Starcrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce Read Free Book Online Page A

That
is
entertaining. Quite a few rats in the Celystra, then, Celyn Contrare?”
    “My lord, you have no idea.”
    Decath gave a loud, choking laugh. “I did ask her to be entertaining,” he said. “I suppose I can’t fault her for obliging me. Celyn, be you welcome to Favom Keep. Now, it’s obvious the poor girl’s dead on her feet. Cossum! Find someone to show her and Lady Phandre to their rooms. Lady Merista, you’ll remain here for a moment; I have news you’ll be interested in. Good night.”
    And like that, we were dismissed. Phandre grabbed me by the arm and practically dragged me out of there, though flight seemed the sensible next move to me as well. I couldn’t help one last look at poor Merista, standing before that panel like the condemned.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    We left her there, following on the heels of an efficient manservant. I should have been paying attention, looking for exits or valuables, but I was too busy going over that scene in my mind. I still didn’t know whether Taradyce had recognized me. Tiboran watch me, I was racking up too many near escapes for one day.
    Phandre dragged me upstairs, to a small firelit bedroom where I was unceremoniously stripped naked by two lady’s maids and plunged into a steaming vat of soapy water. Though my bruised knee and filleted arm sang with protest, for a few scalding minutes I felt the day’s concerns melt away as I was dunked and lathered and scrubbed like a saucepan. The maids whisked away my bloody clothes, but not before I managed to rescue my corset, with its lock picks hidden in the lining, and the packet of letters I’d stashed in the sleeve.
    “Love letters?” Phandre said from the tub. Marau’s balls, but those kestrel’s eyes were
sharp.
Thankfully she was too wet — and too far away — to lunge for them, though I could see her longing to.
    “I wish I knew,” I murmured, turning them over in my hands.
    So clean I shone, redressed in a hideous gold robe, a soothing salve and neat dressing applied to the cut on my arm, I reflected that I’d managed to get nearly every thing I’d wanted that morning. I should count my blessings; how often does
that
happen?
    I didn’t have a plan, but I knew it wouldn’t involve a long-term stay at Favom Court. I needed clothes and money and transportation to a port city like Yeris Volbann or Tratua, where I could hop a ship to Talanca or Brionry. Either city might even be far enough away, if I could snake my way in among the locals. I’d have to prove I was trustworthy, win a couple of fights, and probably perform some outrageous initiation. Pretty much like I’d done in the boat, really.
    The bath had made me sleepy, but I had work to do, and Raffin’s purse wouldn’t get me to Talanca. As soon as Phandre and the maids disappeared, I went to the windows and looked out. We were on the third or fourth floor of the court’s central tower, and outside, the moons shone on a series of tidy gardens and beehive-shaped outbuildings.
    Naming the seven moons was one of the earliest lessons any Llyvrin child, nob or common, ever learned. Bountiful Celys and black Marau, who held the constant perfect balance of life and death: one bright, the other in shadow, all through the long year. Small, smoky, mysterious Sar, spinning the wrong way in the night. The twins, Mend-kaal and Tiboran, as different as work and play. Bright, fiery Zet, who lit the way for hunters and kings. The Nameless One, a tiny, white hot dot of light coursing at Marau’s heels like a relentless hound, dealing out her horrible justice to sinners.
    High above a thatched outbuilding, I could just make out a narrow slip of Tiboran’s moon. The only reliable thing about Tiboran was his moon’s fixed place in the sky, by which you could chart a course or read the hour as easily as by the sun.
    Taking the chance that everyone was still roving about on nob or servant-of-nob business, I hiked up the long skirts of the robe and let myself out