«He was right behind me,» the warrior replied, letting his gaze sweep back and upward, toward the tunnel through which they had originally entered. «I don't know—there!»
The weapons master pointed high up the wall, and Quenthel had to stop in order to turn around sufficiently to see where Ryld was pointing. When she spotted Pharaun, she muttered an invective under her breath. He wasn't alone. There was someone, a woman, in conversation with him.
«Who is that with him? What is he doing?» the high priestess asked no one in particular.
Ryld shrugged and said, «I have no idea, Mistress. I never heard him stop.»
«Well, get him down here, now! I need him,» Quenthel ordered.
Ryld made as if to protest, then shrugged, turned back, and broke into a rapid jog back along the thoroughfare. When she turned back, Valas had reached their position.
«So?» she asked the scout.
Valas took one deep, calming breath and explained, «They've cut off our route again, and they've made sure this time that we won't go around their flank.»
The scout pointed to several other exits from the large chamber.
Quenthel could see already that more of the tanarukks were there, each group similar in size to the one directly in front of them. They were gathering on the ledges and ramps, just on their side of the tunnel openings. It wasn't hard to see that they were intentionally halting the drow's progress, trying to force them to turn back.
«Obviously, they aren't here merely to attack us,» she said, thinking aloud, «so they must want something else.»
«Perhaps I can explain,» Pharaun said, materializing out of a shimmering blue doorway that hung in the open air only a few feet away. The portal snapped out of existence as the wizard primped himself a bit, straightening his piwafwi and adjusting his pack. «We've been invited to join Kaanyr Vhok, the master of those fellows, for a discussion.»
«What are you talking about? Who was that woman you were speaking with back there?» Quenthel demanded, seething at how Pharaun seemed so full of himself all the time.
The fact that he could still freely use his magic, while she could not, continually galled her. Though he might never say anything, she knew he loved flaunting the fact of it in front of her every chance he could. To add insult to injury, he seemed taken with showing unbridled politeness toward her. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. He wanted something, she was sure.
«We thought you were in trouble. I sent Ryld back to look into it,» Quenthel said. She jabbed a single finger outward, pointing at the distant figure of the weapons master. «Now I'll have to send Jeggred to catch up with him while you stay here and explain to me what this is all about.»
Before the high priestess could direct the draegloth to do her bidding, though, Pharaun cut in. «Oh, that's not necessary. Allow me but a moment.» The wizard turned and faced Ryld, pointed his finger, and began to whisper. «Ryld, my dear friend, I appreciate your concern for me, but I am quite fine and standing here among our esteemed companions. You can return from your quest to rescue me.»
In the distance, Quenthel saw the warrior start and straighten. He turned around as Pharaun spoke. Ryld seemed to shake his head in consternation, and Quenthel thought she heard him sigh, though of course it was only a whisper. By the time the mage was finished, Ryld was already trudging back in their direction.
Very clever, mage,» Quenthel said, clenching her teeth. «Now why don't you be as useful in other ways and tell me what you were doing up there.»
Of course. That was Aliisza, a charming and somewhat gregarious representative of Master Vhok's. She was lurking in the shadows back when we ran into them—«he gestured into the distance at the tanarukks—«in the previous tunnel. They answer to her, and she answers to Vhok.»
«Well, how interesting,» Quenthel said, folding her arms. «And just what did you two have to talk about for so long? You weren't, pet-haps, coming to some sort of an agreement with her, were you?»
Pharaun looked genuinely pained and said, «High Priestess, I only listened politely while she extended her offer. I could not, of course, give her any sort of proper answer without first conversing with you. I suspected what your answer would be before I even mentioned the invitation, but I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't at least deliver the message.»
«Indeed.,» Quenthel said. She knew good and well that the flamboyant wizard before her wouldn't have given a second thought to betraying her and the rest of them if it presented him with some worthwhile benefit. «Interesting that she chose you to be her messenger boy.»
Pharaun grimaced, but only slightly.
«We share a common, uh … appreciation for the arcane arts,» he said at last. «We spent a few moments in idle conversation about the difficulties of traveling with those who don't share that appreciation.»
Quenthel snorted. «I'm sure you were interested in more than her wizardly skills.»
The mage's grin didn't change, but his eyes hardened the slightest bit. Good, she thought. Remind him that you see right through him.
«Very well,» she said. «We're certainly not going to go back with the brutes to see Vhok, so the question is, how do we get through them and on our way?»
«There's no way to get around them,» Valas said, «unless the ambassador knows this area and has a notion of another route we can take,» he finished, looking at Faeryl.
The Zauvirr priestess shook her head.
«We're still too far away from the proper outskirts of Ched Nasad for me to recognize any features with certainty,» she said.
«Then we must slay them,» Jeggred announced. «Let me engage them and cut a path for you, Mistress.»
«No, Jeggred, there's no need, however much fun you might think it would be. Pharaun, here, is going to get us through this. Aren't you?»
The mage grinned bemusedly and said, «I might have an incantation or two that will allow us to make our way through to the tunnel. Aliisza has assured me that, in good sporting fashion, she will stay out of it. Slaying these creatures should be minimal trouble.»
«I'm not concerned with that. Just clear a path for us,» Quenthel commanded.
«Very well,» he said as he began to move forward, weaving the beginnings of a spell as he did so.
FOUR
Aliisza wasn't sure how Kaanyr would receive her latest news, but it didn't slow her steps. Tarrying to deliver it served no purpose. He would find out eventually, and she might as well pass it to him and get on to other, more interesting things. Besides, she wasn't really troubled by the prospect of the cambion's anger. He might fly off the handle from time to time, but he knew better than to direct it at her. Whether or not he flew into a rage this time, she had an idea that might just soothe his ruffled feathers and give her a bit of fun, besides.
Passing through the great doorway and into the throne room, Aliisza expected to find Vhok sitting on his throne, but he was not. He paced in front of it, which meant that he had serious things on his mind, serious in a bad way. The alu-fiend had a pretty good idea what those things were.
Any more information on what that duergar horde is doing?» she asked as she approached him.
Vhok looked up from his contemplation, seemed to stare right through her for a moment, and at last said, «All I've been able to determine at the moment is that they don't seem to be headed in this direction, which is good.»
«Good? Why?» Aliisza asked. She moved to sit on the top step of the dais. «I thought you liked the idea of a little sport for the Legions. You told me the other night that things were getting a bit staid around—»
«Because something big is definitely going on,» Kaanyr interrupted, «and because they were responsible for wiping out the patrol to the northeast.»
Aliisza had been about to stretch out, hoping to distract Kaanyr from all of this serious discussion for a few moments of romance, but she sat straight.
«That wasn't just a roving band of duergar,» Vhok continued, «they were professional mercenaries. The Xornbane clan, if the evidence is correct. They don't go anywhere without major coin changing hands and big battles in the works.»
Aliisza pursed her lips in thought.
«So if they aren't moving against us,» she said, «then where?»
«Though I already have an idea, I was hoping you could tell me,» Kaanyr said, looking down at the alu-fiend, «Where are my guests?»
Aliisza avoided meeting Vhok's gaze.
«I wasn't able to convince them to join us,» she said carefully, «and after they defeated my little patrol as easily as they did, I thought it wise not to pursue the matter so directly.»
«Defeated? Wiped out is more like it.»
Kaanyr's tone was measured, and Aliisza could tell he was displeased.
So he already knew, did he? Is he spying on me, now?
She was glad she'd been up front with him on the subject. It had been tempting to fudge the truth a bit, to tell him that the tanarukks had not followed her instructions, but in the end, something had convinced her that she was going to have to start being a little more careful with Vhok.