Extinction

Triel heard running feet in the hallway outside, approaching the audience room door. She gripped the legs of her chair, clenching tightly to subdue the trembling of her hands. She stared over the blackened husk of her guard, wincing at the burned-meat smell, as a captain of her House guard ran into the room. The woman's eyes widened at once as she took in the blackened bodies on the floor.

"Matron Mother," she gasped. The captain was panting, as if she'd run some distance. "The enemy approaches the city!"

"From which direction?"

"Through the caverns to the southeast. Our patrols have skirmished with them at the Cavern of Severed Tentacles and at Ablonsheir's Cave."

"Was it tanarukks the patrols encountered or duergar?" Triel asked.

"Both, but most tanarukks"

"In what numbers?"

The captain shrugged and said, "Impossible to tell. But the armies seem to have combined and are making their way swiftly through the Dark Dominion. They'll reach the outskirts of the city at any moment."

Triel ground her teeth. Was it a feint?or an assault in force? Judging by their approach, the tanarukks and duergar were aiming to enter Menzoberranzan through one of the nine tunnels that lay between Donigarten Lake and the edge of the plateau, but which would they emerge from? And, should they succeed in entering the great cavern, what would their target be? Under ordinary circumstances, Triel would have expected the attackers to push north across the great cavern, cutting off Donigarten and the moss beds, the city's main water and food sources, to ensure that Menzoberranzan would have nothing to sustain it during their siege. But given the timing of the assassination attempt?which, had it succeeded, would have thrown her House into chaos?perhaps there was another target. House Baenre would be the first stepping stone to an assault on Qu'ellarz'orl itself. If she was right, the main force of the attack would come through the tunnels closest to the plateau.

Was there still time to plug the gap? She dared not commit the House guard. It would be needed to defend the Baenre compound if the enemy made it into the city. There was only one other House Baenre company close enough.

"Pull our troops back from the siege of House Agrach Dyrr," Triel ordered. "Send them into the caverns immediately below the eastern end of the plateau. Order them to hold them at all cost. And tell the other Houses to send their troops to defend the other caverns leading into Narbondellyn. House Barrison Del'Armgo especially. Our troops will be first to bear the brunt of the assault, but Del'Armgo must reinforce us. Leave Agrach Dyrr to the Xorlarrin."

The captain bowed and said, "As you order, Matron Mother."

As the captain hurried away, Triel chewed her lip, praying she'd made the right decision.

Where in the Nine Hells was Gromph when House Baenre needed him most?

Chapter Eight

Glass.

Curved glass.

And outside it…

Gray stone.

Tunnel walls.

Close.

Outside curved glass.

Gromph Baenre, Archmage of Menzoberranzan, stared, unblinking, at the rough stone that lay just outside the wall of his prison. He was trapped inside curved glass. In utter silence. Inside a hollow sphere that lay on the floor of an unknown tunnel. Unable to move, unable to breathe, only sluggishly able to think.

He stared at his own reflection, distorted by the concave surface of the glass. His face was coarse but unlined despite his seven centuries, thanks to the amulet of eternal youth pinned to his piwafwi.

His silver-white hair floated loosely around his head, unaffected by the gravity that existed only outside the sphere. His eyes were open and unblinking.

Growing weary of his own face, he stared at the tunnel walls instead, noticing a bright vein of quartz. Noticing how wide it was, how large the crystals.

Time passed.

A while later?ten cycles, a year??Gromph felt something tickle his mind. An awareness. A presence. Turning his mind toward it, Gromph sought it out. Struggling like an exhausted man trying to lift his head, he concentrated his will.

Kyorli?

Nothing.

More time passed.

He stared at the vein of quartz, picking out a crystal within it. By concentrating on its facets?blurred though they were by the concave glass in front of his eyes?he could focus his thoughts.

What he knew was that he was inside a sphere of glass, the product of an imprisoning spell.

A spell cast by the lichdrow Dyrr.

He was far beneath the city, in an unknown tunnel, encased in a spell that prevented even divination magic from finding him.

Trapped.

More time passed. As it trickled by, Gromph tried to open his mouth, to force his eyelids to blink, to twitch his fingers.

Nothing.