Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [46]
The drow quickly dispelled the magic that had formed the giant spiderweb, and ibn dropped heavily to the wooden floor of the hold. Liriel dug both hands into her hair and gripped her head as if doing so could contain her whirling thoughts. Granted, her impulsive action had bought her a little time. The potion would hold ibn for several hours, but what could she possibly tell the others that would explain his enspelled slumber?
"Give him some mead," suggested a deep voice from the far end of the hold.
Liriel whirled at the unexpected sound. Her eyes narrowed as Fyodor rose from behind the remaining mead casks.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded angrily.
The Rashemi responded with a wry smile. "At the moment, little raven, i am trying to keep you alive. See the cask there with one side blackened a bit, as if it were placed too close to a fire? it holds some of the mead that put the villagers to sleep. Pour a bit of it down him, and a bit of it on him, and Hrolf will assume ibn got into the stores and picked the wrong barrel."
The drow stared at him. A dozen questions clamored to be given voice; she picked the easiest. "You know about the mead? But how?"
"Remember, i was at your side during the trip to Neverwinter, paying the merchants for the goods you chose. The gold we used in payment was familiar-i saw some of the pieces when the druid threw them into the river." He shrugged. "Knowing Hrolf, i was able to find my way to the truth in time."
Liriel accepted both his plan and his explanation with a curt nod. She pried the lid off the half-empty cask and splashed some of the mead on the sleeping mate. "i can keep him asleep only until tomorrow morning," she grumbled. "Life would be so much easier if i could just kill him and have done with it!"
The drow looked up at Fyodor, and her eyes narrowed dangerously as she turned her thoughts to another matter. "You were spying on me."
"Not so," he protested. "i needed a place to rest, and the hold is quiet and dark. I… have not slept much of late." She nodded, understanding. Since the Time of Troubles, when Fyodo~s berserker magic had gone awry, he had often been tormented by dreams. When the battle frenzy faded, he seldom remembered the details of the battles he fought. But the faces of those who died by his sword came back to him by night. Liriel thought it extremely fortunate that drow, as a rule, did not dream at all. Most of the dark elves she knew would soon go mad if they were forced each night to face the consequences of their actions. But such thoughts were pushed aside as she focused on Fyodor. She'd hoped he'd overcome his remorse about turning on her during the last battle, but now she saw he had not. He was thinner, and there was a haggard look about him. Liriel suspected it was her face that had haunted his dreams of late.
A silence between them stretched until the tension became too great to bear. "You were chanting," Fyodor said softly, "but not words of magic. It seemed to me that you were praying. Is that true?"
Liriel nodded, surprised by the turn his thoughts had taken. "So?"
"You cast a spell through prayer; only a priest can do this." He paused, as if reluctant to continue. "i have seen you dance in the moonlight, touched by the shadow ofEilistraee. Tell me truly: have you become a priestess of the Dark Maiden?"
There was hope in his voice, but Liriel saw in his eyes that he did not believe this could be so. Eilistraee was the goddess of those drow who forsook the dark tunnels and evil ways, the goddess of dance and the hunt. The Dark Maiden encouraged her followers to create beauty, to aid travelers, to live in peace and joy beneath the sun and the moon. Fyodor knew that Liriel was a child of the Underdark.
Her fingers instinctively closed around the amulet of Lloth, as if to shield her friend from the Spider Queen and all that the goddess represented.