ghost?' she asked sarcastically.
The being drew himself up to his full height. Obviously of elven blood, he wore raiment fit for a king. He looked far too pale to be healthy, even for a Moon Elf. 'You know very well I am no ghost,' he declared haughtily. 'I am a baelnorn, sworn and loyal protector of my family's wealth and power.'
'An annoyance by any other name.'
The baelnorn pursed his lips, the pride suffusing him coloring even his undead face. 'You know that I have no respect for you, drow. Your kind were never welcome in fair Myth Drannor, even when the city opened its arms to the humans and dwarves.'
'Then allow me to pass in peace, ghost I know that you won't offer me any harm as long as I don't try to unlock your family's crypts or the secrets they left hidden behind when they fled before the Army of Darkness. And I have no intention of trying. I have found the treasure I seek.'
'Yes,' the baelnorn agreed, 'and you scurry around Folgrim Shallowsoul's feet like a sniveling lapdog. And you call yourself a warrior of the drow race. Hah!'
Anger threaded through Krystarn. If not for her training to prefer treachery and duplicity over face-to-face confrontation, she would have struck the baelnorn with her morning star. 'You talk brave words, ghost. Is this your true form, or do you taunt me from a projection of yourself?'
'I should tell you?' The baelnorn grinned and shook his head. 'Better that I should wear at you like the conscience that you do not possess.'
'Do not wear too heavily, ghost. If you try my patience too hard, it may be that I find it necessary to track you down to your lair and destroy you.' Krystarn gave the baelnorn a harsh look. 'Or maybe you've lived so long down here that you no longer remember that it is possible to die a true death?'
'I would never fear a drow.' The baelnorn curled his lip at the thought.
'That is your choice, foul creature,' Krystarn said. 'But in the year and a half that I have known of you, I find it interesting that you have never given me your name. Perhaps this is because I will find out who you are, and where you hide.'
'Finding me would only bring you your death, heartless wench.'
'I would find death, true, but that would only send me on my way to the Spider Queen. If you were to die, where would you go? You've already turned down the elven afterlife as your people see it.'
The baelnorn remained silent.
'And what of the precious treasures of the house you yet guard?' Krystarn taunted. 'I have seen you fret and worry because of the wights and skeletons that roam these tunnels who might discover your secrets. Can you imagine the hands of a drow going through those treasures?'
A pained look flashed through the baelnorn's eyes.
'I also promise you this, ghost,' Krystarn said, stepping closer to the baelnorn and drawing her remaining magic energies into a tight weave around her, 'that any of those treasures that I find lacking, I'll scatter above the ground in the ruins of Myth Drannor for any wandering band of adventurers to find. Each located far enough apart to guarantee that they'll be found by separate groups. Your house, should they ever realize that you have failed in your assigned task to keep their legacy intact for a time when they could return from Evermeet and safely claim it, would take lifetimes tracking them all down again. And it would be your fault.'
'You have no honor.'
'Honor,' the drow said, 'is merely one of the weaknesses I do not have. Thank you. I had not expected a compliment from someone such as you so early this morning.'
'I will relish the day that Folgrim Shallowsoul turns on you, witch.' The baelnorn turned and walked into the solid wall of rock beside it, vanishing without a trace.
Krystarn cursed the baelnorn and turned back to watch the hobgoblins below. None of the creatures had heard the exchange between her and the elven crypt guardian. An idea formed as she looked at the hobgoblins. Servants within the confines of the subterranean world were lacking. Especially ones that Shallowsoul did not know of.
Marshaling her strength, she stood up, making herself visible to the hobgoblins fifty feet below.
The females and the children scattered, taking the bedrolls and supplies from the illumination of the cookfire. With her drow vision, Krystarn could still see them all clearly.
'Beware, drow!' a hobgoblin male challenged. The dark gray hair covering the exposed parts of its body bristled. Its blue nose wrinkled in distaste, pulling at a ragged wound along its right temple. The naked length of a short sword reflected firelight in its right hand, and a coiled whip shook loose in its left, black leather slithering across the rock. 'This place is claimed by the Sumalich Tribe!'
Krystarn almost laughed at the petty arrogance of the hobgoblin. 'Who are you to address me in such a threatening manner?'
The hobgoblin stretched to its full height of nearly seven feet, taking a deep breath to throw out its chest. 'I am Chomack, Taker of Dragon's Teeth, chief of the Sumalich!' Another hobgoblin male trotted over to stand beside him, holding the tribe's standard, a hand holding a spear thrust through a skull on a field of red and jet.
“Taker of Dragon's Teeth?' Krystarn said in obvious disbelief. 'Were the dragons then asleep when you took them? Or were they through with those teeth? Maybe these were truly old dragons who kept them in a pot by their bed.'
Chomack howled in rage. He gestured to a pair of his warriors. They nocked arrows to bows and fired without hesitation.
The shafts sped true. Before they covered half the distance, though, Krystarn unleashed her magic. A double-forked lightning bolt licked out and burned the arrows from the air in a blaze of white fire. The bolt continued across the cavern till it struck the other side, then doubled around and came back.
Krystarn stood her ground. With her drow vision, she knew the breadth of the cavern and she'd chosen the effect the rebounding would have. She opened her hand as the lightning bolt traveled back toward her. The gale winds that accompanied the electric energy swept around her, stirring up dust devils that held glinting bits of rock.
The lightning bolt faded to nothing less than five paces from her open palm. The drow looked down at the hobgoblin tribe and appreciated the way they had thrown themselves down to the ground. Only Chomack and a handful of his more seasoned warriors remained standing.
'Sorceress,' several of the hobgoblins whispered. The children cried out in fear.
Krystarn stepped forward, over the edge of the sheer ridge, and stood on empty air looking down at the hobgoblin tribe. 'Know me, Chomack, and fear me, for I hold your life in my hands!' She made a fist. Allowing herself to descend within the semi-circle of fearful hobgoblins, she touched down lightly in front of the tribal chieftain. 'I am Krystarn Fellhammer of the House Ta'Lon't, loyal servant of Lloth, the Spider Queen!'
A snarl rippled across Chomack's face, exposing his yellow teeth. 'Kill me if you can, sorceress. I call no one master!' The tribal chieftain leaped at the drow, slashing with his short sword.
Krystarn met his attack with a warrior's skill. She parried the short sword with her morning star. Sparks flared as the weapons crashed together. Chomack dropped back into a crouch, then cracked his whip at her.
Metal glinted at the tip of the leather braid as it flashed at her face.
Whirling, Krystarn avoided the whip. She advanced again, swinging the morning star. The hobgoblin chieftain blocked her blow, then launched a kick at her face. Expecting such a move, the drow caught her opponent's foot and twisted.
Howling in rage and pain, Chomack threw himself up and back, flipping himself over in a show of skill and dexterity. He landed on his feet and prepared to attack yet again.
'Hold, Chieftain of the Sumalich Tribe!' Krystarn commanded. 'I would not take your life if I could spare it!'
The hobgoblin chieftain halted, wariness in his eyes. 'I have to keep my honor.'
'Then keep your honor, Chomack, Taker of Dragon's Teeth.'
Krystarn hung her morning star at her side from a leather loop. The hobgoblin chieftain's attack had been fierce and exhausted her still further. She longed to be in bed in the suite of rooms she'd claimed for herself in the underground ruins Shallowsoul managed. 'I am here neither to take your life nor your honor. You challenged me justly.' That behavior was a fatal character flaw the drow would never allow herself. 'Instead, I would seek to
