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ssed me ".

"Do you think I haven't realized I havesomeone with access to Matron Baenre? Two tendays ago, T an enemy here in Menzoberranzan,

riel considered me

loyal. She approved of me.  She granted a good deal of what I asked on behalf of our people. Now

,  she doubts me, because  someone  has  persuaded  her  to  questionmy true intentions. What did my foe  of

realize that in betraying me, you betray Chfer to lure you to her side? Don't you ed Nasad itself?"

residence. Someone is The scribe hesitated, then said, "Mwatching us right nowatron Baenre has people watching the ."

Umrae swallowed. "So you can'"Perhaps," Faeryl replied.   t  harm me. Or they'Faeryl laughed. "Rubbish. T          ll harm you."

riel's agents won't reveal their presence just to keep

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me from disciplining one of my own detrimental to Menzoberranzan's intereretainers. They won'sts in that. Nowt see anythin, be s  g odd or

ensible and

surrender ".

After another pause, Umrae said, "Give me your word you won't hurt me. That you'll set me free and help me flee the city."

second, and a quick capitulation is your"I promise you nothing except  that your insolence is only hope. T making me angrier by the ell me, who turned you, and why? What does anyone hereabouts have to gain by  persecuting an envoy

, one

Houses?"who stands apart from the feuds and rivalries among the Menzoberranyr

"You must understand, I fear to betray them and remain. They'll kill me if I do ".

"They won't get the chance. I'm the one are your employers?"          pointing a poisoned  dart at you. Who

"I won't say

"Your friend didn't slander me to T,  not without your pledge."riel until after I started contemplating  a

return to Ched Nasad. Was that the point  of the lie? To  keep  me  from  venturing  out

into the Underdark? Why?"Umrae shook her head.

"You're mad," Faeryl said. "Why would  you condemn yourself to perpetuate

someone else's  existence? Ah well, you're  plainly unfit to live, so I suppose it's for

the best."

She made a show of sighting down the length of the crossbow.

"No!" Umrae cried. "Don't! You'

"If             re right, why should I die?" you answer my  questions, perhaps you won't."

"Yes."

Trembling a little, her nerve having been broken, the clerk raised her hand to her

face, perhaps to massage her brow. No—to lift a tiny vial to her lips!Faeryl pulled the trigger and her aim

was  true, but by the time

Umrae's stomach, the secretary's form           the quarrel pierced shriveling, but taller as well. Her flesh c was changing. ooled and stank of corruption, leathery She grew even thinner,

wings sprouted fromher garments altered, blurring and splitti her shoulder blades, ng into mand her eyes sank into her head. Even

oldering rags. No blood flowed

from  the wound the poisoned dart had made, and it didn't seem  to inconvenience

her in the slightest. She didn'Faeryl was furious at herself for allowit even bother to pull the missile out.ng Umrae to trick her

.  Next time, she'd

remember that even a dark elf devoid of  beauty, grace, and facile wit, seemingl

undone by fear                             yThe potion had tem, was yet a drowporarily transform, born to guile and deception.

ed

which form  she likely wouldn't suff   all fromUmrae into some sort of undead, in er at       her usual clumsiness. Had Lolth

not forsaken her priestesses, Faeryl might  have  controlled  the cadaverous  thing

other retainers likely to notice her plight with her clerical powers, but that was  no longer an option. Nor were any of her and dash to her rescue. She had them  all too busy packing up the
 
house.

It was unfortunate, because like most  undead, except for the lowly corpses and skeletons spell casters reanimated to se

rve as mindless thralls, Um

ghoul form  could probably do grievous harm  with any st   rae in winged-rike that so much asgrazed the skin, and Faeryl didn't even have a shield to fend her off. How was she

to know the spy would possess such a potent means ofdefense?Umrae took a sham

forward. Faeryl hastily retreated, droppebling step, then, d the useless crossbowwith a clap of her wings, bounded , and opened the

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clasp of her cloak. Pulling the garment  ofunsheathed a little adamantine rod with the otherf her shoulders with one hand, she

.  At a snap of  her wrist,  the

harmless-looking object swelled into Mother's

headed war ham                Kiss, the long-hafted, basalt-mer the females  of House Zauvirr had borne since the founding

of their line. Perhaps an enchanted weapon would slay Umrae where the

envenomed quarrel had failed.

Faeryl would have to hope so. Even if she were willing to stand meekly asideand let the traitor fly away, Um

rae,

predatory guise she'd assum       her thoughts perhaps colored by theed, plainly wanted a fight, and the envoy could see no way to evade her

.  It would be stupid to evoke darkness  and run. In undead

form, Umrae would likely manage better in the murk than its maker did. It

would be even more pointless  to try to  levitate or ascend through the use of the

air-walking charm  when the shape shifter could simply spread her ragged wingsand follow

.

Faeryl waved her piwafwi back and forth at the end of her extended arm,  to confuse Umrae and serve as som

e  semblance of a shield. No one had ever

taught Faeryl to fight thusly, but she'd observed warriors practicing the technique,and she tried to believe that if m

ere males  could  do  it,  it  would  surely  present  no

diff

Umiculty to a high priestess.

luck as mrae lunged, Faeryl lashed the cloak in a horizontal arc. Possibly thanks to uch as skill, the garment blocked Umrae's hands. Her talons snagged

in the weave.

Surprised, Umrae faltered in the attack  and struggled to free her hands. Faerylstepped through and smashed the pointed  stone head of her h

ammer into the

center of the servant's carious brow. Bone crunched, and Umrae's head  snapped

backward. A goodly portion of her left profile fell off her skull.Certain the fight was over

,  Faeryl relaxed, and that was nearly the end of her.

Transformed, Umrae could evidently endure more damage than almost any

creature  with warm  flesh and a  beating  heart. She  opened her m

long, thin fangs, and what was left of her head shot forwa    outh, exposing rd  over thecape. The ambassador only barely m                top of the

anaged to fling herself back out of the wa

in tim                                ye.

The piwafwi was stretched taut between  the two combatants, as if they were playing tug-of-war

.  Both yanked on it  simu

luckier                  ltaneously, and Faeryl was the .  The cloak tore free of Umrae's grasp, but despite the garment's

ghoul'reinforcing enchantments, it returned to the ambassador with long rips the s  claws had cut. A few more such rendings and it would be useless. The cape's sudden release also sent Faeryl stumbling backward. With another beat of

shot forward.her festering wings, Umrae  hopped and closed the distance. Her clawed hands

Crying out in desperation,  Faeryl managed to plant  her feet and arrest her helpless stagger

.  She lashed out with  the hammer and clipped one of Umrae's

began to circle. Just as a living creaturhands. The imitation ghoul snatched it back  and gave up the attack. Instead, she several times as if to dislodge th    e would, she shook her  battered extremity

Faeryl turned to keep the foe with her crushed, half-flaye pain, then lifted it back on guard.ed head in view. What isit going to take to stop this thing?  the ambassador wondered. Can I

stop it?

Yes, curse it!

When she was a child, her cousin Merinid, weapons master of House Zauvirrdead these many years since her mother  tired of him, had told her that any ,

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opponent could be destroyed. It was justUmrae lunged. Once again, the ambassador a matter of finding the vulnerable  s snapped out the folds of her frail, pot.

flapping shield. The cloak entangled one of  the  servant's  hands.  The  other  raked, rasping and snagging, across Faeryl'

s  coat of fine adamantine links. The winged

ghoul'ssheared through the sturdy mail, and th touch sowed cramping  sickness in its wake, but  the claws hadn't quite

Faeryl swung at Umrae's withered chest e sensation only lasted an instant. crumblincloth. If she couldn't slay the ghoul-thing within its covering of filthy a strike to the head, then the heart ,     g

must be  the vulnerable spot,  j ust  as with  a vampire.  Or  at least  she  hoped  so.

To  her surprise, Umrae denied her the chance to find out one way or the other.

It looked as if the traitor had so committed to her attack that she would find it

impossible to defend against a riposte. Yet she  interposed her withered arm to take the shock of the war hammer

,  then stooped to claw  at  Faeryl

's  unarmored  knee

.