Feliane nodded but did not turn to go. Instead, she said, "I'm afraid."

The words surprised Halisstra. She had never before heard such an admission from another female.

After a moment, she put her arm around Feliane, drew her close, and said, "I am too. But we'll find strength in our fear. All right?"

"All right," Feliane replied.

Halisstra turned to her, held her at arms length, and said, "The Lady is with us. And I have a plan."

Feliane raised her thin eyebrows. "A plan?"

"Let's awaken Uluyara," Halisstra said.

Feliane nodded, and they walked back toward the temple. Before they reached it, Uluyara emerged.

"There you are," said the high priestess. "Is everything well?"

"It is," Feliane said with a smile. "Halisstra has a plan."

Uluyara frowned. "A plan?"

Halisstra wasted no words. "I believe I know why Eilistraee put the Crescent Blade into my hands."

Uluyara's brow furrowed, and she said, "We already know why, Halisstra. You are to use the blade to kill the Queen of the Demonweb Pits."

Halisstra nodded. "Yes, but we've been thinking that I would use the blade only against Lolth herself.

But I think Lolth would be weakened if her Chosen never answered her call. I need to deny her her Yor'thae. I need to kill Quenthel Baenre."

Her sisters looked at her, confused.

Halisstra said, "Don't you see? I was meant to meet Quenthel Baenre during the fall of Ched Nasad. I was meant to learn of her quest to awaken Lolth. Eilistraee's hand is in all of this. I see it now. Quenthel Baenre is Lolth's Yor'thae. If I kill her . . ."

Then maybe I can kill Lolth, she thought but did not say.

"Then Lolth will be vulnerable," Uluyara said, nodding.

"Are we certain?" Feliane ventured. "The prophecy of the Crescent Blade did not speak of the Spider Queen's Chosen."

"I am as certain as I can be," Halisstra replied, knowing that she was not certain at all.

Feliane did not hesitate. She said, "Then I am convinced."

Uluyara looked from Feliane to Halisstra. After a moment she blew out a sigh, touched the holy symbol of Eilistraee she wore around her neck, and said, "Then I am also convinced. How will we find Quenthel Baenre?"

Halisstra wanted to hug the high priestess.

"She is here, somewhere in the Demonweb Pits," Halisstra said, "trying to reach Lolth. I am certain of that too."

"Then we must find her before she reaches the Spider Queen," Feliane said. "But how? Follow the souls?" She indicated the damned souls streaming high above them.

"No," Halisstra said. "We must locate her more precisely."

Uluyara understood Halisstra's meaning, and said, "The Baenre will be warded. A scrying spell will not work."

"She will be warded," Halisstra conceded, "but she bears an item that once was mine, a healing wand that she took from me after the fall of Ched Nasad. That will aid the spell." She looked her sisters in the face. "It will work, and that it does will be a sign from the Maiden."

"She may sense the scrying," Uluyara said.

Halisstra nodded and replied, "She might. Let us trust in the Lady, High Priestess. Time is short."

Halisstra felt the moments slipping from her.

"I am with you, Halisstra Melarn," Uluyara said with a smile. "But to scry, we must have a basin of holy water."

Halisstra scanned the top of the tor, looking for any standing pool of water left over from the rain.

Uluyara and Feliane spread out to help search.

"Here!" Feliane called after only a few moments.

Halisstra and Uluyara hurried over and found Feliane standing over a small puddle of foul water that had pooled in a declivity in the rock.

"That will do," Halisstra said.

"I will hallow it," Uluyara said, taking out her holy symbol.

She held the medallion over the water and offered a prayer of consecration to Eilistraee. As she chanted the imprecation, she took a small pearl from her cloak and dropped it into the water. The pearl dissolved asif it was salt, the rime of filth vanished, and the water cleared. Uluyara ended the prayer and stepped back from the puddle.

"It is ready," she said.

Halisstra could not help but smile. Between the raising of the temple and the consecration of a holy water font, the three priestesses had carved off a little piece of Lolth's plane in Eilistraee's name. It felt good; it felt defiant. She wondered how long the temple and font would last before the evil of the Pits reclaimed them.

It will stand forever once Lolth is dead, she thought.

With renewed determination, she knelt before the font and saw her dim reflection in its clear waters.

Lolth's eight stars, though they hung directly above her, did not show in the reflection. Halisstra was pleased. Even on her own plane, the Spider Queen could not befoul Eilistraee's font.

Touching her holy symbol, Halisstra sang the song of scrying.

As the magic took shape, she conjured an image of Quenthel Baenre in her mind-her tall stature, her angry eyes and harsh mouth, the long white hair, the whip of serpents, the wand she had stolen from Halisstra . . .

The clear water darkened. Halisstra felt her consciousness expand. She continued the musical prayer, her voice growing more confident. Though she was not an especially skilled diviner, the words of the scrying spell poured easily from her lips. She knew that Quenthel's wards could protect the Baenre priestess, but she knew with a certainty born of her faith that they would not. Eilistraee's will would be done; Halisstra would be the Dark Maiden's instrument.

An image formed in the font, wavering at first but clearer with each note that Halisstra sang. There was no sound, but when the image came fully into view it was as clear as a portrait. Uluyara and Feliane crowded close to see.

The image showed Quenthel Baenre in the air, clutched to the chest of an enormous creature covered in muscle and short, coarse fur. The rest of the monster's body was not visible. Halisstra's spell conveyed an image of only Quenthel and her immediate surroundings. Anything beyond that appeared as an indistinguishable gray blur.

Quenthel looked forward, a tight smile on her face, her intense eyes burning. Her long hair streamed behind her in the wind. Her mouth moved as if she was shouting something to the creature that held her.

Uluyara said, "She rides in the grasp of a demon. Look at the size of it, the six fingered hands and claws ... it is a nalfeshnee."

Halisstra nodded. Quenthel must have summoned and bound the nalfeshnee to her will.

The demon suddenly wheeled higher-Halisstra caused the scrying sensor to follow-into the midst of a swarm of drow souls. The spirits wheeled all around the image, flitting in and out of the spell's "eye."

"The river of souls!" Feliane exclaimed and looked skyward to the shades flowing through the sky. "She is here in the Demonweb Pits, at least."

Halisstra nodded but maintained her concentration, keeping the image focused on Quenthel. The high priestess of Lolth barked something at the demon and freed a hand to brandish her serpent-headed whip.

The demon decreased its altitude, and the souls disappeared from the image.

"Where are her companions?" Uluyara said.

Halisstra shook her head. "Possibly just out of view," she said, though she felt a stab of fear for Danifae.

Halisstra had no doubt that Quenthel would kill anyone or anything if it served her purposes. She bit her lip in frustration. Her spell was not revealing enough. They knew Quenthel was flying with a demon somewhere in the Demonweb Pits but nothing more.

"Uluyara," she said through her concentration. "You must help me. We need more information."

Uluyara nodded. "Now that I have seen Quenthel Baenre, there is a spell I can use to aid us. It will take some time to cast. Hold the image another moment. Let me fix the Baenre's appearance in my mind."

The high priestess studied the image for a time then rose.

"Enough," she said. "Release it, Halisstra, before she senses the scrying. There is nothing more to see.

Other divinations will serve us now."

With a gasp, Halisstra let the spell dissipate. The image vanished, and the water once more grew clear.

She stood, but her knees trembled.

Uluyara touched Halisstra's shoulder with affection and said, "Well done, priestess. You have started us on the path. My own spell can learn how far the Baenre priestess is from here but little else. We will need that and more. While I discern her location, you two shall commune with the Lady and ask her for guidance."

Words failed Halisstra. Her heart raced. Commune with the Lady! When she had been a priestess ofLolth, she sometimes had communed with the Spider Queen as part of her temple's bloody rites, but the experience had never been pleasant. A mortal mind was easily overwhelmed by the divine. She found the thought of communing with Eilistraee both terrifying and exhilarating.

She shared a look with Feliane and saw acceptance in the elf's fair-skinned face. Both nodded at Uluyara.

"Good," said the high priestess. "Let us hurry. As you said, Halisstra, time is short."

"Not here. In the temple," Halisstra offered.

Uluyara nodded and smiled. "Yes. In the temple. Very good."

Under Lolth's sky, the three priestesses hurried back to the hallowed ground of their makeshift temple.

There, they cast their spells.

Uluyara sat cross-legged on the floor, her holy symbol cradled in her lap. She closed her eyes, steadied herself, and slipped quickly into a meditative trance. Whispered prayers slipped from her lips, snippets of songs in a language both beautiful and alien to Halisstra.

Halisstra and Feliane sat away from Uluyara, facing each other and holding hands to form a circle.

Halisstra's larger hands engulfed those of the elf priestess. Both of their palms were clammy. Feliane placed her holy symbol medallion on the floor between them.

"Ready?" Feliane asked and retook Halisstra's hands.

"Ready," Halisstra acknowledged. She knew the spell they were to cast would create a short-lived connection to Eilistraee. The answers to the questions they would ask would be short and possibly cryptic.

Such was the nature of direct communication between gods and mortals.

"I will offer the questions," Halisstra said, and Feliane nodded without hesitation.

With that, they closed their eyes and began the spell. The spell required a prayer offered in song.

Halisstra opened, Feliane joined, and soon they sang in time with one another, their voices as one. Power gathered, and windows opened between realities.

Propelled by the spell, their minds reached up and out, through the planes, to the otherworldly home of their goddess.

In the no-place created by the spell, Halisstra could not see, but she could feel-and feel with a vibrancy unlike anything she had previously experienced. Despite herself, she mentally cringed as she awaited contact with the mind of her goddess. She felt Feliane with her, also waiting.

A presence suffused the no-place, and Halisstra braced herself. When the contact came, when Halisstra's mind met that of her goddess in a place-between-places, it was not at all what she had expected.

Rather than the overwhelming spite and judgment she had felt when communing with Lolth, she instead felt a sense of overwhelming comfort, love, and acceptance. It was as if she was immersed in a warm, soothing bath.

Ask, daughters, said a voice in her mind.

The grace in the voice, the gentle love, brought tears to Halisstra's eyes.

Lady, projected Halisstra. You know our purpose. Please tell us what Quenthel Baenre seeks and to where the nalfeshnee bears her.

Halisstra sensed approval of the question.

She seeks to become the vessel of my mother's resurrection, replied the goddess. Without the Yor'thae, Lolth's rebirth will be stillborn.

As the weight of that statement settled on Halisstra's shoulders, Eilistraee continued, The demon carries Quenthel Baenre to the Pass of the Soulreaver beneath of the Mountains of Eyes. My mother waits on the other side.

An image of high peaks formed in Halisstra's mind, dark spires that rose until they reached the roof of the sky. She had seen the mountains in the distance when first she had materialized on the Demonweb Pits.

At the mountains' base stood a dark opening, the sole means of passing through the range-the Pass of the Soulreaver. The name of the pass triggered some old memory in her, as though she had once read of it during her studies in House Melarn, but the particulars escaped her.

How long before she reaches the pass, Lady? asked Halisstra.

A pause, then, She will reach them before the tired sun of my mother rises anew.

The connection grew tenuous. The spell was soon to expire. Halisstra felt her goddess moving away from her. She tried to grab on, but Eilistraee slipped through her fingers.

Before the spell dissipated entirely, she mentally blurted, Does Danifae Yauntyrr still accompany Quenthel Baenre?