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killed in a classroom demonstrati
ofSyrzan swung its arm and hurled a dozen
on, and started to conjure.
f course by their target's protective enchantments. Pharaun completed his flaming arrows. They missed, bumped incantation and so inflicted a hundred stabbing pains upon hi
mself.
His body grew as large as an ogre's, and his hide thickened into scaly armor.His teeth lengthened into tusks, and his
horns erupted from his brow. A hairless tail nails into talons, while long, curved and a whip appeared in his hand. sprouted from the base of his spine,
The transformation only took a moment, and the discomfort was gone. With a beat of his leathery new wings, Pharaun hurled him
self at his foe.
The wizard raised his monstrous arms
Pharaun felt a sur high and bellowed an incantation. ge of churning vertigo. The scene before him seem
and twist, and despite him ed to spin self, he veered off course. He smashed down on thedais, and time skipped. When he came to his senses, h
e'd reverted to his natural
form and felt as weak and sick as Smylla Nathos.
The lich was staring down at him."What an idiot you were to return," Syrzan said. "You knew you were no
match for me."
Pharaun realized he could hear again, albeit through a jangling in his ears.He wouldn'
"Stop preening," said the Master of Sot die deaf, for whatever that was worth.rcere. "You look ridiculous. This isn'tyour pathetic dream world. This is reality, where I'
m a prince of a great cit
and you're just a sort of m yoAs he taunted the creature, he groped follusk, and a dead, putrid one at that."r the strength to cast a final s
pell. Nodoubt the attack would fail like all the others.
So why, he thought, bother to attack? Try someeffort, he cast a spell off the side of the platform. Blue scintilla of power glittered thing else instead. Shaking with
briefly in the air."You call
me
pathetic?" Syrzan sneered. "W
If you were wearing the ring you stole, Pharaun thought, you'hat was that supposed to be?"d knowdoubt it would fit on your bloated fingers. , but I
The alhoon hoisted him of
around his head. f the ground, then wrapped dry, flaking tentacles
You re still going to serve me,
Syrzan said directly into the mage's mi
holding up one gnarled finger to reveal the silver ring.
When I devour your
brain,
nd,
I'll learn all your secr
ets.
"Perhaps the infusion would even cure your stupidity," Pharaun wheezed "b, ut
I fear we'll never know. Look around."
The lich turned, and he felt it jerk with surprise.The lens of illusion he'd formed in front of the dais m
ade Syrzan look exactly
like a certain witty Master of Sorcere, and Pharaun himself resemble yet another humble ore. Once the Mizzrym created it, he'd willed the hand of ice to
release the illithid's head, and there came originator the construct, swooping straight at its
.
Syrzan threw Pharaun down and faced its creation. No doubt if left
unmolested, it could have averted the construct somehow
strength for one m , but Pharaun found the ore spell. His labored incantation shattered the floor of the dais, staggering the alhoon and breaking its concentration.
The huge tentacles scooped Syrzan up and conveyed it to the maw behind them, whereupon the strangely shaped
mouth began to suck and chew. The
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alhoon's own magic ma
moment, then became opaque and solid again. It was trying t
ngled him as Pharaun's never had. The lich faded for a
o shift to another
plane of existence but couldn'After a time, the enormous head blinket focus past the agony.
inert chunks of m d out of existence. Its passing dumped ummified mind flayer on the floor.
Pharaun's strength began to trickle back. He rummaged through the alhoon's
stinking remains until he found his silver ring, then turned his magic on the
renegades, though it wasn't really necessary. Ryld, Welverin, and their cohorts
already had the upper hand.
down cross-legged on the floorWhen the last rogue lay dead, the entr. His chin anced Master of Melee-Magthere sat drooped down onto his chest, and hestarted to snore. Silver leg rattling as if a blow had loosened the com
W ponents, elverin limped over to check him and, Pharaun supposed, tend him as needed.
The Mizzrym thought he ought to take a look as well but when he tried to stand, his head spun, and he had to flop back down.
Triel stood on the balcony gazing down at the city below. It was virtually the same view she'd surveyed on the night ofthat showed her all Menzoberranzan was in turm the slave uprising, the burning spectacle oil.streets and hindered trafThe fires were gone. In their place, cofic. The rain had flooded cellars ald pools of standing water dotted the and it would take time to get rid of it. No one had an nd dungeons as well, miles of rock between the City of Spiders and the open sticipated a downpourk , not with y, abuilder had m nd in consequence, no ade much provision for drainage.
Someone coughed a discreet little cough. Triel turned. Standing in the doorway,
Grom
"Matron."
ph inclined his head.
She felt a thrill of pleasure—relief, actually—at the sight of her brother, who'd come to her so quickly once she'd given him leave. She took care to mask the feeling."Archmage," she said. "Join me."
"Of course."
Gromph walked somewhat stifIn one corner of the terrace, Jeggredfly toward the balustrade. slouched on a chair too small for him but Tand gnawed a raw haunch of rothe. He looked entirely engrossed in his snack, riel was confident he was watching her sibling's progress. That was histask, after all, to ward her from all potential enemies, in
Especially
her own kin. cluding her own kin.
Gromph looked out at the city'sluminescence, as if his rain had washed it away domes and spires. Some had lost their twisted in the fire' , and many had flowed and sshapes or effacing them entirely embrace, warping the spider carvings into crippled . The wizard's mouth twisted."It could have been worse," Triel said. "The stoneworkers can repair the damage.""They have their work cut out for them, especially without slaves to help."
"We have some. A few undercreatures declined to revolt or were captured
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instead of slain. We'll drive them hard and buy and capture more."
looked? Can anyone recreate Menzoberranzan exactly as it was? No. W"Still, does anyone remember precisely how every rampart and sculpture e're changed, scarred, and—"
He winced and rubbed his chest.
"Forgive me," the archmage continued. "I didn't come to lament but to
perform my function as your advisor, to share my thoughts on how to meetthe challenges to come."
Tr
"How do you see those challenges?"iel rested her hand atop the cool, polished stone of the rail and asked, "It's obvious, isn't it? W
e've just
a series of calamities. By dint of observing you in combat, every experienced what promises to be the first in Menzoberranyr with half a brain now knows you priestesses have lost your
power. Rest assured, no matter what measures the Council takes, the wordwill spread beyond our borders. Perhaps some escaped thrall is proclaiming it
even now. Soon, one or another enemy will march on us,or
really bad, they might all unite in a grand alliance." , if our luck is T
riel swallowed. "None of our foes dares even to dream
Menzoberranzan." of taking
"This Syrzan did. When its kin, and others, find out we've lost our divine
magic, a significant fraction of our drow warriors, and virtually all our slave
troops, it may inspire them to optimism. And they're not even the greatestthreat."
"We ourselves are," Tr
"Exactly. W iel sighed.e always have our share of feuds and assassinations. Occasionallyone House exterminates another outright, and that'
s as it should be. It's our
way, it makes us strong. But we can'twould be too m endure constant, flagrant warfare. That
uch . . . chaos. It would tear Menzoberranzan to shreds. Up to
now, fear of the Spider Queen and her clergy has kept the lid on, but it won't
anymore." He spat. "It's a pity our new heroes didn't die heroic deaths in their homeland's defense."
"You refer to Quenthel and the outcast Mizzrym?"
"Who else? Do you imagine them any less ambitious than the rest of us?They cham
knowledge that mpioned the established order yesterday, but, inspired by the any would rally to their banners, may themselves seek to topple it tom
orrow. Quenthel ma
years but now. Pharaun m y try to seize your throne, not in a hundred aHundred and Sixty-six Layers, he all but did, having spent no efy strike for the Robes of the Arch-mage—by the Six fort in finding
me before scurrying to your side. What a disaster that would be! Aside from
any personal inconvenience to you and me, the city in its weakened state can'twithstand that sort of disruption."