'When did she start wearing the ring?'
'Less than a month ago.' Doubt creeped into his eyes as he said, 'About the time she transferred the lease on her properties from Ladysluck Tower to Moonshadow Hall.'
'Did you tell Lady Monstaed about my encounter in the Stiltways and that I thought there were Sharrans in Yhaunn?' Feena asked.
His mouth opened then closed, and he nodded. 'I told her about that,' he said. His sword fell. 'Selune's shining face, I told her everything that happened in Moonshadow Hall.'
Julith gasped. All around the cloisters, whispers of alarm and surprise rolled through the assembled clergy. Hope leaped inside FeenaMifano was no traitor, only a dupe!
'And you told Lady Monstaed about Keph's capture?' she asked.
Mifano blinkedand shook his head. 'No,' he said. 'Feena, I swear I haven't even stopped to think about her since your attack on Dhauna.'
His words rang with truth. And Feena realized, why should Mifano have contacted Lady Monstaed back in Yhaunn to pass on news of Keph anyway? He couldn't have known she'd be interested in the young man. She ground her teeth as the brief moment of hope faded.
Worse, the only evidence linking Variance to Velsinore or Mifano was useless. Mifano's gossip had let Variance know about Moonshadow Hall's misplaced confidence. But if he hadn't been the one to tell the Sharran priestess about Keph's capture…
'Someone is still a traitor,' Feena said. She looked up. 'Velsinore, who'
The tall priestess's sword snapped up defensively. 'I certainly didn't tell this Variance anything!' she snapped.
Feena groaned and said, 'I didn't say you did. I need to know if anyone among the clergy who rode with you last night might have'
'Wait.' Julith laid her arm on Feena's arm. 'We've made a mistake.' Feena glanced at her. The priestess was looking at Velsinore intently. 'Variance said that not all of Selune's clergy are faithful. She never said that one of us told her about Keph's capture.'
'I certainly didn't tell this Variance anything,' Velsinore had said. Selune's power confirmed that statement as the truth. But Variance wasn't the only Sharran in Yhaunn, was she?
'Velsinore,' Feena spat, 'did you tell anyone about Keph's capture?' She stepped forward. 'Answer me! Did you betray Keph to the Sharrans?'
The tall priestess took a step back, her eyes wide and her mouth open.
'I… I…' she stuttered, as if trying to form words when none would come, as if the power of a goddess prevented her from speaking a lie.
Feena bared her teeth. She didn't know how Velsinore had managed to deny that she was a traitor to Selune, but her falsehood had caught her! Whispers around the cloisters turned into a surging, seething muddle of confusion. Velsinore squeezed her mouth shut. Growling, Feena reached out for her.
Velsinore whirled and lashed out with her sword.
Caught by surprise, Mifano gasped in shock as the shining blade sliced into his body. Feena heard the metal grate against bone and leaped back in shock. In the cloisters, confusion rose into screaming chaos. Velsinore twisted around, letting go of the sword, and shoved Mifano's jerking body to the ground. Feena and Julith dodged forward almost as one to catch him.
As they reacted, Velsinore turned and sprinted out of the courtyard, back toward the waning half moon gate. The priests and priestesses standing in the gate and the cloisters scrambled to get out of her way. In less than a heartbeat, she had vanished into Moonshadow Hall.
'Moonmaiden's grace!' Feena cursed at the merciless distraction.
Mifano's blood was pouring across her hands. The silver-haired priest's breath was coming in rattling rasps.
'Down!' ordered Julith. 'Put him down!' She raised her eyes to the swirling, swooning clergy. 'Chandri! I'm going to need your help to save him!' She glanced at Feena. 'Go get Velsinore! I'll handle this!'
Feena grimaced and slid Mifano into her arms, then rose and charged after Velsinore. Clergy dodged out of her way almost as quickly as they had dodged out of Velsinore's. Feena opened the door through which the traitorous priestess had vanished and plunged inside.
There was no sign of Velsinore, but even in scant moments she could have easily gotten out of sight. With the milling priestesses and priests out in the cloisters still screaming, the echo of running footsteps would be drowned out as well. Sound and sight weren't the only means of tracking at Feena's disposal, however. She concentrated, seeking the balance between woman and wolf that was her hybrid form. It wasn't easyboth woman and wolf were furious and it was tempting simply to let the beast take over. Feena strained and resisted the impulse. She wanted answers and she wasn't going to get them if she tore Velsinore apart.
'Selune, help me,' she murmured and took a deep breath as fur rippled over her skin and her joints shifted within the folds of the robe.
Her next breath brought a flood of scents to a wolfs nose: The odor of human fear, thick and overwhelming as panic swirled in Moonshadow Hall; the musty scent of funeral drapes and candles; the rich smells of Idruth's kitchen. She picked Velsinore's scent out of the flood easily, thoughmusty like the drapes, but with a hint of something dark and metallic: the odor of the medicines in the infirmary. With a start, Feena realized she recognized that smell from somewhere else. It was remarkably similar to the Sharran poison. Not the same, but close, as if the medicines and the poison originated in the same place.
What had Velsinore been doing?
Feena loped after the priestess. Velsinore's scent led down toward the kitchen. Feena growled. The kitchen garden… she couldn't be the only person who knew the trick of getting out over the garden wall. With Moonshadow Hall on alert against the possibility of a Sharran attack, the door from the kitchen to the garden would certainly be sealed, but it wouldn't be nearly as heavily guarded as the temple's main gates.
If it was sealed at all, she realized. The main gates were Mifano's responsibility as the bearer of the Waxing Crescent, but the kitchen, like the infirmary, was Velsinore's.
She paused outside the kitchen and shifted back into her human shape, then opened the door carefully and peered inside. Everything seemed still and quiet. Across the cavernous room, she could see that the door to the garden had indeed been sealed. A huge plate of solid steel had been fastened into place over it. No one was getting into or out of Moonshadow Hall that way without considerable effort.
Which meant that Velsinore was trapped inside the kitchen. Feena stepped through the door and put her back against a wall. There was still no movement.
'Velsinore?' called Feena. 'Velsinore, why did you do it? Why did you turn your back on Selune?'
'Turn my back on Selune?' Velsinore's voice came from somewhere to the right. Feena began to creep that way as the tall priestess spoke. 'I'm no traitor, Feena.'
'How can you say that?' Feena asked. She kept moving. A rack of pots drew her attention. Was that a shape crouched behind it?
'Because it's the truth. Don't you remember the evidence of your own prayer?'
Feena clenched her jaw and said, 'When I came back to Moonshadow Hall with the poison from the Stiltways, you couldn't deny the presence of Sharrans in Yhaunn quickly enough.'
'The Sharrans were as surprised as you to learn that I knew about them,' said Velsinore. Her voice was quiet and Feena heard her shift slightly. The shape behind the rack of pots didn't moveit was just a big cauldron. Feena froze and looked around as Velsinore continued, 'You were rightwhoever Variance is, I didn't speak to her. The Sharrans in Yhaunn are led by'
'Bolan,' Feena supplied. 'You told Bolan and Bolan told Variance.'
A tall cupboard stood strangely ajar. She slid toward it.
Velsinore was silent for a moment, then hissed, 'You know more than it seems.'
'Keph told me. Bolan's an alchemist as well as a Sharran priest.' Her eyes narrowed as she closed on the cupboard. 'The medicines in the infirmary…'
'Purchased from Bolan,' confirmed Velsinore. 'Until I contacted him with news of Keph's capture, he thought I was nothing more than a simple devotee who liked to gossip.' Her voice turned scornful. 'It sounds like I played him just as Variance played Mifano. I've been drawing information about Sharran beliefs out of him ever since I
