Velsinore's head wrenched around and her neck snapped with a loud crack. Her body shuddered once, then went limp.
Heresy died.
Feena clutched a dead weight in her arms. She pushed Velsinore away. The effort sent new pain ripping through her. Feena choked and toppled onto her back. Velsinore's final twisted curse had done something awful inside her. A cough wracked her and she could feel warm blood spatter across her lips. The borrowed strength of the goddess was already slipping away. Like a dream in the distance, she could hear the frightened shouts of Moonshadow Halland a sudden fierce cry: the charge of Shar's cult.
Moonshadow Hall needed her, if not as High Moonmistress, then at least as a warrior. She tried to move her arm, to reach for Selune's medallion. She tried to force the words of a prayerBright Lady of the Night, lay your touch upon me! out of her throat.
Her arm didn't move. Her prayer drowned in blood. ran through streets that seemed darker than he had ever known them. Was it just his imagination or was it some foul magic of Variance's? Did Shar's gaze rest upon Yhaunn? He could almost believe it did. He could almost believe he had brought disaster down on the entire city.
Sweat streamed from his forehead, catching in his eyebrows and dripping into his eyes. It poured down his back. His shirt was plastered to his skin. His breath came in huge, thick gasps. It felt as though his chest was ready to rip itself apart; cramps cut into his sides. Anyone who glimpsed him must have thought he'd gone mad.
He didn't dare to stop or even to slow down. Variance had studied him, and his family, too well. The attack of the shadow mastiffs on the Stiltways would be too much for the city guard to handle, especially combined with an attack on Moonshadow Hall. Faced with a threat to the city, Strasus Thingoleir wouldn't even hesitate before throwing himself and his entire family into the fight.
It didn't seem possible for his knotted guts to twist any tighter, but Keph could feel them clench with the hollow, watery feeling of new fear. The wizards of Fourstaves House would save many lives in the Stiltways. He knew that. They would drive the black dogs backbut not without risk to themselves. A vision of monstrous Rax flitted through Keph's mind. If Strasus, Dagnalla, Malia, Krin, or Roderio was hurt or killed because of what he'd caused
But he couldn't leave Jarull in Variance's grasp either. His family had a chance at least. They were powerful. They had magic. Jarull was already a prisoner, mad and tortured solely because Variance had needed something to hold over Keph's head.
He choked and tried to run a little faster. You idiot, he cursed himself, you stupid, stupid idiot!
The first deadly howls drifted over Yhaunn from the Stiltways as Keph tore around a corner and sprinted across the small courtyard toward Fourstaves House. The three stone dogs at the door growled and bristled at his sudden approachKeph didn't think he had ever been so happy to see them. Compared to the shadow mastiffs, they were like puppies! He thrust his hands out for them to smell, but kept moving, reaching for the door before the guardians had fully taken his scent. One of them snapped at him. Keph froze, his chest heaving.
'Hurry!' he implored the stone animals. 'Hurry!'
It took only a moment before the dogs relaxed. It seemed like forever. He pushed the door open. The entrance hall was empty, but Fourstaves House was alive with shouts and commotion. Up in the family wing and down along the warded corridor of workshops, doors were banging as the Thingoleir wizards prepared for battle. Keph darted across the hall and threw himself into the shadows of a parlor. Pressed up against a wall, he tried to stifle his panting gasps.
Scant thundering heartbeats later, he heard Strasus's voice call, 'Are we ready?' A small chorus answered him in the affirmative. 'Then may Mystra ride with us!'
Keph held his breath as footsteps raced down the grand staircase and across the entrance hall. The door openedoutside, the stone dogs whined in greeting at their masterand closed again. Keph released his breath, slid over to a window, and twitched aside a heavy curtain. Out in the courtyard, Strasus held out his hand and spoke a word of magic. Mist and faint glimmers of light swirled into the form of a silver-gray horse. Dagnalla cast the same spell and the two elder wizards mounted while their children and son-in-law worked magic of their own and rose up into the air.
Strasus urged his phantom horse around to face the mansion. In the window Keph froze, but his father just raised his staff and uttered another magical wordand a command: 'Let none enter!'
For an instant, green light shone bright enough to illuminate the courtyard. Lines of magic laced across the window in front of Keph's face then fadeda new ward. He swallowed. Strasus touched heels to his mount's side and pulled on shadowy reins. The apparition reared silently and began to gallop up into the night as if climbing a hill. Dagnalla rode at his side, with Malia, Roderio, and Krin soaring around them both.
The five wizards of Fourstaves House raced off like heroes. Keph turned away from the window and slunk back out into the entrance hall.
Halfway across the hall, an underbutler stopped, startled. 'Sir!' he said in surprise. 'I didn't realize you were here.'
The man's eyes were wide. Keph realized what he must look likebut then again, he'd come home more than once looking much worse. He forced back a grimace and feigned a lazy, drunken sneer.
'I was asleep in the parlor until all the racket happened.' He strutted across the hall and turned up the staircase. 'If anyone asks, do me a favor and tell them you haven't seen me.'
The underbutler swallowed and said, 'Sir, your father did leave instructions for all of usthe next time we saw you, we were to tell you that he would like to have a word with you at your convenience.'
'Did he?' Keph turned to look back at the servant. An angry retort started to roll off his lips out of pure habit. 'Well, you can tell the old man that' he caught himself and bit his tongue' you can tell him that I send him my respect.'
'Sir?'
'You heard me,' Keph growled. 'Now don't you have something to do? Be about your duties!'
Keph leaped up the stairs two at a time without looking back. It would look strange if he were to turn down the north hall toward Strasus's study. At the top of the stairs, he turned south instead, toward the family quarters. As soon as he was out of sight of the stairs, however, he stopped and sagged against the wall. Too close, he thought. That was all too close. He closed his eyes for a moment. His limbs were shaking and weak after his run, but he couldn't stop yet.
Forcing his eyes open, he creeped back out to the end of the corridor and looked down over the entrance hall. The underbutler was gone. Keph darted across to the north corridor. Once again, wards brushed against him like spiderwebs as he passed under the archway. He shuddered at their touch.
The floor outside Roderio's laboratory was still stained. Keph looked away and hurried on down the corridor's length, passing other doors: Malia's laboratory, shared with Krin; Dagnalla's workroom; the arcane library shared by all of the wizards; and at the end of the hall, Strasus's study. Keph stopped in front of the study door. When was the last time he'd entered the study? Years ago. Had he ever tried to enter when Strasus wasn't there? He couldn't recall. He didn't think so. But Roderio and Malia did it all the time. Taking a deep breath, he reached down and squeezed the door's ornate latch.
It was locked by a plain mechanical lock. He could feel the metal bolt clicking and pulling with each squeeze of the latch. Keph's lips twitched. So much panic, only to be stopped by a humble lock? He groaned and slapped at the wood of the door in frustration.
Something seemed to crawl across his hand. The latch appeared to shift slightly.
Keph started, pulling his hand away. The crawling sensation vanished and the latch stiffened once more. He frowned at the wood, then slowly pressed his hand back against it. The strange sensation returned, playing over his hand like a dog snuffling at his scent. Keph's breath hissed. He kept his hand in place. Another ward? The answer came in a heartbeat as the latch gave way to his grasp. The crawling sensation disappeared.
It couldn't be that easy, could it? Cautious, Keph pushed open the door.
On a perch just inside the study, a strange bird croaked and stirred, turning its head to look at him.
He froze. It was no bird. Its feathers were burnished copper, its head and wings cast to resemble a stylized hawk. Its eyes were fashioned from chips of sapphire exactly the same glittering blue as the sapphire that decorated Quick's hilt.
The copper hawk had something else in common with Quick, too. Still staring at Keph, it rattled its wings.
