Dave Gross - Mistress of the Night

Feena bit her tongue and hurried on, the book of the

New Moon Pact wrapped in a sleeve of her robe and clutched tight. At least chaos set tongues wagging. If nothing else, it had been easy enough to find out where Julith was being held: the winter chapel, a great round chamber that had been built onto the north side of Moonshadow Hall in the distant past as a place for the clergy to worship when bitter weather made the open courtyard unbearable. Julith had been shut inside to await her judgment.

At an intersection of corridors, Feena peered around a corneronly to duck back as a pair of armed priestesses marched past. She caught her breath and willed herself to total silence until they were gone. They wore crested steel caps. The situation seemed to be escalating and to reach the winter chapel, she would need to pass through the temple's busiest areas. She wasn't going to be able to hide much longer.

A heap of abandoned drapes gave her an idea. Drawing the cowl of her robe over her hair, Feena snatched up the drapes and hefted them up in front of her face, then hunched down like an old woman bent under a burden. It was a pitifully crude disguise, but it would have to do. She picked her way carefully along the corridor, peering out past a fold of white fabric.

"When she first encountered another priestess, she tensed. The other woman just rushed past, however, intent on her own tasks. Feena sighed and started to relax a bit.

"Elder sister!" Idruth called. Feena's heart jumped. The cook called her again. "Elder sister! Do you have far to go?"

Feena picked a destination at random and said, "The northwest hall."

She half-turned and peeked at the cook from behind the wrappings. Idruth was lugging a great pot; the savory smell of stew drifted out of it.

"Come to the kitchen when you're done," Idruth ordered. "We have baskets of bread that need to get to the gate. The mob is turning uglythey want their feast!"

She jogged past toward the temple gates. Feena turned to stare after her before darting away. Preparations for a funeral, fear of an attackand the poor of Yhaunn had still come expecting the New Moon Beneficence. Another mad bend in the path of chaos!

The hallways grew quiet again as she moved farther back into the temple. Outside the doors of the winter chapel, she dumped her load of drapes. The tall doors had, over time, been covered with beaten silver and exquisitely decorated, but a simple wooden plank had been thrust between the handles to bar them. She lifted it free and swung one door open just wide enough to slip through.

Julith knelt in prayer before a broad silver font as large as a tub. At the sound of the opening door, she looked up in fright then gasped with relief.

"Feena!"

Her eyes were red from weeping. Feena rushed across the chapel and swept her up, setting the book of the New Moon Pact aside to more fully embrace the younger priestess. Julith trembled in her arms.

"Oh, Feena! It was terrible. What Keph saiddid you know he was a Sharran? And to return and find Mother Dhauna…"

"Be strong, Julith," Feena urged, rocking her gently. "What happened to you? What's going on?"

Words poured out of Julith like wine from a pitcher. Her flight with Keph at her side. The unrelenting pursuit by Velsinore, Mifano, and the clergy of Moonshadow Hall. Keph's fall, their capture, the discovery of Shar's disk. Their imprisonmentand Keph's sudden change. His taunts, his rage, and his threats against Moonshadow Hall. His escape into Shar's own darkness.

"I was so afraid, Feena," Julith moaned. "For the longest time, it seemed like there was nothing I could dothen I just screamed and screamed until Mifano and Velsinore came." She slid out of Feena's arms to crouch back down at the base of the font. "They questioned me. Mifano worked out the riddle of Keph's threat: the moment of Selune's weakness is the new moon. Tonight.

Velsinore didn'tdoesn'tbelieve him, but he forced us all back to Yhaunn anyway. And when we got here, Mother Dhauna…"

She covered her face with her hands, and Feena brushed her dark hair gently.

"I know," Feena said. "I was the one who gave her into Selune's arms."

Julith choked and stiffened, looking up with wide, terrified eyes. Feena forced back tears, or at least tried to. She felt wet warmth on her cheeks.

"The madness had taken her, Julith. She'd given herself over to the wolf. If there had been something else, if there had been some way to redeem her…" She reached out to squeeze Julith's hand. "Selune holds her. Remember her as she was, and mourn her later." There was a hollow in Feena's stomach, a dark misgiving. She clenched her jaw and continued, "Something is very wrong here. Keph and I talked. I knew he was a Sharran" Julith gasped, but Feena shook her head" He said he was trying to escape from Shar's cult. I know he was telling the truth. I can't believe he'd have such a change of heart or that he was even capable of escaping the way you say he did."

"But I saw him vanish," protested Julith. "And if you'd heard what he said to me… He was vile. He mocked us all for thinking we'd kept Shar's cult out of Yhaunn and he called me a fool for trusting him."

"He called you a fool," said Feena, "but he didn't mention me?" Her eyes narrowed. She stepped back from the other priestess and touched her medallion. "Bright Lady of the Night, reveal the secrets that darkness hides!"

Selune's soft power surged within her, then reached out toward Julith. Feena's eyes widened. All around the younger woman, the tattered remnants of magic flickered like shadows.

"What?" asked Julith. "What is it?"

"You're under a spell or something a lot like one."

Feena stepped forward again and put her hands on Julith's head. Taking a deep breath, she reached out with her faith. For a moment, it seemed as if she could feel the chapel around her, its ancient sanctity a warm and comforting strength. She drew on that strength, weaving it together with her own.

"In Selune's name," she prayed, "let this magic be ended!"

Dismissing the spell of moonlight that Dhauna had conjured in the infirmary had been nothing, just Selune's power turned against itself. The magic that swirled around Julith was darker, more alien. Feena gasped as the shadows gave way before the bright lance of her prayeronly to seize it, holding tight and leaping back toward her. Her breath hissed between her teeth and her gut twisted, but she bore down with the whole force of her spirit.

"Be gone!"

Moonlight shattered darkness. Julith blinked and gasped. Feena's chest heaved as she lifted her hands away.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Moonmaiden's grace " The fear that had clouded

Julith's eyes was gone and they shone in the light of the chapel. "There was a womana Calishitea Sharran priestess. She stepped out of shadows and cast spells on me, then disappeared with Keph. She changed my memories!"

The hollow that had been in Feena's belly filled with ice as she remembered Keph's tales of the Sharran cult.

"Variance," she said. "Her name is Variance."

"There's something else," said Julith. "Keph asked her how she found him. She told him that Selune's clergy aren't all so faithful as the moon goddess might think. If she was telling the truth…"

Someone had told the Sharrans that Keph had been captured, and Variance had taken the young man back. Feena blew out her breath and prayed that Selune would guard him from the danger he'd been plunged into. But they had their own danger, didn't they?

"By Our Silver Lady," Feena whispered, "there's a traitor in Moonshadow Hall."

She pressed her fingertips to her forehead. The traitor had to have been among the party that had set out in pursuit of her. Unfortunately, that was almost all of the priests and priestesses of Moonshadow Hall. All of the chaos going on in the temple and a traitor, too, she groaned silently. The threat of a Sharran attack, a traitor to the faith