The Wyvern's Spur - Kate Novak [70]
"Blessings of the full moon," he responded. "I'm looking for Mother Lleddew."
"Are you sure you're not looking for your heart's desire?" the girl asked with a grin.
"What?" Giogi replied with confusion.
"You did just climb Selune's Stair by the full moon," the girl pointed out.
"Well, yes, I did," Giogi admitted. "All I really wanted, though, was to see Mother Lleddew."
"She's on a night-stalk," the girl said. "I'm here to watch over the temple until she returns."
Giogi sighed with frustration. A night-stalk was a sacred ritual practiced by devout worshipers of Selune. Lleddew would be walking in solitary communion with her goddess until the moon set. Suddenly Giogi remembered the lacedon attack. "Look, I don't mean to alarm you, but there were evil things out in the woods tonight. You shouldn't be alone here, and Mother Lleddew shouldn't be walking alone out there."
The girl smiled with amusement as she stood and drifted toward him. She shimmered like a moonbeam when she moved, and her hair glittered like a cascade of water. "You are the one in danger, Giogioni," she said earnestly. "You can speak with Mother Lleddew tomorrow, after noon. For now, though, I think I'd better send you home."
"I can't leave you alone here," the nobleman argued.
"Kneel," the girl directed him, "so I can have a look at that cut on your head."
Giogi obeyed, curious to see if so young an acolyte really had power to heal his wound.
The girl bent over Giogi and kissed his forehead.
The fire in his head flared momentarily, then subsided completely. Giogi swayed dizzily, then looked up, relieved of all discomfort. "That was wonder-" The noble halted in midsentence. His head spun around in confusion and dripped water all about the Calimshan carpeting.
He knelt in his own bedroom before a roaring fire.
"I must be dreaming," said Giogi, "or hallucinating because of my head wound."
The nobleman pinched and shook himself, but he didn't wake to find himself dying of exposure on the side of Spring Hill. He was still in his own bedroom. The bedclothes held the family coat of arms, a green wyvern on a yellow field. The portrait over the fireplace was of his mother and father. The indigo seashells he'd brought from Westgate lay strewn about the dresser. "It must be my room," he said.
Still confused, he muttered to himself as he stripped off his soaked clothing. "F'irst I was there, and now I'm here. She kissed me, and I appeared here. I didn't know acolytes could do that, but if she wasn't an acolyte, what was she doing in the temple in an acolyte's gown, telling me when I could see Mother Lleddew? And how did she know my name?"
Giogi slid into bed beneath the covers. He lay there wondering if he hadn't just dreamed all about Spring Hill, Selune's Stair, the lacedons, the crescent-marked bear, and the girl acolyte. When the chill had worn off his flesh, he slid out of bed again and padded over to the pile of wet clothing.
Giogi shook his head as he pulled a robe on. He slipped from his bedroom, tiptoed down the hall to the red room, and knocked softly on the door. He had to share his story with someone.
"Mistress Cat?" he whispered. When no one answered, he knocked again.
"Whuzzah? Come in," a sleepy voice called out.
Giogi opened the door.
The red room was well furnished, but Thomas kept it empty of personal items, like a room at an inn. The red velvet hangings and the oaken bed, dresser, chair, and chest were all new and sturdy-not an heirloom in the lot. The guest room belonged to no one, which is how it felt to those who stayed in it.
By the light from the lamp flickering on the dresser, Giogi could see Cat curled up in one corner of the bed, the blankets all wrapped tightly around her. Her coppery hair was strewn over the pillows. Her robes lay draped over the chair before the fireside.
Cat sat up in the bed, looking drowsy but lovely. "I