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"We should just leave," growled Jeggred His white fur was streaked with red wine, and hot grease froloth didn&039;t take well to long waits, and two days of confining himself to the Cold Foundry had been hard for hione"

"I fear it wouldn&039;t be as simple as yousacks with the least perishable ite black circle beside hiical hole that could be picked up and carried as if it was nothing but a piece of dark cloth It could hold hundreds of pounds of gear and sup-plies, but weighed nothing at all "You may not have noticed, but I&039; this inn We wouldn&039;t ar soldiers"

"So?" the draegloth denolls, too stupid to use their numbers well, too clumsy and crude to stand a chance in a one-on-one duel I&039;ve ood as I am I have no doubt that a nuainst us, and the duergar count skilled wizards and clerics a their ranks, too"

"We should have known better than to ar city," Halisstra said "What a "

She hurried to don her arhly enchanted chain mail that carried the arms of House Melarn on its breast She wondered if the best strategy would be to siray dwarves to relax their vigilant stance On the other hand, if they delayed too long, there was always the chance that the merchant she&039;d charmed to part with Danifae&039;s new arms would recover his wits and report the incident to the authorities Had they simply ht at that, they would already have paid with their lives

She tugged at the long heled to settle it better on her shoulders

"Master Argith, how long will it take the duergar army to march?" Halisstra asked

"Soon," Ryld said "They can&039;t keep thatThe question is how long after the army sallies before they allow travel to resuht be delayed for days"

"Delayed - or disposed of," Danifae warned

"We will set out at once," Quenthel said, putting a halt to the debate

The Mistress of the Academy dressed for battle, her face set in a black scowl, her whips writhing in agitation

"That begs the question that was raised a o?" asked Ryld

The weapons master finished with his supplies and pickedup the hole, rolling it tightly and slipping it into his pack

"I can retrace our steps back to Mantol-Derith," Pharaun offered, "but it will be difficult to move forward from here I don&039;t know the way to the Labyrinth, so any stroll we took on the Plane of Shadoould doubtless lead us to a strange and cheerless end There are too ether, so unless soray dwarves for the rest of the company&039;s sudden departure, I suppose that&039;s out as well"

"What about a spell to conceal our identities?" Ryldasked

"Regrettably," the wizard replied, "gray dwarves are notoriously resist-ant to illusions of any kind"

Halisstra added, "If only one saw through a disguise and saw a party of dark elves "

"Better to simply render us all invisible," the Master of Sorcere said "Yes, that would be the most expedient solution to this little conundruh" Quenthel shifted in her seat and asked Valas, "Do we need to set out for the Labyrinth froh if we retraced our steps a bit?"

"It will take several more days to circle the city," the scout answered, "but I could guide you past Gracklstugh&039;s borders"

"Fine," Quenthel said "We will head back for the docks and make use of Coalhewer&039;s boat It&039;s the most direct route out of the city frouess, the lakeside will be less heavily guarded than the tunnels Is everybody armed?" She looked around quickly No one re-quested more tiesture of approval and turned to Pharaun "What must we do for your spell to succeed?"

"Join hands and stay close to me,"Pharaun said, "or wander off if you like, in which case you will find yourself inconveniently visible I will not be held responsible for any difficulties that ensue"

Fully armed and armored, packs shouldered, all but Valas joined hands and waited The Master of Sorcere, standing in their center, hissed out a sibilant string of arcane words and wove his hands in mystic passes They all vanished from view Halisstra could feel Danifae&039;s hand on her left shoulder, and she clasped Ryld&039;s cuirass with her own right hand, but as far as her eyes could tell, only the scout was in the room

"Are you ready, Master Hune?" Pharaun asked, unseen

Valas offered a small nod He was dressed in what passed for his own finery, a siood shirt of spider silk and dark breeches, hispii thrown over one shoulder in a rakish fashion Odd badges and tokens pinned here and there to his clothing, the defenses and charms of half a dozen races, completed his ensemble

"I&039;ll dawdle in the courtyard a moment Make sure you&039;re all out swiftly; it will look less suspicious if I don&039;t stand around for long I&039;ll join you atCoalhewer&039;s boat in ten minutes"

"You&039;ll be tailed," Ryld said

Valas Hune seemed honestly offended

"No one alive can follohen I do not wish to be followed," he said

Valas went out into the courtyard, throwing open the door to their roo moment to stretch Halisstra felt Ryld shuffle for-ward, and she did likewise, crowding close behind hiirl&039;s breath aran D&039;aerthe scout casually strolled out of the inn&039;s gate and turned left toward the city&039;s central district, Halisstra and the others bent around in an aard circle and headed right, back to the docks The streets were not deserted, but neither were they busy Most duergar were back in their drab residences after a long day in the city&039;s forges and foundries Had the co or the end of the workday, their deception ray dwarf bu into their invisible chain as they skulked down the street

Halisstra risked one lance over her shoulder at Valas, who strolled quickly down the street in the opposite direction, looking a little furtive hiuise than co in a place like Gracklstugh She also noted a gray dwarf porter who hefted a small cask of brandy to his shoulder as the scout passed and turned to follow, seeoods from one part of the city to another Valas could not have missed hiht-forward tail like that

Though Halisstra expected a hue and a cry at any ress was unimpeded until they reached the docks As they hurried across the stone quays toward the strange vesselsher Halisstra walked into his back before she realized he&039;d stopped Danifae bumped into her as well, as the whole column came to a halt

"Trouble," whispered Pharaun "A patrol of duergar soldiers in the crown prince&039;s colors just came around the corner of the next street over They&039;re invisible, too, and there&039;s a wizard-looking fellow leading thered rue?"

"There are spells that allow one to see the invisible," Pharaun replied "I&039;uards, and you cannot I suppose that begs the question, what use are y - "

"You there! Dismiss your spell, and lay down your weapons!" the leader of the duergar patrol called A clatter of arh Halisstra still could not ray dwarves "You are under arrest!"

"Jeggred, Ryld, Pharaun - deal with them," Quenthel ordered "Dan-ifae, Halisstra, stay withinto visibility as she left Pha-raun&039;s ed in the opposite direction, Splitter appearing in the weapons master&039;s hand as if he had worked an enchantment of his own Pharaun snarled out a short phrase of words that seemed to shiver the very air of the quay, and a ht washed over the opposite side of the street, revealing the arar where they stood The wizard followed instantly with another spell, beco visible hiray dwarf soldiers The purple lance struck the duergar e in the center of his chest, and the enes cut

"Next ties later," Pharaun re-loth and the weaponsand slash-ing with abandon

Halisstra followed Quenthel as she ran down the pier and leaped onto Coalhewer&039;s boat The massive undead skeletons stoode, the duergar s up a hand axe close by his sleeping place

"Who goes there?" he roared, scra to his feet "Why, ye - "

He was cut off by the impact of Quenthel&039;s boot in the center of his chest, sla him back down to the deck

The Baenre raised her whip to finish the sler, but Halisstra called, "Wait! We "

"You believed that story of his?" Quenthel said, not taking her eyes from the dwarf "Of course he wanted us to think we needed hiamble on our escape," Halisstra said "We&039;d look dah a patrol of the prince&039;s soldiers and couldn&039;t leave the pier"

"Fellout of the crown prince&039;s favor, did ye?" Coalhewer said He stood slowly and offered a fierce grin Fro and a booar reinforcements "If ye kill me, ye&039;ll never escape Nohat&039;s a fair price fer taking you off this pier, I wonder?"

Quenthel bristled and doubtless would have struck hiet caught here," the Melarn priestess said, "we&039;ll iainst us, dwarf Now get us underway"

Coalhewer stared up at the three dark elves, his face contorted with fury

"I dealt fairly with ye, and this bemy thanks?" he snarled "I should&039;ve known better than to traffic with yer kind!"

He whirled to cast off the lines securing theskeletons in the center of the boat

Quenthel looked at Halisstra with narrowed eyes and asked, "Why spare the dwarf? You know he&039;s lying about coed and said, "You can always kill him later, if you&039;re so inclined"

As the wheels at the side of the vessel began to churn in the water, Ryld and Jeggred sprinted up, cla aboard Blood dripped from both the half-demon&039;s talons and Splitter Pharaun bounded up athe end of the pier with a wall of roaring flame to keep the soldiers at bay

"That won&039;t hold the, I&039;es back there, and they&039;ll extinguish that wall quickly enough Best we get well away froainst our humble conveyance"

Ryld studied the wall of fire at the pier&039;s end and scowled

"You realize you&039;ve also blocked Valas&039;s escape with that spell," he grated "We need him, Pharaun We can&039;t leave hiith"

From the shadows of the vessel&039;s stern, Valas stood up and adjusted hispii

"Where in Lolth&039;s dark hells did you co his eyes

"I boarded just a few steps behind the three ladies," the scout said He glanced around, savoring the open surprise on the faces of his coesture of self-deprecation "As I said, I am not easily followed or marked when I do not wish to be Besides, it seemed that the three of you had the crown prince&039;s soldiers in hand"

The Master of Melee-Magthere snorted, and returned Splitter to its sheath across his back He turned to the city&039;s waterfront, which was re-ceding quickly into the darkness Fire still glowed along the piers, illuar vessels whose crear to obey the crown prince&039;s soldiers

"I hope our vessel is faster than theirs," Ryld said

"Not to worry," Coalhewer called from his perch "This be the fastest vessel on the Darklake None of those scows can catch us"

He snapped out another order to the hulking skeletons driving the boat, and the undeadtheir crank-shafts faster and faster, until a froth of white foaar city faded into the darkness behind thelare on the cavern ceiling

"A dire development all this," Quenthel ar now"

"Do we alter our course?" Ryld asked "Menzoberranzan ar arht for ais more important, and if I a to the arche Is that not so, wizard?"

The Master of Sorcere simply smiled and spread his hands

Nimor&039;s soft footfalls echoed in corridor after eh the crown prince&039;s fortress At odd intervals he passed pairs of scowling guards in heavy arht, and he won-dered if they ever tired of looking at the blank stone walls in the course of their duties

Most likely not, he decided Duergar were si

In his hand, Nier The Lady Aliisza of the Sceptered One&039;s Court (an inventive title if Nimor had ever heard one) had invited hiray dwarves had so far failed to invite her to any kind of banquet or dinner Nimor didn&039;t expect that coenda

Arriving at the rooned to the Sceptered One&039;s envoy, he tucked his invitation back into his breast pocket, and rapped twice at the door

"Enter," called a soft voice

Nimor let himself in Aliisza waited by a table spread with quite an impressive meal, complete with a bottle of wine frolasses already poured She wore a flowing skirt of red silk with a tight-fitting corselet trimmed with black lace The colors suited her, he noted, and even ith her soft black wings

"Lady Aliisza," he said, offering a bow "I am flattered I am certain the repast before me did not come from the crown prince&039;s kitchens"

"There is a limit to how much smoked rothe cheese and black spore-flour bread one can stand," she said She took the wine glasses in hand and e scour the city to find inns and taverns willing to provide lass and swirled it, bringing it to his nose to inhale the aroma Not only did it allow him to appreciate the wine&039;s bouquet, but he could sniff the vintage for any signs of the various subtle poisons hich he was familiar He would have proved difficult to poison in any case, but he did not detect any strange scents

"You haveof late, and have been forced to live on very plain fare indeed"

Aliisza sipped at her oine, and nodded at the table

"In that case, why don&039;t we eat while we talk?"

Nimor took the seat opposite the half-demon, and fell to his meal One of the consequences of his true nature was a surprising ability to eat far ht build, and to go for quite a long tiravy was cool and rare in the middle and quite excellent, the small blind fish were somewhat saltier than he would have cared for, and the as dry and strong, a good match for the roast

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this occasion?" he asked between ue me, Nimor Imphraezl I want to know more about who you are, and what interests you represent"

"Who I aiven you my true name," Nimor replied

"That is not exactly the sort of answer I had in mind" Aliisza leaned forward, her eyes fixed on hi here?"

Nihts, as if he was trying to re he&039;d rinned at the alu-fiend

"I hope you&039;ll forgive me, dear lady, but I recently found myself in an interviehich the other party could read ainst such things this evening You won&039;t pick your answers from hts you have to guard so well, Nimor Are you afraid that I wouldn&039;t like what I found there?"

"We all have our secrets" Niain He would not give her the complete truth, of course, but what he would offer was truthful enough under the circu to a minor House of Menzoberranzan with some unusual practices of which theother things, we do not subject ourselves to the tyranny of our Lolth-worshiping fe ties to minor Houses with similar practices in several other cities Wemerchants, but we keep our true nature and capabilities quite secret"

"Capabilities?"

"We are assassins, dear lady, and we are very good at e do"

Aliisza leaned forward, resting her delicate chin on her fingertips as she studied Niaze

"So what is an assassin of Menzoberranzan doing in Gracklstugh, ad-vising Horgar Steelshadow as he musters his army for war?" she asked "Wouldn&039;t that constitute the worst sort of treason?"

Nis upset We cannot defeat the great Houses of our city without an arest in this corner of the Underdark As soon as it became evident that Lolth had abandoned her priestesses, we realized that we had a golden opportunity to strike aall that we can to help Horgar see that our opportunity is his opportunity, too"

"Aren&039;t you concerned that the duergarto re-linquish the drow city to your care once they&039;ve conquered it?"