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 of Lolth, 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.