the center of the courtyard. When they stopped, Feena spoke a prayer. Moonlight rippled across the grass, pushing back the shadows.
Around the cloisters, Feena could see the pale faces and robes of Selune's clergy as they gathered to stare in awe and shock. They whispered between themselves, some still clutching funeral drapings and candles, others carrying feast platters and baskets of bread. Those few who were armed hovered around the gates, hands on maces, trying to decide whether they should enter the courtyard after the offending priestesses or not. Feena let go of Julith's hand and raised her arms.
'Mifano!' she shouted. 'Velsinore! Your High Moonmistress summons you!'
New gasps burst out of the watching clergy. Feena repeated her call.
A door slammed open. Priestesses leaped aside as Velsinore appeared at the waning half moon gate. Her face was white with rage.
'Feena!' she spat almost incoherently. 'Julith! The traitors stand together. How dare you? You have no'
'no right?' Feena asked, lowering her arms. 'I have every right. Fm one of Selune's priestesses. I'm the High Moonmistress of Moonshadow Hall. Who has a better right?'
'You're not the High Moonmistress!'
'With the High Moonmistress's passing, the Moonmistress-Designate takes her place.'
'I think you gave up that title when you turned on Mother Dhauna,' called Mifano. The silver-haired priest stood in another gate. The Waxing Crescent sword was in his hand, delicate blade burning with silver fire. His eyes were narrow. 'You shouldn't have come back, Feena. Mother Dhauna is dead because of you.'
More than you know, Feena thought. She forced sorrow away, stood tall, and said, 'I had to come back.'
'To rescue Julith?' asked Mifano. 'To stand with her while her Sharran friends attack us?'
Armed priests and priestesses stood at all of the moon gates. Their eyes darted to Mifano, but the priest shook his head. He stepped out into the courtyard and approached slowly, sword extended. After a moment, Velsinore murmured a prayer and moved forward as well. She drew the Waning Crescent sword awkwardly, but the weapon was steady in her hand as she crossed the courtyard to stand with Mifano. Feena glared at them.
'Put down your swords,' she growled. 'Julith is no traitor. Neither am I.' She raised her voice so that all of the gathered clergy would be able to hear her. 'Keph Thingoleir was trying to flee from Shar's cult. He didn't escape. Julith's memories were altered by a Sharran priestess who came to drag Keph back to Shar's embrace. Someone told that priestess that Keph had been captured. There is a traitor in Moonshadow Hall, but it's not one of us.' She raised her hand and pointed at Velsinore and Mifano. 'It's one of you!'
Velsinore's breath hissed through her teeth. 'Ridiculous! You lie!'
'Do I?' Feena touched her medallion. 'Moonmaiden hear me,' she prayed. 'Sanctify my words. Let no falsehood be uttered here!'
A shimmer passed over the courtyard. Feena drew a breath and lowered her hand. When she spoke, her words rang in pure, bright tones off the encircling walls of Moonshadow Hall.
'By Selune's grace, I say that one of you, Mifano and Velsinore, betrayed a penitent soul to the darkness of Shar!'
'And by the Bright Lady of the Night,' snarled Mifano, 'I tell you that I am no traitor to Selune!' 'Nor,' spat Velsinore, 'am I!' Their words rang just as brightly as Feena's.
– ‹§› '… but so great was Selune's weakness to the pleas of the world that she reached out and opened a passage to a distant place of flame. And Shar's peace was shattered.' His voice trembling, Bolan lowered his raised arms and crossed them over his chest. 'Thus was division made between the two sisters and so has Shar ever sought to heal the rift that Selune caused.' The priest raised his smooth, white face to the darkness of the temple's rocky ceiling and called, 'Lady of Loss, may we do your work in fighting Selune's followers wherever we find them! Mistress of the Night, we honor you!'
'We honor Shar!' chanted the assembled cultists.
'We honor Shar,' Keph chanted along with them. The words left a bad taste in his mouth. The entire ceremony made his skin creep as if filth had been spread across his body.
Somewhere in the depths of the temple, Jarull moaned. Variance hadn't cast her cloak of shadow and silence back over him. Every peak in the cultists' chants brought fresh groans and wails of torment echoing through the tunnels. Some of the cultists had looked fearful at first, but soon they seemed to revel in his sounds of anguish.
Variance stepped up to stand at Shar's altar.
'In fighting Selune's followers,' she said, 'we bear remembrance for all that has been taken from us. We bear remembrance for Shar's loss. We fight the Selunites as Shar fights their weak and treacherous goddess. We meet their hatred with our hatred. We do honor to Cyrume, torn apart like an animal. We do honor to Keph, returned to us by Shar's blessing.' Cold, razor-edged steel flashed in the dim light as she snatched a chakram from her belt and held it high. 'Shall we visit Shar's blessing on Moonshadow Hall?'
'Yes!'
Fists and weapons punched the air. Shar's faithful had armed themselves with whatever they could: clubs, knives, swords… Bolan wore a harness festooned with pouches and flasks. When he moved, cold metallic odors drifted off of him.
From where he stood behind the altar, Keph could see all of the gathered cultists, their eyes bright and their faces flush with zeal. Between them, Bolan and Variance had worked the cult into a frenzy. Talisk, Starne, and Baret were there, lashing the air with swords and slapping at each other. They weren't the only ones caught up in the madness. An old man was shaking with murderous ecstasy. A woman in wealthy merchant's dress was tearing at her clothes. There was blood on her mouthshe had bitten herself. Someone else had begun screaming and beating on the wide metal rings Keph remembered from his initiation. The clashing sound filled the air, competing with Variance's urgent exhortations.
'Will we show the Selunites mercy?'
'No!'
'Will Moonshadow Hall stand at dawn?'
'No!'
Keph felt sick.
Variance spread her arms wide and shouted, 'This night shall live in legend! May Shar grant us her divine favor!' She swept her chakram down. 'It is time!'
The voices of the cultists rose in a howling chorus. Somewhere Jarull shrieked.
The courtyard was silent, the watching clergy shocked by the contradictory truths.
Julith's voice hissed when she asked, 'Feena, how?'
Feena held up her hard, gesturing the younger priestess to silence.
Moonmaiden's grace, she wondered silently, could we have been wrong? No. Everything they had reasoned out pointed to Velsinore or Mifano as the traitor.
Feena stared at the pair, looking for something to suggest that one of them had somehow resisted her prayer and was actually lying or telling some half-truth.
Both watched her with hard eyes and held their swords of office in steady hands. Neither had the look of someone who was lying. Feena's mouth was dry as she tried to think of another possibility.
'The Sharran priestess…' she said. 'She was behind the poisoning I stopped. I think she's been trying to manipulate us into panic. Her name is Variance.'
'I don't know anyone by that name,' growled Velsinore, and Mifano echoed her.
Julith said, 'She's a Calishite. Her hair is long. Her skin is pale and dusky, like she hasn't been in the sun for a long time.'
Feena watched Mifano and Velsinore as Julith spoke, but neither reacted. She shot a glance at Julith.
The dark-haired priestess bit her lip in thought, then added, 'She wore a ring, an amethyst set in old silver.'
Mifano's sword wavered. Feena's eyesand Julith's and Velsinore'ssnapped to him.
'You recognize the ring?' Feena asked.
'It sounds like' Mifano's lips drew tight. 'Lady Monstaed has taken to wearing a ring like that. But she's not Calishite.'
