Daughter of the Drow - Elaine Cunningham [116]
As darkness approached, the drow began to emerge from their homes to go about the night's business. Most of the settlement's inhabitants were males: restless young nobles unhappy with their subservient role in traditional drow society, renegades from destroyed noble houses, ambitious warriors both noble and common who wondered why the drow did not yet rule all of the Underdark. They were all dark-clad in common garments, and as followers of Vhaeraun they practiced and celebrated the arts of stealth and thievery. Yet not one drow among them wore a piwafwi, and the changing of guards at the watchtowers was accomplished by ladders rather than levitation, for they had lost their heritage of natural magic. The drow were not what they once had been, but they were still to be feared.
There were few females in the village, and of them only two were drow. One of the Masked God's main directives was to increase the drow race, particularly on the surface. And so, unlike most drow, Vhaeraun's people sought contact with other elves. Children of such unions tended to breed toward drow. Taking a long view, it was one way to eradicate the pale races of elves!
Nisstyre took his god's instructions one step further: he kept a small harem of surface elves in the settlement. It was not ideal-Vhaeraun indicated there should be equality between males and females-but it was proving effective. With the coming of night, the village's children were awakening. They ran about in play, staging mock battles and elaborate games of stealth and ambush. There was not a full drow among them, but most of the ebony-skinned elflings were as drow in appearance and temperament as any child of Menzoberranzan. There were among them a couple of black-haired, pale-skinned elf children, even a dusky half-drow lad. The boy was tolerated in the community, for Vhaeraun was not averse to a little human blood in his followers. It was a matter of necessity, for few drow females were willing to follow the Masked God into the Night Above.
Not that any of the village females were all that devout. Most of them were silver elves, and without exception the elf-women were wretched outcasts who for one reason or another had no other place to call home. It was, Nisstyre acknowledged, hardly an auspicious way to begin a kingdom.
Yes, the lack of drow females was a problem, one Nisstyre planned to end. With the inducement of Liriel's magic, he could entice more of the proud and powerful females into the
Night Above. Drow tended to be far more prolific than other elves, and only their constant, incestuous warfare kept their numbers low. Once the drow became a united people, their strength would quickly reach nightmare proportions.
With this pleasant thought in mind, Nisstyre gathered together a band of hunters and summoned the settlement's ranking priest, a drow of middle years known only as Henge. The cleric made cautious comment on the ruby glowing in the center of Nisstyre's forehead.
"A third eye," Nisstyre said casually. "A wizardly device. You need not concern yourself with it." The priest looked doubtful but did not press the point.
"You must travel swiftly through the night toward the village of Trollbridge. Not to pillage," Nisstyre added swiftly, noting the fierce smiles on every face. "Travel to the hills surrounding the human village and search there for a lone drow female."
"Find a single drow, in that network of caves?" balked the priest.
"It should not be a difficult task. From what I know of Liriel Baenre, I cannot imagine her content with a hermit's life in some remote cave. She is armed with considerable magic and will be extremely difficult for the humans to capture and kill. I would prefer, of course, that you find her before she finds the humans. You will know her by an amulet she wears: a small golden dagger in a rune-carved sheath that hangs from a gold chain."
As he spoke, Nisstyre reflected upon how little prepared Liriel-or any female