“What, are you mad?” Mez’Barris snapped. “Allying with outsiders? Who is there to trust? No matter how we approach such an alliance, the moment we reveal that we cannot receive blessings from our own goddess, potential allies will either laugh uproariously or trip over themselves running to spread the news.”
“Don’t be dense,” Byrtyn snapped right back. “I know how fond you are of the straightforward, brutal-truth method for everything, but there are better, more subtle ways of luring an ally into your bed. Potential suitors need not know about your shortcomings until after you have partaken of their charms.”
“Not being able to defend our own city from attack would be too obvious a shortcoming to try to hide,” Zeerith said, frowning. “Our own charms will have to be most convincing to blind such potential suitors from the truth. Still, the idea has merit.”
“It is impossible,” Matron Mez’Barris said, folding her thick arms and leaning back as though dismissing the discussion. “The risk of discovery by our enemies would only be magnified, and the rewards are certainly not worth it.”
“Spoken like a hag with few to share her bed,” Byrtyn said smugly, stretching languidly to make certain her own well-rounded figure was plainly visible through the sheer fabric of her shimmering dress. “And one who’s always trying to convince herself that she’s better off without them, anyway.”
Several of the other high priestesses gasped at the insult, but Mez’Barris only narrowed her piercing red eyes, staring daggers at Byrtyn.
“Enough!” Triel said finally, interrupting the glaring contest between the two matron mothers. “This bickering is pointless, and it’s beneath us all.”
She looked pointedly at both Mez’Barris and Byrtyn until both of them ceased their glowering and turned their attention back to her.
If only Jeggred were here, the matron mother of House Baenre thought.
Triel wondered briefly if she should be disturbed that she was once again wishing for the draegloth’s soothing presence in the face of such adversity. It was something else she had caught herself doing often of late, and she feared what it symbolized. Perhaps she had grown to rely too much on external protection rather than her own abilities. She feared that it was a weakness, and weakness was definitely something she could ill afford in the current climate.
No, she corrected herself, not just now, not ever.
But the need for allies, however brief and volatile such alliances tended to be, were a necessary part of her life.
Maybe Byrtyn is right, she thought. Maybe that’s what Menzoberranzan needs: an ally. Another nation, a race from the Underdark, to aid the noble Houses until this crisis has passed.
Triel tightened her jaw and shook her head softly, determined to banish such silly notions from her mind.
Nonsense, she told herself firmly. Menzoberranzan is the strongest city in the Underdark. We need no one. We will prevail as we always have, through cunning, and guile, and the favor of the goddess. Wherever she is. . . .
“I know very well the state of things in Menzoberranzan,” Triel said, looking eye to eye with each matron mother present. “The crisis we face tests us—tests us more severely than any ever confronted by the ruling Houses in all the city’s history—but we cannot let it get in the way of resolute administration of the city. The moment we begin to squabble, the moment we do not show a united front to the other Houses, to Tier Breche or Bregan D’aerthe, is the moment we show it to the rest of the world, and by then all is already lost.
“For the time being, we continue to show patience. Discussion of ways to deal with the crisis is welcome—calm, respectful discussion—” and Triel once again inclined her head toward the two matron mothers—“or suggestions for new ways to explore what has happened to Lolth, but there is to be no more of this talk of fear or cowardice, and no more of these insults. That is the behavior of foolish males or the lesser races. We conduct the business of our Houses and our council as we have always done.”
Triel made certain to catch each and every matron mother with her own gaze this time, staring intently into each pair of red eyes in turn, wanting to ensure that everyone present got her message—that and to ensure that she was showing a strong face.
Slowly, one by one, the other matron mothers nodded, willing, at least for the time being, to acquiesce to the Baenre’s demands.
Wielding power always requires such a delicate touch Triel reminded herself as the group broke apart and the other high priestesses went their separate ways, returning to their homes. Like a supple switch, if you swing it about too vigorously, you just end up breaking it on the slave you are trying to goad.
chapter
two
“I told you coming this way was a mistake,” Pharaun panted as he pulled up from his headlong run.
The passage before the drow wizard ended abruptly, blocked by a great gray mass of spongy material that completely filled the tunnel. Turning back to face the direction from which he’d come, the dark elf quickly sloughed off his finely crafted knapsack, lowered it to the rocky floor, and scooted it out of the way with his foot.
“Don’t gloat, Mizzrym,” Quenthel said, her scowl heavy, stumbling up beside him.
The five snake heads that dangled, writhing, from the whip at the Baenre high priestess’s hip rose up and hissed their own displeasure at the wizard, duplicating their mistress’s mood, as usual. Quenthel yanked the scourge free of her belt and took up a position beside Pharaun, waiting.
The draegloth was right on the haughty drow’s heels. Jeggred bore not one but two heavy bundles, and when the four-armed fiend reached the pair of dark elves, he tossed the supplies to the floor, apparently not the least bit winded from bearing them. He flashed a savage, twisted smile that exposed his yellowish fangs and turned around, advancing a few steps to position himself between Quenthel and anything that might come from the other direction, a low growl rumbling deep in his demonic throat.
The Master of Sorcere was in no mood for putting up with the high priestess’s foul temper, and he grimaced as he considered several spells. Settling on one, he fished around in his piwafwi, fetching from a pocket inside the extravagant cloak the reagents he would need to weave the chosen magic. Eventually, he produced a bit of squid tentacle. He had warned them they would be trapped if they came this way, and so had Valas, but Quenthel had insisted. As usual, it was up to Pharaun to extricate them all.
Faeryl Zauvirr was the next to stumble into view, her breathing labored. The ambassador from Ched Nasad spotted the blockage in the passage and groaned, sliding her pack from her back and tossing it with a thud to the rocky floor next to the others’. She wearily produced a small crossbow from her own piwafwi and placed herself on the wizard’s other side.
“They’re right behind us,” Ryld Argith announced as he and the last member of the drow contingent, Valas Hune, sprinted from around the curve of the passage.
Past the burly warrior and the diminutive scout, Pharaun could see the red glow of multiple pairs of eyes advancing on the group’s position. The creatures peered forward eagerly, and the wizard estimated nearly two dozen tanarukks.
Stooped forward as though afflicted with a hunched back, the creatures were reminiscent of orcs, though their features were decidedly more demonic, with their scaled, sloping foreheads and their prominent tusks. They wore little armor, for their hides were scaly and tough, but the battle-axes many of them brandished were heavy and vicious-looking.
Pharaun shook his head in resignation and prepared to weave a spell.
The tanarukks howled in delight and lunged forward, eager, it seemed, to take the battle to their cornered prey. Several swarmed at Jeggred, and the fiend bellowed his own war cry, crouching and slashing wildly. He tossed one of the tanarukks aside effortlessly, slamming it against the far wall, near Ryld’s position.
Pharaun gaped for a moment at the unbridled might and ferocity the draegloth displayed, even as two more of the humanoid attackers went down befor
e the precision slashing of Splitter, the enchanted greatsword wielded with greater skill by Ryld Argith. Faeryl fired her crossbow from beside Pharaun then stooped to reload it. Quenthel, in the meantime, seemed content to watch her subordinates at work. More of the tanarukks swarmed in, though, and the wizard almost didn’t react in time to one that slipped through the line of defense that Jeggred and Ryld had formed.
The slavering, green-skinned tanarukk leaped toward the wizard, its axe cocked back for a savage blow. Pharaun was just able to backstep enough to avoid the slashing blade as it swooshed through the air where his face had been a heartbeat before. He considered calling the magical rapier from the enchanted ring that held it, tiny and out of the way until needed, but he knew the effort would be futile. The thin blade would never withstand the force of the axe, and besides, he couldn’t get enough room between himself and the beast to use the more nimble weapon effectively. He was quickly running out of space to maneuver.
When the tanarukk arched its back and howled in pain and fury, Pharaun saw that Quenthel was behind it, already drawing her arm back for another swipe with her dreaded whip. The tanarukk whirled around, still screaming in anger. It raised its axe high for a killing blow, but before either it or the high priestess could finish their attacks, a flash of shadow materialized at the edge of Pharaun’s field of vision—and the shadow became Valas Hune.
The mercenary scout darted in low behind the green-skinned creature and pulled one of his kukris harshly across the tanarukk’s hamstring, crippling it with the oddly curved knife. Black blood spurted everywhere from the deep wound as the beast sank to one knee, flailing feebly with its hands, trying to find the source of its torment. As quickly as Valas had appeared, he was gone, vanished again in the shadows.
Quenthel took the opportunity to bring the whip down on the tanarukk again, and Pharaun saw the fangs of the snake heads sink deeply into the flesh of the creature’s face and neck. Already, it was beginning to cough and choke, its face and tongue bloating, poisoned by the lashes from the whip. It dropped its axe and crumpled to the floor, spasming and crying out in anguish.
Pharaun realized he was holding his breath and exhaled sharply, regaining his wits. Disgusted with himself for being so undisciplined, he remembered the tiny piece of squid tentacle that he had in his hand. Righting himself, he made a rapid inspection of the battlefield in order to determine where best to place the spell he had in mind.
A host of dead tanarukks had piled up around Jeggred and Ryld, but still the remaining creatures fought their way to get nearer the pair, snarling and leaping about, looking for an opening where they could use their axes. The wizard decided he could easily position the magic behind those few savage humanoids that remained, but then he paused, startled.
A face had caught the drow mage’s eye at the far back of the passage. He blinked and peered more carefully, not trusting his assumption. Lurking in the darkness, watching the battle, was a beautiful woman. Pharaun found her attractive, despite the fact that she was not a drow but appeared human. Black curly hair framed her face, and she was dressed in a tight, shiny leather corset that hugged her curves like a second skin. She seemed to be saying something to the last rank of humanoids, giving them orders and gesturing, but when she noticed Pharaun staring at her, she smiled, her highly arched eyebrows raising even farther in a bemused grin. That was when the wizard also noticed the black, leathery wings sprouting from her back. She wasn’t human after all.
Pharaun shook his head in wonder. Such a gorgeous creature commanding a company of foul-smelling, enraged half-fiends somehow didn’t seem right to the wizard. But, beautiful or not, she was on the other side of the fight. Sooner or later, he supposed, she would have to be dealt with.
Not here, though; not now.
Snapping back to the task at hand, Pharaun finished casting the dweomer he had chosen, and a collection of black tentacles sprang up, situated between the contingent of drow and the remaining tanarukks. Each of the slimy, writhing things was as thick as his thigh and squirming around, trying to locate anything to entangle. Too late, Pharaun noticed that Ryld had felled the remaining enemies that had challenged him directly and was stepping forward, ready to confront the handful that hung back.
Pharaun opened his mouth to shout a warning to the weapons master, but before the words were out he saw Jeggred reach over and grasp the Master of Melee-Magthere by the collar of his breastplate and yank him back, out of harm’s way. An instant later, one of the tentacles wrapped itself around the lifeless body of a tanarukk that had been at Ryld’s feet and quickly coiled more tightly, constricting the corpse. If the weapons master had still been there, it would have been his leg instead.
Numerous other tentacles squirmed and lashed out, grasping the surprised tanarukks and coiling around them. The creatures bellowed and screamed, thrashing and biting as the tentacles began to crush the life out of them. The she-demon on the far side merely arched one eyebrow at the appearance of the spell, taking a single step back so that she was clearly beyond the reach of the writhing black appendages. She seemed oddly content to watch as one by one, her troops began to grow silent, their breath lost, their ribs cracked.
Pharaun didn’t waste time waiting for the spell to end and allow either the beautiful fiend or any of her remaining minions to reach his team. Not wanting to reveal the extent of his magic any more than necessary, the wizard stooped quickly and slapped at the ground before him. He took one last look at the beautiful fiend opposite him as darkness welled up between them. The moment that spell was finished, he began another, producing a pinch of gem dust from another pocket and weaving a spell that placed an invisible wall between the drow and the tanarukks.
The magical barrier was impervious to any normal attack, would withstand most magical assaults, and would buy the expedition time to find another way out. The wall of energy would not hold indefinitely, but it would last long enough for them to figure out how to escape unseen. Pharaun dusted his hands as he stepped back from the casting.
“Well, a fine solution that is,” Quenthel sniped, “sealing us in here. We’d be better off facing those filthy beasts on the other side than just sitting here.”
Ryld hunched down nearby, breathing heavily, cleaning his blade with a piece of cloth. Faeryl slumped, exhausted, against the far wall, trying to catch her breath. Only Jeggred and Valas seemed unwinded, both of them standing easy. The scout moved to study the blockage, while the draegloth hovered near Quenthel.
“As I tried to tell you,” Pharaun retorted, running his hand along the surface of the damp, gray substance that prevented their passing, “this is the Araumycos. It could go on for miles.”
The drow wizard knew his scolding tone was unmistakable, but he didn’t care. Quenthel let out an exasperated sigh as she leaned against the wall of the passage. A massive fungus, the Araumycos resembled nothing so much as the exterior of a brain. It completely filled the passage.
“At least we can stop running for a while,” Quenthel said. “I’m sick of carrying this damned thing.”
She growled, kicking at the knapsack at her feet. She began rubbing her shoulders.
Pharaun shook his head, amazed at the high priestess’s stubbornness. The mage had tried to be as deferential as possible, to let her see the folly of heading in this direction, but despite his warnings—and Valas’s—the Mistress of Arach-Tinilith had, with her usual haughty demeanor, browbeat them into obeying her wishes anyway. Now they were pinned against the bloated growth, just as he had predicted, and she was simply going to ignore that fact.
Pharaun pursed his lips in vexation as he watched her out of the corner of his eye. She labored to work the stiffness out of her shoulders. He could only imagine the discomfort she must be feeling, but he had no pity for her plight. Despite the fact that his own haversack was magically lightened, Pharaun’s shoulders ached, too. They had gone far beyond sore and were, he was certain, chaffed raw.
“Ah, yes,” he said, continuing t
o examine the spongy growth, “you’ve made it quite clear how far beneath a Baenre—the Mistress of the Academy no less—it is to . . . how did you say it? . . . ‘demean herself like a common slave lugging rothé dung through the moss beds.’ But, I would respectfully point out—again—that it was your masterful tactical decision to leave our thralls and pack lizards behind, tethered and bleeding, in order to facilitate our escape from those cloakers.”
The wizard knew full well that his cutting remarks would further sour her already unpleasant mood, but he truly didn’t care. Getting under Quenthel’s skin gave him no end of delight, even during trying circumstances such as these.
“You presume much, boy,” the high priestess snapped as she stood straight again, glaring balefully at him. “Perhaps too much. . . .”
Still not looking at her, Pharaun rolled his eyes where she could not see.
“A thousand times a thousand pardons, Mistress,” he said, sensing the time was ripe to change the subject. “So I suppose you no longer intend to bother with the goods you think are stored in the Black Claw Mercantile storehouses in Ched Nasad. Even if they do rightfully belong to House Baenre, how are we going to get them back to Menzoberranzan? You certainly won’t carry them, and once word gets around that you like to use your pack animals and drovers as bait, no one else will, either.”
Pharaun stole a sidelong glance at the high priestess, mostly for the simple pleasure of observing her disgruntled state. Quenthel’s scowl was particularly severe, drawing out fully the vertical line that ran between her brows and giving her that pinched look that the mage was beginning to find unduly comical. The wizard stifled a chuckle.
That managed to get under her skin, he thought, grinning, but then he noticed Jeggred moving to stand between the two of them.
The beast loomed over the wizard, and Pharaun’s grin vanished. He held his breath as the draegloth smiled balefully. The fiend’s fetid panting cascaded over him, making his stomach turn.
R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen: Dissolution, Insurrection, Condemnation Page 41
