Tangled Webs Read Free

mustache and giving him a boyish appearance that belied his graying beard and braids. “Well, chop me up and use me for squid bait! It’s the black lass herself!” he roared happily.
    “A little louder, please,” Liriel requested with acidic sarcasm as she cast quick glances up and down the corridors. “There might be two or three people up in Waterdeep who didn’t hear you.”
    Hrolfhauled himself to his feet and walked stiff-Iegged over to the door of his cell. “It’s glad I am to see you again, lass, but you shouldn’t ha’ come,” he said in a softer tone.
    ” Just a day or two more, and they’ll be setting me free.”
    The drow sniffed derisively and bent down to examine the locks on the cell door. “Sure, if by freedom you mean a couple of years of enforced labor. It’ll take you at least that long to work off the damage done to that tavern.”
    “Gull splat!” he said heartily, dismissing this dire prediction with a wave of one enormous hand. “The penalty for tavern brawls is never more than a few days’ stay in this sow’s bowels of a dungeon.”
    “The Skulls decided to change the law in your honor,” Liriel responded, referring to the trio of disembodied skulls that appeared randomly in Skullport to pass sentence on miscreants. “The idea of waiting around for years doesn’t appeal to me. I’d rather fight our way from here to the docks and have done.”
    “Not a bit of it,” Hrolf insisted. “Laws are all good and well-fighting’s better, of course-but bribes, now! That’s the way for a sensible man to do business! And no place bet tern Skullport for it, so don’t you worry yourself The
    Elfmaid came to port fully loaded. A bundle of ermine skins and a few bolts of fine Moonshae linen should serve.” Liriel cocked an eyebrow. “Did I mention that your ship and cargo have been impounded?”
    That was true, as far as it went, and as much truth as the drow wanted him to hear. Although it appeared Hrolf’s freedom was not for sale, Liriel had already managed to buy free the ship and the crew. She thought it better to let Hrolf think otherwise. By all accounts, the captain took his ship’s well-being more seriously than his own.
    “Took the Elfmaid, did they?” The captain pondered this development, chewing his mustache reflectively. “Well then, that’s different. Fighting it is!”
    The drow nodded her agreement. She quickly cast a cantrip, a minor spell that would reveal any magic placed upon the locks. When no telltale glow appeared, Liriel took a small bundle from her bag and carefully removed the wraps that padded a small glass vial. With infinite care she unstoppered the vial and poured a single drop of black liquid onto each of the chains and locks.
    A faint hiss filled the air, and the locks sagged and melted as the distilled venom of a black dragon ate through the metal. It was a pricey solution, but it was quick and quiet, and Liriel had no real need to practice thrift. Just days earlier, she had led a raid on a rival drow stronghold and claimed a share of the massive treasure hoard buried there. Her share would take her to Ruathym in style, with enough left over to hide a cache or two for future use. Yet there was a strange tightness in Liriel’s throat as she remembered the battle and the friends who had fallen there. One of those friends, although gravely wounded, had survived and was awaiting her even now on Hrolf’s ship. Just thinking of Fyodor, and his own great need to reach Ruathym, heightened her impatience.
    Motioning for Hrolf to stand back, she kicked open the door, keeping a careful distance from the still-melting chains. Dragon venom could eat through boot leather-not to mention flesh and bone-as easily as it dissolved metal. The captain watched, intrigued, as Liriel set the enspelled statue on the bed and triggered its song. His face lit up with pride as his own song poured forth from the little figure.
    “That’ll keep ‘em away for a bit,” he