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He studied the tapestry for a h satisfied He took hold of a corner of the weaving and yanked it off the wall Behind it was only bare stone

Quenthel&039;s scowl deepened, but the wizard simply produced a wand from inside the folds of hispiaved it about, and uttered an arcane phrase He pocketed thethe space as the others gathered around Danifae stood near Halisstra, and the priestess felt her attendant press so down, Halisstra saw that the battle captive had procured a pair of daggers and was handing one to her, on the sly

Oh, you clever girl, Halisstra thought She quickly palmed the weapon and tucked it into the folds of her pii,out of sight Then she returned her attention to what the wizard was doing

"Yes, of course," Pharaun said, as though he had recognized soht everyone, step back I can disarils that are here, but I cannot deal with the more mechanical trap that I suspect is also present"

"That&039;s all right," Valas said "If you can ree the rest"

Pharaun nodded and began to gesture andtoward the space between the two tall armoires with a flourish Halisstra supposed the wizard must have some ability to sense the presence of various spells, wards, and char on and had never known of a secret portal anywhere in her er after he was finished with his casting then nodded for the scout to give it a try

Valas an to inspect it little by little, inch by inch Halisstra wanted to get inclose beside hi at, but she dared not disturb his concentration At that moment, yet another in the series of ru

"By the Abyss!" Valas yelled, waving his arainst the wall "This is no good I can&039;t do this with all of the - "

The scout&039;s words were cut off as the whole rooan to tilt Halisstra fell to the floor as the chaer level but instead tipped to one side, away fro She realized she was screa the floor The h the House she could hear the horrendous sound of fracturing rock, loud popping noises that sounded as if the whole world was snapping apart

"We&039;ve no tiet out now!" Halisstra heard one of the males yell

"Not withoutto stand on the yawing floor "Get that door open - now!"

Pharaun, who had actually begun to levitate to avoid falling down, nodded as the others left their feet - all except Valas, who see his balance despite the tilt of the floor

The wizard relove froain as the floor an to tilt evenfist appeared, twice as tall as Pharaun, floating in the air in front of the loved hand, turning it so that the knuckles were aimed at the point on the wall

"Get back!" Pharaun yelled "I don&039;t knohat kind of backlash this will create"

There wasfro - and Halisstra found she had her hands over her ears Her heart was pounding in her chest

We&039;re going to die in here, she thought The whole house is falling apart, and we&039;re going to be crushed

The ical fist lurched forward and slaainst the stone with a powerful crunch The wall cracked in several places Pharaun directed the fist to back up and go again

Quenthel was beside Halisstra, grabbing her by the arets that wall down," the Mistress of Arach-Tinilith said, "ill need to hurry What&039;s the fastest way out of here?"

Halisstra looked at the other drow helplessly

"We&039;re in the very heart of the House," she answered "The et out, no o"

Quenthel scowled, but then she nodded and iant fist had slammed into the wall two or three more times, and the as about to collapse

One ht as she felt the concussions ofbeyond the room If it&039;s not too late already, she added to herself

Around Halisstra, the others ide-eyed, trying to , and floor warily

The next slam of the fist finally did the section of wall in, and it collapsed in a pile of rubble Behind it, a small cha a number of items Halisstra had never seen before Quenthel pushed ahead of everyone else and strode - or rather hiked, for it was like walking up a hillside - into the chaleam in her eye

"Yes!" was all she said as she held the weapon aloft, the five vipers hissing and writhing joyously

Quickly, Quenthel gathered up several other ites displayed on the shelves

"No ti to Halisstra, the wizard demanded, "Which way is out? Get us there, before the whole place falls!"

Halisstra shook her head miserably

"We&039;re as far away from the exits as we can be!" she shouted over the cacophony of popping, shattering stone The rooain "There&039;s no close way out!"

"Then I&039;ll make one," Pharaun shouted "Which direction is closest to the outside?"

Part of the ceiling on the far side of the rooments and dust into Halisstra&039;s face She covered her nose andher ar shards of rock that pelted her She couldn&039;t think She was going to die There was no way out, no escape - and no Lolth

Halisstra felt the wizard&039;s hands grasp her arms

"Tell me," he shouted, "which way is the closest way to the outside, regardless of walls?"

Halisstra shook her head, trying to focus despite the panic rising in her chest She spied Danifae clinging to Quenthel as both of the into the secret roored had his claws e it toward his mistress

The closest outside wallwhich way?

An ie appeared in her head, a mental map, and she knew that her mother&039;s chambers backed up nearly to an outside wall, which meant that the secret room Pharaun and Quenthel had discovered was very close to the outside

Frantically, Halisstra pointed to the hidden roo on his hands and knees, the wizard headed in that direction, al back the other way as the roo the floor, herself and decided against trying to stop, instead bracing her feet against the far, loall She craned her neck around to watch the an yet another spell He see in hispiiand pulled out soesticulate wildly in the direction of the wall at the back of the secret closet Before her eyes, a tunnel forht into the rock itself, and after about fifteen feet, it broke through into space beyond

"Come on!" Pharaun shouted to everyone as the whole House see stone was deafening, and Halisstra had barely been able to hear the wizard The room tilted over even more sharply, and Halisstra realized that it was nearly sideways, with the new opening to the outside alically toward the iroup did the sah into the open air of the city beyond, she saw that Jeggred had a hold of Valas The draegloth lifted effortlessly toward the hole, and it was at that moment that Halisstra remembered that Danifae could not levitate either

The House Melarn daughter looked down desperately and saw her attendant, crouched in the low corner of the roo to stay atop the shifting pile of rock as the roo with fury as she gazed angrily up tohere everyone else was escaping the collapsing dwelling There was another excruciatingly loud snapping sound as more stone buckled and popped, and Danifae, still inside the destroyed re away

Khorrl Xornbane was bloody and exhausted His clan, gathered all around hi they&039;d been fighting, but it was too long They needed rest and water They couldn&039;t keep this up for er Unfortunately, the captain of Clan Xornbane feared that the day would grow

Khorrl had already passed the word that his troops were to abandon their positions defending House Melarn They had been besieged there for so long andhad used up sounstable

I&039; to lose my boys that way, he told hi on the opposite side of the plaza fro left alone It was hard to be sure how long that peace would, last, though, because none of the stone

What Khorrl and his duergar could see told the tale clearly enough, though The plaza was covered with the bodies of goblinsand kobolds Littered in between theh the nuray dwarves than Khorrl would have liked were scattered here and there, too It had been a hellish day, and it was far from over, the captain feared

"Sir," one of his aides said, running up to Khorrl, "we&039;ve completely abandoned the estate The last of the troops have forray dwarf pointed through the s behind them - "across to the flank of our ht side of the plaza

"Good," Khorrl replied, visualizing the battlefield in his er clearly see it with his eyes

"Also," the aide continued, "there&039;s another force of drow co toward us, from that direction"

He pointed off to the left, where the plaza was joined by a large web street It was, regrettably, the weakest point ofClan Xornbane&039;s defenses

"Friend or foe? Did you get a look at their House insignias?"

The aide shrugged and said, "Not in this shed He would have to send scouts out to reconnoiter the new troops He said as much to the aide, who saluted him and started to turn away

"Wait," the captain said, and the aide stopped attentively &039;Get some boys up there - " Khorrl pointed toward the street one level above where they were currently positioned - "I don&039;t want another swar in on us like they did earlier"

"Yes, sir," the aide replied, and hurried off to execute his captain&039;s coain and turned to call for water Fro sound, a sound he knew too well - splintering stone He spun back around and peered through the gloom of smoke in the direction from which it had come All up and down the lines that protected the clan&039;s position, the as spreading, and it reached Khorrl quickly enough House Melarn was burning to oblivion, and it was about to go over

Khorrl shook his head, knoas about to happen He hoped his aide was right and hoped that all his boys had gotten out of there He lamented the ones who couldn&039;t, for whatever reason

The popping started again, and grew louder and more steady He could feel the vibrations in the stone beneath his feet He almost wished he could see it, butin a way, he didn&039;t It was going to be a deathtrap for anyone still inside

The snapping, splintering sound of stone reached a crescendo, and there was one final explosion, a treh that Khorrl had to brace hi ceased Khorrl knew the whole building had gone over the side, tu into the void

A few seconds later, there was a horrendous crash fro A heartbeat later, he felt the vibrations of the impact It was subtle, but for that sort of vibration to travel through a web street and into the walls of the huge cavern, and back along the other web streets, the initial iht take out several ri up to his captain, his look wide-eyed

"What is it?" Khorrl de ould so shake up the lad

"A spider! A huge one, as big as a house! It&039;s co just how ht