HM02 House of Moons Read Online Free Page A

render what aid you can. Send for more help, if you find it’s needed, and bring us your report at the earliest possible moment. We must keep the closest of watches on this situation.”
    Monmart stood in the doorway like a pillar, his tan face distressed. It was almost too delightful, Diren thought. Here the man was actually losing the High Mastership of Shael’donn and the Tal woman in the same day, and it all fit so beautifully with Diren’s own need to get her alone at some point. When that moment finally came, it would be safer if Monmart was far away in the Lowlands, too distant to be of any help.
    “As you wish, my Lords,” Monmart managed finally, then turned on his heel and left the room, taking Haemas Tal’s pale-gold gaze with him.
    * * *
    The warm, lazy air currents above the edge of the sea cradled Summerstone as she drifted, spread as thinly as an oil sheen on water, soaking up the wan energies of the cold-season sun. Most of her ilseri sisters had migrated into the southern regions, seeking the more concentrated life-giving rays of the sun while the great forest lay shrouded in the shadow of winter. She alone had lingered this far north, savoring the crash of waves on the air-pocked black rocks, the frothy greenness of salt water, and the streamlined jiri that dove into the icy sea to feed, then soared back into the sky to share the clouds with her.
    From far away, something teased at her consciousness, a dim sense of fear/anger/warning. Reluctantly she increased her density, gathering herself into solid form.
    Come! childish voices called in the most urgent of ilserin modes. Come now! Danger! Sorrow! Danger!
    She hesitated, her face turned up to the sun’s orange disk. Ilserin were silly and prone to panic. This was probably nothing important, but she would check on the excitable young males, then spend a few days soothing their fears, perhaps teach them a new game. Soon they would be scrambling through the trees again and leaping like jiri into the wild river below the falls, dreaming of their own days to come when they would ride the sky at her side.
    * * *
    Fastening her barret-down cloak at her neck, Haemas hurried up the narrow stone steps leading to Tal’ayn’s courtyard. It had been a disastrous meeting and the sooner she quit Tal’ayn, the better for everyone. She still found it difficult to be so close to her father’s long-smoldering anger, and harder yet to visit the scene of so many painful memories.
    Although twelve years had passed since her cousin Jarid’s death, his ghost seemed to linger here, permeating the ancient gray stone, haunting every niche and corner, whispering that he would never leave this House for which he’d fought so savagely, that he would never forgive Haemas for winning.
    She hurried to the upper door and burst outside into the frigid, snow-edged air. A short queue waited at the Tal’ayn portal up ahead as the visiting Kashi returned, mostly in ones and twos, to their own estates and lives. Joining the line, she heard the door squeak open again behind her.
    “Lady Haemas!” Diren Chee’s golden-haired head appeared beside her. “I would like a word with you.”
    She didn’t turn. “I’m sorry, Lord Chee. I have pressing duties back at the House of Moons.”
    “Please.”
    She felt the heat of his presence next to her, bright as an over-stoked fire. A man of average height with lean, sharply chiseled features, he had come into his inheritance after the disastrous Temporal Conclave where so many had died. He had always been courteous to her, which was more than she could say for the rest of the Council. And yet, behind his bland expression and tight shields, there was something dark and unsettling. His eyes were hungry, almost feral, and his ever-present polite smile made her uneasy.
    His voice followed her across the snow-dusted cobbles as she advanced with the line. “You could help the Council pinpoint those responsible for this chierra attack.”
    She