"What can I do for you, High Luck?" Feena asked with all the grace she could muster.
"We need to see Dhauna Myritar, Moonmistress-Designate," Colle said. "It is a serious matter that requires her attention." He indicated the guard. "This is Guard Captain Manas."
Feena raised an eyebrow and asked, "Captain?"
"As I said, this is a serious matter," Colle said, standing straight. "We need to see the High Moonmistress."
Feena crossed her arms and replied, "The High Moonmistress isn't seeing anyone. Whatever your problem is, I can deal with it."
"Not this," said Manas. His voice was surprisingly pleasant, especially compared to the High Luck's. "This concerns the High Moonmistress alone."
"Dhauna Myritar has chosen me to act on her behalf," Feena growled. "What concerns her concerns me."
Colle's face flushed angrily. "More true than you" he spat, then bit off his words abruptly.
Feena's eyes opened wide and she looked between the two men.
"What's going on?" she demanded.
Manas glanced at Colle as if seeking permission for something. The priest pressed his lips together and gave a little shake of his head, but the guard captain turned back to Feena.
"Moonmistress, you're a werewolf, aren't you?"
Feena actually jumped a little, startled by the blunt-ness of the question. Most people would have danced around the matter or tried to ignore it. In an instant she understood both the guard captain's tension and his surprise at seeing her. He hadn't mistaken her for a servant, she realizedhe had simply been shocked to find himself face to face with her. And Colle… it seemed the priest of Tymora had indeed recognized her as a werewolf at the council of temples the day before. He was already looking triumphant at her discomfort. Feena bit back another growl as one rose in her throat and drew herself up, matching Colle's stance.
"I have been blessed by Selune," she said, using Mifa-no's expression for her shapechanging. "What of it?"
"The guard has received a scattering of reports this morning of sightings of a creature seen lurking in the shadows around the city last night. A few of the reports described a wolfunusual enough in the heart of the citybut others described the creature as walking onto two legs, a human with the head and tail of a wolf." Manas tucked his thumbs into his sword belt. "In short, Moonmistress, the typical description of a werewolf."
Feena sucked in her breath. Apparently she hadn't been quite so stealthy as she thought. And if Colle had known the day before what she was…
The High Luck must have read her glare.
"Fortunately," he said, "word of the same sightings reached my ears as well. Naturally I went to the guard to offer my services and to tell them what I knew."
He tried to make his voice sound concerned, but didn't quite manage to disguise a gloating note. The priest had led the guard right to her.
"Naturally," Feena snapped.
"There's more, Moonmistress," Manas added. "A man's body was found just before dawn near Stonecutters Well "in the Stiltways, the area where most of the reports were made. He had been mauled by some kind of animal."
"Mauled?" Feena swung around to him. A body found by a well in the Stiltways? It sounded like it could be the Sharranbut she hadn't touched the man. "You think I…?"
Manas shook his head. "No, Moonmistress. Not necessarily. But the coincidence is remarkablea man mauled, a werewolf sighted…" His hands shifted on his belt. "Your recent arrival in Yhaunn…"
What was going on? Feena thought. The Sharran had been dead practically before she reached him, and she would never mutilate a corpselet alone one with poison coursing through it. Someone or something else must have mauled the corpse after she left. But why?
For a moment, she considered relating what she'd learned the night before. A Sharran cult was a danger to everyone. Except that there was no cult, was there? Velsinore, Mifano, and even Dhauna had made that clear. She looked at Manas and Colle. The faces of both men were hard, Colle's with unbecoming glee, Manas's with professional distance. Something else occurred to Feena as wellshe'd left Shar's disk clutched in the corpse's hand. If the disk had been found, surely they would have mentioned it.
Even if she could convince them that the man had been a Sharran cultist and a follower of the immortal enemy of Selune, could any dispute justify the ravaged body that had been found? If she confessed to what had happened, Feena realized, she'd be forced to defend what hadn't.
She must have been silent too long. Manas and Colle exchanged another glance. The guard captain pulled his thumbs from his belt.
"Moonmistress," he said, "can you answer some questions for us?"
Feena's tongue felt as if it were stuck to the roof of her mouth.
"Such as?" she asked. "Where were you last night?"
"She was with me," called Julith. The dark-haired priestess stepped out from the depths of the temple. She walked with grace and her voice was steady, but her face was flushed. She must have run all the way back down to the gate from Dhauna's quarters, Feena realized. Julith stopped just on the other side of the guard captain and the High Luck, forcing them to divide their attention between her and Feena. "We were here, at Moonshadow Hall."
"All night?" Manas asked her.
Julith nodded and said, "We were holding vigil for the health of the High Moonmistress." She inclined her head toward Colle. "I'm sure the High Luck has told you Dhauna Myritar's health has failed her of late? It's most gratifying to see the concern that the high clergy of Yhaunn share for each other."
There wasn't a trace of irony in her voiceshe could have been offering Colle genuine praiseyet the statement pushed the weight of the visit smoothly onto the high priest and left him red-faced and sputtering. Manas looked back to Feena.
"Were you holding vigil here last night?" he asked
Feena swallowed. Did Julith have a plan? She hoped so.
"Yes," she lied.
Manas raised an eyebrow. Colle's sputtering ground down into indignation and he snapped, "An invocation to Tymora would enforce the truth, Manas!"
Feena's heart lurched, but Julith's response was swift and calm. "High Luck," she asked, "are you questioning the honesty of Selune's priestesses within her own temple? Would you ask the same of Dhauna Myritar if she were here?"
Colle's mouth opened, then closed as he struggled for words in the face of Julith's serene challenge. "I would never question the High. Moonmistress" he managed finally, but Julith cut him off again.
"Then why do you question the Moonmistress-Designate? She is the High Moonmistress's voice and her chosen successor at Moonshadow Hall." Julith caught Feena's eye as she spoke. "Challenging her is the same as challenging Dhauna Myritar herself!"
Moonmaiden's grace, Feena cursed silently as she caught the priestess's meaning, do you know what you're asking, Julith? Selune give charm to my lying tongue!
The priestess of a country village might be intimidated by a guard captain of Yhaunn and a high priest of Tymorabut not the Moonmistress-Designate of Moonshadow Hall. She had authority. She needed to use it. Dredging up memories of Dhauna in her prime, Feena raised her chin and looked first Manas, then Colle, directly in the eye.
"You don't think I'm telling the truth?" she demanded. Tve spoken within the holy confines of Moonshadow Halland you doubt me?"