Sacrifice of the Widow lp-1

by Lisa Smedman

  He rose from his bow. "Not if I can help it, Lady. Eilistraee willing, it will be a while yet before I set foot in her domain." He gave them one of his most boyish smiles. "I'm not much of a dancer, you see."

  The remark had the desired effect. Rowaan laughed out loud.

  Leliana, however, did not.

  "I was thinking about my sister, actually," Q'arlynd hurriedly continued. "I wanted to know what happened to her after her death."

  Leliana's expression softened. "Don't worry-you'll see her again in Svartalfheim some day." She paused. "If you remain faithful to your vows, that is."

  Q'arlynd bowed. "I will, Lady." It was a promise he wasn't likely to keep, but that wouldn't matter until he was dead. As long as he still drew breath, he could always choose a different patron deity, if things didn't work out with Eilistraee's high priestess.

  It was time to get moving on that.

  He caught Leliana's eye. "You told me a meeting with your high priestess would be possible." He gestured at the bier in the tree. "Now that the funeral rites are over, I was wondering when I might meet Lady Qilue. I understand she's in your chief temple-the Promenade?"

  Leliana shook her head. "We can't spare anyone to take you there. Not right now."

  "I can teleport, remember?" Q'arlynd reminded her. "I don't need an escort. Just describe this Promenade for me, and I'll make my way there myself."

  "No," Leliana said firmly.

  "Have you at least told Lady Qilue I'd like to meet with her?"

  Leliana threw up her hands. "When would I have had the chance to do that, between battling driders and dealing with our dead?"

  "The drider attack was more than a tenday ago," Q'arlynd continued, using the surface dwellers' term for the passage of time. He understood the delay-the priestesses had been busy strengthening their defenses in the aftermath of the attack-but it still irritated him. "When were you going to tell Lady Qilue that I'd like to meet with her?"

  Leliana folded her arms. "When I'm good and ready-and not a moment before."

  Q'arlynd fumed, wishing he had disposed of Leliana when he'd had the chance. Clearly, she'd changed her mind about arranging a meeting with the high priestess, and since she was the one who had taken charge of him, back at the portal, she had the final say over what duties he would have among the faithful-as well as whether he might move on to another shrine or temple. Q'arlynd, however, had higher aspirations than sitting in some mist-choked forest, listening to the females sing. He wanted to be at the heart of things, at the seat of power, which would only be possible if he secured an audience with Qilue. That was how a male succeeded in life, by attaching himself to a powerful female and serving her well.

  "It's best for now if you stay here, Q'arlynd," Rowaan said. "The drider attack cut our numbers nearly in half. If the judicator returns, we'll need your spells."

  Q'arlynd inclined his head in a show of modesty, inwardly gritting his teeth.

  "And if Vhaeraun's assassins show up here-"

  "Rowaan!" Leliana snapped, rounding on her daughter. "That's not something lay worshipers need to trouble themselves with."

  Q'arlynd blinked. Rowaan had obviously just said something he wasn't meant to hear. It almost sounded as if the priestesses were expecting the Nightshadows to strike.

  "But Q'arlynd is one of us now," Rowaan protested. "He-"

  "Is not a priestess," Leliana said. "He's a powerful wizard, yes, but he's…"

  She didn't have to finish the sentence. Q'arlynd could do it for her. A male.

  He bowed his head, silently acknowledging Leliana's superiority. Whether one worshiped Lolth or Eilistraee, it was all the same. A priestess was a priestess.

  Female.

  But females, in his experience, often had a weakness for a handsome face, something Q'arlynd might just be able to use to his advantage. He smiled at Rowaan-the seemingly apologetic smile of a male who knew his place in the world but just couldn't help wanting more. She gave the slightest of nods in return.

  Rowaan, he was certain, trusted him.

  He could use that.

  Qilue stared with a mixture of pity and wariness at the creature that squatted before her. Little remained of the drow Halisstra Melarn had once been. Lolth had expanded Halisstra's body to twice its size, enhancing it with wiry muscle and giving her face an elongated, bestial appearance. The spider legs protruding from her ribs and the fangs scissoring out of those bulges on her cheeks made her monstrous indeed, but despite her size and power, Halisstra's eyes hinted that something still remained of the priestess she had once been. Qilue saw a yearning there, a faint spark of hope nearly lost amidst the anguish and rage.

  They stood in the forest, Qilue wrapped in protective silver moonfire, Halisstra with a palpable taint surrounding her. Qilue had come armed with a singing sword, silver dagger, and her magical bracer in addition to her spells, but so far there had been no treachery. Halisstra had clearly been claimed by Lolth, but if this was a trap it had yet to be sprung.

  Cavatina stood a few steps behind Halisstra, sword in hand. Moonlight glinted off her armor. "Repeat what you told me about the temple," she prompted. "Describe it for Qilue."

  Halisstra bared pointed teeth in what Qilue supposed was meant to be a smile. "It stands on top of a tall spire of rock. Feliane, Uluyara, and I shaped it with our prayers from the stone of the Demonweb Pits. It's intact and is sacred ground still. Lolth's creatures cannot enter it."

  "Including Halisstra," Cavatina added.

  Halisstra bowed her head.

  "Yet you were able to place the Crescent Blade inside this temple?" Qilue asked. She wanted to hear this part of the story again to see if there were any inconsistencies.

  Halisstra nodded. "From a distance, yes. I tossed the broken pieces of the sword through the doorway. I had thought only to put the pieces somewhere safe, so that the weapon might later be recovered and repaired, but the temple must have worked some kind of magic on the sword. As I watched, blade and hilt slid toward one another and joined. Eilistraee's sacred moonlight filled the temple, and the sword glowed white. The light blinded me for a time. When I could see again, I looked into the temple and saw the sword lying on the floor, reforged."

  It seemed strange to Qilue that Lolth had allowed that to happen within her own domain, stranger still that the temple to Eilistraee remained intact. The Spider Queen was known to permit spaces sacred to other deities to exist within her realm-the Demonweb Pits housed portions of the domains of Vhaeraun, Kiaransalee, and Ghaunadaur, after all-but they were deities who had allied with Lolth during her revolt against the Seldarine. Eilistraee was Lolth's enemy. A temple to her within the Demonweb Pits should have been an unbearable burr upon the Spider Queen's throne. Lolth was either suffering the temple to exist for some reason of her own, or-Qilue grimly smiled-she had been weakened by her Silence to the point where Eilistraee might, at long last, vanquish her.

  Or Halisstra was lying about the existence of a temple.

  "Tell me again how the Crescent Blade came to be broken," Qilue said.

  "After Danifae treacherously attacked me, I lay injured for a time. When I regained consciousness-miraculously, still alive-Uluyara and Feliane were dead. Danifae and the draegloth had disappeared. I realized they must have entered the Pass of the Soulreaver and knew I had to follow. I entered the pass and battled the monsters Lolth sent against me. I fought well, but just as I neared the exit, a misplaced thrust wedged my sword in a crack in the rock. When I tried to wrench it free, the blade snapped. I had fought my way through the pass, only to stand at the very doorstep of Lolth's fortress with a broken weapon."

  Halisstra paused, her spider fangs quivering. After a moment, she composed herself.

  "I still had Seyll's sword," she continued, "so I carried on. I fought Danifae and Quenthel, but in the middle of that battle we were drawn into Lolth's city, to her very throne. Lolth had awakened from her Silence. I tried to fight the goddess herself, but without the Crescent Blade…
" A shudder ran through her body. "I had no hope. Lolth was too powerful. She forced the three of us to kneel before her. Danifae, she killed and consumed. She was the most worthy, in Lolth's eyes, and the goddess wanted to add her substance to her own. Quenthel she spared and sent back to Arach-Tinilith, where she serves the Spider Queen still. I was deemed unworthy for having renounced my faith to embrace Eilistraee. For this, Lolth said, I would do eternal penance. She seized me and bit me." Halisstra touched the puncture marks on her neck. "Eight times she sank her teeth into my flesh. Then she spun me into a cocoon. When I emerged, I was… like this."

  Qilue nodded. "What happened then?"

  "I made my way out of Lolth's fortress. It was filled with yochlols, but they made no move to stop me. I stumbled away across the plain, back to the Pass of the Soulreaver. I recovered the pieces of the Crescent Blade and entered the pass. This time, nothing attacked me. I made my way to Eilistraee's temple and placed the sword inside."

  "Tell her how you escaped from the Demonweb Pits," Cavatina prompted. "It was a very clever tactic."

  Qilue shot the Darksong Knight a look. Thus far, Qilue herself had offered neither praise nor criticism of anything Halisstra had said. Qilue wished that she had been able to come more swiftly to the Velarswood. Halisstra had obviously told her story more than once to Cavatina, something that would have allowed Halisstra to smooth out any wrinkles in the tale. Normally, Qilue would have used a spell to tell what parts of the story rang true and which were lies or embroideries, woven onto a slim thread of truth, but whatever hold Lolth had on the tragic creature that Halisstra had become was strong. Even Qilue's magic could not penetrate it.

  Qilue wondered what Lolth was trying to hide.

  "I escaped by observing Selvetarm," Halisstra continued. "By following him, I learned where one of the portals that leads from Lolth's domain was located. It was guarded by a songspider, a creature whose webs create music that can enslave or even kill. This barrier would have barred my way, had I not been schooled in bae'queshel. I used that magic to play the strands of the web like a lyre, plucking it open. The portal led back to this plane, to a place east of Lake Sember."

  "Halisstra can show us where it is," Cavatina said, her eyes gleaming, "and lead us to the temple in the Demonweb Pits. The Crescent Blade-"

  Qilue held up a hand for silence. She didn't like the look in Halisstra's eye. A former priestess she might be, but her eyes held a gleam as malicious as Lolth's own. Her desire to return to the Demonweb Pits was just a little too strong.

  Yet the pain and desperation that Qilue could sense in Halisstra seemed real enough. Part of her, at least, still yearned for a second chance at redemption, but because Halisstra could not die, she would, for all eternity, be in bondage to the Spider Queen, unless the sticky webs with which Lolth held her could somehow be broken.

  Qilue suspected that Halisstra was, consciously or not, trying to play both sides of the sava board at once. Redemption lay on one side of the board. On the other was the possibility of a reward from the Spider Queen for delivering a priestess of Eilistraee into her hands, except that Lolth was capricious when it came to rewarding mortals for services rendered. The Spider Queen was just as likely to punish as to pardon, as Halisstra was doubtless well aware.

  "We can do it, Lady Qilue," Halisstra whispered, "finish what we started. Use the Crescent Blade to kill Lolth." She spread her elongated fingers, looked down at the claws that protruded from their tips. "But she won't die by these hands. Someone else will have to wield the Crescent Blade this time."

  Qilue nodded. Eilistraee's faithful would not make the same mistake twice. Three years before, Uluyara's decision to let Halisstra carry the Crescent Blade had proved a disaster, even though the choice had seemed sound at the time. Halisstra had been part of the group that had been seeking Lolth during her Silence. She stood the best chance of infiltrating Quenthel's band and traveling with them to the place where Lolth had secluded herself, but Halisstra had been a novice, not yet fully trusting in her newfound faith. It would be one of Eilistraee's Chosen-Qilue herself-who would carry the battle forward.

  If, indeed, the Crescent Blade did still exist.

  "Three years ago," Qilue said, "Uluyara came to me and told me what you planned to do. When you entered the Demonweb Pits, I was watching."

  That got a reaction. "You were scrying?" Halisstra's spider legs drummed against her chest. Her breathing was fast and light.

  Qilue nodded. Deliberately, she added details that Halisstra would recognize. "Could you not feel me, when I shattered the ice that Pharaun used to imprison you? I saw through your eyes when Danifae lifted you by the hair and made you watch as the draegloth tore into Feliane."

  Halisstra's eyes narrowed, perhaps in pain at the memory. "You saw Feliane die?" Every muscle of her body was tense.

  "Yes."

  For several moments, there was strained silence. Qilue waited expectantly for Halisstra to reveal, through some ill chosen word, whatever secret had caused her to tense up. Something had happened after the draegloth killed Feliane-something Halisstra didn't want Qilue to know about-but what?

  Halisstra laughed, a wild sound that rippled at the edge of insanity. Qilue thought she heard an undertone of relief in it, but couldn't be certain. "You think I could have done more to save Feliane, but I was weak, nearly dead myself. I could do nothing to stop the draegloth from killing her."

  Qilue arched an eyebrow, waiting. Nothing more was forthcoming, however. Qilue at last nodded. "You could do nothing to save her," she agreed.

  Halisstra's relief was clearly visible, and perhaps it really was as simple as that. Perhaps Halisstra felt guilty about the deaths of the two priestesses who had accompanied her to the Demonweb Pits, a guilt as painful as any penance Lolth had imposed.

  Qilue suddenly wondered if she'd pushed Halisstra too far. She switched to a soothing tone. "A death like Feliane's is disturbing," she said. "It would make anyone question her faith. It's easy enough to think that Eilistraee had abandoned you, but she didn't. It was her magic that revived you, after Danifae's mace shattered your face."

  Halisstra cocked her head. "Eilistraee was… with me?" she whispered in a dry, strangled voice. "Even when…"

  Qilue nodded. "She was."

  Halisstra's eyes hardened. "If Eilistraee was with me, why did she let Lolth claim me?"

  "Strong as Eilistraee is, Lolth is more powerful within her own domain, especially within her fortress," Qilue spread her hands, "but Eilistraee-and I-did not just abandon you. My scrying ended when Danifae struck you down. I assumed you were dead, until Eilistraee hinted otherwise. Whatever happened in the Demonweb Pits after that, Eilistraee will forgive you."

  Halisstra stared flatly back at Qilue. There was no conviction in her eyes.

  "One last question," Qilue said. "It's been three years since Lolth broke her Silence. What have you been doing all this time?"

  Halisstra shifted uncomfortably. "I only escaped the Demonweb Pits a year ago. Since then, I've been… busy."

  "Doing Lolth's bidding," Qilue suggested.

  Halisstra's eyes blazed. "I never attacked your priestesses."

  Qilue noted the choice of words. "Your" priestesses. A bitter twist to the word.

  "It was House Jaelre and House Auzkovyn that I hunted," Halisstra continued. "Vhaeraun's clerics. They're your enemies, as well."

  "Those who worship Vhaeraun, yes," Qilue said softly, "but some from those Houses have sought redemption."

  "Not all of them," Cavatina interrupted. She nodded at Halisstra. "The last one she killed died unrepentant. I gave him every opportunity to redeem himself before he died, but he refused."

  Qilue frowned, not understanding. "You raised one of her victims from the dead?"

  The Darksong Knight laughed. "Quite the contrary. He was very much alive, inside her cocoon, when I found him."

  "You killed him?"

  Cavatina stared back at Qilue, unrepentant. "He deserved to die.
"

  Cavatina seemed disinclined to say more. Rather than pursue the discussion in front of Halisstra, who was listening a little too attentively, Qilue let the matter drop. There were more important matters at hand. The Crescent Blade. If it still existed, the quest that had begun three years ago might continue.

  She glanced past Halisstra at Cavatina. The Darksong Knight stood ready, her eyes bright in the moonlight. Cavatina was skilled with a sword and experienced at fighting demons. Aside from Qilue herself, she was the most logical choice to recover the Crescent Blade. If it still existed.

  "Priestess?" Qilue asked aloud. "Are you up to the challenge?" At the same time, she used her magic to send Cavatina a silent message. It will be a trap. In all likelihood the temple no longer exists, and the blade is still lost.

  Cavatina's posture was tense. Eager. But if it is true? If the sword can be recovered?

  "Then you will bring it to me," Qilue said, answering aloud. She kept an eye on Halisstra as she spoke, watching for a reaction. Halisstra gave no sign of disappointment. It didn't seem to matter to her that Qilue herself would not be lured into the Demonweb Pits.

  Cavatina's lips parted then closed. Qilue could sense that she had been about to protest, to insist that it should be a Darksong Knight who made the attempt on Lolth, but instead she inclined her head.

  "By the song and the sword, we will succeed," she said.

  "The drow will be free of the Spider Queen at last."

  "By the song and the sword," Qilue murmured. Then she took a deep breath. Halisstra, she thought, was a coin balanced on its edge. Which way would she fall-toward betrayal or aid? The prophecy of three years ago had said it could go either way.

  No. The prophecy had said it would go both ways. In the goddess's own words, House Melarn would both aid-and betray. A single coin could only fall on one side or the other.

  Was there a second "coin" out there somewhere, waiting to declare itself?

  If so, where?

  Q'arlynd approached the tree that housed the priestesses. It was still covered in leaves, despite the recent snowfall. Sustained by ancient magic, its branches sparkled against the night sky with a shimmer of green that reminded Q'arlynd of the faerie fire that had decorated the buildings and roads back home.