Dave Gross - Mistress of the Night

"Is this what you were trying to warn us about, Selune?" she murmured under her breath. "Is this the darkness in the dreams?"

"Feena," Julith asked, "if my memory of Keph's escape was false, what about the threat of an attack?"

Feena narrowed her eyes behind her fingers. "I think we still need to take it seriously," she said. "From what Keph told me about Variance, it doesn't sound like she does anything by accident. Even if she's only trying to panic us"

Panic. The hair on the back of Feena's neck rose. If her discovery of the Sharran in the Stiltways hadn't been so thoroughly crushedor if she had never found him at all and the well had been poisonedMoonshadow Hall would have been on alert against the Sharran cult much earlier. There would be no racing around, bracing the temple against an unsuspected attack. They would have been on alert for days. Variance, she realized, had tried to panic them before.

But the attempt had failed because Feena's discovery had been kept secret from Selune's clergy. Or at least most of them.

She lowered her hands and looked at Julith.

"In the false memory Variance created for you," she said, "Keph mocked our confidence that there were no Sharrans in Yhaunn. How did Variance know that? I only ever told four people that I suspected there were Sharrans at all. You…" Julith's eyes went wide and she shook her head. Feena sighed in relief. "Thank Our Silver Lady, I didn't think so."

"But you told Dhauna." Julith swallowed. "And she…"

"Even if she had somehow betrayed Selune in her madness, she was dead before you and Keph were even captured. It couldn't have. been her." Feena drew a tight breath and said, "But I also told Mifano and Velsinore."

Color burned in Julith's cheeks. "The two people in charge of Moonshadow Halland one of them is a traitor."

"Exactly. But they're not in charge of Moonshadow Hall." Feena lifted her chin and said, "I am." She picked up the book of the New Moon Pact and handed it to Julith. "Keep that safe. Whatever happens, it needs to be protected."

She rose to her feet, and Julith rose as well.

"Feena, whatever you're planning, I want to be with you."

Feena gave her a fast hug and said, "Thank you, Julith. Selune bless you." She turned to the great silver-bound doors of the chapel. "Selune bless us both."

Drawing a deep breath, she strode forward and flung the doors wide.

The corridor outside the winter chapel was wide and straight, and lit by old magic, crystals that burned silver with Selune's light. As she marched down the corridorrobe billowing around her, Julith at her sideFeena could imagine what a member of the New Moon Pact must have felt like: An avenger of Selune's faith, a defender racing to shield the innocent and unsuspecting…

Then a pair of acolytes stepped out from a side corridor, took one look at her, and fled in terror.

Julith shouted and started to leap after them, but Feena caught her arm and said, "Let them go."

"They'll go straight to a senior priestess. Everyone will know you've returned."

"They'll know soon enough anyway." She released the dark-haired priestess and kept going. That was the other side of the New Moon

Pact, she thought. Avengers and defendersbut feared by their own sisters.

She could understand that all too well.

Sounds of fresh confusion were starting to echo through Moonshadow Hall as they reached the end of the broad corridor. Feena wrenched open another pair of broad doors. Hot, muggy night air flooded into the corridor. The doors opened onto the cloisters. Directly in front of them, the full moon gate was a tall round arch, the central courtyard dark and empty beyond it. Feena stepped forward.

Julith gasped and said, "Feena, the gateswe can't enter the courtyard during a new moon!"

Feena paused on the threshold of the full moon gate-then stepped through. Nothing happened.

"Breaking a few traditions is the least of our worries, Julith."

She held out her hand. Julith swallowed, stepped through the gate, and took it. Hand in hand they walked to the center of the courtyard. When they stopped, Feena spoke a prayer. Moonlight rippled across the grass, pushing back the shadows.

Around the cloisters, Feena could see the pale faces and robes of Selune's clergy as they gathered to stare in awe and shock. They whispered between themselves, some still clutching funeral drapings and candles, others carrying feast platters and baskets of bread. Those few who were armed hovered around the gates, hands on maces, trying to decide whether they should enter the courtyard after the offending priestesses or not. Feena let go of Julith's hand and raised her arms.

"Mifano!" she shouted. "Velsinore! Your High Moonmistress summons you!"

New gasps burst out of the watching clergy. Feena repeated her call.

A door slammed open. Priestesses leaped aside as Velsinore appeared at the waning half moon gate. Her face was white with rage.

"Feena!" she spat almost incoherently. "Julith! The traitors stand together. How dare you? You have no"

"no right?" Feena asked, lowering her arms. "I have every right. Fm one of Selune's priestesses. I'm the High Moonmistress of Moonshadow Hall. Who has a better right?"

"You're not the High Moonmistress!"

"With the High Moonmistress's passing, the Moonmistress-Designate takes her place."

"I think you gave up that title when you turned on Mother Dhauna," called Mifano. The silver-haired priest stood in another gate. The Waxing Crescent sword was in his hand, delicate blade burning with silver fire. His eyes were narrow. "You shouldn't have come back, Feena. Mother Dhauna is dead because of you."

More than you know, Feena thought. She forced sorrow away, stood tall, and said, "I had to come back."

"To rescue Julith?" asked Mifano. "To stand with her while her Sharran friends attack us?"

Armed priests and priestesses stood at all of the moon gates. Their eyes darted to Mifano, but the priest shook his head. He stepped out into the courtyard and approached slowly, sword extended. After a moment, Velsinore murmured a prayer and moved forward as well. She drew the Waning Crescent sword awkwardly, but the weapon was steady in her hand as she crossed the courtyard to stand with Mifano. Feena glared at them.

"Put down your swords," she growled. "Julith is no traitor. Neither am I." She raised her voice so that all of the gathered clergy would be able to hear her. "Keph Thingoleir was trying to flee from Shar's cult. He didn't escape. Julith's memories were altered by a Sharran priestess who came to drag Keph back to Shar's embrace. Someone told that priestess that Keph had been captured. There is a traitor in Moonshadow Hall, but it's not one of us." She raised her hand and pointed at Velsinore and Mifano. "It's one of you!"

Velsinore's breath hissed through her teeth. "Ridiculous! You lie!"

"Do I?" Feena touched her medallion. "Moonmaiden hear me," she prayed. "Sanctify my words. Let no falsehood be uttered here!"

A shimmer passed over the courtyard. Feena drew a breath and lowered her hand. When she spoke, her words rang in pure, bright tones off the encircling walls of Moonshadow Hall.

"By Selune's grace, I say that one of you, Mifano and Velsinore, betrayed a penitent soul to the darkness of Shar!"

"And by the Bright Lady of the Night," snarled Mifano, "I tell you that I am no traitor to Selune!" "Nor," spat Velsinore, "am I!" Their words rang just as brightly as Feena's.

– ‹§› "… but so great was Selune's weakness to the pleas of the world that she reached out and opened a passage to a distant place of flame. And Shar's peace was shattered." His voice trembling, Bolan lowered his raised arms and crossed them over his chest. "Thus was division made between the two sisters and so has Shar ever sought to heal the rift that Selune caused." The priest raised his smooth, white face to the darkness of the temple's rocky ceiling and called, "Lady of Loss, may we do your work in fighting Selune's followers wherever we find them! Mistress of the Night, we honor you!"