'My father's study isn't my brother's laboratory. It's better protected.'
'I have no doubt it is.' Her voice hardened. 'Retrieve the tiles and Jarull will go free. A simple exchange.'
His hands curled into fists. 'What if I can't get them?'
'Jarull will remain Shar's prisoner and I'll find another way to get the tiles.'
Variance moved to one of the braziers that stood around the temple and lifted the lid. The smell of cold charcoal drifted out. A thin scrap of kindling lay beside the brazier. The dark priestess held it in the flame of the candle until it caught fire, then thrust it among the charcoal. She turned back to him. 'I have no interest in seeing you fail, of course. I will provide a distraction to cover your theft.'
'A distraction?' The thought chilled him. 'What kind of distraction?'
'Mother Night?' Bolan's voice echoed from a tunnel. 'Full dark has fallen. The faithful are assembled.'
Breath hissed between Keph's teeth. 'An attack'
Variance's hand snapped up, holding him to silence. 'Summon them to worship, Brother Night,' she called back. 'They will receive Shar's blessing before battle.'
Keph caught the sound of Bolan's footsteps retreating up the tunnel. He looked at Variance, and she returned his gaze.
'Yes,' she said. 'An attack on Moonshadow Hall. The age old rivalry of Shar and Selune is brought into the open once more.'
Keph's mouth gaped open for a moment before he swallowed and said, 'But the memory you forced on Julithyou made her think I promised an attack. The Selunites will be expecting this. It's going to be a massacre.'
'No, it would be a massacre if the Selunites were caught unprepared,' said Variance. 'Do you really want the distraction to be over so quickly? Don't think Shar's faithful so easily brought low. You know what they're capable of. Stand with me during the ceremony, Keph. The others need to see you.'
'You want me to help you?'
Variance tilted her head and replied, 'If Shar's faithful aren't properly prepared, the distraction will fail. Your supposed capture is the key to their inspiration. You need to be seenand you need to be seen praising Shar.'
Rage and disgust swept over Kephrage at Variance for manipulating him yet again, disgust at himself for allowing it.
'Do you have a plan for everything?' he spat. He felt like an angry child and just as helpless. Variance turned away.
Moonshadow Hall was in chaos.
Feena stole through the corridors of the temple, trying to stay unseen and out of the way. It wasn't easy. Any normal order she could have predicted seemed to have been erased. She had emerged from the archives to discover that the sun had sether exhausted dreaming had carried through the entire afternoon and much of the evening. Any other night, Moonshadow Hall would be worshiping the moonrise. On a normal new moon night, Selune's faithful would be gathered in the refectory, celebrating Dhauna's New Moon Beneficence. But instead clergy, acolytes, and novices were everywhere. Some were clearly preparing for Dhauna's funeral. Billowing white drapes were being hung. White wax candles laced with silver dust were being set out. From the temple's mortuary came the sound of mourning chants as Dhauna's body was washed and prepared for burial.
But at the same time, other clerics roamed the corridors like dogs. They always moved in pairs at the very least, and all of them carried macesmost leaving the weapons hanging at their belt, but others clenching them tightly. When she happened to pass a window, Feena caught a glimpse of silhouettes standing up on the old walkways that circled Moonshadow Hall's round roof.
It was as if someone were preparing for an attack. Feena remembered the fear in Chandri's tones when she had asked Velsinore about Keph. Tales told among Selune's clergy spoke of Sharran uprisings that could leave shrines and temples in ruins. Was someone concerned that might happen in Yhaunn?
Feena bit her tongue and hurried on, the book of the
New Moon Pact wrapped in a sleeve of her robe and clutched tight. At least chaos set tongues wagging. If nothing else, it had been easy enough to find out where Julith was being held: the winter chapel, a great round chamber that had been built onto the north side of Moonshadow Hall in the distant past as a place for the clergy to worship when bitter weather made the open courtyard unbearable. Julith had been shut inside to await her judgment.
At an intersection of corridors, Feena peered around a corneronly to duck back as a pair of armed priestesses marched past. She caught her breath and willed herself to total silence until they were gone. They wore crested steel caps. The situation seemed to be escalating and to reach the winter chapel, she would need to pass through the temple's busiest areas. She wasn't going to be able to hide much longer.
A heap of abandoned drapes gave her an idea. Drawing the cowl of her robe over her hair, Feena snatched up the drapes and hefted them up in front of her face, then hunched down like an old woman bent under a burden. It was a pitifully crude disguise, but it would have to do. She picked her way carefully along the corridor, peering out past a fold of white fabric.
'When she first encountered another priestess, she tensed. The other woman just rushed past, however, intent on her own tasks. Feena sighed and started to relax a bit.
'Elder sister!' Idruth called. Feena's heart jumped. The cook called her again. 'Elder sister! Do you have far to go?'
Feena picked a destination at random and said, 'The northwest hall.'
She half-turned and peeked at the cook from behind the wrappings. Idruth was lugging a great pot; the savory smell of stew drifted out of it.
'Come to the kitchen when you're done,' Idruth ordered. 'We have baskets of bread that need to get to the gate. The mob is turning uglythey want their feast!'
She jogged past toward the temple gates. Feena turned to stare after her before darting away. Preparations for a funeral, fear of an attackand the poor of Yhaunn had still come expecting the New Moon Beneficence. Another mad bend in the path of chaos!
The hallways grew quiet again as she moved farther back into the temple. Outside the doors of the winter chapel, she dumped her load of drapes. The tall doors had, over time, been covered with beaten silver and exquisitely decorated, but a simple wooden plank had been thrust between the handles to bar them. She lifted it free and swung one door open just wide enough to slip through.
Julith knelt in prayer before a broad silver font as large as a tub. At the sound of the opening door, she looked up in fright then gasped with relief.
'Feena!'
Her eyes were red from weeping. Feena rushed across the chapel and swept her up, setting the book of the New Moon Pact aside to more fully embrace the younger priestess. Julith trembled in her arms.
'Oh, Feena! It was terrible. What Keph saiddid you know he was a Sharran? And to return and find Mother Dhauna…'
'Be strong, Julith,' Feena urged, rocking her gently. 'What happened to you? What's going on?'
Words poured out of Julith like wine from a pitcher. Her flight with Keph at her side. The unrelenting pursuit by Velsinore, Mifano, and the clergy of Moonshadow Hall. Keph's fall, their capture, the discovery of Shar's disk. Their imprisonmentand Keph's sudden change. His taunts, his rage, and his threats against Moonshadow Hall. His escape into Shar's own darkness.
'I was so afraid, Feena,' Julith moaned. 'For the longest time, it seemed like there was nothing I could dothen I just screamed and screamed until Mifano and Velsinore came.' She slid out of Feena's arms to crouch back down at the base of the font. 'They questioned me. Mifano worked out the riddle of Keph's threat: the moment of Selune's weakness is the new moon. Tonight.
Velsinore didn'tdoesn'tbelieve him, but he forced us all back to Yhaunn anyway. And when we got here, Mother Dhauna…'
She covered her face with her hands, and Feena brushed her dark hair gently.
'I know,' Feena said. 'I was the one who gave her into Selune's arms.'
Julith choked and stiffened, looking up with wide, terrified eyes. Feena forced back tears, or at least tried to. She felt wet warmth on her cheeks.
'The madness had taken her, Julith. She'd given herself over to the wolf. If there had been something else, if
