Ричард Байерс - Dissolution

Pharaun cast a spell, then slipped through the closed door like a ghost. On the other side was a drab, stale-smelling little room. Wrapped in a blanket like an invalid, her scarred face a mask of bitterness, Greyanna sat in the only chair.

For an instant, she stared at him stupidly, then started to throw off the cover, presumably with the intent of jumping up. He lifted his hands as if to cast a spell, and the threat froze her in place. «What a dreary habitation,» he said. «It was Sabal's, wasn't it, when her fortunes were at their nadir. Mother has a good memory and a charming sense of irony as well.» «And she'll kill you, outcast, for breaking into the castle.» «I always assumed so. That's one reason I never paid you a visit hitherto. But our circumstances have changed. The Council needs me to help determine what's become of the Spider Queen, and you, dear sib, are no longer a person of any importance. As Miz'ri's demoted you for your repeated failures to kill me, I doubt she'll make an issue of your extinction, even if she's certain I'm responsible. She smiled at me this afternoon when I saw her in House Baenre, can you believe it? She must have decided she'd like me to resign from Sorcere and rejoin the family someday. Evidently she's just realizing how powerful I've become in the decades since you chased me out the door.» «I'm surprised you still want to kill me,» Greyanna said. «You've already defeated and ruined me. Death may prove a mercy.»

«I considered that, but I'm going on a journey into the unknown, a quest fraught with peril and adversity to be sure, and I need something special to hearten me, a memory fraught with spectacle and drama to cheer me on the trail.» «I suppose I understand,» the priestess said, «but I wonder why it's come to this. All these years, I've never truly understood the basis for our feud. If I'm to die, will you at least tell me why you chose Sabal over me? Was it fondness? Was it lust?» «Neither,» Pharaun chuckled. «My choice had nothing whatever to do with personalities. How could it, when you twins were so alike? I threw in with Sabal simply because she was dangling from the bottom rung of the Mizzrym ladder. I thought it would be an amusing challenge to lift her to the top.» «Thank you for explaining,» Greyanna said. «Now die.» Pharaun's own living rapier leaped from beneath the blanket. Obviously Greyanna had not only claimed the fallen weapon but figured out how to control it. No doubt she'd been wearing it in its steel-ring form when he entered the room.

Knowing how he loved to talk, she'd lulled him with conversation and took him by surprise. The long, thin-bladed sword hurtled across the room toward Pharaun's chest. He frantically shifted to the side, and the point plunged into his left forearm instead. For a second, he couldn't feel the puncture, and it flared with pain. He had to immobilize the weapon or it would pull itself free and attack again.

He grabbed hold of the blade with his right hand, and it sliced into his palm. A rapier was made for thrusting, but it had sharp edges even so. Sharp enough, anyway. At the same instant, Greyanna cast off the blanket and snatched a mace from behind her chair. She jumped up and charged.

Pharaun narrowly dodged her first swing, then threw himself against her, ramming her with his shoulder. The impact knocked her stumbling backward. It didn't hurt her, though. She laughed and advanced on him again.

He knew why she was so exhilarated. She thought that with his left hand dangling at the end of a spastic arm and the right busy gripping the rapier, he wouldn't be able to cast any appropriate spells to fend her off. And she was right. Edging away from Greyanna, his hand dripping blood, he let go of the living sword and started to conjure, rapidly as only a master could. His sister rushed him. The rapier jerked itself out of his wound, hurting him anew. It pivoted in the air and aimed itself at his heart. Five darts of azure force shot from his right hand into Greyanna's body. She made a sighing sound and collapsed, her mace clanking against the floor. At once the rapier became inert, and fell clattering to the floor. He studied Greyanna, making sure she was truly dead, then examined his own wounds. They were unpleasant, bur a healing potion or two would mend them. «Thank you, sister,» he said, «for a most inspiring interlude. When I sally forth to save our beloved Menzoberranzan, it will be with a heart full of joy.