Chapter 12 WORTH THE TROUBLES
'I have tricked tanar'ri to go to your city, Menzoberranzan, and soon I must force them back,' the great Errtu roared. 'And I cannot even go to this place and join in their havoc, or even to retrieve them!' The balor sat on his mushroom throne, watching the scrying device that showed him the city of drow. Earlier, he was receiving fleeting images only, as this magic, too, struggled against the effects of the strange time. The images had been coming more strongly lately, though, and now the mirrorlike surface was uncloudy, showing a clear scene of House Oblodra, wedged between the fingers of the Clawrift. Fiends great and minor stalked and swooped about the walled compound, banging strong fists against the stone, hurling threats and missiles of rock. The Oblodrans had buttoned the place up tightly, for even with their psionic powers, and the fact that the fiends' magic fared no better than anyone else's, the otherworldly beasts were simply too physically strong, their minds too warped by evil to be much affected by telepathic barrages.
And they were backed by a united army of drow, lying in wait
behind the fiendish lines. Hundreds of crossbows and javelins were pointed House Oblodra's way. Scores of drow riding sticky-footed subterranean lizards stalked the walls and ceiling near the doomed house. Any Oblodran that showed her face would be hit by a barrage from every angle.
'Those same fiends are preventing the third house from being attacked,' Errtu snarled at Lloth, reminding the Spider Queen whose army was in control here. 'Your minions fear my minions, and rightly so!'
The beautiful drow, back in the Abyss once more, understood that Errtu's outburst was one part outrage and nine parts bluster. No tanar'ri ever had to be «tricked» into going to the Material Plane, where it might wreak havoc. That was their very nature, the most profound joy in their miserable existence.
'You ask much, Lady of Spiders,' Errtu grumbled on.
'I give much in return,' Lloth reminded him.
'We shall see.»
Lloth's red-glowing eyes narrowed at the tanar'ri's continuing sarcasm. The payment she had offered Errtu, a gift that could potentially free the fiend from nearly a century more of banishment, was no small thing.
'The four glabrezu will be difficult to retrieve,' Errtu went on, feigning exasperation, playing this out to the extreme. 'They are always difficult!'
'No more so than a balor,' Lloth said in blunt response. Errtu turned on her, his face a mask of hatred.
'The Time of Troubles nears its end,' Lloth said calmly into that dangerous visage.
'It has been too long!' Errtu roared.
Lloth ignored the tone of the comment, understanding that Errtu had to act outraged and overburdened to prevent her from concluding that the tanar'ri owed her something more. 'It has been longer to my eyes than to your own, fiend,' the Spider Queen retorted.
Errtu muttered a curse under his smelly breath.
'But it nears its end,' Lloth went on, quietly, calmly. Both she and Errtu looked to the image on the scrying surface just as a great winged tanar'ri soared up out of the Clawrift, clutching a small, wriggling creature in one of its great fists. The pitiful catch
could not have been more than three feet tall and seemed less than that in the massive fiend's clutches. It wore a ragged vest that did not hide its rust-colored scales, a vest made even more ragged from the tearing of the tanar'ri's clawed grasp.
'A kobold,' Errtu remarked.
'Known allies of House Oblodra,' Lloth explained. 'Thousands of the wretches run the tunnels along the chasm walls.»
The flying tanar'ri gave a hoot, grasped the kobold with its other clawed hand as well, and ripped the squealing thing in half.
'One less ally of House Oblodra,' Errtu whispered, and from the pleased look on the balor's face, Lloth understood Errtu's true feelings about this whole event. The great tanar'ri was living vicariously through his minions, was watching their destructive antics and feeding off the scene.
It crossed Lloth's mind to reconsider her offered gift. Why should she repay the fiend for doing something it so obviously wanted to do?
The Spider Queen, never a fool, shook the thoughts from her mind. She had nothing to lose in giving Errtu what she had promised. Her eyes were set on the conquest of Mithril Hall, on forcing Matron Baenre to extend her grasp so that the city of drow would be less secure, and more chaotic, more likely to see inter-house warfare. The renegade Do'Urden was nothing to her, though she surely wanted him dead.
Who better to do that than Errtu? Lloth wondered. Even if the renegade survived the coming war—and Lloth did not believe he would—Errtu could use her gift to force Drizzt to call him from his banishment, to allow him back to the Material Plane. Once there, the mighty balor's first goal would undoubtedly be to exact vengeance on the renegade. Drizzt had beaten Errtu once, but no one ever defeated a balor the second time around.
Lloth knew Errtu well enough to understand that Drizzt Do'Urden would be far luckier indeed if he died swiftly in the coming war.
She said no more about the payment for the fiend's aid, understanding that in giving it to Errtu, she was, in effect, giving herself a present. 'When the Time of Troubles has passed, my priestesses will aid you in forcing the tanar'ri back to the Abyss,' Lloth said.
Errtu did not hide his surprise well. He knew that Lloth had been planning some sort of campaign, and he assumed his monstrous minions would be sent along beside the drow army. Now that Lloth had clearly stated her intentions, though, the fiend recognized her reasoning. If a horde of tanar'ri marched beside the drow, all the Realms would rise against them, including goodly creatures of great power from the upper planes.
Also, both Lloth and Errtu knew well that the drow priestesses, powerful as they were, would not be able to control such a horde once the rampage of warfare had begun.
'All but one,' Errtu corrected.
Lloth eyed him curiously.
'I will need an emissary to go to Drizzt Do'Urden,' the fiend explained. 'To tell the fool what I have, and what I require in exchange for it.»
Lloth considered the words for a moment. She had to play this out carefully. She had to hold Errtu back, she knew, or risk complicating what should be a relatively straightforward conquest of the dwarven halls, but she could not let the fiend know her army's destination. If Errtu thought Lloth's minions would soon put Drizzt Do'Urden, the great fiend's only chance at getting back to the Material Plane anytime soon, in jeopardy, he would covertly oppose her.
'Not yet,' the Spider Queen said. 'Drizzt Do'Urden is out of the way, and there he shall stay until my city is back in order.»
'Menzoberranzan is never in order,' Errtu replied slyly.
'In relative order,' Lloth corrected. 'You will have your gift when I give it, and only then will you send your emissary.»
'Lady of Spiders…' The balor growled threateningly.
'The Time of Troubles nears its end,' Lloth snapped in Errtu's ugly face. 'My powers return in full. Beware your threats, balor, else you shall find yourself in a more wretched place than this!'
