F O U R (54 page)

She raised her hand. "Don'ou may also have observed the spiders graven—"t agitate yourself, Captain. I mean you no harm.

Richard Lee Byers

145

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

We're just two Menzoberranyr idly chatting, passing the time it takesfellows to open the gate."                       your that now that I've seen you up close, I can't  allow themto do that.""I regret, my lady,shout the orderHe took two careful steps back, retreating beyond her reach, then pivoted to .

Talindra'Faeryl stopped him dead by displaying a gaudy ruby brooch, formerly s property.

"I said you were an intelligent lad, Captain Filifar, but I don't believe you're  a prosperous one. Ystuff."      ou wear no jewelry,  and your clothing is made of common

"You're right, milady.  Fortune hasn't  favored me."

It can.

Faeryl brought out one ornament after anotherstolen from  the Ousstyls and her own legitim  ,  the jewels her retainers had ate treasure as well. She filled her lap with them  and laid the surplus on the pale, luminous rim  of the driftdisc."Here's enough wealth to improve your luck and that of your minions as well ".

Filifar hesitated before saying, "My lady, I was told that Matron Triel herselfwishes you detained. It's  no light matter to cross the Baenre."

"Just say the Zauvirr didn't pass through
 
this
 
gate, or if they did, you didn't recognize them. No one will know any different."

He rem
He jerked his head in a nod. "Right. Why not, curse it?"
oved his
 
piwafwi

Some of the soldiers noticed what their cto use as a makeshift bag and swept the jewelry in. aptain  was doing and scurried  over  toinvestigate.Once the gate was well behind her

,  Faeryl  abandoned the driftdisc. The stately conveyance  was just too slow.  She  and  her part)"  quick-marched  on through the mostly unimoutposts and adamantine mines, makiproved passages at the fringe  of Menzoberranyr territory, past hunters'Faeryl realized she was grinning. It was ng for the genuine  wilderness beyond.absurd, really. She'd just surrendered aqueen's  ransom  in gems, Triel would send troops after her,  and she was all but certain some  dire peril lay ahead, but  somehow, for the moment, none of it going hommattered. Faeryl had outwitted her foes and finally, after fourteen years, she was e.The fugitives rounded a bend, and dark figures seemed to flow from  the tunnel walls just ahead. The Zauvirr turned to  run. Somehow, the shadows were behind them as well.

wilderness beyond. He could On the fringe of Menzoberranyr t

erritory

feel its vast and labyrinthine spaces and hear its ,

Valas Hune could sense the genuine

pregnant silences. He could smell and taste its variahimself si                    tions of rock and imagined

mply slipping away into that limitless world.

As fancies went, his wasn't  entirely absurd. Most dark elves feared to travel the Underdark except in armed convoys, and with good reason. Th

ey, however

l                                   ,acked  the  abilities  he'd  spent  decades developing, survival skills that made him

one of the finest scouts in Menzoberranzan.

Richard Lee Byers

146

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

the subterranean world alone. He reIndeed, the small, wiry male in the rugged outdoorsman

's

lished the wonders, the quiet, and the garb liked traversing freedom. Sometimes, when he'd

the striving, conniving existence of idled in camp his fellow drowtoo long, he felt he preferred it to Menzoberranzan notwithstanding. He yearned for an errand th, the luxuries of at would take hi

m

out into the wilderness, and played with the notion of simply running away.He heard the Zauvirr coming and put the dream  aside. Like it or not, his

mission this day wasn't  to explore the wild. It was to direct his company, fellow

mercenaries of Bregan D'

That was the theory  aerthe, in the  taking of Faeryl Zauvirr and her retainers., anyway. In point of  fact, he didn't have to give any moreorders. No doubt the warriors of Ched Nasad were com

petent fighters  in their own right, but when the sell swords sw

arme

entirely by surprise, then proceeded to cut themd out of hiding, they caught them down with murderous efficiency.Once V

alas was certain his band would be  victorious, he started searching for

Faeryl herself. His smallness and natural agility enabled himthrough the fury of battle without harm            to thread his way

.

one of his comHe found the princess at the center of the carnage. She'd just finished killing mand. The dead male's  br

of her basalt-headed war ham     ains and bloody hair adhered to one end mer.

"Ambassador," Va

She answered with a curse. He didn'las called. "I have orders to take you alive, if possible."t blame her for that. In her place, he

wouldn't want to be delivered alive to Matron Baenre, either.

He hefted one of his matched pair  of kukris—vicious curved daggers— and

fingered a little brass ovoid, one of maHe'd  collected the amulets and brooches ny trinkets adorning his tunic and cloak.from  races and civilizations acr

oss the

Underdark. Fashioned according to alien aesthetics, most of the ornaments were ugly and uncouth to dark elf eyes, but  he hadn't acquired them  for their

appearance, nor were they merely souvenirs. Each contained a different enchantm

ent.

Three images, exact facsimiles of himself, flickered into existence around him.

He edged toward Faeryl, and the phantoms came with him.She stared fiercely

,  obviously trying to pick  out the real Valas from  the false.  It didn't help. When she swung, she struck at the image on his left.

The illusion vanished on contact, and at the samecouldn'                       instant, he sprang. She

t come  back on guard in time to fend him  off. He hooked a leg behind her

went limand threw her to the ground, then kicked her repeatedly in the head until she p.

Richard Lee Byers

147

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

C   h  a  p  t   e   r

S   I   X   T   E   E   N

Laughter echoed through the candlelit corridors of Arach-Tfrowned. She'd been expecting something to  happen, eagerly anticipinilith. Quenthel ating it, in  fact.

What she wasn't expecting was an explosion of mirth, and she couldn'it meant.                            t guess what quite as reluctant as they had the night beShe strode forward, and her patrol followed behind. They seemfore. The fate of Drisinil, Med edgy, but not olvayas, andfavor of Lolth, at least to the samthe rest of the plotters had convinced the survivors that Quenthel still enjoyed the e  dubious extent as the rest ofthe stricken clergy.The laughter rang on and on until at last  the searchers found the source. Hunchedover,  her shoulders shaking, a novice knelt before one of the smaller altars of the goddess. Steady despite the paroxysmsgraceful calligraphy on the floor. Quenthel of glee, her index finger painted lines of couldn't make  out what  the  girl was in a paint pot. She'using for pigment until she lifted her hand  to her face like an artist dipping a brush im        d gouged her eyes out, another seeming handicap that didn't

The m
pair her writing.
istress stepped close enough to inspect the lines of blood. For all her erudition, she couldn't read the characters,  but she could feel the power in them. They pulled at her and repelled her at the same  time, as if they mispirit, or a piece of it, out of her body              ght yank her .She wrenched her eyes away from  the symbols and swung her whip. The viperscracked into the eyeless female's  back, their venomous fangs tore into her, andshe collapsed, dead or merely insensible. Quenthel didn'"What was she writing, Mistress?" Jyslin asked.   t particularly care which.

"I don't know," Quenthel admitted, sm

"something in one of the secret tongues of  the Abyss. Scribing it mearing the glyphs with her toe, ay have been  away of casting a spell, so I made sure she wouldn't finish.""What was wrong with her?" Minolin asked.y-Branche had not, as expected, turnedout to be one of the traitors.Quenthel was still surprised that the Fe