Dissolution

By the time he recovered his balance, he knew more or less where he was. A whiff of dung told him. He looked around and confirmed the suspicion. Pharaun had dropped the two of them in a disused sentry post on a natural balcony. The ledge overlooked Donigarten with its moss fields, grove of giant mushrooms, and fungus farms fertilized with night soil from the city. Hordes of orc and goblin slaves either tended the malodorous croplands or speared fish from rafts on the lake, while rothй lowed from the island in the center of the water. Overseers and an armed patrol wandered the fields to keep the thralls in line. Additional guards looked down from other high perches about the cavern wall. Ryld knew Pharaun had transported them about as far as was possible. In the Realms that See the Sun, teleportation could carry folk around the world, but in the Underdark, the disruptive radiance of certain elements present in the rock limited the range to about half a mile—far enough to throw Greya

Ryld grabbed Pharaun by the arm and flipped him, laying him down hard. The wizard blinked, sat up, and brushed a strand of his sculpted hair back into place. «If you'd told me you craved more fighting,» Pharaun said, «I could have left you behind with my kin.» «The hunters, you mean,» Ryld growled, «who found us quickly.» «Well, we asked a fair number of questions in a fair number of places. We even wanted someone to find us, just not that lot.» Pharaun stood back up and brushed at his garments, adding, «Now, I have something extraordinary to tell you.» «Save it,» Ryld replied. «Back there in the net, when you and Greya

The fencing teacher sat down and removed a cloth, a whetstone, and a vial of oil from the pockets of his garments. He unfastened his short sword from his belt, pulled on the hilt, and made a little spitting sound of displeasure when the blade, which he had been forced to put away bloody, stuck in the scabbard. He yanked more forcefully, and it came free. He looked over at Pharaun, who was regarding with him with a sort of quizzical exasperation. «Talk,» the warrior said. «I can care for my gear and listen at the same time.» «Is this how you attend to mind-boggling revelations? I suppose I'm lucky you don't have to use the Jakes. All right, here it is … Lolth is gone. Well, maybe not gone, but unavailable at least in the sense that it's no longer possible for her Menzoberranyr clerics to receive spells from her.» For a moment, Ryld thought he'd misheard the words. «I guess that's a joke?» he asked. «I'm glad you didn't make it while we were in the middle of a crowd. There's no point compounding our crimes with blasphemy.» «Blasphemy or not, it's the truth.» Rag in hand, Ryld scrubbed tacky blood off the short sword. «What are you suggesting,» the weapons master asked, «another Time of Troubles? Could there be two such upheavals?» Pharaun gri

«You keep track of every foe on the battleground. I know you do. So, did you see them casting spells out of their own i

«Would she need a reason—or at any rate, one her mortal children can comprehend? She is a deity of chaos. Perhaps she's testing us somehow, or else she's angry and deems us unworthy of her patronage. «Or, as I suggested before, the cause of her silence, if in fact she is mute when her clerics pray to her and not just uncooperative, may be something else altogether. Perhaps even another happenstance involving all the gods. Since we have only one faith and clergy in Menzoberranzan, it's difficult to judge.» «Wait,» Ryld said. He unstoppered his little bottle of oil. The sharp smell provided a welcome counterpoint to the moist stink of the dung fields. «I admit, I didn't see Greya

«I see what you mean,» Ryld conceded, «but when the clerics lost their powers in the Time of Troubles, it destabilized the balance of power among the noble Houses. Those who believed the change made them stronger in relative terms struck hard to supplant their rivals. As far as I can see, that isn't happening now, just the usual level of controlled enmity.» He laid the short sword aside and picked up Splitter. Pharaun nodded and said, «You'll recall that none of the Houses attempting to exploit the Time of Troubles ultimately profited thereby. To the contrary, the Baenre and others punished them for their temerity. Perhaps the matron mothers took the lesson to heart.»

«So instead of hatching schemes to topple one another, they. . what? Enlisted every single priestess in a grand conspiracy to conceal their fall from grace? If your mad idea is right, that's what they must have done.»