Daughter of the Drow - Elaine Cunningham [154]
A murmur of dismay rippled through the room. "We haven't the numbers to bring against such a foe. How should we fight a dragon?" said Elkantar in dismay.
Suddenly Liriel remembered a promise she'd made not long ago, without much thought or sincerity. With a crafty smile, she turned to the commander. "Give me two hours, and Til show you how! Fyodor, I need the spellbook you've been carrying for me, and Qilue, may I have access to the temple's store of spell components? I need to adapt a known spell to create a new dimensional door. If someone has a spell scroll for a sending, so much the better. It'll save me a trip back into the Underdark."
"The Underdark!" The high priestess, leaned forward and fixed a penetrating gaze upon Liriel. "I think you ought to explain."
The girl smiled into Qilue's concerned face. "What better way to fight a dragon," she said slyly, "than with another dragon?"
The city of Skullport was a trading center unlike any that flourished in the light of the sun. There, in a cavern far below the ports and streets of Waterdeep-deeper even than the bottom of the sea-merchants from dozens of races gathered to ply their trade. No race, no matter how powerful or rapacious, was denied access to the city's ports, and no cargo was considered too illegal, immoral, or risky. Rules of "safe ground" made trade between enemies possible; however, intrigue, even small-scale, outright warfare, was part of daily life. Few denizens of Skullport cared to intervene in the quarrels of others. In the case of the more deadly races-such as beholders, illithids, and drow-the city's residents were more than happy to look the other way. And if two drow females-one of whom was a purple-skinned, button-nosed elf with round, faintly reptilian eyes-wanted to indulge in a round of wild tavern-hopping, no one felt compelled to comment.
"Slow down, Zip," Liriel cautioned her companion, eatch-ing the purple wrist while the goblet was still south of the female's lips. The purple "drow" had downed enough wine to put away an entire battalion of dwarves, and Liriel had little desire to set a drunken dragon loose upon Skullport.
Zz'Pzora pouted, but the sparkle in her round eyes didn't diminish in the slightest. The dragon-in-drow-form was having a wonderful time in this marvelous cesspool of a city. Gorgeously clad in a gown and jewels borrowed from Iljrene, supplied with coins that bought her an astonishing variety of high-potency libations, the dragon was free to wander at will among races who, in the Underdark, would have either fled from her or tried to destroy her. The deep dragon-mutated by the Underdark's strange magic, cursed with two heads and conflicting personalities-had lived most of her life in enforced isolation. When Liriel's magical message came to Zz'Pzora's grotto, the dragon's flighty, left-headed persona seized the chance to mingle with other races, to indulge in adventure and revelry; the practical, more traditionally minded right head kept a firm eye on the promised share of another dragon's hoard. In the hours since she'd emerged from Liriel's portal into the Promenade, the dragon's dual voices had spoken as one. Even Zz'Pzora's drow form, which boasted a single head, seemed to symbolize the creature's rare unity of mind and purpose.
At the present moment, the dragon and the drow reclined on ale-stained couches in a ramshackle tavern known as the Grinning Gargoyle. True to its name, the taproom boasted scores of the ugly, winged stone statues,.perched on every lintel and rafter. Liriel suspected any one of them could take flight at will. Considering the caliber of patron, she'd almost consider this an improvement. The tavern was teeming with rough-mannered dark elves: commoners, former soldiers, riffraff of all kinds.
Zz'Pzora gestured with her goblet to one of several drow standing near the hearth. "That's him. The one they're calling Pharx. Look at his eyes."
Liriel squinted. The male's eyes were red, like those of most drow, but when the firelight hit them just so, she could