F O U R (64 page)

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

I won't be able to speak at all."

"How is it," Syrzan asked, "that you The mages began stroll along side by came looking for my associates and mside. The atmosphere felt quite congenial.e?"

When he was finished, thPharaun explained. He didn'e illithilich said, "Yt see how it could do any harm.ou couldn'sort of power

."                    t wield my particular

"I understand that now. You enthrall combination of wizardry and        the undercreatures through a deft master the latter      mind flayer arts, and I lack  the innate capacity to

.  What'spriestesses'  difficulties." Pharaun cock more,  you conspirators know  nothing about the Eich."               ed his head. "Or perhaps you do, Master know what'"No," said Syrzan, its mouth tentacles s happened but not why."   coiling and twisting. "Eike the others, I said, "My sister Sabal once told m"So none of what I sought was ever  here for the finding." Pharaun laughed and e  that a clever drow's  wits can lead him  into follies no dunce would dare to undertake . . . but that's  blood down the gutter.

What  of you?  What  in the  wide  world prompted  a  creature  such  as  yourselftothrow in with a band of Menzoberranyr malcontents?""You seek information you can use against me."

"Well

,  partly  ..." Pharaun  had  to  pause  for  a  second when a wave of psionic force from  one of the larger pools dizzied  him  and threatened to wash his own thoughts away. "In the unlikely event I'm  ever afthough, I'                   forded the chance. Mostly, m  just curious. You're a mage. Surely we share that trait  even  if  little else."than would a drow'Syrzan shrugged, the narrow shoulders  beneath its faded robes hitching higher s .

"Well," the alhoon said, "I suppose it can  do no harm  to enlighten you, and it'sbeen a long while since I've had the opportunity to converse with a colleague of genuine ability. Not that you're my  equal—no elf or dwarf could ever be—butyou're several cuts above any of Houndaer's  allies.""Your kind words overwhelm

me."

The two wizards stepped onto a bridge,  a crooked limone of the briny pools.               estone span arching over

"Dark elves will abide a lich," the alhoon said, a brooding note entering itsmusical and almost certainly artificial voice. "Illithids won'hate the idea of sorcery                t. By and large, they constitute our birthright. Still, th,  a foreign discipey'll tolerate a limline as potent as the psionic skills that ited number of
 
mortal
 
magesthose of us drawn to wizardry despite the stigm               ,a, for the advantages we bring. Butthe thought of undying wizards enduring  for mthe while, terrifies them."           illennia, amassing arcane power "So on the day you achieved your immortyour homeland forever           ality," Pharaun said, "you forsook ,  or at least until the day when you could conquer it ".The two maan expanse of warmges stopped at the highest poi, briny fluid. Pharaun noticed that the stufnt on the bridge and looked out over f rippled andflowed sluggishly, as if it was thicker than water

.

"Indeed," Syrzan said. "I hoped to manage my  departure circumspectly, butsomehow  the folk of Oryndoll sensed  my  metamorphosis. For decades,  they hunted me  like an animal, and I existed like one in the wilds of the Underdark.

Those times were hard. Even the undead crave the comforts of civilization.

Finally Oryndoll forgot me or  gave up on me. That was  an improvement, but still

Richard Lee Byers

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War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

I had no home."

"I've heard," said  Pharaun,  "that one  or  two  secret enclaves of  illith-iliches exist. Didn't you search for one?"mif"I searched for ninety years and found fed that its prisoner had jumped ahead in the storone," Syrzan replied,  sounding slightly y.therein but I quarreled with the eldestleaders of the rest. I conducted certain inve alhoons, who considered themselves the "For a time, I dwelled and timidity, forbidden."         stigations they had, in their ignorance The Master of Sorcere laughed and said, "If you can't  find it in your heart—assuming  an  illithilich  retains the organ—to  consider us  equals, you  must at leastconcede we're kindred spirits. You weren't angling for the Sarthos demon, were you?""No,"  said  Syrzan  curtly  "S.  uffice  it  to  say that  if  not  for  some  bad luck,  I would flee into the wilderness, a have usurped the place of the solitary wanderer once more."eldest lich of all, but as matters fell out, I had to

Pharaun noticed the air in"Surely you found someone to enslave." the dream cavern had grown cooler. Perhaps it  wasresponding to its maker's somber reflections.troglodytes there. I used them, used th"I found small encampments," Syrzan said. "A family of goblins here, a dozen infested with a handful of  brutes could give me what I em up, each in its  turn, but no little hole a teeming city, full of splendors and luxuries, over which I would rule, and from truly craved. I yearned for powers."which I could conquer an empire. But the taking of such exceeded even my couldn'"Or mine," Pharaun said, "hard as that  is to credit. So, lusting for what you ofthem, anywayt have, you spied on the cities of  the Underdark, didn't you, or one. Y"Yes," Syrzan said, "I'ou kept your eye on Menzoberranzan."vcabal of renegade males some forty ye watched your ears ago. More recentlypeople for a long while. I discovered the , I observed thepriestesses' debility; no mere dark elves  could hide such anfrom an observer with my talents. I  remembered the woul enormous change d-be rebels and and ofarranged for them to make the same difered them my services."    scovery, then I emerged from the shadows our collaborators are drow, and you're, if you'll pardon my bluntness, a member of an infe"Why?" Pharaun asked. "Y      rior species. Jumped up vermin, really.You don't expect Houndaer and the boys to  honor a pact with you once  the  prize  iswon? Dark elves don't even keep faith with one another ".

"Fortunately, the prize won't be won for decades, and during those years, I'll be rulership of the citysubtly working to impose my will on my associates. Long before they assume the "I see. The fools have , I'll be ruling them."never conquer from the outsigiven you your opening, and  now that which you could of compulsion farther and  fartherde you'll subjugate from within, extending the web mind-slaves marching to your drum.",  one assumes, until all Menzoberranyr are

"Y"Obviouslyou probably also know that we prefer to , you understand the  fundamentals of illithid societydine on the brains of lesser sentients ," said Syrzan. and that we share your own race's fondness for torture. Still, some of your folk will fare all right. I can't eat or flay
everyone,
 
can I?"

I ask, do these stone-burni"Not unless you want to ng fire bombs come from?"wind up a king of ghosts and silence. And where, may

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War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

"Menzoberranzan isn't the only drow city  possessed of ambitious males ",  the

illithi-lich said.

Pharaun was momentarily speechless. Another drow city—"Now, it's your turn to satisfy my curiosity," Syrzan said, interrupting th

e

drow's reverie.

"I live for the opportunity.""When Houndaer and the others explained our scheme, did you sinc

erel

consider joining us?"                          yPharaun grinned and said, "For  about a quarter of a second."

"Why did you reject the idea? You're no more faithful or less ambitious thanany other drow."

to Gromph?" The slender dark elf spr"Or illithid, I'll hazard. Why then did I remain firm in my resolve to betray you ead his hands. "So maI'                          ny reasons. For one,

have our own tacit hierarchym a notable wizard, if I do say so myself, and in Menzoberranzan we mages .that. Should I rise to the top, it will make In recent years, I've channeled my aspirations into

me  a  personage  nearly  as  exalted  as  a

high priestess."Syrzan flipped its tentacles, a gesture that conveyed impatience, and a fl

ake of

skin fell off. Unlike the slimy hide of  living mind flayers, the lich's flesh was

cracked and dry."The renegades are trying to place themselves
 
above
 
th

e  females "  t,  he  undead

creature said.

"I understand that, but I doubt it'll work  out the way they plan, or even the

way you
"You believe the priestesses are too formidable, even divested of their splan."

pells?""Oh, they're powerful. They may well  extinguish this little cabal. Y

et for the

moment, I'm more concerned about the undercreatures. Do you realize how

them, or how dangerous your stone-consumimany goblins there are, how fervently they hated us even before you maddened ng fire is? It could be that after

they  riot,  we  won't  have  a  Menzoberranzan  left  for  anyone  to  rule."

"Nonsense. The ores will have their hour, and your people will butcher them."

Pharaun sighed. "That's  what folk  keep telling me. I wish your consensus

comforted me, but it doesn't. That's  one  of the drawbacks  of knowing  yourself

shrewder than everybody else.""I assure you, the ores cannot prevail."

"At the very least, they'll destroy some

founders sculpted from the living rock, a   of the lovely architecture the future generations of thralls. Your schem nd they'll set a defiant example for

e  will harm  not merely the priestesses

but Menzoberranzan itself, and I disapprove of that. It's  sloppy and inept.  Only a fool mars the very treasure he'

s

A sneer in its tone, Syrzan said, "I wouldn' striving to acquire."t have taken you for a patriot "."Odd, isn't it? I'll tell you something  even stranger. In my way

,  I'm also adevout child of Lolth. Oh, it's never kept me from pursuing my own e

nds—

personal preeminence, I would never seek even past the point of murdering a priestess or two—but though I strive for to topple the entire social  order  sheestablished. I certainly wouldn'

under the rule of a lesser creature."t conspire to place her  chosen people and city

"Even gods die, drow. Perhaps Lolth  is no more. If Menzoberranzan is indeed the mortal realm she loves bes

"A test? A punishment? A whim? Who t, why else would she abandon you?"can say? But I doubt the Spider Queen

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