Queen of the Demonweb Pits (greyhawk) Read online

  The Justicar moved to drag Lolth's attention away from the fallen. He ran at the giant spider. With a cunning squint behind her, Lolth surged backward and squirted a cloud of web out of her spinnerets just as Escalla charged into the attack. Escalla was hit dead center by the webbing and flung ten yards away, slamming hard against a steam pipe that scalded and burned. The faerie girl wrenched at the webs helplessly.

  The Justicar grabbed Lolth's monstrous fangs and heaved, his huge strength enough to start tearing the spider apart. The goddess threw herself from side to side in a rage, and Cinders flew free to slither over the floor. An instant later, Jus staggered as Lolth teleported away, leaving him holding empty air.

  The titanic spider appeared on the ceiling ten feet overhead. Jus's silence spell was shattered as Lolth dispelled it from afar, her voice finally free to cast magic of her own. Shrieking with laughter, Lolth cast another spell, and instantly a dozen spiders the size of wolves blinked into existence all about the room.

  Steam slowly cleared as the pipes ran dry of water and the furnaces burned down. Lolth clung to the ceiling, rocking with mirth. Her spiders closed in from all sides.

  As Escalla changed shape and escaped the webs, Recca limped forward, his severed limbs oozing green blood and regrowing right before their eyes. Only his borrowed hand and foot did not regrow. They stayed as always-pale flesh torn from another creature. Escalla returned to faerie form, her eyes flicking from Lolth to Jus to Recca as a dozen huge spiders tightened their cordon.

  Lolth was clearly having the time of her life.

  "Little playmates! I so love having little playmates!" The spider rubbed her forelegs together, looking at the adventurers through all eight gleeful eyes. "What's next?"

  Recca stood beside Benelux, looking down at the blade. Enid crawled away from him, dazed and shaking her head. The Justicar rose beneath Lolth and cast a proud, grim look toward his old master.

  "Recca! You crave the honor that you lost? You want glory? Then fight! If you want to be remembered as a hero, kill the demon queen!" The big ranger held out one hand to the undead monster. "Stand with me! The way it should have been."

  Recca looked down at Benelux, then at the Justicar. He took a pace forward, thoughtfully tapped his chin… then Recca ran Enid through.

  He did it slowly, with precision, jamming his blood red blade through her hide behind her foreleg and straight into her heart. Enid wailed. Escalla gave a despairing cry and fired a spell that smashed Recca from his feet, but his blade stayed buried in the sphinx, glowing horribly as it filled with Enid's lifeblood.

  Roaring, the Justicar flung himself at Enid, launching into a desperate attempt to rip out the deadly sword. It was the move Lolth was waiting for. She dropped from the ceiling, turning like a cat. She slammed to the ground behind the Justicar, and both her fangs blasted through his back, the points jutting through the front of his chest. Poison squirted out onto the floor, and Jus coughed, holding the fang points in his hands.

  Escalla shrieked, her whole body chill. Lolth reared over the Justicar. Henry and Polk lay bleeding as a pack of spiders sprang at them in a wave of death. Enid coughed a shower of blood, and Escalla saw the life leave her eyes. Lolth pulled her fangs free of the Justicar and laughed as he fell to the ground. She whirled to face the little faerie, who stood alone, naked but for the slowglass gem hanging at her neck.

  Escalla ripped the gem free. She hurled it at the goddess and fired off a spell. It was a tiny spell-one of the first she ever learned. A stream of magic missiles shaped like little golden bees. Lolth laughed to be attacked by such pathetic magic-but the bees struck, smashed, splintered-

  And atomized the slowglass gem into a thousand shards.

  There was a pulse of magic. A sphere of force shot outward from the gem. The sphere caught Lolth and the Justicar, flashing out fast, then expanding with a dream-like slowness. Inside the globe, all time stopped. Gem shards hung in midair-poison hovered where it dripped from spider fangs.

  The sphere continued to expand. Escalla raced forward, grabbed Polk, and tore the portable hole from his belt. She worked feverishly fast. The globe enfolded Recca, Henry-Polk's head, then his body. The spiders pouncing at Henry and Polk all simply hung frozen in midair.

  Escalla wept as she ran, shaking, numb, and blank.

  She backed away as the sphere slowed its rate of expansion. It ground to a halt and shimmered-freezing the death and destruction of everything the faerie loved. She cried lost, hopeless tears. The girl bit one hand, trying to make the pain focus her. She had thirty minutes-no more. The time sphere would fade, Lolth would be free, and everyone would die. Escalla backed away, her mind racing in mad panic as she tried to form a plan.

  Ouch.

  The hell hound's voice rang in Escalla's head. She whirled, and there lay Cinders, upside down and crumpled. Escalla sped over to him, her hands shaking as she untangled her friend.

  "Cinders!"

  Cinders fall down. Spider lady tough. Cinders seemed a little dazed. Cinders want faerie make plan now-kick spider butt! No cry.

  "Yeah. Yeah, that's right." Escalla wiped her face. She ran a thousand thoughts through her mind at once. "I'm the faerie. The faerie always has a plan!"

  Morag had led them right so far. But there was something else… something at the edge of Escalla's memory. Words spoken in a rhyme…

  "Wash away sin… wash away sin!"

  Moving fast, Escalla grabbed one of Lolth's gems and waved it above her head, bellowing into empty air.

  "Morag! I'll use it! I swear! Come here… now!"

  There was a flash. Morag appeared-resentful, fearful, and with a panicked eye at Lolth frozen in time nearby.

  "What? What do you want?"

  "Help." Escalla pushed Cinders into the portable hole. "Teleport me! Now!"

  The tanar'ri blinked in astonishment.

  "Where?"

  "You know where! Now go!"

  Escalla grabbed the portable hole, leaped astride Morag's back, and the demon teleported them both away.

  25

  The Flanaess. After the dead stench of the Abyss, the smell of grass and dirt struck the senses like a fist. Escalla knew the shadows, the light, and the grass. She hadn't grown up here, but this was home now.

  Morag had gone to Lolth's gate in the Abyss. From the Abyss to Keggle Bend, and then to a cave deep in the earth.

  Even the dank caves smelled clean and pure compared to where they'd been. Enveloped in gloom, Escalla whirred from Morag's back. She hovered above a floor of hard limestone in a place that had the soft, slow echoes of an underground lake. Escalla levered open the portable hole. Cinders lay with his nose just peeking out into the dark. Escalla took a quick look about the cave and saw a dozen tunnels leading off into the dark.

  "Morag, which way?"

  "The lower tunnel." The tanar'ri thrashed her tail, undecided. "I can't go with you. Lolth will know I helped you."

  "Fine! I don't frazzin' need you!" Escalla was already on her way. "Just stay here! You move one scale, and I use that secret name of yours to blow you open like popcorn!"

  The faerie moved fast. Time was racing. With Cinders to guide her, she stormed down a corridor into a darkness that clinked with hidden chains.

  "Sis!" Escalla bellowed into the darkness as she flew. "Hey, sis! Expecting a call?"

  The sound of her shout echoed though the tunnels. Somewhere in these caves Tielle lurked, and nearby would be the horrible pool Henry had described. Speeding through the air, Escalla swerved madly though tunnels and caves. In the Abyss, time was passing fast and hard.

  "Tielle! It's family reunion time!"

  They entered a long, low cavern, and Cinders's voice hissed inside Escalla's mind.

  Left!

  Two chain monks had been hidden by a strip of illusory wall. Escalla detonated a fireball amongst them, blasting the monsters apart. The chain monks flailed forward in a mass of chains, dying as Escalla shot past.

  Six more ch
ain monks erupted from the nearest tunnel. They threw chains ahead of them, screeching in eagerness to drink Escalla's blood. She blasted a lightning bolt through the dense-packed tunnel, knocking chain monks into a shattered mass of bone and steel.

  Escalla caught the glint of light from behind them, and she flew over the molten wreckage in a red haze of panic, grief, and pain.

  "Tielle!"

  She burst out into a huge cavern filled with silvery light. A narrow shore of limestone ran about a lake that shimmered an unwholesome quicksilver hue. Sluggish waves moved toward the faerie, as if the lake were a gigantic amoeba yearning after the scent of living flesh. Escalla sped above the lake to the distant shore and an archway of stone that stood conspicuously alone in the cave. It was a teleportation gateway, like a thousand others Escalla had used all her days.

  "Keep an eye open!"

  Escalla dropped the portable hole, propped Cinders's head on the floor where he could keep watch, and dived past him into the hole. She rummaged in the boxes stored deep in the hole, found Enid's stun parchment, and felt sick as she crushed it against her breast. The parchment still smelled of Enid's spicy, feline scent. She saw the regeneration potion-the tiniest of vials-and weighed it in her hand.

  "There's a plan! The faerie always has a plan." Escalla shot up out of the hole and planted the stun parchment beneath the arch. "Trust me, I'm a faerie!"

  Cinders suddenly scowled, his eyes burning bright red.

  Duck!

  The hell hound blasted a huge gout of flames into a rock crevice. Chain monks leaped out of the hollows where they had been hiding, recoiling away from the flames. Escalla flew back to the lake, leaving Cinders and the portable hole where they lay.

  "I'm bored, Tielle! One more minute, and I'm gone!"

  Motion stirred at the far end of the lake. Emerging from her own luxurious apartments, Tielle posed in midair, attired in leather, gauze, and jewels. She held her magical drinking horn in her hands.

  "Escalla! Come to taunt?"

  The lightning spell almost caught Tielle square in the stomach, but she hurtled aside with only a hair's breadth to spare, slamming hard against a wall. The girl's magic horn flew off into the gloom. Still thoroughly alive, Tielle wiped blood from her mouth. Over the center of the vampire lake, Escalla hovered inside her anti-magic shield. Naked and coldly savage, the little blonde faerie waited for her sister. She had no lich staff, no sword or dagger, just bare hands, skin, and eyes that glinted murderous green.

  "Come on, you fat git! Come over here and drop dead! Make my day!"

  Chain monks capered on the banks of the lake, hurling chains into the air to fall well short of Escalla. Tielle looked left to right-saw none of Escalla's friends lurking in the darkness, and came flying low over the lake. Quicksilver fluid surged up at her, hungry for blood, and the whole lake trembled in need.

  Tielle closed carefully with her sister then paused. She hovered just short of Escalla, tilting her head carefully, looking for hidden dangers and traps.

  "No staves, no poisoned rings, no daggers…" Tielle flexed her fingers, suddenly intent-her skin tingling with building pleasure as she thought of her sister's life being choked out between her hands. "And just how were you planning on hurting me, Escalla? Have you been off training with the monks?"

  Escalla bunched a fist. "Nope. But I'm shacked up with someone who has!"

  She flew at Tielle and punched her with a savage left hook. Tielle tumbled in midair, then caught herself and attacked in a wild fury of fists and nails. Tielle screeched, howling in bloodlust as she attacked, and Escalla whirred about, punching fast and drawing blood with her hands.

  Tielle grappled Escalla and choked her. The two faeries smashed into the roof, then Escalla had her teeth locked in Tielle's arm. Tielle screeched and changed shape into a flying serpent, crushing Escalla in her coils. Escalla flashed, changed into a spiny urchin, and pierced Tielle in a hundred places with her spines. The snake dropped the urchin, which turned into a flying squid and grappled the snake in a mass of tentacles. Turning into acid slime, the snake wrenched itself free.

  The two faeries battled in a raging fury, shifting shapes almost faster than the eye could see. They hacked and battered at each other with tentacles, stingers, arms and tails, gored with horns, and ripped with claws. Escalla turned into a flying puffer fish and fired a stream of poisoned spines. Tielle switched into an armored ribbon-snake and whip-cracked Escalla, spinning the puffer fish away. Both faeries tangled again in a welter of blood and screams, shifting shape into lizards, wasps, and crayfish high up in the air. They surged and fought even after Escalla's anti-magical shield finally faded away. They smacked into stalactites, crashed into walls, then crashed into the shoreline in a tumbling mad fury of hate.

  The monks gathered in shock around the battle. A stonefish lurched out of the fight, and changed into Tielle. She pointed at her opponent in a foaming rage as she screamed orders to the monks.

  "Kill her! Do it! Kill her!"

  Chain monks lashed at the other faerie, who wailed and turned back into Tielle. Shaking herself, Escalla dropped her last, most repellent form, no longer pretending to be her own sister. She watched the chain monks flailing madly at Tielle. They were tightly packed, like jackals ripping at a kill. Torn and hurting, Escalla rose into the air.

  "Hey!"

  The chain monks whirled, saw Escalla hovering in midair-and then disintegrated as she detonated her last fireball spell. The chain monks flew apart. Tielle jerked up out of the wreckage, having formed into a stone tortoise to save herself from her own monsters' chains. Bleeding and exhausted, she took one look at Escalla and fled toward the faerie gate at the back of the cave. Tielle hit the portal-Enid's stun scroll flashed-and the faerie crashed down, beaten unconscious by the magical blow.

  Escalla scarcely bothered to give the fallen girl a glance. She sped into the dark, searching the cavern floor, and found Tielle's magic horn. She dragged horn, portable hole, and Cinders over to the lake. She dived into the hole and found their paltry few grooming goods-Cinders's fur brush, her own hairbrush, soap, and the straight razor Jus used to shave. The razor was absurdly sharp. Escalla tried not to think about it. She laid bandages, razor, regeneration potion and Tielle's magic horn out by the edge of the lake. Cinders lay watching her, beating at the cave floor with his tail.

  Faerie have plan?

  "Yeah. Faerie has plan."

  Safe plan?

  "Maybe. A bit." Escalla stopped, retrieved Lolth's gems from the portable hole, and popped them into Cinders's mouth. "Cinders, if this doesn't work, then call for Morag. Tell her that her true name is on the gem. Make her take you and Tielle to my father. He'll look after you, all right? Good dog." Escalla shook, mortally afraid. She put her arms around Cinders's head and hugged his beloved furry skull. "Love you."

  Faerie? Faerie what do? Faerie? Cinders panicked as he saw Escalla flip open the razor. Faerie, no!

  Escalla slit her wrist with one long slash of the razor. She tried to keep quiet, but one awful sob escaped her as she sliced open her artery. Faerie blood squirted out over the shore, and Escalla held her arm over the silver lake and let herself bleed into the horrible liquid.

  Her blood ran fast, driven by a pounding little heart. There was so very little faerie to go around. Already drained white, with her blood spattering fast out of her arm, Escalla flipped open the potion of regeneration. She hoped Morag had played straight. She quaffed it down.

  It tasted like spring water.

  Escalla swayed, then felt herself fall. She caught herself at the last moment before pitching into the lake. Slumped sideways, she lay on the shore, her arm stretched toward the lake and her blood running in a shocking stream down into the fluid. Yawning, she felt her legs go numb and knew she was bleeding to death.

  Beside her, Cinders mewed and thrashed in place, tail pushing at the ground and his chin smashing at the stone.

  Faerie! Faerie! The dog sobbed, helplessly trying to reach h
er. Faerie no die! No die!

  "… 's all right, Cinders." Escalla wanted to blink but couldn't move her eyes. She felt like a rag, all washed out and worn. "Don't cry. Don't cry…"

  Faerie, no!

  The room faded, and Escalla wasn't frightened anymore.

  Escalla felt something nuzzling her face-Cinders's nose, cold and firm. Blinking, she stared at her arm. Blood flowed out of the gash she had cut from wrist to elbow-far more blood that any faerie body could hold. Her heart beat slowly, weakly-but steadily. The girl watched herself bleed for a while, then felt an image of Recca's regenerating flesh settle in her mind.

  "Blood. He does it with green blood. That's how he heals."

  Cinders nuzzled more insistently, and Escalla sat up. Giddy, she reached for a length of cloth and carefully bound her arm. The bandages were stained red, but she kept winding the cloth tight until the bleeding stopped. The severed muscles hurt. Her arm was useless. She tied a knot awkwardly with one hand and her teeth. She found herself sitting, staring at the lake, and patting Cinders's warm, furry head.

  "It's all right, Cinders. It's all right now. See? No one touches the faerie."

  The lake glowed a pleasing, restful blue-like liquid sapphire or a perfect morning sky. Escalla looked down at her arm as it tingled. She could feel her feet again, and her heartbeat grew stronger. Beside her, the empty potion bottle rolled twinkling in the light.

  Morag had given them a real potion of regeneration. Escalla prodded the empty bottle with her foot and felt her little body beginning to heal.

  "Hey, Cinders."

  Hello, faerie.

  Morag had told Escalla the secret. The lake was blue. Blue for healing, blue for good-a blue that would burn evil just as the red water burned good. Escalla picked up the magic horn and filled it, then dipped the edge of the portable hole into the lake and topped it to the brim. She folded the hole, took Cinders and planted him over her head, then marched back to where Morag waited in the caves.