Chapter 10
Spider's Web

Reverie really was easier than - and just as restful as - sleep once Lysara had learned the trick of it. There was little to no chance of oversleeping, and no pesky nightmares preventing her from getting a good night's rest. Viconia was already awake and dressed when Lysara stirred herself to consciousness. She got the impression that the drow was studying her, and perhaps… watching over her? That was a ridiculous thought. Viconia had earned some degree of trust, but Lysara knew she would never think of her as anything more than a friend. She decided to ignore the drow's studious gaze and instead donned her armor, which suddenly included a pair of chain leggings and a matching hauberk, complete with an arming coat. She found a note attached to it.

The mischief maker from last night was most willing to donate these to our cause after the trouble she attempted to cause us, and you in particular. It will need to be adjusted to fit you, but she doesn't appear to be that much larger than you. Enjoy.

-J

When the dawn came, Lysara started the tedious process of all but literally prying Imoen out of bed. In the end she decided to simply reach over the deep-sleeping girl and pull her bed sheet over her, flipping Imoen over until she fell off the edge with a squawk. Lysara couldn't fully suppress her grin, and heard the drow trying to restrain her laughter behind her.

Jaheria had ordered them all breakfast, and watched to make sure no one tampered with it, while Khalid was out readying the horses. "Where are these supplies you said you would purchase yesterday, child?" Jaheria asked of Imoen when she appeared, dressed but still bleary-eyed and bed-haired.

Imoen just blinked at her for a moment before handing over a small pouch. "It's all in there," she said, almost putting her face in the porridge instead of the other way around.

"Are all humans this… eloquent just after waking?" Viconia asked as Jaheira returned Imoen's pouch.

Jaheria replied by spouting something at her which sounded like drow, and made Viconia start laughing. The druid just looked confused at the reaction, and for once Lysara agreed with her completely.

"What did you say to her?" Imoen asked.

"I thought I called her a rothe, and told her to go find one of her own to lay with," Jaheria answered.

Viconia just started laughing harder.

"So what did she actually say?" Lysara asked after the dark-skinned woman had finally stopped laughing and started eating with small bites. Lysara wasn't sure if it was politeness or if she was testing each bite for poison as she went.

"She declared herself to be my unyielding alphabet," Viconia replied, suppressing a fresh wave of chuckling. To Jaheira she added, "Ours is a subtle language. Be careful how you attempt to use it."

Lysara bit her fist for a moment to wipe the smirk off her face and stop herself from laughing at the druid's slip-up, which earned her a silent glare from Jaheira and an approving look from the drow. After eating down what was left of her breakfast far too quickly to be polite, she darted out the door to 'go help Khalid with the horses.'

He had just finished with his own stallion and had pulled out a saddle that she recognized as her own. "I'll do that," she said, taking the saddlecloth and such from him.

"Oh, it's r-really no t-trouble. I'm used to doing a-all the g-grunt-work around camp," he replied with a good-natured tone, but handed it over when she insisted.

"May I ask you a personal question?" she asked as she plopped her saddlecloth on her horse's back. She really needed to think of a name for her.

"Certainly," Khalid stuttered.

She had to focus on what she was doing for a few moments as she started to buckle it in place. She really was a fine animal, and Lysara thought she should pay more attention to her. "You know Elminster, don't you? How is it that he can't dispel a simple illusion cast by a novice?"

"Elminster is a mage, though he is Mystra's chosen. The n-novice I s-speak of was a s-sorcerer, and just d-did it without really u-understanding what he was about. The way Elminster explains it is t-that there's some kind of 'knot' in the magic that can't be unraveled except by the one who cast it."

"And they won't?" Lysara inquired.

"Well, s-see, he's since uh… 'retired'… in the p-permanent s-sense."

"Oh. Well what about dispelling it?" she asked as she strapped her bags and bow in place.

"It r-reforms instantly. I've j-just learned t-to live with it, though Jaheria certainly d-doesn't like having to poke my face t-to remember what I look like."

"Sorry, I'm being rude. You probably don't like talking about stuff that makes her unhappy," she apologized.

He waved it off dismissively. "Well… at least t-this w-way she doesn't have to worry about s-some o-other young s-strumpet s-stealing m-me from her," he commented offhandedly.

She thought perhaps that she now knew what Jaheria had meant when she said 'for some time' but chose not to inquire into it as she affixed her mare's bit and bridle in place, then started loading the pack-horse. "So why do you not talk much? Ever since I've known you you've said perhaps one word to me for every twenty your wife does."

He shrugged. "P-perhaps because I always manage to stick my foot in my mouth," he answered. "I s-still r-remember that glare you sent me when I was trying to s-stick u-up for Adjantis. Besides, J-Jaheira t-tends to get a little j-jealous sometimes. She doesn't like it when I talk overmuch to other women."

She was increasingly sure that he'd been unfaithful at some point, but decided once again against inquiring, at least to him. Then again, asking the druid might provoke a somewhat more violent response. "You… don't have any magical items about your person, do you?" she asked instead, a new spell forming in her mind.

"Why?" he asked, his tone and body language suggesting suspicion.

"Well, I was thinking clerical magic might dispel what arcane has failed to."

"Oh we've t-tried t-that. Besides, you likely can't manage to d-dispel a-anything more than a pin's mirror image j-just y-yet," he replied.

She stopped listening, pulling out her holy symbol and starting to pray, and he froze, looking between her and the stable door as if he couldn't decide which was the greater risk: letting her try, or not having the horses ready as his wife had told him to. She finished before he could make up his mind, beseeching Lathander to 'free this man of any magic which plagues him' even as she envisioned the sun at high noon.

Heat such as she had never imagined filled every fiber of her being, and she wasn't sure if she was screaming or not. It was too much, far too much. She tried to lower the sun in her mental imagery, but it wouldn't budge, only getting bigger and hotter as more and more energy poured into her. She had to get rid of it, or it would incinerate her. She threw it all into the spell she'd been weaving, forcing herself to lay it out, her lips to finish the incantation even if she couldn't speak the words at the moment.

The spell seemed to last forever, but at last the heat stopped coming, though she still felt as if she'd come far too close to the sun. Khalid stumbled away from her, his hand flying to his head and Viconia was kneeling next to her, chanting the words to a healing spell as she held her hands as close to her as she could manage. Lysara looked down, seeing her own steaming body, feeling as if she'd bathed in a river of lava, and couldn't move more than that. Even then she only just realized that she was laying on her side, breathing hard and curled into a ball.

"Fool girl, I warned you about drawing in too much of your god's power," Viconia said, sounding bitter and… afraid? "She will need water, to drink and to cool her. I cannot keep this up for much longer." As soon as the last word left her mouth she started another chant without pausing for breath.

She heard the sound of pages flipping and Imoen demanded a water skin before launching into an incantation of her own a moment later. At first, Lysara felt nothing, and then the heat began to lessen. Forcing her eyes open again, she saw little but pure steam as Imoen continuously conjured more water and directed it at her in an endless stream originating from the skin she held in one hand, her precious book held open in the other.

At last the water stopped turning to vapor when it drew near her skin, and she felt the blessed relief of its touch. The heat drew away from her completely, and she collapsed, suddenly soaked, to the stable floor. Viconia cast one last healing spell and then fell silent. Jaheria stepped into view, a look on her face somewhere between livid rage and concern as she knelt down, taking her own skin and unstopping it before feeding Lysara water in small doses. It tasted absolutely glorious.

"Fool child," the druid admonished. "What were you thinking? What spell in your meager repertoire would require so much power as to nearly kill you and burn down a stable with you?"

"Burn… what? I didn't… cast a fire spell."

Jaheria helped her sit up, hissing as she touched her chainmail. All the hay within a pace of her was simply gone, and there was a large, smoldering hole in the roof directly above her.

"Your body was putting out so much heat you nearly set the place aflame. Learn to control yourself and your power before you go trying something so stupidly powerful again," Jaheria told her, clearly enraged. "I had to manipulate the winds to shunt the heat upwards while Viconia and Imoen saved your life."

She looked at Imoen, and then Viconia, neither of whom looked pleased, and stuttered a thanks to everyone there.

"I'll always help you when I can, Lys," Imoen replied. "But please don't make that level of effort necessary again. Conjuring water isn't all that hard, especially if I already have some on hand. But it's taxing to make so much of it continuously."

"It appears that I still have much to teach you," Viconia told her at length.

"I'm simply glad you're alright," Khalid said. Jaheria rounded on him and froze. "What?" he asked when all eyes turned on him.

"You took your helmet off?" Imoen asked, astounded.

"I… had forgotten how handsome you are," Jaheria said, drawing close to him and grabbing hold, dragging him down where she could kiss him. And it was a very thorough kiss she planted on him. And Lysara agreed with Jaheria, though she swore she would never ever admit it. He had long, wavy brown hair which needed a trim it likely hadn't receive since the glamor was placed on him, a long, chiseled face, and lovely hazel eyes.

"You… dispelled the glamor," Khalid stated over Jaheria's shoulder, one hand brushing her hair as the other was wrapped around her waist. "Thank you."

"You told her about it?" Jaheria demanded angrily, drawing away from him.

"She asked, dear. I saw no reason not to tell her."

"She could have died trying to dispel it!"

"How was I supposed to know she would try to hurl that much power at me?" he defended himself. "How was I supposed to know she even could manipulate that much energy? She didn't even ask; she just did it."

"Don't try to put this off on her," Jaheria retorted, putting one hand on her hip and shaking her other index finger at him as he recoiled. "You should have known she'd try something. Weeks on the road together and you can't see how reckless and impulsive she is?"

"Let's just get moving," Lysara declared loudly, forcing herself to stand. With as much heat as they said she'd been putting out it was a miracle her clothes hadn't caught. Then again, maybe they had. She'd have to check when they stopped for the night. At least her cloak looked undamaged. "I'm fine now, and you're welcome. Let's go catch some saboteurs."

"You need at least a…"

"Now, Jaheria. I'm fine, thanks to all three of you, and I do not need to rest. I'm going with or without you," Lysara cut in, somehow managing – she thought – to give the appearance of grace as she leapt on top of her horse. By the gods she was tired though. But she wasn't going to let herself be seen as a weak, helpless little whelp any longer. Pulling her coinpurse from her saddlebag, she emptied almost half of what was in it into the stable master's hands. "For your trouble," she told him before booting her mare into motion.

"Wait!" Khalid called. "I haven't even saddled Oakleaf yet!"

"Hurry up then. I'm going ahead," she called back.

Viconia, trying to keep her hood in place against the wind of her horse's passage, caught up a few moments later. She slowed from a gallop to a canter to keep pace with Lysara's horse.

"You consider this Imoen to be a sister to you?" she asked without waiting.

"Of course," Lysara replied.

"And you trust her?"

"Of course," she said again.

"I do not understand this. You trust your sister?"

"Why should I not?"

"In my culture a sister is someone to compete against, a rival to overcome and eliminate if necessary to advance your own interests," Viconia explained. "Treachery is inevitable, and so trust is for the foolish, and the dead."

"In our culture, a sister is someone who supports your endeavors, and rejoices at your achievements, and you're expected to do the same for her. In her you can confide your innermost secrets without fear that she will use them against you or reveal them simply because she knows they will cause you pain or for advantage. I won't say there aren't rivalries between sisters, even up here… but we don't kill our blood-kin if we can help it. I think I've thought of a name for my horse."

"Your horse?" Viconia asked, puzzled at the change of topic.

"I'm going to call her Ibblith. That means 'not drow' yes?"

"It is a derogatory term for it, yes."

"Odd, I didn't think there were any respectful terms for 'not drow' in your language."

Viconia opened her mouth, and then closed it again, and chuckled. "Well then, not-drow the horse… I'm sure she will serve you as well as any other ibblith."

"I trust you, Viconia," she said after a moment's silence.

"You should not."

"Because you're going to betray me?"

"It is inevitable."

"You don't want to," Lysara stated simply. "Do you? If you did you wouldn't tell me about it before hand."

"You have no idea the intricacies of drow politics. Your most sophisticated plot on the surface is but a training web for a priestess aspiring to be a matron mother one day. You would be hard-pressed to find a highborn woman who does not fit that description."

Imoen caught up a moment later, drawing up the other side from the drow. "They're trying to decide if they're angry or grateful right now," she said with an impish grin when she caught up. And then she looked at Viconia and quickly looked away, seemingly embarrassed again.

"Gratitude is a useless emotion. It invites trust, which invites treachery," the drow supplied for Imoen's benefit.

"Oh, yes. I'm also grateful for the clerical tips you've been giving me," Lysara put in. "And saving my life, and let's see, what else… oh yes, your blabbing in the tub last night has demolished a wall between me and Imoen that I hadn't even realized was there, and I'm grateful for that…"

"Is there a purposed behind your sudden choice of gratitudes?" the drow asked testily.

"To directly contradict what you just said, of course. I've already stated that I trust you. Now I've shown you trust and gratitude. Does that mean you'll betray me now?"

The drow fixed her with a haughty look and just kicked her own mare into moving faster, drawing out ahead.

"Why did you that to her?" Imoen asked with a puzzled look on her face. "It confuses the hells out of her."

Lysara let her horse fall back, and reached over to do the same with Imoen's. Only once she was sure that the drow was out of earshot did she answer.

"I'm trying to show her that the ways of the Underdark, of the drow, aren't the only way," she whispered to Imoen. "I'm trying to teach her that there are other ways that are just as strong – I really don't care about being stronger, though she would – as the culture she was brought up in. You didn't let her…"

"No," Imoen replied, blushing. "No I didn't, though she did try to seduce me again the moment you were gone. I almost caved too. She's… really beautiful and… well, it's like… there's something there, beneath the surface. I think she's… lonely… and sad."

Lonely. That was a good word for it, though still not the correct one. "There's a lot beneath the surface of that woman," Lysara agreed. "I wonder what she was like in the Underdark."

"She doesn't seem to like talking about that," Imoen observed.

"Where are those two?" Lysara asked almost an hour after they'd left Nashkel behind. "I would have thought…"

"Which two?" Jaheria asked, suddenly just there and making Lysara jump.

Khalid was right beside her, grinning ear to ear. "I can feel the wind on my face again!" he exclaimed.

"Where did you… how did you…"

"I told you I could conceal animals' presence," Jaheria replied with a wink and a laugh. "Consider us even for the way you scared me earlier. And thank you for breaking that accursed spell." She reached over and grabbed her husband's hand before turning back to Lysara. "Just remember… he's mine."

"Oh I don't know," Lysara replied flippantly. "I kind of like older men. Joking!"

The look on Jaheira's face was as far as it could get from pleasant without being murderous, and Lysara no longer felt the slightest need to ask. Fortunately they were both distracted by a sudden barking off their chosen path. A little girl was running from the south with a shaggy yellow-furred dog in tow, which was the source of the barking and both seemed to be scared witless as they changed course to intercept the group.

"Help!" she cried out, tripping on something that Lysara couldn't see. "Please help!"

Lysara reined up hard, and dismounted in a flash, followed by Jaheira and the others. The former reached the girl first, helping her stand and getting clung to desperately. The girl couldn't have been more than ten, and her blue eyes were shedding more water than a leaky dam.

"It's alright," Lysara said comfortingly as she drew the strange girl into a hug. "Tell me what the matter is, and how I can help."

"Mama and papa and my big brother!" the girl declared, twisting in Lysara's grip and pointing back the way she'd come. "I got away 'cause I was out playing with my friend Bethann but I saw the dog-men."

"Dog-men? Gnolls?" Lysara asked.

"I don't know!" the girl wailed. "They tried to catch me, but rover bit the one that grabbed me and I ran! But they got my friend Bethany. They were so big and scary looking. Please help! I'm too small and helpless to run all the way to town!"

"That is not a good idea," Viconia volunteered.

"Just like it wasn't a good idea to interfere with your caravan ambush?" Jaheira demanded.

"And you may wish to step away from the 'girl,' dalhar," the drow added to Lysara, ignoring the druid completely. "She is not what she appears to be."

"What do you mean?" Lysara asked, not backing away but twisting to look up at the drow.

"What do you mean?" the child echoed. "I'm just a helpless little girl looking for help against the bad monsters…"

Lysara felt the tug at her dagger sheath, and looked down just in time to see the girl's hand recoiling away from her weapon, which had refused to budge for the unknown hand. Or at least, what had looked to be a human child's hand a mere moment ago. It turned milky white and the fingers all merged into a single point as the doppleganger shrieked.

Lysara tumbled backwards, away from the pretending monster and came back on her feet to find 'it' still exactly where it had been standing, in the same pose, the dog similarly frozen. Viconia dismounted and walked over to it quite calmly.

"What…" Lysara started, cutting off with a sharp gesture from the drow.

"Go back to your master and tell her that she can't have the girl. Tell her the deal is off," the drow told the creature as she casually brought her Morningstar down on the dog's head. It gave off the same shriek that the girl had and fell down, going still in an expanding pool of whiteness.

"How did you know?" Lysara demanded as she grabbed the drow's arm a dozen paces off.

"Because I was contacted last night with instructions to ensure that you were taken by the beast back to its friends' lair," Viconia answered. "I decided that I like you living better than in their hands. Besides, I do not believe they ever intended to honor their promises."

So Viconia had not only been in earnest when she'd told Lysara that she was going to betray her, she'd been on a timetable as well. Still, she had opted out of the dirty deed… for now… That thought took the edge of the anger that started to bubble up at the drow's admission.

"I warned you, Lysara," Jaheira said as she readied her staff, but the drow still ignored her.

"The decision is yours, avvil," Viconia said. "But I have just betrayed them, for your sake. How will you repay that?"

"Stand down, Jaheira," Lysara commanded. She had glimpsed the diamond in the ruff, and decided on the spot that it was worth extracting and polishing.

"She is manipulating you!" Jaheira insisted. "She is telling you what you wish to hear and selling it so that you will not know the difference. Do not be taken in by a single act!"

And you're giving her the response she wants, so that I'll take her side out of reflexively defying you, she thought to herself. "What was promised to you, and by whom?" Lysara asked Viconia.

"I was promised wealth, and guards that I could trust to follow the coin, and even land of my own. I was promised servants and playthings enough to sate all of my appetites," Viconia answered. "As for who, I do not know their names. One was a human woman no bigger than you are, with a round face and even rounder eyes. Brown eyes. She was dark of hair and had a pouty mouth, and a short nose. The other, I think was her servant. He kept his eyes on the table and his mouth shut, so I paid him little mind."

"Do you know for whom they worked?" Lysara pressed.

"No. They wore nothing distinctive. I could not pick their clothing out of a pile if I tried, and neither had anything about them… no, wait… the woman wore a pendant. A skull in a circle of… something resembling rain drops. I did not look too closely at it and paid it little heed at the time."

"No one with any sense would still wear Bhaal's holy symbol where others can view it," Jaheira asserted. "You are lying…"

"It was under her blouse. I only saw it because of a gap… it was too small for her, you see. I do not believe that it was her blouse, but one she acquired from someone else."

"Any further questions, Jaheira?" Lysara asked.

"She is lying," the druid insisted.

"Prove it," Lysara challenged. That made the drow smile a little.

"Surely they said something distinctive?" Jaheira said to the drow. "Something which would give some hint?"

"The only thing remarkable they said which I have not already related was a vague reference to 'the throne.' They did not say anything to single out what throne it was they served, however, and the woman hit the man for mentioning it. The only other thing even vaguely distinctive I can think of was the woman's blade."

"Let me guess… you forgot to mention that it also had a skull pommel and the circle of tears on the cross-guard?" Jaheira supposed.

"No. She did not mean for me to see it. As she mounted someone handed her a slender blade that curved… similar to a scimitar but not quite… I know not how to describe it beyond that."

"A katana?" Imoen asked, producing a scrap of paper and a charcoal. She spent a moment sketching and showed a picture to the drow, who nodded.

"That is… an approximation. I have never seen one quite like it." The drow turned to Lysara. "Will you allow me to continue to travel with you?"

Lysara didn't hesitate to nod.

"I see through your plot, drow," Jaheira declared. "You pretend to betray your masters for her sake, only to betray her in earnest at some point in the future…"

"Jaheira," Lysara said forcefully that she almost yelled. "Shut… up. We've wasted more than enough time with this diversion. The mines are still waiting."

Lysara swung up into her saddle, but the druid wasn't finished yet. "They've waited for months now. Another few minutes…"

"Enough!" Lysara barked as the druid tried to take her reins from her. "She has just saved my life again and you would have me repay her by casting her away? Prove your allegations, Jaheira, or let them lie. In the meantime, we've work to be about."

Without waiting for a reply, she booted Ibblith into motion, thinking furiously the whole way to the mines. Was the druid right? Was Viconia only trying to lull her suspicions? Would the woman betray her simply to prove her point about trust?

Maybe that's why she was trying to seduce Imoen. But if that silver-blonde bimbo thought that a pretty face and a nice figure would be enough to make Imoen betray her, she had another thing coming…