Windwalker - Elaine Cunningham [57]
"In the Abyss."
Triel's eyelids flickered. She gestured for Shakti to rise and take a seat. "Tell this tale from the beginning."
The priestess settled down in the offered chair. "On your command, I gathered powerful allies and pursued Liriel. She also had surrounded herself with strength, and our forces met in a fierce battle."
"Who allied with her?"
"Many. The humans of a distant island known as Ruathym and a band of sea elves."
Triel sat bolt upright. "A daughter of House Baenre in alliance with faerie elves? What foul lie is this?"
"No lie," Shakti maintained firmly. "If I wished to shape the truth to my benefit, would I not tell a tale more pleasing to your ears?"
The First Matron conceded this point with a curt nod and gestured for her to continue.
"Liriel fought her way into the stronghold of an illithid sorceress, ancient faerie elf ruins buried deep in the sea. She released the illithid's sea elf prisoners and led them in battle. I myself would not have believed such an alliance possible had I not seen it."
"You lost a battle to humans and faerie elves," Triel summarized, her voice dripping with disdain.
"No," Shakti responded calmly. "I lost to the power of Lolth."
The matron's tiny hands gripped the arms of her throne. "You have already proven incompetent. Beware of adding blasphemy to your faults!"
Shakti pressed on. "I challenged Liriel to nai'shedareth," she said, naming the ritual combat between two priestesses to determine which had the greater favor of Lolth.
Triel settled down, and a sardonic smile curved her lips. "A bold move," she sneered. "You are a high priestess, she is barely an acolyte!"
"She is of House Baenre, and I am not," Shakti said bluntly. "My snake whip was slain, my spells turned aside."
"The girl is not that powerful," Triel said uncertainly.
"On her own, no. But she was made Zedriniset"
The heat slowly drained from Triel's face. This word, one of the most sacred in the Drow language, was seldom spoken aloud. It was an honor and a power that every priestess secretly aspired to attain for herself and feared to see in another.
"You saw this."
"Many did. Lolth's power flowed through the Baenre daughter during the battle for Ruathym."
The small priestess digested this. "Yet you challenged her."
Shakti inclined her head in what she hoped was a suitably humble posture. "I was condemned for my arrogance to the Abyss."
The matron considered these words for many moments, examining them for the layers of subterfuge and hidden intent common to all drow interactions. When she spoke, she addressed the most obvious question.
"Yet, here you are."
"Here I am," Shakti agreed. "I was condemned for attacking a Baenre, yet the Queen of Spiders knows my heart. The priestesses of House Hunzrin have ever been supporters of Baenre. I am your servant. To punish me too harshly might cast an ugly glare of light upon the smooth darkness of your path. Lolth's handmaid tested me, and found me faithful. I was returned from the Abyss with signs of the goddess's favor."
Shakti reached into her robe and drew forth her five-headed snake whip. The skeletal heads rose, and then dipped in obeisance to the First Matron.
"This is the whip you yourself gave me," she explained. "It was destroyed in battle with Liriel and restored by the power of Lolth during my sojourn in the Abyss."
Triel regarded the undead weapon skeptically. "So you say, but any high priestess can animate the dead. You will have to be more convincing."
"Lolth's handmaid also gave me this as a token of the goddess's highest favor to House Baenre and her wish that you prosper above all Houses."
She handed Triel the soul-bubble. The matron gazed into it, but her eyesight was not the equal of Shakti's.
The Baenre matron snapped a command to her guard. The males disappeared, to be replaced in moments by a score of well-armed females. These were Matron Triel's personal guard, hand-picked for ferocity and personally enspelled for loyalty. The females formed two circles,