to have found my rightful place in this tidy little cell. I expect wonderful flowers bloom just beyond the bars of my window, and I am more than a little thankful that the thrice-cursed sun shines no deeper into my prison." She laughed bitterly. "Somehow the holy message of your silly little dancing goddess rings a little false today. Now go away, and let me get back to the important business ofprepar-ing myself for the inevitable tortures that await me when the so-called lord of this fetid dungheap of a village loses his patience with my in-transigent ways."
"You sound like me, when I first heard Eilistraee's message," Seyll replied. She moved closer and sat on the floor beside Halisstra. "Like your-self, I was a priestess of the Spider Queen who found herself a captive of the surface folk. Though I've lived here for several years now, I still find the light of the sun overly harsh."
"Don't flatter yourself, apostate," snarled Halisstra. "I'm nothing like you."
"You might be surprised," Seyll continued calmly, her placid demeanor unchanged. "Have the Spider Queen's punishments ever struck you as need-less or wasteful? Have you ever failed to nurture a friendship because you feared betrayal? Have you ever, perhaps, watched a child of your own body, your own heart, destroyed because she failed at a senseless test, only to tell yourself that she was too weak to live? Did you ever wonder if there was a point to the deliberate and calculated cruelty that poisons our entire race?"
"Of course there's a point," Halisstra replied. "We're surrounded on all sides by vicious enemies. If we didn't take steps to hone our people to their finest edge, we would become slaves - no, worse yet, we would becomerothe."
"And have Lolth's judgments in fact made you stronger?"
"Of course."
"Prove it, then. Offer an example." Seyll watched her, then leaned for-ward and said, "You remember countless tests and battles, naturally, but you can't prove that you were madestronger by them. You don't know what might have happened if you hadn't been subjected to those tortures."
"Simple semantics. Naturally I can't prove that things are other than they are."
Halisstra glared at the heretic, profoundly annoyed. She would have found the conversation irritating and irrelevant under the best of circum-stances, but with her hands and feet chained together, slumped against the cold, hard wall of a stone cell with a painful shaft of sunlight slanting in, it was positively infuriating. Still, she had very little to occupy her mind otherwise, and there was a small chance that a display of enthusiasm for Seyll's faith might win her a parole of sorts. Lolth was completely intoler-ant of apostates, but to feign acceptance of another faith in order to win the freedom to betray the trust of one's captors . . . that was thesort of clever-ness the Spider Queen admired. The trick, of course, was not to appear too eager, yet just uncertain enough that Seyll and her friends might come to hope for a true change in Halisstra's heart.
"You are annoying me," she said to Seyll. "Leave me alone."
"As you wish," Seyll said. She stood gracefully, and offered Halisstra a smile. "Consider what I've said, and ask yourself if there might be some truth to it. If your faith in Lolth is as strong as you think, surely it can with-stand a little examination. May Eilistraee bless you and warm your heart."
She pulled her hood back over her head, and silently withdrew. Halis-stra turned her own face away so Seyll couldn't see the cruel smile that twisted her features.
Rear guard, mused Ryld, seems to be the spot Quenthel saves for the person she deems least useful at the moment.
He paused to listen to the forest around him, seeking for any sound that might indicate an approaching enemy. He heard nothing but the steady patter of cold rain. Pharaun's fire-spiders had managed to set a smoky blaze in the woods behind them, but the rain had likely prevented the fires from burning too much of the forest. The weapons master glanced up into the sky, allowing the cold drops to splash on his face and noting the sullen silver glow behind the clouds.
At least the rain is washing out our trail, he thought.
After a hard march the previous night and lyinglow in a thick tangle of brush through a long, sunny day, they had resumed their hike in the evening only to meet a deluge soon after setting out. The forest floor was nothing but