Storm of the Dead - Lisa Smedman [13]
The slurping noises stopped. Lolth laughed-a gloating sound that was all Danifae. Halisstra felt herself gathered up off the floor by arms-drow arms-and cradled against a woman's chest. Lolth had assumed drow form. Despite the disparity in their sizes, she rocked Halisstra back and forth like an infant, one hand caressing the half-dissolved flesh of Halisstra's back as it slowly regenerated. Then she kissed Halisstra-a long, brutal kiss. The kind a matron would force on a House boy.
Halisstra tore her mouth away and retched.
Lolth stood, dumping her to the floor. "Weakling," she spat.
Halisstra hung her head. Even after nearly five years, the word still stung.
Lolth strode in a circle around the room, her arms extended. Webs stuck to her skin, covering the body that had once been Danifae's in a layer of overlapping white filaments. With a snap of her fingers, she summoned tiny red spiders. These scurried back and forth, weaving the webs into a long white gown. When they were done, the spiders dangled from the hem and cuffs in a living fringe.
Huddled on the floor, Halisstra watched the goddess out of the corner of her eye, not daring to say what she was thinking. Before her fall from grace, Lolth had been the Weaver of Destiny. The goddess needed the help of arachnids to construct so much as a simple garment. Everything Lolth touched turned into a tangled mess; every web Halisstra had seen her spin had been lopsided and asymmetrical. As skewed in their design as the restless and confused mind of the Queen of Spiders herself.
Halisstra felt the prickle of flesh knitting back together as her muscles grew into place, and the stretch of new skin spreading across her back. When she was strong enough, she rose to her feet and waited for the goddess to speak.
"Do you know why I summoned you to my chamber, Halisstra?"
"To feed?"
The goddess laughed. "More than that. Guess again."
Halisstra felt her pulse quicken. It had been almost two years, by her rough reckoning, since Lolth had sealed her inside a cell, deep within her iron fortress. In all that time, she had removed Halisstra from the cell perhaps a dozen times, in order to feed. What new torment did the goddess have in mind this time?
"You've taken me out because…" Halisstra paused, searching for the most unlikely of answers-something that would amuse the goddess."… because you've decided to set me free?"
Lolth spun and clapped her hands together. "Exactly!" she cried. "I'm sending you away from the Demonweb Pits."
Halisstra prostrated herself, hiding the thrill of anticipation she felt. "How am I to serve you, Mistress?"
"Serve me?" Lolth tossed her head. "Think again, mortal."
Halisstra hesitated, uncertain of the goddess's meaning. During the time she'd done penitence to the queen of the Demonweb Pits, she had come to know Lolth as well as any mortal could. Even so, she had no idea which twisted path Lolth's mind was walking now. Anything, however, would be better than being locked away-practically forgotten-in a cell.
That imprisonment, the goddess had explained, had been Halisstra's punishment for helping to kill Selvetarm, the demigod who had been Lolth's champion. He had been slain-in the Demonweb Pits-by a priestess of Eilistraee, the Darksong Knight Cavatina. When all had seemed lost, Halisstra handed Cavatina the sword that made Selvetarm's death possible.
Halisstra had expected to be commended by Lolth for her "cunning" in aiding the Darksong Knight. The Spider Queen had intended for her champion to be slain; that's what she'd wanted all along. She'd gloated about Selvetarm's death afterward-spoken with glee about how his priests had thrown down their temples and scuttled back to her, like flies to a web.
Then she'd imprisoned Halisstra.
"Where are you sending me, Mistress?" Halisstra asked.
Lolth laughed, her lips emitting a gout of spiders. Then she waved a hand. The iron-walled room disappeared.
Halisstra found herself standing next to Lolth on a featureless, wind-blasted plain illuminated by a pale yellow sun. She tasted salt