F O U R (5 page)

Richard Lee Byers

11

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

scourge again, the vipers will allow their venom  to flow."

the chamberQuenthel stepped away from Gaussra, w

ho scrambled to her feet and ran from

.

"You all knew what was expected of you,'  she said to the rest of the novices, "but

you tried to sneak home anyway. In so doing, you have offered an affront to the Academ

y,  to your own families, to Menzoberranzan,  and to Lolth herself!""We just wanted to go for a little while,"  said Halavin Sym

rywin, who seemed to

carry half of her insignificant House's paltry wealth in the form  of the gaudy, gold

ornaments hanging about her person.  "We would have come back ".

Rearing, the whip vipers echoed the cry"Liar!" shouted Quenthel, eliciting a flinch. ."Liar!"

"Liar!"

"Liar!"

In other circumstances, Quenthel might  have sm

weapon. Many priestesses possessed a whip of fangs, iled, for shbut hers was se was proud of her omething

special.  The  snakes  were  venomous  and  likewise  possessed  a  demonic  intelligence  and

the power of speech. It was the last magical  tool  she'd crafted before  everythiturned to dung.                             ng

"Oh, you would have returned," she continued, "but only because your mothers

enough to cleave to the sacred traditions of would have sent you back or else killed you for shamMenzoberra ing them. They have sense nzan  even  if their  degenerateoffspring do not.

"Your mothers wouldn't mind if I slaughtered you, either. They'd  thank me for

wiping clean the honor of their Houses. But Lolth desires new priestesses, and,de

spite  all  appearances  to  the  contrary,  it  is  remotel

are worthy to serve. Therefore I will give      y  possible that one or two of you you one  more  chance.  You won't die  today.Inste

ad  you will sever  a  finger from  each of your hands and burn them  before the

altar of the goddess to beg her  forgiveness.  I'll  ring for a  cleaver  and a  cblock."                              hopping

Quenthel surveyed their stricken faces, enjoying the sickly, shrinking fear.  She would enjoy watching the actual m

utilations  as well. The most amusing part might

be  when  a  novice  had already cut one  hand,  and had to em

streaming blood, to m                 ploy it, throbbing and aim  the other . . ..

"No!"

Surprised by the outburst, Quenthel peered  to see who had spoken. The mass of

would-be  truants obliged  her by dividing in  the  center

fem                     ,  opening a  lane to the willowy ale standing in the back. It was Drisinil Barrison Del'Armgo, she of the sharp

nose  and  green  eyes,  whom Quenthel  had  from  the  first  suspected  of  instigatin  the

mass elopement. Somehow the long-legged  novice had smuggled a sizable daggerg  ,

more of a short sword really

guard.           , into the disciplinary session. She held it ready in a low Quenthel reacted as would any dark elf  in the same situation. She y

earned to

accept the challenge and kill the other female, felt the need like a  sensual tension pressing for an explosive release. Either  responding to her sur

ge  of emotion or else themselves vexed by Drisinil'

s temerity,  the whip vipers reared and hissed.

The problem  was that, despite  Quenthel'swere not altogether devoid of im       assertions to the contrary, the students

the Academy to be refined  and hamportance. They were the raw but valuable ore sent to mered into useful implements. No one would

Richard Lee Byers

12

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

fret over a few am

most  part,  their  ch

putated pinkies, but the  matron mothers did exild

ren  would  survive  their  education,

pect that, for the

an  assumption  the  idiot

Mizzrym  renegade had already called into question. True, Pharaun had only lost

males, but still, by any sensible reckoning, he had used up the school's quota of

allowable deaths for several years to come.

a scion of the powerful Barrison Del'At this juncture it would be a poor idea for Quenthel to kill any student, certainly Armbetween the Academ        go.  Quenthel didn't want to stir up discord

perched on the brink of dissolution. y and the noble Houses when Menzoberranzan already Besides, she was a bit concerned that the  other failed runaways might take it into

their heads to jump  into the fight on their ringleader's  side. Quenthel quieted the vipers with a thought,  fixed Drisinil with her st

eeliest stare,

and said, "Think." "I have thought," Drisinil retorted. "I'

v

of our lives cooped up on Tier Breche when there'e thought, why should we spend ten years s nothing for us here?""There is everything for you here," said Quenthel, m

aintaining the pressure ofher

gaze. "This is where you learn to be all  that a lady of Menzoberranzan  must  be." "What? What am I learning?"

"At the moment, patience and submission."

"That's not what I came for " .

currently playing a gam"Evidently not. Consider this, then. All the priestesses of Menzoberranzan are e, and the object of  the game  is to convince others thatnothing is amiss. If a student leaves Arach-Tinilith prematurel

y,  as  none  has everdone since the founding of the city, that will s

eem  peculiar,  a hint that all is not as it

ought to be." "Perhaps I don't care about the gam

e."

"Your mother does. She plays as diligently  as the rest of us. Do you think she

will welcome you home if you jeopardize her efforts?"

Drisinil's  emerald  eyes  blinked,  the  first  sign  that  Quenthel's  stare  was

h                                unsettling er  "I.   ...  yes,  certainly  she  would! "

"You, a traitor to your House, your city, your sex, and the goddess herself?"

"The goddess—" "Don'

t   t say it!" Quenthel snapped. "Or  your life ends, and your soul is bound to orment  forevermore.  I  speak  not  only  as  Mistress  of  Arach-Tinilith,  but  as  a

Baenre. You remember Baenre, Barrison Del'Armgo?  We  are  the  First House, and

you, merely the Second. Even if you seven if your gross and uncouth dam  should hould succeed in departing Arach-Tbe so unwise as to accept you back into inilith,

that hovel you Del'Armgo call a home, you will not survive the month. My sister T

riel, Matron Mother Baenre, will personally attend to your destruction."

It was no less than the truth. There was no love lost between the two Baenre

sisters, but when it came to maintaining the supremacy of their House, they supported one another absolutely

.

Drisinil swallowed and lowered her eyes a  hair. "Mistress, I mean no disrespect. Ijust don't want to m

utilate myself."

"But you will, novice, and without any further delay. You really have no otheroption . . . and isn't it convenient, you already have a knife in your g

rasp ".

into position to saw at her little fingerDrisinil swallowed again, and, her dagger hand shaking a little, brought the blade . Quenthel thought the procedure mieasier if the novice walked a few steps and braced her pinkie atop the nearby table, ght go

Richard Lee Byers

13

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

but apparently she was taking "without any  further delay" quite literally, and that

was  fine  with  the high  priestess.  In  her  imagination,  she  was         the

fi                          already  savoring rst  slice  when  a  blare  like  a  sour note  blasted from  a hundred glaur horns split the

air.

told what this ugly noise was but had expectFor an instant, Quenthel faltered, not  frightened but disoriented. She had been ed never to actually hear it. To  the best of her knowledge, no one ever had.

inhabitants of the Abyss. SomThe priestesses of Menzoberranzan enjoyed a complex relationship with the e  infernal  entities were the knights or handmaidens of Lolth, and during worship were venera

clerics did not scruple to snare spirits  with their sumted as such, but on other occasions the moning spells and com el them  to do their bidding. Som                     p

etimes the

their own volition, slaughtering any m  creatures stalked the physical plane of ortalthe drow, who were by som         who crossed their path, not excepting

e  accounts their kindred.

The founders of the Academy had shielded Tier Breche in general and ArachTinilith in particular with enchantments

the occupants saw fit to welcom    devised to keep out any spirit save those ed those  wards  impregnable,  but  if e. Countless generations the  ear-splitting     of priestesses had deem

alarm  told  true,  the  barriers  were

falling one by one. The blare seemed to be co

mi

forgotten, Quenthel ran in that direction ng from  the south. The pleasures of chastisement past  countless  chapels,  altars,  and  icons  of

gave instruction in dogmLolth in both her dark elf and spider forma, ritual, divine ms; past the classrooms where the faculty agic, torture, sacrifice, and all the other

arts  the  novices  needed  to  learn.  Thei

di                r books, chalkboards, and whimpering, half-ssected slave victims for

b           gotten, some of the teachers and students appeared on the rink of venturing out to investigate the  alarm,  while others still looked startled and