I… can't. There are… matters here I have to deal with.
"So be it, Lady," Leliana said. "We'll do what we can."
May Eilistraee lend strength to your sword and harmony to your song. Farewell.
Farewell? The word carved a hollow in Leliana's gut. Did Qilue have so little faith in her that she was already counting Leliana as lost? For the space of a heartbeat, Leliana regretted ever volunteering for this mission. Then anger eclipsed fear. She would prove Qilue wrong. She would do it. Take the Acropolis and destroy the voidstone. Without reinforcements.
And if she failed, well, dying wouldn't be anything new. She'd already given her life for the Lady once before. She smiled grimly, remembering the battle in the Misty Forest.
The others were waiting. Leliana steeled herself. Swiftly, she relayed what Qilue had just told her. "Lady Qilue has ordered us to attack the Acropolis and destroy the voidstone. She'll send reinforcements, but they probably won't make it in time. Which means it's up to us." She stared at the wall Gilkriz had plugged the tunnel with. "We're going to have to fight our way past that monster."
The other Protectors nodded grimly, their expressions matching her own.
Gilkriz took a deep breath and stared at the wall he'd conjured. "Let me know when you're ready." He raised his hands.
"Wait!" Q'arlynd said. "There may be another way to reach the Acropolis."
Leliana turned. "What way is that, Q'arlynd? Spit it out."
"I have an idea, Lady, inspired by the combined magic we three wizards just utilized to open the door." He gestured at the wall. The door, closed, was once again cloaked by illusion.
"Go on," Leliana said.
"You'll be utilizing positive energy to destroy the voidstone, correct?"
"That's the general plan. With Eilistraee's blessing, enough of us will get close enough to it to do just that."
Q'arlynd actually smiled. "What if I told you I could get all of us to the Acropolis?" He snapped his fingers. "Like that."
"I'm listening."
Q'arlynd slapped a hand against the wall. "The only thing preventing me from teleporting us into the cavern that holds the Acropolis is the Faerzress. There may be a way to counter it, however."
Gilkriz's eyebrows rose. "Suddenly you're an expert on Faerzress?"
Q'arlynd smiled. "When I lingered behind at the Moondeep, I conducted an experiment. I attempted a teleport. Faerie fire didn't erupt from my body, as it did back in Sshamath, but from the cavern wall that I… inadvertently touched. From within the Faerzress. The touch of my body somehow drew it to the surface of the rock. I think the problem lies within us-some unique link we drow have to Faerzress energy, which in turn is fed by negative energy. We draw the Faerzress in, somehow, and release it as faerie fire. It would therefore follow that, if we can fill our bodies with positive energy, we can force the Faerzress out. Then I can-"
All at once, Leliana saw what he was getting at. "Teleport us all to the Acropolis," she said, finishing his thought for him.
"Exactly."
"All very well, in theory," Gilkriz said in a dry voice. "But Q'arlynd's never even seen the Acropolis."
"I studied the map and heard a detailed description of the temple. For me, that's enough."
Leliana nodded. "I think it's worth a try."
The others nodded. All except Gilkriz, who stood with his arms folded, fingers drumming restlessly against his sleeves.
"All right then." Q'arlynd shrugged back his piwafwi and flexed his fingers. "Eldrinn, stand next to me; I may need your assistance with the spell. The rest of you, form a circle around me and link hands. As I finish my casting, I'll touch one of you, and we'll all go together."
"Eldrinn's a novice," Gilkriz protested. "What help will he be?"
"That's where you're wrong," Q'arlynd said. "Eldrinn's assisted my teleports before. He knows exactly what to do, and when. Just join hands with the others, Gilkriz, and you'll come along. Unless…" Q'arlynd arched an eyebrow. "Unless you'd rather remain here, snug and secure behind these lovely walls you just conjured, until it's all over and we can send someone back to fetch you."
The conjurer's nostrils flared, but he joined the circle. "I still don't believe this will work," he muttered.
"You haven't seen me teleport." The wizard nodded in Leliana's direction. "She has."
Gilkriz said nothing.
"Just be sure," Q'arlynd instructed the priestesses, "to maintain the flow of positive energy even after we reach the Acropolis. Hold it for at least a moment or two. Otherwise, we may miss our mark. If we land off target, we could wind up in solid stone. And that would be, well… unfortunate."
"Define 'unfortunate,' " Leliana said.
Q'arlynd grimaced. "Missing a few pounds of flesh, at best. At worst, you'll be meeting Eilistraee a lot sooner than anticipated."
Leliana turned to the priestesses. "Make your preparations. If this works, in another moment or two we'll be facing not just Crones and their undead minions, but a ghost."
The Protectors readied their weapons.
Leliana glanced at the halfling. "Brindell?"
The halfling tucked a silence stone into the pocket of her sling. "I'll be ready."
The priestesses formed a circle facing inward. Each stood with her sword in her right hand, her left hand on the shoulder of the person next to her. Their swords hummed softly. Gilkriz stood next to Brindell, who had to stand on tiptoe to reach his shoulder.
"Right," Leliana said. "Let's begin."
They sang, each keeping her attention focused inward, on the energy they were summoning into themselves and channeling to the center of their circle, where Q'arlynd and Eldrinn stood. On the song's second verse, a glimmer of moonlight blossomed around each priestess. Slowly, the circles of light expanded into the center of the circle. Each left a patch of shadow in its wake: shadow that obscured the glow of the Faerzress.
"It's working!" Eldrinn cried. "I can feel it!"
Q'arlynd grasped the boy's wrist. He raised his free hand; it hovered just over Leliana's shoulder. She felt the positive energy fill her, a sense of warmth and well-being as soothing as a soft hymn. She nodded at Q'arlynd: the signal. He snapped out an incantation and slapped his hand down on her shoulder.
Her stomach did a flipflop as the floor lurched sideways under her feet. Suddenly, she was standing with the others next to a building that loomed darkly beside them. The temple atop the Acropolis! Startled Crones whirled to face them, shrieking in anger. The Protectors' swords replied with a gleeful peal.
Just as Q'arlynd had instructed them, the Protectors held the final note of their song a moment longer. Q'arlynd's hand lifted from Leliana's shoulder. His eyes met hers, and his expression seemed strangely apologetic. Then he and Eldrinn disappeared.
Leliana blinked in surprise. Had something gone wrong with his spell?
"Cowards!" Gilkriz shouted at the empty space within their circle.
The Crones surged forward, hands raised. Fell magic crackled from their fingertips. At Leliana's shouted order the Protectors whirled to face outward, raised swords pealing as the priestesses cried out their battle hymns. Then the Crones were upon them.
As the Protectors fought with song and sword, Brindell slipped between the combatants and ran toward the temple, her sling whirling. She must have spotted something within the building. A moment later, a monstrous figure, twice the height of a drow and with spider legs protruding from her chest, burst from the doorway.
"Halisstra?" Leliana gasped. "But how…?"
Brindell hurled her stone. It struck Halisstra's chest dead center, between the scrabbling spider legs. Halisstra skidded to a halt and shouted something, but her voice was swallowed by the silence that clung to her.