Elaine Cunningham: The Best of the Realms, Book I

Surely Xandra, who had trained and fostered her, wouldunderstand how she felt and would lift the burden from her.

"You will kill, or you will be killed," theShobalar wizard proclaimed. "That is the challenge of the Blooding, and itis the reality of drow life."

Xandra's voice was cold and even, but Liriel did notmiss the glint in the wizard's red eyes. Stunned and enlightened, Liriel staredat her trusted mentor.

Kill or be killed. There could be little doubt whichoutcome Xandra preferred.

Liriel tore her gaze away from the vindictive crimsonstare and did her best to attend to the ceremony that followed. As she stoodsilently through the matron's ritual blessing, the girl was struck by a strangeand very vivid mental image: somewhere deep within her heart, a tiny lightflickered and died-a harbinger, perhaps, of darkness to come. A moment ofinexplicable sadness touched Liriel, but it was gone before she could marvel atso strange an emotion. To a young dark elf, such a vision seemed right andfitting-a cause for elation rather than regret. Soon, very soon, she would be atrue drow indeed!

On silent feet, Liriel eased her way down the darktunnel. One of the gifts her father had given her were boots of elvenkind,wondrous treasures crafted of soft leather and dark elven magic. With them, shecould walk with no more noise than her own shadow.

She also wore a fine new cloak-not a piwafwi, forthat uniquely drow cloak was usually worn only by those who had proventhemselves by that very ritual. Of course, there were exceptions to that rule,and Liriel did indeed possess one of the magical cloaks of concealment-itplayed a significant role in her frequent escapes from House Shobalar-butyoungling dark elves were not permitted to wear them during the Blooding. Theadvantage of invisibility removed most of the challenge, and was thereforedeemed inappropriate for the first major kill.

Thus Liriel was plainly visible to the perceptive eyesof the Underdark's many strange and deadly creatures, and therefore in constantdanger.

The young drow kept keenly alert as she walked. Yether heart was not in the hunt. She was not entirely certain she still had aheart: grief and rage had left her feeling strangely hollow.

Liriel was accustomed to betrayals both large andsmall, and she was still trying to assimilate her realization that she mustshrug them off and move ahead-albeit with caution. So it had been withBythnara, whose snippy comments and small jealousies had once pained herdeeply. So it had been even with her father, who twelve years earlier hadwronged Liriel more deeply than any other person had before or since.

But it would not be so with Xandra Shobalar, Lirielvowed grimly. Xandra's betrayal was different, and it would not gounremarked-or unavenged.

Vengeance was the principle passion of the dark elves,but it was an emotion new to Liriel. She savored it as if it was a goblet ofthe spiced green wine she had recently tasted-bitter, certainly, but capable ofsharpening the passions and hardening resolve. Liriel was very young, andwilling to accept and overlook many things in her dark elf kindred. But for thefirst time, had seen the desire for her death written in another drow's eyes.Liriel understood instinctively that it could not go unpunished if she herselfhoped to survive.

But at a deeper, even more personal level, the girlbitterly resented Xandra for forcing her to disregard her own instincts andact against her will.

Liriel rebelled bitterly against the need to submit toher mistress's demands, yet what else could she do if she was to be accounted atrue drow?

What else, indeed?

A smile slowly crept over Liriel's dark face as a solutionto her dilemma began to take shape in her mind. There was much more to being adrow, her father had admonished her, than engaging in crude slaughter.

The painful weight on the young drow's chest lifted abit, and for the first time she realized a very strange thing: she did not fearthe dreaded wild Underdark. It seemed to her that the wilderness was awondrous, fascinating place full of unexpected turns and twists. There wasdanger and adventure and excitement in the very air and stone. UnlikeMenzoberranzan, where every bit of rock had been shaped and carved into amonument to the pride and might of the drow, out there everything was new,mysterious, and full of delightful possibilities. There she could carve out herown place. Liriel fell suddenly, deeply, and utterly in love with the vast anduntamed Underdark.

"A grand adventure," she said softly,repeating without a trace of irony the words of her own discarded dream. Asudden smile brightened her face, and as she bestowed an affectionate pat uponan enormous, down-thrust spire of rock, she added, "The first ofmany!"

Without warning, a bright ball of force rounded thesharp corner of the tunnel ahead and hurtled toward her.

The battle had begun.

Training and instinct took over at once. Lirielsnapped both hands up, wrists crossed and palms out. A field of resistancesprung up before her an instant before the fireball would have struck. Thegirl squeezed her eyes shut and tossed her head to one side as the brilliantlight exploded into a sheet of magical flame.

Liriel dropped flat and rolled aside, as she'd beentaught to do in such attacks. The magical shield could not withstand more thanone or two impacts of such power, and it was prudent to get out of the line offire. To her astonishment, the second blast came in low and hard-and directlytoward her. Liriel leaped to her feet and dived for the far side of the tunnel.She managed to put the large stalagmite between herself and the coming blast.

The explosion rocked the tunnel and sent a shower ofrock fragments cascading down upon the young drow. She coughed and spat dust,but her fingers darted undeterred through the gestures of a spell.

In response to her magic, the dust and the sulfuroussmoke swirled to a central spot of the tunnel and gathered into a large globe.Liriel pointed grimly in the direction of the unseen wizard, and the floatingglobe obediently rounded the corner toward its prey.

She waited, hardly daring to breathe, for the nextattack to come. When it did not, she began to creep slowly and cautiouslyaround the bend. There was no sound in the tunnel ahead, other than the distantdrip of water. That was promising: the globe of hot, smoky vapor had beenenspelled to seek out and surround its source of origin. If all had gone well,the human wizard would have been smothered by the sulfurous by-products of hisown fireball. Liriel picked up her pace. If that was so, she would have alimited amount of time to find and revive him.

The tunnel grew ever brighter as she made her way downits twisting length. The path dipped dramatically, and Liriel saw laid outbefore her a cavern stranger than any she had ever seen or imagined.

Luminous fungi covered much of the stone and filledthe entire cave with a faint, eerie blue glow. Stalagmites and stalactites metin long, irregular pillars of stone, and large crystals embedded in them tossed off glitteringshards of light that stabbed at her eyes like tiny daggers.

A brilliant ball of light flashed into being in thecenter of the cavern. Liriel reeled back, clutching at her blinded eyes. Herkeen ears caught the whine and hiss of an approaching missile; she dropped flatas yet another fireball blazed toward her.

The fireball missed her, but barely. Heat assailedLiriel with searing pain as it passed over her, and the smoke and stench of herown scorched hair assaulted her like a blow to the gut. Coughing and gagging,she rolled aside. She blinked rapidly as she went, trying to dispel the lingeringsparks and flashes that obscured her vision.

Think, think! she admonished herself. So far she hadonly reacted: along that path lay certain defeat.