Dave Gross - Mistress of the Night

"Hurry!" he implored the stone animals. "Hurry!"

It took only a moment before the dogs relaxed. It seemed like forever. He pushed the door open. The entrance hall was empty, but Fourstaves House was alive with shouts and commotion. Up in the family wing and down along the warded corridor of workshops, doors were banging as the Thingoleir wizards prepared for battle. Keph darted across the hall and threw himself into the shadows of a parlor. Pressed up against a wall, he tried to stifle his panting gasps.

Scant thundering heartbeats later, he heard Strasus's voice call, "Are we ready?" A small chorus answered him in the affirmative. "Then may Mystra ride with us!"

Keph held his breath as footsteps raced down the grand staircase and across the entrance hall. The door openedoutside, the stone dogs whined in greeting at their masterand closed again. Keph released his breath, slid over to a window, and twitched aside a heavy curtain. Out in the courtyard, Strasus held out his hand and spoke a word of magic. Mist and faint glimmers of light swirled into the form of a silver-gray horse. Dagnalla cast the same spell and the two elder wizards mounted while their children and son-in-law worked magic of their own and rose up into the air.

Strasus urged his phantom horse around to face the mansion. In the window Keph froze, but his father just raised his staff and uttered another magical wordand a command: "Let none enter!"

For an instant, green light shone bright enough to illuminate the courtyard. Lines of magic laced across the window in front of Keph's face then fadeda new ward. He swallowed. Strasus touched heels to his mount's side and pulled on shadowy reins. The apparition reared silently and began to gallop up into the night as if climbing a hill. Dagnalla rode at his side, with Malia, Roderio, and Krin soaring around them both.

The five wizards of Fourstaves House raced off like heroes. Keph turned away from the window and slunk back out into the entrance hall.

Halfway across the hall, an underbutler stopped, startled. "Sir!" he said in surprise. "I didn't realize you were here."

The man's eyes were wide. Keph realized what he must look likebut then again, he'd come home more than once looking much worse. He forced back a grimace and feigned a lazy, drunken sneer.

"I was asleep in the parlor until all the racket happened." He strutted across the hall and turned up the staircase. "If anyone asks, do me a favor and tell them you haven't seen me."

The underbutler swallowed and said, "Sir, your father did leave instructions for all of usthe next time we saw you, we were to tell you that he would like to have a word with you at your convenience."

"Did he?" Keph turned to look back at the servant. An angry retort started to roll off his lips out of pure habit. "Well, you can tell the old man that" he caught himself and bit his tongue" you can tell him that I send him my respect."

"Sir?"

"You heard me," Keph growled. "Now don't you have something to do? Be about your duties!"

Keph leaped up the stairs two at a time without looking back. It would look strange if he were to turn down the north hall toward Strasus's study. At the top of the stairs, he turned south instead, toward the family quarters. As soon as he was out of sight of the stairs, however, he stopped and sagged against the wall. Too close, he thought. That was all too close. He closed his eyes for a moment. His limbs were shaking and weak after his run, but he couldn't stop yet.

Forcing his eyes open, he creeped back out to the end of the corridor and looked down over the entrance hall. The underbutler was gone. Keph darted across to the north corridor. Once again, wards brushed against him like spiderwebs as he passed under the archway. He shuddered at their touch.

The floor outside Roderio's laboratory was still stained. Keph looked away and hurried on down the corridor's length, passing other doors: Malia's laboratory, shared with Krin; Dagnalla's workroom; the arcane library shared by all of the wizards; and at the end of the hall, Strasus's study. Keph stopped in front of the study door. When was the last time he'd entered the study? Years ago. Had he ever tried to enter when Strasus wasn't there? He couldn't recall. He didn't think so. But Roderio and Malia did it all the time. Taking a deep breath, he reached down and squeezed the door's ornate latch.

It was locked by a plain mechanical lock. He could feel the metal bolt clicking and pulling with each squeeze of the latch. Keph's lips twitched. So much panic, only to be stopped by a humble lock? He groaned and slapped at the wood of the door in frustration.

Something seemed to crawl across his hand. The latch appeared to shift slightly.

Keph started, pulling his hand away. The crawling sensation vanished and the latch stiffened once more. He frowned at the wood, then slowly pressed his hand back against it. The strange sensation returned, playing over his hand like a dog snuffling at his scent. Keph's breath hissed. He kept his hand in place. Another ward? The answer came in a heartbeat as the latch gave way to his grasp. The crawling sensation disappeared.

It couldn't be that easy, could it? Cautious, Keph pushed open the door.

On a perch just inside the study, a strange bird croaked and stirred, turning its head to look at him.

He froze. It was no bird. Its feathers were burnished copper, its head and wings cast to resemble a stylized hawk. Its eyes were fashioned from chips of sapphire exactly the same glittering blue as the sapphire that decorated Quick's hilt.

The copper hawk had something else in common with Quick, too. Still staring at Keph, it rattled its wings. Sparks flashed between the thin metal plates of its feathers.

"Oh, Beshaba's ivory arms," Keph cursed.

The stone, mortar, and wood of Moonshadow Hall tickled at Feena as she rose slowly up through the temple's structure. For a long moment, it seemed as if she were everywhere within the old walls all at once. She stood among frightened novices as elderly priestesses tried to calm them in spite of being terrified themselves. She stood within the gates as younger priestesses and priests gripped maces in preparation for battle. She stood above the gates as acolytes rang alarm bells to alert the city guard to danger. She passed through the infirmary where Chandri spoke desperate prayers of healing over Mifano. She passed through the archives, through dusty storerooms, and through the cold vaults and crypts that lay beneath the temple.

And as soon as she wondered at the wash of impressions and the miraculous vision, she realized what was happening.

Moonmaiden's grace, she cursed, I'm dead!

"Feena! Feena!"

Julith's voice. Where was she? Feena tried to call out, to turn around and find the younger priestess. There wasn't time. Suddenly, irresistibly, she was outside of Moonshadow Hall and gazing down upon it.

Clergy crawled around the ring of the temple roof. Moonshadow Hall had known nothing but peace for generations, but abruptly Feena could see that it had once been intended as a solidly defensible building. The walkway that circled the roof was protected by parapets. Above the false, decorative gates that marked the outer walls, guardhouses stood out, additional protection for defenders. The temple's original windows faced only inwardattackers would have to storm the main gates or climb the high, smooth walls to gain entrance.

At least they would have centuries ago. Generations of alterations had weakened Selune's temple. The wall of the kitchen garden looped away from the temple like a bubble. The slope of the winter chapel's roof was a ramp reaching almost to the top of the walls. A bold attacker could cross the gap with a leap. Here and there, windows had been forced through the outer wall. Guardhouses and parapets crumbled in disrepair. Mifano and Velsinore had been the only leaders of Moonshadow Hall to dismiss the Sharran threat, it seemed!