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marketplace, but it explains so much else that I still believe the idea correct.

Have I persuaded you?""I        d

o  make  a  kind  of  twisted  sense.  It's  just  that  it'...  maybe.  You                     s  a  hard  idea to

belongs to Lolth. Everything in the cavern take in. The one truth our people have  never questioned is that Menzoberranzan is the might of her priestesses is the prim    as it is because she willed it so, and

ary  force  maintaining all that we have and

are. If she's turned her face from  the entire city,  or  is  lost  to  us  in some other

way.  . . ." R"It is unsettling, but perhaps, just perhaps, it afyld spread his hands.        fords us an opportunity a

s well ".

Ryld extended a telescoping metal probe

end, and started swam          , attached a cloth to the hook on the The warrior asked, "What do you mping out the blood-clogged scabbard.

ean?"

"Just for fun, let's make the same  leap of faith—or fear—that Grom

Council did. Assum                      ph and the e  the rogue males can explain the cessation of Lolth's

beneficence. Assume  you and I will find them  and extract the information.

Finally, assume  we  can  somehow employ it to restore  the  status quo."

Richard Lee Byers

76

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

"That's a lot of assumi

"It  i        ng."s

.  Obviously,  I

'm letting  my  imagination  run  amok

.  Yet  I  have  a  hunch—

only a hunch, but still—that if two masters of the Academsuch a triumph, they might thereby win enough power to my could accomplish

ake m  friend the

Sarthos demon look like small beer. You wanted to fi     ynd something to our

advantage, as I recall.""Your sister m

a

shouldn't kill her y find us first. She tracked us once. Do you still think we ,  or her vassals either?"

"That's a good question," Pharaun sighed.  "They're attacking us with potent

magic. I suspect that leather bag holds  nine sets of servant creatures,  each

deadlier than the one before."

"In that case, why didn't she chuck them  all at us?""Perhaps, in the absence of her innate  powers, she was trying to cons

erve her

other resources. Alas, she may not be so parsimonious next time.""So what do we do?"

"W

the prudent course is to avoid our hunterell, you know, I truly do want to kill  Greyanna. I always have, but I suppose s if possible. If not, we'll do what we

must to survive. I may at least ma

he located us with divinatory m  ke a point of disposing of Relonor. I suspect a"Can you shield us?"     gic. He was always good at that."

"Perhaps. I intend to try.Pharaun rose and reached into one of Stay right where you are, and don'his pockets. Out in the lake, st speak."

omethin

big jum                                greadied their barb-headed lances.ped. Noticing the splash, an ore on  a raft grunted to his fellows, and they

Richard Lee Byers

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War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

C   h  a  p  t  e  r

N  I  N  E

As Drisinil took hold of the door handle, the stump of her little finger throbbed beneath its dressing. The novice still found it difficult to believe that,after fighting for her life against the demon spider, Mistress Quenthel hadimmediately returned to the matter of the would-be truants and their self-inflicted punishment. It bespoke a calm  and meticulous nature. Drisinil admired those qualities, but it didn't make her hate their exemShe took a final glance around the deserted corridorplar any less.. No one was about, and no

Tone was supposed to be, not in that length of that particular wing of Arach-inilith at that hour of the night.

She slipped through the sandstone door  and pulled it shut behind her.  Unlike much of the temthe threshold. That was by design, to keep a telltale gleample, no lamps, torches, or candles burned in the room from    beyond under the door                         leaking out

.

Drisinil's sister conspirators awaited her.  Some  were novices with bandagedhamhands, just like herself. Others were  instructors. Those high priestesses, pered by their dignity, were having some  difficulty making themselves comfortable among the haphazardly stacked boxes and tangles of  furniture to clear away the shrouds of filthy cobwelittering the half-forgotten storeroom. Of courbs dangling ese, it didn't help that they hesitated verywhere  for  fear  a  living spider remained within.

Drisinil wondered if that particular prohibition made  sense any longer.  Perhapsspiders were no longer sacred.

Then, angry at herself, she pushed  the blasphemous thought away. Lolth abided, beyond any question, and was likmoment imagined otherwise.       ely to chastise those who even for a Once she wrenched her mimomentarily nonplussed to find the compand back to immediate concerns, Drisinil was expect her to preside over the meeting?  ny regarding her expectantly. Did they

Del'But then again, why not? She might Armgo as well, and breeding mattered,be a novice, but she was Barrison perhaps more than ever when evengathering had been her idea.the most powerful priestesses were running  out of magic. Besides, the secret "Good evening," she said. "Thank you all for attending,"—she smiled wryly—

Richard Lee Byers

78

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

"and for not reporting me to Quenthel Baenre.""We still could," said Vlondril T

uin'T

"Your task is to convince us we shouldn't."arl,  a strange smile on her wrinkl

ed  lips.

The teacher was so old that she had be

folk believed her mystical contemplationsgun to wither like a human crone. Most of ultimate chaos  had left her a little

vicinitymad. No one, not even another instructor, had opted to sit in her immediate ."With respect, Holy Mother," Drisinil said, "isn't  that self-evident? The

goddess, who nurtured and exalted our cityback on us."                since its founding, has turned her

she'Once again, Drisinil couldn't help thinkid seen a point to it, she wouldn't ha  ng of other possibilities, but even if

not in her present company      ve dared to mention them. No one would, .

Though stockier and shorter than Drisinil, "And Quenthel is to blame," added Molvayas Barrison Del'Armgo.nose and uncommon green eyes. Richly clad her aunt had the same sort of sharp

an enemy's soul imprisoned in a jade  ring, and at quiet , the elder scion of the House carried moments one could occasionally hear the spirit

as Barrison Del'Armgo was ever second toweeping and pleading for release. Second to Quenthel

niece pass word of the meeting, and her support lent it a certain credibilityBaenre, Molvayas had helped her ."How do you know that?" asked T'risstree T'

orgh.

notorious for carrying a naked falchion aDeceptively slender,  a fully trained warrior as well as a priestess, she was bout in preference to the usual mace or whip of fangs, and gashing the exposed flesh of any student who dis