Page 74 of Keeper of the Word
“Goddesses of the moon, Joss!” Hux said, “If you two truly desire no rest, I am content to go gamble at cards or find some other sport.”
Joss fed Hux a few choice words before they finally left.
“Lord Wolf certainly knows how to find the most stubborn of knights,” Hux said. Then he chuckled. “You have given them a gift this evening, Lady. Do not let their disapproving countenance fool you. Those lovers will spend the night locked together.”
“What?”
“Elanna.” Hux tsked. “Come now, but surely you’ve noticed.”
“Nay, absolutely not. You are certain they are lovers?”
“Quite certain. And the most satisfying detail is I do not think Tolvar knows.” Hux laughed.
Elanna stared after the direction they’d gone. Toward the labyrinth that other pairs had sought. Joss and Barrett?
“You look positively confounded,” Hux said, sitting on a stone bench and patting it until she sat beside him. “We’ve already established your Lady Tara has a lover.”
Stars.
“Unsanctioned.”
“Do the stars forbid it?”
Elanna found she couldn’t answer. “I—know not. Mayhap ’tis more from tradition, but in my readings of the histories, ’twould seem that love can muddle things.”
Hux gave a deep-throated chuckle, scanning the garden. “Love does muddle things.”
Despiteknowingthat Dashiell would not appear, Elanna took another glance at the main entrance.
“Have you ever been in love?” Elanna asked. She bit her lip. What a foolish question and certainly none of her affair. But she never had been, and contemplating Joss and Barrett embracing somewhere in the shadows made her curiosity arise.
“On many occasions.” He winked. “But I assume you mean more of an all-consuming love, Lady. I think not. Lord Tolvar would be a better person to converse with on that topic. I’ve known very few others who’ve loved deeply. My brother, I suppose, when he was younger.”
“I did not know you had a brother.”
Hux’s smile was subdued. “I did. He died during the Unsung’s quest.”
Elanna sensed he did not want to speak more on that subject. “’twas brave of you to join the Unsung on her quest. Were you one of the recruits into the Deogolian Order of Siria? I know they played a role.”
Hux paused before answering. “What else have you heard, Lady? Any other tales of anyone else there?”
“An odd reply. Citizens from a nearby town, I believe. The army of the sovereign. Who am I missing?”
“No one of consequence. I was not a recruit in the Order of Siria, but I was recruited, you might say. Sloane was a wonderfully stubborn person. Small wonder the Wolf loved her so. They were evenly matched.”
The chirping of crickets began, and a comfortable silence swelled between them.
The night sky whispered to Elanna.
Hux gazed at the Half-Moon. “I find it odd that two lands, once so connected, forsake each other’s beauty.”
“What do you mean?”
“The moon and stars belong together. The sun’s light blocks out all others, but there is a sense of harmony in the delicate shine balanced between them. I find it difficult to observe them separately. I suppose I could be hanged in either realm for such a suggestion.”
“They are connected.” Elanna smiled, glancing at Hux’s hand on the bench. “And StarSeers may be beholden to the stars, but we know the goddesses of the moons. ’Tis been an age, but there was a time when they could speak to one another.”
It became quiet. Despite herself, the memory of Hux taking herin his arms came into focus instead of the matter at hand with Dashiell’s would-be confession.
