«On the contrary,» Pharaun replied, moving to take a seat a few paces away but maintaining the position of the rapier between the two of them. «I am always delighted to make the acquaintance of a fellow practitioner. You can't imagine how dull and dreary it can be, traveling with unimaginative companions who can't appreciate the difference between a divination and an evocation.»

He swept his arm out over the side in the general direction of the other drow, who were far below him and well out of earshot.

Despite his casual manner, the mage was on edge and quite wary. He was sure the alu-fiend was sizing him up just as critically as he was her, and he considered everything carefully before opening his mouth. He certainly didn't want to reveal something that could get him into trouble with her later. Nonetheless, he was fairly sure she already knew where the rest of his companions were, and pointing out their positions lower in the cavern was not giving away too big a secret.

«Don't be too sure,» she said, absently toying with the lacing that ran up the side of her corset, «I can imagine your predicament quite well. You forget the crowd I normally run with. They can't appreciate much beyond the next chance they'll get to eat or rut, much less the intricacies involved in spinning a good spell. What's a girl to do?»

When she finished, she gave Pharaun what he assumed must be one of her best pouts.

«Yes, I can see your point,» the wizard said, chuckling. «It can't be much of a choice. . rutting with the males, or seeking out a little more refined entertainment. I can't blame you for slipping away from them for a while.»

«Oh, I never stray too far away from them,» the demon said, looking at the wizard levelly. «One or the other of us might get into trouble.»

Pharaun nodded slightly, acknowledging the hint. Still, he couldn't help but grin, delighted as he was to be able to engage in such clever innuendo. It was another thing he missed since taking his leave of Menzoberranzan. It wasn't just that most drow displayed a total absence of humor, his companions seemed even more staid than usual, though given the circumstances that wasn't totally unexpected. Still, they were a tight-lipped lot.

Quenthel was clinging too fiercely to the mantle of leadership to spend time mentally sparring with the wizard, Faeryl said very little at all, Valas was hardly in the same vicinity, and Jeggred's discussions had a marked singularity of topic to them. Pharaun had long since grown tired of hearing of the draegloth's desires to rend his foes in one messy way or another. Ryld had always been more willing to converse with him than most, but even the warrior had been pointedly taciturn for most of the journey. With the exception of a few brief discussions regarding Quenthel's heavy-handed methods, they had simply stopped the banter that had always marked the friendship between them.

It wasn't as though Ryld wouldn't talk to him, Pharaun admitted to himself, but things definitely weren't the same as before.

Before I left him to his death during the insurrection, the mage concluded, inwardly sighing.

Ryld had accepted the wizard's apologies afterward, claimed he understood the necessity of it, but in reality the pair's friendship had been damaged. It wasn't that Pharaun felt any real sense of guilt over the decision. He simply missed the benefits of the friendship.

«I said, you seem to be burdened with heavy thoughts.»

Pharaun started, realizing that the she-fiend had been speaking to him during his ruminations. As he refocused his attention on net, he noticed that the rapier had sagged low from inattention and he snapped it back onto guard. Furious with himself for relaxing his vigilance, he summoned the weapon back to him and let it disappear back into the ring.

No reason to keep it out, he thought ruefully. If she'd wanted to get past it and at me, she already had the perfect chance.

The wizard bowed his head slightly, wordlessly apologizing for his lapse in manners. The alu-fiend only smiled.

«You certainly don't want to hear about my troubles,» he said at last, his tone bright. «You obviously dropped in on this social visit for other reasons.»

«Again, don't be so sure,» the fiend replied, standing and stretching indolently. «It requires some fairly extraordinary circumstances to bring a band of dark elves through Ammarindar—»

«Oh, nothing of any real consequence,» Pharaun interjected.

«—especially a mistress of the Academy and her retinue,» she continued, ignoring the wizard's interruption. «Very extraordinary circumstances, indeed.»

She was looking at Pharaun, perhaps gauging his reaction.

In fact, his reaction was the slightest straightening of his back and shoulders, but it was only the merest hint of his true surprise.

She knew.

A dozen thoughts floated through the mage's head in the next instant, considerations of who might have betrayed them, who back in Menzoberranzan had sent them off on this journey for the mere purpose of disposing of them in the clutches of Kaanyr Vhok and his minions, but the notions were dismissed again just as quickly. The risk of exposing the plight of the priestesses of Lolth was far too great to risk by such a method. The she-fiend had discovered their identity in some other way. Her broadening smile and sparkling green eyes told him that he had confirmed her suspicions.

«Oh, don't get too lathered up about it,» she said, laughing. «Your secrets safe with us—at least, for the time being,» she added, the smile gone. «But it brings me to my reason for being here. The Sceptered One, Kaanyr Vhok, Master of the Scourged Legions, lord of the portion of the Underdark through which you currently trespass, would delight in having an audience with you. I'm here to extend that invitation.»

Almost as if on cue, there was a shout, dimly echoing, from far below. Without thinking, Pharaun turned and gazed over the edge of the precipice to the cavern floor below. There, Quenthel and the others had been in the process of crossing to a lower tunnel, one without switchbacks. Valas was rushing back from the mouth of the egress, apparently to join them. Behind him, a flood of tanarukks emerged from the passage and from others flanking it.

Observing the scene had taken but an instant, but it had been enough for the she-fiend to expend some sort of magical energy, which Pharaun could see radiating around her. He was on his guard, expecting an attack, but she did not move. Her green eyes, however, smoldered. Whether it was with lust or anger, he wasn't sure.

«I think you should accompany me back to the palace,» the demon said, her voice husky. «You will like it there. Very much.»

She began to saunter toward him as she spoke, and he could sense the energy flow over him. She was hoping to magically coerce him, somehow, the mage supposed. He backed up a step and put on his best apologetic smile.

'That, I'm afraid, is very much out of the question, at least for the moment. My companions need me.»

The she-fiend's smile faded, and she pursed her lips in irritation.

«They are surrounded, you know,» she said, pausing in her advance. «This is, at least for the moment, still an amicable offer. Go to them, convince them to return with me to Kaanyr's palace, and I promise you that the meeting will be cordial. My forces below have been instructed merely to hold their positions and prevent you and your friends from departing until I have a chance to make the offer to you. Will you do that?»

Pharaun smiled. «How well do you know Kaanyr Vhok?» he asked, his tone suggestive.

Her smile deepened, and her eyes glittered with what was definitely lust.

«Quite well,» she answered, «but then again, he's terribly busy, so not as well as I would like. Come back to his palace with me.»

Pharaun's own smile widened, and he asked. «What's your name?»

The she-fiend giggled once in amusement and said, «I almost forgot to tell you! I'm Aliisza. Now, will you come with me?»

«It's a delight to meet you, Aliisza, I'm Pharaun, and I'd love to accompany you, but for the moment, duty calls. Am I to assume that we will meet with resistance down there? Or has our discussion set your mind at ease to such an extent that we might pass out of Ammarindar unhindered today?»

Aliisza grinned and said, «I had my orders, dear. You were not to pass beyond the borders without a fight, but I tell you what. . I'll give you a sporting chance, just because I like you.» Her voice had turned husky again. «Just this once, I'll stay out of it. A few hundred tanarukks shouldn't cause you undue trouble, should they?»

Pharaun cocked his head to one side, as if considering that, then said, «Well, they will be a substantially greater difficulty than if we could move on unmolested, but as you say, it's a sporting chance. Until the next time we meet, then.»

In answer, Aliisza nodded and smiled.

The mage leaned backward and dropped over the side of the precipice.

At Valas's distant shout, Quenthel looked up from where she had been staring absently at Jeggred's back, following the draegloth through the massive chamber. She spied the scout hurrying back from where he'd ventured ahead, and the high priestess spotted the hordes of tanarukks behind him, emerging from the sculpted tunnel wall. She swore under her breath, and the five snakes on her whip writhed in mimicry of her displeasure.

«We are cut off again, Mistress!» K'Sothra hissed. «Perhaps there is another way?»

«No, let us destroy them; taste their flesh and be done with them,» Zinda argued, her own long black body straining forward eagerly.

«That's enough,» Quenthel snapped, starting forward again to join with Valas.

The vipers quieted somewhat, but they still strained to pay attention to their mistress's surroundings, trying to sense any other possible dangers.

The tanarukks did not follow the scout but instead fanned out into a defensive formation. It seemed they were content to wait until the drow came to them.

So much the better, Quenthel thought grimly. They can line themselves up so that the wizard can decimate them most efficiently.

«What are they about?» Faeryl asked, trotting beside Quenthel. «Why aren't they chasing the male?»

She gestured toward Valas, who was only perhaps fifty paces from them.

«Why should they?» Quenthel countered, letting her long strides quickly close the gap between herself and Valas. «They somehow know we must go that way. It seems they're content to wait until we come to them.»

Faeryl sniffed at this but said nothing more. We should wade through them and slice them, let their blood stain our feet as we tread upon their corpses,» Jeggred suggested, his own long strides easily matching Quenthel's quicker ones.