"yield!"
Energy, invisible and formless, surged in the rawest expression of Selune's faith, the ultimate power of the goddess of the moon over a creature of the night. It ripped away any illusion of control, and Feena howled as helpless terror seized her, wolf and woman recoiling as one from Selune's high priestess. Instinct took over. She scrambled back, tripping over her own legs in panic. A stack of scrolls blocked her way. Her claws shredded the ancient parchments as she thrust herself as far as possible from Dhauna.
Cold stone stopped her. She pressed herself into a corner, the hair on her neck bristling high, her teeth bared.
Dhauna turned with her, one hand still presenting Selune's symbol, the other still clenched around silver light.
"You are weak, Feena Archwood," she raved. "Weak and foolish! I am Selune's hope. Her warnings speak to me, and through me the New Moon Pact will be reborn! Through me, her faith will be cleansed. I will be her hand. There will be no fear. There will be no heresy, and no heretics." Her eyes narrowed. "Have they taken you, Feena?" she asked. "Have they already caught you in their web of lies?"
The words barely pierced Feena's terror. All she could do was growl at her tormentor. Saliva fell in a long string from her mouth. Dhauna bared her own teeth in response.
"You will be restored, Feena. I promise that. You will see I'm right. I do this out of love for Our Silver Lady." Her eyes shone fever bright. "Now do what your goddess calls you to do!"
She took a step forward.
Cornered, driven beyond fear, Feena snarled, snapped then leaped. Powerful jaws bit down, tearing into Dhauna's outstretched arm. Dhauna shrieked as she stumbled backward under the wolfs weight. Blood spurted hot in Feena's mouth.
– Keph turned to look down the table. Roderio looked back at him. His brother satalong with Strasus, Dagnalla, Malia, and Krinat the dining table of Fourstaves Hall. Just as they had for breakfast. Keph's breakfast was laid out before him as well. The Sky's Mantle was gone. So were the Sharrans except for Jarull and Variance. They stood behind him, hands on his shoulders. Keph stared at Roderio.
"What do you mean by that?" Keph demanded.
Roderio snorted derisively and said, "Just what I said, little brother." He pushed his breakfast away. "You're always taking someone else's place, borrowing someone else's power. From the day you were born, always 'Mama, I want Rodo's food! Mama, I want Rodo's toys!'" Roderio's voice rose high and whining. "'Da, I want magic like Rodo and Mali!'"
"Roderio," said Dagnalla, "don't taunt your brother. He's too young to know any better."
Roderio just made a face. "So now you're going to be Shar's dark priest, is that it, Keph? You're still just borrowing power. Even if you have magic now, it's not yours. It's Shar's."
"Shut your mouth!" screamed Keph. He lifted a clenched fist and opened it.
Dark, glittering magesbane dust was heaped on his palm. He flung it at Roderio.
His anger caught it and turned it into a shining, swarming cloud. Suddenly his brother was flailing back away from the table, shrieking and tearing at his clothes as glittering particles settled onto his skin and collapsed into drops of thick, yellow-green acid. His robes began to smolder. When he turned to Keph again, huge red sores had been eaten into his face. Acid poured in smoking streams from his eyes. Skin was sloughing off his melting hands.
"Keph…"he choked.
Fear stabbed into Keph's heart. What had he done?
"Rodo!" he gasped, and started to rise.
Hands held him firm.
"Tell me you regret it," said Jarull.
"The agony of an enemy's spirit is joy to the Mistress of the Night," said Variance.
Keph watched Roderio slump into formless, bilious ooze.
"No!" he shouted, struggling to stand. Variance's grip tightened harshly and she look down on him.
"False regret," she hissed. "Everything that you've done, you've done deliberately."
"Keph?" Malia said, staring at him in loathing and hatred. Krin and Dagnalla were staring too. Only Strasus kept eating, oblivious as Malia spat at her youngest brother. "This was no accident? You did this?"
He shook his head in desperate denial, but his sister was already rising. Her staff was in her hands, a shimmer of force surrounding it. Dagnalla held a staff as well. Krin was drawing a wand.
Jarull held out his fist. From between his fingers, black grains of magesbane sifted down. He opened his hand and flicked his wrist. Dust scattered through the air like a wave of shadow. Keph sucked in a breath.
"Mali!" he shouted, straining forward. "Don't"
Too late. Malia held up her staff, spoke a sharp word, and the magesbane exploded.
The blast was deafening. It slammed Keph back into his chair and hammered against his chest. He felt dry grit, like wind-blown sand, sting his cheeks, but he couldn't see anythingthe explosion was dark and cold, without heat or light. Keph screamed against it, flinging up an arm to protect his facepure reflexbut it was already too late.
Variance and Jarull swayed, their grip on him firm.
Silence followed. Keph lowered his arm and stared at the devastation. Black dust hung thick in the air. The dining table was gone, with only a few scattered splinters to mark its passing. The walls of Fourstaves House were broken stone, the roof and upper floors blasted away. Keph could see the black sky looming close above.
There was no sign of Dagnalla, Malia, Krin, or the foul ooze that had been Roderio.
Or of Strasus. His father was gone.
Keph sat back. His heart felt… dark. And empty.
"Shar's blessing," said Jarull. "The Lady of Loss touches you."
His hands were gone from Keph's shoulder. So were Variance's. Keph rose unsteadily and turned around to find them facing him, silently watching" He swallowed.
"This isn't what I wanted," he said.
"You made the sacrifice," Variance replied. "Your family for Shar's embrace." She held out the sacrificial knife, the same one Bolan had put into his hand in Shar's temple only five nights before. Keph stared at it. Blood stained the blade. Adrey's blood.
"No," he breathed. "That was an illusion. Adrey"
Doors banged open behind him. He spun around.
A woman in a swordfighter's costume strode through the ruins of Fourstaves House. Lyraene. No, Keph realized with a start, not Lyraene.
Adrey. Grown up.
"I want to be like you, Uncle Keph," she said. "I want to fight like you."
Shar's disk hung around her neck.
– — ‹§› It was over in an instant.
The glare of Dhauna's magical moonlight vanished with Feena's attack. Conscious thought returned with a slap of clarity. Feena opened her jaws in shock. Dhauna's arm slipped free, and the old woman dropped to the ground and curled up around her torn arm. Footsteps pounded in the hallway outside. There were voices:
"What's going on?"
"I don't know!"
"Did you hear that? Moonmaiden's grace" "It's locked!"
"Stand aside! Bright Lady of the Night, lend me your strength!"
The clergy were coming in. Feena reached into her spirit. The wolf gave no resistance as she drew the woman back to the surface. The transformation felt like nothing at allshe shook herself back into human form just as the door of Dhauna's chamber groaned and tore out of its frame. Mifano shoved it out of the way and stumbled into the chamberthen froze. Clustered at the door, other priests and priestesses stopped as well, all of them staring in horror.
In the midst of shredded scrolls and torn clothing, Feena rose up above Dhauna's huddled, shivering form-naked, blood-smeared, and completely numb.
She drew herself up and moved toward the door. Mifano stood aside. Selune's clergy leaped to get out of her way. Feena walked past them all and out into the corridor, turning toward her room in silent, brittle dignity.