He'd just started climbing the big main stair when a shout rippled down from above: "Hey, Uncle Keph!"
Keph looked up.
Adrey stood at the head of the stairs, dressed against the heat in a simple white dress.
Just as she had looked laid out on Shar's altar.
His foot missed the next step and he stumbled, almost falling before catching himself on the banister. Adrey came leaping down the stairs to meet him.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
"I'm fine, Adrey. Thanks."
There was sweat on his forehead. Keph wiped it away with a trembling hand. No, he reminded himself, it hadn't been Adrey on the altar but an illusion. Just an illusion.
An illusion that he shoved a knife through.
Adrey's forehead creased. "You don't look fine." Her nose wrinkled. "Beshaba's ivory arms, you stink!"
"Adrey!" He gulped back the nausea that churned in his stomach. "Language!"
"I'm not Adrey today," she replied. "Guess who I am."
The girl jumped back and waved a stick at him. He squinted at it.
"That's not one of your father's wands, is it?"
"It's not a wand." She lunged forward and poked at him.
Keph reacted instinctively, turning so that the blow slid past him, then stepping clear and reaching for Quick's hilt. Adrey spun around to face him.
"You have Tymora's own luck," she crowed, "but I'll change that!"
She flicked the stick menacingly back and forth through the air like a rapier.
Dark, gasped Keph in silent shock, then said, "Adrey, what are you doing?"
"What?" Adrey looked down at her feet. "Am I standing wrong?"
Keph's hand was still on Quick's hilt. He forced it away and said, "You should be practicing your magic. If you don't practice, you won't become a wizard. You don't want that."
He stretched out his hand to take the stick, but she twitched it out of reach and made a face.
"Everyone around here is a wizard," she whined. "I don't want to do that anymore. I want to learn to fight like you do!"
Keph clenched his teeth and said, "No, you don't."
She looked puzzled.
"I've watched you practicing," Adrey replied. "It looks more fun than learning cantrips."
"Well, I think cantrips are more interesting."
Adrey made another face and said, "Well, they aren't. There's only one way to do them and if you don't get it right, they don't work." She swiped her stick through the air again. "Come on, Uncle Keph! Show me something."
Sweat trickled cold over Keph's flushed face. His head throbbed.
"Maybe later, Adrey," Keph said. "I… need to go to my room."
He turned away back up the stairs. Adrey looked disappointed, but stepped out of his way.
"Do you want me to tell Gran that you're not feeling good?" she called.
"No, thank you."
"All right." Keph heard her start to trot on down the stairs. "I hope you're feeling better soon. I love you, Uncle Keph!"
Keph twisted around to look at her, but she was already bounding across the entry hall, maybe looking for her grandparents in the dining room.
CHAPTER 10
"I've heard back from the various followers of Selune who help us keep watch for Sharran activity around Yhaunn," Julith said.
Feena glanced at her as they paced through the corridors of Moonshadow Hall. "And?" she asked.
"Nothingnot around the Stiltways, not anywhere. If there are Sharrans in the city, they're keeping very, very quiet."
Feena gave the younger priestess a faint smile and said, "I notice that you're not ruling out their presence all together."
"You saw what you saw," Julith said, "and caution never hurts." She returned Feena's glance. "I discovered something else, though. After your encounter, Mifano never even bothered to check with the watchers."
Feena pressed her lips together. "Too sure of his own assessment of the situation, I suspect. Did the watchers have anything to say about…" She grimaced. "Anything else?"
"The Stiltways are humming with stories of werewolves," Julith replied. "The tales have spread a little bit into the city at large, but seem to be mostly dismissed as drunken ravings. No one except High Luck Shoondeep seems to have made any connection to you, though."
"I hope it stays that way," Feena said bitterly.
After her experience at the Cutter's Dip three nights before, she had hastened back to Moonshadow Hall, sticking to Yhaunn's more brightly lit streets. A quick leap over the kitchen wall had brought her back to safety once morebut it hadn't been until she'd collapsed into a chair in Julith's room that the harrowing danger had really hit her. She'd tracked the servants of Malar in Arch Wood, even fought vampires in Selgaunt, but a mob of unarmed drunks had almost brought her down. Feena had given fervent thanks to Selune for her deliveranceeven if it had been at the arrogant hands of Keph Thingoleirand paid serious attention to Julith when she suggested that maybe another approach was needed.
Even if that approach failed to yield results, it was better than risking her furry skin chasing Sharrans that might or might not exist. Besides, with Julith to support her, there was more than enough to keep her busy around Moonshadow Hall.
They approached a door that opened onto the cloisters.
"Ready?" asked Julith.
Feena smoothed the simple pale blue gown that the seamstress had prepared for her and checked the silver web in her hair.
"Ready," she said.
Julith pulled open the door. Feena walked through, passed across the shaded walkway, and stepped out into the golden light of afternoon that flooded the courtyard.
Around Selune's sacred pool, a group of about a dozen people were gathered: representatives of the city's merchants, craft guilds, the Nessarch's office, and the high priests and priestesses of the council of templeseven Colle Shoondeep. Velsinore and Mifano were there as well, Mifano making restrained conversation with various people while Velsinore kept a critical eye on the acolytes who moved among the group, offering chilled wine.
"Thank you all for coming," Feena called.
Conversation stilled and faces turned toward her as she walked across the grass. The acolytes made a silent, graceful exit, except for one who quickly brought wine to Feena and Julith before departing. Feena inclined her head to her guests. They returned the gesturesome more enthusiastically and graciously than others. Colle barely nodded. Mifano's bow was deep but cold and stiff. Velsinore didn't move at all.
Feena ignored the three of them.
"As some of you may know," she said, pronouncing each word as clearly as she had practiced with Julith, "it has become a tradition at Moonshadow Hall to open our doors to the poor of Yhaunn on the night of the new moon in what we call the New Moon Beneficence."
"And a wonderful tradition it is, too!" said Endress Halatar.
Feena nodded in acknowledgement of her praise and said, "It is always popular, and it has won Moonshadow Hall much favor in the less wealthy parts of the city. The New Moon Beneficence was never intended to bring worshipers to Selune, however, only to provide some relief to the poor. We can't help all of them, though. Each new moon, we find ourselves turning people away. That's why I would like to invite you allother temples, the city, merchants, and guildsto share in this act of charity. All of us are wealthy. If we work together one night a month; we would be able to provide for many, many people."
The group reacted in startled silence, glancing among themselves, some with an expression of immediate skepticism, some with cautious interest. Velsinore and Mifano, of course, looked ready to spit fire, but they didn't dare say anythingchallenging their Moonmistress-Designate in front of outsiders would only highlight the division within Moonshadow Hall.. Feena held her breath. The reaction was exactly what Julith had predicted, and if only the guests would react in accordance with the rest of the young priestess's expectations