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Matron Mother Zauvirr wasn&039;t ry was for subordinates who knew to hold their tongues in the presence of their superiors despite their feelings Angry was for those times when you had to slap a child because it didn&039;t know any better No, angry wasn&039;t nearly strong enough a word to describe what Ssipriina was feeling So todie

She stor slipped out of Drisinil&039;s ically transported herself back ho she needed, though she hadn&039;t expected to, when the day started She almost hoped that so, that so her train of thought forsome idiotic and perfectly pointless reason She really hoped they wouldit would be fun, in a distracting sort of way, to watch some hapless h to do it with her bare hands

A guard would do nicely, she thought Any foolish boy who even looks at , wasted All of the carefulof valuables and troops, even the fortuitous arrival of the damnable Menzoberranyr and her clever scheht Someone had blundered, and she would have his head

I had theht They were ready to anoint me Even after that ridiculous story the wizard made up

That obvious attempt to derail her plans wouldn&039;t have stopped her No one would have believed hiht Faeryl had sounded like the petulant child that she still was

I should never have brought her in on this

Ssipriina realized herstraight

Faeryl I can deal with later There&039;s nothing to be done except to fightand win, but it would have been so ht Who told them to move out?

As theout the guilty party would also have to wait until later Her full attention was needed elsewhere She was about to spring so very special Ssipriina grinned when she iainst the corridor hen House Melarn first began to shake

The servants were screa, and froar! Hundreds of the!"

A second shock wave ruh the House

"They burn the stones the feeling, Faeryl knew it for the truth She had lived through this experience before, though it had been in the bowels of House Baenre, chained to a column Even so, she reround When she had been freed by Triel Baenre and invited to join the otten all the details of the insurrection in the streets of Menzoberranzan fros of fire, the fire that burned stone itself, were vivid She could only iine what it would feel like on a web street of Ched Nasad

Faeryl groaned Her ar weren&039;t supposed to appear unless the negotiations with the other matron mothers went badly Despite that idiot Pharaun&039;s asinine claim of her involvement in the conspiracy, the situation was far froer too soon, the aotten cold feet and didn&039;t bother to tellher head, Faeryl scraain as the roo She kneas most likely behind it As much as she wanted to slice Pharaun into a thousand tiny pieces, there was too ly admitted, he and his boys are not to be trifled with I&039;ll let et rid of Quenthel and that loathso as yet another blast rocked House Melarn The mist cleared, and she could hear the sounds of combat on the far side of the room She resisted the telied to make her way to a door just as several dozen House soldiers ca her aside in their efforts to defend the audience cha with rage, she departed the audience chamber and hurried toward the lower levels She passed few other drow in the corridors, all of thein of the disturbances, and atone point the a an earthquake as they passed her, going the opposite direction

Faeryl didn&039;t care to explain to the a final corner, the ambassador hurried into the torture chared They were not there The room was not empty, however One of the House torture tools that had been upset with the boo thuesturing to the rack where Quenthel had been restrained

The torture

Growling in exasperation, the ambassador repeated herself

The other drow looked at her, then comprehension lit his features

"Oh, they&039;re not here," he said

Faeryl rolled her eyes and said, "I can see that, you foolish boy Wherearethey?"

"That ugly drow, Zammzt, ordered them taken to a cell," the torturemaster replied "I saw to it personally"

Another severe blast rocked the roorab hold of the colured had been chained for support, but the other droas not so lucky He went down in a pile - and even more unfortunately, one of thehi, the drow scraration, his clothes ignited and s as he flailed helplessly about

Faeryl bit her lip in irritation

Nohy do yousuppose he would haveto leave

She decided she&039;d have to ask someone to show her, and she departed

Pharaun faltered for only a ht of the two drow priestesses before hi the graceful curves and fluid motion of the first, was obviously nobly born and not unpleasant to look at, either Then, getting a closer look, the wizard recognized her She was the droho had been in chains in the audience chamber only moments before In fact, he realized, she still wore thechain between them had been severed Neither of the females looked happy to see hi to his senses

He reached inside hispii,fu quickly for the wand he&039;d used to dispatch the drow soldiers not too long before In front of hiressive position as he advanced warily Valas slipped to the opposite side of the hallway, auto out with Ryld to come at the adversaries froht thestar out in front of her She had a buckler on her other ar

"It&039;s the up a position in front of the other drow as though to defend her

Both dark elves see care of themselves, and Pharaun noted the finely tooled chain mail each of them wore The one to the rear actually sported the House Melarn insignia on hers, and the wizard guessed she hters

Pharaun had his wand out, but before he could invoke the trigger words to use the thing, Ryld stepped in and launched a short series of strikes at the dark elf in front of hied with some difficulty to parry the attacks with both her weapon and her buckler The Master of Sorcere knew that Ryld was not really pressing his attack yet The weaponsto size up the skill of his co in to finish the job efficiently Valas continued to creep in from her other side, and she back-steppedbehind her Pharaun aimed the wand and prepared to recite the activation phrase, when the other drow, the daughter of House Melarn, spoke up, causing him to falter

"Hold, Danifae"

The drow in front retreated another couple steps, but she did not drop her guard

"We have no quarrel with you," the still-unnamed Melarn said "I know you don&039;t have reason to trust us, but we&039;re not the eneestured upward, to the floors above

Ryld took a threatening step forward then he too stopped and held his guard Valas atching both sides with glittering eyes, kukris at the ready

"How convenient," Pharaun said, shter, implicated in hera peace offering At least until we let down our guard, right? Then you turn us over to Matron Mother Zauvirr, claim you captured us, and hope she lets you off the hook"

"I could easily say the sahter replied Without taking her eyes off Pharaun, she added, "Danifae, I said stand down!"

Pharaun raised an eyebrow at her tone of co farther back until she was side by side with her ht about that," Pharaun said "We don&039;t have any reason to believe you If you&039;re on the outs with Mistress Zauvirr, what are you doing down here, all decked out in your finest arhter said, a bitshe was trying to broker soht have been played by Ssipriina Zauvirr If you coet you information that will help prove it"

"Lower your weapons to the ground," Ryld said, "and we&039;ll consider listening to you"

"I think not," the daughter countered "At least, not until we have some assurances that you won&039;t attack us the moment we do I don&039;t know for sure that youweren&039;tin league with ain Valas was doing likewise, still looking to maneuver around to the priestesses&039; left side

"Ryld, Valas, wait," Pharaun called out quietly

He had no doubt that the tarriors could dispatch the drow fe as the wizard was backing theued Ryld cast a quick glance back over his shoulder at the wizard then shrugged and held his ground

"I can assure you that we have never s with her, ever That wild tale in the audience chamber above was merely a contrivance to stall for time - ruffle everyone&039;s feathers, so to speak You seehter of House Melarn, "but we are at a disadvantage Who are you, and what is this infor to use to buy our trust?"

In a flash of bluish light, Valas was stepping through a dimensional doorway, and as the one named Danifae turned to face the point where the scout had been standing only a split-second earlier, the Bregan D&039;aerthe scout was behind her, one hand gripping her wrist tightly where she held hera kukri at the line where her jawbone faded into her graceful neck Though she was several inches taller than the scout, Valas was easily able to keep her overbalanced by shifting his hip under hers and levering her up off her feet

Danifae&039;s eyes bulged wide as she realized she&039;d been outmaneuvered, and she flailed about helplessly for a second or two until she grasped that the blade was at her neck, at which point she froze

"Lay the to their weapons with his greatsword "To the floor, nice and quietly"

The Melarn daughter gasped in surprise at Valas&039;s maneuver, narrowed her eyes, and took half a step toward her cohed and settled her ed a bit in Valas&039;s grasp and relinquished her weapon to the other female, who set that down as well

"Excellent!" Pharaun said as Ryld kicked the teapons safely away "That wasn&039;t so bad, noas it?"

"You could have trusted us," the daughter spat "We gave you no reason not to"

Pharaun laughed out loud Ryld stifled a chuckle of his own, and Valas, who released Danifae but kept his kukri carefully placed in the s behind her

"You are a dark elf," the wizard said finally, regaining his coh for me not to trust you, but beyond that, if you think we&039;re going to trust anyone in this cursed city, you&039;re the biggest fool I&039;ve otiating, so you et a chance to redee my questions Who are you, and what is the nature of this inforrimaced but finally answered, "I am Halisstra Melarn, as you have surmised by now, I&039;m sure This is Danifae, h priestess and her dee at this revelation He heard both Ryld and Valas breathe in sharply

"Really," the ained his composure, "and hoould you know that?"

"Because I&039;ve seen therip, answered

"Apparently," Halisstra said, "Ssipriina Zauvirr simply told everyone that the priestess was dead so that there would be no demands for her side of the story They probablyshould have killed theuess Faeryl had other plans for her"

At the mention of the ambassador, Pharaun tilted his head

"You know Faeryl Zauvirr?" he asked

"Yes," Halisstra replied, "I know her We grew up together Since our Houses have - or rather,had - a business relationship, her ht very well be with the Baenre priestess right now I suspect she&039;s torturing them both"

"Is that so?" Pharaun asked