Even Tang had not expected the plan to go wrong at what seemed like its least important step.
But there, hanging from the center of the ceiling, was Night Shadow Kling—the family's Matron Mother and the Drow leader who had ruled Lightless City for centuries.
Time had failed to carve a single line into the Elf Matron Mother's face. She looked like a grape at its ripest.
Yet this woman, who seemed the last person likely to give up, shrank from the escape route they had prepared for her:
"If you made it this far, you're more capable than anyone in the Kling Family. But I won't go on living like this. My life is already over."
Tang looked at Night Wind and Nightingale. Both shook their heads.
They had spent hours trying every way they could to get the Matron Mother to talk.
Now they understood that she truly had lost the will to live. Even so, her voice remained firm, as though she were clinging to the last of her dignity before the surface dwellers.
"I still want to live. Why not take me out instead? If you're looking for those Ruins, I can lead you there."
The other prisoners hanging in the webs had long since been tempted.
Tang looked at them. Their gaunt faces and eyes held nothing but longing to escape their cage.
So he said, "If all I needed were directions, I wouldn't have gone to the trouble of coming to Lightless City. I want to know how you hid in the Ruins without worrying about the Giant Dragons."
"Then just take her there. Those Giant Dragons are afraid of her!"
Faced with death, the few Drow who still had their wits about them readily sold out their Matron Mother.
Tang narrowed his eyes.