Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [161]
Slipping quietly from the waves was a small army of sea folk. Fyodor recognized Xzorsh by his short-cropped green hair. Behind the ranger were perhaps a hundred sea elves, and a score or so of strange, silver-green beings, manlike but for the legs that ended in flippers rather than feet.
These picked their way carefully among the rocks, heading for the ruins of inthar.
Fyodor suddenly realized that the banshee's cry had been silenced. The portal the creature had spoken of, through which no living thing could pass, must have somehow been opened. Liriel meant to lead t~his army into Ascarle and stop the attack before it could come to Ruathym's shores.
Despite the fear in his heart, Fyodor reined his horse about and headed for Ruathym village, where the berserker warriors of Holgerstead awaited his orders. Liriel had her command; he had his.
Liriel dashed the water from her eyes and climbed from the pool in the council chamber. Th& familiar figure standing before her stunned her into immobility-the round, dark face, the malevolent crimson eyes, the ubiquitous pitchfork. There were many things Liriel missed about her home in Menzoberranzan. Shakti Hunzrin, her former classmate and self-avowed rival, was not one of them.
"i'At last i have you!" the priestess exulted. She advanced, her hand on the handle of a snake-headed whip. The enspelled reptiles rose from among the folds of her gown, writhing in anticipation.
"i'So you made high priestess," Liriel commented dryly. "i'Menzoberranzan must be in a sorry state, that the priestesshood has fallen to such depths."
"Things have changed. I wield powers that you could not begin to imagine," Shakti boasted as she drew near;
Liriel responded with a delicate yawn, patting her fingertips to her lips. As she expected, Shakti was so enraged by this contemptuous gesture that she failed to note Liriel's other hand lifting to grip the obsidian medallion hanging over her heart.
Shrieking with fury, the drow traitor-priestess drew back her arm and lashed forward viciously. But the flailing snake heads came up short, splatting wetly against an invisible wall. All five slid down the unseen barrierleaving trails of gore as they went-to fall limp at Shakti's feet. The drow stared at the dead snakes for a moment, then lifted incredulous eyes to Liriel's face.
"Blasphemy," she hissed. "You dare to attack a symbol of Lloth with mere wizardry?"
"You dare to speak of Lloth, you who worship Vhaeraun?" returned Liriel coldly as she opened one hand to display the holy medallion. "i'Oh, i know your tawdry little secret. I know also why you are in this place, and the ambitions that led you here. It is you who do not know me for what i am, or you would not have relaxed the mind shields that served you so well in Menzoberranzan!" Understanding crept over Shakti's stunned face. "You are a priestess of Lloth? The Spider Queen has not abandoned you?"
"i'Not yet," Liriel replied grimly. "i'But if i were you, i wouldn't be too quick to give up hope."
"Then i challenge you," the other priestess returned, a weird light entering her crimson eyes. "i'Let us see once and for all who holds the true favor of Lloth!"
Liriel shrugged. She stood, arms crossed, while the Hunzrin priestess chanted a fervent prayer, pleading for some sign of the goddess's presence and favor. It was a common enough spell, one cast nightly in the temples of the great houses and the chapel of the clerical school, Arach-Tinilith. From time to time Lloth rewarded her faithful with a sign of favor, such as a skittering rush of spiders, the creation of a magic item, the appearance of an otherworldly handmaiden such as a yochlol and, rarely, a visitation by an avatar. On rare occasions, warring priestesses used the spell to face off in a duel. If Lloth ignored the contest, both priestesses were summarily put to death. But if one priestess was favored, she was accounted the winner and could demand death, dethronement, or worse for her vanquished rival.
Never once in