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training hall. The tarHe skulked along the corridor, peering into doorways. One led to a desolate get mannequins looked like ghosts in their shrouds ofspiderweb.

Near the right-hand wall were tiers of  seats, from which spectators could watchthe warriors train. If R

yld crouched down  behind the structure, no one would see him without making a careful  search of the entire room.

The dark powers knewBesides, the master thought, going to ground in a salle  might bring him luck. ,  he needed it.

crossed. He rested his hands on his thHe limped behind the sculpted seats aighs, closed his eyes, and commend sat down on the floor with his legs nced  a

breathing exercise.

meditate. They were mistaken. The brotheSpellcasters smugly imagined they were the only folk rs of Melee-Magthere hawho truly knew how to d mastered  thepractice as well. It helped them reach  the highest level of ma

rtial proficiency.

Spellcasters. The thought reminded him of Pharaun. anger flooding back.                It brought the shock and

But at the moment, those feelings were  an impediment. He  had to relax and empty his mind.

He could heal the wound Syrzan had left inside his head. He could stop his  lebleeding. He could banish pa                       g

strength.         in and fatigue and tap his  body's deepest reservoirs of If only the enemy gave him time.

Pharaun  groped  his  way  onward  for  just  a  few  more  minutes,  then  found another staircase, this one a narrow spiral  leading downward. It was almost as ifthe mysteriously silent Lolth had returned long enough to reward him for histreachery

.

If so, he soon had cause to recall that  she was a fickle and treacherous  enherself. He reached the bottom  of the steps, headed down a hallway with  a hitity gh,about to round the corner dead ahead. arched ceiling, and heard another band of huntPharaun looked around at the blank wers. It sounded as if they were just alls.

The corridor lacked any doorways into which a fugitive might duck.The wizard could run, but he didn't want to retreat back the way he'd

come.

He could evoke a curtain of darkness,  but that would alert the rogues that someone was hiding behind it. He could throw darts of force, but it would exhaust his offensive magic. He decided to take a chance.upward to stretch out horizontallyConcentrating on the stolen House insigni, his spine pressed against the ca, he shed his weight and floated rest of therounded ceiling.looking for a fellow mThe hunters passed below him,  oblivious to his presence. He stared down, afoci, he might attack and the odds be damge. If there was  a chance he could obtain new spell ned, but the males were all warriors.

Once they'd  gone by, he drifted back down to the ground and skulked onward.He got turned around once more, then  unexpectedly found himself before asmall service entrance to a stable much like the one in his family's  castle.

Moldy stone troughs, casks, mounting blocks, and rusty iron-ring hitches

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War Of The Spider Queen

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Dissolution

defined  regular  patterns  across  the  floor,  while  musty,  rotting  tack

the walls. The aerial steeds were long gone, stolen by the conquerors, evidentlyhung  along as he didn't see any bones. T

wo rogues  stood watch, guarding the huge sliding

,

doors.

Pharaun smiled, threw his last darts of  light, and, without waiting to see how

much damage they did, broke from  cover and sprinted toward the sentries.

One renegade coughed blood and fell. The other appeared unaffected. A nice-looking fellow with a single elegant tendril dangling beside each cheek,  he

turned, spotted Pharaun, and calmly lifted his crossbow.

he shot his own crossbowThe wizard threw himself flat, and the bolt whizzed over his head. Still prone, . The shaft  plunged into the renegade's  chest.

The rogue snarled, drew his scimitar,  astopped, and his arm fell, his sword cland advanced, but only for three steps. He ttering against the fl

oor. An astonished

look on his face, he dropped to his knees.Rising, Pharaun noticed that the dying male'

s  garments were as tasteful as his

coiffure.

"Who's your tailor?" Pharaun asked, but  the renegade merely fell facedown.

"Ah, well."The wizard strode on to one of the

open. Perhaps the casters were magical, outside doors, unbolted it, and shoved it for they worked as well as ever. Thepanel rolled easily and quietly aside.

belowOn the other side was a sheer drop to  the glowing palaces a thousand feet .  Silently thanking the dead guard's  House, he touched the stolen brooch

and sprang over the edge.

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C  h a p t  e r

T   W   E   N   T   Y

T   W   O

Pharaun could float down a tto slow his descent at the end. The lattehousand feet, or he could  fall, relying on levitation long to counteract the pull of gravity  r course was dangerous. If he waited too when he landed.         , he  would break bones or even pulp himself

Still, he chose to plummet, because of what he saw beneath him.He'dhad gone forth around the black death of lost track of time inside the rogues'  citadel, but it was plain that the Call gone home for the night. With few drow aNarbondel, when most dark elves had the streets, the undercreatures had eruptedbout to contest them for possession of destroy                  from their kennels to kill, loot, and

.  Pharaun couldn't make out individuals, but he  could see the mobs as great  surging,  formless  masses  like  the  living  jellies  that  infested  certain and he could certainly see th                    caverns, efoul smoke of burning  stone, and he could hear the goblins shouting.fires they were setting.  He could smell the strange, Perhaps the embattled commoners looked  to the noble Houses for succor

.they waited in vain. Sorcerous  power flashed white and red from  the windows If so, and baileys of the stalactite castles as the nobles struggled with their ownrebellious slave soldiers. For the timdown, unable to brace the m     e being, at least, the drow were pinned arauders outside their own walls.A house was growing larger and larger  beneath Pharaun's boots. He made himself lighter than air but still slammed down hard. The impact knocked the wind  and  the  sense  out  of  him,  and  when  his  wits  returned,  he  was  bouncing upward again.Restoring a portion of his weight, he achieved a moflattened him                    re graceful landing, s                             t running amok in his imelf against the roof, and peered about. The goblins weren'mediate vicinity—not yet—so he jumped down onto direction.the street. Glad the Bazaar was just three blocks away, he dashed in that

He'd  almost reached  his destination  when  a motley  assortment  of  scaly  little kobolds, pig-faced ores, and shaggy, hulking bugbears surged from  an alley.  So far

,  the revolt was going well for them. They'd  manage to lay their hands onspears, swords, and axes, and bloody them

, too.

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