Insurrection

by Thomas M. Reid

Chapter Eighteen

 

  Pharaun tried to stay near the perimeter of the city as he made his way toward the Flame and Serpent. For one thing, he didn't relish the thought of being crushed at any moment by falling debris from above. Though it had only happened once, he'd been far too intimately involved with it than he cared to remember. He would avoid a repeat incident, if he could.

  Secondly, the wizard knew that navigation would be easier if he followed the wall of the chasm, rather than trying to work his way through the central section of the city. Even then, the thick smoke caused him difficulty in flying. He was surprised at how haze-choked the cavern had become. More than once, he nearly careened off a trench wall, still intact web street, or building. Nonetheless, he still considered the challenge of navigating through that to be far safer than having to maneuver through the center of Ched Nasad, where the sound of fighting was constant. Occasionally he heard explosions, loud pops, and howling winds in the distance as fierce magical battles raged. Arcane forces were being unleashedon gathering troops. There was no doubt about it - the entire city was engaged in a desperate struggle for control of the streets.

  Mostly, the reverberations of conflict reached the mage's ears from his level or below. What had in all likelihood begun in the plaza outside of House Melarn had quickly spread, engulfing the citizens and visitors all across the city, on every level. The wizard wondered how many had actually managed to flee into the caverns surrounding the City of Shimmering Webs. Though the team from Menzoberranzan had been indisposed for much of the initial martial activity, he recalled that, since their escape from the collapse of House Melarn, they had seen surprisingly few ordinary folk in the streets. Of course, that was also because they'd spent most of their time high in the city, where only the nobles prowled. Farther down, in the lower sections, he imagined a much different scene. There, he supposed, the general rabble had gotten caught up in the fighting, much like the rebellion back home.

  The uprising had taken a decidedly different twist than the insurrection in Menzoberranzan, though. The insurgents involved in the upheavals in Ched Nasad were the noble Houses themselves. Their own infighting was the flash point. Pharaun counted himself fortunate that the Houses of Menzoberranzan had proven less prone to petty backbiting. If they had, there might not be a city for him to return to. The mage grimaced, thinking of Gromph's attempts on Quenthel's life, and his own sister Greyanna's failed efforts to kill him.

  There might not be anything left, he thought, before this is completely finished.

  As he neared the section of the city where the inn was located, the wizard noticed that the damage was less severe there. In fact, the Flame and Serpent was thus far unscathed. Immediately he saw the reason why. A horde of mismatched drow and other creatures, probably residents of the inn, self-reliant mercenaries, and whatnot had formed a perimeter defense around the place. It didn't appear that they were under fire at the moment, but an intense battle must have raged there earlier, judging by the number of bodies present.

  Not wanting to be either attacked or drawn into the midst of the siege, Pharaun elected to circle around to the back side of the inn and enter it that way. He recalled the window of the room he shared with Valas and Ryld, the one that looked out on the wall of the massive cavern that Ched Nasad called home, and he made for that. He approached from the roof and settled down between the wall of the building and the wall of the trench. It was just wide enough for him to levitate down between the two, and he hovered there while he contemplated how best to get through the opening without attracting attention.

  He had just the spell, the Master of Sorcere realized, a minor incantation that would open the window from the inside, so that he wouldn't have to break it to get through. Reaching into hispiwafwi, he fumbled around in three or four pockets before he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a brass key and tapped it softly against the window as he uttered the words that would complete the spell. The window opened without resistance, and Pharaun squirmed inside the room.

  The wizard, the weapons master, and the scout had taken all of their belongings when they'd left the inn upon being summoned to attend the "party" in their honor. That seems almost a lifetime ago, Pharaun mused as he made his way out the door and down the hall to Quenthel's chambers.

  Upon reaching the door, the mage hesitated, wondering if the high priestess had placed some sort of protective enchantment on it before leaving, but then he remembered that Ryld and Valas had invaded the room when they came seeking healing magic. Chuckling, he tried the door and found it locked.

  Of course, Pharaun silently muttered. Leave it to Valas to put it back the way he found it.

  Shrugging, the wizard dug around in the pockets of hispiwafwi yet again, drawing forth a pinch of clay and a small vial of water. Sprinkling the water over the clay, he invoked the Weave and completed the spell. A portion of the wall next to the door began to sag, transforming from solid stone to thick, viscous mud. The wall oozed down into a puddle, and Pharaun stepped back to avoid soiling his boots. When the opening was wide enough, the Master of Sorcere nimbly leaped through into the room beyond, avoiding the mess he'd made.

  Pharaun spied Quenthel's backpack, filled with extra supplies, on a table near the Reverie couch. Some of Faeryl's things, including the ambassador's haversack, were on the other table. The wizard hefted the high priestess's pack and grunted.

  So, the mage thought with a wry grin, she finally figured out a way to make me carry her possessions.

  He slung the backpack over his shoulder, grabbed up the second one, Faeryl's, and turned to go.

  A crossbow bolt smacked into Pharaun's chest, somehow managing to slip through the part in the piwafwi's fabric, and embedded itself in his shoulder. The Master of Sorcere grunted and stumbled back into the room, spinning away so that his back was to his assailant and he was more completely protected by thepiwafwi. He looked down to see that it was a drow bolt, and he realized his magical invisibility had worn off.

  Pharaun staggered over to the opposite side of the room, dropping the two satchels as he scrambled to find cover. There were really only two good places he could go: behind the Reverie couch or into an armoire. As he rushed past the armoire, he grabbed the door and yanked it open, then shoved it shut again as he slumped behind the Reverie couch. The door to the oversized cabinet slammed shut just as two pairs of boots darted into the room, which Pharaun observed from beneath the couch. The mage stayed low, on his knees, watching under the couch as the two pairs of boots spread apart, both slowly headed toward the armoire, their owners presumably covering the room.

  "He went into the cabinet," one of the creatures said in the language of the drow.

  The crossbow bolt set his shoulder throbbing, but Pharaun quietly watched for his assailants to appear. He blinked, unable to focus clearly, and he suddenly began to feel lightheaded. He kept thinking that if he could just cast a spell, this would all be over, but a decision about which one or how to go about doing it eluded him. The crossbow bolt wound had begun to burn, and Pharaun realized that he was growing weak. The bolt had been coated with poison. He would have to hurry to get back to the others before it overwhelmed him, and he only hoped they had a means of treating the toxin.

  As his foes both came into Pharaun's line of view, crossbows held up and ready, he could see why they'd attacked him on sight. They were both dark elves, and they wore the livery of House Zauvirr. Mentally kicking himself for not considering the possibility that Ssipriina might send someone to their inn on the expectation that he or others in the group might return, Pharaun tried to phrase the arcane words of a spell, but they wouldn't come. The two drow were grinning as they sighted down their crossbows at him.

  Pharaun closed his eyes, wondering if it would hurt much to die, and pondered whether or not he could work his rapier free, when he heard a noise. The expected twang of crossbows being fired it was not. Instead, he heard a woman's voice - a familiar voice - utteri
ng a quick phrase. The wizard squinted, his vision blurry, as a spray of intertwined, multicolored beams of light cascaded over his two foes.

  Both drow reeled backward from the sudden, bright assault, crying out and flinging up their hands to cover their eyes. The first one spasmed as crackles of electricity raked over his body from the yellow ray of light, while the second drow was engulfed in flames upon coming into contact with the red beam.

  Pharaun watched as the two soldiers crumpled to the ground. Whether either or both of them were dead or not, he didn't know, nor did he care. He was growing intolerably weak from the effects of the poison.

  "Hello, Pharaun," the voice purred.

  With an effort, Pharaun opened his eyes again and looked up, realizing who it was.

  "Aliisza," he slurred, relaxing as the alu came around the couch toward him. "How did you find - "

  The fiend's slap across Pharaun's face stung immensely and he jerked, alert, his eyes watering.

  "What the - " the wizard grunted, rubbing his cheek as Aliisza squatted down beside him, her hand upraised. "What's the matter with you?"

  He again wondered if he could produce the rapier.

  "How dare you!" the alu growled, one eyebrow arched, but without the accompanying smile. "How could you be interested in that trollop after sharingmybed?"

  Pharaun blinked, thoroughly confused. Trollop?

  "Who in the blazes are you talking about?" he demanded, feebly raising his good arm to ward off the impending slap.

  "Don't you play dumb with me, you wretched excuse for a dark elf. You know the one I mean. The pretty you pulled from that collapsing house. I should have gouged her eyes out!"

  "Oh, by the Dark Mother," Pharaun muttered, understanding at last. "It's not what you think. . . . "

  "Ooh! You malesalways say that. According to your gender, it never is. I don't want to hear it. "

  Aliisza reached down, grabbed the wizard by both lapels of hispiwafwi, and drew him up to her. She crushed his mouth to hers in a rough kiss, biting his lip so hard he was sure she drew blood. In fact, he decided, it felt not so much like a kiss as like the fiend was marking her territory.

  "That's so you won't forget me so easily. If you stray, I'll know it. I'll smell her on you, and I will not be happy. I'm not through with you yet, wizard," Aliisza warned, looking him in the eyes.

  She blinked, and that sardonic smile was back.

  "Well, I guess I'd better get you to some help," she said lightly, hefting Pharaun up and slinging him over her shoulder, careful of his chest,where the crossbow bolt still protruded.

  The wizard felt the utter fool, being toted like a sack of mushrooms, but he could hardly protest. His entire body felt . . . well, "fuzzy" was the best word he could think of to describe it.

  "The satchels," he mumbled into the alu's shoulder. "Don't forget the satchels. "

  Scooping up both Quenthel's and Faeryl's bags, Aliisza carried Pharaun across the room, out the hole he'd made in the wall, down the hallway, and back into his own room. She set the wizard down on the Reverie couch. Taking the satchels, she moved to the window and leaned out, bracing her feet against the rock wall of the chasm. Pharaun watched helplessly as she tossed the packs onto the roof.

  The alu returned and scooped the wizard up once more and hauled him out into the gap between the building and the wall, shoving him upward above her. He felt the bolt in his shoulder ram against the side of the inn, but the pain was strangely diminished. Still, it was forceful enough to make him grunt.

  "By the Abyss, can't you help at all?" she puffed, working the mage to the roof.

  Pharaun didn't answer. His face was going numb, and everything was fading to black.

  Ryld was sitting on the roof of a building that bordered the alley, with his legs dangling over the side, his crossbow in his hands, watching parts of Ched Nasad burn. Finally having a chance to really study the layout of the city, hecould see what was happening with greater clarity. The fighting had diminished in the highest reaches, though he could still hear the sounds of combat from a couple of streets over. It was mostly the lower sections of the city that seemed to be receiving the worst of it, those areas where the lesser races were most numerous. He supposed that the violence down there took the form a general rioting, just a byproduct of the tensions of the city coupled with the more severe military maneuvers that had played out higher up. Of course, he supposed, having a large chunk of the city fall from above wasn't going to help calm things.

  Halisstra sat down beside the weapons master and stared forlornly out at her homeland.

  "Valas has gone to see what chance wehaveof getting out through any of the city gates," she told Ryld. "I told him about one or two places where we might be able to depart unseen, and he's going to see if they're secure. "

  Ryld only nodded. If anyone could sneak through the city unchallenged, itwas the Bregan D'aerthe scout. He doubted seriously if any exits had been left unguarded, though.

  "How could this have happened?" Halisstra muttered softly. "So much destruction. "

  "We have grown complacent," the Master of Melee-Magthere answered. "The drow race has been squabbling in a controlled manner for so long, we never expected that our own little games would get out of hand. And they - " the weapons master gestured downward, in the direction of the slums - "just feed off of it, now. "

  "But the fire. How is it possible to burn down a city made of stone?"

  "Alchemy, I suppose. We saw the same thing in Menzoberranzan. It's more devastating here, because your whole city is suspended on stone webbing. They were very clever to bring the firepots here. "

  "Of course," the drow maiden breathed. "Set the webs on fire, and everything attached to them falls to its destruction. Including House Melarn. "

  Ryld glanced over at the dark elf beside him. Her face was one of sorrow, and her red eyes glistened with uncharacteristic tears. It was not often that he saw a drow cry. It was considered a sign of weakness. He found it refreshingly honest in the priestess.

  "I am sorry for your loss. Perhaps we will learn from this. If we survive. "

  Something caught Ryld's eye, and he had his crossbow up and was sighting down the shaft in an instant. A winged figure, bobbing and weaving haphazardly, emerged from the smoke, coming for their position. It was a drow, possibly, though it had wings, and it bore a rather large bundle. The warrior could tell something was wrong by the erratic way it was flying. Suddenly, he recognized it - the demon from Ammarindar!

  He had his finger on the trigger, ready to fire a bolt through her heart, before he realized she was carrying Pharaun.

  As the demon closed in on the edge of the building, she seemed to lose her balance, and Ryld literally had to reach out and grab her as she went by. All three of them tumbled to the stone in a heap at Jeggred's feet. The draegloth stepped between the beautiful creature and the rest of the team.

  "You!" Quenthel hissed, her scourge raised, ready to strike. "What are you doing here?"

  The fiend, whom Pharaun referred to as Aliisza, Ryld remembered, eyed both Jeggred and the high priestess warily as she panted where she'd fallen. She made no move to defend herself.

  "Bringing your precious wizard back to you, drow," she muttered. "I know how fond you are of him. "

  "He's hurt," Ryld said, turning the mage over.

  Everyone but Jeggred gathered around as the weapons master began to examine Pharaun. It didn't take him long to find the puncture wound in the wizard's shoulder, a portion of a crossbow bolt still lodged in it. Most of the shaft had snapped off during his crash landing.

  "The bolt is poisoned," Quenthel said, standing over Pharaun's prone body. "Healing him won't do a bit of good unless we get the poison out of his blood first. If we don't, he'll die. "

  "I could have told you that," Aliisza said, sitting up, though she was still breathing heavily from her ordeal. "Here . . . he insisted we bring these. "

  She tossed t
wo backpacks at Quenthel's feet.

  "So, how do we remove the poison?" Ryld asked Quenthel, looking up from where he was tending to the Master of Sorcere. "Do any of you have the magic to do so?"

  Quenthel shook her head.

  "Yngoth can sense it in his body," she said, patting the whip that was once again hanging from her hip, "but my spells are, of course, lost. "

  Ryld looked at both Halisstra and Danifae.

  "How about either of you?"

  Both females shook their heads.

  "I dabble in a bit of arcane magic," Halisstra confessed, "but I am not yet powerful enough to eliminate poison. "

  Jeggred continued his vigil over Aliisza but said, "Perhaps our good friend the ambassador had some means of aiding him. "

  The draegloth nudged the satchel at his feet.

  "You'd better hope she did," Ryld muttered at the unconscious Pharaun, sliding the pack over toward Quenthel. "There's nothing else we can do for you, my friend. "

  Pharaun was sweating profusely. Ryld knew the wizard might be their single best chance to escape the city. If they lost him, they might very well be trapped, unless Valas could find a way out.

  Quenthel began rummaging through Faeryl's things, flinging clothing and personal items to the side. As she dug her way toward the bottom, Ryld thought he heard the high priestess mutter something disparaging about the ambassador and a comment about her being a waste of space then her face brightened as she pulled a thick tube free.

  "Ahha!"she said triumphantly. "Let's hope these are spells. "

  She opened the tube, slid out a handful of parchment pages and unfurled them, scanning their contents quickly.

  "Oh, how delightful," she said. "Faeryl, you clever girl, where in the Underdark did you steal these from?"

  Both Halisstra and Danifae crowded around the Mistress of Arach-Tinilith, each of them trying to get a glimpse of what was on the pages. The weapons master could see looks of elation on their faces.

  "Is there anything helpful?" Ryld demanded. "Something to neutralize the poison?"

  "I don't know, yet," Quenthel snapped. "Give me a moment. "

  She continued to scan the pages, leafing through them rapidly.

  "Several of these could prove quite helpful," she said, "but I don't see - oh, wait. Yes! Pharaun Mizzrym, you are in luck. Give me some room," she said, motioning for Ryld to move out of the way

  The weapons master did so, sliding off to the side as Quenthel knelt beside the wizard. Laying one hand atop the wound, the high priestess began chanting, reading through the words on the scroll in her hand. There was a tiny flash of light as the handwritten text vanished from the page, and a soft glow passed through Pharaun's body, emanating from the point where Quenthel's hand touched him.

  Almost immediately, the Master of Sorcere's breathing slowed, and he seemed more relaxed. His eyes were still closed, but he was smiling.

  "My thanks, Mistress Quenthel," he said, and he sounded about as sincere as Ryld had ever heard him. "I ran into a spot of trouble at the inn, you see. A couple of fellows in the employ of Matron Mother Zauvirr were decidedly unhappy that I paid the place a visit. They caught me off guard. "

  "I find that terribly difficult to believe," Ryld said, eyeing Aliisza, who was still sitting on the opposite side of Jeggred.

  "Yes, well, I'm sure you could have given them a lesson or two on how to more accurately find the most vulnerable point in a wizard's defenses. "

  "All right," the high priestess said, standing again. "Get that out of his shoulder, and I can heal him. "

  She went over to her own pack, where she tucked the scrolls, back in their protective tube, into a pocket. She began fishing around in another section of the container and produced a wand, which Ryld recognized from before.

  The weapons master turned his attention back to the broken end of the bolt. He checked to see if it was lodged against any bone, and when he was satisfied that it was not, he gave a fierce shove, pushing the head through Pharauns shoulder and out the back side.

  Pharaun arched his back and cried out in pain.

  "Damn it, Master Argith," he muttered finally, breathing fast. "You certainly know how to welcome a friend back. "

  The wizard closed his eyes, still grimacing.

  "I think the greeting was entirely appropriate for someone who managed to get himself shot," Ryld replied, once more making room for Quenthel to work her own magic.

  The high priestess waved her wand over the freshly bleeding puncture and muttered a trigger word. The flesh that was exposed began to knit itself together, closing the hole and forming a pale gray scar on his jet black flesh, Pharaun sighed as Quenthel stood up once more.

  "There," she said, returning the wand to her pack. "Now, try to avoid crossbow bolts. There's only so much of that to go around. "

  Ryld threw a glance at Halisstra and saw the drow priestess looking jealous as she watched Quenthel store away the wand.

  To the victor goes the spoils, he thought grimly. You bowed your head to her and named her your mistress . . . don't expect any generosity in return.

  Pharaun was sitting up, helped by Danifae. He looked around. When he spotted Aliisza, still being guarded by the draegloth, he grimaced and pulled his hand free from the battle captive's. Ryld glanced over and saw that the dark-haired beauty was frowning severely.

  Uh oh, Ryld thought. This smacks of a jealous lover. Surely the wizard isn't that big a fool, to lie with a demon. . . .

  Pharaun managed to get to his feet and move over to where the demon sat.

  "It's all right," he said to Jeggred as he passed. "You can stand down. She's not going to bite. "

  Jeggred studiously ignored the wizard and maintained his position.

  "Look, I owe you for this," he said, speaking low but not so quietly that Ryld couldn't hear the conversation.

  To his utter surprise, the demoness grabbed hold of Pharaun, her hands to either side of his head, and kissed him savagely. The wizard didn't do anything to resist, though the warrior could see his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.

  "Remember what I said," Aliisza said, pressing her mouth to the mage's ear, but speaking loudly enough that everyone could hear. "I will know. "

  Ryld saw that she was staring right at Danifae as she said this. The battle captive caught the steely stare and turned away, a smile of amused disbelief on her face. Quenthel gave a disgusted growl in the back of her throat and spun on her heel to ignore the ridiculous display.

  "Now, I've been too long in this city," Aliisza said. "I'll leave you all to whatever silly dark elf games you intend to play while the place falls down around you. "

  With that, she opened a bluish-white doorway, stepping through as Jeggred snarled and made a leap for her, but she was gone.

  "By the Dark Mother, Pharaun," Quenthel snapped. "All of your talk about not tempting fate, and you're off dallying with that. . . thatthing?You are such a male. "

  Pharaun shrugged at the accusations.

  "Nothing happened," he said, rubbing his mouth thoughtfully. "I went to get your things, I got jumped, and she saved my life. That's the end of it. "

  "See that it is," Quenthel snarled.

  Pharaun looked around, scratching his head.

  "Where's Valas?" he asked, and Danifae explained the situation to him.

  The wizard nodded and said, "Yes, the sooner we can get out of the city, the more quickly we can figure out how to get to his friend, the priest. "

  The Master of Sorcere raised a single eyebrow and glanced over at Quenthel.

  "Assuming we've settled on that as our next course of action?" he asked her.

  The high priestess gave him a single curt nod.

  "Yes, you've convinced me," she said. "Once we're clear of Ched Nasad, we'll need to decide the best way to reach this priest. I assume you have some means of getting us to where we'll want to go?"

  Pharaun nodded as
he got slowly to his feet.

  "I may, depending on where Valas tells us the fellow is, but I won't be doing it today," he added. "I have nearly depleted my assortment of spells. Without some rest and a chance to review my grimoires, I'm severely hampered. "

  "Then let's just concentrate on getting out of Ched Nasad and worry about that later," Quenthel said. "As soon as Valas returns, we'll see what he's discovered and make appropriate plans. "

  "The news isn't good," the scout said, appearing is if on cue. He climbed up and over the wall against which they'd been sitting. "Every major gate seems to be either heavily guarded or under attack, and the other places Halisstra mentioned are inaccessible at the moment. There's no way out of the city. "

  "Nonsense," Quenthel said firmly. "Pharaun, do you have any means at all of transporting us? Some spell that would open a gate? Anything?"

  The wizard shook his head.

  "Then we'll just have to clear a path through one of the gates. I'm sure that with the seven of us we can accomplish this. "

  "There is only one way to find out," the mage answered. He studied their position for a moment then turned to Valas. "We need to get up higher, above those duergar, don't you think?"

  Valas nodded and said, "The fighting is still heavy over in that direction. If we can avoid that, all the better. "

  "Let's not dawdle any longer," Pharaun agreed. "We go up. "

  Quenthel nodded her assent to the plan, and everyone prepared to depart.

  As Ryld assembled his gear, he realized that he was exhausted. Between his exploits with Valas at the taverns, fighting their way into and out of House Melarn, and dealing with both the duergar and the spiders, the warrior hadn't rested in over a day.

  It has to be almost morning, he realized, and we're not even close to being finished, yet. Let's hope we can find a relatively painless way to slip past the gate forces.

  The team set out, but they had to move in shifts, for Jeggred had to carry both Valas and Danifae to higher ground, and the draegloth, despite his immense strength, could only transport one of the dark elves at a time. Thus, half the group rose to the next web street overhead as Jeggred conveyed one drow, while the remainder waited with the other for the fiend to return.

  The first team, consisting of Pharaun, Quenthel, and Jeggred carrying Danifae, alit atop a web street and discovered that it was actually being defended by drow troops. Several of the dark elves leveled hand crossbows at the four of them, and when they saw the draegloth, they nearly panicked.

  "What in the Nine Hells is that?" one of the soldiers, an older male with plenty of battle scars, called out, pointing to Jeggred with his crossbow.

  The fiend growled low, turning to face his would-be assailants, but Pharaun stepped between the draegloth and the others.

  "Easy, there," the wizard said, his hands out, palms up in a placating manner. "We're just passing through. No need to get jumpy. "

  Beside him, Quenthel sniffed, but when the drow soldiers saw that she seemed unconcerned by the fiend's presence, they quieted down, returning their attention below them, where the fighting was still taking place. Jeggred departed to retrieve Valas.

  Pharaun found a spot to take a seat and did so, reclining against a wall to rest for a few moments.

  "Might as well get comfortable," he said to the two females with him. "Rest when you can. "

  Quenthel scowled but consented to sit across from the wizard, and Danifae settled down, too.

  The trio's rest was short-lived, though, for soon, shouts emerged from farther along the street. All the drow around them grew restless as word spread that dark elves from an enemy House were heading their way.

  A priestess of middling rank came stalking down the street, accompanied by a pair of male wizards. They were cajoling the troops to form up.

  "On your feet! It's time. Get up, you worthless rothe, and fight! Fight for House Maerret!"

  When she reached Pharaun and the others, she stopped and stared at them.

  "What are you three doing here? You're not part of this unit. Who are you?"

  Pharaun gave the priestess that same placating motion that he'd used earlier and said, "We're just passersby, not here to cause any trouble. "

  "Well, you'll join ranks, then. Get forward and help the other wizards. "

  "We thought we'd better serve the cause byhelping to watch this end of road," Pharaun replied, smiling broadly. "You never know when those pesky grays will try to circumnavigate our flank and surprise us. "

  "Get on your feet, wizard, and go join the other spellcasters. And you two! You can help me rally the troops and keep order. Up off your hind ends - now!"

  Pharaun could see that Quenthel was about to lash out at the priestess, so before she could cause a scene, he pulled the drow commander to the side.

  "Listen," he said quietly. "We're actually working on a special assignment for Matron Mother Drisinil Melarn. We've got permission to avoid the fighting while we take care of a very important mission. "

  "Oh, is that so?" one of the male wizards replied coldly. "Well, Drisinil Melarn was my mother, and I happen to know that she was murdered by traitors before this civil war even started. Since you don't wear a House insignia, I'm guessing you're the spies who were accused of collaborating with her. Maybe it's time you died. "

  The Melarn wizard stepped back, reaching into hispiwafwi,but before Pharaun could react, a voice drifted from behind him.

  "Hello, Q'arlynd," Halisstra said as she and the others floated up over the side of the web street.

  The Melarn wizard stopped, peering at the priestess for a moment. Then he broke into a broad grin.

  "Dear sister," he said. "I thought you were dead. "