Elminster in Myth Drannor - Ed Greenwood [56]
And with those words, the Lady Lhoril turned and began to climb out of the pool, leaving a sombre silence in her wake.
"Wait!" Alaglossa said, catching at one of Phuingara's wet wrists. "Stay!"
The Lady Lhoril turned blazing eyes upon her hostess, and said softly, "Lady, by all you hold dear, pray make your case for handling me good."
The Lady Tornglara nodded curtly. "Ithrythra's right," she said earnestly, leaning forward. "This is too important to just pass off as an awkward moment, and go on joking and sparring and watching as the city comes to blows over this human. We must work on our lords to keep the peace, telling them over and over again that a mere human isn't worth unseating the Coronal, and drawing blades, and starting feuds."
"My lord never listens to me," Duilya Evendusk said in a tragic whisper. "What can I do?"
"Make him listen," Cilivren told her. "Make him notice you, and pay heed."
"He only does that when we're…" "Then, dearest," Phuingara told her in a voice that cut like a whip, "it's time you got a little better at turning your lord to your will. Alaglossa, you were right to keep me from storming off; we've work to do right here. Do you have any tripleshroom sherry?"
The Lady Tornglara stared at her in surprise. "Why, yes," she said, "but why?"
"One of the few ways I can think of that would win the respect of Lord Evendusk," the Lady Lhoril said crisply, "when he's groaning of a forenoon because of what he's drunk the night before-and cursing at his sons because of what they broke the night before, raging and giggling; you did have to choose a prize oaf, didn't you, Duilya?-is to snatch up a full bottle of that sherry, drink it down in front of him, and then sit there not roaring or staggering about. While he's gaping at his gentle lady turned lion, you can tell him off good and proper, and announce that you see no need for all the roistering."
"And then what?" Duilya said, face white at the very thought of facing down her lord.
"And then you could drag him off to bed in front of the whole household," Phuingara said firmly, "and tell him that drinking every night's no excuse for stumbling about like an idiot, making a mockery of the honor of the House, while you're neglected."
There was a moment of silence, and then laughter began around the pool-low at first, but then rising swiftly as the full import of Phuingara's words hit home.
It was Cilivren who stopped first. "You want us to practice drinking tripleshroom sherry until we can drain a bottle without showing it? Phuingara, we'll die." She winced. "I mean it; that stuff burns the in-sides like fire!"
The Lady Lhoril shrugged. "So we'll master it enough to down a few glasses without tears or trembling, and work up a spell, just for ourselves, that'll turn what passes our lips to water as we down it. It's the respect we're after, not to drown our worries about the realm the way our lords do. Why d'you think they drink the way they do? They've seen what Ithrythra has, and just don't want to face it."
"So I get my Ihimbraskar up to the bedchamber, after humiliating him in front of the entire household," Duilya said in a small voice, "and what then? He'll strike me silly, toss my bones out the window, and go seeking a new and younger lady in the morn!"
"Not if you sit him down and give him the same blazing words Ithrythra gave us," Alaglossa told her. "Even if he doesn't agree, he'll be so astonished at your thinking about such things, that he'll probably argue with you like an equal-whereupon you tell him that such disputes are precisely what you're for, and then take him to bed."
Duilya stared at her for a moment, and then started to laugh wildly. "Oh, Hanali bless us all! If I thought I had the strength to carry it through…"
"Lady Evendusk," Ithrythra said formally, "would you mind terribly if the four of us were linked to you with a spell or two, to-ah, assist with the words you need, at the awkward moments?"
Duilya gaped at her, and then looked slowly around the pool. "You'd do that?"
"We all might