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Ssipriina Zauvirr and several guests stood atop an observation tower overlooking House Zauvirr Leaning against the balustrade, she stared out over Ched Nasad Her abode was not far from House Melarn, but in that direction, the matron mothers could see very little but thick s around House Melarn still raged, and the sound of it reached the otten out of control," U beside Ssipriina "Your agent said nothing of this stone-burning fire e agreed to this plan"

"Yes," Ulviirala Rilynt chi back and forth behind the with each step "I dislike the idea of so ht now"

"Nonsense," Nedylene Zinard scolded, also leaning against the railing very casually but with her back to the unfolding scene of ruin She seeernails than in the activity around her "We knew going into this that we ressive If we are to re, now is the ti stand in our way Not the other Houses and not our own s to make an omelet Sometimes you have to kill a few slaves to win the day"

"Perhaps," U her puissance as thethem, "but this is unnecessary You should not have summoned us to install you as a new member of the Council until you eli that wizard to weave his lies did not help your cause"

ShriNeerune Hlaund snorted "The wizard&039;s lies were inconsequential Ssipriina was a fool to send her mercenaries out so prematurely"

"I did not do that!" Ssipriina retorted "Sonal before it was time I still held out hope that we could resolve the dissolution of House Melarn bloodlessly These fire pots were not ray dwarves procured thee"

"So you&039;re saying that you don&039;t even have control over your own House?" ShriNeerune sneered "And you expect us to continue to back you? I should have known better than to support a merchant House"

Ssipriina&039;s fists clenched, and she dearly wanted to strike the dark elf belittling her, but she held them at her sides

"I&039;d be careful, if I were you," she snapped, staring coldly at the offending drow "I&039;ht noe&039;re winning You could find yourself on the other side of the battle very quickly"

"Enough," U between the two of theht, not argue Ssipriina, did you bring it?"

Ssipriina kept her stare steadily on ShriNeerune&039;s face for a er, but then she turned away

"Yes, of course," she answered "I have it right here"

"Then let&039;s do this," the thin ather together "It&039;s tiacy"

Ssipriina nodded and produced a s, she revealed a crystalline statue of a spider, as black as darkness itself, broken into several pieces The head and the abdos, one for each side of the figurine The five athered around as Ssipriina held the cloth in the pal atop it, stretching her arms out for the out with her lacquered nails and lifting one set of legs to exain"

"Hold them steady, Ssipriina," Umrae warned

She took hold of the abdomen of the statue One by one, the other three matron mothers each took up a part They looked from one to another, and finally, when Uurine whole

"Quickly, now!" U the completed statue in the cloth

Already, the rowing larger

"Hurry!" ShriNeerune hissed "Throw it!"

Ssipriina did She reached back and hurled the bundle out into the void, as hard as she could, and as one the fivecloth tumble away from House Zauvirr

The cloth fell away, and the asseasped as one The statue had transfor, a spider as black as the crystal it was born fro rapidly in size In the blink of an eye, it was the size of a rothe, and as it disappeared past the side of the web street it was still growing

Ssipriina watched, awed, as the creature shot forth a string of webbing at the street, attaching a line to anchor itself as it fell Then it was gone, vanished froe point

The five dark elves waited breathlessly, hoping to catch another gli had jerked taut and visibly vibrated as it dropped straight down Obviously, the spider was still attached to it For a h allfive matronstabbed into view, feeling for a foothold on the web street, Ssipriina felt her heart skip a beat The appendage was longer than she was tall Slowly, delicately, the spider lifted itself into view, and all five matron mothers took an involuntary step back froh their creation was dozens of yards away froe as the street ide

"By the Dark Mother," soiant spider righted itself atop the street, and Ssipriina could hear the screams of those below, screaan to scurry in the other direction, toward theseveral streets away

"By the Abyss," Uroaned

"What? What is it?" Nedylene asked, worry in her voice

"There is no link," Umrae replied, her eyes closed in concentration "I can&039;t control it"

Halisstra could feel her sense of i While House Melarn had not collapsed all together, as she had so direly predicted back in her rooms, it had certainly shaken violently more than once, and to her senses, fa, it seehtly to one side As impossible to fathom as the idea was, Halisstra wondered if the place was still stable She wanted desperately to get outside and see for herself just as happening in the city The drow couldn&039;t iine violence so potent as to be able to physically disturb House Melarn

The dark elf priestess was leading the others toward her mother&039;s chaings had been taken after the Mistress of the Acadeh she would have some competition from Aunrae Nasadra, Ssipriina Zauvirr would certainly clai the high priestess&039;s personal items, to keep as trophies of her affront to the city of Menzoberranzan, if nothing else It re Quenthel Baenre had in her possession upon arrival in the city was still there

The ht about the actions of Ssipriina and the other rew Beyond the consequences of turning on House Melarn, they were potentially offending the most powerful House in Menzoberranzan Plus, the course of action they had taken see of the nose at the very idea of eventrying to discover as going on with Lolth

At least Quenthel and the others are trying to figure so out, she&039;d told herself ht value devotion, but Halisstra didn&039;t believe the goddess expected her servants to sit back and wait for her to come save them, even if they showed overzealous dedication or sacrificed a thousand gray dwarves

Truthfully, Halisstra had found herself wondering just what Lolth wanted

Halisstra passed through a large intersection and turned down a new pathway, one even more lavishly decorated, if that were possible, with plush carpeting, es of House Melarn triu Drisinil&039;s personal quarters, and Halisstra was fearful that a large contingent of House Zauvirr guards would be posted to protect the chambers, insurrection outside or not The dark elf&039;s concerns ell founded, for as she rounded a corner, she spotted a squadron of troopsaccess to the door beyond, which led into Drisinil&039;s private residence

"What are you doing down here?" Halisstra de to throw the soldiers off-balance with her co tone "You are needed on the parapets at once!"

"I don&039;t think so," the sergeant said, eyeing the hter as he raised his sword and pointed it at her "We received word that the traitor had escaped, and now you appear right here, conveniently for us I&039; you"

The soldiers fanned out, brandishing their weapons as they advanced

Halisstra&039;s first instinct was to bring her mace up to defend herself, but her hand was empty, for Quenthel had not yet permittedher to rearm herself Danifae, as at Halisstra&039;s side, was no longer bound, but she had no weapon, either Danifae did, however, carry a ss Quenthel had agreed to let thes before departing, for if the House continued to thrash about like it had, there was no telling when they ht have to evacuate, and there would be no better chance later

Out of the corner of her eye, Halisstra saw her attendant falter a step, too, but before the soldiers could close the gap, a blur of yellohite fur flashed between the two drow, sla snarl and a whirl of ar flesh before Halisstra realized that the draegloth, Quenthel&039;s personal bodyguard, was the source of the carnage

Halisstra&039;s gasp of surprise caeant, went down screaht of the creature, their bodies horribly led and their blood splattered everywhere Several other soldiers began to surround the draegloth, trying to stay clear of the fiend&039;s savage claws, but at the sared crouched, watching hisout with their swords but unwilling to get in close enough to do any good A handful were already backing out of the fray, producing hand crossbows

Another figure darted past Halisstra, and a third, and she settled back against the wall as Ryld and Valas entered the fight The larger of the tho when they first careatsword in a ht and easy in his hands as he carved half the face off of one soldier and spun to swipe through the midsection of a second enemy in the same motion The diminutive one, on the other hand, seemed content to slink up behind one of the drow soldiers still trying to find an opening inside Jeggred&039;s deadly reach The guard never heard or felt Valas co, and when the scout plantedhis kukri into the sy accoony and cruround as Valas pulled his blade free and stepped aside, disappearing into the shadows again

"Get out of the way, foolish girl, and let them do their work," Quenthel snapped at Halisstra frolanced back over her shoulder to where the high priestess was standing She saw the wizard producing soredient or another, which she knewa spell In front of him, a rapier seeh it was defending hiet close to hiainst the wall to allow him ample room then sidestepped her way back to where Quenthel waited On the opposite side of the passage, Danifae was doing the sas when they&039;reit the "At least they&039;re good for that, if nothing else"

Halisstra wanted desperately to ask the other dro she tolerated such insubordination from the three of theht it best to keep her races Itwhile before Quenthel trusted her, and she didn&039;t want to do anything to jeopardize that

A hissing sound acco, thin sliver of ice that shot froht at one of the soldiers, e itself in the back of the drow&039;s shoulder like a deadly icicle The soldier cried out in pain and stu his foe&039;s attention diverted, darted in and slashed with his uard&039;s abdoan to tu that it spun the dark elf around With a sickeningplop,the soldier fell onto his back, gazing sightlessly toward Halisstra while the contents of his body leaked out around him

"Hold!" a voice shouted froh priestess, to see a whole new force of soldiers, who had approached from the direction Halisstra and the others had co back as the new soldiers slipped their weapons from sheaths and trotted forward

Pharaun spun around, and seeing the new threat, he stabbed a hand inside hispii and produced several s around and darted forward, bobbing and weaving through the air in an atteer in size than the first one, at bay At the same time, Halisstra heard the wizard utter soh she didn&039;t understand his speech, the effect was i shot forward froertips and struck the closest soldier squarely in the chest Iers of the sa outward from its first victim to strike the rest of the dark elves

Halisstra cried out in pain and flung her arht of the bolt, cowering against the wall and cursing the wizard for blinding her andher vulnerable to the soldiers&039; attacks Her vision swa the wall, trying to listen for the sound of iasp as someone ounded, and the sounds of battle faded

When her vision finally cleared, she saw Danifae and Quenthel looking as dazed as she felt Pharaun appeared proud of himself, and the entire host of House Zauvirr soldiers lay on the ground to either side of her

"Damn you, Pharaun," Quenthel snarled, her hands on her hips as she glared at the wizard, as a few inches shorter than the high priestess "You warn me next time you intend to cast a spell like that!"

Pharaun bowed, and Halisstra wasn&039;t sure if it was ies There wasn&039;t time to warn anyone They would have been upon us if I hadn&039;t acted as swiftly as I did"

Quenthel sniffed, apparently not co else After a moment, Halisstra realized that the Mistress of the Acade at her

"Well?" Quenthel said, "Lead on I don&039;t want another horde of Ssipriina&039;s lackeys finding us still standing around their comrades&039; corpses"

Halisstra nodded curtly and turned toward the door She was careful not to stare overly longat any of the bodies of the soldiers Jeggred had dispatched She reached the door and waved her brooch in front of it, allowing the ic to do its work and unlock the portal The priestess stepped inside and beckoned the others to follow her

The interior of her audy and out of style for Halisstra&039;s tastes, but she paid the decorations no estured toward the rest of the roos are here somewhere," Halisstra said "If we spread out, we can find theency, another ruh the House, and Halisstra thought she heard the fracturing of solid rock

"Never mind that," Quenthel said brusquely "They&039;re in there"

She pointed through one of the doorways

"That&039;s the bedrooh priestess would know they were in there "Coroup followed her into the interior chae, round affair that could accommodate five or six drow and probably had on more than one occasion, Halisstra supposed In addition to that, there were a number of couches, chests, dressers, and tables for furniture, and rich tapestries covered every square foot of the walls

Quenthel trudged across the room to a point between two tall arlowed in phosphorescent hues of green, purple, and yelloith an ie of a drow priestess Halisstra kneas supposed to be her grandmother, and she wondered why Drisinil had kept it Halisstra certainly didn&039;t intend to keep anything to remind her of her own &039;s behind here"

"Well don&039;t touch it, yet," Pharaun ad up beside her