Daughter of the Drow - Elaine Cunningham [53]
That, of course, was the tricky part. To fortify her resolve, Liriel imagined what was likely to take place a few hours hence. The spell she'd cast would obscure the gem for several hours, giving Shakti ample time to take her accusations and her scrying globe to Mistress Zeld. The scene that would be revealed when the sphere of darkness faded would very likely be different than the one the Hunzrin priestess anticipated.
Liriel smiled dreamily as she visualized Shakti's expression of triumph transform into one of chagrin-and panic. She did not envy Shakti the task of explaining how and why she had intruded thus upon the privacy of Mistress Mod'Vensis. Doing so would take a much nimbler tongue than Shakti possessed!
With that pleasant thought to sustain her, Liriel crouched low and waited. The unusual silence behind the Tlabbar priestess's door suggested the evening's festivities had yet to begin.
Soon enough, a handsome young fighting student crept down the halls toward Mod'Vensis's door. Liriel wondered briefly if there was any truth in the rumor that the Tlabbar females brewed a potion that incited passionate devotion in any male who imbibed it. A good idea, Liriel supposed, if one lacked the time and talent for more conventional seduction. The behavior of the young male seemed to support the rumor, for his manner as he hurried toward the meeting with his mistress displayed more ardor than discretion.
The male moved to the door and began to tap out some elaborate code. Liriel drew her piwafwi more tightly around her to help muffle her heat shadow. She flexed her fingers a few times to limber them up, then crept in closer. With the stealth she had learned from her maid-an enslaved halfling pickpocket-she tucked the scrying gem into the cuff of the male's boot. The door opened, and female hands bedecked with a lethal manicure and a fortune in gems reached out and yanked the male into the room.
Smiling broadly, Liriel hurried back to her own room. Using a thin-«dged knife as a tool, she quickly replaced Shakti's lock with her old one. Then she closed her door and set a simple alarm of her own: a small pyramid of drinking goblete stacked against the door. It would not be as effective as a magical ward, obviously, but if anyone tried to push open the door, the noise would at least draw some unwanted attention!
One thing remained to be determined: her destination. Liriel took Gromph's spellbook from her pouch and dropped it open on her study table. Feeling reckless and nearly giddy with the thought of freedom, she closed her eyes and stabbed her finger downward to choose the spell she would cast. She looked down and quickly clasped a hand to her mouth to hold back a shriek of pure elation. Tonight, she was going to the surface. Liriel spoke the word of power that brought Kharza-kzad's gate into existence. She leaped through, landing in a crouch in her tutor's suite of rooms in Spelltower Xorlarrin. Kharza was not in his study at this hour, but she followed the soft, grating sound of the wizard's snores into his bedchamber.
Not all dark elves slept, but Kharza was obviously one who did. A few drow still took their rest in the form of elven reverie, a type of wakeful meditation. With each passing century, those drow dwindled in number. The dark elves, no long able to find peace within themselves, needed the oblivion of true sleep in order to rest. That was fine with Liriel, for it was much easier to track down someone who snored than someone who merely dreamed.
She soon found the bedchamber and jumped onto her tutor's bed. Kneeling over the wizard, she seized his bed-shirt with both hands and shook him awake. Kharza came out of his unelven reverie sputtering and disheveled, and he immediately groped about for some sort of weapon.
Liriel shook him again, and at last his eyes focused on his attacker. His panic melted, and exasperation flooded his