Revenge of the Drow

Jade laughed. "I was brought up drow remember. We don't do healing. That's your department."

Mira pushed Jade aside, then laid her hands on Terry's forehead and started to chant. Terry stopped struggling and went quiet. Mira was furious. "What did you do that for?" she yelled at Jade. It appeared as if her admiration period for Jade was over.

"I had to do it," replied Jade. "We needed to know where Xiana was coming from so we could find her. And I got some very valuable information."

"Sod the information. You're just as bad as she is. Putting him through it all over again."

"Leave her alone," said Terry suddenly. "I'm all right now. And Jade is right. We do need the information."

Mira turned away so that the others could not see her crying. Terry hardly seemed to acknowledge her at all, even after all she had done for him.

In her short life, Jade had suffered from an immense variety of unimaginable physical and mental torments. But unrequited love had never been one of them. So she did not think about what Mira was feeling, or say any words of comfort. Instead she launched straight into explaining the information she had gained from her memory spell, feeling rather pleased with herself.

"The torture chamber is unfamiliar to me," she said. "But its pentagonal shape leads me to believe it is the room directly under the High Temple; a room I have heard about but never entered. Like the Temple, it has five entrances. These are accessed from the main Spokes on the Temple level, through side passageways that lead steeply down. It was one of these passageways the torturers entered from.

The red gems on their cloaks shows they are fully initiated priestesses, and had just been to a service. So they would have entered from the Priestess Spoke. Xiana did not enter from one of the main Spokes. We know this because it was on the same level as the chamber. It was almost directly opposite the stairs the torturers climbed down, but it must have had only a gentle slope, not requiring stairs, and it was to the right of Terry. So it was between the Secretariat Spoke and the Slave Spoke. I doubt Xiana would even deign to acknowledge the existence of the Slave Spoke, so it must connect to the Secretariat Spoke by one of the side passages."

Terry congratulated Jade on her deductions. Maxi held out his hand with the three fingers extended. Mira sulked and said nothing.

#

The travellers wondered for a further two days in the cavern, coming across nothing more of interest except an old orc stronghold. Still stinking of orc, but otherwise deserted, the abandoned weapons, armour and tools covered with rust and mildew. It took them several hours of exploring to find a passageway out. It was Mira who drew their attention to a tunnel that had the more recent marks of pickaxes, indicating that it had been recently excavated.

They followed this passageway until it led to a cave, and from the cave another narrow passage. At the end of the passage there was a smoky purple light. The dark elves recognised this as coming from one of the Spokes of the drow complex. The party rested in the cave and discussed what their strategy would be once they had entered drow territory. Jade wound up her human-like blonde hair into a tight ball, then pinned it under her helm. She had been speaking to Maxi in the drow tongue, so she could regain familiarity with its harsh guttural sounds.

Jade brought a rope out of her backpack. "We need to tether you two," she said. "And we need to make it look authentic." She grinned as she said this, and advanced on Terry.

"Is this really necessary?" Terry seemed reluctant to let Jade near her after his experiences with the memory spell.

"We've been through this. How can we explain a human and a dwarf wondering into the drow complex? The drow don't invite other races in for tea you know. The only way we can get to the temple is if I pretend you are prisoners, destined for sacrifice. Even then I will probably need a few charm spells and songs to convince them." Jade took a small lyre from her pack.

"We are now inhabitants of the drow city, bringing prisoners in for questioning," she continued. "I am a bardic enchantress -- a free version of what I was as a temple slave -- and I am going to be part of the disembowelment ritual. Maxi is my guard." Jade started touching the strings and sang in a low voice. Both the non-drow immediately felt a strange terror; they were frightened out of their wits but at the same time wanted to hear more. Jade stopped.

"Good to see my skill has not left me," she grinned.

"Maxi, try to look more like a private soldier and less like one used to command," she snapped suddenly. Maxi hung his head and slumped his shoulders. Jade yelled at him and spat in his face.

A flicker of surprise passed over Maxi's face at this treatment, but then he rearranged his features into passive acceptance, easily slipping into his role.

"Tie up the prisoners, private," snapped Jade in Trieste's tongue, now fluently.

Maxi bowed and tied Terry's hands behind him with the rope. He made sure the knots looked tight, but could be pulled apart quickly if necessary. Mira gulped nervously as Maxi then advanced on her.

"Stay still!" snapped Jade.

Mira did not understand what Jade was saying, but suddenly she was very frightened indeed, even though the ghostly singing had stopped. Maxi had grabbed her and tied her up as he had done to Terry. Then Jade pushed the two of them and told them roughly to move. Terry had been through this before and knew what to do; he started shuffling forward. He admired the acting ability of the two drow lovers, and he determined to make his own skill match theirs. And Mira did not have to act. She was so obviously terrified that no drow would doubt for one moment that she was their hapless prisoner, doomed to spend the remainder of her short life as a plaything for the Spider.

They travelled for a little over half an hour, and then they came to a wide passageway, room for three or more to move abreast. Side passages branched off in each direction, and crude wooden doors were set into the wall at regular intervals. The way was lit with purple incense burning from smoky lamps set into alcoves.

"Priestess Spoke," said Jade quietly to Maxi in the drow tongue.

Maxi bowed and said nothing, well into his role now.

Chapter 8: Elspeth's trials

They came for her while she slept. A senior priestess with two fighter escorts. She was woken from a delicious dream in which she had forcibly ravished the burly human prisoner, found out the rumour was true, and was discovering just what could be done with a forked dick.

Elspeth was roughly handled and dragged to the central temple. Xiana of course would not deign to disturb her own precious sleep for someone so unimportant, but one of her minions, dressed in the purple robe and red gem of office, was there to greet her.

Elspeth was stripped naked and forced to kneel on the hard stone floor of the temple. She does not remember for how long. But whenever she fidgeted, or stooped forward in her fatigue, a hooded figure would lash her with a whip. A thin sinuous whip, designed to sting but not to leave marks. She was told to stay still, contemplate her sins, and ask forgiveness.

At first Elspeth insisted in a loud voice that she had not committed any sins against the Spider or her agent in the underworld, and cursed her captors roundly, even as they whipped her. When this was later relayed to Xiana she smiled contentedly. The whelp had guts; just what she needed in the Secretariat.

Later, as sleep deprivation set in, and the pain in her knees coalesced from sharp shooting pains into one continuing relentless throb, she confessed everything. To insubordination, 'inappropriate sexual feelings', perversion, lack of dedication, softness of heart and intellect. Indeed she did not know what she was saying.

And so started the second phase of her induction. Elspeth was dragged to a dungeon, the same one Terry had been held in, and was told to contemplate her iniquities and perhaps the Spider would forgive her. Like Terry, she was reasonably well looked after. Her cell was equipped with a straw mattress and a bucket. Because the guards sometimes came inside and she liked her privacy, she had rigged up a screen to the bed, made from its covering. And it was here that Terry and the others found her.

The dungeon was as sound proofed as the crude drow workers could make it, so she never heard the conversation between the guards and her visitors. But she did hear the key scraping in the lock, and she knew it was not time for food, so the guards must be bringing in a visitor. Elspeth's gut tensed, and she hoped it was not the High Priestess. Xiana had not directly harmed her in any way and had in fact helped her get ahead on a number of occasions. Elspeth had also worked out from the fact that she was still alive and relatively unscathed that her present privation was more in the nature of a trial than a punishment, and that she was being groomed for better things. Nevertheless, the High Priestess frightened her out of her wits, and her pleasure on discovering that she was to be spared that visit this time, added to her delight in seeing Terry, and she cried out in her joy.

Terry was accompanied by three others, two of them half caste females. A drow male appeared to be in charge, leading the other three into the cell. The man spoke to her.

"We have a proposition to put to you. Our comrade will explain to you further." He pointed at Terry with his sword. Elspeth stared at Terry breathlessly as he grabbed her and dragged her towards the bed. Before the makeshift curtain closed behind them, Elspeth saw that the male drow had stepped back from the door, his sword drawn. He looked as if he knew how to use it, and Elspeth guessed that he was a high ranking officer.

The half caste drow was sitting against the wall opposite the door, a crossbow cocked and aimed. She also handled the weapon in a professional manner. The half caste dwarf looked as though she was about to burst into tears, then she seemed to pull herself together and cast a spell. Elspeth recognised it as a powerful one to block spying attempts.

"What are you doing here," she whispered at Terry. "Why have you come, and who are your companions?"

"It was my idea. I wanted you to help us. We are planning to overthrow the High Priestess."

Elspeth liked this pleasant boy very much. But at the same time she cursed his naivety. Here she was, being groomed for a higher position, possibly in the prestigious Secretariat, and this boy, with romantic notions of charging in to rescue her, had dashed these to the ground. Elspeth knew her life was in danger. If she refused this boy's demands, his drow companions would kill her. If she accepted them, Xiana would kill her. What a romantic fool he was.

But then, she thought, he was rather sweet. And he obviously liked her for herself, and even in spite of herself, not because she was useful to some high up and esoteric cause that Elspeth had no particular understanding of. Elspeth had joined the priesthood because it was the best way for a girl to gain power and prestige, not for ideological reasons of underworld domination.

Then any thoughts of ideology or prestige, or even her own survival left her, as Terry leaned forward and kissed her. Elspeth moaned with pleasure, clasped her arms around him and kissed him back, with such fervour that Terry drew his face away.

"Don't stop," she groaned. She fastened her mouth on to his again and let them both fall back on to the bed. She grabbed Terry's hand and guided it to her bust, where he felt her large breasts, with the nipples now red and erect. She started to moan some more, and then remembered the others waiting just beyond the flimsy screen. She suppressed the sound, instead reaching down to Terry's crotch, where a bulge had appeared.

She fumbled with his belt, releasing his sword, then impatiently yanked down his breeches. Buttons flew in all directions as his huge member, throbbing gently, burst free from its confinement. Another lying rumour, she thought, as she grabbed it in her hand, caressing its rough skin and revelling in its hardness.

Terry's other hand was now under her dress, and was rubbing her labia through the spider silk undergarments. Then he was tearing the silk apart in his passion and pulling her dress over her head. Elspeth lay back naked on the bed as Terry towered over her. He was kneading her pubic hairs -- peroxide blonde like her head hair - and he slipped two fingers inside her, warm and wet with her juices.

Elspeth gave out a cry, now too much consumed with pleasure and passion to care about the noise. Terry was naked above her, and she grabbed hold of his member again, this time guiding it down to the wetness between her thighs. She had never felt such sexual ecstasy. It was a beautiful novel feeling to actually hold a dick in her hand, and to see her lover's face so close to her own, feel his breath, smell his body, see the look of passion on his face, and realise how much pleasure they were giving each other.

All annoyance at this man's naivety left her when he plunged inside her, and her body felt as if it had burst into flames of desire. She would have screamed in pure rapture if Terry's mouth had not been firmly clamped in hers. As it was, she clawed at his skin and wrapped her legs around him, drawing him still deeper into her.

Terry lifted back up and thrust deeply several more times, each time transporting Elspeth to new delight. Then, with a deep shudder and a groan, he stopped thrusting, holding on tight to Elspeth's smooth body, and she felt the warm liquid spread out inside her.

Elspeth gave out a deep sigh and kept hold of Terry, now stroking the fine hairs on his chest and his chin. She had been serviced several times in the past but had never seen more than a few glimpses of a naked male body, certainly not one whose nooks and crannies she could explore so easily. She started humming, thinking of the pleasure she had taken, and even more so with the pleasure she had given. As she was feeling now, she could have followed this man to the end of the underworld, and she told him so.

"So you'll come with us," Terry asked.

"Yes, I'll come with you."

The two lovers slowly extricated themselves and got dressed. Now that she was no longer in the throes of sexual excitement, Elspeth blushed when she thought of what the others had heard. But when she opened the screen, they were still in the same positions and seemed rather bored by the whole proceedings. The half caste drow looked at Terry.

"Is your girlfriend with us?" she asked.

"I'm coming with you," Elspeth snapped. "And as a Secretariat priestess in waiting I am in charge."

The girl laughed. "Well you certainly outrank me. I'm an escaped temple slave. But my friend Maxi was a garrison commander. You two can fight over who's in charge."

She then switched to the human tongue so Terry and Mira could understand. "It was not my idea for you to join in. I wanted to make my way as quickly as possible to our destination in the Secretariat Spoke. We could have charmed some priestesses to give us passage, and let us through to where Xiana will be vulnerable to our attacks. It was Terry who thought you would be better able to lead us to Xiana, and that your strength should be added to ours. I'm pleased you've agreed to join us. Because, if you didn't, we would have had to kill you."

Terry laughed, thinking this very funny. But Elspeth knew that the half-caste girl was not joking.

#

Jade, Maxi and Elspeth were talking in low voices in their own language. They needed to know when Xiana would be serviced by her chosen studs. Jade recalled from her memory spell on Terry that during the time of the torture, the torturer priestesses were wearing their ceremonial robes and red gem, indicating that a priestly session had been in progress. Elspeth knew that the priestly sessions were held when the night was darkest in the overworld, as part of their prayers that the dawn would never come. It seemed that Xiana had been interrupted from her own private ceremony at the same time.

"Is Xiana a creature of habit?" asked Jade.

Elspeth laughed. "Is she just? She is positively dwarfen in her anal fixation with times and rituals."

"So if we come to the room in the Secretariat Spoke at around the darkest part of the night, we should find her being serviced."

"Should do," said Elspeth, but how do we know when that is?"

It was a fair point. They were nowhere near the surface, and even the keen dark sense of the drow could not see the changes in light and dark so far away.

"Next time the guard comes, find out how much time till midnight," said Maxi. "Say you want to do some sort of mumbo jumbo ritual, and it needs to be done at a certain time." Maxi made no secret of his contempt for the supernatural, and oddly enough Elspeth seemed totally indifferent to his sneering.

"Another career priest," thought Jade. And then as she looked at this eugenically crafted doll, all too orthodox in her opinions but not at all interested in anything outside her own ambition, she thought of another way that Elspeth could be of use.

Terry was bored. He was not actually a very accomplished lover, and the few girls he had managed to persuade to sleep with him had always complained that he was too eager and too quick. He had his arm round his new girlfriend, clasping her like a possum joey, hardly believing his luck in finding someone who so obviously appreciated his sexual prowess, and little dreaming of what his new lover's only standard of comparison was.

He wished that Elspeth would talk to him, instead of being so wrapped up in her plotting. He glanced around at Mira, sitting still and occasionally muttering a spell. He decided that he may as well practice his dwarfen language skills.

"Still nobody watching us?"

Mira looked up, pleased to actually be noticed. Terry saw the way the dwarf was looking at him, and dimly registered that she must have been doing so for some time.

"Nobody spying that I can make out," said Mira. "I could attempt to find the High Priestess, but she would probably be aware of it."

For the first time, Terry was aware of just how useful this unassuming dwarf had been. He remembered her healing him from the poison, how she had rendered the dangerous spider monstrosity harmless, and the way she could prevent spies from detecting them.

"You are very talented," said Terry carefully. "I'm surprised that you fell for that crooked slave dealer."

Mira flushed. "As for that," she said. "Many of us make fools of ourselves over unsuitable matches" - she looked pointedly at Elspeth as she said this - "and are blind to the obvious good points of those who love us". Just as Terry was about to reply, Elspeth interrupted.

"We have decided," she said, this time in the human tongue. Mira noticed how Elspeth had appeared to take command. She looked at Jade, who winked at her.

Elspeth continued. "I've lost track of time myself, but based on the jailer's patterns I think it is around late afternoon, meaning we have about ten hours until the darkest period. The jailer is due in a couple of hours or so, and when she comes in I will ask her for a more precise time.

The jailers have been tricked by the slave here" - waving disdainfully at Jade, who winked at Mira again - "to think that these people are part of the High Priestess's trial for the Secretariat. They will therefore be helpful and not harm us. We can rest here long enough for the slave and dwarf to regain their spell power. They can use the bed. The rest of us will keep watch while the spell casters sleep, just in case anyone has betrayed us and the High Priestess launches an attack."