(“I’m learning.”)
— the people who had tried to help her; the price they had paid for it. “And then on the man in black, who was killing the mers, I saw the medal, his medal… It was Sparks, I f-finally found him.” She looked down, pressing a hand against her purple cheek; remembering only his caress.
“You mean… he’s Starbuck?” Blodwed whispered, awed. “Holy shit. Your own True Lover killed the mers… And — and you still love him?”
Moon ‘nodded silently; her mouth trembled. Damn everything, I do! She held a long breath, fighting for control; struggling back into the present to measure Blodwed’s reaction. Blodwed wiped her eyes surreptitiously, scratched her head, her cropped-ofF hair standing out like straw. “Oh… it’s not fair. Now he’s going to die, and he’ll never even know.”
“What?” Moon stiffened.
“The Change,” Gundhalinu said. “The last Festival, the end of Winter. The end of the Snow Queen — and Starbuck. They drown together.” He looked back at her with unspoken understanding. “It’s the end of everything.”
Moon rose up on her knees, pushed the starls away, breaking the spell that had held her holding Blodwed. “Mother of Us All-there’s hardly any time left! Blodwed, you have to let us go! I have to find him, I have to get to Carbuncle before the Change.”
Blodwed stood up, her face turning hard. “I don’t have to do anything! You just made all that up, so I’d let you go. Well, I won’t!”
“It’s not a lie! Starbuck is Sparks, and he’ll die… I can’t have come all this way just for that!” She struggled to keep panic from taking the rest of her voice. “If I can get to Carbuncle, BZ can help me find Sparks in time. And if he doesn’t get back there in time, his own people will go off world and leave him behind. There’s not even a fortnight left—”
“Then in a fortnight it’ll all be over, and you won’t even care about it any more, either of you. So you can stay here with me, forever.” Blodwed folded her arms, her eyes fierce with betrayal.
“In a fortnight my life will be meaningless…” Moon got up, feeling the walls of stone close in on her. “Please, please, Blodwed! Help us!”
“I don’t care if it’s all true! You don’t care about me; why should I care about you?” Blodwed caught the sleeve of Moon’s tunic and jerked at it, ripping the fragile cloth halfway up her arm. She went out, slamming the gate behind her.
“I don’t understand it,” BZ murmured, between irony and despair. “The stories I read always have happy endings.”
Lying sleepless far into the night, she felt the starls wake suddenly beside her, listening. Listening with them she heard the covert sound of footsteps coming back from the silent camp beyond. She sat up, blinking in the heater’s glow. BZ sat up on his cot; she realized that he must have lain awake with her in silent misery half the night. Oh, Lady, she’s changed her mind…
But the gate swung open, and the figure that took form in the light was not Blodwed. Moon heard Gundhalinu’s indrawn breath. She sat as still as death, paralyzed.
“Wake up, little sibyl. I’ve come for a few of your tricks… and to teach you a few of mine.” Taryd Roh came on across the chamber, shrugging off his parka.
Moon struggled to her feet, moving in slow motion. He doesn’t believe… Mother, please Mother, let me wake up! She stumbled back as the dream did not dissolve and her prayers flew up unheeded. She felt Gundhalinu’s hands grip her shoulders and pull her to him.
“Leave her alone, you son of a bitch, unless you want to lose what mind you have.”
Taryd Roh laughed. “You don’t believe that, any more than I do! Keep out of it, Blue, or this time I’ll show you what real pain is.”
BZ’s grip lost all strength on her shoulders. His arms dropped, he backed away. Moon clenched her teeth on a cry. But as Taryd Roh lunged across the gap between them, Gundhalinu moved forward, struck at Taryd Roh’s throat with a well-trained blow.
But there was no strength behind it, and Taryd Roh blocked his arm, twisted it, threw him aside into the cages. Gundhalinu pushed away from the wall, but before he could recover his balance Taryd Roh’s heavy fist clubbed him to his knees, and a boot knocked him sprawling. And then Taryd Roh had reached her again, his arms were around her. His mouth covered hers; Moon twisted her face frantically until she found his lip. She sank her teeth into it, tasted his blood mingling with her saliva.
He knocked her away with a shout of pain. She half fell, staggering up again as she tried to keep beyond Ms reach. “You’re cursed, Taryd Roh! You have the sibyl-madness now, Motherless, and there’s no hope for you!” Her voice shrilled like the screech of the white birds beating above her head. But he still came after her, blood shining on his face and another kind of madness in his eyes. Moon clung to the wire of the locked gate, screaming, “Blodwed! Blodwed!” His hand closed on her neck, she gasped and lost her voice as pain leaped out along her arms, paralyzing her. He jerked her away.
A starl attacked his leg, sinking its thick claws into the cloth of his legging, and on into his flesh. Tusks locked in his calf; he dragged her around, kicking viciously until he threw it off into its circling mate. But as his hands closed around her throat again he suddenly staggered back, losing all his strength. “You bitch!” thick with fear. He put his hands to his head, swaying; toppled and fell, sprawled motionless on the floor.
Moon stood over him, her voice raw. “I’ll teach you some tricks, unbeliever.” She stepped across his unconscious body, ran back to where Gundhalinu was getting to his feet uncertainly. She tried to steady him with tingling, heavy hands, saw the livid bruise swelling on his forehead. “BZ, are you all right?”
He looked at her incredulously. “Am I all right?” He cupped her face in his hands for a long moment, before his arms went around her, holding her close to his heart; she pressed her face against his neck. “Thank the gods… thank the gods, we both are.”
“All right, what do you think you’re — doing?” Blodwed burst in through the gate, stopped short at the sight of Taryd Roh’s body on the floor. The starls circled it like hunters over prey, growling threats. She looked up at Moon and Gundhalinu together across the room; Moon saw the question that came into her eyes, and the answer she got without asking. “Did — you do that to him?” Half-afraid.
“I did.” Moon nodded, surprised at the calmness of the words. “I infected him.”
Blodwed’s mouth fell open. “Is he dead?”
“No. But when he wakes up tomorrow he’ll — he’ll start to go mad. Madder.” Moon swallowed suddenly.
Blodwed looked down into Taryd Roh’s slack face. She glanced up again, her own face filling with a strange mixture of emotions, anger slowly separating and rising. She reached inside her parka, took out her stunner and adjusted the dial. She leaned down and put the muzzle close to his temple. “No he won’t.” She pressed the stud; his body jerked.
Moon flinched, felt Gundhalinu stiffen beside her. But she felt no pity, or remorse.
“Good riddance.” Blodwed stuck the gun away. “I told him he’d be sorry if he tried to hurt you.” She lifted her head, looked back at them with something deeper than possessiveness, and stronger than frustration. “Damn you, now you really did it! When Ma finds out what happened she’ll want you skinned alive; and she gets what she wants around here, I can’t stop it. Everybody thinks she’s holy, but really she’s just crazy.” She wiped her nose. “All right! All right, don’t look at me like that! I’m going to let you go.”