you told me about the temple,' she prompted. 'Describe it for Qilue.'
Halisstra bared pointed teeth in what Qilue supposed was meant to be a smile. 'It stands on top of a tall spire of rock. Feliane, Uluyara, and I shaped it with our prayers from the stone of the Demonweb Pits. It's intact and is sacred ground still. Lolth's creatures cannot enter it.'
'Including Halisstra,' Cavatina added.
Halisstra bowed her head.
'Yet you were able to place the Crescent Blade inside this temple?' Qilue asked. She wanted to hear this part of the story again to see if there were any inconsistencies.
Halisstra nodded. 'From a distance, yes. I tossed the broken pieces of the sword through the doorway. I had thought only to put the pieces somewhere safe, so that the weapon might later be recovered and repaired, but the temple must have worked some kind of magic on the sword. As I watched, blade and hilt slid toward one another and joined. Eilistraee's sacred moonlight filled the temple, and the sword glowed white. The light blinded me for a time. When I could see again, I looked into the temple and saw the sword lying on the floor, reforged.'
It seemed strange to Qilue that Lolth had allowed that to happen within her own domain, stranger still that the temple to Eilistraee remained intact. The Spider Queen was known to permit spaces sacred to other deities to exist within her realm-the Demonweb Pits housed portions of the domains of Vhaeraun, Kiaransalee, and Ghaunadaur, after all-but they were deities who had allied with Lolth during her revolt against the Seldarine. Eilistraee was Lolth's enemy. A temple to her within the Demonweb Pits should have been an unbearable burr upon the Spider Queen's throne. Lolth was either suffering the temple to exist for some reason of her own, or-Qilue grimly smiled-she had been weakened by her Silence to the point where Eilistraee might, at long last, vanquish her.
Or Halisstra was lying about the existence of a temple.
'Tell me again how the Crescent Blade came to be broken,' Qilue said.
'After Danifae treacherously attacked me, I lay injured for a time. When I regained consciousness- miraculously, still alive-Uluyara and Feliane were dead. Danifae and the draegloth had disappeared. I realized they must have entered the Pass of the Soulreaver and knew I had to follow. I entered the pass and battled the monsters Lolth sent against me. I fought well, but just as I neared the exit, a misplaced thrust wedged my sword in a crack in the rock. When I tried to wrench it free, the blade snapped. I had fought my way through the pass, only to stand at the very doorstep of Lolth's fortress with a broken weapon.'
Halisstra paused, her spider fangs quivering. After a moment, she composed herself.
'I still had Seyll's sword,' she continued, 'so I carried on. I fought Danifae and Quenthel, but in the middle of that battle we were drawn into Lolth's city, to her very throne. Lolth had awakened from her Silence. I tried to fight the goddess herself, but without the Crescent Blade…' A shudder ran through her body. 'I had no hope. Lolth was too powerful. She forced the three of us to kneel before her. Danifae, she killed and consumed. She was the most worthy, in Lolth's eyes, and the goddess wanted to add her substance to her own. Quenthel she spared and sent back to Arach-Tinilith, where she serves the Spider Queen still. I was deemed unworthy for having renounced my faith to embrace Eilistraee. For this, Lolth said, I would do eternal penance. She seized me and bit me.' Halisstra touched the puncture marks on her neck. 'Eight times she sank her teeth into my flesh. Then she spun me into a cocoon. When I emerged, I was… like this.'
Qilue nodded. 'What happened then?'
'I made my way out of Lolth's fortress. It was filled with yochlols, but they made no move to stop me. I stumbled away across the plain, back to the Pass of the Soulreaver. I recovered the pieces of the Crescent Blade and entered the pass. This time, nothing attacked me. I made my way to Eilistraee's temple and placed the sword inside.'
'Tell her how you escaped from the Demonweb Pits,' Cavatina prompted. 'It was a very clever tactic.'
Qilue shot the Darksong Knight a look. Thus far, Qilue herself had offered neither praise nor criticism of anything Halisstra had said. Qilue wished that she had been able to come more swiftly to the Velarswood. Halisstra had obviously told her story more than once to Cavatina, something that would have allowed Halisstra to smooth out any wrinkles in the tale. Normally, Qilue would have used a spell to tell what parts of the story rang true and which were lies or embroideries, woven onto a slim thread of truth, but whatever hold Lolth had on the tragic creature that Halisstra had become was strong. Even Qilue's magic could not penetrate it.
Qilue wondered what Lolth was trying to hide.
'I escaped by observing Selvetarm,' Halisstra continued. 'By following him, I learned where one of the portals that leads from Lolth's domain was located. It was guarded by a songspider, a creature whose webs create music that can enslave or even kill. This barrier would have barred my way, had I not been schooled in bae'queshel. I used that magic to play the strands of the web like a lyre, plucking it open. The portal led back to this plane, to a place east of Lake Sember.'
'Halisstra can show us where it is,' Cavatina said, her eyes gleaming, 'and lead us to the temple in the Demonweb Pits. The Crescent Blade-'
Qilue held up a hand for silence. She didn't like the look in Halisstra's eye. A former priestess she might be, but her eyes held a gleam as malicious as Lolth's own. Her desire to return to the Demonweb Pits was just a little too strong.
Yet the pain and desperation that Qilue could sense in Halisstra seemed real enough. Part of her, at least, still yearned for a second chance at redemption, but because Halisstra could not die, she would, for all eternity, be in bondage to the Spider Queen, unless the sticky webs with which Lolth held her could somehow be broken.
Qilue suspected that Halisstra was, consciously or not, trying to play both sides of the sava board at once. Redemption lay on one side of the board. On the other was the possibility of a reward from the Spider Queen for delivering a priestess of Eilistraee into her hands, except that Lolth was capricious when it came to rewarding mortals for services rendered. The Spider Queen was just as likely to punish as to pardon, as Halisstra was doubtless well aware.
'We can do it, Lady Qilue,' Halisstra whispered, 'finish what we started. Use the Crescent Blade to kill Lolth.' She spread her elongated fingers, looked down at the claws that protruded from their tips. 'But she won't die by these hands. Someone else will have to wield the Crescent Blade this time.'
Qilue nodded. Eilistraee's faithful would not make the same mistake twice. Three years before, Uluyara's decision to let Halisstra carry the Crescent Blade had proved a disaster, even though the choice had seemed sound at the time. Halisstra had been part of the group that had been seeking Lolth during her Silence. She stood the best chance of infiltrating Quenthel's band and traveling with them to the place where Lolth had secluded herself, but Halisstra had been a novice, not yet fully trusting in her newfound faith. It would be one of Eilistraee's Chosen-Qilue herself-who would carry the battle forward.
If, indeed, the Crescent Blade did still exist.
'Three years ago,' Qilue said, 'Uluyara came to me and told me what you planned to do. When you entered the Demonweb Pits, I was watching.'
That got a reaction. 'You were scrying?' Halisstra's spider legs drummed against her chest. Her breathing was fast and light.
Qilue nodded. Deliberately, she added details that Halisstra would recognize. 'Could you not feel me, when I shattered the ice that Pharaun used to imprison you? I saw through your eyes when Danifae lifted you by the hair and made you watch as the draegloth tore into Feliane.'
Halisstra's eyes narrowed, perhaps in pain at the memory. 'You saw Feliane die?' Every muscle of her body was tense.
'Yes.'
For several moments, there was strained silence. Qilue waited expectantly for Halisstra to reveal, through some ill chosen word, whatever secret had caused her to tense up. Something had happened after the draegloth killed Feliane-something Halisstra didn't want Qilue to know about-but what?
Halisstra laughed, a wild sound that rippled at the edge of insanity. Qilue thought she heard an undertone of relief in it, but couldn't be certain. 'You think I could have done more to save Feliane, but I was weak, nearly dead myself. I could do nothing to stop the draegloth from killing her.'
Qilue arched an eyebrow, waiting. Nothing more was forthcoming, however. Qilue at last nodded. 'You could do nothing to save her,' she agreed.
Halisstra's relief was clearly visible, and perhaps it really was as simple as that. Perhaps Halisstra felt guilty
