Free Sacrifice of the Widow: The Lady Penitent, Book I by Lisa Smedman Page A

floor beyond, next to Flinderspeld. The deep gnome shivered, even though he wore a warm cloak.
    Q’arlynd was immediately aware of the dryness of the air. It was as cold here as it had been underground, but the air he drew into his lungs tasted of dust. His feet scuffed sand as he turned to survey the roofless room. After the constant trickle of water that had filled Ched Nasad, the World Above was eerily silent. He could even hear Flinderspeld breathing.
    “Where are we?” the deep gnome asked in a whisper.
    A shadow swept across the room, swift as the blink of an eye, as something leaped across the open ceiling and landed on the far wall. Q’arlynd caught a glimpse of a creature the size of a riding lizard but covered in tawny, golden fur. The upper torso was humanoid and golden-skinned, and at the end of its animal rump was a lashing tail.
    The creature didn’t seem to have spotted them. Even as Q’arlynd raised his hands to cast a spell, it tensed in a crouch, still facing away from them, then sprang away.
    Any idea what that was?
Q’arlynd signed.
    Flinderspeld’s mind was a blank parchment. He’d never seen anything like it. Mutely, he shook his head.
    Q’arlynd listened, but he couldn’t hear the creature. As a precaution, he rendered himself invisible. A second whisper and a touch rendered Flinderspeld invisible as well.
    Q’arlynd felt Flinderspeld grab the hem of his
piwafwi
. They started for the arch that led to the street.
    Before they reached it, a drow slipped in from outside, a male with long white hair, wearing a
piwafwi
and lizard-skin gloves similar to Q’arlynd’s own. His eyes were an unusual pale blue rather than red.
    “Quickly,” he whispered in High Drowic that had the distinctive accent of someone from Ched Nasad. “Before the monster returns. Follow me.”
    Q’arlynd was instantly suspicious. Why wasn’t the drow using the silent speech, if a hostile creature was nearby? And why, if he could penetrate Q’arlynd’s invisibility spell, was he staring so intently at the portal?
    Flinderspeld’s own suspicions supplied the missing piece of the puzzle. Where Q’arlynd saw a drow, Flinderspeld saw another deep gnome—one who spoke to him in svirfneblin. The newcomer was an illusion.
    That didn’t necessarily mean whoever had created the illusion was an enemy, of course. Perhaps she was just cautious.
    Q’arlynd fished out of his pocket one of the tiny silver swords the dead priestess had been carrying, found Flinderspeld’s hand, and pressed the trinket into it. Then he rendered the deep gnome visible again and stepped swiftly aside.
    The drow-illusion turned toward Flinderspeld—whoever had cast it was watching the room—and repeated the exhortation to follow.
    Q’arlynd forced Flinderspeld to hold up the trinket. The illusion barely glanced at the tiny sword.
    Q’arlynd levitated while forcing Flinderspeld to walk toward the drow-illusion. As soon as Q’arlynd was high enough to see over the ruined walls, he spotted the tawny-furred creature hiding in an alley just up the street. As Q’arlynd turned the silently protesting Flinderspeld to follow the drow-illusion in that direction, the creaturecrouched, tail whisking in anticipation. Claws flexed from its furred feet.
    Definitely an enemy, but one who could, perhaps, tell Q’arlynd more about this place.
    He cast a spell. The slab of paving stone on which the creature crouched became soft as mud and the creature’s feet sank into it. A second, equally quick whisper, and the paving stone was solid once more. The creature, realizing its feet were trapped, thrashed about, trying to free itself. Realizing it could not, it snarled.
    The drow-illusion disappeared. As it did, Q’arlynd released his hold on Flinderspeld’s body. The deep gnome had served his purpose as a distraction, and Q’arlynd didn’t want him getting within range of whatever other magic the tawny-furred creature might have at its disposal.
    Instead of