Tangled Webs (5 page)

“I hate the decadent southern cowards as much as any of you,” put in Baram, the oldest member of their group and the most conciliatory. “But I hate still more the thought of becoming like them. We are warriors, Rethnor.

Subtlety is not our keenest weapon, and I would not like to see it become the one most often wielded.”

“It is but one weapon among many,” Rethnor said. “Our fleets, our warriors-their time will come. We cannot conquer Ruathym or rule the seas without them. When the moment is right, we will strike.”

“And how are we to know when this strange fruit is ripe?” asked Taerl.

“I will tell you,” Rethnor said simply. “I have placed spies in the seas surrounding Ruathym and on the island itself.”

“They are worthy of trust?” put in Kurth, a dour and suspicious man with a temper as black as his beard.

“I have ensured their loyalty.”

A moment’s silence fell over the group. Rethnors voice was so cold, his face so hard, that the other men could not help but wonder what price he’d exacted, what grim methods he’d employed.

At length the First High Captain cleared his throat and agreed, with a curt nod, to Rethnors plan. “We will prepare for this attack and await your word. Suljack and Kurth, you will see to converting merchant ships for battle. Baram, begin to muster warriors in preparation for the invasion.” He turned to Rethnor. “All other details we leave to you. You are the only one among us who enjoys intrigue as much as battle.”

The distaste in Taerl’s voice was not lost on Rethnor. “One weapon among many;” he repeated, placing one hand on the grip ofhis oft-used broadsword. “My blade is thirsty; the wait will be no longer than it must.”

Truth rang clear in Rethnors words, and the wolfish grin on his face spoke plainly of his lust for battle. The other men nodded their approval and their relief. Rethnor might have strange new notions, but he was a Northman first and foremost.

Shakti Hunzrin moved through the corridors of House Hunzrin, ignoring the guards and servants that glided through the dark halls. Like most of Menzoberranzan’s drow, they were as silent and delicate as shadows that had magically found substance. Shakti, however, was solid, with a tread that tested the stone floor and a girth that almost equaled that of a human.

Her talents, too, were different from those of most drow. Shakti was a canny manager, and at no time in the city’s history were such skills needed as badly as now. In the aftermath of war, the chaos that was Menzoberranzan teetered on the edge of catastrophe. Food supplies had dwindled; trade had fallen off. Most noble families kept mushroom groves within the walls of their compoundssafe from the threat of poisoning by a rival clan-but the common folk went hungry more often than not. Shakti had addressed that problem, working hard to restore the rothe herd and revive the neglected fields. She also made sure it was known whose doing this was. The common folk ofMenzoberranzan didn’t care which eight backsides warmed the thrones of the Ruling Council. They did care that their young ones were fed, that there was a market for their crafts. Slowly, steadily, Shakti was building a power base of a different kind, one that dealt in the everyday needs of most of the city’s drow.

Yet she was not blind to the fact that power currently resided in the hands of the matriarchy, and that nearly every priestess in Menzoberranzan was consumed with the ambition to rise to the head of her clan and to improve the rank and station of her house. It was no accident that Shakti’s older sister, the heir to House Hunzrin, had fallen ill with a rare wasting disease.

Shakti intended to play the game, but she would not lose sight of her larger goals, her broader vistas.

The young priestess entered her private room, taking care to lock the door and ward it against prying eyes. When her haven was secure she sighed with relief, then raised her hands to massage her aching temples. Shakti often had headaches-the result of straining her eyes to make sense of the blur that was her world. Nearsighted from birth, she had gone to great lengths to keep her affliction secret. The constant struggle to keep from squinting gave her a pop-eyed, frantic appearance. Clerical spells might have improved her vision, but no drow dared admit to physical defect.

Yet when her blurred gaze fell upon her most prized possessions-the snake-headed whip that proclaimed her rank as high priestess ofLloth and a scrying bowl that had been the gift ofVhaeraun, the drow god ofthievery-a bold thought occurred to her. If the gods were willing to grant such gifts as she already possessed, why couldn’t she petition them directly for healing? What better symbol could there be for her farsighted ambition?

For it was Shakti’s goal to restore the drow to their original vision of glory. According to the Directives of Lloth, the drow must first dominate the Underdark and from there expand to eradicate the lesser races of elves. The drow god Vhaeraun encouraged the dark elves to establish a presence on the surface immediately. As a dual priestess of Lloth and Vhaeraun, Shakti saw life through a broader perspective than most of the city’s drow imagined possible. Why shouldn’t her eyesight keep pace with her vision? Action followed quickly upon thought. Shakti fell prostrate to the floor, earnestly petitioning the drow goddess and god.

In quick response came a white-hot blaze of pain as healing magic flowed into the priestess-far too much ofit. Even in this, the rival deities competed.

Shakti’s body contorted, her head reared up as the waves of power coursed through her. Shrieking in agony, the priestess clutched at the nearest object-the gilt base of her mirror. Her reflected eyes stared back at her, wide and frantic and fiery red.

In some corner of Shakti’s mind that the pain could not reach, a bubble of childlike wonder began to form. Reflected in the mirror was a room outlined in detail such as the young drow had never seen, had never imagined possible. The titles on the books lining her shelves, the intricate detail on the carved gargoyles that decorated the mantel, the sheen of dust on the study desk-I really must have the house servant flogged for such neglect, she noted absently-were all sharply, gloriously visible. Lloth and Vhaeraun had granted her request.

Shakti’s last scream of anguish lifted into a peal of triumphant laughter.

Much later, the drow priestess came to herself She sat up gingerly and found the pain had disappeared, leaving behind an unnatural contentment that bordered on euphoria. It was enough for her just to look and to see.

But the moment passed quickly, and the focus of Shakti’s newly sharp vision tunneled inward upon her goals. She had found a cure for her myopia-a sure omen that nearsightedness was not an immutable sentence. It had been so with her, and so it would be for Menzoberranzan. She would play by the rules-she would become Matron Mother ofher house and she would see her clan advance in rank-and then she would use that power to lift the eyes of Menzoberranzan’s drow from their constant, incestuous warfare, to turn their focus from this single cavern to the wider world. Broader vistas, new possibilities. There were many ways to accomplish this, and Shakti planned to explore them all.

The priestess warded her chamber with still more privacy spells and set her personal guard-a pair of drowshaped stone golems-to watch the door. Golems were perfect guardians, incapable of thought or treachery. When all was secure, she placed the scrying bowl on a table, carefully filled it from a flask of still-warm blood, and ringed it with candles.

Briefly, Shakti thought of the last image she had received from the scrying bowl through the eyes of the dying wizard Nisstyre: the beautiful face and taunting words of Liriel Baenre. In outwitting the drow male, the thrice-bedamned princess had once again bested Shakti. With newfound discipline, Shakti thrust aside the familiar hatred and envy that thoughts of Liriel always evoked in her, and she focused her mind on the steps that must be taken before vengeance could be hers.

Liriel possessed a human artifact that enabled her to take drow magic to the surface. Retrieving this artifact was an important part of Shakti’s overall plan. Her ally Nisstyre had come close, but the curse of the drow-a quick rage and a burning desire for revenge-had overcome Shakti and had resulted in the loss of both ally and amulet. She would not make that mistake again.

Calmly, she considered her course. At that last encounter, the Baenre princess had been in an underground port city, doing battle with Nisstyre and his fellow merchants of the Dragon’s Hoard-all followers of Vhaeraun. Though their leader had been slain, Shakti planned to reestablish ties with the band, for they were valuable in bringing both information and merchandise from the surface lands. But to find her slippery rival, Shakti sought a more direct route and a more powerful ally than drow merchants.

Bold steps. A broader vision. That was what was needed. Cupping the scrying bowl with her hands, Shakti began to chant a spell that would open a window to another plane. Not the Abyss-the drow’s first choice for power and allies-for much about her work had to be kept secret from the priestesshood of Lloth, and Abyssal denizens were notorious for treachery. Nor did they hold sway in the places where Liriel now stood. No, Shakti sought another, lesser-known place: the elemental plane ofwater.

Drow were adept at traveling the lower planes, but they had little to do with the elemental planes. Yet, Shakti reasoned, if Liriel sought the vast waters of the surface world, what better place could Shakti look for an ally? She had learned to do so at considerable cost, for the hideous Abyssal creature that had shown her the path to the plane of water had enacted a grim pledge from the drow priestess. Shakti quickly thrust that thought aside. It was her darkest secret, one she did not care to contemplate until forced to do so.

The priestess stared deep into the bowl, watching as the blood darkened to ebony and the surface took on a glossy sheen. Then all color vanished, and the bowl seemed full of a wraithlike mist.

Shakti deepened her concentration and thought herself into the mist. There was a sudden tug, a moment of intense confusion, and then she was surrounded by swirling fog. A large eel with iridescent scales floated past her with an undulating, swimming motion. Momentary panic threatened to claim the drow as the realization of her success took hold. Shakti gripped her wits and reminded herself that she was not plane walking. She had merely sent her spirit to the elemental plane, leaving her physical form in the implacable care of the golems. Nothing here-not the strange water, not the denizens who inhabited it-could harm her. So she began to walk through the alien landscape, marveling at the twin sensations of heaviness of movement and weightlessness of body, amazed that the water flowed through her as easily as if it were air.

For the first time, Shakti thought she understood why Liriel Baenre might have desired to explore the surface worlds. This foreign plane showed her amazing things, and her new eyes drank in every strange detail.

On the far edge of the watery landscape was a strange sight: a cloud of bubbles, roiling and seething. It was a being of some sort, though unlike anything Shakti had ever seen or imagined. Although formless, it was not without intelligence or ambition. The traveling spirit of the drow perceived the being’s emotional storm-an overwhelming sense of discontent, frustration, and rage-and turned to follow it to its source.

The drow was reassured to know that even here there were beings who were disillusioned, eager to break from their traditional ties. They were like loose threads, seeking a new and orderly pattern they had not yet defined. Shakti was more than willing to provide them with one. She had vision enough to spare and could easily weave any number of loose threads into her growing web of power.

The light of a waxing moon shimmered on the surface of the water as the little craft slipped away from the coast of Ruathym. It was a clear, cold spring night, and in the frigid skies each star burned with stark clarity. Hooded and cloaked against the chill, a single sailor settled down among piles of wet, bulging sacks-a strange cargo, and one that could destroy many a Ruathen in the days to come.

The oars dipped quietly into the water, taking the boat out past the shallows where the people of Ruathym went to swim and to gather clams during low tide. From time. to time the traitor cast a furtive glance up at the stars, which seemed to burn down like so many accusing eyes.

Yet the boat moved forward steadily, each stroke of the oars scattering the reflected moonlight like broken dreams. From time to time, the quiet rhythm was interrupted as the rower paused to drop into the waters seed that would bear a bitter fruit.

The night was old before the sacks were empty, and the moon had sunk low behind the forested hills of Ruathym.

The lone sailor quickened the rhythm of the oars, for there was one task yet remaining. Tonight, death must come to the quiet village, and the spirit of a potential hero must take its place in the mead halls of Tempus, god of battle. It would not be a place of honor. The man’s death would not be a glorious passage, bravely won, but a bitter gift from the hand of a friend. It was this, more than the murder itself, that formed the deepest betrayal.

With a crunch of pebbles, the boat struck the shore. Moving quickly, the assassin pulled the craft onto dry land and secured it in its accustomed place. The port village of Ruathym lay sleeping—even the fisherfolk were still abed. But soon the people would begin to stir, and a cloaked figure would seem suspect. So the assassin tossed back the cowl and walked openly down the streets that led to the cottage of the young war leader. If any saw, none would question.

And so, in the quiet before dawn, death came in a single, quick stroke. One stroke-that was all it took to steal the glory of one Ruathen and slay the honor of another. The assassin knew the single flash of the knife would send many others to Tempus’s mead hall as well, for the loss of this leader would weigh heavily in the scales of fortune, fortune that would turn against Ruathym in the war that was soon to come.

The assassin slipped out into the streets, marveling that the villagers could sleep, unknowing. Or perhaps they did know, these folk who from childhood could read the changing moods of sea and sky. Perhaps they tossed fearfully in their sleep, dreaming of a coming storm despite the clear skies and fair winds.