F O U R (42 page)

War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

C  h  a  p  t  e  r

T  W  E  L  V  E

methodically as she did When Quenthel had decided she must don ar

mor,

everything else. She'd put she had performed the task as adamantine gorget, a Baenre heirloom, beneath her chain mail and on a cunningly crafted
piwafwi,
 
and it

was likely that protective collar that saved her life.Still, the unexpected impact on the nape  of her neck knocked her forward and

down onto one knee, and the edge of her  enchanted buckler clanked against  thefloor

.

herFor a moment, she was dazed. The whip vipers hissed and clamored to rouse ,  their outburst clashing with the  jumbled howling of the advancing chaos

demon.

She felt something hanging down her back  and bade the serpents pull it off.Hsiv reared over her shoulder

,  tugged the  article out of the  mail links and cloth with his jaws, and displayed it for her inspection. She recognized it from the

armory. It was an enchanted  quarrel sized for a two-hand arbalest, and if it, or onelike it, so much as pricked a dark elf's skin, it would almost certainly kill.

Quenthel thought her assailant had had just about enough time to reload. Ifso, the Baenre obviously couldn't trust her cloak and mail to prot

ect her—the

first bolt had pierced them easily enough.

around, remaining on one knee to make a Though it meant turning her back on the demon, she wrenched herself smaller tarcover herself with her tiny shield.          get, and did her best to

Just in time. A second quarrel cracked against the armor.recognizably female figure ducked back into an arched doorway A shadowy but

,  no doubt to ready her weapon again.

Trapped between two foes, Quenthel thought that if she didn't eliminate one of

them quickly, they were almost certainly going to kill her.dark elf the easier mark, she leveled a long, thin rod at her    Judging her sister

.

A glob of seething green vitriol materialized in the air before her,  then shot toward her enemy

.  Quenthel could just see the edge of her opponent's

the recessed space, and that was what she  aimed for         body in .  Even if she missed, the magic ought to slow the assassin down.

s shoulder.  It exploded, and the dark figure

jumped. The stonework around her was covered in a sticky mass of something The green mass clipped her foe'

Richard Lee Byers

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War Of The Spider Queen

Book 1

Dissolution

like glue. Quenthel smiled, but her foe, apparently unhindered by theentrapping magic, returned to the task

her innate drow resistance to hostile magic, perhaps, had sof cocking the crossbowhielded her from . Something, harm.

Though moving at a leisurely pace, the chaoQuenthel glanced over her shoulder as she slipped the rod back into her belt. s demon had already traversed morethan half of the lengthy gallery

,  and of  course its speed could increase at any

second to the next.moment, just as every other aspect of its being altered un-predictably from one

might have time fBut if the Spider Queen favored Quenthel and the entity didn't accelerate, she or  another  strike at  her  foe of  flesh directing the vipers to keep an eye on the demon, she turned back, and read from and blood. Silently

a precious scroll.When Quenthel pronounced the last syllable, the scroll disappeared in a puff

of dust and a brilliant light filled the chamber.reeled and clutched blindly at the door       The dark elf in the doorway

mass of glue and snatched her fingers awayframe. She touched the slowly-dripping , leaving skin behind.

one direction then anotherQuenthel started to read another scroll as the air around her stirred, blowing .  Hot one second and cold th

countless smells, pleasant and foul alike.       e next, the gusts wafted had drawn very close, and th        She took it for a sign that the demon

Still, she wanted to finish her lesser advee vipers'  warning confirmed it.rsary off before the girl recovered  her

the parchment like hot coals.sight. She completed the spell, the exquisitely inked characters burning through From the elbow down, the enemy female'

s

becoming an enormous black spider with     left arm rippled and swelled, Still attached to the rest of her body   green markings on  its bristling back.

,

mandibles in.            it lunged at her throat and plunged its

half blue, the demon loomedQuenthel spun around. Mauve with golden spots, then white, then half red and over her.into some other luminous, turbulent uni Most of the time it looked flat, like a hole

inconstant outline from which to infer itsverse, and an observer had only its shape.  Over  the  course  of  a  cou le

seconds, it seemed to become an enormous crab claw          p, a wadriver                         gon complete with

tunnel carved from melting rainbow-colored , and a whirling dust devil. The  length of gallery behind it resembled a That section appeared unchanged until Que slush except for one little stretch.

flipped upside down.           nthel noticed that the carvings had The high priestess scrambled to her feet.  As she rooted in her bag for anothe

r

scroll, her scourge dangled from her wrist. The vipers writhed and twisted.The chaos demon blinked from ochre to a  pattern of black and white s

tripes

and from the form of a simple                       ,a mix of roaring and cawing,   isosceles triangle to that of an ogre. Its cry currently

Quenthel caught the blow it swung its newly acquired club.on her buckler. To  her surprise, she didn't feel the

slightest  shock, but  the  shield  turned  blue, changed from round to  rect

became many times heavier than it had been before.        angular, and The unexpected weight dragged her down to the floor  again. Resembli

cresting wave, the intruder flowed toward  her              ng a.  She yanked, but  her shield arm was caught somehow and wouldn'

Rippling from magenta to brt pull free of the straps.own stippled with scarlet, the demon advanced  towithin inches of her foot. Quenthel'

s boot evaporated into  wisps of vapor, and

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War Of The Spider Queen

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Dissolution

pain stabbed through the extremity.

ward, rolling, her mFinally her hand jerked out of its restraints, and she flung herself back-ail whispering against the floor.When she'd put sufficient distance between herself and her foe, she rose, th

en

faltered. For an instant, she couldn't locate the fiend, and her mind struggled to

make sense of the scene before her.

the demon was gliding along the ceiling, not Green and blue, shaped like an hour the floor. It was still pursuing herglass, .

The cursed thing was random  in every respect save its doggedly murderous intent.

The entity's  howl ceased for a moment, then resumed with a peal of childishlaughter. Quenthel snatched and unrolled a scroll, which abruptly t

urned  into  a

rothe's jawbone. The air took on a sooty tinge, and her next breath seared her

lungs.Choking, she stumbled back out of  the cloud. She could breathe, though the

inhaled any mstinging heat in her throat and chest  persisted. She suspected that, had she ore of it, the taint might well have killed her.  As it was, it hadincapacitated and possibly slain the vipers, who hung inert f

rom  the butt of the

whip.She tossed away the jawbone, grabbed another scroll, and started readi

ng the

powerful spell contained therein. Shaped  like some  hybrid of dragon and wolf, the demon, back on the floor again,  advanced without moving it

s  legs.  Though

colored  the  blue  and  gold  of  flame,  it  threw  off  a  bitter  chill  that  threatened  to

freeze the skin on her face and spoil her recitation with a stammer.Quenthel thanked the goddess that her  own education in  Arach-Tinilith had

taught her to transcend discomfort. She forced out the words in the proper

manner

shim  ,  and a black blade, like a greatsword without a guard, hilt, or tang, mered into existence in front of her.

She smiled. The floating weapon was a devastating ma

priestesses of Lolth. Quenthel had neve        gic known only to the the stone floor was still chilly against the sole of her bare foot, the gr seen any creature resist it. Though h

astly cold had

passed, and she stood her ground, the blade interposed between her and her

pursuer.

anything.""Do you know what this is?" she asked it. "It can kill you. It can kill Certain the demon could hear her thoughts, she sent it the words,
 
Sur

render

and tell me who sent you, or I'll slice you to pieces.
Emitting a sweet scent she'd never encountered before, looking like a giant

the chaos demon waddled forward.frog crudely chiseled from mica with rows  of wicked fangs in its sparkling jaws,

Fine,
Controlling the black blade with her thoughtthe Baenre thought,
 
be stupid.
     
s, she bade it attack. It hacked a

long gash in the top of the frog head  and knocked the demon down on its belly.The edges of the wound burned with scarlet fire.

The intruder turned inky black while flowing into a shape that resembled twodozen hands growing on long,  leafy stalks. The stems stretchin

g  and  twisting,  the creature grabbed for the sword.

Quenthel let the hands seize hold of it,  and as she'keen double edge cut them to pieces,  which dropped away onto the floord expected, the magically . The