Extinction

A tickling at the back of his neck alerted him to the fact that someone was watching him?something that should have been impossible within the magically warded walls of his office. It seemed to be coming from the axe he'd hung on the wall?the one his forgotten illithid visitor had left. For a moment, Gromph wondered it the observer was one of the souls trapped within it, but when he bade Kyorli to turn and take a look, he saw no movement, no face in the axe blade.

As the archmage turned away from the axe, a familiar voice whispered at him from out of the thin air?the voice of the one drow Gromph had ensured would be able to penetrate the wards of his office?

Going to Lake of Shadows, Pharaun's voice whispered in his mind. Aboleth said ship of chaos is sunk there with uridezu. Will sail ship to Abyss and appeal to Lolth directly.

At twenty-five words, the message was precisely at the limit of the sending spell Pharaun had used to contact Gromph. The archmage sat in silence, contemplating his reply. It needed to be equally brief. . and informative.

"Your mission is more urgent now. We need Lolth. Duergar and tanarukks besiege Menzoberranzan. Lichdrow Dyrr is a traitor." Gromph paused, then added in a wry voice, "An uridezu? I wish you luck."

The sense of being watched vanished, leaving Gromph sitting alone in his office. Slowly, he shook his head, wondering if that would be the last time he'd ever hear from Pharaun.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Uluyara listened in silence as Halisstra described what she had seen in Reverie. When she finished, Uluyara whispered a brief prayer, then raised a hand reverently to the night sky. Lowering it, she stared hard at Halisstra, her red eyes reflecting the moonlight.

"Lost, all these years," she said. "Our best scryers, joined in spell-song, could not find the Crescent Blade?and now a novice thinks she can succeed where they failed."

Halisstra, hearing a tone she didn't like in Uluyara's voice, bristled.

"I'm only repeating what Seyll said," she countered. "This was no hallucination. I'm sure it was her spirit who spoke to me. I think she was trying to tell me that I'm going to have to face down Quenthel Baenre in combat and that I'll need this Crescent Blade?whatever it is?to defeat her when I do."

Uluyara stared into Halisstra's eyes, as if weighing her words.

"If this is an excuse to delay rejoining your former companions," Uluyara said, "you might have picked something a little less dramatic than a search for the Crescent Blade. I'd rather you were honest with me and simply tell me you're not ready yet. If you've changed your mind, or are afraid?"

"Afraid? How dare you! I am the First Daughter of a noble House!" Halisstra spat.

Then she remembered who she was talking to?and remembered that her House was no more?and she threw herself onto the ground at Uluyara's feet.

"My apologies, Dark Lady," she whispered, tensing in expectation of the lash that would have immediately scoured her shoulders, had it been one of Lolth's high priestesses to whom she had spoken so boldly. "I was of a noble House and am not used to having my courage questioned. I was taught, long ago, to cocoon

my fear up tight and never let it unravel. I assure you that I'm not afraid?and I'm not making this up. I don't even know what the Crescent Blade is. Please, enlighten me."

Uluyara sighed and said, "Rise, priestess." When Halisstra had, she continued, "This past day has been a difficult one for both of us. I was the one who first brought Breena up into the light. She was like a daughter to me. Her death. ."

She paused to stare out into the darkened woods. From the direction her eyes yearned toward came the sound of women singing, the voices of the three priestesses who were laying out Breena's corpse on a bier high above the forest floor where it would be washed by the tears of the moon. The death song seemed to float on the breeze, accompanied by the clean scent of freshly fallen snow.

At last Uluyara tore her eyes away and began her story.

"The Crescent Blade was forged centuries ago, after Eilistraee plucked a pebble from the heavens and tossed it down to the earth below. By the time it struck the ground, it had grown to the size of a boulder and was glowing as brightly as a forge. It was so hot that no one could approach it without a protective spell. The boulder was weeping metal?moon metal, for that was where it came from. If you look up at the moon, you can see a hole. That is the spot from which Eilistraee plucked the stone."

Halisstra peered at the moon, which had just risen above the trees. Its face was pocked with dozens of dark, circular holes. She glanced from one to the next, wondering which was the one.

"There," Uluyara said, pointing. "The smaller hole within that larger, darker one. See how what remains of the larger hole forms the shape of a crescent?"

Halisstra closed one eye and sighted along Uluyara's arm, then nodded as she spotted it.

"The moon metal shed by the boulder was collected and forged into a sword with a crescent-shaped blade," Uluyara continued. "With each heating, with each hammer stroke against the anvil, with each quenching, enchantments were laid upon the blade. It was made holy, giving it a keener edge against evil. It was made quick as thought, allowing it to strike twice for each stroke of an enemy blade. It was enchanted with moonlight, just as my own sword is, allowing it to pass through armor?or even stone?as easily as through flesh. By the blessing of Eilistraee it can also fend off evil magic, casting a protective circle around the one who holds it.

"The final enchantment laid upon the Crescent Blade," Uluyara continued, "is perhaps the most powerful of all. If the arm of the priestess wielding it is strong and her aim is true, the blade will sever the neck of any creature."

Uluyara paused, and her eyes bored deep into Halisstra's.

"Any creature," she repeated. "Be it a drow, a demon … or even a goddess."

All at once, Halisstra understood.

"So that's what Seyll was trying to tell me," she whispered. "I'm to use the Crescent Blade not to kill Quenthel Baenre but to kill Lolth herself."

Uluyara stared at her for a long moment before she said, "Impossible as it sounds, it is so."

"But I… But she…"

Overcome by the enormity of the idea, Halisstra found herself unable even to protest. She, Halisstra?a former priestess of Lolth only recently brought into Eilistraee's light?was to slay the most powerful deity known to the drow? With a sword? The notion was insane. Laughable, even. She'd witnessed first hand a battle between gods, when Vhaeraun and Selvetarm confronted each other outside Lolth's temple in the Demonweb Pits. None of the mortals present?even Pharaun?could have affected the outcome of that battle if they tried. But Halisstra supposed Eilistraee must know what she was doing?that she must have chosen Halisstra for some reason.

Though really, Halisstra couldn't see why. She knew only a handful of bae'qeshel spells?mostly simple healing magic?and was still struggling to relearn the clerical spells that Lolth had once granted, and that Eilistraee was slowly revealing to her in new forms. Halisstra was like someone who had been laid low by an illness and who was only slowly learning to walk again. And Eilistraee expected her not just to walk but to run. To fly, even.

As Uluyara had said, impossible.

Or was it? Lolth might not be dead, but she was inactive?and inattentive. When Halisstra had blasphemed against her, nothing had happened. Even killing the phase spider by invoking Eilistraee's moonfire had failed to arouse her wrath. Lolth's yochlol handmaidens might have killed one of Eilistraee's priestesses, but from the goddess herself there had been no direct sign. According to Uluyara's scrying, Lolth's temple was still sealed by an enormous black stone. A stone that resembled a face?and had a neck.