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"Lolth will do as she will," Valas answered "I, however, aan D&039;aerthe, and to od, to deflect us from our quest, Tzirik"

Tzirik&039;s face clouded and he said, "You and your coainsay the will of Vhaeraun I refuse to per out the words of another divine spell Valas fired again, but his arrows only ricocheted from the priest&039;s shield Tzirik finished his spell and placed his wounded hand on the ground A powerful treeoned the Menzober-ranyr, flinging thereat cracks in the substance of the stone plain, crevices that led into absolute blackness below

Valas staggered back and forth, trying to keep his balance as the stones cracked and buckled beneath him Danifae steadied herself and snapped off a shot with her crossbow that passed through the blades and struck Tzirik a ringing hit on the breastplate, but the bolt shivered into pieces on the priest&039;s ared a desperate, off-balance leap to keep fro crevice beneath her She rolled aardly, and cah priestess barked a coical, viscous sub-stance at the priest, but Tzirik&039;s seething blades ripped apart the viscid glob in a spray of gluey strands

"Get up, Halisstra," Quenthel hissed "Your sister priestesses need you!"

The powerful tremors took Halisstra&039;s feet out from under her the first tiain

My sisters need oddess apparently has no use for any of us who serve as her priestesses If Lolth chooses to turn her back on me, to spurn my faithfulness and devotion, then the least I can do is return the favor

Throughout Halisstra&039;s life she had willingly joined ranks with her worst ene rose to threaten the absolute dominion over dark elf society she and her sister priestesses shared Staring off into the endless, empty expanse of the Dele step in Lolth&039;s name

"Let hiht ed to preserve Lolth&039;s very existence today, do you think she would be grateful? If I tore my own heart out and laid it on the Spider Queen&039;s altar, doyou think she would be pleased by hter welled up in her throat and Halisstra gave herself over to it, even as Tzirik&039;s tremors subsided Her heart ached with a hurt that could rend the world in two, but she could not find a voice for it

Quenthel stared at her in horror

"Blaspheed to whisper

The Mistress of Arach-Tinilith gathered up her whip and turned on Halisstra, but before she could strike, Tzirik struck with another spell, scouring the entire party with sheets of incandescent flames that raced back and forth across the stone plain like water sloshing on a plate Halis-stra threw herself flat and cried out in pain The others cursed or cried out, scrabbling for cover that did not exist

"Leavesteel

He stooped down and picked up his scroll, while the Menzoberranyr picked the stones

Ryld rose slowly, his flesh seared at face and hands,and watched as the cleric started to cast his spell again The weaponsthe priest, and with the quickness of a big cat, he gath-ered up his legs and sprang into the barrier, crouching low into the tightest ball possible Droplets of blood splattered nearby as the whirling ainst the weaponsblood in a dozen places - but the Master of Melee-Magthere was through the barrier

He staggered to his feet with an aniripped aardly in his slashed hands, but he reatsword Once again the cleric was forced to drop his scroll He parried the thrust with his shield and lashed back with his spikedbackward, so close to the whirling blades that sparks flew from his shoulders as the razors kissed his back He recovered and glided forward again, spinning his deadly sword and slashing quickly at the Jaelre cleric

Valas, standing outside the whirling blades, reached up to the nine-pointed star token on his breast and touched it In the blink of an eye he vanished, reappearing inside the barrier behind Tzirik He dropped his bow and drew his kukris, but Tzirik surprised hi cleric took three powerful strides and slaan D&039;aerthe even as Valas got his knives in hand With a roar of anger the Jaelre shoved Valas back into the curtain of deadly razors and sent the scout stu as the blades sliced his flesh

Ryldforward to strike out with a full double-handed slash across the torso that spun the priest half around, but the cleric&039;s plate arainst the blow In response, Tzirik leaped in close to Ryld, inside the fighter&039;s reach, and rained down a barrage of wicked bloith the spiked athered himself for another assault, but at that h the blades as well One sliced her calf deeply and sent her stuh, and she went to one knee with a gasp of pain, blocking Ryld Tzirik stepped back out of reach of the Baenre&039;s whip, and quickly called out a spell Ryld froze in place as the cleric ensnared hi his muscles

Quick as a snake, Tzirik turned on Quenthel and haround even as she tried to stand on her injured leg Avoiding the hissing serpent heads, Tzirik kicked her whip back outside the curtain of blades, and turned to crush Ryld&039;s skull while the weapons master was helpless before him The bronze mace drew back for the lethal blow - and Tzirik was sent reeling away from his intended victim, battered by a powerful blast of sound

Halisstra, standing just on the other side of the blades, folloith a secondbae&039;qeshel song and scoured the cleric again She would not fight for Lolth again, but she would fight for her companions, Ryld in particular

"Do not kill the priest," she called to her coest, then?" Danifae snapped fro us!"

"Indeed," said Tzirik

The Jaelre priest recovered from Halisstra&039;s spells and lashed out with one of his own, calling down fro purple fire that blasted Halisstra and Danifae The cleric wheeled to confront Quenthel, as just gathering herself to leap at his back He hefted hisclerics of the Spider Queen," Tzirik said "When you awake in Minauthkeep, I&039;ll slay you again there"

He advanced on her, his cruel eyes alight as Quenthel hobbled aardly, seeking to dodge the inevitable blow

Tzirik&039;s breastplate silanced down All other pieces of his full plate ar coat vanished as well, revealing the smooth black flesh of his torso and chest

"What in the Masked Lord&039;s nalanced up just in time to turn away froht the cleric&039;s shield His mystification turned abruptly and instantly to pure terror"No!" he screamed"N - "

Soan to pluck the gory ribs one by one out of his jerking torso Blood and bits of bone splattered all around, yet the cleric impossibly kept to his feet as he was flensed alive before the astonished Menzoberranyr

Halisstra, who had seen s at Lolth&039;s altars, recoiled in horror With a cold, distant part of her mind, she noted that the flesh and bone torn out of Tzirik simply faded away, just as his ar here, she realized Tzirik is being murdered, but back in Minauthkeep

One final obscene blow seized the contents of Tzirik&039;s chest cavity and literally strewed them abroad The Jaelre priest sank to his knees as his eyes rolled up in his head Fro silver cord appeared, tethered to the priest&039;s back It recoiled sharply into his astral body with a psychic force that plucked at Halisstra&039;s very soul, and Tzirik was gone, as if he had never existed

"Gods " Valas runted in shock

All of the of their psyches that rent the stone plain and the black temple into a thousand sil-very shards

Halisstra opened herup inside her, but before she could draw another breath she was yanked away into oblivion

Halisstra aith a start, sitting bolt upright from the musty old divan in Tzirik&039;s hidden chamber It took her a moment to understand that she was alive The experience of having her soul wrenched from the Demonweb Pits back to Faerun in an instant by Tzirik&039;s destruction was not soer than that to understand that she was no longer in any physical pain

Where she did ache, though, was in her heart A great, hot hurt throbbed in the center of her being, a grief so keen and vast that Halisstra could not i that could s it

She pressed her hand to her chest as if to smooth out the ache beneath her breastbone, and slowly looked around The others in the coy froht, Tzirik lay still on his couch, his body torn apart Blood splattered the walls of the chamber, and awful pieces of the Jaelre cleric lay discarded on the floor Beside the priest&039;s ruined corpse squatted Jeggred, licking blood from his white fur A pair of Jaelre warriors lay close at hand, their throats torn out

"Mistress?" the draegloth asked Quenthel "What happened? What did you learn?"

Quenthel&039;s eyes fell on Tzirik&039;s corpse and the dead Jaelre guards nearby, and she scowled

"What in the goddess&039;s naloth "Why did you slay hiuards? They seered

"No, not thered&039;s eyes narrowed, and a lol began in his throat The half-dehtened and paced around the couches toward Pharaun, clenching his claws

"Wizard, if you caused me to fail inas she struggled to collect her thoughts It didn&039;t take her long Recollection dawned in her eyes, and she wheeled to glare at the Master of Sorcere "You abandoned us in the middle of the Demonweb Pits, e needed you the most Ex-plain yourself!"

"I deeer, but we could not flee without Tzirik&039;s complicity, and it see anywhere The bestto Jeggred, and instruct him to slay Tzirik&039;s material body As the priest is the one who cast the spell of astral travel, his death ended it for all of us - rather more abruptly than I would have liked, but I could think of no other options I told Jeggred you ordered it, since I was not certain he would kill the cleric simply because I asked him to"

"Your cowardice ripped us away fro our answers," Quenthel growled

"No," said Halisstra "Pharaun&039;s prudence engineered our escape from an impossible situation, in the one "

"What is the point of escaping, e failed to complete our quest?" the Baenre demanded

"Answers? There were no answers to be had, Quenthel," Halisstra said "We could have abased ourselves before her until the end of time, andthe Spider Queen could not have cared less The quest was pointless - and it was a quest you were never certain of anyway Or were there storehouses to raid in the Abyss?"

"I let your blaspheirl, but I will not do so again," Quenthel said "If you speak to ue torn out at the roots You will be punished for your lack of faith, Halisstra Melarn The Spider Queen will visit uniinable torments upon you for your lack of respect"

"At least that would be a sign that she lives," Halisstra replied

She stood and began to gather her belongings In the stone halls beyond their chamber, she could hear distant shouts of alar nearer It see," Danifae said "Theyto say about the evisceration of their high priest"

"I would prefer not to have to cut my way out of this castle," Ryld offered "I&039;ve had rowl, Quenthel tore her attention away from Halisstra and studied the s with an idea she didn&039;t like, then she muttered a curse and turned to Pharaun

"Do you have a spell that can get us out of here?"

Pharaun smirked, obviously pleased that Quenthel had been forced to resort to his powers so quickly after conde his actions

"It&039;s a bit of a stretch, but I think I can teleport us all at once," he said "Where do ish to go? I can&039;t bring us safely into the Underdark, but other than that "

"Anywhere but here," Quenthel replied "We need time to consider e&039;ve seen and learned, and e must do next"

"The cave mouth the portal from the Labyrinth led to," Valas said "It&039;s several days&039; march from here, and not heavily traveled

"Fine," Quenthel snapped "Take us"

"Join hands, then," Pharaun said

He placed his own hand over Ryld&039;s and Halisstra&039;s, and spoke a short phrase just as the first blows sounded on the panel of the secret door In the blink of an eye they stood on the cold,It was close to dawn The skies to the east were pearly gray, and cold dew lay heavy around their feet The glen was as empty and cheerless as it had been the first time the company camped there, a little more than a tenday past Most of the snow had melted off, and icy water trickled into the sinkhole and ran out of sight beneath the hill

"Here we are," the wizard announced "Now, if nobodyto find the most comfortable spot I can in the cavern below and sleep like a damned hu for a response

"Take your rest later, wizard," Quenthel called after hi of the things- "

"Whathas no ," Halisstra said, "and e do next does not th to leap lightly fro and familiar darkness of the cavern below

Behind her Quenthel fured rumbled in displeasure, but Ryld and Valas shouldered their packs and followed Pharaun down into the cave Danifae turned to the Baenre priestess and rested one hand on her shoulder

"We are all troubled by e&039;ve seen," the battle captive said, "but we&039;re exhausted We&039;ll all think more clearly e have had soht be ly, Quenthel nodded in assent, and the rest followed into the cave Halisstra and Pharaun had already thrown themselves down on the pebbled floor of the cavern a few dozen yards froainst the walls The rest of the Menzoberranyr filed in slowly and picked out their own spots, collapsing wherever they happened to stop

Seyll&039;s bloodstained armor seemed unbearably heavy on Halisstra&039;s shoulders, and the hilt of the Eilistraeean&039;s sword jammed painfully into her ribs She was too tired to find a better position

"Will no one tell red railed "I have waited in that e bodies faithfully I deserve to hear what happened"

"You will," Valas answered "Later I don&039;t believe any of us rightly knohat to make of it Give us tiht

She felt as if she could sleep - sleep in the unconscious and helpless manner of a huue she carried Her er on why Lolth had aban-doned her, yet she had sorief that would not pere of the Reverie until she had found soh, she pulled her satchel close and opened it, taking out the leather case of her lyre She carefully unsheathed the heirlooonbone ar the perfect ht

In the silence of the forest cave, Halisstra played the dark songs of thebae&039;qeshel, and softly gave voice to her unbearable grief