Storm of the Dead - Lisa Smedman [80]
She'd portaled to the Moondeep, where Q'arlynd had spotted her. Not surprisingly, he hadn't recognized his own sister. Halisstra wandered the mine tunnels, somewhere between the Moondeep and the spot where the party rested.
Cavatina would have ordered a search for Halisstra, but Qiluй had forbidden it. Eilistraee herself had warned the high priestess that Halisstra had some part to play in the attack on the temple-a role that might be disrupted if too many knew she was there. Cavatina had to trust in the goddess, to let Halisstra find her own path in the dance.
It rankled Cavatina, but an order was an order. A Darksong Knight always did her duty.
One thing was certain. The longer Cavatina and the others lingered there, the better the chance Halisstra would blunder into them. Knowing that, Cavatina had ordered the two priestesses guarding the shaft that was this tunnel's only access point to contact her with a sending at once if they spotted anything resembling a demon, and not to engage it in combat themselves-to let her, the party's only Darksong Knight, deal with any demons.
Cavatina turned to the human mage. "Daffir. Anything yet?"
Daffir leaned on his staff, eyes closed. "Mazeer and Telmyz are in a cavern."
"The Acropolis?"
"No," Daffir opened his eyes. "That much, at least, I am certain of. Had they reached it, the name Thanatos would have rung through my mind like a tolling bell."
"Are they still underwater?" Kвras asked.
Daffir shook his head. "That, I cannot tell."
Cavatina struggled to keep her frustration in check. "Keep trying," she told the wizards. She turned to walk back to the spot at the bottom of the shaft, where the others had set up a fortified position, but Kвras caught her arm. "Telmyz is dead," he told her. "This was the wrong way to go."
Cavatina rounded on him. "We don't know that."
"Yes we do. The prayer that allowed him to breathe water would have elapsed long ago. If he's still submerged, he's dead."
"Then we'll recover his body. Return him to the Promenade, where he can be resurrected."
Kвras made a dismissive gesture. "That's not worth the cost."
Cavatina was inclined to agree, for different reasons. Yet her duty was clear. "Our numbers are small. We can't afford the loss of even one of Eilistraee's faithful."
"Precisely," Kвras said. "Which is why we should abandon this route and go another way. You heard the reports of the search teams. There's a veritable labyrinth of passages down there. Trying to figure out which one leads to the Acropolis-if any even do-might take days. We should take a route that we know leads to the Acropolis. One that won't cost us any more lives."
"This is our way in," Cavatina said. "The Crones will be watching the other entrances."
"You said Mazeer mentioned a skull. Even if she did find the 'back door' the deep gnomes told you about, it may not be such a secret any more."
"He's right," Gilkriz said, stepping closer. "And the longer we sit here, the more likely we'll be discovered. What if your svirfneblin 'allies' were lying entirely, and this is nothing but a dead-end? I don't want to be trapped down here."
Cavatina stared down at him. "You'd abandon Mazeer?"
Gilkriz unfolded his arms and tugged at his gold sleeves, straightening them. Despite immersion in the Moondeep, his clothes were impeccable. "If she's dead, yes." He nodded at the Faerzress. "Solving our problem as quickly as possible is what's most important."
Cavatina glared at him. But she had to admit that Gilkriz was right. So was Kвras.
"I've made up my mind," she told them. "We'll go in another way. One of those other entrances Kвras is so fond of."
His mask hid the smirk she knew was there.
"But we stay together."
The smirk disappeared