Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [67]
The young priestess found no pleasure in this realization, for it was well known that no one who had dealings with Gromph ever did better than break even. For that matter, few survived. There was nothing to be gained by this enforced alliance, and much at risk.
Shakti had little choice but to agree to the archmage's demands. But if some means of escape presented itself, she vowed to take it.
iskor, the water wraith, slipped into the door that led from her home on the elemental plane of water to the hidden city of Ascarle. The passage was brief but exhilaratinglike swimming through a cloud of merrily roiling bubbles. On the other side she emerged from a pond filled with brightly colored fish, exploding upward into the dry and brittle air with the exuberance of a playful sea lion.
iskor liked this new world and her role in it. She even liked the illithid that watched her with expressionless white eyes. Evil and ambitious Vestress was a marvelous creature, even if she was an air-breather.
The water wraith assumed corporeal form little by little as she emerged from the water. Her face and body took the form of a sylph-a beautiful water nymph-but with skin and hair as transparent as finest glass. Iskor would have been invisible, but for the tiny, effervescent bubbles that whirled through her. She looked like a fountain contained within some exquisite sculpture.
iskor smiled at the illithid and came forward to grasp both of the creature's purple hands in her glassy fingers. "Oh, Vestress, you will be so pleased at my news!"
The illithid disentangled herself as inconspicuously as possible. By all means, continue. Good news has been scarce enough of late.
"i recently met a most unusual traveler to my home plane," the water wraith continued with girlish enthusiasm. "A drow! A priestess who makes the Underdark her home! At first she was rather tiresome-all threats and demands-but now she offers information on her dark realm in exchange for services that only creatures of the sea can provide. Would she not make a wonderful addition to the Kraken Society?"
indeed, Vestress was more than a little intrigued by the prospect of adding a drow to her band of informants. The illithid herself had left the Underdark many, many years ago, under circumstances that did not permit her to maintain ties with her homeland. It would certainly be very useful to have such an informant. But Vestress did not like to offer iskor too much encouragement, lest the annoyingly bubbly creature spin off into new heights of euphoria.
And what might these services be? the illithid inquired, her mental voice projecting extreme disinterest.
"The priestess seeks the return of a drow female who escaped the Underdark. She was last seen in a city known as Skullport. Do you know it?"
Well.
"Splendid! The runaway is a drow wizard by the name of Liriel Baenre. She is young and easily marked by her golden eyes. It is believed that she took to the sea-where bound, no one knows. Upon this drow's return to the Underdark, my new contact-Shakti-will pledge herself to the Kraken Society. I took the liberty of telling her about the society and offering her this honor," iskor concluded, beaming.
You may tell your contact we will see to Liriel Baenre, Vestress agreed, steeling herself for iskor's response. The water wraith, predictably enough, gave out shrieks of glee and spun in a giddy little dance.
in all, this struck Vestress as a promise easily kept, for the illithid had already received Rethnor's report and she knew that a female drow sailed aboard the Ruathen ship that was inexplicably causing so much trouble. Vestress intended to send forces to intercept the pirate ship and capture the drow; as it happened, she had need of the services of a drow wizard.
The only part of the bargain Vestress disliked was