Extinction

Rising from her bow, she glanced at Ryld, silently contemplating the warrior. Would he do the same? Or would coming up into Eilistraee's light prove too much for Ryld, too far at odds with the ways he had always known?

Only time would tell.

Chapter Twenty

Quenthel stared thoughtfully at Danifae's submissively bowed back. If the lesser priestess was to be believed, Pharaun was at last making his move. After endless petty insubordination, the infuriating male had finally worked up the courage to inflict the killing bite. Except that he didn't have the strength of will to kill Quenthel himself. Instead, he would let the aboleth do her in. That way, he could report back to the matron mother?honestly?that Quenthel had died at the hands of another, hostile race, in the pursuit of her quest.

A quest he obviously hoped to make his own, in order to steal what should rightfully be Quenthel's glory.

Quenthel stroked the sinuous bodies of her vipers, which shuddered softly as they shared her thoughts.

She must be telling the truth, Yngoth said, staring fixedly at the top of Danifae's lowered head. I can see no reason for her to make up such a story.

Nor can I, Quenthel thought back.

Danifae is your loyal servant. Mistress! said K'Sothra, squirming with delight.

Quenthel sighed and stroked the smaller viper's head. K'Sothra was pretty, but she wasn't very bright. She took everything at face value, completely missing the subtle nuances of deceit that usually lay just beneath the surface of so blatant a betrayal. But Quenthel thought that the naive snake might actually be correct. Danifae's motivation seemed clear as quartz crystal. The lesser priestess had everything to gain by betraying Pharaun's plans to Quenthel and nothing to lose. When Lolth reawakened, Danifae would no doubt attempt to claim a prominent place in Arach-Tinilith.

Quenthel shifted the whip to her left hand?smiling when Danifae flinched as the serpents passed over her head?and she curled the fingers of her right hand. She rested her fingertips lightly on Danifae's bowed head.

"You will be rewarded," she told the lesser priestess. "Now go. Return to Pharaun, before he suspects what you've been doing."

Danifae rose, smiling, and turned to leave the narrow cavern. Jeggred, who had been hunkered by the entrance the whole time, watching the tu

"What about the mage?" the draegloth growled.

Quenthel saw that the hair on the back of his neck had risen. He'd listened carefully to everything Danifae said and was balanced on the knife edge of one of his rages. The slightest word from Quenthel would send him into violent motion back down the tu

"I will deal with him myself," Quenthel told him. "Later."

Still growling softly, Jeggred settled back into a crouch, wrapping his smaller arms around his knees. Red eyes stared out into the tu

Quenthel sat for a moment in silence, brooding. The cavern she'd chosen for her Reverie was no larger than a servant's room, but it had a high ceiling that ended in a narrow fissure. Water seeped down one wall to puddle near her feet. It trickled out through the opening where Jeggred squatted, eventually joining the river she could hear flowing through the tu

Useful as Pharaun's spells were, his latest treachery had tipped the scales, turning him into a liability?one that needed to be eliminated. Yet killing him was not the simple solution it seemed.

Pharaun was a powerful wizard and a key player in the politics of the Academy. If it was learned that Quenthel had killed him, she would surely face the wrath of Pharaun's patron, her brother Gromph. Quenthel's sister Triel, Matron Mother of House Baenre, would not be pleased at having to choose sides between her siblings, especially as long as they were all weakened by Lolth's inattention. By all accounts, Pharaun's own matron mother, Miz'ri Mizzrym, was hardly fond of the mage, but he was a Master of Sorcere after all and still an important part of House Mizzrym's modest assets?and House Mizzrym was a close ally of the First House. The other masters and wizards of Sorcere would likewise be displeased to lose one of their own?especially one important enough to have been chosen for the expedition in the first place. Killing Pharaun would indeed be difficult, yet there had to be a way. .

Quenthel thought over what Danifae had told her. According to the battle-captive, the aboleth would only reveal where the ship of chaos was in exchange for an opportunity to consume a powerful spellcaster. Pharaun was obviously gambling that Oothoon would fail to realize that Quenthel's spells were no longer useful?that the aboleth would provide him with the location of the ship before his trickery was discovered. And the aboleth matriarch had obviously believed him. If not, she would have simply consumed Pharaun on the spot to acquire the spells the wizard carried inside his own mind.

You should turn the sava board on him, Yngoth suggested. Offer Pharaun to Oothoon, in exchange for the ship.

Easily said, Quenthel answered. But not so easily done. I would have to meet Oothoon in person and first persuade the aboleth matriarch that I was not worth eating.

Tell the truth, Zinda said. Your spells are useless. Lolth is silent, perhaps forever. Perhaps she is dead.

"No!" Quenthel cried aloud. "Lolth lives!"

Seeing Jeggred's sharp glance in her direction, she shut her mouth.

She must live, she continued silently. If I didn't believe she was still alive, I would?

What? Yngoth spat, his thoughts cracking Quenthel out of her despair. Give up? Embrace death yourself? What god, then, would claim your soul?

Anger making her steadier?she hated it when the vipers peered into her i

No. Never that. It's just that revealing what has happened to Lolth would mean bargaining from a position of weakness. The aboleth would realize I was powerless. She might even decide to mount an attack on the drow, as other races have done.

Hsiv joined the debate with a chuckle in his voice. The first of the imps to be bound into her whip, he was often the one who helped guide Quenthel's thoughts back to a truer course.

The aboleths are an aquatic race, he reminded her. They can't leave their lake.

I know that, Quenthel retorted, not caring that the vipers would see through her lie. But the aboleths might tell other races about Lolth's silence. If word of our weakness spreads, we're doomed. Ched Nasad has fallen, and now Pharaun is no longer able to contact Gromph. For all we know, Menzoberranzan?

Menzoberranzan is far from Lake Thoroot, Hsiv gently reminded her. And this is a little-visited region. Anyone the aboleth might tell would attack a drow city that is closer to hand.

Quenthel barely heard him. All of the fears and doubts she'd kept bound tightly inside her ever since the group had fled from Ched Nasad erupted like spiders from a cocoon.

But that's just it! she wailed. Who knows how many of our cities have been destroyed?or how many will yet be destroyed before this crisis is done? I've got to find Lolth?to tell her what's going on. Triel and the other matron mothers are all depending on me, and I'm not sure. . I don't know how. .