Extinction

"You will see Nimor's power and majesty yourself soon enough, when he leads the final assault against this House. That is, if you live to?"

Triel realized that the glare of defiance?and self-will?had never left the assassin's eye, the entire time he was speaking. And his gaze had slid down to her chair more than once?but only when he thought she wasn't looking at him.

"Guards!" she shouted. "Shields!"

Instantly, the women on either side of her sprang into motion, thrusting their shields between Triel and the only visible threat: the assassin.

Even as the two shields clanged together, the audience chamber filled with a blast of magical energy. Searingly hot flame exploded outward from where the assassin lay, the roar of it slamming against Triel's eardrums with such volume that it nearly blotted out the screams of the guards whose bodies were blackening like overcooked meat.

The magic of their shields held fast, and the blast was deflected over, under, and around the chair on which Triel cringed. She felt the wash of its heat as little more than a flush of warmth; felt nothing of its blast save for the shields that were forced back against her chair. The throne itself had not reacted to the blast of the fireball the assassin had carried within himself. Triel could guess the reason. The attack was directed at the assassin who'd carried it into the room, not at the matron mother herself. Nimor's information?and his guess as to where Triel would question the failed assassin?had been flawless.

All this Triel realized in the instant of ear-ringing silence that followed the blast.

Maignith and the other two guards crumpled to the floor, burned beyond recognition. The lizard, too, was dead, curled and immobile in one corner of the room, its skin no longer glowing.

Of the assassin's body, nothing remained but bones, glowing red like coats and sending up wisps of oily black smoke.

Triel shivered, aware that she had come within a heartbeat of death. For a moment, she knew fear. No wonder the assassin had been so willing to talk. He had needed to keep her within range until the spell went off.

Triel heard ru

"Matron Mother," she gasped. The captain was panting, as if she'd run some distance. "The enemy approaches the city!"

"From which direction?"

"Through the caverns to the southeast. Our patrols have skirmished with them at the Cavern of Severed Tentacles and at Ablonsheir's Cave."

"Was it tanarukks the patrols encountered or duergar?" Triel asked.

"Both, but most tanarukks"

"In what numbers?"

The captain shrugged and said, "Impossible to tell. But the armies seem to have combined and are making their way swiftly through the Dark Dominion. They'll reach the outskirts of the city at any moment."

Triel ground her teeth. Was it a feint?or an assault in force? Judging by their approach, the tanarukks and duergar were aiming to enter Menzoberranzan through one of the nine tu

Was there still time to plug the gap? She dared not commit the House guard. It would be needed to defend the Baenre compound if the enemy made it into the city. There was only one other House Baenre company close enough.

"Pull our troops back from the siege of House Agrach Dyrr," Triel ordered. "Send them into the caverns immediately below the eastern end of the plateau. Order them to hold them at all cost. And tell the other Houses to send their troops to defend the other caverns leading into Narbondellyn. House Barrison Del'Armgo especially. Our troops will be first to bear the brunt of the assault, but Del'Armgo must reinforce us. Leave Agrach Dyrr to the Xorlarrin."

The captain bowed and said, "As you order, Matron Mother."

As the captain hurried away, Triel chewed her lip, praying she'd made the right decision.

Where in the Nine Hells was Gromph when House Baenre needed him most?

Chapter Eight

Glass.

Curved glass.

And outside it…

Gray stone.

Tu

Close.

Outside curved glass.

Gromph Baenre, Archmage of Menzoberranzan, stared, unblinking, at the rough stone that lay just outside the wall of his prison. He was trapped inside curved glass. In utter silence. Inside a hollow sphere that lay on the floor of an unknown tu

He stared at his own reflection, distorted by the concave surface of the glass. His face was coarse but unlined despite his seven centuries, thanks to the amulet of eternal youth pi

His silver-white hair floated loosely around his head, unaffected by the gravity that existed only outside the sphere. His eyes were open and unblinking.

Growing weary of his own face, he stared at the tu

Time passed.

A while later?ten cycles, a year??Gromph felt something tickle his mind. An awareness. A presence. Turning his mind toward it, Gromph sought it out. Struggling like an exhausted man trying to lift his head, he concentrated his will.

Kyorli?

Nothing.

More time passed.

He stared at the vein of quartz, picking out a crystal within it. By concentrating on its facets?blurred though they were by the concave glass in front of his eyes?he could focus his thoughts.

What he knew was that he was inside a sphere of glass, the product of an imprisoning spell.

A spell cast by the lichdrow Dyrr.

He was far beneath the city, in an unknown tu

Trapped.

More time passed. As it trickled by, Gromph tried to open his mouth, to force his eyelids to blink, to twitch his fingers.

Nothing.

Had he been able to draw a breath, he would have sighed. But even had he been able to move and speak?to cast a spell?it wouldn't have helped. The spell the lichdrow had cast on him was a powerful one, and Gromph knew it well. The only way it could be reversed was if a counterspell of equal power was cast on the sphere. And that spell could only be cast from outside the sphere, by someone else. If that wasn't difficult enough, the spell would only work if it was cast in the same location that the original imprisonment spell had been cast.

Gromph recoiled from the irony of it. He was the Archmage of Menzoberranzan, the most powerful wizard in all of the City of Spiders, privy to the arcane workings of more spells than most mages dared dream of. Yet even if he had been able to cast a wish spell, it wouldn't have done him any good.