Dave Gross - Mistress of the Night

Feena grimaced and slid Mifano into her arms, then rose and charged after Velsinore. Clergy dodged out of her way almost as quickly as they had dodged out of Velsinore's. Feena opened the door through which the traitorous priestess had vanished and plunged inside.

There was no sign of Velsinore, but even in scant moments she could have easily gotten out of sight. With the milling priestesses and priests out in the cloisters still screaming, the echo of running footsteps would be drowned out as well. Sound and sight weren't the only means of tracking at Feena's disposal, however. She concentrated, seeking the balance between woman and wolf that was her hybrid form. It wasn't easyboth woman and wolf were furious and it was tempting simply to let the beast take over. Feena strained and resisted the impulse. She wanted answers and she wasn't going to get them if she tore Velsinore apart.

"Selune, help me," she murmured and took a deep breath as fur rippled over her skin and her joints shifted within the folds of the robe.

Her next breath brought a flood of scents to a wolfs nose: The odor of human fear, thick and overwhelming as panic swirled in Moonshadow Hall; the musty scent of funeral drapes and candles; the rich smells of Idruth's kitchen. She picked Velsinore's scent out of the flood easily, thoughmusty like the drapes, but with a hint of something dark and metallic: the odor of the medicines in the infirmary. With a start, Feena realized she recognized that smell from somewhere else. It was remarkably similar to the Sharran poison. Not the same, but close, as if the medicines and the poison originated in the same place.

What had Velsinore been doing?

Feena loped after the priestess. Velsinore's scent led down toward the kitchen. Feena growled. The kitchen garden… she couldn't be the only person who knew the trick of getting out over the garden wall. With Moonshadow Hall on alert against the possibility of a Sharran attack, the door from the kitchen to the garden would certainly be sealed, but it wouldn't be nearly as heavily guarded as the temple's main gates.

If it was sealed at all, she realized. The main gates were Mifano's responsibility as the bearer of the Waxing Crescent, but the kitchen, like the infirmary, was Velsinore's.

She paused outside the kitchen and shifted back into her human shape, then opened the door carefully and peered inside. Everything seemed still and quiet. Across the cavernous room, she could see that the door to the garden had indeed been sealed. A huge plate of solid steel had been fastened into place over it. No one was getting into or out of Moonshadow Hall that way without considerable effort.

Which meant that Velsinore was trapped inside the kitchen. Feena stepped through the door and put her back against a wall. There was still no movement.

"Velsinore?" called Feena. "Velsinore, why did you do it? Why did you turn your back on Selune?"

"Turn my back on Selune?" Velsinore's voice came from somewhere to the right. Feena began to creep that way as the tall priestess spoke. "I'm no traitor, Feena."

"How can you say that?" Feena asked. She kept moving. A rack of pots drew her attention. Was that a shape crouched behind it?

"Because it's the truth. Don't you remember the evidence of your own prayer?"

Feena clenched her jaw and said, "When I came back to Moonshadow Hall with the poison from the Stiltways, you couldn't deny the presence of Sharrans in Yhaunn quickly enough."

"The Sharrans were as surprised as you to learn that I knew about them," said Velsinore. Her voice was quiet and Feena heard her shift slightly. The shape behind the rack of pots didn't moveit was just a big cauldron. Feena froze and looked around as Velsinore continued, "You were rightwhoever Variance is, I didn't speak to her. The Sharrans in Yhaunn are led by"

"Bolan," Feena supplied. "You told Bolan and Bolan told Variance."

A tall cupboard stood strangely ajar. She slid toward it.

Velsinore was silent for a moment, then hissed, "You know more than it seems."

"Keph told me. Bolan's an alchemist as well as a Sharran priest." Her eyes narrowed as she closed on the cupboard. "The medicines in the infirmary…"

"Purchased from Bolan," confirmed Velsinore. "Until I contacted him with news of Keph's capture, he thought I was nothing more than a simple devotee who liked to gossip." Her voice turned scornful. "It sounds like I played him just as Variance played Mifano. I've been drawing information about Sharran beliefs out of him ever since I stumbled across him a year ago."

Velsinore's voice was close. Definitely close. Feena moved up to the cupboard from the side.

"Why reveal yourself now, then?" asked Feena. "And why keep what you learned about the Sharrans a secret from Dhauna and Mifano?"

"Turning over Keph seemed like an advantageous way to introduce myself. And why keep what I learned a secret?" She paused for a moment. "Let's say I was biding my time. If Dhauna hadn't lost her mind and brought you to Moonshadow Hall, I would have become the Moonmistress-Designate."

"What about Mifano?" Feena asked.

Velsinore laughed and said, "He was never really a contender. I had Mother Dhauna's ear."

"And when you were finally High Moonmistress, what then? What would you have done with all the information you had collected on the Sharrans? Wiped them out in one big raid and taken all the glory?"

"Not exactly." Velsinore's voice dropped. "I would have invited them into Moonshadow Hall."

Feena froze, and Velsinore laughed again.

"Let me put it in terms you'll understand," the traitor priestess said. "When you fight the servants of Malarevil lycanthropeswhat is it that sets you apart from them? You all become animals, don't you? What is it that sets Sharrans apart from Selunites? Their darkness to our light? Do you know that we share many of the same legends?" Velsinore drew a slow breath and said, "I'm no traitor to Selune, Feena. I've just realized that there's more to the relationship between the Moonmaiden and the Mistress of the Night than our faith wants to admit."

It felt then as if Feena was back in her dream, with an ancient, whispering darkness pursuing her. Her stomach lurched in horror. Selune had been trying to warn them of heresy within Moonshadow Hallthe very heresy Dhauna had dismissed as nothing more than lies. The New Moon Pact might have been framed for the heresy that had brought them low, but Velsinore had fallen straight into that twisted belief.

Feena had rediscovered the New Moon Pact. Velsinore had rediscovered the New Moon Heresy.

"Stop it!" Feena snarled.

She lunged for the open door of the cupboard and ripped it wide. It was empty.

Gray robes flashed in the corner of her eye. Feena spun around as Velsinore rose from behind the cauldron she had dismissed earlier. She took a step toward the tall priestess.

"You're wrong," Feena spat. "Selune and Shar are enemies!"

"Maybe we only think they are."

Feena's breath hissed between her teeth. "Our Silver Lady have mercy upon you, Velsinore. You're wrong. You may not think you're a traitor to Selune, but you are!"

"Then why does she still answer my prayers?" Velsinore thrust out her hand, Selune's medallion in her grasp. "Moonmaiden, scour my enemies!"

A scream wrenched itself out of Feena as silver-white fire burst all around her, burning her flesh and searing her very soul.

The Sharrans poured out of a cramped tunnel and through a splintered wall into a dusty cellar beneath a broom-maker's shop. Had the shopkeeper known what the broken wall had hidden? Keph didn't think sothere was blood on the shop floor and the smell of death in the air. Someone had been murdered to keep the newly opened passage a secret.

Outside the shop, the night was sweltering hot and still. Clouds veiled the stars. Far off in the distance over the Sea of Fallen Stars, heat lightning lit the sky in silent display. Yhaunn seemed to hold its breath. The chants and clashing that had accompanied the cult through the tunnels beneath the city fell silent. Most of the cultists slipped into the shadows, and all Keph could think of was a swarm of rats darting through the streets.