Quick's lightning. Keph's stomach rose at the sight and he lurched back.
'You're not going to take that, are you?' asked Jarull.
Keph spun to look at his friend. Jarull sat close to Variancevery close. Their hands were entwined, the matching amethyst rings nestled together and winking at each other in the light. The purple gleam reflected in Jarull's eyes.
'Believe in the Lady of Loss,' said Variance. 'Your faith is strong, isn't it?'
Keph turned back to Lyraene and raised his hand. Shar's disk dangled from his fingers to lie like an eye in the center of his palm. Lyraene sneered at him and reached out with her burned hand.
'Shar take you!' Keph snarled.
Shadows welled up like smoke, billowing silently over the half-elf. Between one heartbeat and the next, she was gone.
Ecstasy blossomed in Keph as night's power swept through his soul. Drunk on it, he whirled and raised his hand to Lyraene's former friends.
'Shar take you!'
Darkness swallowed them as well. Their laughter disappeared. Keph spun to Stag, Drik, and the others from the Cutter's Dip.
'Shar take you!' he commanded, pointing at each of them in turn. 'Shar take you! Shar take you!'
One by one, they vanished into the shadows. His friends and the cultists just laughed louder and cheered him.
'The Mistress of Night has chosen,' roared Jarull. 'And she has chosen Keph!'
Only one person was no longer laughing. Bolan glared at Keph, his eyes dark holes in his white face. Keph faced him and slowly raised his hand once more.
'Shar take you,' he said.
The darkness that swallowed Bolan burst out of his eyes and swarmed across his faceShar took her priest from the inside out. Variance reached across the table and touched Keph's arm.
'The Mistress of the Night has a great destiny for you,' she said. 'You'll take his place.'
'Oh, yes,' said a bitter voice. 'That's Kephalways taking someone else's place.'
Feena thrashed desperately, trying to shake her trembling legs free of the tattered remains of her gown. Dhauna kept the light on her. Its radiance was maddeningshe could feel it pressing against her, glaring in her eyes and throbbing in her brain as if she had stared too long at reflections in water on a bright day. Feena tried to change back, but couldn't. The magic stirred the wolf in her even as it dazed the woman. A thin, helpless whimper forced its way out of her throat.
'Be silent!' Dhauna hissed. 'You brought this on yourself.' With her free hand she fumbled for the holy symbol at her neck. The chain snapped, and Dhauna held the symbol up. 'Tremble before Selune for her gaze is upon you!'
Magic crushed down on Feena. Her whine rose as Selune's power shifted and changed like gathering storm clouds, the goddess's will tearing through her already shaken spirit.
No, some part of her thought, not Selune's will Dhauna's. The magic might descend from Night's Bright Lady, but spun out in the prayers of a mortal, it was nothing more than a blunt club wielded by Dhauna's madness.
Feena desperately clung to that thought in the face of the dark fear that flooded over her. Rage flared in Dhauna's eyes. The old priestess thrust Selune's symbol at her.
'By the Moonmaiden!' she cried. 'By the Bright Lady of Night and Our Silver Lady!' She took a step forward.
'You'
She took another step. Feena scrambled back.
'Wim'
Another step. Feena cowered.
'yield!'
Energy, invisible and formless, surged in the rawest expression of Selune's faith, the ultimate power of the goddess of the moon over a creature of the night. It ripped away any illusion of control, and Feena howled as helpless terror seized her, wolf and woman recoiling as one from Selune's high priestess. Instinct took over. She scrambled back, tripping over her own legs in panic. A stack of scrolls blocked her way. Her claws shredded the ancient parchments as she thrust herself as far as possible from Dhauna.
Cold stone stopped her. She pressed herself into a corner, the hair on her neck bristling high, her teeth bared.
Dhauna turned with her, one hand still presenting Selune's symbol, the other still clenched around silver light.
'You are weak, Feena Archwood,' she raved. 'Weak and foolish! I am Selune's hope. Her warnings speak to me, and through me the New Moon Pact will be reborn! Through me, her faith will be cleansed. I will be her hand. There will be no fear. There will be no heresy, and no heretics.' Her eyes narrowed. 'Have they taken you, Feena?' she asked. 'Have they already caught you in their web of lies?'
The words barely pierced Feena's terror. All she could do was growl at her tormentor. Saliva fell in a long string from her mouth. Dhauna bared her own teeth in response.
'You will be restored, Feena. I promise that. You will see I'm right. I do this out of love for Our Silver Lady.' Her eyes shone fever bright. 'Now do what your goddess calls you to do!'
She took a step forward.
Cornered, driven beyond fear, Feena snarled, snapped then leaped. Powerful jaws bit down, tearing into Dhauna's outstretched arm. Dhauna shrieked as she stumbled backward under the wolfs weight. Blood spurted hot in Feena's mouth.
– Keph turned to look down the table. Roderio looked back at him. His brother satalong with Strasus, Dagnalla, Malia, and Krinat the dining table of Fourstaves Hall. Just as they had for breakfast. Keph's breakfast was laid out before him as well. The Sky's Mantle was gone. So were the Sharrans except for Jarull and Variance. They stood behind him, hands on his shoulders. Keph stared at Roderio.
'What do you mean by that?' Keph demanded.
Roderio snorted derisively and said, 'Just what I said, little brother.' He pushed his breakfast away. 'You're always taking someone else's place, borrowing someone else's power. From the day you were born, always 'Mama, I want Rodo's food! Mama, I want Rodo's toys!'' Roderio's voice rose high and whining. ''Da, I want magic like Rodo and Mali!''
'Roderio,' said Dagnalla, 'don't taunt your brother. He's too young to know any better.'
Roderio just made a face. 'So now you're going to be Shar's dark priest, is that it, Keph? You're still just borrowing power. Even if you have magic now, it's not yours. It's Shar's.'
'Shut your mouth!' screamed Keph. He lifted a clenched fist and opened it.
Dark, glittering magesbane dust was heaped on his palm. He flung it at Roderio.
His anger caught it and turned it into a shining, swarming cloud. Suddenly his brother was flailing back away from the table, shrieking and tearing at his clothes as glittering particles settled onto his skin and collapsed into drops of thick, yellow-green acid. His robes began to smolder. When he turned to Keph again, huge red sores had been eaten into his face. Acid poured in smoking streams from his eyes. Skin was sloughing off his melting hands.
'Keph…'he choked.
Fear stabbed into Keph's heart. What had he done?
'Rodo!' he gasped, and started to rise.
Hands held him firm.
'Tell me you regret it,' said Jarull.
'The agony of an enemy's spirit is joy to the Mistress of the Night,' said Variance.
Keph watched Roderio slump into formless, bilious ooze.
'No!' he shouted, struggling to stand. Variance's grip tightened harshly and she look down on him.
'False regret,' she hissed. 'Everything that you've done, you've done deliberately.'
'Keph?' Malia said, staring at him in loathing and hatred. Krin and Dagnalla were staring too. Only Strasus kept eating, oblivious as Malia spat at her youngest brother. 'This was no accident? You did this?'
