Elminster in Myth Drannor - Ed Greenwood [55]
Alaglossa turned her head and favoured the lady of House Lhoril with a look that had silent daggers in it; Phuingara merely smiled and asked, "Well? How was it?"
"You mean, you want to know what leaves our lords falling into pillars, giggling like younglings and hooting as they lie on the floor and try to shake hands with themselves?" Cilivren said suddenly, laughter in her voice. "Well, it tastes terrible!"
"You've drunk tripleshroom?" Phuingara asked, her voice incredulous.
Cilivren gave the Lady Lhoril a catlike smile and said, "Some lords don't leave their ladies out of all the fun."
All of the others, even the still-coughing Duilya, looked at the Lady Doedance as if she'd suddenly grown several extra heads.
"Cilivren," Duilya said in shocked tones, when she could speak again. "I would never have thought…"
"That's just the problem," snarled Ithrythra, "you never think!"
Mouths opened in shock all around the pool, but before Duilya could erupt in rage at this insult, the Lady Mornmist leaned forward, her eyes serious, and said into Duilya's face, "Listen, Lady Evendusk. How do you think Cormanthor chooses a Coronal? You can't wait for the excitement, you say? Would you feel that way if I told you that naming a new Coronal is likely to mean poisonings, duels in the streets, and mages working nights in their towers to send slaying spells at their rivals all over the city? Human or no human, Eltargrim an addle-brained idiot or not, do you want to die-or see your children slain, and feuds begun that will rend Cormanthor forever, and let all the humans into our city over our warring bones?"
She gasped for breath, fists clenched in aroused fear and rage, glaring at the four faces that were staring back at her. Couldn't they see?
"Gods watch over us all," the Lady Mornmist went on, in a voice that trembled, "I find the idea of a human walking our fair realm revolting. But I'd take that human for a mate if need be, and kiss and serve him day and night, to keep our realm from tearing itself apart!"
She clenched her fists, breast heaving, and almost shouted, "You think Cormanthor stands so splendid and mighty that none can touch us? How so? Our lords strut and sneer and tell tales of what heroics their fathers' fathers did, when the world was young and we fought dragons barehanded moon in and moon out. And our sons boast of how much bolder they'll be, and can't even down a flagon of tripleshroom without falling over! Every year the axes of the humans nibble at the edges of our fair forests, and their mages grow stronger. Every year their adventurers grow bolder, and fewer of our patrols pass through a season without losing blood!"
Alaglossa Tornglara nodded slowly, face white, as Ithrythra caught her breath, swallowed, and added in a whisper, "I don't expect to see the fair towers of our city still standing when I die. Don't any of you ever worry about that?"
In the silence that followed, she defiantly snatched up a full decanter of summermint and drained it, slowly and deliberately, while they all stared at her.
"Really," Duilya said, laughing uneasily, as they watched Ithrythra Mornmist, apparently unaffected by the wine, set aside the empty decanter and pick up another one to delicately refill her glass, "I think you indulge in wild fancies overmuch, Ithrythra-as usual. Cormanthor endangered? Come, now. Who can threaten us? We have the spells to turn any number of barbarians into-into more mushrooms for the making of sherry!"
She laughed merrily at her own jest, but her mirth fell away into thoughtful silence. She whirled around to confront Phuingara for support. "Don't you think so?"
"I think," Phuingara said slowly, "that we gossip and prattle the days away because we don't like to talk of such things. Duilya, listen to me now: I don't agree with everything Ithrythra fears, but just because no one speaks so openly, or we don't like to hear it, doesn't make her wrong. If you didn't hear truth in her words, I suggest you kiss her and ask her very nicely to repeat them again