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Drisinil turned along with  the high priestess, keeping behind her.  She grabbed hold of T'risstree's hair

instructor collapsed. The sword slipped , jerked her headfrom her fingers and back, and sliced  open her throat. The clanked on the floor.The onlookers gawked.

"T'risstree T'orgh meant to betray us," Drisinil said. "I saw it in her eyes when  I

took her hands. We  can leave the carcass here for the time being. W

one will discover it until after Quenthel's death."          ith luck, no r explanation, or, more likely, didn'

t

care that she'Either the other conspirators believed hed murdered the teacher. A few congratulated her  on her finesse, and

utterly indifferent to the corpse sprawled in their midst, resumed their departures. ,

it ought to look nice on her wall.Drisinil picked up and examined the fallen falchion. Once Quenthel was slain,

*

Faeryl prowled the rounded, treacherous  surfaces at the bassadorial residence. She was trying to            apex of the am-hichentailed clambering about with a certain celmonitor all four sides of her home, werity. Yefrom anyone who might be peering from  the window of a net she was also trying to hide or up from one of the quiet  residential boulevards of prosperous Wighboring mansion est Wall, and the faster she moved,  the more problematic stealth became.  She'd sneaked up there  two hours  ago, when  everyone  elsedocuments, and she still wasn't  sure she'd struck the thought she was  bundling or burning two necessities.                 proper balance between the

She wished she could have ordered a retaher vigil, but it would have been ill-advised, considering that iner or two up there  to help her keep might be the object of her hunt.              any of her minions

She also wished she had more cover.crenellations so small as to        Except for a few token walkways and keep was bare of fortifications be essentially ornamental,  the apex of the stalagmite closely            or even level places to stand. If Faeryl looked

,  she could see subtle signs that  at one timanother purpose, such defenses had existed in abundance, be, when the keep had served ut subsequently, awizard had melted the ramparts back into the rest of the calcite. It made sense. capacity to resist a siege.The Menzoberranyr would see no reason to  gift an outsider with any notable violent phosphorescence, the homFaeryl perched on the northeast side of  the roof. Outlined in blue, green, or around her           es of her wealthier neighbors glowed all

.  Had she looked from  a distance, she would have observed her  own residence shining in the same  way.  Fortunately,  the  luminescence only defined the silhouette of the tower and picked out selong as she stayed away from  the images, kept silent, and enjoyed a mveral spiders sculpted in bas-relief. As easure of luck, it shouldn'

A soft, indefinable sound rose fromt reveal her presence.   the northwest. Grateful that she at least

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still had the brooch that would ma

the sloping pitch of the roof, fearless in ke her weightless, she scuttled quickly along the knowledge that even if  she lost  herfooting, she needn't fall.

and discovered the source of the sound in the plaza belowIn a few seconds, she reached the northwest aspect. She peered over the drop .Bare to the waist, rapiers in one hand  and parrying daggers in the other

,  two

males circled one another.  They stood straight and stepped lightly in the manner

of well-trained fencers. Their discarded  piwafwi’s, ma

they'd  tossed them  on the ground along with a pair of emil, and shirts lay where pty wineskins. A third

male looked on from  beneath an overhanging balcony some

where the combatants quite possibly hadn'            distance away, t noticed him.

Faeryl sighed. This little tableau was  mnothing to do with her own situation.    ildly intriguing, but it clearly had

After her frustrating interview with Matron Mother Baenre, she'd realized  shehad an opponent. Som

eone who'd traduced  her

departing Menzoberranzan, though she couldn',t im possibly to keep her fromagine why.  From  that inference, it was a sm

her household. It was what any intelligent foe would tall step to the suspicion that the enemy had an agent inside ry to arrange, and it

arguably explained how Faeryl's  intention to  go home had been discerned and

countered with a word in Triel's ear.

Seething with the need to outwit those  who had made a fool of herdevised a ruse to unmask the spy                 ,  Faeryl

.  She surprised her retainers with the order to

pack. They  were  slipping out of Menzoberranzan  that  very night. She thought her loyal vassals would obey

,  but the trathe household's im          itor would try to sneak away to report

minent flight. Crouched on the roof,  Faeryl would  spot  her

when she did.

That was the plan, anyway. The ambassador could think of several reasons whit might fail. The residence had m                   y

eans  of egress on all four sides,  but she

couldn't survey all four at once,  not unless  she floated well above the roof, and

that  option presented problems of its

virtue of silence, and their m      own. Most dark elf boots possessed a antles, one  of  obscuration. The traitor might even have som

e  more potent means of escaping notice, such as a talisman of

invisibility. Were she any higher above  the ground, Faeryl might have no hope at all of detecting the spy's surreptitious exit.

Of course, the traitor might also have a means of commconfederates via clairaudience, or a charm of instantaneous transit, in wunicating with her hi

ch case

the envoy's scheme  was doomed no matter what. She'd cling to the roof until

someone in authority

her and her entourage into custody, a company of Baenre, but she'd had to try s guards,  perhaps,  showed up to take omeShe crawled on. Below and behind her        thing.

,  one  of the duelists groaned as his foe

's

blade plunged through his torso. Magic flickered and sizzled, and the victordropped as well. The wizard who'd been watching from  a dist

ance strolled

forward to inspect the steaming corpses.  siblings, and the wizard was the cl

ever

one. She'Faeryl wondered if the three had been d had a brother like that once, until  an even trickier male turned him  to

dust and absconded with his wands and  grimoires. A minor setback for her

House, but interesting to watch.Overhead, som

e

back were winging their way east. Above themthing snapped. She glanced up. Four or five riders on wyvern-, projecting from  the cavern ceiling, the stalactite castles shone with their own enchantments, a far lovelier

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War Of The Spider Queen

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sight, in her opinion, than the miniscule monochromatic stars that speckled thenight sky of the so-called Lands of Light.

Then, so faintly that she wondered if she'd imagined it, something brushedagainst som

ething else. The sound had issued from  the southwest.

nothing appeared changed since the last timFaeryl scurried over to that part of the roof and peered down. At first glance, e she'd checked that way.her nerves were playing tricks on her                 Perhaps

,  but she kept on looking anyway.Octagonal steel grilles protected the round windows cut in the wall below her

,

but if a drow knew the trick, she could entrance or exit via levitation. Apparentlyunlatch one and swing it aside for an

, someone had, for after a few more

mome

slightly ajarnts, Faeryl noticed that one of . With that sign to guide the web-pattern shields hung ever so herskulking toward the mouth of an alleyway  ,  she spotted the shrouded figure

.

The noble of Ched Nasad was a fair hand with a crossbow. She mi

been able to shoot down the traitor fro              ght have m  behind, but that would gain her few

answers. She didn't happen to possess a scroll with the spell for interrogating the

dead. She needed to catch up with the spy and take the wretch alive.She read from  a scroll she did have, then  she stepped away from

tower into empty space.                    the top of the

t  empty for her.  The  air was as firm  as stone beneath her

soles. For two paces, she strode on a level surface, and, because she willed it so, Except that it wasn'

with no fear of blundering ofthe unseen platform  dipped into an equaf the edge.  Wherever she setlly invisible ramp. She sprinted down her  foot, the incline would be there to meet it. That was how the m

agic worked.

Her progress entirely silent, she dashed  unnoticed above the traitor'with a thought dissolved the support beneath her boots. Her crossbow rs head, then she

dropped the last few feet to the ground and landed in f        eady,ront  of  the spy.

liked to think she mStarted, the traitor jumped. Faeryl felt her own pang of surprise, for though she aintained a proper suspicion of everyone, in  truth, she  never

could have guessed the pinched, sour face she saw half hidden inside the close-drawn cowl could be the spy'

s.

"Umrae," the ambassador said, aiming her hand crossbow.

"My lady," the secretary answered, bending with her usual stiffness into an obeisance.

"I know all about it, traitor.  I'm  not pretending so was a trick to see who would slip away to play informactually planning to leave tonight. My

er."

"I don't know what you mean. I just wanted to buy some  items for the journey.

I thought that if I hurried over to the Bazaar, I could find one of those merchants who stays open late and be back before anyone mi