the priestess. Before it struck, one of Nafay’s whip vipers reared. It snapped the spike-spider out of the air and swallowed it.
The whip viper thrashed wildly as the spike-spider jammed in its throat. The other two snake heads hissed in fury.
Nafay whirled. The holy disk hanging from her neck whipped around like a pendulum. She shouted a prayer and wove her hands together, glaring at T’lar through the tangle of her fingers.
T’lar felt the spell brush against her body. It pulled at her abdomen, bloating it unnaturally. It teased two strands of flesh from her left side, attempting to twist them, together with her left arm and leg, into thin insectoid legs. Her mind was yanked toward the priestess. Web-sticky fingers plucked at her thoughts, trying to weave them to Nafay’s will.
T’lar fought back with all her will. With a jolt, her body returned to normal. She leaped from the water. In mid-leap she used the dro’zress within her to pass into invisibility. A mid-air tumble and a kick off a tree trunk placed her where the priestess wouldn’t expect her. She jabbed stiffened fingers into the priestess’s upper-left abdomen, into the vital spot over the blood-sac. Her other hand punched into Nafay’s throat.
The priestess gagged and buckled at the knees, unable to breathe and bleeding within. She grasped her holy symbol and tried to flutter her fingers in a silent prayer, but T’lar spun and slammed a heel into Nafay’s temple. The priestess collapsed, unconscious.
One of the whip’s heads lashed out. T’lar leaped back. The snake’s poison-filled fangs snapped at air. T’lar stepped careŹfully around the whip and crouched behind the priestess. She pressed hard against the neck, where the blood flowed, and choked off the pulse. Nafay’s legs kicked once, and then her body relaxed. She was dead.
“Lolth tlu malla,” T’lar whispered, giving the ritual thanks for a successful kill. “Jal ultrinnan zhah xundus.”
Two of the whip’s snake heads spat furiously at her. The third had stiffened; two of the snake-spider spines had pierced its scaly skin from within and were protruding out of its body. T’lar picked up the wild elf’s blowpipe and used it to nudge the whip aside. Later, after she collected her gear, she would bag the whip and carry it back to Guallidurth as proof of her kill, together with Nafay’s holy symbol. She slipped the pendant off the dead female and hung it around her own neck.
Then she turned her attention to the wild elf. His body remained stiff, but his hands trembled and his eyelids flutŹtered. He was stronger than T’lar had expected. The poison would relinquish its hold on him soon. T’lar knelt beside him and placed her hands on his throat, then hesitated. She knew she should kill him now. Finish the job. But curiosity gnawed at her. She yearned to know what had brought Nafay to this place, what was so valuable to the priestess up here on the surface. A temple, the wild elf had said.
Instead of tightening her grip, T’lar released the wild elf’s throat. She wouldn’t kill himyet. She would force him to show her this temple first. She knew this might mean uncoverŹing secrets the valsharess would prefer remained buried, but if that meant T’lar’s death upon her return to Guallidurth, so be it. She would go to the altar willingly, certain in the knowledge she had served Lolth well.
She plucked the spike-spider from the wild elf’s forehead. She removed the pouch from his string belt, sniffed the dartsthey were poisonedand set them aside. Then she drew Nafay’s spider-pommel dagger and used it to cut strips from the priestess’s silk robe. She used these to bind the wild elf’s wrists behind his back, and to hobble his ankles. She wadded more silk into his mouth and tied this makeshift gag tightly in place. Then she waited. From time to time, she slapped him. When he at last flinched, she grabbed him by the hair.
“Blink twice if you understand me,” she said. She spoke in High Drow; the earring only allowed her to understand the wild elf’s language, not to speak it.
The wild elf glared. The whites of his eyes had a yellowish tinge, signifying a malaise deeper than just the poison, one that had been affecting his vitals for some time. She rolled him over, inspecting his body. She found what she’d been looking for on his left thigh and calf: a series of small, raised red lumps. Spider bites. She touched one of