Tangled webs - Elaine Cunningham [83]
Lloth had answered her prayer.
Relief mingled with horror in the young drow's heart. She and her friends would escape their deaths, but oh, the price! in that desperate moment, Liriel had pledged herself as priestess to Lloth, and she had been accepted.
A mere novice in Menzoberranzan, Liriel had not been required to make such a pledge, but considering the many challenges she faced, it was a step she logically should have taken long before this. Not a problem, the drow told herself; and nothing outside the realm of her experience and expectations. She had merely agreed to become a conduit for the Spider Queen's power, as had her foremothers for centuries untold, and vowed to work for the glory of Lloth. Power was power-she would accept what she was given and make the best use of it that she could. And yet, as the oppressive gloom of the Abyss crept into her soul, Liriel wondered for the first time what the price of this power might be.
And then the mist parted to reveal a sparkling night sky and a calm, black-satin sea. Liriel turned her eyes upon the humans. To a man, they were frozen in place and looked as if they'd been chilled to near-death by the touch of a vengeful wight. She fervently hoped they did not realize where they had been.
Finally Olvir managed a weak grin. "And i thought the last magical trip was bad! Don't get me wrong-i'm glad to have come out of that with my hide in one piece-but give me a choice, and i'll take a stormy sea anytime."
"Aye!" Hrolf agreed, his voice less hearty than usual. "Don't exactly know why, but Umberlee take me if i don't feel like i just slept with a lichwoman!"
The analogy was apt, and it sent visible shudders running through the men of the Elfmaid. But the matter was over, and the sailors shook off the eerie lethargy and went about their tasks with a gusto that spoke loudly of their pleasure to be back upon the open sea.
But Fyodor was more perceptive of magical matters than the Northmen. He came to Liriel's side and knelt beside her on the deck. "Where were we?" he asked in a low voice. "Never have i felt such power in a place… or such sorrow."
The weary drow tried to answer him and found she could not. Liriel was drained, empty, numb-and utterly defenseless against the despair that was the Abyss and the churning chaos that marked the touch of Lloth. She had never expected to feel so horrified by something that should have been a matter of course-indeed, the greatest honor a drow could know. Her dark-elven assumptions were profoundly shaken, her drow magic temporarily exhausted, her natural resilience stretched to the breaking point. It was all too much. An unfamiliar moisture gathered in the comer of her eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks. For the first time in her life, Liriel wept.
For a moment Fyodor merely stared at her, utterly dumbfounded. Then he swept the drow into his arms and carried her down into the privacy of the hold. She buried her face against his chest, clinging to her friend as if borrowing his strength until the silent tears had run their course. By the time Fyodor reached her cabin, Liriel was asleep in his arms, her thin body still shaking from the convulsive sobs.
Fyodor stayed with her a long time, for her fingers gripped his hand as if it were a lifeline. In truth, he would have stayed regardless. During their travels he had frequently watched over her so, for Fyodor was often unable or unwilling to sleep. In slumber Liriel looked tiny, fragile-utterly unlike the fierce, powerful being who channeled such fearsome magic. At such moments she was his alone. He needed that feeling tonight, and he clung to her hand as fervently as she clasped his.
Yet try as he might, Fyodor could not conjure the wistful deception. Liriel knew things, experienced things, that were far from his understanding. She was as much a mystery to him, and as far beyond his reach, as the mighty Witches who commanded his land. He sensed that something of great and dire import had happened this night, something that took the girl still further from him. The pain this brought