Dissolution

«Why is that implausible? Picture the day—a few tendays past? — when they lost the ability to draw power from their goddess. Clerics of Lolth routinely collaborate in magical rituals, so they would have discovered fairly quickly that they were all similarly afflicted. Apprised of the scope of the situation, Triel Baenre, possibly in hurried consultation with our esteemed Mistress Quenthel and the matrons of the Council, might well have decided to conceal the priesthood's debility and sent the word round in time to keep anyone from blabbing.» «The word would have to pass pretty damn quickly,» said Ryld, examining Splitter's edge. As he'd expected, despite all the bone it had just bitten through, it was as preternaturally keen and free of notches and chips as ever. «Oh, I don't know,» the wizard said. «If you lost the strength of your arms, would you be eager to a

«Oh, it's real. I'm sure Triel deemed the ruse necessary to make sure no visitor would discern Menzoberranzan's sudden weakness.» He gri

«Conceivably,» said Pharaun. «The priestesses can't rule it out until they strap a few of them to torture racks, can they? But they don't want Gromph involved with capturing the rogues because. .?» «They don't want him to find out what the runaways know.» «Very good, apprentice. We'll make a logician of you yet.» «Do you think the archmage already knows the divines have lost their magic?»

«I'd bet your left eye on it, but he's in the same cart as the high priestesses. He posits that the fugitives might know even more.» Ryld nodded. «In a war, or any crisis, you have to cover every possibility.» «The notion of the Silence even explains why the Jewel Box was so crowded, and why some of the patrons were in a belligerent humor or even bruised and battered. Females divested of their magic might well feel weak and vulnerable.

Consciously or otherwise, they'd worry about losing control of the folk in their household and compensate by instituting a harsher discipline than usual.» «I see that,» said Ryld. «Of course you do. As I said, the one hypothesis accounts for every anomaly. That's why we can be confident the idea is valid.» «How does it account for the relative paucity of goods in the Bazaar?» Pharaun blinked, narrowed his eyes in thought, and finally laughed. «You know, it's difficult for genius to soar in the face of these carping little irrelevancies. Actually, you're right. At first glance, the Silence doesn't explain the marketplace, but it explains so much else that I still believe the idea correct. Have I persuaded you?»

«I… maybe. You do make a kind of twisted sense. It's just that its a hard idea to take in. The one truth our people have never questioned is that Menzoberranzan belongs to Lolth. Everything in the cavern is as it is because she willed it so, and the might of her priestesses is the primary force maintaining all that we have and are. If she's turned her face from the entire city, or is lost to us in some other way. .» Ryld spread his hands. «It is unsettling, but perhaps, just perhaps, it affords us an opportunity as well.» Ryld extended a telescoping metal probe, attached a cloth to the hook on the end, and started swamping out the blood-clogged scabbard. The warrior asked, «What do you mean?» «Just for fun, let's make the same leap of faith—or fear—that Gromph and the Council did. Assume the rogue males can explain the cessation of Lolth's beneficence. Assume you and I will find them and extract the information. Finally, assume we can somehow employ it to restore the status quo.» «That's a lot of assuming.» «It is. Obviously, I'm letting my imagination run amok. Yet I have a hunch—only a hunch, but still—that if two masters of the Academy could accomplish such a triumph, they might thereby win enough power to make my friend the Sarthos demon look like small beer. You wanted to find something to our advantage, as I recall.» «Your sister may find us first. She tracked us once. Do you still think we shouldn't kill her, or her vassals either?» «That's a good question,» Pharaun sighed. «They're attacking us with potent magic. I suspect that leather bag holds nine sets of servant creatures, each deadlier than the one before.» «In that case, why didn't she chuck them all at us?» «Perhaps, in the absence of her i

Pharaun rose and reached into one of his pockets. Out in the lake, something big jumped. Noticing the splash, an orc on a raft grunted to his fellows, and they readied their barb-headed lances.