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racher  squad

encounter wretches whom  the spirit had already overwhelmed
 
with the infusion

of an evil more profound than any mortal, even a dark elf, could readily bear. He

looked for some

subtle if she let it slip at all, but perhaps a brother would spot it. sign that Quenthel was  growing afraid. The indication would be He didn't, and eventually Quenthel ordered her mi

and sat down to m               nions to evacuate the building editate.

going on and had in a sensThe Archmage frowned. Evidently the ime responded appropriatelyperious bitch had figured out what was . But it shouldn't matter.
 
He'd
withstood contact with the ultim

ate essence

in the world and had taken precautions.    of evil, but he was the greatest wizard In time, a sublime cruelty twisted her Quenthel enjoyed neither advantage.features. Gromph exclaim

ed in trium

for the netherspirit plainly had her in its  grasp. Evidently she wasn'      ph, t  going to drop dead of an aneurysm

or commit suicide, but no matter: she was doomed. Her

personality erased, consumed by the compulsion to degrade and destroy,  she was bound to provoke som

eone into killing her.

Then she broke the skinny white wand in  two, unleashing a magic that thrust the netherspirit out of her

.  Grom

quite like it. T       ph, for all his knowledge, had never seen anything aking on just a hint of palpable form, his agent fled the scene.

against the wall. He cursed foullyThe Baenre wizard bolted up in his chair and threw his goblet, smashing it , and the malignancy in his words, hammethrough the black lotus-scented air                   ring

,  made  the greenish flames of  the  everlasting candles gutter

.

Struggling for composure, he told himself it didn't matter.  He'deventually. He'd  throw entity  after entity at her until . . .          get her

But what had happened to the netherspirit? Constrained by Gromph's commait should have kept attacking  until either it toppled the pillars of Quenthel'   nd,

s  reason

or she destroyed it. Instead, it had run away.The mistress's unfamiliar m

agic had broken the binding—so much was clear—

but where had the creature gone? Back  to its own world? Probably,  but something—a slight acceleration of his hear

of his neck, perhaps—m         tbeat or a subtle prickling on the back ade Gromph want to check.

netherspirit, still visible, perhaps asThe casement responded to his will. Fram tangible as smoke, half flewed in that rectangular space, the , half
 
bounded down one of the labyrinthine corridors of Sorcere. A defensive ward activated,

piercing the intruder with crisscrossing shaffree and charged on.  A blue-gowned m   ts of yellow light, but it tore itself

aster  peered out the door of his sanctum,

spotted  the  wraith,  started  to  conjure,  and  the  intruder  stopped  him  with  a

of a shadowy paw                         sweep .  The blow didn't rock the wizard backward or leave a mahe fell like a block of stone.                     rk, but

Gromph surmised his erstwhile agent  was coming after him.  Either it was

angry over its forced servitude, or Quenthel had done more than merely dissolvehis  control.  She'd wrested it away from him  and turned the

assassin.                       entity into her own

Either way,  the spirit represented a threat, and unfortunately, Gromph himselfdidn't know its full capabilities. Still, he had no real reason for conc

ern. His magic

was more  than  a  match for any such  entity, especially  in his stronghold.

Richard Lee Byers

154

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

like water through a sieve. It scramHe watched the netherspirit flow through the black m

arble door of his office

bled over the white bone desk and headed

straight for the hidden access to his sanctum.around it, but it burst through. It hurtled up the shaft. Magic crackled purple and blue

Gromph smiled. He had the creature where  he wanted it, for he'd  created the

passage with defense in mind. SimThe shaft wasn't       ply by focusing his will, he destroyed it.

made of matter.  Still, a me

sounded through the hole in the middle of the floor as the artificial space foldetallic crashing and grinding din on itself. If the

rebellious spirit screamed, its voice  was lost am

Grom                         ong the din.

that it was gone. Most likelyph would have enjoyed hearing it  squeal, but the important thing was ,  the collapse  had crushed it to nothing, but  even  if not, it had surely ejected it, m

aimed and disoriented, in some  remote halfworld.

The  crisis  was  over,  and  the  archmage was left

transporting him               only with the annoyance of self in and out of his hideaway via spell until such time as he invested the six hours necessary to r

ecreate the passage.

However,  just to maintain the habit  of caution that had balked a thousand

enem

The space still framies, he turned back to the window, then scowled.ed the spirit, and as far as Gromph could see, the shadowy

phosphorescence, it was casting about inthing was unharmed. Darting and wheeling through curtains of pale stronghold.                 the bent spaces surrounding the

Grom h  didn't  see  how  the  creature  could  find  him.  Nothing  could  locate  a

refuge hidden in a haze of scrambled time, pguiding it in. Nonetheless, the wizard hu  not without the tenant in some way

pentacles adorning the marble floor   rried into one of the protective golden .An instant later

,  a different window their hinges. The spirit flowed through, burst inward, the casements flying from in the process resuming the form  it had

worn before Gromph transformed it into  the semblance of a  kind of demon. It

somewhat resemb

its head, which also possessed a siled a wingless dragon  with long, tauringle globular eye. The Archmage couldn'ne horns sweeping from t actually see the orb—it was one with t

he could feel its baleful regard.    he inky shadow of the spirit's body—but Sli

ghtly  anxious  and  uncertain,  and  all  the  angrier  for  it,  Gromph"K'                                shouted,

rarza'q! I named, summoned, and  bound you, and I am your master. By  the

Prince Who Dreams in the Heart of the Void and by the Word of Naratyr, I

command you to kneel!"The netherspirit released a humid stink that somehow conveyed the e

ssence

of scornful laughterV       , then it bounded forward.

ery well, Gromph thought, have it your way.

He thrust the curved blade of his ritual dagger into his belly.As he'd  expected, the creature floundered in agony, but only for an inst

ant.

Anguish erupted in the Archmage's own stomach. He yanked the athame outof his flesh an instant before it would have dealt him  an actual wound.

K'rarza'

i    q lunged. Ignoring the residual pain in his gut, Gromph recited a brief ncantation  and  thrust  out  his  arm.  The  air  rang  like  a  bell,  and  a  little  red  ball

of fire shot from his hand. It struck t

winked out of existence.       he creature and . . . nothing. The missile

The entity reached the edge of the pentacle. A barrier of azure light spranup and vanished with a tortured whine  as the spirit drove though. The     g

creature

dipped its head and jerked it upward, ramming  the tip of one of its horns into

Richard Lee Byers

155

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

Gromph's chest.The spirit was entirely solid. If not for  the Robes of the Archmage and hisother protections, the long blade of shadow stuff would surely have impaledGromph. As it was, it picked  him up and tossed him across the room. In midair, he strained to throw off the levitation in his House insignia.   numbing shock and activate the powers of The power woke with a sort of sickening pang, but wake it  did. He floated down as light as a wisp of spider silk, avoiding what might  have been  a  bone-shattering fall.from its sheath on his left hip, pointed As soon as he got his  feet under him, he snatched a polished wooden wand bubble of pungent brown aci      it, and murmured the trigger word. A plunged into the being's cyclopean mask, d swelled on the end, then hurtled at the spirit. It harm.                 but apparently without inflicting any him, then he spoke a single wordThe spirit charged. Gromph stood in place until his foe was nearly on top ofinstantaneously to the other end of the circular room, behind his attacker'. A minor teleportation shifted him s  back.

K'rarza'q skidded to a halt and cast  about in confusion. Gromph had bought spiral-cut stafhimself a second, no more.  He quickly dropped the wand of acid, snatched a lifted it over his head, and began to chf of polished carnelian from its place on a rack of wizard's tools, against beings from other levels of realityant. The rod possessed special virtues . finally drive a spell through his foe's defenses.Perhaps  with it in his hand, he could

The netherspirit heard his  voice, turned, and hurtled toward  him.  This time it charged without moving its  limbs, simply shifting  over the distance with terrifying speed. Preserving could, Gromph picked up the pace of his the cadence and intonation as only a master wizard finish before the creature closed with him again.incantation. He very much wanted to He succeeded, though only barely. K'rarza'q was nearly within arm's reach nether spirit’when the magic blazed into existence. A  lance of dazzling glare plunged into the The reeking creature dropped to the fls eye.oorshapeless clumps and tatters. Gromph smiled, and a dozen strands of spirit-stuf, its substance unraveling into freared up at him like the vipers  in his cursed sister's  whip.

The Archmage gripped the scarlet staff  with both hands, just  as a Master ofMelee-Magthere had taught him centuries  before, during the six monthseverstudent mage was obliged to spend in  the warriors'  pyramid. Wi    y implement like a common spear, he thrust one  end of it into what  seemed elding the to  be

K'rarza'q's ragged, squirming core.

The netherspirit burst into inert flecks of  gray-black slime. Gromph's protective enchantments prevented any of the He felt a certain satisfaction at his victsplatter from fouling his own person.ory,  but it withered hadn't killed the object of his hatred, mere         quickly because he another failed attempt, and in the process discovered he'ly preserved himself from the result of dcomprehend Quenthel's re                  utterly failed to

What was that bone wand? Where had sources and capacities.it come from, and how did it work? Had it merely broken his own control, or his enemy's dominance?       had it summarily placed his minion under