F O U R (8 page)

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

her daughter'Miz'ri fell silent, perhaps to gather her thoughts  nerves. Such petty, pointless attems, perhaps simply in

an effort to rattle

pts at intimidation were virtually areflex with her

.

Greyanna wondered if a servant had been  instructed to fetch her a chair for the

remainder of the interview.  It didn't look like it. That was typical ofher mother as well.

"Your brother  Pharaun  ..."  Miz'ri  said  at  last

.

Greyanna's  eyes opened wide. "Yes?" "I think it mi

The younger femght finally be time for the two of you to get reacquainted." ale held her scarred features calm  and comgood idea to show strong em              posed. It was rarely a

her that som        otion to anyone, particularly Mother. If you showed ething ma

so, Greyanna couldn' ttered to you, she would find a way to hurt you with it. Even She and her twin sister Sabal had loathet quite suppress a shiver of anticipation. d one another from  the cradle onward. Of

course, in the noble Houses of Menzoberranzan, rivalry between  sisters was expected and encouraged. Certainly Miz'ri

encouraged  it,  perhaps simply for her

own amusement. But for some  reason—perhaps it had something to do with the

fact that outwardly, they  were identical— her daughters'  enmeven her expectations. It was m             ity far transcended

ore bitter and mo

injure and thwart the other for its own sake at least as mre personal. Each yearned to uch as to imrelative standing in th                    prove her own

e family.

All but choking on their loathing of one another,  they fought a duel that lasteddecades and encompassed every facet of their existence, and graduall

y, on  everbattlefield, Greyanna began to prevail.  She sabotaged m          y

a

enhance the fortunes of House Mizzrym        ny of Sabal's plans to athat succeeded. By secretly tainting some of tnd found ways to take credit for those h

e sacred articles  in  this  very shrine,

she ensured that her twin's  public rituals would fail to produce even the feeblest

sign  that  the Spider  Queen  found her wo

Sabal'                rship acceptable. She sowed doubt about s competence  and loyalty in the ears of everyone who would listen.

hile Sabal

was seen as a dolt fit only for the simOver time, Greyanna rose to become her  mother's most valued aide, wplest  of tasks.  She  was  forbidden  the  use  of  her family'

s  more powerful magical artifacts, lest  she break them or  turn them  to some

ill-conceived purpose. From  kin to slave  warriors, any member of the household who might once have supported her aspirations shunned her as if she were

diseased. At that point, Greyanna could she'd  get  around  to  it          have killed her easily, and she expected

eventually,  but  Sabal's misery was so satisfying that  she  put  it

off.

Put if off until Pharaun came home from  Sorcere.

Before her little brother departed to Tierhim                   Breche, Greyanna had barely noticed

.  Of course, you didn't pay attention to young ma

enough to be put in charge of them. They     les unless you were unlucky about the house, cleaning, ever  cleaning, st  were the silent little shadows creeping

raining to  master  their inherent  magical

abilities, and learning thei

eyes—and whips—of their mr subordinate place in the world, ainders. As far as she could remll under the impatient emberbeen as cowed and pathetic as the rest.              , Pharaun had

The Academy transformed him  into something considerably more interesting, though, to say nothing of dangerous. Perhaps it was m

astering the formidable

powers of wizardry,  or maybe it was immeof m                 rsion in an enclave comprised entirely

ales, but somehow he emer

possessed of a sharp wit and glib tongue thged from his schooling polished, clever, and bold, at frequently danced him  up to the brink

Richard Lee Byers

20

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

of chastisement and safely back again.

Am

climbing higher than her current degraded esazingly,  he threw in with Sabal,  who had all but abandoned hope of ever tate. To  this day

explain his decision by positing a perverse and unnatural bond between them, Greyanna could only , but whatever his reasons, with the help of  Pharaun's ideas, advocacy

essayed new ventures, succeeded brilliantly         , and magic, Sabal ,  and began to scale the ladder of status

once more. She did so more  quickly than Greyanna could have im

family                           agined, and the came  once  more  to  regard the  twins as peers, equal in me      ise. A                            rit and prom

ccordingly, their private war resumed,  even more vicious and murderous than

before, but this time Sabal—say Pharaun, rather—proved a match for her.Greyanna tried to break the stalem

ate  by convincing Pharaun  to change sides.

precisely the samShe expected it to work, for after all, she and Sabal looked exactly alike and shared e  prospects. Why,  then, should the wizard not  throw  in with thestronge

r,  shrewder  sister  who had risen to the  top of House Mizzrym  without his

help?  Think  of  the  triumphs  they  could  accomplish

sickened by the prospect, she e         together!  Though  inwardly ven smiled lasciviously and offered him  the inducement she believed  Sabal had given him

.

Her brother laughed at her.  It was at that  instant that Greyanna came to hate himjust as savagely as she did her sister

.

Perhaps she owed him  a debt for his cutting mockery.to new heights of ingenuity, for it was        Conceivably,  it goaded her

stratagem  that would destroy Sabal.     shortly afterward that she hit on the

Sabal was leading the force endeavorA band of gray dwarves had been raiding ining to hunt the bandits dow the tunnels southeast of the city, and n.  Taking extraordinary measures, driving her agents, whether mortal, el

emental,  or  demoni

relentlessly                              c, ,  Greyanna located the duergar  in advance of her twin. Then came the hard part. She and her helpers had to abduct one of the slate-colored little m

ales

without the knowledge of his fellows, equip  him  with a platinum  amulet that her subordinate clerics, m

ages,

brief time, bind the m    and her personal  jeweler had created in an amazingly arauder with spells of  for

him  back among his friends.          getfulness and persuasion, and slip

Sabal found the duer ar two days later.  After her troops exterminated the

brigands, they looted the bodies and found the brooch, which was valuable, gbeautiful, and, as those wizards who were present soon discovered, conferred

several useful ma

from  a dead dwarf mgical abilities. It never ight constitute a trap laoccurred to Sabal that a treasure plundered id by a  sister  dark elf,  and she  ha

laid claim  to that portion of the spoils.                  ppily

From  that day forward, Sabal slowly, subtly sickened in body, mind, and spirit,

m

who meanwhile struggling pathetically to hide any appearance of weakness from all ight discern it and decide to exploit it  to kill her,  torment her

her rank. Which, of course, was pretty much everyone  in Menzoberranzan. ,  or strip her of

Perhaps he didn'Pharaun probably recognized her deteriorat even know she was constantly carrying an unusual new mtion, but he was unable to arrest it. adevice about her person. The curse that                 gical

threaded among all the benign enchantm was poisoning her,ents,          that lay insidiously made her cling to the amulet with an

obsessive fascination and fear that others  would steal it if she didn'

D                           t keep it hidden. uring  the several  months  of  Sabal's  malaise,  Greyanna  sometimes  wondered  if

Pharaun would ally himself with her if asked again. She didn't. She  just watched andwaited for her chance to finish Sabal off. She'd learned her lesson. No m

atter how

Richard Lee Byers

21

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

fortunes yet again. unlikely the possibility seemed, she would  not leave her twin alive to recoup her

was finding the situation inside oppressiveOne night, Pharaun left the castle, either  on some errand or simply because he . Later on, the suspicious, insomniac Sabal som

ehow slipped away  from  her guards and servants and began aimlessly

wandering the citadel on her own.   inions

where the topiarist had trimGreyanna and half a dozen of her m    confronted Sabal in the fungus garden, med the phosphorfertilized in som             escent growths into fanciful shapes,

e  cases with  the ripe, diced remains of  expired slaves.  Sabal's final

moments might have seemed pitiful, had Greyanna  been  susceptible to  that

crippling emotion. Her addled, desperate  twin tried to use the platinum  amulet against its m

aker,  but Greyanna dispelled its powers with a thought. Then Sabal

endeavored  to

or execute the gestures w cast a spell, but she couldn't recite the lines with the proper cadence Laughing, Greyanna and the other waylayerith the necessary precision. s closed in on their victim

, and thedidn't even have to strike a blow. Their m                  y

ere  proximity made Sabal  wail,  clutch  at  her

heart, and fall over dead as a stone. Weak to the last. For a second, Greyanna felt a bit cheated,  but she shook the feeling off. Sabal was

dead,  that  was the  main thing,  and with a  bit of luck,  she  would still have Pharaun to

torture.

Chanting words that sent  a cold, charnel breeze moaning through the garden, shereanimated Sabal's corpse. She  had use for it

, first as a lure then as an instrument ofhumiliation. She hoped that before hi

s extermination, her brother mi

spend one m                       ght be induced to ore tender  interlude with it. When Pharaun returned to House Mizzrym an hour later

,  his hair and garmentswere as immaculate as ever, but he reeked of wine a

nd  walked

weaving and excessively careful tread. Evidently he'd been drinking his troubles away with a slightly . Perfect.