Benelux wriggled indignantly in her scabbard. Annoyed, Jus plucked out the weapon, sheath and all, and tossed it over to the grass beside Cinders. Cinders's big ears were pricked tall, and the hound sniggered. Jus signaled the hound to mind his own damned business, and then suddenly became acutely aware that Escalla's skin radiated a sense of warmth against his thigh.
She was pale white and beautiful, thin yet filled with her own glorious energy. Eyes as green as wild new leaves-cunning, innocent, and shy-looked up at him as she hung on his every word.
Jus reached out to caress a finger down the fine line of her cheek. Escalla held his hand quietly against her face, closed her eyes and nestled worshipfully into his caress.
'I found it!
Jus and Escalla moved apart, each blazing red with embarrassment. Polk ignored it all.
'Now what's all this about talk? If you've got something to say, then speak up, boy! Say what's on your mind! Information should be shared! That's called 'Exchange of ideas!' Backbone of progress!' The badger shoved Jus off the log. 'Anyway, can't dawdle. Time to move on. Day's wasting! Life is precious. A stitch in time saves gathering moss! Here come the others!' Polk waved Henry and Enid over. 'Now come on, boy! Let's get this paperwork done and get this adventure on the road!'
Cursing, Escalla kicked a toadstool to pieces. Enid, Henry, Polk, and Cinders all clustered merrily around, pushing Jus and Escalla onward down the road. Helpless before a wave of pure good will, Jus and Escalla were borne onward into the town, its stench, its crowds, and its flies.
Fuming, the Justicar tied Cinders into place over his helm. Savage with ill-humor he gripped his sword, swapped a look of mutual frustration with Escalla, and then took the lead down the road.
'When we reach the city, Henry, you come with me. We'll see if there is an officer of rangers, ask the best way south, then see if there's been any trouble we should know about. Escalla, you and Enid get the supplies, tools, whatever… We'll meet just inside the gates when we're all done.'
'Whatever.' In a bad temper, Escalla sat on Enid's head. 'Let's get this done and get back home.'
Henry looked up at the faerie as she sat upon the sphinx. 'Are you going to do anything about the way you look?'
Miffed, Escalla jerked her little black skirt. 'Hey! This outfit was made from pure salamander skin! This is the shortest fireproof skirt in the Flanaess!'
'Um, I was just wondering if a faerie and a sphinx might not cause… a bit of attention.'
'Kid, when you wear a skirt like this, you're not worried about attention.' Escalla clicked her fingers. 'It's all fine. I've got it covered.'
'Really?' Henry hesitated, unsure. 'Well, just as long as no one tries to make you show them a pot of gold or something.'
'Hey! No one touches the faerie.' Escalla gave an irritated sigh and then took off to scout the way ahead. 'Come on! Let's get going so we can finally get a little peace!'
Escalla turned invisible. Jus hunched his head, gripped his sword, and walked. Polk sat upon Enid's rump reading a map upside down between his badger paws. With her eyes upon Jus's back, Enid leaned down to whisper quietly in Henry's ear.
'Psst! So did he ask her?'
'No.' Henry pulled his elven mail shirt straight. 'He never asks her. He keeps dithering! Why doesn't he just say it?'
'Ah, the poor thing. It must be difficult.' The sphinx draped her wing companionably over Henry's shoulders. 'I think all he needs is the encouragement of his friends.'
3
The hills west of the Nyr Dyv, the Flanaess's inland sea, glowed a lazy velvet-purple in the sun. Spring had brought dew-speckled mornings and dusty afternoons. It seemed a land blessed with eternal slumber, a place where lizards could bask and rabbits scratch themselves in peaceful shadows.
In an ancient ruin covered with dead, black vines, a crypt door creaked open. Blinking in pain at the unaccustomed light, a drow high priestess winced her way out of the door, turned blinded eyes about the ruins, and then bowed abjectly toward the dark.
'Here, Magnificence. This is the sole remaining tunnel mouth near the inland sea.'
Lolth came forth, making a face as light ripped like needles into her eyes. With a wave of her hand, she invoked darkness all about her as the tunnel from the underdark disgorged her priests, spiders, and demonic bodyguards. Lolth's secretary slithered forth-a six-armed tanar'ri with a woman's upper body and the lower body of a snake, her hair black, short and efficient, and her serpentine lower body polished to perfection. She was laden with a drinking horn, a crystal ball, a shovel, and a collection of notebooks and pens.
Safe inside her pall of darkness, Lolth stretched her long, lithe body, and then wrinkled her nose.
'What
The high priestess kept her head bowed. 'Open air, your Magnificence. A miasma made from grass, pollens, cow flatulence, and the nests of animals.'
'Well, it's horrid. We should burn something to keep the smell away.' Lolth turned, paused, then threw a spell at one of her slaves. The creature burst into flame. 'There! That's so much nicer!'
The Spider Queen's secretary gave a weary sigh, disgusted at the extra work required to find replacement slaves. She took notes with all six arms. Ignoring her secretary's silent reprimand, Lolth gave another delicious stretch, and warmed herself by the fire as she gazed across the hills and valleys of Oerth.
Something whimpered in the weeds. Flitting forward, light as a dancer, Lolth pulled back a curtain of old ivy and found a cringing human in the shadows. The man had a lamb clutched to his chest. Lolth clapped her hands, delighted.
'Oh, look! A shepherd! How deliriously rustic!' She held out a hand, beckoning the fearful man out of hiding, 'Come here! Come on! We shan't bite you!'
The secretary winced and looked away, her coils lashing. The man's screams seemed to go on forever, and blood spattered over the old stones and quiet weeds. The secretary tuned back again when all seemed still.
Coated in blood, panting in delicious release, Lolth looked up and said, 'Oh, yes. We are going to enjoy ourselves here.'
The ruins formed an archway filled with cobwebs and old, dried flowers. At one end of the colonnade, a faint haze of magic flickered. Lolth danced over to the arch and caught a fly in her fingertips, thoughtfully feeding it to a little spider hanging from the stones.
The troops were already moving. In the next hour, the tunnel mouth would flood with abyssal horrors, ready to invade the settlement Lolth had chosen as her first 'larder.' The demon queen cast an eye on her secretary.
'There! We're all done? Our little food-capturing expedition is ready?'
'Yes, Magnificence. Everything is ready.' The secretary irritably lashed her coils, then duly made notes. 'One town-convert populace to foodstuffs. Details to be made up as we go along…'
'But first, we have a few little, trivial tasks to do!' The Queen of the Demonweb Pits snapped a finger at her secretary. 'Come! The rest of you, stay here and try not to do anything idiotic!'
The archway beckoned. Lolth pulled a pouch of black thorns from her belt and tossed a handful through the arch. Magic flashed, and a shimmering portal blazed into life. Shielding her eyes from the glare, Lolth stepped through the gate, beckoning her secretary in her wake.
'Come on! You're always such a dodderer!'
The magic gateway flashed, and Lolth and her secretary emerged from an archway made from pure black ivy deep inside a forest. Gigantic statues of long dead kings stood half-buried in old leaf mold, scowling at the demoness as she stood and spread her arms.
'One hundred and one days! A third of a year since the destruction of my underground kingdom.' Black silk shimmered as Lolth's new demon body swirled like a girl. 'Do you know what I have dwelt on every hour of all
