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.No! Laeral thought.All the drow on Toril weren't worth this!"Temfuto!" she screamed, halting time for all but her.Silence.Sudden stillness.Her sister's transformation, halted.The very air, frozen.A falling leaf, checked in mid-descent.Laeral stepped past it—quickly, quickly, before her spell ended—and touched her hands to her sister's head.Qilue's scalp felt as hot as the Abyss beneath her ice white hair.Silver fire wreathed Laeral's hands in a sparkling radiance.She readied herself to send it raging into Qilue the instantthe time-halting spell ended, in order to burn the taint from her sister's body.But what then? Qilue had drawn some of the demon's taint inside her, but not all.Though Laeral's silver fire would burn much of it away, a portion would remain inside the Crescent Blade, which Qilue still held in her hands.If the sword had been lying on the ground, Laeral could have easily cast a disjunction to strip it of its magic, once Qilue herself had been cleansed.But with it locked tight in Qilue's grasp, the demon could slide back up the trickle of blood that connected steel and flesh.Qilue was an open vessel, bereft now of the blessings that had formerly protected her.The demon would slide into her as quickly as a sword into an oiled sheath.Faster, perhaps, than Laeral could react.Laeral trembled with indecision.She had to decide.Now!Then it came to her.A snap of her fingers transmuted the soot that grimed her -sister into a dusting of crushed diamond, emerald, ruby, and sapphire.With her hands still on Qilue's hair, Laeral watched the leaf, waiting.The leaf quivered.Time resumed its flow.Laeral cast her spell.The leaf landed, and the rush of taint died away in an angry howl.Qilue remained motionless, the gem dust in her hair sparkling in the moonlight.She, alone, remained frozen in time, held fast by Laeral's transmutation.Laeral hardly recognized the twisted thing Qilue had become."Oh, sister," she breathed."What have you done?"She didn't need to ask why Qilue had done it.She knew the answer.Qilue loved the drow with all her heart.She'd sought their salvation with every thought, with every word, with every deed.And this had nearly been her downfall.Nearly.Laeral, however, had just bought her sister a little time.Even if Laeral herself didn't know how to help Qilue, there was someone who did.Someone whose knowledge ofdemons—whose expertise in hunting them down, banishing them, permanently destroying both the demon and its lingering taint—far surpassed Laeral's own.The Darksong Knight, Cavatina.Laeral would take Qilue someplace safe, then fetch Cavatina.Laeral touched her sister and spoke a conjuration, but something prevented her from teleporting away.It was as if Qilue were a lodestone, pulling in the opposite direction from the one Laeral wanted to go.Laeral wrapped her arms around her sister and tried to physically move her, but Qilue's feet refused to lift from the block of stone.Suddenly, she remembered her vision and the ancient wizard's binding spell.The binding must have taken hold of Qilue, as soon as the demon's taint shifted inside her.Laeral knew a powerful abjuration that could break the binding, but casting it would also end the spell that was holding Qilue in stasis.She stood, desperately thinking.A binding, she knew, could be undone not just by a spell, but also by repeating a phrase, a gesture, or by meeting other, very specific conditions set.by the original spellcaster.She went over the vision in her mind, but it offered no clues.In time—and with a great deal of study—she might find that key.She stared at her frozen sister.Time was certainly something Qilue had.Unless someone came along in the meantime and cast a disjunction spell.Laeral squared her shoulders.If Qilue couldn't be brought to the Darksong Knight, she decided, then Cavatina would just have to be brought here instead.That meant Laeral would have to leave her sister.In the meantime, she had to guarantee Qilue's safety.She hung her necklace around Qilue's neck to ensure that enemies couldn't scry her.Then she cloaked her sister in a glamer that would further conceal her."I'll be gone just a short time, sister," Laeral said, stroking the frozen hair, even though she knew Qilue couldn't hearor feel her."I'll come back with Cavatina.She'll know what to do."Her promise made, she teleported away.The night deepened.The moon moved in the sky.Shadows lengthened.So did a hair-thin strand of web.A spider descended from a branch above, and landed on gem-dusted hair.It crawled down an ebon cheek and across parted lips.It began to spin its web.CHAPTER 10Q'arlynd strode down the cobblestoned street, ignoring the stares
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