'Mother Dhauna!' she shouted. 'Let me in.' There was no response. Feena pounded on the wood again. 'I'm not. going away this time, Dhauna. We're going to talk!'
There was still no sound from the other side of the door. Feena reached down and rattled the latch. It was locked. Feena took a step back, hiked up the froth of her skirts, and threw her shoulder against the door. Then again.
With the second blow, wood splintered. With a third, the lock tore free and the door slammed open. Feena released her skirts and stomped through.
There was no one in the High Moonmistress's quarters. Everything seemed to lie just as it had on the evening when Feena had first arrived, but neither Dhauna nor Julith were present. Feena clenched her jaw. Could they have slipped out of Moonshadow Hall while she was away at the council of temples? When Dhauna had spent so much time shut away, it hardly seemed likely that she should suddenly leave.
Feena's eye fell on the books and scrolls that were piled in the sitting room. 'I have even more spread out in the archives,' Dhauna had said that first evening. Feena turned and walked back out into the corridor.
On its east, south, and west sides, Moonshadow Hall was relatively low, the better to allow Selune's light to enter the central courtyard. On its north side, however, it rose higher. The entire top floor of that height was occupied by the temple's archives, which were reached by a narrow, little-used ramp located along a dark corridor conveniently close to the quarters of the high priestess. Unlike the high priestess's quarters, though, the archives were protected by a substantial door that was banded with iron and secured with a heavy lock. Normally the lock was open so that any member of the clergy, should they feel the desire, could consult the archives. It was locked.
Feena pounded on the thick wood and called, 'Dhauna! Julith! I know you're in there. If you don't open this door, I swear by the Bright Lady of Night that I will get an axe and chop it open!'
A faint flutter of noise from within suggested that she hadn't been wrong and that her threat had been heard. A moment later, the door opened. Julith grabbed her arm and pulled her inside, shutting the door behind her.
'Does anyone else know we're here?' the dark-haired priestess whispered.
'If they have half a brain, they might figure it out,' Feena grumbled as she marched on, leaving Julith scurrying in her wake.
Moonshadow Hall was one of the earliest major buildings built in Yhaunn. Its archives were correspondingly old and extensive. Because it was the largest temple of Selune in that part of Faerun, it had also become the repository for records gathered from even older shrines. Whenever a hermit-priestess died, whenever a remote chapel was finally allowed to collapse, whenever another temple simply needed to clear the dust from its vaults, old records and tattered tomes were sent to Moonshadow Hall to be preserved for the greater faith of Selune. Row upon row of high shelves crammed with books, papers, and scrolls filled the archives. Feena had never much liked the place. It was too quiet for her, too full of dead, dry words. As she walked into the dusty shadows, she almost had to fight against the muffling silence to keep her rage burning.
She found the High Moonmistress skimming a book that was a full handspan thick. Cool magical light shone from a humble paperweight, casting illumination across the book, an inkwell and pen, a tray with a half-eaten bowl of soup from lunch, and a scattering of parchments crowded with scribbled notes. Dhauna glanced up sourly as Feena approached.
'I told you no one, Julith! I don't want to see anybody.'
The old priestess had been lying when she said it was only the vestments that made her look wasted, Feena realized. Without them, Dhauna looked even more aged and frail. The sleeves of her simple, soft robe had been pinned back so they didn't tangle in the pages she turned.
Feena stepped forward without giving Julith a chance to reply and said, 'Mother Dhauna, I need to talk to you.'
'I don't have time, Feena.' Dhauna began to turn a page, then stopped and squinted at it. 'Did I just read this?' she muttered, and flipped ahead, then back again. She looked up at Feena with an angry glare. 'Our Lady of Silver, do you see what you've made me do?' she spat. She slammed the book closed hard enough to make the glowing paperweight jump and the cold soup splash. 'I didn't summon you to Moonshadow Hall just so you could start interrupting me, too!'
Feena stared at her, at the stacks of books surrounding her, and an ugly suspicion formed in her mind.
She narrowed her eyes and said, 'You intended to name me as Moonmistress-Designate from the moment you sent for me!' She stalked up to the broad table at which Dhauna sat. 'With me to handle your duties and keep Mifano and Velsinore busy, you were free to continue your research! That's it, isn't it? That's why you really needed me to come to Moonshadow Hall.'
'Yes!' snapped Dhauna. 'Yes, it is.' She put her elbows on top of the book and propped up her head on her hands, rubbing her palms against her eyes and forehead. 'I know it's not what you were thinking when you agreed to help me'
'It isn't,' Feena said. 'You said you needed me.'
Dhauna looked up at her. Her eyes were tired, like drawn shadows at dusk. 'I do need you, Feena,' she said, raising one arm and gesturing around her. 'All this… most of it I've accomplished in just the last few days and nights.' There was a weary desperation in her voice. 'Velsinore and Mifano are running you ragged, aren't they? I couldn't keep up with that and my duties to the temple and still try to work out what Selune is trying to tell me. I told you, I didn'tdon'tdare trust anyone inside Moonshadow Hall. They might be the very source of the danger. Even turning to Julith was a risk, but I know that I can trust you. You were the only one I knew I could safely put in charge. If you'd only come sooner…' She rubbed her eyes again. 'A tenday, Feena. Give me a tenday and I think I'll have all the answers.'
Feena turned and glared out into the darkened recesses of the archives. Her fists were clenched so tightly she could feel her nails digging into her palms. The headache the half moon coronet had given her was pounding like a hammer in her head.
'Tell me what you know.'
'Feena, I can't-'
'Tell me,' Feena pressed, looking down at the old priestess. 'If I'm going to put up with Mifano and Velsinore, I want to know that it's worth it. I want to know what we're dealing with. What have you found so far?' She forced her fists open. 'What are these dreams?'
She heard Julith hiss softly in warning, but Dhauna held her hand up.
'No, Julith. It's all right.' She sat back in her chair. Her eyes focused in the shadows and she said, 'The dreams fade quickly, but with each one I remember a little more on waking. The situations vary from dream to dream, but some things are always the samea profound unease that builds to horror. Sometimes I'm walking through a dark passage. Sometimes I'm just sitting in the courtyard of Moonshadow Hall at night, with nothing reflecting in the sacred pool but stars.
Sometimes I'm actually swimming in the poolor maybe in the seaalone. Wherever I am, the unease comes over me. Suddenly there are voices and something is dreadfully, terribly wrong. I know the voices, but what they're saying makes no sense. They're all around me, threatening to overcome me.'
Dhauna's voice tightened. Her hands were wrapped around the arms of her chair.
'And there's something behind them,' the old woman continued, 'something very old, and no matter how terrifying the voices are, that thing is even worse. No matter how I try to escape it, I can't. Sooner or later, it's going to catch me and it's going to consume'
She gasped, and her voice broke. Feena felt as if she couldn't move, spellbound by the tale, but Julith stepped around the table and moved to the old woman's side. Dhauna took Julith's hands.
'I have to finish,' the high priestess said. She looked at Feena once more. 'I always wake up before it catches me, but just before I do, I realize that I'm carrying something.' She gestured around them. 'A book. That's Selune's clue, Feena. I'll find the answers I need here.'
Feena drew a slow breath and said, 'There are a lot of books here, Mother Dhauna.'
'Yes,' the high priestess agreed, 'but I think I understand other parts of the dream now, too. Selune's faith is ancient, among the oldest in Faerun. We've had our dark times. The consuming horror with many voices… the old terror that destroys tranquility?' She leaned forward and whispered one word. 'Heresy.'
Feena's teeth clenched. 'Heresy? Mother Dhauna, is that really'
'How old were you when the Time of Troubles fell upon Faerun, Feena?' Dhauna snapped. 'Eleven? Twelve?
