II
House Evnissien itself occupied the northernmost point of Llyr, partly recessed into the cavern walls and rimmed by an intricately beautiful wrought iron fence patterned after a perfect spider's web between each heavy stone support. Inside the fence, four gracefully curving stone towers formed a diamond around the house's central garden, where tall groves of thin, delicate mushrooms rose above beds of faintly glowing mosses and lichens. At the very heart of the mushroom grove, a tiny spring had been transformed into a beautiful grotto of carefully sculpted stone, with faerie fire dancing along the edges of the carved stone spiders that crouched to either side of the central fountain. Beyond the four towers, where the chapels and barracks of the commoners could be found and the homes of the nobles dominated the upper levels, the slave pens of the house were concealed tastefully behind the cavern wall, while the heavily guarded treasury of the house lay concealed beneath the far tower.
Hetwn took it all in with a cursory glance, simply checking that each guard was at his post and that no scheming drow lay in wait even within the walls of his own home. Without a word of command from the current patron, the gates of the house opened, allowing the wizard into the courtyard on his way to the tallest, central tower of the compound. A handful of Evnissien soldiers quickly moved out of the way of the house's patron or saluted quickly, but Hetwn paid them no heed as he made his way to the tower.
No stairs or rope elevators gave access to the tower's lowest door some ten feet above ground, but Hetwn's innate powers of levitation, the mark of a drow noble, allowed the diminutive wizard to float up to the entrance rather than ascending through a different tower and crossing the narrow walkways to his destination. Just inside the gently curving passage, intricately carved with scenes of House Evnissien's early ascension or more historical depictions of Llyr's history, two grotesque creatures shambled out of well concealed holes in the ceiling. The abominations resembled an unholy cross between elf and spider, with clacking mandibles and large, disgusting compound eyes that gazed hungrily on the wizard as their two clawed hands and feet clung to the rough stone of the passage ceiling. Neither of the ettercaps, pets and guardians in almost every noble house of Llyr, would dare to attack Hetwn while he still maintained the matron mother's favor. Hetwn suppressed a shudder of revulsion as he passed the two most obvious guardians of the central tower, and ascended a short, spiral staircase of wrought iron to the chapel of House Evnissien.
Truly the most ornate and elaborate part of House Evnissien, the Evnissien Chapel was a wonder to behold. Ringing the chamber on pedestals of marble carved into thick webs, gargoyles glared silently down on the central altar, constructed of solid obsidian and carved into the perfect likeness of a huge spider. Opposite the arched, black steel doors that led to the chapel was a large throne, constructed of black marble and gold and bearing the same arachnid motif as the rest of the room. During full services the circular chapel would accommodate all of House Evnissien's nobles and the more than three hundred commoners that owed fealty to the house, but at the moment only one other person occupied the room. Sitting calmly on that throne, Matron Saffir Evnissien, ruler of Llyr's seventeenth house, leaned forward slightly as the patron entered the room.
"My dear patron," Saffir said, her smooth, lilting voice drifting quietly across the chapel to Hetwn. The wizard dropped to one knee at the sight of the delicate drow female perched on the altar, her nearly perfect silver hair seeming to glow in the purple and green lights of the faerie fire that softly illuminated the eyes of the spider gargoyles above and the smaller spiders carved into the marble webs. Once again Hetwn was struck by the beauty of the matron mother before him. Saffir had given birth to two sons and two daughters, had ruled House Evnissien for nearly a century, and yet not a single line of age marred her face or dulled the fierce passion evident in her scarlet eyes. Saffir was meant for greatness, Hetwn could see, and he was more than happy to be chosen from his lowly place as secondboy of a doomed house to become Matron Saffir's consort. "I missed you during your travels throughout the city."
"And I you," Hetwn said, finally standing and starting across the smooth stone floor of the chapel. He noticed out of the corner of his eye Talaith, Saffir's eldest daughter, a powerful, ambitious, and beautiful priestess in her own right, standing behind the marble webs at the concealed door to one of the priestesses' antechambers, but kept his gaze on Saffir as he approached. "My journeys were not without good fortune, however. Matron Eirian Brenin Llywd sends her warmest regards."
"Does she," Saffir said, considering the information for a moment. Hetwn nodded as he came to a stop just in front of the altar.
"I think she feels that House Hen Wyneb is indeed a threat to her power, and would be very appreciative of an… intervention," the wizard explained. "Her secondboy, Heilyn, expressed as much to me in a chance encounter."
"Indeed," Saffir said. The matron mother slowly rose from her seat, allowing Hetwn a wondrous view of her well sculpted body through the translucent gossamer robes she wore. Saffir stepped off the raised dais of her throne and rounded the altar, stopping only when she draped her arms over Hetwn's shoulders and gazed down into the diminutive wizard's eyes. "How fortunate that you stumbled across Heilyn Brenin Llywd today. Did he mention if his matron would lend assistance to such an intervention against Hen Wyneb?"
"Not yet," Hetwn said. Matron Saffir's warm smile faded. "But I will meet with him again, to discuss the matter further," the wizard added quickly. "It is, of course, not something that they would wish to enter rashly into."
"Time is of the essence," Saffir said, turning and moving away from Hetwn in a cloud of gossamer fabric. "I trust your meeting was discrete, but matron Ceridwen must be aware of the fact that eyes are watching her even now. Our spies have already noticed her second daughter, Daere, recruiting soldiers from the Central Market."
"Perhaps she is simply contemplating a move on House Brenin Llywd," Hetwn suggested. "We can use her acquisition of additional commoners as proof that she will strike against them soon."
"But the scales could be tipped if she is allowed to gather too many," Matron Saffir countered, turning back on Hetwn. The wizard lowered his head for a moment, realizing the truth of the statement, but then raised his eyes again.
"Perhaps we could tip the scales in our favor," Hetwn said, "even as we convince Matron Eirian to lend us aid of her own before they can be attacked."
Matron Saffir considered Hetwn for a moment.
"We cannot afford to push many into their ranks, or they will surely notice," the matron said. "Do you know of one agent we could use to wreak havoc in Hen Wyneb when the time comes to strike?"
"I think I know just the agent," Hetwn replied with a smile.
Sitting in the shadow of the raised dais that held the schools of Llyr and the towering Amser-Colofn, the markets of Llyr sprawled throughout the central districts of the drow city. No noble house was built within its limits, but almost half of the common populace of Llyr called the winding alleys and four story stone and mushroom buildings of the Central Market home. The markets themselves were open air affairs; merchants marked their territories with everything from conjured walls of simple stone to painstakingly crafted fences of blackened steel or bright tapestries that glowed with elements of pure faerie fire mystically imbued into the fabrics. Drow for the most part moved through the market squares, but the duergar, the gray dwarves of the deepest tunnels, also hawked their wares, mostly weapons but also rare fish taken from the deepest underground lakes, to the dark elves. Kobolds, goblins, and orcs, prisoners and slaves of the drow, were sold off to the visiting nobles or to ambitious commoners seeking status symbols, while the craftsmen of the dark elves, masters in their own right, hawked the finest in both garments and armor, jewelry and weapons. Anything a drow could dream of could be found in the markets of Llyr, as long as that drow knew the proper questions to ask of the merchants and commoners filling the shops and alleys.
Arwydd Evnissien, the second daughter of House Evnissien, knew the Central Market well. As it was often deemed beneath the eldest daughter, or too dangerous, to venture into the markets, it fell to Arwydd, marked with the same diminutive, almost frail features of her father, to make the daily journeys to the central markets to procure items and information alike for her house.
Unlike many second daughters, Arwydd enjoyed her trips to the Central Market of the city. It was here, away from the ornate and lethal defenses of the noble houses circling the core of Llyr, that conspiracies and vendettas were born, alliances shifted, and assassins prowled. Many priestesses of Lolth would have burned with anger at the seemingly sundry acquisitions of provisions and armaments, yearning instead for a position in the Spider Queen's great academy of Arlais-Corryn, but Arwydd had learned to read each house's purchases for what they were. A sudden desire for weapons could herald an attack on another house, while a house preparing for war would often stock its pantries with food to withstand the covert sieges waged in Llyr's noble districts. A careful eye could notice assassins searching for their favorite poisons, tipping off the priestess to the upcoming murder, while an even more attentive person could find the agent of the house that sought the assassin disappearing into the weave of buyers and sellers.
It was this attention to detail that also allowed Arwydd to hide her own machinations in the Central Market. All thirty of Llyr's noble houses kept spies in the markets, alert for exactly the same covert meetings and purchases that Arwydd could detect. It was here that the priestess thanked Lolth for her inheritance of Hetwn's small stature and ability to disappear into the crowds. While she would normally enter the markets dressed in the robes that displayed her position in Lolth's priesthood or in the ornate, silvery black chain mail that protected her during battle, today she had left behind even the piwafwi that would mark her as a member of House Evnissien. Arwydd felt vaguely uneasy without the snake headed whip that would mark her as a priestess, but today it was too obtrusive. Wearing a faintly dirty, once stylish dress of worn silk and a simple black cloak marked with pinpoints of midnight blue, the noble carried only a pair of darts hidden in a back sheath, carefully covered to keep the poison smeared on the tips from injuring the priestess, and a well made but unobtrusive short sword belted on her hip. Arwydd had completed her disguise with a nominal covering of cosmetics that made the already young drow seem to have barely reached maturity, allowing the noble to appear as nothing more than a commoner or petty market thief as she made her way through the alleys she knew so well.
Arwydd had already wound her way through the markets once, and now, as she passed by a small, open air tavern, the noble stopped and considered the current clientele. Unlike many days, when her study of the market would be geared to uncovering information or simple interest, today the second daughter of House Evnissien had a specific target in mind. That target was currently sitting in the middle of the tavern's dozen mushroom crafted tables, drinking wine from a long, narrow flute as his watchful crimson eyes scanned the market beyond the low stone wall that marked the tavern's boundaries. As Arwydd hesitated for the briefest moment, those crimson eyes seemed to seek her out, and a faint smirk played across the slim, wiry drow's handsome face. Arwydd smiled slightly as well as she saw the gesture, and slowly slid across the wall and made her way past a pair of commoners to her quarry's table.
"Elderboy of House Gwalchgwynn," Arwydd said as she sat opposite the drow at the table. "I am honored to meet you."
"And I you, daughter of House Evnissien," Pryderi Gwalchgwynn said quietly. Like Arwydd, Pryderi had removed all traces of his house affiliation, and even to Arwydd it seemed as though she was merely meeting with a commoner who might have some small talent with wizardry based on his simple, unadorned robes and the staff propped against his table. Pryderi's flat white hair, remarkable only for the absence of the silvery tint that typically denoted nobles of the drow city, only enhanced his commoner appearance. "May I offer you some wine?"
"Thank you, but no," Arwydd said, raising a hand at the offer. "I am afraid this is no time for wine to cloud my judgment."
"Ah, so it is true," Pryderi said with a bit of a grin. "House Evnissien does look upward."
"This is how rumors begin," Arwydd stated with a touch of amusement. "House Evnissien simply seeks to secure its own place in the hierarchy, without fear of the houses above it."
"And I suppose one house in particular has shown itself as a threat to Matron Saffir," Pryderi assumed. Arwydd nodded, but said nothing for a moment. "Matron Morfyl will commit to nothing unless she knows her enemy," the wizard said, lowering his voice even more as he spoke.
"Matron Morfyl will make no enemies," Arwydd said. Pryderi chuckled slightly.
"And suppose after the fires of an unsuccessful raid have died, the matron of a higher house discovers slaves or fighters of House Gwalchgwynn among the captured remnants of House Evnissien," Pryderi said.
"We would not fail, should we have the aid of House Gwalchgwynn," Arwydd said, sidestepping a direct answer.
"Few are the houses that would attempt an assault with the thought that they could not win," Pryderi countered. Arwydd paused again, admitting to herself that she would not get unconditional support from the elderboy of the twentieth house of Llyr.
"Hen Wyneb," the priestess finally whispered, almost too quietly to be heard.
"I'm sorry?" Pryderi prompted. Arwydd sighed.
"Hen Wyneb," she repeated, trying to keep her voice low. Pryderi gave a low whistle.
"You know how to pick an enemy," the wizard said. "Fifteenth house. They are said to hold great favor with the Spider Queen, and with House Caer Llion."
"House Caer Llion will have nothing to do with this battle, should it come to that," Arwydd stated quickly. Matron Saffir had known about House Hen Wyneb's supposed alliance with the second house of Llyr for some time, and had gone to great lengths to determine the possibility of House Caer Llion coming to Hen Wyneb's aid in a time of crisis. Matron Saffir's original assumption, that Caer Llion would do little, if anything, to aid the fourteenth house had proven correct after a lengthy and costly investigation into the matter that had involved House Brenin Llywd and the murder of a highly prized commoner priestess in the ranks of House Hen Wyneb. While House Evnissien's spy had proven masterful in assuming the guise of an assassin sent by House Brenin Llywd, Arwydd was still concerned that the fourteenth house might learn of Evnissien's deception. At any rate, the ensuing weeks of maneuvering between the two houses had shown Caer Llion's reluctance to commit any resources to the aid of Hen Wyneb, showing the second house's lack of concern for their ally's standing.
"And how would you know the extent of their alliance?" Pryderi inquired, practically reading the priestess' mind.
"Because few are the houses that would attempt an assault with the thought that they could not win," Arwydd replied evenly. Pryderi smiled at the use of his own logic against him.
"You intrigue me, daughter of House Evnissien," the wizard stated. He gathered up the books at his feet and stood. "Return when the fire of Amser-Colofn fades completely. I shall buy your wine, and once we have had a drink, you shall have your answer."
"It is a reunion I shall eagerly await," Arwydd said. Pryderi bowed deeply to the young priestess, then took his staff and left the tavern.
From her balcony overlooking House Evnissien's compound and the northern districts of Llyr, Matron Saffir Evnissien could see the burgeoning empire that she and her mother before her had worked so hard to create. For the century that she had ruled, as well as the final century of her mother's reign, the nobles and commoners of House Evnissien had begun to distinguish themselves among the houses of the city, winning victories against threats both inside Llyr and in the lonely tunnels beyond. The great houses of Llyr had finally recognized the growing power of the seventeenth house, and quietly applauded when Saffir had finished her mother's quest to rise in power with the masterful coup of the now extinct House Gryffydd, sealing their current position in the hierarchy.
Saffir shook her head faintly as she cleared the musings from her mind. House Gryffydd had been the seventeenth house until Evnissien had eliminated them, but that house had been on the verge of falling even before Saffir's attack. Dreaming of past victories over collapsing houses would not help her in her current strategies. House Hen Wyneb was strong, with a powerful matron mother and three daughters, two of whom, were already high priestesses of Lolth and the third nearing completion of her studies at Arlais-Corryn. Hen Wyneb had, at last count, almost four hundred soldiers, outnumbering Saffir's three hundred twenty, and the resources to buy even more from the markets should Matron Ceridwen suspect an attack. The current patron and weaponmaster of the fifteenth house, Llawr Hen Wyneb, was a truly deadly combatant, and could likely defeat any ten of Matron Saffir's commoner soldiers.
"Matron Mother," a reverent voice said from behind her. Saffir Evnissien turned away from the view of her compound, to meet her eldest daughter standing in the doorway to the small balcony.
"Yes, Talaith," Saffir prompted.
"Arwydd has returned from the markets," Talaith began. Saffir's heir to the throne was slightly taller than the matron mother, with the same lithe, deceptively powerful frame of her mother and the burning crimson eyes of her father, Athruis. "She says that House Gwalchgwynn will almost certainly join us in our cause. She simply awaits Matron Morfyl's confirmation of alliance."
"They are a weak house," Saffir said quietly, turning back to the balcony. Talaith stepped to the rail with a faint rustle of her gown. "They should consider themselves lucky that they have even made it to the twentieth house. We need Brenin Llywd."
"Hetwn is almost certain they will aid us, as well," Talaith said. "But even without them, a surprise attack on Hen Wyneb will almost certainly gain us a victory. Ceridwen is strong, but not unbeatable."
"Yes, we would likely win," Saffir conceded, looking back over her shoulder as she spoke. "But we will be left open to House Lainbhui. You must learn to consider all the angles, Talaith, or you will bring ruin to our house."
"Brenin Llywd must join us," Talaith pressed. "They know Ceridwen's desires. Every house in Llyr knows that she already plans Brenin Llywd's destruction."
"Just as we know House Lainbhui plans ours," Saffir countered. "And just as House Maredudd knows that we will eventually turn on them. Our only element of surprise in this affair is that we plan to attack the fifteenth house, and not the sixteenth. Even then, we must hope that House Maredudd and House Lainbhui do not turn on us once we are finished with Ceridwen and her spawn. No, we cannot afford to move quickly in this matter. We must gain alliances and swell our ranks."
"Perhaps House Maredudd will aid us," Talaith suggested. Saffir shook he head.
"Telyn will not aid a house directly below her gain power," the matron mother said. "She rightly fears us already. If she aids anyone, it will be Hen Wyneb, in the hopes that a protracted battle will weaken us both."
Matron mother and heir stood on the balcony for a long moment in silence. In that moment, Saffir briefly imagined a dark future, seeing her fences broken, her gate melted, and the nobles of House Evnissien laid out to slaughter. A failed coup against Hen Wyneb would bring the wrath of all of Llyr on her head, and drow justice would demand her house be annihilated. Simply defeating Hen Wyneb would not be good enough, the matron realized. It would have to be a perfect victory.
"Matron Saffir?" Talaith said quietly.
"What is it?" Saffir asked.
"What of Hetwn's agent?" Talaith inquired. Saffir hesitated for a moment.
"Hetwn's agent… has failed."