Vhaeraun's hands. In a few terse words she confessed to them how she had escaped and the power she had given up to do so.
The members of the Seldarine were silent as they absorbed Sehanine's dreadful tale. Finally Corellon spoke. 'You all have heard the accusations, and you have witnessed disturbing things. You must decide what fate Araushnee has earned.'
'Banishment.' The word came as if from a single throat.
Corellon looked into Araushnee's malevolent crimson eyes, marveling that he had never truly seen her before. She stood taut and defiant, her fists balled at her sides and her entire slender form quivering from the effort it took her to keep from striking out at him. Where did it come from-this rage, this terrible ambition?
'What is this that you have done?' he said softly. 'What could you possibly hope to gain by such actions? If there is anything that you lacked, you had only to speak and I would have given it to you with joy.'
'Exactly,' snarled Araushnee. 'You would have given. True power is not given, but seized! As to your 'great gifts,' I held in my hands the destinies of mortal beings-but was my own ever mine to command? You treated me like some cherished and cosseted possession, while standing in the way of everything I desired!'
'Not so,' Corellon told her gently. 'Never did I show you such disrespect. I loved you.'
'And you will yet live to regret it,' she hissed.
The elf lord shook his head in bewilderment and turned to face his son. 'And you, Vhaeraun,' he added sadly, 'though you also have betrayed, you have earned a different fate. You are young, and you merely followed your mother's bidding. It is tragic that this path led you into evil. You must learn to think and live on your own. In time, perhaps, you can redeem yourself and return to the fellowship of Arvandor. But for now, you must find a place on a mortal world alone.'
'Not alone,' Vhaeraun said firmly. 'Eilistraee plotted with us. She deserves to share my fate.'
'Eilistraee? I cannot believe this of the girl-' began Sehanine.
'You were not here!' Aerdrie broke in fiercely. 'I saw her shoot the arrow that struck down Corellon! And as her own mother points out, the girl has never missed her mark!'
Corellon shook his head. 'I cannot believe she would do such a thing!'
'Believe!' hissed Vhaeraun, enraged that Corellon suffered such doubt and anguish at the thought that his precious Eilistraee might have turned against him. He was willing enough to name his son a traitor! Vhaeraun had always hated his younger, favored twin. Now he would have his vengeance.
The young god turned to his mother, his eyes burning with an enmity that set even one such as Araushnee back on her heels.
'You promised me power and honor,' he said in a voice meant only for his mother's ears. 'But instead, your ambitions have cost me everything. Give me Eilistraee, and I will consider this day's bargain well made.'
Araushnee gazed into Vhaeraun's eyes as if into a mirror. After a moment, she gave a barely perceptible nod. 'What he says is true,' she said loudly. 'My children were loyal to me. Whatever fate you assign Vhaeraun should rightfully be shared by Eilistraee. Was it not she who returned to you my enchanted sheath?'
'Where is Eilistraee?' Corellon asked suddenly.
Aerdrie colored deeply, a blue flush that swept over the high sharp bones of her face in a wave of embarrassment and shame. 'I was certain she attacked you, my lord, and I struck back. She fell from the tree. She may yet live; I do not know.'
'Find her! Tend her,' Corellon insisted.
He watched as several of the gods hurried to the tangle of trampled underbrush and fallen limbs. They pulled the girl from the pile and cast healing magic over her limp form.
As soon as her silver eyes opened, they frantically sought for her father. Weak though she was, none of the gods could deter her from going to his side.
Eilistraee stumbled to her knees beside her father. She took the hand he offered her with both of hers and held it to her dark, bloodied cheek. 'My arrow-' she choked, unable to say more.
'There is no fault in you, my child,' the god said softly. 'You did not know what was in the heart of your mother and her son.'
Eilistraee's eyes went wide with shock and horror, and lifted to the dark faces of her family. A small cry of pain escaped her as she gazed into their hate-filled eyes.
'What will become of them?' she said at last.
'They are banished, each according to the place they have earned.'
The dark goddess nodded and stood. 'I will go with my brother.'
'It is not needed,' Corellon began.
'It is needed,' Eilistraee insisted, though tears spilled from her silver eyes. 'I am young and my powers are small, but sometimes I can see the shape of things that will come. In some small way, I will provide a balance. This is all I see…' The girl's voice trailed off, and she slumped senseless to the ground by Corellon's side.
For a moment, the god stroked his daughter's bright hair and regarded her still face with a mixture of sorrow and pride. Finally he looked to Vhaeraun. 'Eilistraee has chosen. Go now, and take her with you. But know that the day your hand is lifted against her will be the last of your life. This I swear, by all the trees of Arvandor.'
Vhaeraun's face twisted with hatred and rage, but he had little choice but to comply. Corellon stood silent as the young god shouldered his unconscious twin and disappeared. Finally he rose to his feet and faced his fallen love. 'Araushnee, your sentence has been spoken by the Seldarine. For what you have done, for what you have become, you are declared tanar'ri. Be what you are, and go where you must.'
Before the horrified eyes of the elven gods, Araushnee began to change shape. Her slender body grew to monstrous size, and her limbs lengthened, divided, and divided again. Araushnee, the cunning weaver and treacherous lover, had become a spider-shaped monster. Most terrible of all was her face, for although her beauty was not altered, her visage was now stripped of artifice and twisted in hatred.
Shrieking like the damned creature she was, Araushnee advanced upon her former love. The elven gods drew swords and moved forward to stand with their lord.
'Hold!' Corellon ordered in a voice so terrible that it froze the gods where they stood. Slowly, regretfully, he stripped the accursed tapestry from his scabbard and then drew Sahandrian. Sword in hand, he faced Araushnee, alone.
The spider elf dropped into a menacing crouch and began to circle her intended prey. Corellon kept his sword up before him, unwilling to make the first strike. His former consort spoke a few sibilant words, and then spat; a stream of luminous venom streaked toward him. He turned the sword slightly and caught the stream with the flat of the blade. There was a horrible hiss and crackle as the venom met and battled the elven blade's magical defenses. But Sahandrian held, and Corellon's defensive swing sent a spray of scattered droplets back upon Araushnee.
The former goddess screamed in agony as the acidlike poison singed hair from her spidery form and ate deep into the flesh beneath. She reared back on her four hind legs and shrieked out another incantation. Four curved swords appeared, clutched with deadly intent by her four front appendages. The monster came at Corellon in a rush, swords crossing and clashing like two gigantic shears.
Corellon's magical sword flashed and whirled with mesmerizing speed as the elf lord held off the four blades. The face of Araushnee grew hideous with rage as she fought. None of the gods who watched could tell the moment when the last traces of her elven beauty vanished and when she became fully the spider monster. But suddenly she leaped at Corellon's throat, mandibles clacking in hungry anticipation.
The elf lord thrust his sword between the two rending beaks and twisted hard to one side, forcing the spider's attack away from his throat. He leaped back, pulling his sword clear and raising it high to deflect the downward sweep of one of those curving swords. He wanted only to parry the blow, but Sahandrian felt strangely heavy, as if the sword suddenly bore the weight of its own opinions and resolve. The magic weapon dipped closer to his foe and sliced cleanly through the hairy appendage.
With a shriek, Araushnee backed off, shaking the dripping stump. Beyond all reason, she came on again in utter frenzy, three swords flailing. Again Sahandrian struck, and then again. Twice more the clatter of falling swords and the wails of the wounded tanar'ri rang through the watchful forest.
Even now, Araushnee would not concede her defeat. She cast another spell; a thread of magic rose from her body, suspending itself from some invisible hook high above. She swung back and then came at Corellon, dripping ichor as she came, with her remaining sword held out before her like a lance.
The elf lord easily sidestepped the attack. But as the spider swooped past, she seized him with her hind legs
