The wolfs growls faded. Dhauna's struggles weakened. The aged priestess didn't have the strength her animal form demanded of her. Feena heaved against her weight. Dhauna twisted free and scrambled away. Feena rose to a Crouch.
Had she thought she would never cry again? She could feel tears on her face.
'Dhauna, please. Don't make me'
Dhauna's snarl was flat. Her torn claws scrabbled on shredded linens and she leaped again. Feena thrust forward and met her in midair, hooking an arm around her thin chest and sweeping down to slam her against the floor. Bones cracked and Dhauna yelped in pain.
The bones would knit fast if given the chance. Werewolves were hard to kill. Silver weapons or magic would do it. The claws and teeth of another werewolf could inflict damage, too, but Feena couldn't bring herself to do that to Dhauna. Her bite had been what brought on this curse.
She had been fighting lycanthropes most of her life, though. There were other ways to kill a werewolf.
Pinning Dhauna's forelegs with her body, she clamped a hand around her muzzle, forcing it shut. Her other hand snatched up a wadded piece of linen and pushed it down over the wolfs nostrils.
Dhauna began to thrash almost instantly. Feena leaned hard on her, a dead weight on her twisting body. Her hands clenched tight… tighter. Dhauna's snarls and growls became desperate, frightened whines. Feena's vision blurred with tears but she didn't let go. Even when Dhauna's whines and thrashing faltered and her body went limp, she didn't let go.
Finally, Dhauna's body shifted under hers, old wolf fading into elderly woman. Feena chokedand let go. Gathering Dhauna into her arms, she held the dead priestess close and sobbed.
The clerics of Moonshadow Hall caught them at dawn.
At first their pursuers had been nothing more than a glow of moonlight in the fields behind them. Then they had been a storm of hoofbeats. No matter what Keph and Julith tried, no matter where they fled, that storm followed. Every time Keph glanced over his shoulder, the Selunites had been a little bit closer, grim faces hunched low over their horses' shoulders. And Keph would crouch a little lower in his own saddle and urge the animal to greater speed.
They must have been halfway to Ordulin when his horse stumbled and went down. Keph landed on his side, facing east toward the rising sunand the approaching pursuers. His horse was somewhere close, staggering and groaning. Hooves rang and slid on the ground just out of his vision; Julith reining in her mount and coming around. Keph twisted and forced himself up onto his knees. His palms were scraped raw. Blinding pain shot through one ankle at the slightest pressure and almost sent him down again.
'Keep going!' he gasped at the priestess.
'There's no point,' Julith said. She passed a hand over her face and her own features returned. 'It's over. Feena's had all the time she's going to get.'
Hooves thundered on the ground, and they were surrounded.
Keph didn't think he'd ever seen priests and priestess, not even Bolan and Variance, look as dangerous as the Selunites did. The silver-haired dandy and gray-robed storkMifano and Velsinore, Keph guessed from Feena's descriptionswho rode at their head seemed ready to spit fire. Especially when they realized who it was wearing Feena's clothes.
'Julith!' howled Mifano.
For a moment, the priest was a silhouette against the glare of dawn. Then he moved closer, staring at Keph, and the young man got a better look at his face. Keph's stomach dropped.
Beshaba's arms, he choked silently.
Mifano was the priest who had interrupted his attack on Lyraene. He should have guessed. How many silver- haired priests of Selune could there be in Yhaunn?
It looked like Mifano hadn't forgotten him either.
'Hold him!' the priest snapped. 'Take his sword!'
Three of the larger Selunites jumped down and grabbed him while others crowded around, spells ready if he tried anything. All Keph could do, however, was yelp as the Selunites hauled him to his feet and pain flared in his ankle. It was broken or at the very least sprained. As he swooned, a priestess pulled Quick and his belt pouch away from him.
Velsinore urged her horse forward, stopping in front of Julith. Her eyes were narrow.
'Iraelathe's Escape?' she asked. Julith nodded, and Velsinore's face twisted in anger. 'Where's Feena?'
'Well away from you,' Julith answered.
'You'll be banished from Moonshadow Hall for this.'
Julith sat up straighter and said, 'I wouldn't stay anyway. Not with you in charge.'
Velsinore sucked in her breath, but her hiss of rage wasn't nearly so loud as the gasp of surprise from the priestess who had taken Keph's pouch. She had the pouch open. In her palm lay Shar's disk.
Keph could almost feel the anger of Selune's clergy flare into hatred and disgust. Shock flashed across Julith's face as well.
'It's not what you think,' Keph said, desperate.
'Selune's shining face, it's not!' One of the priests holding him twisted and smashed his elbow back into Keph's face. The blow connected with his cheekbone and sent dark blotches swimming across his vision. If the Selunites hadn't been holding him up, he would have staggered and fallen. 'Filthy Sharran!'
'Aeso!' Mifano's voice cracked like a whip. Keph couldn't quite manage to focus on the face of the priest who had hit him, but he felt the man hesitate, then relax. 'No one touch either of them,' Mifano said loudly enough for everyone to hear. 'Hate is Shar's way, not Selune's. We'll rest the horses, then start back to Moonshadow HallSelune will judge her fallen daughter.' He turned his gaze on Keph. For all his words, his eyes held almost as much loathing as Aeso's. 'The laws of Yhaunn will judge Shar's man.'
Keph's tortured head throbbed.
'No,' he breathed.
The laws of Yhaunnthe consequences of his attack on Lyraenehe could face that. But returning to Yhaunn would put him back within reach of the cult. His knees buckled. The grips of the priests tightened, holding him up.
A nearby farmstead was only too happy to host the clergy of Selune, offering up cool water, bread, and fruit for the priests and priestesses, and feed for their horses and the use of a shed to hold their prisoners. Aeso and another priest bound Keph and Julith securely, while Mifano traced a long, sprawling symbol around the doorframe. Where his fingers passed, cold silver light glowed for a moment, then faded. Once Aeso and the other priest had stepped out, he turned to glower at Keph and Julith.
'If you want a quick way to face your ultimate destinies,' he said darkly, 'opening this door would be it. I can't guarantee any greater mercy for traitors and Sharrans.'
He walked out and closed the shed door firmly. A bolt squealed on the other side. Keph swallowed and stared across the dimness of the shed at Julith. Aeso had left them facing each other.
'Julith-'
She cut him off before he could say anymore. 'Does Feena know?'
'This isn't what it looks like.' 'Does Feena know?'
'Yes!' Keph spat back at her. 'Julith, I-'
The priestess cut him off again. Her voice was cold. 'She told me you rescued her in the Stiltways. Was that some kind of trick?'
'Will you let me talk?' he snapped.
'So you can spin Shar's lies?'
His head sagged down in defeat. His face where Aeso had struck him felt swollen and strangely numbwhen he spoke, a dull ache ran down to his teeth. It was a counterpoint to the growing fire in his ankle.
'No,' he said. 'No lies. I'm trying to get away from Shar's cult. I would have told you, but we didn't exactly have a chance to talk, did we?' He looked up. Julith's face was still angry, but her eyes were narrow. She was at least listening to him. 'Believe me, Feena was just as angry when she found out. But I want to leave Shar. I swear it. I want to get away before something terrible happens and there's no turning back. That's all.'
Silence lingered between them. Keph could hear the
Selunites off in the distance somewhere outside the shed. It sounded as if they were arguing among
