on Splitter's hilt and watched all three, his face an expres-sionless mask.
"This is madness," Halisstra said as she backed away, pointing her crossbow at the floor. "We must cooperate if we want to get out of here alive."
Quenthel opened her mouth to speak, perhaps to issue the order that would send Jeggred charging at the wizard regardless of the consequences, but at that moment Valas returned, trotting up to the company. The scout came to a halt, taking in the situation with a glance.
"What is going on here?" he asked carefully.
When no one answered,the Bregan D'aerthe looked at each of the company in turn.
"I cannot believe this. Have you not had your fill of fighting in the last forty hours? How can you even consider spending the last of your strength, your magic, your blood, slaughtering each other, when we've already fought our way across half of the damned Labyrinth?"
"We are in no mood to be harangued by you, mercenary," said Quen-thel. "Be silent." She glared at Pharaun, and thrust her whip through her belt. "It serves no purpose to fight each other here."
"Agreed," said Pharaun - perhaps the tersest statement the loqua-cious mage had uttered in the time Halisstra had known him. From some unsuspected well of discipline the wizard mastered his anger and straight-ened, relaxing his hands. "I will not be handled like a common goblin, though. That I will not bear."
"And I will not be taunted and baited at every turn," Quenthel replied. She turned to Valas. "Master Hune, did you find anything in the palace?"
The scout glanced nervously at Quenthel and Pharaun, as did Halis-stra and Danifae.
"In fact, I did," he said. "In the main hall of the palace there is a large portal of some kind. Unless I misread the signs, a large number of people passed through it. I suspect House Jaelre lies somewhere on the other side, in some new abode."
"Where does the portal lead?" Ryld asked.
Valas shrugged and said, "I have no idea, but there is certainly one way to find out."
"Fine," said Quenthel. "We will put your portal to the test at once, before the minotaurs and their demons return. In a few minutes, anywhere will be better than here."
She let one long glare linger on Pharaun, who finally had the good sense to avert his eyes in what would have to suffice for a bow.
Halisstra let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.
Chapter TEN
"Now this I did not expect," remarked Pharaun.
The wizard sighed and sat down on a rock, allowing his pack to drop to the moss-covered ground. The company stood in the mouth of a low cavern looking up at a daylit forest, somewhere on the surface. The Jaelre portal lay a few hundred yards behind them in a damp, winding cavern that led to a large, steep-sided sinkhole with lichen-covered boulders and trickling rills of cold water splashing down from the hillside above.
The day was heavily overcast - in fact, a light rain was falling - and the clouds, coupled with the gloom of the forest, helped to ameliorate the insufferable brightness of the sun. It was not so harshly brilliant a day as they had seen in the cloudless desert of Anauroch a tenday past, but to eyes long accustomed to the utter lightlessness of the Underdark, the diffuse sunlight still seemed as harsh as the glare of a lightning stroke.
"Should we keep moving?" Ryld asked. He'd returned Splitter to its sheath, angled across his broad back, but he held a crossbow at the ready and squinted into the towering green trees. "It won't take the minotaurs long to figure out where we went."
"It doesn't matter if they do," Pharaun said. "The portal was keyed to function for drow alone. It's nothing more than a wall of blank stone to our friends in the Labyrinth - a sensible precaution on the part of the Jaelre, I suppose, though had I been in their shoes I believe I would not have ruled out the possibility of attackers of my own race."
"You're certain of that?" Quenthel asked.
The wizard nodded and replied, "I was careful to examine the portal before we stepped through. Leaping blindly through portals is a bad habit, and should be reserved only for the gravest of situations, such as escaping imminent death in the destruction of a city. And, before anyone asks, we can still retrace our steps if we wish. The portal functions in both directions."
"I am not in a hurry to return