bed quietly and knelt, not wanting to disturb Headmistress Pertelope's sleep. If Headmaster Avery had been Cadderly's surrogate father, then wise Pertelope had been his mother. Now, with his newfound insight into the harmonious song of Deneir, Cadderly felt that he needed Pertelope more than ever. For she, too, heard the mysterious notes of that unending song; she, too, transcended the normal boundaries of the clerical order. If Pertelope had been beside Cadderly in his discussion with Thobicus, then his reasoning would have been bolstered, and the withered dean would have been forced to accept the truth of Cadderly's insights.
But Pertelope could not be with him. She lay in her bed, deathly ill, caught in the throes of a magical enchantment gone wild. Her body had been trapped in a transformation somewhere between the smooth and soft skin of a human and the sharp-edged denticles of a shark, and now neither air nor water could satisfy the headmistress's physical needs.
Cadderly stroked her hair, more gray than he remembered it, as though Pertelope had aged. He was somewhat surprised when she opened her eyes, which still held their inquisitive luster, and managed a smile in his direction.
Cadderly strained to return that look.
"You must recover your strength," he whispered to her.
"I need you."
Pertelope smiled again, and her eyes slowly closed.
Cadderly's sigh was one of helpless resignation. He started to turn away from the bed, not wanting to tax Perte-lope's depleted strength, but the headmistress unexpectedly spoke to him.
"How went your meeting with Dean Thobicus?"
Cadderly turned back to her, surprised by the strength in that voice, and surprised also that Pertelope even knew he had met with the dean. She had not been out of her room in many days, and on the few occasions Cadderly had come to visit her, he had not mentioned his upcoming meeting.
He should have expected that she would know, though. As he considered the revelation, he reminded himself that she, too, heard the song of Deneir. She and Cadderly were intimately joined by forces far beyond what the other priests of the library could even understand, joined by a communal bathing in the river that was their god's song.
"It did not go well," Cadderly admitted. "Dean Thobicus does not understand," Pertelope reasoned, and Cadderly suspected that the headmistress had suffered many similar meetings with Thobicus and other priests who could not comprehend her special relationship with Deneir.
"He questioned my authority in branding Kierkan Rufo," Cadderly explained. "And he ordered that I hand the Ghearufu..." Cadderly paused, wondering how he might quickly explain the dangerous device. Pertelope squeezed his hand, though, and smiled, and he knew that she understood.
"Dean Thobicus ordered me to turn it over to the library supervisor," Cadderly finished.
"You do not approve of that course?"
"I fear it," Cadderly admitted. There is a will within the artifact, a sentient force almost, that may overcome any who handle it. I, myself, have had to struggle against the alluring calls of the Ghearufu since I took it from the assassin's burned body."
"You sound arrogant, young priest," Pertelope interrupted, her emphasis on the word "young."
Cadderly paused to consider the response. Perhaps his feelings could be considered arrogant, but he believed them nonetheless. He could control the force of the Ghearufit, had controlled it to this point, at least Cadderly realized that he held a special insight now, a gift from Deneir, that others of his order, with the exception of Pertelope, seemed to lack.
"That is good," the headmistress said, answering her own accusation. Cadderly eyed her curiously, not quite understanding where her reasoning was leading.
"Deneir has called upon you," Pertelope explained. "You must trust in that call. When you first discovered your budding powers, you did not understand them and you feared them. It was only when you came to trust in them that you learned their uses and limitations. So it must be with your instincts and your emotions, feelings heightened by the song that ever plays in your mind. Do you believe that you know what is the best course concerning the Ghearufit?"
"I know," Cadderly replied firmly, not caring that he did indeed sound arrogant
*And concerning Kierkan Rufo's brand?"
Cadderly spent a moment considering the question, for Rufo's case seemed to encompass many more edicts of proper procedure, procedures that Cadderly had obviously circumvented. "I did as the ethics of Deneir instructed me," he decided. "Still, DeanThobicus doubts my authority with good cause."
"From his perspective," Pertelope replied. "Yours was a moral authority, while the dean's power over such