"Release. . me," Pharaun demanded.
His anger was rising, partially at Jeggred, partially at the fact that he feared he might have mistaken Aliisza's motives. Still, he considered it beneath his dignity to flail about, so he remained still.
Jeggred squeezed Pharaun's throat harder and held his other fighting claw before Pharaun's face. With his inner, human hands, the draegloth took hold of Pharaun's arms by the wrists,
presumably to prevent him from casting any spell that might require gestures to complete.
Pharaun tested their strength for a moment and found them more than a match for his own.
Scraps of old meat hung between Jeggred's yellow fangs.
"She is manipulating you," Pharaun croaked, and both of them knew he meant Danifae.
"No," Jeggred said and sneered. "She's manipulating you. And my aunt." He spat the last word as though it tasted foul.
"You're a fool, Jeggred," Pharaun managed. "And time will show it."
The draegloth exhaled a cloud of vileness into his face and said, "If so, you will not be alive to see it, because you, wizard, are out of time. This has been long in coming."
Jeggred looked back up the cavern to see if either Danifae or Quenthel had stirred. Neither had. Pharaun's illusionary image sat on its rock in blissful Reverie.
To Pharaun's surprise, the serpents of Quenthel's whip-all of them-stared silently down the tunnel, watching the confrontation.
Pharaun understood it then. If the serpents were watching the confrontation, then Quenthel was watching it too, at least indirectly. She wanted to see what Pharaun would do when confronted with her nephew. Another test. He was growing tired of tests.
Jeggred, of course, saw nothing other than the opportunity to kill an irritating rival. With an unexplainable illusion of Pharaun sitting in the campsite, the draegloth probably believed that he could concoct any story he wanted about Pharaun's treachery.
Jeggred leaned in close and his rancid breath made Pharaun wince.
"You see it now, don't you?" the draegloth asked. "Go ahead and scream. You'll be dead before they awaken. I'll explain it as the execution of a traitor and feed on your heart. My aunt will shout, but she'll dare nothing more."
Pharaun could not help but smirk. Jeggred truly was a dolt. He had all the subtlety of a warhammer. It surprised Pharaun that the draegloth possessed any drow blood at all, so inept was he at scheming. Of course, having met and killed Belshazu, Pharaun knew that Jeggred's demon bloodline was something less than spectacular.
"Your death amuses you?" Jeggred whispered, leaning in close.
Pharaun twisted his head to the side so he could more easily speak.
"No, you do."
With that, he whispered a single word of power, one of the most powerful he knew.
The arcane force in the word hit Jeggred like a titan's maul. Foul breath blew from the draegloth's lungs, and he released Pharaun-who managed to keep his feet when he hit the ground-
staggered, uttered a spit-fouled stutter, and sank to his knees.
Pharaun knew the word of stunning would leave the draegloth incapacitated for only a short time. He knew too that the spell likely would not ordinarily affect Jeggred at all, but the draegloth's battle with the chwidencha had left him weakened and vulnerable.
Of course, Jeggred knew no more of that than he did of Quenthel's tacit permission to Pharaun to teach the oaf a lesson.
With exaggerated dignity, Pharaun smoothed his piwafwi and straightened the stiff collar of his shirt. When he noticed that Jeggred's claw had torn a slash into the chest of his shirt, his anger burned hotter still.
"Oaf," he said and cuffed Jeggred in the head. It felt good. He cuffed him twice more.
The draegloth sat on his knees before him, drooling, moaning softly.
Pharaun looked up the tunnel to see ten slitted eyes still watching in silence. He knelt down to look into Jeggred's slack face.
Pharaun thought of offering the draegloth the excuse he had prepared-I was gathering material components. The illusion was to avoid alarming anyone who might stir in their sleep and find me gone. The invisibility is one of my ordinary precautions when acting alone-but decided against it.
Quenthel wanted to test Pharaun and at the same time teach a lesson to Jeggred. Pharaun would push it as far as the high priestess wanted it to go.
He took Jeggred's slack face in his hand and said, "Remember this moment, demonspawn.
This is me doing better than fire, not so? If I desired it, I could drag you to one of these acid pools and dip your head in. Imagine that, dolt. The spell I used to incapacitate you was of middling power. If I wished you dead, I could strip the flesh from your bones in an instant, or stop your heart with a word." He punched the draegloth in the face again, more angry at himself over Aliisza than at Jeggred. He decided that he would burn out Jeggred's eyes before killing him. He started to cast-
But the crack of a whip froze him.
"Master Mizzrym!" Quenthel called, her voice sharp.
With effort, Pharaun controlled his anger. He leaned in close to Jeggred's vile face and said,
"Serve your mistress and I'll serve mine. We'll see who has the right of it at the end of this.
Meanwhile, I'll place a contingency spell on my person. Perhaps you do not know what
'contingency' means? It means that if you put one of your stinking hands on me again-"
"Mage!" Quenthel called again. Pharaun licked his lips, looked back up the tunnel, and slowly stood. Lesson learned, apparently. He wondered if he had passed her test.
Quenthel stood over the illusionary Pharaun, looking down the tunnel at the confrontation between the real mage and Jeggred. Danifae stood behind and beside her.
"Explain yourself," Quenthel ordered.
Pharaun held up the webs and recited the lie without hesitation: "I was gathering material components, Mistress. I used an illusion of myself to avoid alarming your serpents, lest they disturb your sleep."
At that, the serpents hissed, and Qorra drifted up near Quenthel's ear and hissed something.
The high priestess cocked her head and nodded.
Danifae's hooded gaze went from Quenthel, to the stunned and drooling Jeggred, to Pharaun.
Despite her obvious vulnerability at that moment, she showed no fear. The Master of Sorcere wondered if Quenthel would take the opportunity to kill the former battle-captive.
"Not this," the Baenre priestess said. She passed her hand through the illusion, which vanished, then she pointed the haft of her whip at Jeggred. "Explain that."
Pharaun looked down on the draegloth, who seemed at last to be recovering from the effects of the word of power. All four of his hands reflexively clenched and unclenched. His moans grew louder, and his drool pooled on the tunnel floor.
"Ah, that," Pharaun said, and aimed a smile at Danifae. "Without the two of you available to mediate, your nephew and I found ourselves engaged in a … doctrinal dispute. I'm afraid the force of my arguments has left him stunned." He patted the draegloth's head the way he might a pet lizard. "My apologies, Jeggred. All is forgiven now though, not so? We'll simply agree to disagree."
Jeggred managed a growl, and his fighting hands pawed at the hem Pharaun's piwafwi.
"Yes, well. . ahem," Pharaun said, and backed up a step. "There we have it. Friends again."
He walked back up the tunnel and bowed before Quenthel.
"Forgive me for disturbing your Reverie, Mistress," he said.
Quenthel stood silent for a moment before saying, "You did not disturb me, Master