F O U R (26 page)

A  dazzling          t  erupted  from  Greyanna',  searing  beam  of  ligh            s  hand.  It  slashed across Pharaun's face, and he closed his eyes just in time to keep it from blindinhim. It was painful nonetheless, but his own defenses kept i        gt  from burning hisface off.

The other priestess flailed at him with  a sizzling bolt of lightning. As it was

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one of his own favorite forces to command, it hardly seemed fair. He stiffened

with the shock for a moment or two, and the magic lost its grip on him.

thought the priestesses were surely inHe feared the spasm had cost him precious time. By the time it passed, he when he looked at the lesser of the two the process of casting new spells, but she wasn't            d

dropped her suddenly blank scroll on the gr      creating any magic. She'pouch, presumably for another means of magical attack.ound and was rooting in her leather

created an efClasping a bit of coal and a tiny dried fect. Power sighed and rippled through the aireyeball held in a little vial, Pharaun ,  and a mass of

darkness appeared around the female's  head, blinding her.The wizard's thoughts flew apart once more, then reassembled themselves. He

from it. He began to conjurrounded on Greyanna. She was still clutching her scroll, evidently still casting e, and she, evidently uncertain of the parchment's power to protect her

It had occurred to Pharaun that the sack ,  tore open the bag.  might have more spores in it, but he'd

assumed they would produce more skeletmotes burst in midair, swelling into ugly little beasts resembons. This time, though, the lin    glittering

g  a cross betweena bat and a mosquito.

The stir

to drink his blood. They interfered with ges swirled around him, jabbing atthe motion of his ha him with their prnds and so spoiled oboscises, striving

behis conjuration. He restored his weight and fell back  to the ground, where Ryld, set  by clinking skeletons  on all  sides,  beheaded  one  with a sudden cut. One of

the twins edged toward him but balkeddirection.                 when the big male pivoted in his

Pharaun slammed down on the street. Tr

toward the fallen Relonor. A couple skeletons turned to hailing chattering stirges, he sprinted

them were too intent on killing R          ack at him, but most of yld to Pharaun thought they must       notice him. Up close,  the things stank.

somewhere.        still have some scraps of rotting flesh about them

Just as he reached the  unconscious wizard, Greyanna's  foulwing landed on the

painfully loud magical shout, and the beasother side of the body with a ground-shaking thump. Pharaun roared out a Pharaun stooped, ripped the brooch oft recoiled, carrying its rider with it.f  Relonor'

s

Greyanna screamed in rage. The foulwing roared its strange sash, turned, and ran. double roarsets of jaws clashed s                      , and two

A stirge'     hut behind the fleeing male.s

penetrate his piwafwi. Another spell ra proboscis jabbed  him in the back, staggering him, but was unable to ef                 ttled his mind but with no permanent ill

head. Splitter flashed in an arc and smfects. A skeleton appeared on his flank, swinging a notched, rusty axe at his Pharaun caught hold of the hem of Rashed the undead thing into tiny pieces.

yld's               tGreyanna.                  piwafwi and glanced around a

blank, and held her hands Her face a mask of furyhigh to receive the long staf, she tossed  away her scroll, which was likely f materializing from someextra dimensional storage.  He could see why she wanted  the instrument. It blazed

with mystic power, but it was also slow  in attaining tangibility. Some chance interaction of the magical ener

its transition to the physical plane.gies playing about the battleground was retarding Why

,  then, didn't she leave off summoning  it and attack in some other manner?

Why—In a flash of inspiration, the answer  came to him, and it was astonishing.

But he was scarcely in a place conducive to  contemplation of his discovery,  and

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it  was  time  to  remedy that.  He  peered  at  the  brooch he'd  taken from Relonor found the trigger word implicit in the kale                 , spoke.                idoscopic pattern shining around it, and

Greyanna  regarded  the open  space in  the middle of  the ring  of  aimlskeletons, and the stirges swooping and wheeling above.  A moment bessly  milling efoPharaun and his hulking accomplice had been  standing there, but they were gone. re,

If her eyes had not deceived her,  her brother had flashed her that old familiar mocking grin as he vanished. How dare he  smirk at her like that when it was she who had driven him from House Mizzrym!with hundreds of tiny runes, and warm She regarded her iron staff,  taller than she was, square as blood to the toucin cross-section, graven failed her                       h. The weapon had

.  She trembled with the impulse  to swing it over her head and smash it against the stone beneath her feet until it was defaced, deformed, and  useless.She didn't, because she knew Pharaun's staff's. She should have summoned the   escape was really her fault, not the weapon sooner.  She should have been more aggressive with the sack. Damn thBecause of its vicissitudes, her mother had instructed her tis degrading and inexplicable season! o play the miser withevery personal  resource,  even  though she was fight

Mizzrym and all Menzoberranzan.        ing for the welfare of House Well, she wouldn't make the same mistake to look after her troops and return them to the castle. Shenext time. It was her responsibility dismounted, squared her shoulders, put on a calm

,  commabusiness at hand.          nding  expression, and proceeded with the

Neither of the twins were hurt, and her  cousin Aunrae meof darkness around her head dispelled. It  was Relonor who concrely needed the ball erned Greyannabut fortunately the m                          ,age was still alive. A healing potion mended him  sufficientlyto stand, clutching his sash so it woulencrusted cloak.          dn't slip off and shrugging out of his iceWhile the twins helped Relonor hobble about and so restore his circulaAunra                               tion, e  came  sidling up to Greyanna. To  her cousin's admittein Aunrae the usual Mizzrym              dly jaundiced  eye,extreme. The younger fem    tendency to leanness had run to a grotesque ale resembled a stick insect.

"My commiseration on your failure," Aunrae said.Her expression was grave, but she wasn't really trying to hide the smunderneath.                          ile lurking

"I  didn't  realize  just  how  powerful  Pharaun  has  become "

,  Greyanna  admitted. "Before his exile, he was quite competent but nothing extraordinary.  It was his cunning that made him  so dangerous. I see  that all the decades in Tier Breche have turned him  into one of the most  formidable wizards in the city. That complicates things, but I'll ma

"I hope the m      nage."atron will for ive you your ignorance," Aunrae said. "You'vewasted so m         guch magic to no effect."

The conjured skeletons and stirges began to wink out of existence, leaving aresidue of magic energy. The air seemed to tingle and buzz, though if a person stopped and listened, it really wasn't.

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hatred of Pharaun mAunrae shrugged. "I'

"Is that how you see it?" Greyanna asked.

m  just worried she'

ade you blind and clum

ll feel you bungled things, that your

sy. She might even decide  someone else is m

ore deserving of the preeminence you currently possess. Of course, I

hope not! You know I wish you well. My plan for my  future has always  been  tosupport you and prosper as your aide."

"Cousin, your words move me," Greyanna said as she lifted the staff.

without giving the opponent an instant'No one could heave such a long, heavy ims warning, so Aunrae was able tplement into a fighting position o come onguard. It didn'

t matter.  Not bothering to unleash any of the magic within her

weapon, wielding it like an ordinary quarterstaff, Greyanna  bashed  the  macefrom

her armored shoulder the younger priestess's fingers, knocked her flat with a ringing blow to

"I'd        ,  and dug the tip of the iron rod into her throat.

moment?" like to confer on one or two matters," said Greyanna. "Do you have a

Aunrae made a liquid, strangling sound. s little fracas was not in vain. It p

roved

that Relonor can locate Pharaun with his "Excellent. Listen and grow wise. Today'

the battle enabled me to take our brother's measure. When we track him down divinations. Even more importantly,

again, we'll crush him. Now,  do you see that I have this venture well in hand?"Deprived of her voice, Aunrae nodded enthusiastically. Her chin b