Going to Lake of Shadows,Pharaun's voice whispered in his mind.Aboleth said ship of chaos is sunk there with uridezu. Will sail ship to Abyss and appeal to Lolth directly.
At twenty-five words, the message was precisely at the limit of the sending spell Pharaun had used to contact Gromph. The archmage sat in silence, contemplating his reply. It needed to be equally brief. . . and informative.
"Your mission is more urgent now. WeneedLolth. Duergar and tanarukks besiege Menzoberranzan. Lichdrow Dyrr is a traitor." Gromph paused, then added in a wry voice, "An uridezu? I wish you luck."
The sense of being watched vanished, leaving Gromph sitting alone in his office. Slowly, he shook his head, wondering if that would be the last time he'd ever hear from Pharaun.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Uluyara listened in silence as Halisstra described what she had seen in Reverie. When she finished, Uluyara whispered a brief prayer, then raised a hand reverently to the night sky. Lowering it, she stared hard at Halisstra, her red eyes reflecting the moonlight.
"Lost, all these years," she said. "Our best scryers, joined in spell-song, could not find the Crescent Blade - and now a novice thinks she can succeed where they failed."
Halisstra, hearing a tone she didn't like in Uluyara's voice, bristled.
"I'm only repeating what Seyll said," she countered. "This was no hallucination. I'm sure it was her spirit who spoke to me. I think she was trying to tell me that I'm going to have to face down Quenthel Baenre in combat and that I'll need this Crescent Blade - whatever it is - to defeat her when I do."
Uluyara stared into Halisstra's eyes, as if weighing her words.
"If this is an excuse to delay rejoining your former companions," Uluyara said, "you might have picked something a little less dramatic than a search for the Crescent Blade. I'd rather you were honest with me and simply tell me you're not ready yet. If you've changed your mind, orare afraid - "
"Afraid? How dare you! I am the First Daughter of a noble House!" Halisstra spat.
Then she remembered who she was talking to - and remembered that her House was no more - and she threw herself onto the ground at Uluyara's feet.
"My apologies, Dark Lady," she whispered, tensing in expectation of the lash that would have immediately scoured her shoulders, had it been one of Lolth's high priestesses to whom she had spoken so boldly. "I was of a noble House and am not used to having my cour-age questioned. I was taught, long ago, to cocoon my fear up tight and never let it unravel. I assure you that I'mnotafraid - and I'm not making this up. I don't even know what the Crescent Blade is. Please, enlighten me."
Uluyara sighed and said, "Rise, priestess." When Halisstra had, she continued, "This past day has been a difficult one for both of us. I was the one who first brought Breena up into the light. She was like a daughter to me. Her death . . ."
She paused to stare out into the darkened woods. From the direc-tion her eyes yearned toward came the sound of women singing, the voices of the three priestesses who were laying out Breena's corpse on a bier high above the forest floor where it would be washed by the tears of the moon. The death song seemed to float on the breeze, ac-companied by the clean scent of freshly fallen snow.
At last Uluyara tore her eyes away and began her story.
"The Crescent Blade was forged centuries ago, after Eilistraee plucked a pebble from the heavens and tossedit down to the earth below. By the time it struck the ground, it had grown to the size of a boulder and was glowing as brightly as a forge. It was so hot that no one could approach it without a protective spell. The boulder was weeping metal - moon metal, for that was where it came from. Ifyou look up at the moon, you can see a hole. That is the spot from which Eilistraee plucked the stone."
Halisstra peered at the moon, which had just risen above the trees. Its face was pocked with dozens of dark, circular holes. She glanced from one to the next, wondering which was the one.
"There," Uluyara said, pointing. "The smaller hole within that larger, darker one. See how what remains of the larger hole forms the shape of a crescent?"