of some elaborate game? Had Jarlaxle baited him to this place, so that he might speak some false word, open the drawer, and destroy himself and half of Sorcere? It occurred to Entreri that Jarlaxle might have put a phony replica of the spider mask in the drawer, then tricked Entreri into coming here and setting off Gromph's powerful wards, thus destroying the evi dence.
Entreri shook the disturbing thoughts away He had committed himself to this course, had convinced himself that his attempt to free Drizzt was somehow part of the framework of Jarlaxle's grand plans, whatever they might be, and he could not surrender to his fears now. He uttered the phrase and pulled open the drawer.
The spider mask was waiting for him.
Entreri scooped it up and turned to Catti-brie, who had filled the top of a small hourglass with fine white sand and was watching it slip away with the moments. Entreri leaped from the dwarf bone desk and scrambled across the room, tipping the item to the side.
Catti-brie eyed him curiously
"I was keeping the time, " she said calmly
"This is no timepiece!" the assassin roughly explained. He tipped the hourglass upside down and carefully removed the sand, replacing it in its packet and gently resealing it. "It is an explosive, and when the sand runs out, all the area bursts into flame. You must not touch anything!" he scolded harshly. "Gromph will not even know that we have been here if all is in proper order." Entreri looked around at the jumbled room as he spoke. "Or, at least, in proper disorder. He was not here when Jarlaxle returned the spider mask."
Catti-brie nodded and appeared genuinely ashamed, but it was only a facade. The young woman had suspected the general, if not the exact, nature of the hourglass all along, and would not have let the sand rim out. She had only started it running to get some confir mation from the worldly Entreri.
The two quickly departed the wizard's room and Sorcere. Catti brie did not let on that she had several more of those dangerous hourglasses, and their corresponding packets of detonating sand, tucked into a belt pouch.
Chapter 22 BREAK IN
Qu'ellarz'orl, the plateau occupied by some of the proud est noble houses, was strangely quiet. Entreri, appear ing as a common drow soldier again, and Catti-brie made their silent and inconspicuous way along the great mushroom grove, toward the twenty foot high spiderweb fence surrounding the Baenre compound.
Panic welled in both the companions and neither said a thing, forced themselves to concentrate on the stakes in this game: ulti mate victory or ultimate loss.
Crouched in the shadows behind a stalagmite, the two watched as a grand procession, led by several priestesses sitting atop blue glowing driftdisks, made its way through the open compound and toward the great doors of the huge central chapel. Entreri recog nized Matron Baenre and knew that some of the others near her were probably her daughters. He watched the many disks curiously, coming to understand that matron mothers of other houses were in the procession.
It was a high ritual, as Jarlaxle had said, and Entreri snickered at how completely the sly mercenary had arranged all of this.
"What is it?" Catti-brie asked, not understanding the private joke.
Entreri shook his head and scowled, indicating that the trouble some young woman should shut her mouth. Catti-brie bit her bot tom lip and did not spew the many venomous replies she had in mind. She needed Entreri now, and he needed her; their personal hatred would have to wait.
And wait is exactly what Catti-brie and Entreri did. They squat ted behind the mound for many minutes as the long procession gradually disappeared into the domed chapel. Entreri figured that many more than a thousand drow, maybe even two thousand, had gone into the structure, and few soldiers, or lizard riders, could now be seen from his position.
Another benefit of their timing soon showed itself as songs to Lloth filtered out of the chapel's doors, filling the air about the com pound.
"The cat?" Entreri whispered to Catti-brie.
Catti-brie felt the statuette in her pouch and considered the question, then looked doubtfully at the Baenre web fence. "When we get over, " she explained, though she had no idea of how Entreri meant to pass that seemingly impenetrable barrier. The strands of the fence were as thick as Catti-brie's forearm.
Entreri nodded his agreement and took out the black velvet spi der mask and slipped it over his head.