Mistress of the Night - Don Bassingthwaite [68]
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.
"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.
"Nothing-not 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 more-but 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 deliverance-even if it had been at the arrogant hands of Keph Thingoleir-and 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