by Lisa Smedman
"Yes," the priestess repeated softly. "Plenty of time."
Her eyes reminded Halisstra of another priestess who'd succumbed to Halisstra's bae'qeshel magic, years ago. Seyll had stared just as trustingly into Halisstra's eyes a heartbeat before Halisstra plunged a sword into her. And yet Seyll had told Halisstra, as she lay dying, that no one was beyond redemption-not even Halisstra.
She'd been wrong.
This priestess had a wide mouth and creases at the sides of her eyes that could only have come from frequent laughter. The frown of confusion looked out of place on her forehead. The slight bulge of her stomach hinted she might be carrying a child.
Halisstra hated her.
"What's your name, priestess?"
"Shoshara."
"I need to find Cavatina, Shoshara. She's the only one who can lift the Spider Queen's curse. The priestesses at the Lake Sember shrine told me she came here for the High Hunt. Is she still in the Shilmista Forest?"
The priestess shook her head. "Lady Cavatina left a few days ago. Lady Qilue summoned her to the Promenade."
Halisstra's jaw clenched. "Which road is she traveling?"
"She isn't going by road. She used the portal. She'll be at the Promenade already."
Halisstra hissed angrily. This was an obstacle she hadn't counted on. Portal or no, she'd never get inside the Promenade-not with a demon's mark on her palm. Her fingers inadvertently tightened on the priestess's chin, and her claws pricked flesh. When Shoshara gasped, Halisstra released her and feigned contrition, curling her body into a submissive ball. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to. Please don't hurt me again, Mistress."
The priestess rubbed her chin, then glanced at the faint smudge of blood on her fingers. "No real harm done," she said with a vague laugh. "Eilistraee's mercy is infinite." Her eyes strayed to the cleric. His mask lay flat against his mouth and nose; he no longer breathed.
Halisstra rose and caught the priestess's hands in hers. She turned Shoshara slightly, preventing her from looking at the corpse. "Shoshara, please. I can't enter the Promenade. Not looking like… this. You have to call Cavatina back to the Shilmista Forest."
"I'll send word to her. Tell her you're coming and-what's happened to you."
"No!" Halisstra cried. "Cavatina will feel immense guilt at having abandoned me. She'll refuse to come."
"Not Lady Cavatina. She has more honor than that."
"You don't know her. Not the way I do. You haven't seen what she's capable of. I…" Halisstra paused, trying to call tears to her eyes. It didn't work. "I have. Nearly two years ago, in the Demonweb Pits." She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. "Abandoned."
That emotion, at least, was easy enough for Halisstra. All she had to do was think of Eilistraee's betrayal. The Lady of the Dance had indeed turned away from Halisstra, leaving her to face Lolth alone on that first journey to the Demonweb Pits during Lolth's Silence. No matter what excuses Qilue might give, that fact remained.
And just look what had come of it.
"But Lady Cavatina returned to the Demonweb Pits after slaying Selvetarm," the priestess exclaimed. "She must have gone there to search for you, before sealing the portal."
Halisstra widened her eyes in feigned shock. "Cavatina sealed the portal? I thought that was Lolth's doing!" She shook her head in mock disbelief. "So that's why my first escape attempt failed. Cavatina betrayed my faith in her." She glared. "Cavatina should apologize to me. She owes me at least that much."
The enchantment she'd placed on Shoshara was strong; Halisstra could see the pity in the other female's eyes-and the rising anger at Cavatina's "betrayal" of Halisstra. Shoshara believed Halisstra's story. Every word of it.
"You said you have the magic to contact Cavatina?" Halisstra asked.
Shoshara nodded, much to Halisstra's relief.
"With a sending song?"
Another nod.
"Will you call her back to the Shilmista? I want to hear from Cavatina's own lips that she didn't just abandon me. But please, make up some other reason for calling her back. Don't tell Cavatina I'm here. I want to see how she reacts when she sees me, and give her the chance to explain herself. If I'm wrong about her, I wouldn't want to embarrass her or… anger her." Shoshara took a deep breath, then made her decision. "I'll do it."
The priestess sang a brief melody and stared off into the darkened woods, as if looking across a great distance. For several moments, she was silent. She frowned slightly, then nodded. "Lady Cavatina cannot come to the Shilmista. Not now. Lady Qilue is sending her away on an urgent mission. One that must preclude all else."
"Where?" Halisstra hissed. "Where is she being sent?"
Her outburst startled Shoshara. The priestess blinked. "I asked, but she wouldn't…" Her eyes strayed to the prone cleric. Then they widened. "Glorst!" she gasped. She gaped at Halisstra, eyes wide. "You-"
The charm had broken.
Halisstra lashed out, slapping the priestess's face so hard her fingers left a mark. "Die!" she shouted.
Without so much as a cry, Shoshara crumpled atop the body of her consort.
Halisstra stared down at them, her mouth twisted in a grimace of disgust. "Weak!" she spat at the priestess. "You're weak!" Her voice rose to a shriek. "Just look at what you've done!"
She yanked the priestess's body into her arms and bit it savagely on the face, throat, and arms. Again. And again. It was a bloody ruin when she at last threw the priestess down. Panting, she shook her head, clearing it. When her breathing slowed again, she bent and-very deliberately, this time-inflicted several bites on the already cooling body of the male.
She drew the priestess's sword and placed it where it might have fallen, had it tumbled from Shoshara's dead hand, and shrouded both bodies with web. Halisstra couldn't mimic a spider's digestive juices, but she could strew web about the bushes, as if it had been shot from above by spinnerets.
Halisstra was angry at herself-angry for not having first asked where the portal to the Promenade was. But she could hazard a guess. During her time at the Velarswood shrine, she'd observed priestesses, recently arrived from the Promenade, who were dripping wet. There had been a pool near that shrine, innocent looking, yet always heavily guarded from moonrise to moonset. She'd seen a similar pool in the Shilmista Forest.
She squinted through the branches at the night sky and smiled.
Eilistraee's moon would light the way to her prey.
*****
Cavatina squinted as she swam upward through the ice-cold water. The surface of the lake, bright with the light of the full moon, rippled above. They'd portaled in deep; the surface was farther above her than she'd expected. Already her lungs strained from the lack of air. When she broke the surface, she gasped in a long, grateful breath.
Treading water, she twisted around. The Moondeep Sea glowed with moonlight-bright enough to illuminate the ceiling, nearly two hundred paces above.
A head broke the surface next to her: Karas. His mask was plastered against his mouth; a shake of his head freed it. "You should have… warned us… the portal was… so deep," he gasped.
Cavatina thought the same thing-of Qilue.
"Watch for the others," she told Karas. "If any don't make it, we'll have to revive them."
That said, she levitated. A quick glance around revealed no imminent threats. Aside from the disturbance caused by the portal, the Moondeep Sea was quiet and still. She'd been wrong about it being moonlight illuminating the ceiling. Everywhere she looked, the stone that made up the cavern was infused with a faint glow. It shimmered with a pale blue light that was almost white: the largest Faerzress she a ever seen.
She counted heads as the Protectors and Nightshadows broke the surface, one by one. Some used prayers to stand upon the moonlit ripples, and others hovered just below the surface, breathing water, then rose and sprayed water from their nostrils in fine sheets.
Two of the wizards sputtered up without any visible magical aid: Q'arlynd and the young mage from the Colleg
e of Divination. A short distance from them, the female conjurer rose to the surface in a swell of water, the cupped hands of an elemental she must have summoned. As it was subsumed into the lake, a whirlpool dimpled the surface directly below. The human wizard with the staff rose out of it, bone dry, and levitated beside her.
The other wizards used equally creative methods to exit the depths. One climbed out of the lake as if scaling an invisible ladder, while another rose to the surface sucking on a blue, blown-glass bottle that didn't look as if it could possibly contain enough air to sustain her. The wizard in the gold skullcap tossed a tiny wooden box away from himself as he broke the surface, and it unfolded into a small wooden boat. He climbed, dripping, into it, and with a flick of his hand magically set its oars to sculling.
Everyone was accounted for. Those who hadn't risen from the water by magical means were treading water. Cavatina glanced around to get her bearings, then pointed at the spot where they were to meet the svirfneblin: a tunnel, bored into the cavern, with a beachlike mound of rubble in the lake below. Fortunately, it wasn't too far away.
That tunnel, she signed to the others. Make for it.
With a mental command, she lowered herself until she hung horizontally above the lake. Then she "swam" forward, immersing only her hands. When she reached the base of the rockfall, she drew her singing sword and climbed the slope. Her boots let her spring lightly from one foothold to the next. Pausing at the top, she peered into the mine tunnel. It should have been gloomy, but instead, its walls were illuminated with the faint, flickering light of the Faerzress.
Nothing stirred inside the tunnel.
That didn't surprise her. The Acropolis was several leagues away, and the Moondeep Sea was remote and rarely visited. The Crones would position any guards closer to their own cavern. Nevertheless, as the first of the Protectors reached the spot where she stood, Cavatina pointed down the narrow tunnel. Scout ahead, she ordered in silent speech, one thousand paces. Report each quarter count. The priestess nodded and disappeared into the tunnel.
Cavatina ordered another Protector to remain at the bottom of the rockfall and keep watch over the lake. That priestess took up her position, singing sword in hand, as the others climbed or levitated to the spot where Cavatina stood.
Much to her irritation, Karas set up his own guard at the bottom of the rockfall and ordered a Nightshadow into the tunnel. Cavatina caught the male's arm as he tried to pass her. "Wait," she whispered. "We'll have our first report in a moment."
The Nightshadow glanced back at Karas.
"I give the commands," she hissed at the Nightshadow. "Not him."
"Yes, Lady," he murmured.
Karas climbed up next to them. "Are we not following Qilue's orders? 'Stick together,' you quoted her as saying. Nar'bith is a master at stealth, silent as shadow. And two pairs of eyes are better than one."
Two more Nightshadows had just climbed up the rockfall behind Karas, eyes watchful above their masks.
"Four eyes are better than two," Cavatina agreed. "But if you give orders that overlap mine, there will be unfortunate consequences." She nodded at the Nightshadow whose arm she still held. "This male, skewered on the Protector's sword. I must warn my priestess he's coming."
Karas inclined his head. "Fair enough." His eyes remained unrepentant. "Warn her."
Cavatina's eyes narrowed. She knew he was trying, once again, to one-up her, to appear as if he was giving the orders, but she wasn't about to waste time sparring with him. She warned Halav with a sending then she released the Nightshadow.
He drifted away into the tunnel, his footsteps utterly silent. Karas turned away and clambered back down to the water. He disappeared from Cavatina's view.
The rest of the Nightshadows, Protectors and wizards gathered around her at the mouth of the tunnel, their sodden clothing dribbling water. Some stared at the Faerzress but most had their attention on Cavatina.
"So far, so good," she told them, voice low. "We appear to have arrived undetected." As she spoke, she wondered where the deep gnomes were. They'd been told to return that night, as soon as the full moon appeared on the underground sea's surface. But the Promenade's battlemistress hadn't been clear on how the svirfneblin would arrive. Over the Moondeep, by boat? Or from the tunnels?
Several moments passed. The Protectors stood patiently, waiting for Cavatina's orders, but the mages and Nightshadows were getting restless.
Where were those svirfneblin?
A sending came from the priestess Cavatina had ordered into the tunnel. I'm two hundred and fifty paces in, Halav reported. All clear so far.
A moment later, Karas climbed back to where Cavatina stood. "I've just found a svirfneblin in the water," he said in a low voice. "Dead."
"Show me."
She followed him down the rockfall, a handful of the others trailing behind her. As they approached, she spotted a ripple in the water, a few paces out on the Moondeep: a small animal, swimming. It looked like a rat. As if sensing her presence, the rat dived beneath the surface and vanished.
Karas squatted beside the water. There, he signed, pointing to a water-filled crevice between the rocks.
Cavatina kneeled beside him. It was a deep gnome, all right, little bigger than a child, but with a stocky body that bulged with muscle. Cavatina reached into the water, gently pulled the body out, and set it on the rocks at her feet. The head was missing, and by the ragged look of the neck it had been yanked or chewed off. Whether that had happened before or after the deep gnome died was impossible to tell. There weren't any other visible wounds. The svirfneblin's clothing-plain leather trousers and a sleeveless shirt-was also undamaged. His feet were bare; perhaps he'd been swimming when he died.
"Eilistraee's mercy," she whispered.
The others crowded close, staring down at the corpse. Q'arlynd squatted next to it. He lifted a limp hand and studied it a moment, then let it fall.
Daffir passed a hand over the body, not quite touching it. His other hand tightened on his staff. "A bad omen."
Cavatina didn't need magic to tell her that.
"Is this our guide?" the female wizard asked.
Karas stared grimly down at it. "Not anymore."
Another sending from Halav: I'm five hundred paces in. No sign of the svirfneblin, aside from a prospector's pick. Looks like it was dropped here. No telling when.
The svirfneblin's gray flesh had a waxy, bloated look. Despite its immersion in cold water, the body was starting to smell.
"If this is our guide, he arrived several days early." Cavatina stood and glanced at the reflection of Selune and the scattering of Tears that trailed the moon's reflection as it slid slowly across the Moondeep. "We'll continue to wait. We'll give it until moonset."
"Waiting is a waste of time." Karas said. "No guide's going to show. Not after what happened to this fellow."
"We don't know that," Cavatina said. "If we leave now, we'll have to guess which way to go once we've reached the limits of our map, which will mean an even greater waste of time." She nodded to the wizards. "That won't sit well with the masters of your colleges."
Several of the mages nodded.
The sun elf, however, shook his head. "I see no point in waiting," Khorl said. "When we reach the end of the mapped region, my magic will show us the way. Unlike the rest of you, I can still cast divinations, despite the Faerzress that surrounds us."
Cavatina shook her head firmly. "Kiaransalee's priestesses may be crazed, but they aren't fools. They'll have warded their cavern with protections similar to those of the Promenade. Your divinations may find the path-or they may not. In case they can't, we stick to the original plan. We wait."
She pointed at the corpse. "In the meantime, do any of you know what should be done? What the svirfneblin customs are when dealing with the dead? When our guide shows up, we don't want to offend him."
"I do," Q'arlynd said. "I had a… an ally, years ago, who was svirfneblin. He told me about the god the deep gnomes ve
nerate-Callarduran Smoothhands, master of stone. When a deep gnome dies, it's appropriate for him to be 'returned to Smoothhands's embrace.'" Q'arlynd paused and stroked his chin. "With your permission, Lady Cavatina, 1 have a spell that can do just that."
Cavatina nodded. "Use it."
Another sending came from Halav. Seven hundred and fifty paces in. Still clear.
Q'arlynd motioned the others back. He reached into a pocket of his piwafwi, pulled out a pinch of something, and tossed it onto the stones beside the body. As he chanted, the rocks beneath the corpse slumped and became as soft as mud. Q'arlynd gently pushed the body into them, submerging it. That done, he washed the mud from his hands and spoke a second arcane word. The mud solidified, stone once more.
As they climbed back to the tunnel mouth, Cavatina leaned close to Q'arlynd. "Well done. Your friend would have been proud."
"My ally," Q'arlynd corrected.
"As you wish."
Those who had followed Cavatina down to the water returned to the tunnel's mouth. Once again they stood about. Waiting. Cavatina wondered if the svirfneblin would show. Perhaps the corpse Q'arlynd had just buried had been their guide.
The human diviner was leaning against his staff, watching. Suddenly he tensed. "Something's coming."
"What is it?" Cavatina asked, instantly alert.
"Something… big." Daffir turned and stared out across the underground sea.
"A boat?" one of the Protectors guessed.
"As big as a boat, but… not a boat. A… creature. Whatever it is, it means us ill."
Cavatina scanned the Moondeep, but the surface of the water was unbroken. Nothing moved on it-not even a rat. She glanced at Daffir but couldn't see his eyes behind those dark lenses.
The others drew weapons or readied spell components. The Nightshadows faded back into the tunnel.
"Where is it now, Daffir?" Cavatina demanded.
Daffir shook his head. "That, Lady, I cannot tell. Only where it… will be."
"We should move away from the water," the wizard in the gold skullcap said. "Up the tunnel."
