Revenge of the Drow

Later, there had been a falling out among the drow slavers, fairly typical for scum like those, and one of them shot the woman with a crossbow. This allowed the brave dwarf, fighting for his life, to stab one of the male drow in the guts and another in the heart before being overcome himself.

There were a lot of things wrong with the story, not least how a dwarfen artisan could have bested two drow fighters, but such was the status of the prosecutor's favourite advocate that after further deliberation and discussion Mira was ordered to stand trial.

Dwarfs believe in fair trails and due process, but they also believe in punishment. And not many people hate the drow slavers more than they do. Mira was in serious strife, and would be lucky not to be convicted and lose her life.

Mira was kept in the cell; a reasonably comfortable one, for dwarfs are not savages after all. Mira had been training with the priesthood to become a healer, and she was just learning how to cure battle wounds with different herbs and concoctions, and how to use spells and incantations to neutralise the effects of poisons. As such, she was getting used to battle injuries, but this was in a safe hospital setting. The sight of mangled corpses, guts on the ground, and the sticky cloying blood had been too much. Mira cried for the lover she had lost, little knowing how close she had been to a fate worse than death at his hands.

Just over a week into her imprisonment, the jailer announced a visitor. It was a human woman. Young and beautiful, with dark features, green eyes and brilliant strawberry blonde hair. Mira felt her spirits lift slightly as the woman smiled at her. She felt the girl gaze at her with a mixture of friendliness and concern, and something else she could not quite fathom, but certainly not unpleasant.

"Are you Mira?" the girl asked. "I am Jade. I'm here to help you if I can".

Mira stared intently into the eyes of the girl. For some reason she wanted to trust her implicitly.

"Yes," she said. "I'm in deep trouble. I'm accused of killing my lover. And being in league with the accursed drow. And killing the priestess who disappeared. Freda." Mira put her head in her hands and started sobbing.

Jade stepped over to her and stroked her hair gently. "Freda was my friend," she said. "She died in battle at my side. She helped me overcome my own terrible circumstances and learn to love others. But I still need to remember that actions have consequences, before pursuing private vengeance."

Mira looked mystified. She felt better from listening to this girl, whose voice was as soothing as her face was pretty. But what she was saying did not make sense.

"What is this to do with me?" she asked timidly.

"It has everything to do with you." Jade knelt at the feet of the dwarf girl, and took her hand. "What I have to say may shock you."

"Not as much as I've been shocked already. I think you're here to help me. I hope you're my friend. I certainly need one." Mira stroked Jade's hand.

"Your lover sold Freda into slavery. He effectively killed her. His so-called parents helped him. So did the four drow slavers. All are dead at my hands."

Mira let go of Jade's hand. She stared at her, eyes now wide with fear and not surprise. "You killed my darling? But I trusted you. I thought you were my friend."

"I am your friend," said Jade. "I saved your life. Your lover was planning to sell you in the same way he sold Freda. I stopped that. But I realise now I also endangered your life in the process. I need to apologise for that. I wanted you to learn a lesson. Not to love so stupidly. Not to make the same mistake Freda made. I laughed aloud on the journey home thinking about your rude awakening and how you would be less foolish in future."

Mira shrank back against the wall. Jade had seemed so much like her friend. But she had admitted to killing her lover, someone who had been the most important factor in Mira's life. Mira wondered how someone who could seem so fair; friendly, attractive and smiling, could at the same time be such a cold blooded killer. If this woman was telling the truth then she had single handedly killed seven people, four of them fighting men and women.

"How did you do it?" she whispered.

"It wasn't easy. Oh, your lover was soft. And his supposed parents were even softer. But the drow men were more of a challenge. Good thing they fell for my beauty."

"You're a monster," Mira whispered. "Get out!"

Jade bowed low, turned around and left silently. Mira sat still and stared hard in front of her.

The guards found her the next morning, still staring ahead, still shocked. They escorted her, respectfully but firmly, into the court. The dwarfen court was held in an ornate above ground chamber, hung with tapestries, supposedly showing scenes of justice against the underworld races, but which Mira found rather macabre, especially in her present predicament.

The judge, a hugely important looking portly dwarf, looked down on her from a dais. Under dwarfen protocol, the judge cross examines all witnesses, anyone can speak out for or against the accused, and then the entire court room determines the verdict. This particular case had generated a lot of interest and the court was totally packed. All the wooden benches were full, and there were several rows of dwarfs standing at the back, straining to see.

Mira was still in a daze when she was told to sit at the bench near the judge, and she only vaguely heard Freda's father strenuously denouncing her, still sticking to his story, which he obviously still believed. "That's not true," she muttered, shaking her head.

The judge glowered at her. "Silence!" he snapped. "You will get your chance when the witness has finished". Mira flinched, then bowed her head.

At last Harald had finished his tirade. The judge, wanting to appear fair, said in a loud voice, "does anyone want to speak for the accused?"

"I do," came a voice from the back. Jade stepped up to the front. She was speaking in the lowland human tongue, which not many present could understand, but a muscular human man was translating for her. Mira recognised him as one of the human mercenaries who sometimes accompanied the dwarfen caravan trains to Formen and beyond.

"This young lady did not murder those people. How could she? She can hardly hold a weapon, let alone wield one. And how could she or her lover possibly defeat four drow warriors in a fight?" Jade's voice was very persuasive, and even though having the interpreter present lost some of its impact, enough of the audience understood Jade for her to be winning them over.

Harald stood up, quivering in rage. "She is lying!" he shouted. "That little bitch is a murderer. She killed my deputy, and betrayed my beautiful daughter. She must die!"

The audience were on their feet, straining to glimpse Jade, and talking passionately among themselves. Some were taking Harald's side, and some were still seduced by Jade's voice. But now Mira had a glimmer of hope. Then Jade stared straight into Harald's eyes. He tried to look away, but the gaze was held. Jade whispered an incantation under her breath, and the elderly dwarf's anger seemed to dissipate. So much so, that when the judge asked if he had any proof of this, he muttered something incoherently, and then shook his head.

Jade turned to the judge. "He has been charmed. But not very well. Now as you can see he is not so certain about his interpretation." The judge hesitated. He knew that the accuser was very popular, and that the people were very angry indeed that the drow slavers had sneaked in to their own home, poked and prodded around, and picked out top talent for their slave pits. The judge needed a scalp, and if Mira was not going to provide one, he needed somebody else.

"So, young lady," he said to Jade, trying hard to keep his authoritarian voice amid that disarming stare and alluring beauty. "How do you know she didn't do it? Do you know who did?"

"As far as who sent the slavers, I don't have any definite proof, but I have a very good idea that it was the same priestess who killed my mother. And my colleague and I are out to revenge them." Jade spoke through the human, and Harald stared at her open mouthed. Now he was no longer under the influence of a charm spell, he appeared to believe her.

"How do you know this?" continued the judge. "Who killed the slavers and our three people?"

Jade hesitated. She thought of lying, of stating that the drow had killed the dwarfs and then each other. But she knew the judge would not want to believe this. He would ask her how she knew.

"I did," she said. "The three deceased dwarfs betrayed Freda and were about to do the same to Mira. Freda is revenged. Your women are safe."

This confession, after it had been interpreted by Terry, caused pandemonium in the court. The reactions were mixed. There were those, particularly the women present, and some of the younger men, who cheered Jade; standing on the benches and saluting her with their fists in front of their faces. Then there were some older men who muttered belligerently. The judge had to bang his hammer on the anvil for quiet.

"It appears as if the accused is innocent," he said. "But just so we observe the correct form, who agrees with this verdict?" Most of the dwarfs raised their hands in the air, including, after some initial hesitation, Harald.

"Case dismissed," said the judge. He turned to Mira. "You are free to go." Mira got up slowly, still not quite sure what was happening to her. She was free to go. But go where? The whole court had essentially passed judgement on her lover and agreed he was a traitor. Even Harald his patron, who had previously stood up to him. This was worse than being accused herself. Mira burst into tears. She was dimly aware of the judge detaining Jade and convening a new court, with Jade as accused, before she was led away, this time more kindly, and found herself in her apartment.

Mira threw herself on her bed and sobbed till she was hoarse. She never moved from her apartment the next day, eating, sleeping and performing her ablutions as if in a dream. Then she had a visitor.

It was Jade, flanked by the interpreter Terry, who Mira now realised was a pretty good looking bloke. She smiled at him, but he did not appear to react at all. Oddly enough, she got more of a reaction from Jade, who smiled and flirted back.

Mira scowled and pouted. "I thought they would put you away for murder."

"Oh I think a few of them wanted to," said Jade. "Including that pompous judge. But quite a few of them were all in favour of giving me a medal instead. And they were the majority, so the judge could not very well convict me. But you will be pleased to know I did not get off scot free either. The judge ordered the ambassador to Duke Liam and the Royal House to send a 'strongly worded diplomatic protest' to the mayor of Formen, for the tactless way in which I invaded their territory and messed it up. And he no doubt will admonish me terribly, wagging his finger in no uncertain terms."

Mira smiled, in spite of her determination to act sullenly towards this girl, who she now recognised as an enchantress.

"That's better," laughed Jade. "I saved your life, remember"

"But you may as well not have bothered. I would be better off dead."

"Now here you talk of things you know nothing about. You most certainly would not. I was a drow house slave, and five years a temple slave. And that is an experience I would not wish on my worst enemy." Jade thought of Xiana. "Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but certainly nobody else.

"But what can I do now?" wailed Mira. "There is nothing left for me"

Jade held back her head and laughed. "My dear Mira, you are young and beautiful, and you have the whole of your life ahead of you. You lost your head over a man. But now you are sadder and wiser, why don't you rebuild your life?"

Mira looked at the young, self-assured woman in front of her. If what she had said was true, Jade had been through several years of hell, yet had come out of it stronger and better able to face up to everything life could throw at her. Maybe she could pick up the pieces of her own life. But what she needed now was something to distract her. And then she heard Jade make a proposal that suited this purpose very well.

"We are intending to raid the drow complex and avenge my mother. You have no reason to be friends of the drow. If you are at a loose end, why don't you come with us? We could certainly do with a healer."

"You want me to come with you and your lover?" gesturing at Terry.

Jade laughed again. "He is not my lover. My lover is waiting outside. We thought you might not like the sight of a drow warrior, not so soon after your ordeal. But don't go getting any ideas," she whispered as Mira's eyes lit up and she started to take an interest for the first time since Jade and Terry had entered, "he is smitten with another."

"Your lover is a drow?" Mira's eyes opened wide in astonishment and alarm.

"He is brave and loyal. Like me, he had to overcome the prejudices and cultural conditioning of his race. And who am I to be such a racial snob? I'm also half drow. My father was human, my mother was drow. And it's my mother who I'm avenging."

Mira thought for a few minutes, in total silence. Jade had made every effort to appear human. Her appearance, posture, and fluent use of the human language spoke of someone who had rejected her drow heritage. So even part drow don't like their drow parts, she thought.

Then Mira thought of the offer that was being made. Mira could adventure with Jade and her two companions, or she could vegetate in her own apartment, go back to her training as a healer, and be stifled by the cloying pity the others would feel for her. She who had boasted so proudly of her new lover, heir to managing all operations in the mine, with a great future ahead of him.

She made up her mind. "I'm coming with you," she said.

Chapter 6: The lair of the arakne

The next day, Jade, Maxi, Terry and Mira made their way to the secret passage. When they came to the junction, they turned downward, the way that they felt sure led to the drow complex. With them were two dwarfen mercenaries, introduced as Hal and Sam, who had agreed to accompany them, at least as far as the drow. They marched in silence for two days, the journey in the dark uneventful. Mira carried one of the dwarfen gems that gave out a dim light; useful when there were no heat sources in the tunnel.

Soon they started to notice spider webs, a few at first, then thicker and stronger, sometimes covering the entire walls of the tunnel, making the place seem like some padded cell. Maxi, leading the party, stopped and turned around.

"I don't like this," he said. "Looks like some sort of priestly spider fetish." Mira volunteered to spy ahead. When Maxi nodded, she glided noiselessly up the passage like a shadow, careful not to disturb any of the webs. Jade wondered where she had learned such stealth.

She was back in a fairly short time. "There is a chamber ahead," she reported. "And something hideous. It looks like a spider with a human torso. Almost as big as I am, sitting in a web in the middle of the chamber. I couldn't see anything else, but that doesn't mean there are not cold blooded creatures in there."

Maxi nodded, "Arakne," he said.

"What are they?" asked Mira.

Jade butted in. "Some say they are drow women who have been shown favour by their Goddess, and been transformed to a spider for reward. Others say the opposite -- they are made to wear this form as a punishment. Nobody really knows. Some also say they are the souls of the dead. Out of this world, but not totally departed. Doomed to remain in spider form until the Spider lets them go. Whatever they are, they are both feared and admired by the drow, used as guards and talisman, and fed the living flesh of prisoners."

"I don't believe that Goddess mumbo jumbo," said Maxi, with some annoyance. "More likely they learned to transform themselves, rather like the Über drow. Just as evil but less powerful. Only women arakne have been found. Which makes me think they survive by capturing male drow and forcing themselves on their captives."

"I'm prepared to believe they are devils," said Jade. "Drow dead who for whatever reason have been unable to make a clean break into the underworld. But whatever their origin they are foul. They're not that strong themselves, but they do command a number of giant spiders. Small, loathsome creatures with a poisonous bite. Therein lies the true danger."

"So what's our strategy?" asked Maxi.

"I charm the arakne, stopping her from summoning her vermin," said Jade. "Then we pick off the giant spiders, leaving the arakne till last. If the arakne is an undead spirit then the charm may not work. In that case we shoot her with our crossbows. Mira, you stay behind us and heal any of us that need it."

"Sounds good to me," said Maxi. "Lets do it."

But as it turned out, nothing went to plan. Firstly the group must have somehow disturbed some webs, because before they had even got to the cavern, four giant spiders dropped with a plop and a rasping sound from their mandibles, right in front of them. The two dwarf fighters beat them off, but not before they had both been bitten on the arm. The fast acting poison was already causing their arms to swell. Mira had her medical case out and was busily neutralising the poison, while the others moved quickly towards the cavern, having lost the advantage of surprise.

The next shock was the identity of the spider creature. As they barged into the cavern, and saw the spindly drow body atop the bloated spider abdomen dangling in the web, Jade gave a sharp intake of breath. "You again!" both Jade and the arakne exclaimed together. The twisted face of the spider woman was none other than Meriem, the priestess who Jade and her companions had already killed once.

It would be the devil I know, thought Jade bitterly, knowing that her charm spell would be useless against someone she had already collaborated in killing. No other mind spells would work against undead beings, so Jade prepared a magic fire and brimstone attack that would hopefully prevent Meriem from casting any of her own spells.

The fiery missiles sizzled from Jade's hand and plunged into the spider abdomen, with a faint plop. But at the same time, Meriem had fixed Jade with her gaze, and Jade was rooted to the spot, as the arakne leapt from her web. Maxi and Terry moved in front to protect Jade, who resisted Meriem's mind spell sufficiently to back slowly out of the chamber.

Maxi and Terry beat off the giant spiders, all of which were now swinging from the webs towards them. Terry gave a cry as a spider bit his thigh, before squashing it between his sword and his shield. Meriem was almost upon them now, and things were looking dangerous for the party; their spell caster out of action, and three of their fighters poisoned.

Maxi was about to order a fighting retreat, backing away out of the cavern, when suddenly Meriem gave a groaning, rasping noise and scuttled away to the corner of the cavern, behind her web. Mira had advanced on her, holding a holy wafer of the dwarfen healing god in one hand, and her magical gem in the other. The timorous lovesick girl was gone. Even Jade felt her power as Mira advanced on Meriem. The other giant spiders followed their mistress, crawling away and disappearing into crevices.

Once Meriem had been confined to the corner, it did not take too long for Maxi to pump her full of crossbow bolts. Meriem fell off her web with a satisfying splat sound, which enabled Mira to concentrate on Terry's injury.