or whatever you’d call it—with Donnal and had most certainly broken her heart. In fact, Justin had not seen her since she had broken off the relationship with the regent and returned to Danalustrous, Donnal at her side.
 
 
Time had healed some of the worst wounds, it seemed. Justin didn’t feel he could ask her for all the details as long as Donnal was sitting next to her.
 
 
“Nothing of any real significance was decided at the conference,” she went on. “The marlords, as might be expected, strenuously resisted any notion of giving up control of even the smallest portions of their lands. The king remained entirely neutral. But—there seemed to be—the overall feeling was one of hope, I thought. Hope that things might begin to change, now that there were actually public discussions of the topic. Romar encouraged the marlords to make lists of properties they might be willing to sign over, and the lesser lords to make lists of the properties they most coveted. I have no doubt at all that nothing on these lists will match. But it’s a start.”
 
 
“So someday we might have Fifteen Houses, or Twenty,” Justin said. “That will seem strange to you.”
 
 
“Yes, I can see why a street urchin such as yourself would care that the social order was about to be upended,” she said in an affable voice.
 
 
He grinned. “And your father? How did marlord Malcolm express his views?”
 
 
“You just simply never know what my father will do or say. Give up control of an acre of Danalustrous? I couldn’t imagine him willingly doing such a thing. But he sat there and wrote four names on a piece of paper and handed it to Romar while the rest of the marlords were still muttering into their wine. All I can think is that he doesn’t really believe the transfer of ownership will occur. Otherwise, why would he be so tame? My father would fight to the death to protect Danalustrous.”
 
 
“What about your sister? Was she there?”
 
 
“Casserah to cross the border and leave Danalustrous? Are you mad?” Kirra exclaimed. “Of course she wasn’t there. I assume she and my father discussed matters before he left. Or not. They think alike in the strangest ways. Sometimes I don’t understand either of them.”
 
 
Donnal shrugged. “They think a strong Thirteenth House makes the realm content, and a content realm keeps Danalustrous undisturbed,” he said. “Not so hard to understand.”
 
 
“And that actually is the only thing that makes sense,” Kirra said with a sigh.
 
 
Justin sipped his beer. “So you went to this conference with your father?” he said. “I thought you were off someplace doing miraculous healing.”
 
 
She smiled at that. “Dorrin Isle. We were there almost three weeks before I met my father in Ghosenhall.”
 
 
“So? All those people who were sick? Could you cure them?”
 
 
“All except the stupid ones,” Donnal said.
 
 
Justin glanced between them. “What’s that mean?”
 
 
Kirra made a motion with her hands. “There were a few who were afraid to undergo my form of treatment. Which, I admit, was rather extreme. They were afraid to be turned into dogs and horses so the other healers could administer drugs that worked.”
 
 
“Afraid of mystics.” Donnal growled. “Or despising them.”
 
 
Kirra nodded. “Those who agreed all recovered.”
 
 
“That’s wonderful!” Justin exclaimed. “You must have felt pretty pleased with yourself by the time you left.”
 
 
She laughed. “You know, I did. I felt like I had done something worthwhile and important and
good
. Not all my days hold such unselfish rewards.”
 
 
“There’s a price though,” Donnal said. “People left the island carrying the tale. Who knows, maybe even the Lestra has heard it by now. One more reason for people to fear us.”

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