Valas glanced between Pharaun and Quenthel, then took a slight step to the side, dislodging Pharaun's arm from his shoulder.

"Turn my back on Lolth?" Pharaun asked, chuckling to hide his nervousness. "Not at all. I'm merely suggesting we follow the matron mother's orders. She bade us find out what's happened to Lolth, and we have. We may not have all of the answers yet, but we have some pretty important pieces of the puzzle. The matron mother will no doubt want us to report what we've found out so far. Since the archmage is no longer answering my sendings, we can't be certain he's receiving our reports. I assumed we would report in person."

"Only one of us need go," Quenthel said. "But it won't be you. There are other, more important things for you to be doing." She paused for a moment, thinking. "You have the ability to summon demons, do you not?"

Pharaun raised an eyebrow.

"I have summoning spells, yes," he said. "But what does that have to do w?"

"We will return to the Demonweb Pits?in the flesh, this time," answered Quenthel. "And with a more trustworthy guide than Tzirik."

Valas shuddered and asked, "A demon?" The normally taciturn scout saw Quenthel's glare, seemed suddenly to realize he'd spoken aloud, and bowed. "As you command, Mistress."

"Assuming I do summon a demon, how can we possibly hope to prevent it from tearing us limb from limb, let alone coerce it into becoming a tour guide for some little jaunt to the Abyss? Even Archmage Gromph wouldn't think of whistling up a demon without a golden pentacle to bind it. We're in the wilderness?in the Realms of Sunlight, in case you hadn't noticed. Where am I supposed to get the spell components to?"