Storm of the Dead - Lisa Smedman [0]
The Lady Penitent 02 - Storm
of the Dead
A Forgotten Realms Novel
By
Proofread and formatted by BW-SciFi
Ebook version: 1.0
Release Date: December, 22th, 2008
PRELUDE
The sava board hung in a space between the planes, a bridge between the realms of two rival goddesses.
On one side was Lolth's realm-the Demonweb Pits-a blasted ruin of blackened rock, overshadowed by a dark sky the color of a bruise. Eight pinpoints of ruddy light shone down with a fitful glow, turning blood-red the spiderwebs that drifted on the wind. Souls drifted with them, their agonized screams and howls rending the air.
On the other side was Eilistraee's realm, a forest dappled with light and shadow. Thick branches screened the moon, the only source of illumination. It hung in the sky, unmoving, a blade-straight line bisecting its face. Half illuminated, half in shadow-like the moonstone fruits that hung from the branches below.
Songs drifted through the woods on which the half-moon shone: a multitude of duets. High, female voices paired with mid-range male voices. Yet some of the male voices had an edge. They sounded strained, pain-choked, as though forced to sing in a higher range than they were accustomed to. Other male voices droned in low bass, obstinately repeating the same phrase over and over: a melodic background at odds with the rest of the music.
Eilistraee's realm had once been a place of perfect harmony. It had grown larger, made stronger by a recent influx of souls. Yet that potency was the product of an uneasy compromise.
The goddess, too, had changed. Eilistraee stood naked, her ankle-length hair the only covering for her velvet-black skin. Her hair had once been uniformly silver-white but was streaked with black. Her twin swords floated in the air, one at each hip. One still shone silver bright, but the other had turned the color of obsidian. Across the lower half of the goddess's face was a faint shadow, a trophy of her recent victory: Vhaeraun's mask.
As Eilistraee waited for her opponent to move one of her sava pieces, a hint of red glinted in her otherwise moon-white eyes.
Lolth, seated on her black iron throne and currently wearing her drow form, smiled at the flash of irritation in her daughter's eyes. Instead of making the move she'd been contemplating, Lolth lifted a hand and watched, idly, as a spider spun a web between her splayed fingers. Other spiders scurried across her dark skin or nested in her long, tangled hair. One of these nests erupted like a boil as she dallied, releasing a cloud of tiny red spiders into the air. They drifted away on the wind, hair-thin strands of web trailing in their wake.
When the web between her fingers was complete, Lolth flicked the spider away and licked its spinnings from her fingers, savoring both the stickiness and her opponent's rising irritation.
"Patience, daughter." Her chiding voice reverberated with the echoes of her other seven aspects. "Patience. Just look where your brother's rash actions brought him to."
Lolth gestured. A window opened onto the Astral Plane. In the distance of that silver void, moldering fragments drifted: the body of a god, sliced to pieces by Eilistraee's swords. A fragment that might have been the head groaned faintly, then stilled.
Lolth feigned sadness as she stared at the corpse. "No redemption for him. Not now."
Eilistraee's jaw clenched. Beneath the shadow of her brother's mask, her lips were a thin line. But she would give her mother no satisfaction.
"Sacrifices are sometimes necessary," she said. "Vhaeraun gave me no choice."
Lolth waved her hand again, and the window closed. She stared across the sava board at Eilistraee, one eyebrow mockingly raised. "You're getting more like him, every day," she taunted. "Too 'clever' for your own good. It won't be long, now, before you make a similar mistake."
That said, she casually leaned forward and picked up one of her Priestess pieces. The piece-shaped like a drow female, but with a bestial face and eight spider legs protruding from its chest-cringed under her touch. Lolth