The House Of Gaian

mouth.
    With proper care and proper nourishment, she might recover enough to regain some of her power. But not enough to be useful to him. He would give her to the apprentices. One could not learn to use an Inquisitor’s tools without practice.
    Two hours later, Adolfo returned to the room.
    There was no sound from the wooden cage.
    He spent several minutes trying to sense any lingering power from the spell he’d cast. There was none.
    Even the power he’d used to create the protective circle had been absorbed.
    Gingerly taking hold of a corner of the cloth, he stepped back as he pulled the cloth away. Then he studied what was inside the cage.
    When his men used the Inquisitor’s Gift to draw magic from an Old Place and release it again to twist the things it touched, there was no control over what was changed. It might cause a new well to go dry, or a cow might birth a two-headed calf, or a field of grain might whither and die overnight... or something living might be changed into something out of a nightmare. A flesh eater. A soul eater. A nighthunter. But there had been no way to control that twisted magic, no way to use it for a specific purpose.
    Until now.
    Even though he was certain the creature was dead, he approached the cage cautiously.
    The squirrel had changed into a nighthunter. Almost. One hind leg, or what was left of it, was still furred.
    Unable to escape from the cage to hunt for other prey, the nighthunter had turned on the unchanged part of itself, ripping through flesh, snapping bone .. . devouring while it bled to death.
    Excitement shivered through Adolfo. There hadn’t been enough power left in the old witch to complete the change. He would have to soften the next one faster so that her body was still ripe enough with power to provide what he needed.
    Despite the creature’s incomplete transformation, the experiment had worked. Before, it had been chance and the strength and number of Inquisitors drawing power from an Old Place that determined the creation of nighthunters.
    Now he could create them whenever he chose.
     
    The remains would have to be burned. He wasn’t ready to share this with his Inquisitors yet. Which meant giving the task to someone he could trust to remain silent for the time being.
    Ubel.
    Yes. He’d have Ubel take care of it.
    “And then, my fine Inquisitor,” Adolfo said quietly, “once you’ve seen what’s in this room, look me in the eyes and tell me I’ve gone soft.”

 

     
     

Chapter 7

 

     
     

     
    dark of the moon
     
    Selena and Rhyann rode into the Old Place, reining in a few steps after crossing the boundary they recognized by the slightly different feel of the land.
    “This is it.” Selena rested a hand on Mistrunner’s neck to keep the gray stallion quiet. “This is where the Ladies of the Moon will gather tomorrow night to see who will become the Huntress.”
    “Are you sure?” Rhyann asked, looking around. “It doesn’t feel any different than the other Old Places we’ve seen on the way here.”
    “I’m sure,” Selena replied. Power thrummed through the land, but it wasn’t the power from the Great Mother’s four branches. This was power from the Fae side of her heritage, seeking a way to fill her. It’s not time yet. Not quite yet .
    She raised her arm, and her hand swung like a compass needle until it was aligned with the core of that power. “Somewhere in that direction. That’s where the Fae will gather. That’s where the power is gathering.”
    Rhyann frowned at her. “What does it feel like?”
    Selena lowered her arm. “Heavy. Full.”
    “And how do you feel?”
    Ripe. Juicy. Swollen with desire. For what, I’m not even sure. The power calls me. I have to answer.
    “Selena?”
    She saw the fierce concern in Rhyann’s eyes. They had lived in the same house, had argued and laughed and cried together for years. In another day or two, they would separate to follow their own life journeys, and things would never be the same again. “I’m going to miss you, little sister.”
     
    “We have some time left,” Rhyann said quietly. ‘Tonight is still the dark of the moon.“
    Selena shook her head. “Endings and beginnings. Tomorrow the new moon rises, and the Fae will gather for whatever will come.”
    “These tests or challenges or whatever they’re called always happen at the full moon. That’s the way it goes in the stories we’ve heard about the Fae.”
    “Not this time. The power will rise with