"Asanque, " Jarlaxle answered with a sweeping bow. It was a somewhat ambiguous word that could mean either "as you wish, " or "likewise."
"Why are you here?" Triel demanded.
"You knew I was coming, " Jarlaxle stated.
"Of course, " Triel said slyly. "I know many things, but I wish to hear your explanation for entering Sorcere, through private doors reserved for headmasters, and into the private quarters of the city's archmage."
Jarlaxle reached into the folds of his black cloak and produced the strange spider mask, the magical item that had gotten him over House Baenre's enchanted web fence. Triel's ruby red eyes widened.
"I was instructed by your mother to return this to Gromph, " the mercenary said, somewhat sourly.
"Here?" Triel balked. "The mask belongs at House Baenre."
Jarlaxle couldn't hide a bit of a smile, and he looked to Entreri, secretly hoping that the assassin was getting some of this conversa tion.
"Gromph will retrieve it, " Jarlaxle answered. He walked over to the dwarf bone desk, uttered a word under his breath, and quickly slipped the mask into a drawer, though Triel had begun to protest. She stalked over to the desk and eyed the closed drawer suspi ciously Obviously Gromph would have trapped and warded it with a secret password.
"Open it, " she instructed Jarlaxle. "I will hold the mask for Gromph."
"I cannot, " Jarlaxle lied. "The password changes with each use. I was given only one." Jarlaxle knew that he was playing a danger ous game here, but Triel and Gromph rarely spoke to each other, and Gromph, especially in these days, with all the preparations going on in House Baenre, rarely visited his office at Sorcere. What Jarlaxle needed now was to be rid of the mask, openly, so that it could not be tied to him in any way That spider mask was the only item, spells included, in all of Menzoberranzan that could get some one past House Baenre's magical fence, and if events took the turns that Jarlaxle suspected, that mask might soon be an important piece of property, and evidence.
Triel chanted softly and continued to stare at the closed drawer. She recognized the intricate patterns of magical energy, glyphs and wards, on the drawer, but they were woven too tightly for her to easily unravel. Her magic was among the strongest in Menzober ranzan, but Triel feared to try her hand against her brother's wiz ardly prowess. Dropping a threatening gaze at the cunning merce nary, she walked back across the room and stood near Entreri.
"Look at me, " she said in the Common tongue of the surface, which surprised the assassin, for very few drow in Menzoberranzan spoke the language.
Entreri lifted his gaze to peer into Triel's intense eyes. He tried to keep his demeanor calm, tried to appear subjugated, broken in spirit, but Triel was too perceptive for such facades. She saw the strength in the assassin, smiled as though she approved of it.
"What do you know of all this?" she asked.
"I know only what Jarlaxle tells me, " Entreri replied, and he dropped the facade and stared hard at Triel. If she wished a contest of wills, then the assassin, who had survived and thrived on the most dangerous streets of Faerun's surface, would not back down.
Triel matched the unblinking stare for a long while and became convinced that she would garner little of use from this skilled adver sary "Be gone from here, " she said to Jarlaxle, still using the surface tongue.
Jarlaxle rushed past the Baenre daughter and scooped up Entreri in his wake. "Quickly, " the mercenary remarked. "We should be long out of Sorcere before Triel tries that drawer!" With that, they were through the spidery door, which fast reverted to a plain wall behind them, blocking Triel's inevitable curses.
But the Baenre daughter was not as mad as she was intrigued. She recognized three courses coming together here, her own and her mother's, and now, apparently, Jarlaxle's. The mercenary was up to something, she knew, something that obviously included Artemis Entreri.
When they were safely away from Tier Breche and the Acad emy, Jarlaxle translated all that had transpired to Entreri.
"You did not tell her of Drizzt's impending arrival, " the assassin remarked. He had thought that important bit of information to be the gist of Jarlaxle's brief conversation with Triel, but the mercenary said nothing about it now.