Ascendancy of the Last - By Lisa Smedman Page 0,65

at Eilistraee’s shrine in the Misty Forest. Corellon Larethian had, indeed, once ruled thirteen lesser Seldarine. Two betrayed him—Lolth and her son Vhaeraun—and a third allowed herself to be banished from Arvandor, together with her mother and brother, so the drow might one day find redemption: Eilistraee.

That number grew to eleven, during the time I trod the Underdark, the male voice said. The Black Archer’s priests slew several of our House.

Q’arlynd’s ancestor supplied the name of the god who had found favor in Corellon’s court: Shevarash the Black Archer, the once-mortal surface elf who had vowed never to rest, smile, or laugh, until the last drow was slain. A slaughter Corellon condoned—despite the fact that its victims included Eilistraee’s drow faithful, even though they had rejected the wanton cruelty of their race.

Q’arlynd snorted. So much for the surface elves’ high ideals.

He realized the other masters were staring at him. They too had withdrawn from the vision. The crystal that had proŹvided the vision left its spot above the table and resumed its orbit around Seldszar’s head.

Q’arlynd cleared his throat. He repeated what his ancesŹtors had just told him. “You’ll have noted there were thirteen oak trees supporting the dome,” he told the other masters. “A significant number. The vision showed us a temple that was built at a time when Lolth, Vhaeraun, and Eilistraee were still counted among the Seldarine.”

“But that was thirty millennia ago—before the first Crown War!” Urlryn blurted.

“Indeed.” Seldszar wet his dry lips. “The vision tasted of dust.”

“Surely the temple no longer stands,” Urlryn continued.

Masoj waved a bony hand. “As long as the abjuration is cast in the same spot, it won’t matter if the temple’s fallen.”

“You miss my point,” Urlryn said. “Without knowing what the spot currently looks like, we can’t teleport to it. Even the most experienced teleportation mage couldn’t find it.” He nodded in Q’arlynd’s direction.

Q’arlynd inclined his head, proud that the other master was acknowledging his expertise in that field.

Masoj stared pointedly at Seldszar, “Do you know where the temple stood? Does your lorestone?”

Seldszar sat quietly a moment, communing with his kiira. “No,” he said at last. He stared pointedly at Q’arlynd’s kiira.

“My ancestors …” Q’arlynd swallowed nervously. “They, ah, didn’t recognize the forest.”

It would be somewhere in Aryvandaar, the female voice said. Or Keltormir.

“But it’s somewhere in the lands that were once home to ancient Aryvandaar, or Keltormir,” he repeated aloud. A memory sprang into his mind. He stared, through the eyes of one of his long-dead ancestors, at a map spread on a table. Kingdoms were labeled, in a flowing hand: Aryvandaar, Illefarn, Miyeritar, Shantel Othreier, Keltormir, Thearnytaar, Eiellur, Syopiir, Orishaar, and Ilythiir. He knew where Miyeritar was—today that portion of the World Above was known as the High Moor. Aryvandaar, he saw, lay just north of it, while Keltormir was well to the south of that.

Q’arlynd described what he’d just seen.

“That’s hardly very helpful,” Masoj said.

“At least it’s better than ‘somewhere on the surface,’” Urlryn countered. “That’s the best most drow can do, when it comes to ancient geography.”

Q’arlynd stroked his chin, thinking hard, as Masoj and Urlryn traded glares. Something niggled at him. At last he worked out what it was. “There’s something that’s botherŹing me,” he told them. “Sages date the Descent to just over eleven thousand years ago. Yet Master Seldszar’s vision showed us a temple that had to have been built at least thirty thousand years ago. That’s a difference of nineteen thousand years.”

Urlryn shrugged. “A mythal could have sustained the temple for that long.”

“That’s indeed possible,” Q’arlynd agreed. “But if the temple was still standing at the time of the Descent, why didn’t my ancestors recognize it? Some of them are dark elves—one of them worshiped Corellon Larethian.” He paused. “I think she didn’t recognize the temple because it was gone before her time. Smothered by the forest, perhaps. But the site must have remained holy, at least until the time of the Descent. I think that’s why the high mages whose magic invoked the Descent chose the spot: because no one, save them, knew where it was.”

Seldszar tapped his fingers together in a patter of applause. “Well done, my boy, well done.” He nodded at the others. “You see why I chose to nominate him to the Conclave?”

“We’re still no further ahead,” Masoj protested. “We already knew the casting was done at one of Corellon Larethian’s temples.”

No, we didn’t, Q’arlynd thought. But he held his tongue.

Seldszar tapped the empty decanter. “The question we should