F O U R (33 page)

meanwhile ripping the cloak away froThe envoy avoided that potentially crim her foul-smelling adversaryppling attack with a fast retreat, .  The garment was starting to look more like  a bunch of ribbons than one coh

erent

piece of silk. The duelists resumed circling, each looking for an opening.

iOccasionally Faeryl let the tattered piwafwi slip or droop out of line, offering an n

wished her to.vitation, but Umrae proved too canny  to attack when and how her opponent

Faeryl realized she was panting and did  the best to control her breathing.  Shewasn't  afraid—she wasn't—but she was impressed with her serva

nt's  potioninduced prowess. Formidable from  the moment she imbibed it, Umrae was trulygetting the hang of her borrowed capabilities as the b

a

While still m                 ttle progressed.aneuvering and keeping an  eye on Umrae, Faeryl nevertheless

entered a light trance. With a sense thfaculty com             at was neither sight, hearing, nor any

prehensible to those who'd never pledged her service to a deity, she reached into that formless yet som

ehow  jagged place where she had once been

accustomed to touch the shadow of the  goddess.

The presence of Lolth had absented itself from  the meeting ground, leaving a vacancy that som

ehow throbbed like a diseased tooth. Still, it seemed an

appropriate domain in which to pray.Dread Queen of Spiders, Faeryl silently  began, I beg you, reveal yours

elf to

me . Restore my  powers, even if only for a moment. Has Menzoberranzan

offended you? So be it, but I'm  not one of her daughters. I'm  from Ched Nasad.

Make me  as I was, and I'll give you many lives—a slave every day for a year.

UmNothing happened.rae sprang in, clawing. Faeryl jerked  the part of her spirit that had groped

in the void back into her body. Retreating, she blocked the undead creature's claws with her cloak and struck a couple blows with the war ham

mer. She didn't

withdraw quickly enough to take herself completely out of harm's  way,  nor did she settle into a strong stance and swing as hard as she c

ould have. She wanted

the ghoul to feel on the brink of overwhelming  her  opponent  and keep  comiIf Umrae grew too eager, she might open he           ng.

rself up  for an effective

counterattack.

Umrae's talons whizzed through the air, tearing scraps from  the sheltering cloak

until it was the size of a ragged hand towel. Unexpectedly, the spy  beat her riddled wings, hopped in close, and struck at Faeryl'

s

but even so the claws streaked past a fraction of an  face. The noble recoiled, close she could feel the malignancy inside them as a pulse of headache.inch before her eyes, so

Richard Lee Byers

87

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

sidestepped and swung her stone-headed hammer at the ghoul'Still, it was all right, because she thought Umrae was finally open. She s  rib cage—t s

win

her hands around in time to block the blow—to no avail, even though Faeryl had been correct, Umrae couldn'. Instead, she took anoth    ger  stride,

slapped the ambassador with a flick of her wing, and sent her rFaeryl'                         eeling.

s  head rang, and the world blurred. As she struggled to throw off the

stunning effects of the blowUmrae, who had long ago forsaken comb, she thought fleetingly how unfair it was that at training as a humiliating exercise in

futilitythe-guard for practice once a tenday, was demolishing a female who still doggedly reported to her captain-of.

UmrAfter what seemed a long time, her head cleared. She whirled, certain that ae was  about to attack her  from behind. She wasn't. In  fact, the animate

corpse was nowhere to be seen.Plainly, Umrae had taken to the air. Had she finally done the sensible thi

n

and fled? Faeryl couldn't believe it. Umrae hated her           g.  The envoy didn't know why

,  but she'd seen it in the traitor's eyes. Such being the case, Umrae wouldn't break off when she had every reason to believe she was winning and clos

e  to

somewhere overhead, poised to swmaking the kill. No drow would, which meant she was still hovering oop down and, she undoubtedly hoped,

catch  her  mistress  by  surprise  and  smash  her  to  the

Her heart pounding, Faeryl peered upward and saw nothing. She list ground.      ened  forthe beat of the creature'

s  wings but heard only the eternal muffled whisper of

the city as a whole. She wasn'tstealthy when stalking their prey  entirely  surprised. The undead were famously

.

of the castle of House VA black sliver momentarily cut the line  of violet luminescence adorning a spire andree. The obstruction had surely been the tip of  one of

Umrae's wings.

Faeryl stared for another moment, then jumped when she finally spottedUmrae. Her tattered cloak flapping between her wings, the transf

ormed

secretary was already hurtling down like a raptor from the Woto plunge its talons into a rodent.              rld Above diving

Hoping Umrae hadn'and peering. When she felt the disturbant seen her react to the sight of herce in the air  ,  Faeryl kept turning

,  or perhaps simply the

ur

war hamgent prompting of her instincts, she jumped aside, pivoted, and swung the mer in an overhand blow.

Under those circumstances, she had little chance of smashing the thing'

but she'd seen that Umrae could suffer pain. Perhaps the initial blow would s heart,

for what she prayed would be the finishing stroke.freeze the undead thing in place for an instant, affording Faeryl the opportunity The ambassador had timed the m

ove properly,  and the weapon's basalt head

smashed into Umrae's flank. Deprived of her victim

ghoul slam                  , unexpectedly battered, the med into the smooth stone surface of the street with a satisf incrash. Scraps of flesh broke away from                 yf of g

stench.                her raddled body, releasing a fresh puf

Faeryl marked her target, the place on Umrae's chest beneath which her heart ought to lie, and swung Mother'

s  Kiss back  for the follow-up attack. The traitor

rolled and scrambled to her knees. Faeryl struck, and Umrae lashed out with a

taloned hand. The ghoul caught the war hammer in  mid-flight,  tore  it  out  of  the

ambassador's  grip,  and  sent  it  spinning  to  clack  down  on  the  ground  ten  feet

away.

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88

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

would rip her apart if she tried. She bFaeryl felt a crazy impulse to turn and go after the thing, but she knew Um

rae

ack stepped instead. The inhumanly  gauntspy leaped to her feet—she looked like a pile of sticks spontaneously

assembling themselves into a crude  facsimile of a person— and pursued.

hat  mi

ultimWhile retreating, Faeryl started edging around in a looping course tately bring her to the spot where  the ham             ghtmer lay.  Leering,  Umrae moved

sideways right along with her in a way that demonstrated she knew exactlywhat her mistress had in mind and would never permit it.

Well, the aristocrat still had one weapon—pitifully inadequate to the situation

though it  was—a  knife  hidden in  the  belt  that  gathered  her  light,  supple  coat of

mail at the waist. The gold buckle was the hilt, and when she pulled on it, the

stubby adamantine blade would slide free. She started to  reach for it, then hesitated.

Against Umrae's talons, long reach, and  resistance to harm, the dagger rwould be useless . . . unless Faeryl could get in close enough to use i eally

t, and

unless she attacked by surprise.But how in the name of the Demonweb  was she to accomplish that? Umrae was

rapidly closing the distance, snapping her wings every fewstride, and for three unnerving backward paces, Faeryl'     steps to lengthen a

s  mind was blank.

her ofThen she remembered the cloak, or ratherfhand. Perhaps she could employ it to  conceal her drawin, the remnants of it, still clutched in g  of  the knife.  The

piwafwi was just a sad little mass of tasleight-of-hand, but curse it, if clumsy   tters, and she was no juggler adept at

her mistress noticing until it was too late, surely the mistress could do as well.Umrae had palmed a potion vial without

shouldn'Faeryl had been reflexively moving t look suspicious for her to cover hethe cloak around the whole time, so it r waist with it. At

hooked the fingers of her w               the same time, she buckle and pulled. She had never beforeeapon hand in the oval hollow at the center of the

desperate means of defense, but in the sixteen years since an artisan had made it had occasion to employ this last to her specifications, she had always kept the knife and s

cabbard  oiled,  and the

blade easily slid free.She studied Umrae. As far as the envoy could tell, the imitation ghoul hadn'

t

seen her bare the dagger,  but she doubted a second or two. She had to  manufacture a chance for hersshe could keep it hidden for more than

elf  quickly  if  she  was

to have one at all.

had touched herShe pretended to stumble. She hoped  her unsteadiness looked genuine. Umrae ,  after all, so it might seem credible that her  strength was failing.

This time, her claws punched through the The ghoul took the bait. She leaped forward and seized Faeryl by the forearms. tips into her flesh. At on       envoy's layer of mail and jabbed their

ce, a surge of nausea wracked  Faeryl, then another.Retching, she wasn't sure she could still  use the knife in any  sort of controlled

manner.  Perhaps she'd just served herself up  to her foe like a plate of mushrooms.

Umrae grinned at Faeryl'sthe clerk's fingers tense, preparing to fl seeming—orense the meat from he genuine—helplessness. The envoy felt

pulled the noble closer and opened he           r bones, even as she Fighting the sickness and weakness, Faeryl r jaws to bite down on her head.tried to thrust her hand forward

.  The

effort strained her flesh against the ghoul's  talons, tearing her wounds larger and

bringing a burst of pain—but then her  arm  jerked free. The blade rammed into Um

rae's withered  chest, slipping cleanly  between  two ribs and plunging in all the