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The second tiot no reply from the distant wizard, Gromph slammed his fists down atop his bone desk in frustration Two sendings, and nothing What had happened to Pharaun? Why wouldn&039;t he answer? The Archan to pace

Two different spies had already contacted hi in Ched Nasad The , it appeared, and like it or not, the team from Menzoberranzan appeared to be in the thick of it, but Groet any confirmation from the team itself He considered whether or not he should try one last ti he couldn&039;t force the wizard to answer - Pharaun ical whispers and was siainst any further waste of ive himself away in the company of others who didn&039;t know the full extent of what he was up to

Or he&039;s dead, Groht

It was a possibility, however unlikely that see himself out of the worst sorts of trouble, and coupled with Quenthel and the others, the archwizard had a difficult ti that they&039;d succumbed to whatever violence inundated the streets of the City of Shi Webs Still, it wasn&039;t impossible

If the teahed and reached into one of the drawers of his desk, extracting a scroll tube Pulling the bundle of rolled parch for and tucked the others away again Spreading his selected sheet out on the desktop, the archwizard took a deep breath and scanned through the spell once before preparing to cast it He was just about to begin the incantation to try once ht struck hi exclusively with Pharaun didn&039;t mean he had to continue that way Why not try some of the other members of the team? It was possible Pharaun was dead or incapacitated, but that didn&039;t necessarily mean that all of them were Quenthel was the ht of talking to her Who would his next choice be? Ryld Argith

Nodding to hih the arcane words on the scroll, weaving the ic that would allow him to contact the warrior He coic coalesce

"Ryld, this is Gromph Baenre No word from Pharaun Give me an update on the situation Whisper a reply at once"

Gromph sat back and waited for a response It was deathly quiet in his secret chaith answered, the archwizard would undoubtedly hear it The silence seemed to stretch on, and Gromph was just about to throw up his hands in frustration and despair when the reply came When he heard it, his blood actually ran cold

I&039;m separated from Pharaun and the others, don&039;t knohere they are Duergar are everywhere The whole city is burning We&039;re cut off, no way -

Gro his head in displeasure

Triel is going to spit rocks when she hears this, he thought How long can I hold off telling her? On the otherhand,as he rose froo find his sister

As Pharaun ended his descent at the steps of the building, he could see a sizable force of duergar, waiting and watching Without hesitating, he took a couple steps forward then crouched and s a sphere of darkness Quickly, he retreated back up the steps just as Jeggred settled to the ground next to him, with Quenthel on his other side A couple crossbow bolts whizzed by, but he ignored thethe other three to move into the protection of the porch where he and Danifae had taken refuge before It was a sloth in attendance, but they all fit and when crouched doere at least partially shielded froar on the street below More iht of the spider

Danifae sank to the stone floor, and the wizard could see that she was bleeding steadily fro The battle captive opened her own pack and pulled out a strip of cloth Wrapping the , she held it there as Pharaun assisted her by tying it off Quenthel looked on ined, where Danifae could not see,If you heal her, we can ed and replied,She is not a necessary part of this group I will not waste the ht not be any left later for you, if I did

Pharaun pursed his lips, wondering what it would take to convince Quenthel that the battle captive was an asset they could not do without He turned his attention back to Danifae

"Can you walk on it?" he asked her

"Yes," she answered "I can keep up"

"We will not wait for you, if you cannot," Quenthel said sharply, "and I will not per you Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mistress," Danifae said

Pharaun saw that her eyes narrowed a bit He gestured with his pal for Danifae to be patient He was not about to abandon her, even if he knew full well that she was playing upon his desires just to save her own hide

At thatsettled on the stone between the alcove and the shield of e had summoned, and a portion of the arachnid&039;s body hove into view It was the underside of the creature, Pharaun noted, holding his breath as he felt the treht on the web street Beside hired watched the scene warily, but none of the place, the wizard sighed softly in relief It had not noticed them

Out beyond the protective blackness, Pharaun could hear the shouts of duergar - cries of terror - as the spider e and his corew ever softer as it departed

Good, Pharaun thought Chase theuardian spider?" he asked aloud

Danifae shrugged and said, "I don&039;t know as much about them as Halisstra You&039;ll have to ask her if you want the details, but I can tell you that the ht these creatures forth for various purposes They must have conjured one today, hed and shook her head

"Madness," she said quietly "The matron mothers of this city pick the most foolish time to ith one another"

"I wouldn&039;t limit the appellation of foolish solely to the matron mothers ofthis city," Pharaun lanced at him, but he simply smiled, and she turned her attention back to the unseen ruckus beyond the sphere of darkness, apparently not having clearly heard his reh priestess ordered the wizard "I want to see what&039;s happening"

As I said, Pharaun thought, shaking his head

Sighing, thethe street beyond The spider was out of sight for the h there were plenty of dead strewn about, duergar and drow alike

"It see to her feet "We should be going, too, before it coive it another couple of ested, still unnerved at the appearance of the giant creature "Just to one"

Quenthel scowled at the wizard then turned to the draegloth and said, "Go see"

S place to peer in both directions

At that

Scores of the across the street, as though they had been waiting for the drow to eray dwarves shouted

The duergar for the dark elves&039; position, and Jeggred leaped back into the alcove as the first volley of crossbow bolts peppered the walls around the the elevation of the porch as a screen He pointed his finger toward the street and spoke the arcane phrase that would trigger one of his spells At once, a cloud of roiling sh hite-hot ean to floay froar,at the san to churn toward theulfed thean to scream and flail, scorched by the embers

Gray dwarves fell back before the cloud as it burned their kin where they stood The s, and the screaar intensified asheat

Pharaun crept out a little way to watch his handiwork Jeggred stood beside hiht

"Can any of the them," the Master of Sorcere replied "The fire can&039;t hurt you, right?"

"That iscorrect," the draegloth answered, and he bounded into the s

The incendiary cloud had pushed across to the opposite side of the street Bodies of duergar were scattered across its surface, charred and sed fro smoke, which Pharaun redirected to flon the street, in the direction opposite they wished to go It would continue of its own accord for so that another horde of the eneloth was dripping with blood but had a very satisfied look on his face He had an a on it as he trotted back to where the three droere crouched

Pharaun studiously ignored the fiend&039;s dining habits as Quenthel asked, "Are they all dead?"

"Either dead or running," the draegloth answered "The street is clear"

"Then we should proceed The spider could return at any moment, and we have no tih priestess asked Pharaun

The wizard pointed toward the alleyhere he had seen Ryld vanish moments before

"The weapons master went in there," he said "It&039;s possible that one or both of the others joined him"

Before Pharaun could take h, the street heaved and shook

"Dalance back

The spider had spotted the over the roiling cloud of flame Pharaun had sent in that direction The arachnid caerly

Pharaun turned and fled fro killed, now!" Ssipriina Zauvirr screamed "If you don&039;t do it, we are all in a midden heap of trouble!"

She loomed over Khorrl Xornbane as the two stood on the steps of an upscale fashion shop, abandoned in the fighting, situated in the interior of the gray dwarves&039; position on the plaza The shop ell back from the lines of battle, but Khorrl could plainly see the spider in the distance as the matron mother pointed at it Thenear where Clan Xornbane was locked in a pitched battle with a force of antagonistic drow

"AndI&039;!" Khorrl snarled back, losing patience with this haughty dark elf "You hiredyour adversaries, not to clean up your ht it here, so you and your cronies can figure out how to stop it It&039;s not my fault you can&039;t control it!"

"Mymistakes? Let&039;s talk about mistakes, Captain Let&039;s talk about you and yourmy well-laid plans for ascension to the Council in one foolish moment Mistakes, indeed! We wouldn&039;t even be in this position if you had followed simple orders"

Khorrl wanted to slice the offensive drow in half right then If she hadn&039;t brought a retinue of bodyguards with her, he would have, but he was outnu bloould be taken down shortly thereafter Instead, he squeezed his grip on his axe and sucked in a deep breath, trying to still the treh his body

"Preh clenched teeth "I received direct orders froo talk to himy lads needlessly to kill your spider In fact, we&039;re done, here

"Forghel!" he called out, looking for his aide "Forghel, sound the retreat We&039;re pulling out"

Khorrl knew he played a dangerous ga his back on the dark elf, but he wanted to bait her, see if she would lose her temper

"Liar!" Ssipriina screaaffes on my House You will not abandon your - Don&039;t you walk away from me!

"To the Abyss with youKill hiave a shrill whistle, and instantly, a host of his boys banished their invisibility andhim, axes and crossbows ready The captain turned back to face the advancing retinue of drow, looking specifically for Ssipriina

The dark elf&039;s bodyguards had begun to chase hiar materialized, the drow soldiers faltered aforward, Khorrl&039;s boys took the fight to the drow

Of course, Ssipriina Zauvirr was not foolish enough to reave the captain one last baleful glare as she turned and retreated back down the steps in the opposite direction

Grabbing up a crossbow fro close to hi ai matron mother He fired, but the bolt clacked loudly off a stone colu as Ssipriina rounded it and disappeared She would be back, though, the captain knew, and she would bring more of her dahel said, running up beside Khorrl

The captain turned and looked back the way his aide was pointing, and his heart sank The immense spider was positioned in the s, while its front appendages fluttered oddly in the air A bluish line appeared in the air, as tall as the spider itself, and widened into an odd-shaped field of blue light A second spider stepped through the e as the first It had so tired He didn&039;t kno er he could defend hiray dwarves that slowly, inexorably, pressed in at the out of rooainst a wall, and there would be no an to spill from above The clay pots exploded all around him, and he kneas only a matter of time before one of theo, the weaponshaar across his midsection Backed into a corner in an alley, trapped like a rat in a cage, and burned to death Well, you wanted to get out of Menzoberranzan and find a little excitely, the gray dwarves backed away frouard as they retreated, and Ryld let the scorched from the acrid sashes covered his ars of a viper

If they don&039;t want to fight, I&039;ratefully

He kept his sword level as a threat but risked a quick glance up to the rooftops

Sure enough, just as Halisstra had clai across the way, preventing the two of the by that route Ryld was certain he could pick theround troops and firepots at the saar overhead hurl severalat him, they threide, so that the bursts of flaround

They&039;re trying to seal us in, the weapons master realized Trap us and kill us without risk to the to deter hi to hiet us out of here"

The warrior glanced over at her, ignoring the taunts and jeers fro thethe dark elves

"How?" he asked

"I can cast a spell," Halisstra replied, "A et us out of here, but you&039;ve got to buy me some time!"

"Ah, Pharaun&039;s favorite trick," Ryld replied He eyed the loall that was behind the two of them, and he pointed to it

"Get over that," he said "We&039;ll be better protected fro for her to follow, Ryld levitated upward until he was at a height just above the top of the wall, which had originally been slightly over his head He quickly stepped across it to the other side and lowered hi limply at her side, was only a heartbeat behind hirunt of pain as Ryld watched for pursuit