The gem’s viewpoint was occasionally alarming. At the moment, it showed a scene bracketed by Escalla’s meager cleavage as she flew down a starlit path. The girl apparently wore a lacy silk dress and little else. A few titters from the audience were met by a dire glare from Escalla, who paced impatiently back and forth in the middle of the ballroom floor.
The images showed Escalla approaching the balcony of her old bedroom. Cavalier Tarquil’s bodyguard gave a knowing look and deliberately walked away. The view lofted over the balcony, through gauzy curtains and into Escalla’s old bedroom. A reflected image in the mirror showed Escalla standing in her dress, the slowglass gem sparkling about her neck.
The gem’s point of view wobbled and shifted as Escalla hung the necklace over a the door handle. Coming back into the gem’s view, Escalla turned, surveyed the still form of Tarquil—
—And then began doing a strip tease.
“Stop!” The Justicar leaned in to stare hard at every single aspect of the scene. He pointed to the still form of Cavalier Tarquil, lying sleeping on his face amidst his cups. “Continue.”
The slowglass gem could see both Escalla and Tarquil. The image of the nearly naked Escalla blew the gem a kiss, waving and grinning and setting the entire faerie court agog. Faerie lords guffawed. Faerie princes raised their brows appreciatively. Faerie ladies tittered. At the middle of the ballroom floor, Escalla turned beet red and clenched her fists in rage.
“Hey! It seemed a good idea at the time, all right?”
The projected image of Escalla was slapping her bottom and dancing up and down beside the still form of Tarquil. A magician slowed the action to catch Escalla mid sashay, slapping her rear and giving the slowglass gem a nasty piece of sign language.
Red with fury, Escalla stamped her foot on the ballroom floor. “All right! Enough with the slappy dance already! They get the idea!”
Court ladies laughed, and Escalla folded up her arms and seethed.
Stroking his stubbled chin, Jus fixed his puzzled eye upon the girl and asked, “What were you doing?”
“Showing him the goods he was going to miss out on!” Escalla waved hands in anger. “Hey! I have a nasty side!”
In the air above the ballroom floor, the nearly naked image of Escalla blew a final kiss to the sleeping Tarquil, who still lay unmoving. Escalla triggered the magic gateway in her room and dived through with an admirable athletic clench of her rump and flip of her heels.
The Justicar turned to Lord Faen and said, “Freeze time.” The images froze. “The images are clear. At no point did Escalla touch or even approach the Cavalier.”
A faerie lord from the Seelie Court, a weird creature with long antennae, gave a lazy flip of his hand. “She may have done this as a show! She may have deliberately hung the slowglass gem there as evidence, then arranged another way to kill the Cavalier.”
The Justicar gave a nod. “She may. One hour from the time of her disappearance from the palace, Escalla was in company with myself and her father. Lord Faen can confirm this.”
With a flip of his long hand, Oberon gestured to Lord Ushan. “My Lord, you are satisfied that this human speaks the truth?”
Looking as though he would rather choke, Lord Ushan gave a chop of his hand. “He speaks truth, my lord! But—”
“Excellent.” Oberon leaned back upon one elbow in his chair, thoughtful eyes resting upon the Justicar. “Justicar, continue.”
Jus signaled to the faeries controlling the slowglass, and the images reeled on. “There will be another visitor to the room sometime within the next hour of elapsed time.”
Tarquil lay perfectly still, utterly unmoving. The entire court frowned, noting the unseemly stillness of the victim. Someone cleared a throat to speak, when suddenly an image appeared. A new figure had entered Tarquil’s sleeping chambers.
The figure stole in through a magic gateway made by the fireplace arch. White robed and masked in a blank faceplate painted with mocking tears, the image carried itself with incriminating stealth.
Jus froze the scene.
“As it pleases the court, this individual—or an identically dressed one—was later found to be a consort of the demon queen Lolth, who we almost had as your uninvited guest here this morning.”
The scene played on, and the entire court leaned forward to stare.
The masked faerie pulled something palm sized from its pouch, holding it with enormous care. Creeping carefully over to Tarquil, the assassin cautiously pressed its gloved hand into the sleeping cavalier’s hair, held the position, and then withdrew.
The masked figure put its weapon into its pouch and drew the heavy leather glove from its hand. A silver ring sparkled briefly on the assassin’s hand. Jus froze the image, looked at the ring, then watched as the masked faerie kicked at Escalla’s discarded dress. With an air of triumph, the masked face peered directly at the slowglass gem, heard a noise, ripped the gem free, and shoved it into the front of the robes.
Down cleavage. Jus pointed at dim white shapes preserved in the image.
“Female. Breasts bound flat with bandages for disguise. Far, far larger breasts that Escalla’s.”
“Hey!” Escalla looked betrayed. “I have understated elegance!”
“Understated enough to be identifiable.” The Justicar dismissed the pictures above. He nodded to Escalla who began rummaging inside a portable hole. “My Lord and Ladies. Commissioned by Lord Faen to pursue the stolen slowglass gem, I pursued the gem through magic gates into the underdark. This slowglass bauble is a rather expensive gem, and so coveted that the thief saw fit to wear it as a necklace, even though it only hung from a piece of string.” Jus stroked his chin quietly.
“From this point, the slowglass will show the thief’s journey through the underdark—a journey through drow checkpoints and a lich’s lair, through a kuo-toan temple, and into the city of the drow themselves. The gem thief has been working to a larger plan, a plan to use Lolth as an instrument to release the faerie Queen of Wind and Woe from imprisonment.”
The entire faerie court immediately froze.
The Justicar merely shrugged and continued, “The images here will show the summonation ceremonies. Escalla and my party were able to interfere. The masked faerie lost the slowglass in combat with Escalla.”
Escalla’s mother had sat like a creature with a vile smell beneath her nose throughout the entire trial. Sitting erect, the woman made a show of wiping clean her hands. “A waste of our time. Your assassin is still masked! There is no way to ascertain her identity!”
“Oh but there is!” Escalla hovering in midair before the assembled court. With a theatrical sweep, she addressed the entire room. “The thief made a mistake! You saw it in the image. We need to find someone who always wears a silver spider ring!”
Tielle immediately put her left hand beneath her dress. Lord Faen, Jus, and Escalla turned to look at the girl and raised their brows. Escalla flew over to join her family, while Lord Faen turned back to the Erlking.
“My King, evidence seems to point well away from Escalla Nightshade.”
“Granted,” Oberon replied gravely.
“Oh hoopy!” Escalla clasped full hands to her bosom in joy, then tossed something in the air. “Hey, sis! Catch!”
A beautiful conical shell fell into Tielle’s lap. Tielle gave a screech of raw fear and hurled the thing off her lap, leaping away in terror.
Hovering above, Escalla flexed her fingers as though unsheathing claws.
“It’s only a little seashell, an empty one from a kuo-toan temple.” Escalla picked up the shell and held it to her ear with a look of concentration on her face, as though she were talking to the mollusk inside. “What? What was that? Tarquil’s assassin used a kuo-toan cone shell? But we never mentioned that to anyone but Daddy and Lord Faen!” Escalla turned big wide eyes upon Tielle. “What? How would Tielle recognize a kuo-toan cone shell unless she was the assassin? I dunno. Let’s ask her!”
Waving at her sister,
Escalla pulled a severed hand out from behind her back—a hand wearing a silver ring.
“Hey, dimwit! You lost it back at the temple, ring and all! We even got it on the slowglass!” Escalla shook the feminine hand back and forth in a wave. “Gotcha!”
Tielle shrank back in her seat, then shoved both of her hands into the air. “I have two hands.”
“Yep, and a regeneration spell only takes about a minute.” Escalla twirled the severed hand in the air. “If I get a clone spell cast on this, you think you’ll be twins?”
Tielle didn’t hesitate an instant. With a screech, the girl blasted a black bolt of energy—not at Escalla but at Oberon, who sat staring on his throne.
Jus whirled, the white sword streaking from its sheath. White light met black in a screaming howl of agony, sparks spraying all across the hall. The black bolt sheared in two, each part ploughing through the palace walls to either side of the Erlking. Jus sank into guard position, his magic sword smoking black as it dissipated the deadly force still clinging to the blade. Cinders snarled, hissing smoke, and the Justicar launched toward Tielle.
As the entire court erupted in chaos, Tielle turned, ripped a flower from a vase, and threw it through a fireplace. A magic gateway flashed into place. She dived and rolled, plunging through the portal an instant before the Justicar’s sword blurred through the empty space. The gateway had gone—open and shut in a single instant.
“Damn!”
The court was still sealed tight by the guards’ spells. Escalla ripped open the scrolls in the case on her back—treasures from the underdark—and trilled out the passwall spell. A hole appeared, leading onto the lawns crowded with refugees. Tielle emerged from a gazebo and instantly dived toward a garden patch, searching for herbs to use as keys for her escape.
Escalla snarled through the air and hit her sister full tilt, both of them tumbling end over end across the grass. Hundreds of refugees stood and stared.
In the palace hall, guards had clustered about the Erlking, too shocked to follow in pursuit. Only Lord Nightshade, Lord Faen, and a few courtiers had followed into the night.
Escalla’s scroll tube went flying. Hair ripped, and lich staff tumbled. Tielle drew a dagger but took a right-cross from Escalla’s fist that threw her back against a tree. Tielle turned, seized an orchid, and tossed it toward a garden arch. A gate sizzled into existence, but Escalla smashed a branch across Tielle’s head before she could fly free.
Jus lumbered down the lawn. Other faeries followed, slow and dazed. Tielle and Escalla fought in bitter fury, punching spells at one another that were too weak to pierce through each other’s defensive screens. Each had exhausted all their best spells battling in the underdark. Escalla now took the fight where it belonged. She kicked her sister in the chest, sending her ploughing through the grass.
“Bitch!”
“Sniveling little daddy’s girl!” Tielle wiped blood back from her nose. “When I’m queen I’ll have them rip your guts apart.”
Escalla swore and threw a spell—a minor little thing that ricocheted from Tielle’s defensive shields. Tielle laughed and backpedaled gaily through the air, one eye on the gateway shimmering in the dark.
“Time to bid your comic spells farewell!” The girl spread her wings wide. “Lolth will be back, and I’ll be with her! Time to shoot off and away!”
Jus and the faerie guards were coming fast. As Escalla made a lunge for her fallen lich staff, Tielle tipped a mocking salute to one and all and headed for escape.
From behind, Escalla’s voice came loud and clear. “Nope! Time to die and get buried!”
Tielle whipped her head about. Escalla stood in the grass, lich staff at her feet and an open scroll in her hands. “Hey! You like comical magic? Top this!” Escalla trilled spell syllables, unleashing power stored in the scroll. “Flesh to stone!”
Tielle screamed and tried to plunge through the gate, but the powerful spell blasted into her from behind. As Jus, Henry, and a dozen faeries thundered onto the scene, Tielle’s body jerked and turned to stone, slamming down to the ground.
Escalla stalked forward, looking extremely miffed.
“Framing me was the worst idea you ever had, bitch!” Escalla flicked out the scroll. “Spell number two—for those of you who have come through this with a sense of humor—stone to mud!”
Frozen in a pose of horror, Tielle’s petrified shape instantly dissolved into a pool of mud. Escalla steepled her fingers as she surveyed the results.
“Aaaand for my grand finale, let us just cancel out that flesh to stone spell, huh?”
The result was a big pink pool with a pair of blinking eyes staring up from the mess. Escalla bit her thumb at her sister, then turned about to see Henry and the Justicar staring at her wide-eyed. Escalla could only roll up her scrolls and shrug.
“Like I said, I have a nasty side!”
A splendid day began in the Dreadwood. Sun streamed through the trees, lighting upon ruined village roofs and mossy giants’ bones. Woodsmoke carried the scent of bacon in the air. A few faerie courtiers walked along or fluttered above the paths, peering at the astonishing sights of an unknown world. Drifting over it all came the sound of happy feminine singing—a voice that had not a worry in the world.
Enid the sphinx, freckle-spattered and eternally polite, came loping from the old tavern, batting at a rolled up ball of parchment with her paws. She stopped as she saw a ten-foot hole sitting in the middle of the path, and minced over to peer into the depths.
The hole was deep and looked remarkably comfortable. It had been lined with polished bookshelves that smelled pleasantly of beeswax. Hundreds of books and scrolls were neatly stored in place. Enid’s entire library lay in the middle of the shelves, surrounded by scores upon scores of new books.
Still singing happily, Escalla came flying out of the tavern. She wore new clothing—black elven chain mail so fine that it felt like sheer black silk, gloves and leggings, skirt and halter, all as stylish as a faerie could wish. Followed by a floating disk that bore two dozen fresh new books, Escalla whirred over to Enid and waved.
“Hey, Enid! It’s for you. Like it?”
“Like it?” Enid peered down into the hole with wide eyes. “Are those books all for me?”
“Books, maps, scrolls, riddles, lost languages… I even swiped some from a lich, so be careful with those! Bought the rest in town. Keoland paid a reward for returning their lost population.” Escalla tugged at one corner of the hole and lifted it up. “And it all folds up like a handkerchief! We can carry it with us wherever we go.” Escalla tucked the folded portable hole into Enid’s pretty collar. “Here. From us to you—a gift for our friend.”
Escalla hugged the huge sphinx, who nuzzled happily and purred. Heaving a sigh and enjoying the sunshine, Escalla looked over the crumbling old village. With her lich staff at her belt and her recharged ice wand in one hand, Escalla lifted into the air on silver wings.
“Polk! Come on, man. We’re going! And don’t forget the map!”
A snort came in reply, and an annoyed voice echoed from inside the shadows of the inn. “I can’t bring the damned map! You know danged well I can’t! Someone else will have to!”
“Just carry the damned thing and stop grousing!” Escalla waved her arms in irritation. “Look man, you’re a hero back from the dead! Faerie magic—lifetime warrantee! Can’t you just be a little bit pleased?”
A big hairy badger waddled out of the door and glared up at Escalla. “You did this on purpose!”
“I did not!” Escalla bridled, the picture of absolute innocence. “Would I do that to you? Hey, man! It was faerie magic! How was I supposed to remember that they can only do reincarnation spells?”
“It ain’t funny!” As a badger, Polk made an impressive sight—fat, hairy, and with a regal waddle to his walk. “I can’t even pour my own beer!”
“We’ll put it in a bowl for you! At least they made it so you can talk. What’s your problem?” Ever helpful, Escalla
brought the case to Enid for judgment. “Enid, does this suit him or what?”
The sphinx wrinkled up her pretty nose as she bowed down to inspect the sulking badger. “Well, I must say I like the stripes!”
“See! She likes the stripes!” Escalla waved a hand at Enid. “Think of the advantages. No more clothing expenses, hours of happy excavation, and you get to sleep in all winter!”
Polk glared at Escalla and licked his chops. “I said it ain’t funny.”
“All right, here’s a plan.” Escalla sat cross legged on Enid’s furry back. “We’ll go find someone human who has a proper raise dead spell. Then we’ll just kill you again, and get them to raise you back!”
Polk bristled in annoyance. “I’d still come back as a badger! I come back as what I was when I died!”
“Well, then we could reincarnate you again!” Escalla seemed utterly enthused by the idea. “I mean, a badger is only one random choice out of many! Maybe you’ll come out as something even hoopier? How about a giant woodlouse? Or you could be a beaver and do woodwork in your spare time.”
“No, thank you.” Polk sniffed in enormous self-importance. “Badgers got dignity, and from here on, if you don’t do what I tell you, I’ll give you all fleas.”
Escalla froze. “Do badgers have musk glands?”
“You’ll find out.” Polk waddled over to Enid’s back and clambered aboard. “So we’re leaving? Where’s lunch? Where’d the Justicar go? I want to fill him in on all my newfound woods-wisdom. Bein’ a badger gives a man a whole new range of skills!”
* * *
Walking quietly through the forest, Lord Faen, Lord Nightshade, and the Justicar reached a meadow filled with buttercups. The brilliant yellow flowers glittered in the morning sun, the winter cold giving way to a warm and mellow spring. The Justicar found a mossy log and spread Cinders out beneath a sunbeam. He popped a piece of coal into the hell hound’s mouth, and the dog sucked happily and thumped his tail against the bark.
Descent into the Depths of the Earth Page 31