behind her, her expression veiled. Jeggred hulked over the battle-captive, staring at Pharaun with undisguised hunger.
"It is night, Mistress," Pharaun said to Quenthel. "And raining lightly. The Teeming appears to have abated."
Quenthel nodded as though she had expected nothing less.
"Then we go," she said. "Open the way."
Pharaun nodded. A simple spell would suffice to move them.
He visualized the surface and spoke a magical word that opened a dimensional portal between where they stood and the surface. A curtain of green energy formed in the air.
Pharaun reached out a hand for Quenthel, and her whip serpents reared up with a hiss. Even the snakes were more tense than usual. Pharaun's confrontation with Jeggred had thrown fuel on the fire of the priestesses' war of nerve. Pharaun reminded himself not to get caught in the conflagration when it inevitably blew.
"I must touch you if you are to use the portal," he said to Quenthel.
She nodded and quieted her serpents. He put his hand gently to her shoulder. As he did, he raised his eyebrows and looked a question at her.
The high priestess's expression showed that she took his meaning. They could leave Jeggred and Danifae behind, trapped underground.
Danifae shifted on her feet, as though she sensed the exchange.
Quenthel seemed to consider it before surreptitiously signing, All go.
Pharaun did not let his disappointment reach his face. He looked past Quenthel to Danifae and said, "Mistress Danifae?"
At her nod, he walked over and put his hand on hers, letting it linger for a moment on her smooth skin. Her flesh felt hot to the touch.
"Jeggred too," she said with a seductive, predatory smile.
Pharaun eyed the draegloth, who offered him a fanged smile and a cloud of foul breath.
"Of course," Pharaun said, wincing at the stink. He stepped to the draegloth, who slavered at his approach.
True to his promise to Jeggred, Pharaun had put a contingency spell on his person that would automatically cast another spell should the trigger be met. Pharaun had cast the spell such that if Jeggred attacked him, even if Pharaun was incapacitated or otherwise made unable to speak or cast, the draegloth would instantly be attacked by a giant, crushing hand of force. The hand was bigger than the draegloth, stronger, and would squeeze him until his bones broke.
"Gently, mage," Danifae warned.
Pharaun said over his shoulder, "Jeggred already knows how gentle is my touch. I won't hurt him, Mistress Danifae."
"Of that I have no doubt," she answered.
In whispered Infernal, the tongue of demons, Jeggred said, "Only her command keeps me from ripping your head from your shoulders, contingency or not."
Pharaun understood the demonic tongue, as he did many other languages, and he answered in kind, "Should you even attempt to do so, your end will be rapid and painful. In fact, I wish you would."
He stared a challenge into the draegloth's face. Jeggred's lips peeled back from his yellow fangs, but he did nothing else.
"Enough," Quenthel commanded.
Without another word, Pharaun slammed his fist into the draegloth's shoulderhard. He might as well have been punching a wall of iron.
Jeggred only smiled.
"Mistress," Pharaun said, backing away from Jeggred. "Your nephew remains, as always, an excellent conversationalist." He looked to Quenthel and added, "I believe we're all ready, now."
He stepped near Quenthel, and she took him by the arm.
"Us, first," she said.
"Of course," Pharaun answered.
Together they stepped through the dimensional portal.
They materialized instantly on the surface. All was quiet, and pieces of spider were everywhere. After the chaos of the Teeming, the surface felt eerily still. Eight bright stars like the eyes of a spider beat down on them from the otherwise jet black sky. A light rain pattered against the rocks.
Pharaun hissed, "Do you not think Danifae would look better dead, Mistress? And your nephew would be a fine trophy for" Quenthel silenced him with an upraised hand. Her whip serpents hissed.
"Of course she would," said the high priestess, "but she will look better still as a sacrifice. The insolent bitch dies when I will it, mage. And my nephew, for all of his stupidity, remains a Baenre and the matron mother's son."
Before Pharaun could reply, Danifae and Jeggred appeared beside them, both in a fighting crouch.
Seeing no ambush awaited them, they relaxed their stances. Jeggred snorted with contempt, as though disappointed that his aunt had not attacked.
Quenthel didn't bother to disguise her own sneer. She held her whip in her hand and nodded at something one of the serpents, Yngoth, whispered in her ear. She looked up to the line of