The Best of the Realms, Book I

CHAPTER 5

On silent feet, Liriel eased her way down the darktunnel. One of the gifts her father had given her were boots of elvenkind,wondrous treasures crafted of soft leather and dark elven magic. With them, shecould walk with no more noise than her own shadow.

She also wore a fine new cloak-not a piwafwi, forthat uniquely drow cloak was usually worn only by those who had proventhemselves by that very ritual. Of course, there were exceptions to that rule,and Liriel did indeed possess one of the magical cloaks of concealment-itplayed a significant role in her frequent escapes from House Shobalar-butyoungling dark elves were not permitted to wear them during the Blooding. Theadvantage of invisibility removed most of the challenge, and was thereforedeemed inappropriate for the first major kill.

Thus Liriel was plainly visible to the perceptive eyesof the Underdark's many strange and deadly creatures, and therefore in constantdanger.

The young drow kept keenly alert as she walked. Yether heart was not in the hunt. She was not entirely certain she still had aheart: grief and rage had left her feeling strangely hollow.

Liriel was accustomed to betrayals both large andsmall, and she was still trying to assimilate her realization that she mustshrug them off and move ahead-albeit with caution. So it had been withBythnara, whose snippy comments and small jealousies had once pained herdeeply. So it had been even with her father, who twelve years earlier hadwronged Liriel more deeply than any other person had before or since.

But it would not be so with Xandra Shobalar, Lirielvowed grimly. Xandra's betrayal was different, and it would not gounremarked-or unavenged.

Vengeance was the principle passion of the dark elves,but it was an emotion new to Liriel. She savored it as if it was a goblet ofthe spiced green wine she had recently tasted-bitter, certainly, but capable ofsharpening the passions and hardening resolve. Liriel was very young, andwilling to accept and overlook many things in her dark elf kindred. But for thefirst time, had seen the desire for her death written in another drow's eyes.Liriel understood instinctively that it could not go unpunished if she herselfhoped to survive.

But at a deeper, even more personal level, the girlbitterly resented Xandra for forcing her to disregard her own instincts andact against her will.

Liriel rebelled bitterly against the need to submit toher mistress's demands, yet what else could she do if she was to be accounted atrue drow?

What else, indeed?

A smile slowly crept over Liriel's dark face as a solutionto her dilemma began to take shape in her mind. There was much more to being adrow, her father had admonished her, than engaging in crude slaughter.

The painful weight on the young drow's chest lifted abit, and for the first time she realized a very strange thing: she did not fearthe dreaded wild Underdark. It seemed to her that the wilderness was awondrous, fascinating place full of unexpected turns and twists. There wasdanger and adventure and excitement in the very air and stone. UnlikeMenzoberranzan, where every bit of rock had been shaped and carved into amonument to the pride and might of the drow, out there everything was new,mysterious, and full of delightful possibilities. There she could carve out herown place. Liriel fell suddenly, deeply, and utterly in love with the vast anduntamed Underdark.

"A grand adventure," she said softly,repeating without a trace of irony the words of her own discarded dream. Asudden smile brightened her face, and as she bestowed an affectionate pat uponan enormous, down-thrust spire of rock, she added, "The first ofmany!"

Without warning, a bright ball of force rounded thesharp corner of the tunnel ahead and hurtled toward her.

The battle had begun.

Training and instinct took over at once. Lirielsnapped both hands up, wrists crossed and palms out. A field of resistancesprung up before her an instant before the fireball would have struck. Thegirl squeezed her eyes shut and tossed her head to one side as the brilliantlight exploded into a sheet of magical flame.

Liriel dropped flat and rolled aside, as she'd beentaught to do in such attacks. The magical shield could not withstand more thanone or two impacts of such power, and it was prudent to get out of the line offire. To her astonishment, the second blast came in low and hard-and directlytoward her. Liriel leaped to her feet and dived for the far side of the tunnel.She managed to put the large stalagmite between herself and the coming blast.

The explosion rocked the tunnel and sent a shower ofrock fragments cascading down upon the young drow. She coughed and spat dust,but her fingers darted undeterred through the gestures of a spell.

In response to her magic, the dust and the sulfuroussmoke swirled to a central spot of the tunnel and gathered into a large globe.Liriel pointed grimly in the direction of the unseen wizard, and the floatingglobe obediently rounded the corner toward its prey.

She waited, hardly daring to breathe, for the nextattack to come. When it did not, she began to creep slowly and cautiouslyaround the bend. There was no sound in the tunnel ahead, other than the distantdrip of water. That was promising: the globe of hot, smoky vapor had beenenspelled to seek out and surround its source of origin. If all had gone well,the human wizard would have been smothered by the sulfurous by-products of hisown fireball. Liriel picked up her pace. If that was so, she would have alimited amount of time to find and revive him.

The tunnel grew ever brighter as she made her way downits twisting length. The path dipped dramatically, and Liriel saw laid outbefore her a cavern stranger than any she had ever seen or imagined.

Luminous fungi covered much of the stone and filledthe entire cave with a faint, eerie blue glow. Stalagmites and stalactites metin long, irregular pillars of stone, and large crystals embedded in them tossed off glitteringshards of light that stabbed at her eyes like tiny daggers.

A brilliant ball of light flashed into being in thecenter of the cavern. Liriel reeled back, clutching at her blinded eyes. Herkeen ears caught the whine and hiss of an approaching missile; she dropped flatas yet another fireball blazed toward her.

The fireball missed her, but barely. Heat assailedLiriel with searing pain as it passed over her, and the smoke and stench of herown scorched hair assaulted her like a blow to the gut. Coughing and gagging,she rolled aside. She blinked rapidly as she went, trying to dispel the lingeringsparks and flashes that obscured her vision.

Think, think! she admonished herself. So far she hadonly reacted: along that path lay certain defeat.

To give herself a bit of time, Liriel called upon herinnate drow magic and dropped a globe of darkness over the magic light ahead ofher. That leveled the field of battle, but it did not steal the human wizard'svisual advantages: there was still plenty of light in the cavern to allow himto see. She had not yet seen him, however.

A suspicion that had taken root in Liriel's mind withthe wizard's first attack blossomed into certainty. He had anticipated herresponses; he seemed to know precisely how she would react. Perhaps he had beentrained to know. Setting her jaw in grim determination, Liriel set out to learnjust how well he'd been prepared.

Her hands flashed through the gestures of a spell thatGromph had taught her-a rare and difficult spell that few drow knew of andfewer still could master. It had taken her the better part of a day to learnit, but the effort was repaid in full.

Standing in the center of the cavern, ringed and partiallyshielded by a circle of stone pillars, stood the human. A stunned expressioncrossed his bearded face as he regarded his own outstretched hands. The reasonfor that was all too apparent: a piwafwi, which should have granted himmagical invisibility, hung in glittering folds over his red-robed shoulders. Hehad not only been prepared, but equipped.

The human wizard recovered quickly from his surprise.He drew in a deep breath and spat in Liriel's direction. A dark bolt shot fromhis mouth, then another. The drow's eyes widened as she beheld the two livevipers wriggling toward her with preternatural speed.

Liriel pulled two small knives from her belt andflicked them toward the nearest snake. Her blades tumbled end-over-end,crossing the viper's neck from either side and neatly slicing the head from itsbody.

The beheaded length of snake writhed and looped forseveral moments, blocking the second viper's path long enough for Liriel to getoff a second volley.

She threw only one knife. The blade plunged into theviper's open mouth and exploded out the back of its head with a bright burst ofgore. Liriel allowed herself a small, grim smile, and she resolved to properlythank the mercenary who'd taught her to throw.

It was a moment's delay, but even that much was toolong. Already the human wizard's hands were moving through the gestures of aspell-a familiar spell.

Liriel tore a tiny dart from her weapons belt and spatupon it. In response to her unspoken command, the other needed spellcomponent-a tiny vial of acid-rose from her open spell bag. She seized it andtossed both items into the air. Her fingers flashed through the casting, and atonce a luminous streak flew to answer the one flashing toward her. The acid boltscollided midway between the combatants, sending a spray of deadly greendroplets sizzling off into the cavern.

The human flung out one hand. Magic darted from eachof his fingertips, spinning out into a giant web as it flew. The weird bluelight of the cavern glimmered along the strands and turned the sticky dropletsclinging to them into gemlike things that rivaled moonstones and pearls. Lirielmarveled at the web's deadly beauty, even as it descended upon her.

A word from the drow conjured a score of giantspiders, each as large as a rothé calf. On eldritch threads, the arachnid armyrose as one toward the cavern's ceiling, capturing the web and taking it withthem.

Liriel planted her feet wide and sent a barrage offireballs toward the persistent human. As she expected, he cast the spell thatwould raise a field of resistance around himself. She recognized the gesturesand the words of power as High Drow. The wizard had indeed been trained fortheir battle, and trained well.

Unfortunately for Liriel, the human had been schooled toowell. She'd hoped that her fireball storm would weaken the stone pillarssurrounding the wizard, so that they might crumble and fall upon him after themagic shield's power was spent. But it soon became apparent that he had placedthe magical barrier in front of the stone formation, thereby undoing herstrategy. His shield did not give way before her magic missiles, rather itseemed to absorb their energy. It grew ever brighter with each fireball thatstruck. It was a drow counterspell, but it was one that she herself had neverbeen taught.

Finally Liriel lowered her hands, drained by the sheerpower of the fireballs she had tossed into Xandra's magical web-and theknowledge of the full extent of the Shobalar wizard's treachery.

The human had been trained in the magic and tactics ofUnderdark warfare and moreover, he knew enough about his drow opponent toanticipate and counter her every spell. He had been carefully chosen andprepared-not to test her, but to kill her. Xandra Shobalar did not contentherself with wishing for her student's failure: she had planned for it.

Liriel knew that she had been well and thoroughlybetrayed. Her only hope of defeating the human-and Xandra Shobalar-lay not inher battle magic, but in her wits.

Liriel's nimble mind flashed through thepossibilities. She knew nothing of human magic, but she found it highlysuspicious that the wizard cast only drow spells. He had to have had priortraining in order to master such powerful magic; surely he possessed spells ofhis own. Why did he not use them? As she studied the human, the reason for thatbecame apparent. Her fingers closed around the key that Xandra had given her,and with one sharp tug she tore it from the thin golden chain she'dtied to her belt.

Wrath burned bright in Liriel's golden eyes as shereached for the green vial her father had given her. She pulled off the stopperand dropped the key inside. But before she put the cap back into place, shesnapped off the mithral needle and tossed it aside.

Kill or be killed, Mistress Xandra had said.

So be it.