Charon's Claw (Neverwinter #3)(17)

“Let me go!” Invidoo implored her. “Home! Home! Away from him!”

“Him?” Arunika asked, and she moved nearer, towering over the imp.

“The broken tiefling.”

There it was, Arunika knew, her suspicions confirmed. She had guessed that Effron had played a role in informing Alegni of the recent dramatic events in Neverwinter Wood, and Invidoo’s admission had just clarified for her where Effron had gotten the information.

“I should utterly destroy you,” the succubus warned.

“Everyone say that!”

Arunika laughed, and almost fell murderously over Invidoo. Almost, but she reminded herself that this one might still be of use to her, particularly since she now knew that Effron might utilize the imp for his own information—or misinformation, if she played it correctly.

“You will go home,” Arunika said, and Invidoo leaped into another back flip, this time spinning over twice in mid-air with barely a flap of its small batlike wings before alighting dexterously on clawed feet. But the wretched little creature’s glee proved short-lived.

“Without prejudice,” Arunika added matter-of-factly.

Invidoo’s eyes popped open wide and his jaw hung slack, his small wings drooping. “No!” he cried. “No, no, no, no, no!” For “without prejudice” meant that it was not being dismissed from this duty, that it had not completed the terms of its indenture, and that Arunika retained the right to recall it to her side at her whim.

“You say . . .”

“And you will return to me when I call,” Arunika informed it.

“No fair!” Invidoo argued. “Appeal to Glasya!”

Arunika narrowed her eyes at the threat. She knew it to be a hollow one, for Glasya, Lord of the Sixth Layer, would never side with the likes of Invidoo against her. But still, in devil society, a breach of contract was no minor issue, and even though Glasya wouldn’t overrule her, likely, she might not look favorably on being bothered over so minor a detail as the indenture of an imp.

“Do you truly wish to play this game against me?” the succubus asked quietly, her tone revealing an overt threat.

“A summary task!” Invidoo insisted, meaning that Arunika should give it a way to complete its indenture without having to return to the Prime Material Plane and her side. “Invidoo demands a summary—”

“Done,” Arunika agreed, smiling once more now that any thought of Invidoo going with its complaint to Glasya was off the table. All she had to do now was be a bit cleverer than the imp, and that seemed no difficult task. “Find me a replacement.”

“Easy!” Invidoo said without hesitation, and with a snap of skinny, clawed fingers.

“A replacement who knows of this new force,” Arunika finished.

Invidoo seemed to deflate once again, and stood staring at her. “Who knows of . . . ?”

“Drizzt Do’Urden,” Arunika remarked, nodding as she formulated the plan. “Find me a replacement familiar with . . .” She paused and looked at Invidoo suspiciously, knowing full well where it would take that edict. “Nay,” she corrected. “Find me a replacement intimately familiar with Drizzt Do’Urden, and you may transfer your binding to it.”

Invidoo shook its catlike face so furiously that it nearly threw itself from its feet—indeed, only a last-moment flap of wings prevented it from toppling right over! “Cannot! Intimately? How possible?”

Arunika shrugged as if that hardly mattered to her, which it did not. “That is your summary task. You asked for one and I complied.”

“Glasya will hear of this!” the imp warned.

“Do tell,” Arunika replied, calling the impotent bluff.

Invidoo growled and stamped its clawed foot.

“Intimately,” Arunika repeated. “Now be gone before I destroy you for betraying me, for even speaking to that wretched Effron creature.”

Arunika thrust her arm out to the side and a bolt of fire flew from her hand, striking the ground and catching hold, a sizzling, wildly dancing flame gate. “Be gone!”

Invidoo squealed in fear and half-ran, half-flew to the fire, then dived in head first.

As if expecting the imp to deceive her and slip back out, Arunika was fast with her next invocation, blowing out the flames with a ferocious wave of her hand. She considered the spot on the ground, a second dark scar atop the wider carnage of the Dread Ring.

She would have to concoct some elaborate ruse for when Invidoo returned to her side, she knew, for of course she expected that the imp would fail in its task. She would have to be ready to match wits with this Effron creature, and he was one she would not underestimate.

But that plotting had to wait, she told herself, for more immediate concerns pressed in on her, not the least of which was the obvious damage done to her relationship with the dangerous Alegni.

She started for home but moved slowly, letting her thoughts carry her along every avenue of possibility.

Even though she meandered for half the night, Arunika was still quite surprised to find Brother Anthus waiting for her at her small house south of the city. His visits with the ambassador usually lasted much longer.

More surprising was the expression on Anthus’s face, a look of complete confusion and even fear, as if something had truly unnerved the young man.

“They’re gone,” he said, barely getting the words out, before Arunika could begin to question him.