Crescent (Old Version)

+ Part 16 +

Gods?

"Pay her no mind," Ceth drank slowly, swallowing whatever nervousness Rhiannon left in her wake, and kissed my cheek only to find another couple to serenade for the evening. But, his dismissiveness told me everything I'd needed to know.

I needed to follow her.

She walked swiftly enough that I nearly lost her among a cluster of people who stopped to talk to me again. Her husband lingered with the crowd, awkwardly sipping a glass of brandy. But, I saw the flash of that bright blue skirt, disappearing down a corridor. I had walked that hall enough times to know it led to a study. The hallway was empty when I got to it, no sign of the high lady except for the slightest creak of the study door.

Two guards stood watch just outside, cold and stone-faced like twin gargoyles as I stepped inside the candle-lit room. There was enough light to see her standing just by the fire, glass in hand, eyes glazed and lost in the dying embers of the fire.

She said, as if she had known I'd been following her: "The food is always rather bland here, don't you think?"

I knew there was probably some proper greeting that was expected of me- something to acknowledge hello or note that I was indeed her lesser, but I couldn't stop myself.

"You mentioned gods, Lady Rhiannon... What- what gods?"

Rhiannon swirled the liquid in her glass, smiling but never looking up from whatever held her gaze in the fire. "Such dangerous lines we walk... Ladies of court."

I didn't know what to say to that.

Had I messed up? Did she know I wasn't who I said I was? I simply stared at her. She couldn't know.

"What gods?" I pressed.

Her brown eyes narrowed in on me finally and she pointed a lazy finger to the paint above the mantle. Painted there were six moons, each at the full phase of their cycle. Which moons, I had no idea. Something told me she knew that.

"Ganymede, Oberon, Triton, Titan, Europa... Callisto?" she continued. Above them, in gilded ink that flashed when embers popped in the fireplace, was the one true moon. The one that I'd seen in the sky every night since I was little. Ceth had told me what our kind called it. "The moon goddess, Selene?" she said, amusement clear in her voice.

I kept my mouth shut. I had no doubt I was meant to know these things. Any lady of a court should. Part of me worried that she might out me- that she might tell them I was an imposter in rich man's clothing. But, she emptied her glass into the fire and straightened her dress. "Watch your back here, girl. There are worse things to fear than this realm's keeper." I blinked at her.

Things worse than Ceth?

"I really must be going," she said.

A crash sounded from the hallway, the sound of metal grinding against stone. I turned toward the sound. Another boom came from just beyond the door. Rhiannon was gone when I turned back. Only mist was left where her body had been just moments before. But, when the sounds continued, I let the door creak open and found that the two guards still stood watch. Only they weren't standing watch at all anymore. Blood dribbled down each of their throats, and two silver knives pinned each of them to the wall.

Scream. My first instinct was to scream. Run.

Scream then run and get help.

But, I did neither of those things. The smell of blood overwhelmed me and I cursed. It was like the woods all over again.

I fell back against the wall opposite the two mutilated bodies and covered the sounds that threatened to leave my mouth. The hallway was otherwise empty, but the candles had gone out and only smoke from their wicks danced in the moonlight that shined from the windows at the end of the hall.

What if the guests smelled it? What if the person who'd done this was still HERE?

Footsteps echoed off the stone walls, and Ceth appeared a moment later. As if he'd sensed that something was wrong. His jaw hung open and he seemed torn between looking at the two dead soldiers and me. Darkness that swallowed us up now, but I could see that he looked the same way he had that day in the woods.

His voice was a growl. "What the hell happened?"

I shook my head.

The smell, the blood, it was all too much.

Two more soldiers in black appeared to yank me away from the scene where blood now pooled at the dead soldiers feet. From where blood now soaked the hem of my silver dress. "Take her. Don't let the other guests find out."

The smell of magic matched the twang of iron that filled the air when blood met oxygen. It made me sick. Sick enough that I didn't remember going upstairs. I didn't remember going to my room. I didn't remember anything but that smell. The smell of iron and rust. The smell of magic, the smell of death.