Daughter of the Drow - Elaine Cunningham [86]
At that moment Liriel dropped her pick to the rocks below and began to painstakingly peel away the layers of rock with her hands and a knife. Zz'Pzora flinched at the metallic crash of mithril meeting stone.
"That could very well have been us, you know," the right head pointed out.
I'm hurrying," Liriel assured the dragon. The drow was well aware of the precarious nature of her situation. She wished she could have brought Kharza along to aid her work with spells of levitation, but the fretful old wizard would likely have died of fright during the trip. Water-running was not a sport for the timid.
Liriel could have floated up to the Banshee's Needle under her own power, but doing so would have exhausted her ability to levitate for the rest of the day. The drow still had to make the long trip up the shaft, and she had to rely on Zz'Pzora to hoist her up. It was not unlikely that the dragon, in a fit of pique, might "accidentally" lose her grip on the rope. So Liriel clung to the dragon's purple neck with one hand as she tapped away at the wall of glowing rock.
Suddenly brilliant blue light bathed the grotto-the Banshee's Needle was free of its rocky sheath. The drow worked even more quickly now, for neither her light-sensitive eyes nor her dragon helper could take much more of this. She carefully inserted the tip of her knife under the exposed sliver of stone and pried it loose. The amulet hung ready about her neck; she dropped the glowing bit of stone. into the sheath and quickly twisted the dagger-hilted chisel back into place.
"Got it!" she exulted. "Let's go down."
Tiamat be praised!" grumbled the dragon, both heads joining in unison in an oath invoking the god of dragons.
The creature swept down toward the cavern floor and skidded to a grateful stop.
Liriel slid off the dragon's shoulders and began to gather, up her magical items. If the renewed glitter of her piwaftui was any indication, her things had more than regained the magic they'd lost in her two moonlit visits Above. And so soon! Usually a new item needed to bask in such sites of power for years in order to become imbued with magic; an item whose magic had been lost completely needed at least a year to regain potency. For the first time, Liriel felt truly confident her plan would work.
"Now what?" the right head inquired. "After all the trouble we've gone through to get that thing, you could at least tell me what you plan to do with it."
I'm going on a long journey, Zz'Pzora," Liriel said happily.
"Good!" huffed the dragon heads in unison. The purple creature settled back on her haunches and folded her arms across her chest in an oddly elven gesture. "You're much more trouble than you're worth," her right head added caustically.
The drow raised a single eyebrow. "And I'll miss you, too," she returned with equal warmth. "But I won't be making the trip for some time, not until I've finished my training at Arach-Tinilith. As a high priestess, HI have the power and status HI need to come and go as I please."
"In that case, you'll be coming again soon?"
Liriel shook her head. "I'm sorry, Zip, but I don't dare leave the Academy again. PI! come to see you as soon as my training is finished."
"Hmmph."
Zz'Pzora pouted. There was no other word for it. The sulky expression looked a bit out of place on the scaly, fearsome faces of the purple dragon, but Liriel found it rather endearing.
"The years will pass quickly, you'll see; my training and my journey will soon come to an end. When I return, would you like me to bring you something from the Lands of Light?" she wheedled, thinking that perhaps naming her destination would lift Zz'Pzora from her dark mood.
The dragon's reptilian eyes-all four of them-widened in surprise. A crafty smile spread across the left head's face.
Until now, the practical right head had dominated the dragon's words and actions, but finally something had ignited the interest of the dragon's flightier half.
"Yes," the head said, and the decisive tone sounded odd in its chirpy,