her vision. Feena gaspedand in gasping, drew the moonlight into herself. Selune was inside her, burning in her flesh and blood, knitting her together, and making her whole. The touch of the goddess exploded through her. Feena threw back her head and howled not out of pain, but out of sheer joy.
The wolf within her howled right along with the woman. And somewhere in the silver brilliance of Selune's light, Feena could hear a whole chorus of wolves and beasts raising their voices along with her.
The New Moon Pact was reborn!
Feena felt stone under her feet and kicked out. She shot up through the water and into the night, still howling. Shining water streamed from the fur of her hybrid form. She felt stronger and more alive than she ever had in her life. Everything seemed brighter and more vibrant. Growling with fierce ecstasy, she threw back her head and howled at the sky.
'Feena!'
She looked downno, just across. Julith crouched beside the sacred pool and Feena stood within it. The water was no more than waist deep. But it had felt as though she had been so much deeper! She snarled in awe. There were things to be seen by moonlight
She surged forward through the water and heaved herself out of the pool. Julith was still staring at her in amazement.
'How…?'
'Later, Julith,' Feena said. 'There's a battle-' 'Feena, you're talking!'
She froze and reached up with tremendous, clawed hands to touch her face. A wolfs muzzle, a wolfs ears, a wolfs head, and yet
'Moonmaiden's grace,' Feena gasped. Her voice was deep and resonant, but she could speak just as well as she — could as a human. 'Oh, Bright Lady of the Night!'
A chilling howl broke through her awe. Julith paled. Feena's head snapped around. One of the Sharrans' otherworldly dogs. The sounds of it raised the hair on her neck and all the way down her spine. Up on the rooftop, she could see Selune's clerics scrambling back.
'Julith, gather anyone you can and arm yourselves. We're taking the fight to the Sharrans!'
She didn't wait for a reply. Powerful legs drove her across the courtyard. There was no time to rush through the twisted passages that led out onto the roof from inside the temple. In one bounding leap, she jumped up and caught the lowest windowsill in the wall above the covered cloisters. Muscles rippled under her fur as she drew herself up and braced her body in the window frame.
Her claws sank into the mortar between the stones of the frame. She looked at them with surprise, then bared her teeth and swung out from the window. Digging in with fingers and toes, she scaled the wall as easily as if it were nothing more than a steep bank of earth. Six feet… ten feet… twelve… and she was racing up the pitch of Moonshadow Hall's roof toward the high walkway. All along the parapet, the iron hooks of grapples shook as Sharrans scaled the outer walls while Selunite priestesses huddled against the edge of the walkway, driven back by the unnatural horror of the black dogs' howling. They shrieked and flinched as Feena vaulted onto the walkway.
Moonshadow Hall's defenders had been reduced to frightened girls. Feena spread her hands. If she could speak in hybrid form, could she work magic as well?
'Selune be with us,' she prayed. 'Protect us from the terrors of the night!'
The Moonmaiden's magic swirled like a stirring song, blotting out the lingering echoes of the black dogs' howls. The priestesses gasped as renewed courage took hold of them.
'To arms, sisters!' Feena howled. 'To arms!'
She whirled toward the parapetjust as the first Sharrans hurled themselves over the edge and onto the walkway in a frenzy of screaming madness.
If the sight of a werewolf startled them, they didn't show it. A surprisingly well-dressed young man flung himself at her.
'Beast!' he shrieked. 'This is for Cyrume and Keph!'
He swung at her with a sword, but Feena blocked it with her arm. The blade sliced into her fleshbut without magic or silver behind it, the cut was no more than a sting. The young man's blow was unnaturally strong, though. She could almost smell the dark magic that clung to him. Growling, she caught his arm before he could swing again, then grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him in close.
'You fool!' she roared in his face. 'Keph is my friend!'
The wolf in her bayed for blood, urged her to rake claws across the Sharran's flesh. She held back the savage instinct and punched instead. A jab rocked the Sharran's head back. A backhand twisted it around. If Keph could recognize the mistakes he had made and turn from Shar, maybe there was hope for the other cultists as well. When she released her grip, the young man slid down to sprawl across the walkway. Feena grabbed the next Sharran to come over the parapet and gave him the same.
Bolstered by Shar's magic, none of the cultists went down easily. Selune's faithful were better armed than the Sharrans, however. Inch by inch and blow by blow, the Sehlnites pressed them back toward the parapet until a woman's voice rolled up from below, speaking a blasphemous prayer to the Lady of Loss.
The worst of the wounds the defenders had inflicted on the Sharrans vanished. The cultists surged forward with renewed vigor. Variance! It had to be the dark priestess.
Feena cursed and leaned out over the parapets, but could see nothing in the shadows below other than the black dogs. They paced and snarled, waiting for prey to come within reach. Feena howled at them and their snarling broke into a frenzy.
Farther along the curve of the wall, though, there was trouble. The battering ram she'd heard as she spoke the oath of the New Moon Pact was swinging again at the front gates. Its dull thunder echoed in the street. Feena wrenched one of the Sharrans' grappling hooks, abandoned now, free of the parapet and charged along the walkway, rope trailing after her.
'Make way!' she shouted. 'Make way!'
Another Sharran tried to stop her. She met him with a stiff arm that knocked him back off his feet and left him clutching his chest and choking. On the ground below, the black dogs shadowed her in a growing pack.
The walkway ended in a squat bell tower over the gates. The alarm bells that the acolytes had rung earlier as she lay dying in the kitchen were silenta strong defense was better than a vain hope of rescue! Feena dived inside and peered out one of the high windows. Below her, manned by ten Sharrans, the battering ram swung against the gates hard enough to send vibrations all the way up to shiver through the pads of her feet.
At least it did until the black dogs that had pursued her came bounding around the walls. The ram crashed to the ground as the cultists scattered in shock. Teeth bared, Feena set the grappling hook against the stone of the windowsill and tossed the rope out the window, then grasped it firmly and swung out herself. The dogs howled and scrapped under her like puppies begging for a dangling sausage. Feena counted five of them.
Ten feet up from the ground, she pushed away from the Wall, swinging herself out. The black dogs followed her, ugly heads swiveling and spinning. A couple of them darted after her. Feena's swing slowed and stopped as it reached the end of its arc, then started back down.
She let go of the rope and aimed straight at the ugliest of the dogs. It had time to stare at her in alarm before her full weight slammed into it. The beast went down with a yelp of surprise. The other dogs only hesitated for a heartbeat before closing on her in a frenzy of claws and teeth.
Feena's teeth were at least as big. Her claws were bigger. And because the dogs had no hope of redemption, she had no regret in letting loose all of the pent-up savagery of the wolf within her.
She tore into the first dog to come within reach, her claws shredding its slick black hide. The dog's flesh was cold and darkwhere light fell on its wounds, black blood hissed away like mist before a flame. A dank smell reached her nose. Shadowstuff. The black dogs had been summoned out of pure darkness.
When she hooked out the first dog's throat with her claws, its body faded into darkness as well. A hard kick smashed the ribs of the struggling dog she'd brought down with her leap. A third dog darted in to rip at her legs. Feena tore down blindly with her claws and took an ear, but the dog's teeth caught her arm. She howled in pain. Unlike the Sharrans' weapons, the dogs' unnatural teeth could hurt her. She lashed at the clinging dog with her free hand, tearing long strips of dark flesh from its side until it released her.
The last two dogs seized the moment to dart in at her. Feena whirled on themand dropped to all fours, changing into a wolf as easily as she had in her dream of the New Moon Pact. Another gift from Selune! Caught off
