Extinction

Uluyara sighed and said, "Rise, priestess." When Halisstra had, she continued, "This past day has been a difficult one for both of us. I was the one who first brought Breena up into the light. She was like a daughter to me. Her death. ."

She paused to stare out into the darkened woods. From the direction her eyes yearned toward came the sound of women singing, the voices of the three priestesses who were laying out Breena's corpse on a bier high above the forest floor where it would be washed by the tears of the moon. The death song seemed to float on the breeze, accompanied by the clean scent of freshly fallen snow.

At last Uluyara tore her eyes away and began her story.

"The Crescent Blade was forged centuries ago, after Eilistraee plucked a pebble from the heavens and tossed it down to the earth below. By the time it struck the ground, it had grown to the size of a boulder and was glowing as brightly as a forge. It was so hot that no one could approach it without a protective spell. The boulder was weeping metal?moon metal, for that was where it came from. If you look up at the moon, you can see a hole. That is the spot from which Eilistraee plucked the stone."

Halisstra peered at the moon, which had just risen above the trees. Its face was pocked with dozens of dark, circular holes. She glanced from one to the next, wondering which was the one.

"There," Uluyara said, pointing. "The smaller hole within that larger, darker one. See how what remains of the larger hole forms the shape of a crescent?"

Halisstra closed one eye and sighted along Uluyara's arm, then nodded as she spotted it.

"The moon metal shed by the boulder was collected and forged into a sword with a crescent-shaped blade," Uluyara continued. "With each heating, with each hammer stroke against the anvil, with each quenching, enchantments were laid upon the blade. It was made holy, giving it a keener edge against evil. It was made quick as thought, allowing it to strike twice for each stroke of an enemy blade. It was enchanted with moonlight, just as my own sword is, allowing it to pass through armor?or even stone?as easily as through flesh. By the blessing of Eilistraee it can also fend off evil magic, casting a protective circle around the one who holds it.

"The final enchantment laid upon the Crescent Blade," Uluyara continued, "is perhaps the most powerful of all. If the arm of the priestess wielding it is strong and her aim is true, the blade will sever the neck of any creature."

Uluyara paused, and her eyes bored deep into Halisstra's.

"Any creature," she repeated. "Be it a drow, a demon … or even a goddess."

All at once, Halisstra understood.

"So that's what Seyll was trying to tell me," she whispered. "I'm to use the Crescent Blade not to kill Quenthel Baenre but to kill Lolth herself."

Uluyara stared at her for a long moment before she said, "Impossible as it sounds, it is so."

"But I… But she…"

Overcome by the enormity of the idea, Halisstra found herself unable even to protest. She, Halisstra?a former priestess of Lolth only recently brought into Eilistraee's light?was to slay the most powerful deity known to the drow? With a sword? The notion was insane. Laughable, even. She'd witnessed first hand a battle between gods, when Vhaeraun and Selvetarm confronted each other outside Lolth's temple in the Demonweb Pits. None of the mortals present?even Pharaun?could have affected the outcome of that battle if they tried. But Halisstra supposed Eilistraee must know what she was doing?that she must have chosen Halisstra for some reason.

Though really, Halisstra couldn't see why. She knew only a handful of bae'qeshel spells?mostly simple healing magic?and was still struggling to relearn the clerical spells that Lolth had once granted, and that Eilistraee was slowly revealing to her in new forms. Halisstra was like someone who had been laid low by an illness and who was only slowly learning to walk again. And Eilistraee expected her not just to walk but to run. To fly, even.

As Uluyara had said, impossible.

Or was it? Lolth might not be dead, but she was inactive?and inattentive. When Halisstra had blasphemed against her, nothing had happened. Even killing the phase spider by invoking Eilistraee's moonfire had failed to arouse her wrath. Lolth's yochlol handmaidens might have killed one of Eilistraee's priestesses, but from the goddess herself there had been no direct sign. According to Uluyara's scrying, Lolth's temple was still sealed by an enormous black stone. A stone that resembled a face?and had a neck.

A neck made of stone?a material the Crescent Blade could cut through easily, as easily as a normal blade through bare flesh. With a single, well-aimed stroke of the Crescent Blade, that neck could be severed. As long as the blow was struck by one of Eilistraee's faithful.

Would that really kill Lolth?

Halisstra shook her head.

"Why me?" she asked Uluyara. "Surely Eilistraee could have found a more worthy priestess. You, for example."