Storm of the Dead - Lisa Smedman [1]
"Not yet, my love," Lolth whispered, her breath heavy with spider musk. "Not yet."
The demonic Warrior piece stilled. Its wings folded back against its body. The flames turned a dull red, then vanished.
Eilistraee, studying the board, spotted a path along its web-shaped lines that would allow her to capture the piece that had just stirred. She could do it with one of her Priestess pieces. Taking out Lolth's Warrior would involve several preparatory moves, some of them risky feints, but ultimately the Priestess piece could move into a position where it could strike the Warrior from behind.
As Eilistraee made the first of those moves, a ripple formed at the place where her domain met Lolth's. Both goddesses started and looked up from their game. Eilistraee's perfect nose crinkled at the scent that seeped from the ripple as it solidified into a dark crack-a sickly sweet odor, laden with millennia of dust and ash-the scent of death.
A voice whispered from the crack between the domains. It had the sound of something produced by vocal cords long since gone tight and dry. "You play… without me?"
A burst of cackling laughter followed. It danced at the edge of madness, then was gone.
Eilistraee's and Lolth's eyes met across the board.
"Kiaransalee," Eilistraee whispered.
Lolth cocked her head in the direction of the disturbance and raised one eyebrow. "Shall we let her join our game?"
Eilistraee gave careful thought to the question. Kiaransalee, goddess of vengeance and queen of the undead, hated Lolth as much as Eilistraee pitied her. The once-mortal necromancer queen had, after her ascension to demigod status, joined Lolth's assault on Arvandor, but her fealty to the Spider Queen was fitful and forced. Since Lolth's assumption of Moander's hegemony of rot, death, and decay, Kiaransalee had smoldered with jealousy-and had lashed out in anger more than once against her former ally. If Kiaransalee entered the game, Lolth would have to watch her back.
"On whose side would you play?" Eilistraee asked.
"Neither side," Kiaransalee croaked. Another cackle of laughter burst from the gap between realms: a dry sound, like bones rattling in a cup. "I'll play against both of you at once."
Eilistraee nodded. She'd expected this. Kiaransalee knew that Eilistraee and Lolth would never unite their forces. And her hatred of both of them ran deep. Eilistraee felt certain it would be a three-way game to the bitter end.
Lolth swept a hand over the board and its hundreds of thousands of pieces, and spoke to Kiaransalee. "What use have you for the drow, banshee? Have you suddenly developed a taste for the living?" She scoffed. "I thought you preferred to line your bed with the husks of the soulless. After all… who else would have you?"
Inarticulate rage boiled out of the crack between realms. Abruptly, it switched to wild, mocking laughter. "Spider Queen," it burbled. "Who else would have you, but insects?"
Lolth reclined lazily on her throne. "You betray your ignorance, banshee," she retorted. "Spiders are not insects. They are creatures unto themselves. Arachnids."
A pause, then," 'Arachnids' they may be, but they squish just as messily as insects."
Fury blazed in Lolth's coal-red eyes. "You wouldn't dare," she hissed.
"I just did," Kiaransalee gloated. "Squish. Squish squish." A babble of taunting laughter followed. "Aren't you sorry now, for yanking my domain into yours?"
Eilistraee interrupted the tirade. "Let her play."
Lolth looked up sharply. Her eyes bored into Eilistraee's for several moments. Then her gaze drifted to the sava board. She pretended to look at it idly, but Eilistraee could tell that Lolth was studying the pattern of pieces intently. The Spider Queen wasn't