All that happened in the space of a few heartbeats. Immediately after shoving the guard away, Pharaun turned?together with his mirror images?and cast a powerful enchantment at Oothoon. A wash of magical energy stirred the water around the aboleth matriarch, and an instant later Pharaun saw Oothoon's tentacles relax. Still wary, he spoke to Oothoon in sign, testing the effects of his charm. If the spell had worked, she would be not just willing but eager to chat with her "old friend" Pharaun.
I apologize for the abrupt intrusion, he signed, but I wanted to find out how our little plan went. I have heard that Quenthel came to you, and that you consumed her. Now will you keep your part of the bargain and tell me where the ship of chaos lies?
Oothoon glanced at the corridor, bereft of its guard, then back at the mage.
"Your 'priestess' had no magic."
Pharaun had anticipated that response.
I suppose you learned from her memories that Lolth is. . unavailable, he signed. In time, however, the goddess will awaken, and you will have full use of the spells you just acquired.
"I did not consume Quenthel. She was not worth eating."
Pharaun blinked.
But the one who accompanied her came back to us and told us you consumed her. He saw you swallow her whole.
"The four-armed one saw what I wanted him to see," Oothoon said, tentacles quivering and mouth open in what Pharaun took to be a wide grin.
That made Pharaun pause. He had heard that aboleths had mind magic capable of creating illusions. It seemed that Oothoon had used just that talent on Jeggred. Was she dulling Pharaun's senses with an illusion even then? Were the audience chamber and the corridor beyond not as empty of guards as they seemed?
Pharaun had with him a vial of ointment that, when rubbed on the eyes, would instantly reveal the truth once the words of the spell that activated its potency were spoken?but using it meant reaching inside a pocket of his piwafwi and closing his eyes briefly. If there were illusion-cloaked guards nearby, it would be the ideal moment in which to overpower him.
No, he'd rely on the magic he'd already protected himself with. Seven of the mirror images he'd created were still hovering in the water next to him. If a surprise attack came, there was only a one-in-eight chance that he would be the one who was targeted.
Oothoon, meanwhile, seemed relaxed. The aboleth matriarch rested easily in the niche, the only sign of unease the fact that the pearl was cupped protectively against her belly. Oothoon hadn't called for more guards to replace the one Pharaun had incapacitated and hadn't made any threatening moves. Pharaun was probably worrying needlessly. His charm spell had obviously taken hold. He decided to test it further by asking a question the aboleth wouldn't answer unless charmed.
Where is Quenthel now? Pharaun asked.
"Gone in search of the ship of chaos."
You told her where it was?
The aboleth matriarch just stared at him?but the silence was answer enough.
Pharaun glanced quickly around the chamber and at last spotted the missing pieces of the puzzle. There, clinging to the doorway, was a handful of sticky strands that looked like the remains of a broken web. He also spotted, peeking out from the kelp on which Oothoon's belly rested, the neck of a wine bottle. Not everything Jeggred had seen had been an illusion: Quenthel had used her wand?deliberately?to block him on the other side of the doorway. Later, after she'd gotten the information she wanted from Oothoon, she'd dissolved the barrier with alcohol.
Together, Quenthel and Oothoon had played an elaborate and illusion-enhanced ruse on Jeggred?and Pharaun. Oothoon had been waiting for her reward all the time. The aboleth matriarch knew that Pharaun, as soon as he heard of Quenthel's "death," would return?
Pharaun's hands rose to cast a spell, but before he could complete his incantation, the pearl Oothoon had been holding appeared just in front of him?the real him, not one of his mirror images?as if out of nowhere. In the instant before it struck his chest, Pharaun realized what must have happened. The aboleth matriarch had put it in her mouth and had spat it at him, masking the action with an illusion.
The pearl struck his chest and exploded in a rush of sound that drove the water from his lungs and made his ears ring. Stunned, unable to gesture or speak, he hung limp and alone in the water, his mirror images dissipated by the force of the blast. Though he was weak, dizzy, too stunned to move, a part of his mind was still able to note the irony of what had just happened. He'd been about to stun Oothoon with a spell, only to have the aboleth lay him low with precisely the same form of magic. What he'd mistaken for a «pearl» was none other than one of Quenthel's magical beads of power.
