crashed down, beaten unconscious by the magical blow.
Escalla scarcely bothered to give the fallen girl a glance. She sped into the dark, searching the cavern floor, and found Tielle's magic horn. She dragged horn, portable hole, and Cinders over to the lake. She dived into the hole and found their paltry few grooming goods-Cinders's fur brush, her own hairbrush, soap, and the straight razor Jus used to shave. The razor was absurdly sharp. Escalla tried not to think about it. She laid bandages, razor, regeneration potion and Tielle's magic horn out by the edge of the lake. Cinders lay watching her, beating at the cave floor with his tail.
'Yeah. Faerie has plan.'
'Maybe. A bit.' Escalla stopped, retrieved Lolth's gems from the portable hole, and popped them into Cinders's mouth. 'Cinders, if this doesn't work, then call for Morag. Tell her that her true name is on the gem. Make her take you and Tielle to my father. He'll look after you, all right? Good dog.' Escalla shook, mortally afraid. She put her arms around Cinders's head and hugged his beloved furry skull. 'Love you.'
Escalla slit her wrist with one long slash of the razor. She tried to keep quiet, but one awful sob escaped her as she sliced open her artery. Faerie blood squirted out over the shore, and Escalla held her arm over the silver lake and let herself bleed into the horrible liquid.
Her blood ran fast, driven by a pounding little heart. There was so very little faerie to go around. Already drained white, with her blood spattering fast out of her arm, Escalla flipped open the potion of regeneration. She hoped Morag had played straight. She quaffed it down.
It tasted like spring water.
Escalla swayed, then felt herself fall. She caught herself at the last moment before pitching into the lake. Slumped sideways, she lay on the shore, her arm stretched toward the lake and her blood running in a shocking stream down into the fluid. Yawning, she felt her legs go numb and knew she was bleeding to death.
Beside her, Cinders mewed and thrashed in place, tail pushing at the ground and his chin smashing at the stone.
'… 's all right, Cinders.' Escalla wanted to blink but couldn't move her eyes. She felt like a rag, all washed out and worn. 'Don't cry. Don't cry…'
The room faded, and Escalla wasn't frightened anymore.
Escalla felt something nuzzling her face-Cinders's nose, cold and firm. Blinking, she stared at her arm. Blood flowed out of the gash she had cut from wrist to elbow-far more blood that any faerie body could hold. Her heart beat slowly, weakly-but steadily. The girl watched herself bleed for a while, then felt an image of Recca's regenerating flesh settle in her mind.
'Blood. He does it with green blood. That's how he heals.'
Cinders nuzzled more insistently, and Escalla sat up. Giddy, she reached for a length of cloth and carefully bound her arm. The bandages were stained red, but she kept winding the cloth tight until the bleeding stopped. The severed muscles hurt. Her arm was useless. She tied a knot awkwardly with one hand and her teeth. She found herself sitting, staring at the lake, and patting Cinders's warm, furry head.
'It's all right, Cinders. It's all right now. See? No one touches the faerie.'
The lake glowed a pleasing, restful blue-like liquid sapphire or a perfect morning sky. Escalla looked down at her arm as it tingled. She could feel her feet again, and her heartbeat grew stronger. Beside her, the empty potion bottle rolled twinkling in the light.
Morag had given them a real potion of regeneration. Escalla prodded the empty bottle with her foot and felt her little body beginning to heal.
'Hey, Cinders.'
Morag had told Escalla the secret. The lake was blue. Blue for healing, blue for good-a blue that would burn evil just as the red water burned good. Escalla picked up the magic horn and filled it, then dipped the edge of the portable hole into the lake and topped it to the brim. She folded the hole, took Cinders and planted him over her head, then marched back to where Morag waited in the caves.
The tanar'ri stood, trying to appear serene. Her thin, beautiful face betrayed her nervousness. She looked anxiously at Escalla as the faerie appeared.
'What happened?'
'I got it. The vampire pool's water, charged with the lifeblood of a good creature.' Escalla nodded. 'Lolth's vulnerable to holy water.'
'Shockingly vulnerable!' Morag shrugged her tail. 'In the Abyss, it is hardly a disadvantage. Nothing stays holy there for more than a few minutes.'
'I have the tools to win. I can go.'
Escalla thought for a moment, heaved a sigh, then handed Morag Lolth's jewel.
'Morag, take me back there, and then go do what you please. If you take my sister to my father's court, he'll give you refuge and help you make a home. There are places quieter than the Abyss for you and your friend.'
'You're giving me back my name?' Morag stared at the jewel. 'You're trusting me?'
'There was no name on the jewels. I lied.' Escalla shrugged. 'Sorry. Hey! I'm a faerie.'
Morag looked extremely annoyed. She grabbed Escalla, planted her on her shoulders, and growled.
'Meaning Lolth still has my secret name. So now I
'Yep.'
'I am annoyed.'
'Hey!' Escalla looked acidly at the tanar'ri girl. 'Remember when you nicked off and left us in the middle of that fight?'
'All right, all right!' Morag seethed. She had been outmaneuvered. 'Let's go.'
'Hoopy.'
Morag summoned one of her followers to collect Tielle.
'So this place your father knows… it's much quieter than the Abyss?'
Still numb with shock and grief, the faerie gave a nod. 'Much.'
Morag teleported out of the caves, first to Keggle Bend, then the Abyss, the Demonweb-and finally through the brass door to Lolth's home plane. They returned to the spider palace.
The battle against Lolth was about to be rejoined.
Morag teleported them into the engine room. The boilers lay dead and hissing. All powers of flight lost as the physical laws of Lolth's home plane took hold, Escalla leaped down. She ran to the edge of the time-stop field and stared at the weird changes that had taken place.
Manes had come blundering to the rescue. There were perhaps six of them now, all frozen where they had walked into the time field. Escalla ran frantically around the rim of the field, staring in at the scene and trying to plan what she should do.
Enid was dead. Henry and Polk were unconscious and about to be deluged in giant spiders-all of whom hung in mid-leap. Recca had risen halfway from the ground and was reaching for his sword. Jus was on his knees, hanging forward, one hand crammed against the wound in his chest and a look of apocalyptic fury on his face as he turned toward the spider queen.
Working fast, Escalla flung Cinders down on the floor.
'Time!'
Morag had a time-keeping device. She retrieved it from her pocket and opened the cover.
'Time's up.'
'Right! Quickly!' Escalla ran fingers through hair made limp with grief and worry. 'Put a rag over your hand,
