Drizzt found that he believed the sincerity in the gnome's voice, and he had to accept that promise as a measure of mercy far greater than the gnome would have received if Dinin's patrol had captured him. Belwar turned to walk away, but Drizzt, intrigued, had to learn more of the curious creature.
"How have you learned my language?" he asked.
"Gnomes are not stupid” Belwar retorted, unsure of what Drizzt was leading to.
"Nor are drow” Drizzt replied earnestly, "but I have never heard the language of the svirfnebli spoken in my city”
"There once was a drow in Blingdenstone” Belwar explained, now nearly as curious about Drizzt as Drizzt was about him.
"Slave” Drizzt reasoned.
"Guest!" Belwar snapped. "Svirfnebli keep no slaves!"
Again Drizzt found that he could not refute the sincerity in Belwar's voice. "What is your name?" he asked.
The gnome laughed at him. “Do you think me stupid?"
Belwar asked. "You desire my name that you might use its power in some dark magic against me!"
"No” Drizzt protested.
"I should kill you now for thinking me stupid!" Belwar growled, ominously lifting his heavy pick. Drizzt shifted uncomfortably, not knowing what the gnome would do next.
"My offer remains” Belwar said, lowering the pick. "No trouble, and 1 tell the king to let you go” Belwar didn't believe that would happen any more than did Drizzt, so the svirfneblin, with a helpless shrug, offered Drizzt the next best thing. "Or else, a single clean blow”
A commotion from one of the tunnels turned Belwar away. "Belwar” called one of the other gnomes, rushing back into the small chamber. The gnome leader turned a wary eye on Drizzt to see if the drow had caught the mention of his name.
Drizzt wisely kept his head turned away, pretending not to listen. He had indeed heard the name of the gnome leader who had shown him mercy. Belwar, the other svirfneblin had said. Belwar, a name that Drizzt would never forget.
Fighting from down the passageway caught everyone's attention, then, and several svirfnebli scrambled back into the chamber. Drizzt knew from their excitement that the drow patrol was close behind.
Belwar started barking out commands, mostly organizing the retreat down the chamber's other tunnel. Drizzt won. dered where he would fit into the gnome's thinking. Cer. tainly Belwar couldn't hope to outrun the drow patrol dragging along a prisoner.
Then the gnome leader suddenly stopped talking and stopped moving. Too suddenly.
The drow clerics had led the way in with their insidious, paralyzing spells. Belwar and another gnome were held fast by the dweomer, and the rest of the gnomes, realizing this, broke into a wild scramble for the rear exit.
The drow warriors, Guenhwyvar leading the way, charged into the room. Any relief Drizzt might have felt at seeing his feline friend unharmed was buried under the ensuing slaughter. Dinin and his troops cut into the disorganized gnomes with typical drow savagery.
In seconds-horrible seconds that seemed like hours to Drizzt-only Belwar and the other gnome caught in the clerical spell remained alive in the chamber. Several of the svirfnebli had managed to flee down the back corridor, but most of the drow patrol was off in pursuit.
Masoj came into the chamber last, looking thorougly wretched in his mud-covered clothing. He remained at the tunnel exit and did not even look Drizzt's way, except to note that his panther was standing protectively beside the secondboy of House Do'Urden.
"Again you have found your measure of luck, and more” Dinin said to Drizzt as he cut his brother's bonds. Looking around at the carnage in the chamber, Drizzt wasn't so sure.
Dinin handed him back his scimitars, then turned to the drow standing watch over the two paralyzed gnomes. "Finish them” Dinin instructed.
A wide smile spread over the other drow's face, and he pulled a jagged knife from his belt. He held it up in front of a gnome's face, teasing the helpless creature. "Can they see it?" he asked the high priestess.
"That is the fun of the spell” the high priestess replied.
"The svirfneblin understands what is about to happen. Even now he is struggling to break out of the hold”
"Prisoners!" Drizzt blurted.
Dillin and the others turned to him, the draw with the dagger wearing a scowl both angry and disappointed.
"For House Do'Urden?" Drizzt asked Dinin hopefully. "We could benefit from-"
"Svirfnebli do not make good slaves” Dinin replied.
"No; agreed the high priestess, moving beside the dagger-wielding fighter. She nodded to the warrior and his smile returned tenfold. He struck hard. Only Belwar remained.
The warrior waved his blood-stained dagger ominously and moved in front of the gnome leader.
"Not that one!" Drizzt protested, unable to bear anymore.
"Let him live!" Drizzt wanted to say that Belwar could do them no harm, and that killing the defenseless gnome would be a cowardly and vile act. Drizzt knew that appealing to his kin for mercy would be a waste of time.
Dinin's expression was more a look of anger than curiosity this time.
"If you kill him, then no gnomes will remain to return to their city and tell of our strength; Drizzt reasoned, grasping at the one slim hope he could find. "We should send him back to his people, send him back to tell them of their folly in entering the domain of the drow!" Dinin looked back to the high priestess for advice.
"It seems proper reasoning; she said with a nod.
Dinin was not so certain of his brother's motives. Not taking his eyes off Drizzt, he said to the warrior, "Then cut off the gnome's hands”
Drizzt didn't flinch, realizing that if he did, Dinin would surely slaughter Belwar.
The warrior replaced the dagger on his belt and took out his heavy sword.
"Wait; said Dinin, still eyeing Drizzt. "Release him from the spell first; I want to hear his screams”
Several drow moved over to put the tips of their swords at Belwar's neck as the high priestess released her magical hold. Belwar made no moves.
The appointed drow warrior grasped his sword in both hands, and Belwar, brave Belwar, held his arms straight out and motionless in front of him.
Drizzt averted his gaze, unable to watch and awaiting, fearing, the gnome's cry.
Belwar noted Drizzt's reaction. Was it compassion?
The drow warrior then swung his sword. Belwar never took his stare off Drizzt as the sword cut across his wrists, lighting a million fires of agony in his arms.
Neither did Belwar scream. He wouldn't give Dinin the satisfaction. The gnome leader looked back to Drizzt one final time as two drow fighters ushered him out of the chamber, and he recognized the true anguish, and the apology, behind the young drow's feigned impassive facade.
Even as Belwar was leaving, the dark elves who had chased off after the fleeing gnomes returned from the other tunnel. "We could not catch them in these tiny passage-ways” one of them complained.
"Damn!" Dinin growled. Sending a handless gnome victim back to Blingdenstone was one thing, but letting healthy members of the gnome expedition escape was quite another. "I want them caught!"
"Guenhwyvar can catch them” Masoj proclaimed, then he called the cat to his side and eyed Drizzt all the while. Drizzt's heart raced as the wizard patted the great cat.
"Come, my pet” Masoj said. "There is hunting left to be done!" The wizard watched Drizzt squirm at the words, knowing that Drizzt did not approve of Guenhwyvar engaging in such tactics.
"They are gone?" Drizzt asked Dinin, his voice on the edge of desperation.
"Running all the way back to Blingdenstone” Dinin replied calmly. "If we let them”
"And will they return?"
Dinin's sour scowl reflected the absurdity of his brother's question. "Would you?"
"Our task is complete, then” Drizzt reasoned, trying vainly to find some way out of Masoj's ignoble designs for the panther.
"We have won the day” Dinin agreed, "though our own losses have been great. We may find still more fun, with the help of the wizard's pet?'
"Fun” Masoj echoed pointedly at Drizzt. "Be gone, Guenhwyvar, into the tunnels. Let us learn how fast a frightened gnome may run!"
Only a few minutes later, Guenhwyvar came back into the chamber, dragging a dead gnome in its mouth.
"Return!" Masoj commanded as Guenhwyvar dropped the body at his feet. "Bring me more!"
Drizzt's heart dropped at the sound of the corpse flopping to the stone floor. He looked into Guenhwyvar's eyes and saw a sadness as profound as his own. The panther was a hunter, as honorable in its own way as was Drizzt. To the evil Masoj, though, Guenhwyvar was a toy and nothing more, an instrument for his perverted pleasures, killing for no reason other than its master's joy of killing.
In the hands of the wizard, Guenhwyvar was no more than a murderer.
Guenhwyvar paused at the entrance to the small tunnel and looked to Drizzt almost apologetically.
"Return!" Masoj screamed, and he kicked the cat in the rear. Then Masoj, too, turned an eye back on Drizzt, a vindictive eye. Masoj had missed his chance to kill the young Do'Urden; he would have to be careful how he explained such a mistake to his unforgiving mother. Masoj decided to worry about that unpleasant encounter later. For now, at least, he had the satisfaction of watching Drizzt suffer.
Dinin and the others were oblivious to the unfolding drama between Masoj and Drizzt; too engaged in their wait for Guenhwyvar's return; too engaged in their speculations of the expressions of terror the gnomes would cast back at such a perfect killer; too caught up in the macabre humor of the moment, that perverted drow humor that brought laughter when tears were needed.
Part 5
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
"How have you learned my language?" he asked.
"Gnomes are not stupid” Belwar retorted, unsure of what Drizzt was leading to.
"Nor are drow” Drizzt replied earnestly, "but I have never heard the language of the svirfnebli spoken in my city”
"There once was a drow in Blingdenstone” Belwar explained, now nearly as curious about Drizzt as Drizzt was about him.
"Slave” Drizzt reasoned.
"Guest!" Belwar snapped. "Svirfnebli keep no slaves!"
Again Drizzt found that he could not refute the sincerity in Belwar's voice. "What is your name?" he asked.
The gnome laughed at him. “Do you think me stupid?"
Belwar asked. "You desire my name that you might use its power in some dark magic against me!"
"No” Drizzt protested.
"I should kill you now for thinking me stupid!" Belwar growled, ominously lifting his heavy pick. Drizzt shifted uncomfortably, not knowing what the gnome would do next.
"My offer remains” Belwar said, lowering the pick. "No trouble, and 1 tell the king to let you go” Belwar didn't believe that would happen any more than did Drizzt, so the svirfneblin, with a helpless shrug, offered Drizzt the next best thing. "Or else, a single clean blow”
A commotion from one of the tunnels turned Belwar away. "Belwar” called one of the other gnomes, rushing back into the small chamber. The gnome leader turned a wary eye on Drizzt to see if the drow had caught the mention of his name.
Drizzt wisely kept his head turned away, pretending not to listen. He had indeed heard the name of the gnome leader who had shown him mercy. Belwar, the other svirfneblin had said. Belwar, a name that Drizzt would never forget.
Fighting from down the passageway caught everyone's attention, then, and several svirfnebli scrambled back into the chamber. Drizzt knew from their excitement that the drow patrol was close behind.
Belwar started barking out commands, mostly organizing the retreat down the chamber's other tunnel. Drizzt won. dered where he would fit into the gnome's thinking. Cer. tainly Belwar couldn't hope to outrun the drow patrol dragging along a prisoner.
Then the gnome leader suddenly stopped talking and stopped moving. Too suddenly.
The drow clerics had led the way in with their insidious, paralyzing spells. Belwar and another gnome were held fast by the dweomer, and the rest of the gnomes, realizing this, broke into a wild scramble for the rear exit.
The drow warriors, Guenhwyvar leading the way, charged into the room. Any relief Drizzt might have felt at seeing his feline friend unharmed was buried under the ensuing slaughter. Dinin and his troops cut into the disorganized gnomes with typical drow savagery.
In seconds-horrible seconds that seemed like hours to Drizzt-only Belwar and the other gnome caught in the clerical spell remained alive in the chamber. Several of the svirfnebli had managed to flee down the back corridor, but most of the drow patrol was off in pursuit.
Masoj came into the chamber last, looking thorougly wretched in his mud-covered clothing. He remained at the tunnel exit and did not even look Drizzt's way, except to note that his panther was standing protectively beside the secondboy of House Do'Urden.
"Again you have found your measure of luck, and more” Dinin said to Drizzt as he cut his brother's bonds. Looking around at the carnage in the chamber, Drizzt wasn't so sure.
Dinin handed him back his scimitars, then turned to the drow standing watch over the two paralyzed gnomes. "Finish them” Dinin instructed.
A wide smile spread over the other drow's face, and he pulled a jagged knife from his belt. He held it up in front of a gnome's face, teasing the helpless creature. "Can they see it?" he asked the high priestess.
"That is the fun of the spell” the high priestess replied.
"The svirfneblin understands what is about to happen. Even now he is struggling to break out of the hold”
"Prisoners!" Drizzt blurted.
Dillin and the others turned to him, the draw with the dagger wearing a scowl both angry and disappointed.
"For House Do'Urden?" Drizzt asked Dinin hopefully. "We could benefit from-"
"Svirfnebli do not make good slaves” Dinin replied.
"No; agreed the high priestess, moving beside the dagger-wielding fighter. She nodded to the warrior and his smile returned tenfold. He struck hard. Only Belwar remained.
The warrior waved his blood-stained dagger ominously and moved in front of the gnome leader.
"Not that one!" Drizzt protested, unable to bear anymore.
"Let him live!" Drizzt wanted to say that Belwar could do them no harm, and that killing the defenseless gnome would be a cowardly and vile act. Drizzt knew that appealing to his kin for mercy would be a waste of time.
Dinin's expression was more a look of anger than curiosity this time.
"If you kill him, then no gnomes will remain to return to their city and tell of our strength; Drizzt reasoned, grasping at the one slim hope he could find. "We should send him back to his people, send him back to tell them of their folly in entering the domain of the drow!" Dinin looked back to the high priestess for advice.
"It seems proper reasoning; she said with a nod.
Dinin was not so certain of his brother's motives. Not taking his eyes off Drizzt, he said to the warrior, "Then cut off the gnome's hands”
Drizzt didn't flinch, realizing that if he did, Dinin would surely slaughter Belwar.
The warrior replaced the dagger on his belt and took out his heavy sword.
"Wait; said Dinin, still eyeing Drizzt. "Release him from the spell first; I want to hear his screams”
Several drow moved over to put the tips of their swords at Belwar's neck as the high priestess released her magical hold. Belwar made no moves.
The appointed drow warrior grasped his sword in both hands, and Belwar, brave Belwar, held his arms straight out and motionless in front of him.
Drizzt averted his gaze, unable to watch and awaiting, fearing, the gnome's cry.
Belwar noted Drizzt's reaction. Was it compassion?
The drow warrior then swung his sword. Belwar never took his stare off Drizzt as the sword cut across his wrists, lighting a million fires of agony in his arms.
Neither did Belwar scream. He wouldn't give Dinin the satisfaction. The gnome leader looked back to Drizzt one final time as two drow fighters ushered him out of the chamber, and he recognized the true anguish, and the apology, behind the young drow's feigned impassive facade.
Even as Belwar was leaving, the dark elves who had chased off after the fleeing gnomes returned from the other tunnel. "We could not catch them in these tiny passage-ways” one of them complained.
"Damn!" Dinin growled. Sending a handless gnome victim back to Blingdenstone was one thing, but letting healthy members of the gnome expedition escape was quite another. "I want them caught!"
"Guenhwyvar can catch them” Masoj proclaimed, then he called the cat to his side and eyed Drizzt all the while. Drizzt's heart raced as the wizard patted the great cat.
"Come, my pet” Masoj said. "There is hunting left to be done!" The wizard watched Drizzt squirm at the words, knowing that Drizzt did not approve of Guenhwyvar engaging in such tactics.
"They are gone?" Drizzt asked Dinin, his voice on the edge of desperation.
"Running all the way back to Blingdenstone” Dinin replied calmly. "If we let them”
"And will they return?"
Dinin's sour scowl reflected the absurdity of his brother's question. "Would you?"
"Our task is complete, then” Drizzt reasoned, trying vainly to find some way out of Masoj's ignoble designs for the panther.
"We have won the day” Dinin agreed, "though our own losses have been great. We may find still more fun, with the help of the wizard's pet?'
"Fun” Masoj echoed pointedly at Drizzt. "Be gone, Guenhwyvar, into the tunnels. Let us learn how fast a frightened gnome may run!"
Only a few minutes later, Guenhwyvar came back into the chamber, dragging a dead gnome in its mouth.
"Return!" Masoj commanded as Guenhwyvar dropped the body at his feet. "Bring me more!"
Drizzt's heart dropped at the sound of the corpse flopping to the stone floor. He looked into Guenhwyvar's eyes and saw a sadness as profound as his own. The panther was a hunter, as honorable in its own way as was Drizzt. To the evil Masoj, though, Guenhwyvar was a toy and nothing more, an instrument for his perverted pleasures, killing for no reason other than its master's joy of killing.
In the hands of the wizard, Guenhwyvar was no more than a murderer.
Guenhwyvar paused at the entrance to the small tunnel and looked to Drizzt almost apologetically.
"Return!" Masoj screamed, and he kicked the cat in the rear. Then Masoj, too, turned an eye back on Drizzt, a vindictive eye. Masoj had missed his chance to kill the young Do'Urden; he would have to be careful how he explained such a mistake to his unforgiving mother. Masoj decided to worry about that unpleasant encounter later. For now, at least, he had the satisfaction of watching Drizzt suffer.
Dinin and the others were oblivious to the unfolding drama between Masoj and Drizzt; too engaged in their wait for Guenhwyvar's return; too engaged in their speculations of the expressions of terror the gnomes would cast back at such a perfect killer; too caught up in the macabre humor of the moment, that perverted drow humor that brought laughter when tears were needed.
Part 5
Zaknafein
Zaknafein Do'Urden: mentor; teacher; friend. I, in the blind agony of my own frustrations, more than once came to recognize Zaknafein as none of these. Did I ask of him more than he could give? Did I expect perfection of a tormented soul; hold Zaknafein up to standards beyond his experiences, or standards impossible in the face of his experiences?
I might have been him. I might have lived, trapped within the helpless rage, buried under the daily assault of the wickedness that is Menzoberranzan and the pervading evil that is my own family; never in life to find escape.
It seems a logical assumption that we learn from the mistakes of our elders. This, I believe, was my salvation. Without the example of Zaknafein, I, too, would have found no escape-not in life.
Is this course I have chosen a better way than the life Zaknafein knew? I think, yes, though I find despair often enough sometimes to long for that other way. It would have been easier. Truth, though, is nothing in the face of selffalsehood, and principles are of no value if the idealist – can not live up to his own standards.
This, then, is a better way.
I live with many laments, for my people, for myself, but mostly for that weapon master; lost to me now, who showed me how-and why-to use a blade.
There is no pain greater than this; not the cut of a jagged-edged dagger nor the fire of a dragon's breath. Nothing burns in your heart like the emptiness of losing something, someone, before you truly have learned of its value. Often now I lift my cup in a futile toast, an apology to ears that cannot hear:
To Zak, the one who inspired my courage.
Chapter 24
To Know Our Enemies
"Eight drow dead, and one a cleric” Briza said to Matron Malice on the balcony of House Do'Urden. Briza had rushed back to the compound with the first reports of the encounter, leaving her sisters at the central plaza of Menzoberranzan with the gathered throng, awaiting further information. "But nearly two score of the gnomes died, a clear victory?'
"What of your brothers?" asked Malice. "How did House Do'Urden fare in this encounter?"
"As with the surface elves, Dinin's hand slew five” replied Briza. "They say that he led the main assault fearlessly, and he killed the most gnomes?'
Matron Malice beamed with the news, though she suspected that Briza, standing patiently behind a smug smile, was holding something dramatic back from her. "What of Drizzt?" the matron demanded, having no patience for her daughter's games. "How many svirfnebli fell at his feet?"
"None” Briza replied, but still the smile remained. "Still the day belonged to Drizzt," she added quickly, seeing an angry scowl spreading across her volatile mother's face. Malice did not seem amused.
"Drizzt defeated an earth elemental” Briza cried, "all alone, almost, with only minor help from a wizard! The high priestess of the patrol named the kill his!" Matron Malice gasped and turned away. Drizzt had ever been an enigma to her, as fine with the blade as any but lacking the proper attitude and the proper respect. Now this: an earth elemental! Malice herself had seen such a monster ravage an entire drow raiding party, killing a dozen sea-soned warriors before wandering off on its way. Yet her son, her confusing son, had defeated one single-handedly!
"Lloth will favor us this day” Briza commented, not quite understanding her mother's reaction.
Briza's words struck an idea in Malice. "Gather your sisters” she commanded. "We shall meet in the chapel. If House Do'Urden so fully won the day out in the tunnels, perhaps the Spider Queen will grace us with some information”
"Vierna and Maya await the forthcoming news in the city plaza” Briza explained, mistakenly believing her mother to be referring to information about the battle. "Surely we will know the entire story within an hour”
"I care nothing for a battle against gnomes!" Malice scolded. "You have told everything that is important to our family; the rest does not matter. We must parlay your brothers' heroics into gain”
To learn of our enemies!" Briza blurted as she realized what her mother had in mind.
"Exactly” replied Malice. "To learn which house it is that threatens House Do'Urden. If the Spider Queen truly finds favor with us this day, she may grace us with the knowledge we need to defeat our enemies!"
A short while later, the four high priestesses of House Do'Urden gathered around the spider idol in the chapel anteroom. Before them, in a bowl of the deepest onyx, burned the sacred incense-sweet, deathlike, and favored by the yochlol, the handmaidens of Lloth.
The flame moved through a variety of colors, from orange to green to brilliant red. It then took shape, heard the beckons of the four priestesses and the urgency in the voice of Matron Malice. The top of the fire, no longer dancing, smoothed and rounded, assumed the form of a hairless head, then stretched upward, growing. The flame disappeared, consumed by the yochlol's image, a half-melted pile of wax with grotesquely elongated eyes and a drooping mouth.
"Who has summoned me?" the small figure demanded telepathically. The yochlol's thoughts, too powerful for its diminutive stature, boomed within the heads of the gathered drow.
"I have, handmaiden” Malice replied aloud, wanting her daughters to hear. The matron bowed her head. "I am Malice, loyal servant of the Spider Queen” In a puff of smoke, the yochlol disappeared, leaving only glowing incense embers in the onyx bowl. A moment later, the handmaiden reappeared, full size, standing behind Matron Malice. Briza, Vierna, and Maya held their breath as the being laid two sickly tentacles on their mother's shoulders.
Matron Malice accepted the tentacles without reply, confident in her cause for summoning the yochlol.
"Explain to me why you dare to disturb me” came the yochlol's insidious thoughts.
"To ask a simple question” Malice replied silently, for no words were necessary to communicate with a handmaiden.
"One whose answer you know”
"Does this question interest you so greatly?" the yochlol asked. "You risk such dire consequences”
"It is imperative that I learn the answer” replied Matron Malice. Her three daughters watched curiously, hearing the yochlol's thoughts but only guessing at their mother's unspoken replies.
"If the answer is so important, and it is known to the handmaidens, and thus to the Spider Queen, do you not believe that Lloth would have given it to you if she so chose?"
"Perhaps, before this day, the Spider Queen did not deem me worthy to know” Malice responded. "Things have changed”
The handmaiden paused and rolled its elongated eyes back into its head as if communicating with some distant plane.
"Greetings, Matron Malice Do'Urden” the yochlol said aloud after a few tense moments. The creature's spoken voice was calm and overly smooth for the thing's grotesque appearance.
"My greetings to you, and to your mistress, Queen of Spiders” replied Malice. She shot a wry smile at her daughters and still didn't turn to face the creature behind her. Appar. ently Malice's guess of Lloth's favor had been correct.
"Daermon N'a'shezbaernon has pleased Lloth” the hand. maiden said. "The males of your house have won the day, even above the females that journeyed with them. I must accept Matron Malice Do'Urden's summons” The tentacles slid off Malice's shoulders, and the yochlol stood rigid be. hind her, awaiting her commands.
"Glad I am to please the Spider Queen” Malice began. She sought the proper way to phrase her question. "For the summons, as I have said, I beg only the answer to a simple question”
"Ask it” prompted the yochlol, and the mocking tone told Malice and her daughters that the monster already knew the question.
"My house is threatened, say the rumors” said Malice.
"Rumors?" The yochlol laughed, an evil, grating sound.
"I trust in my sources” Malice replied defensively. would not have called upon you if I did not believe the threat” "Continue” said the yochlol, amused by the whole affair.
"They are more than rumors, Matron Malice Do'Urden. Another house plans war upon you”
Maya's immature gasp brought scornful eyes upon her from her mother and her sisters.
"Name this house to me” Malice pleaded. "If Daermon N'a'shezbaernon truly has pleased the Spider Queen this day, then I bid Lloth to reveal our enemies, that we might destroy them!"
And if this other house also has pleased the Spider Queen?" the handmaiden mused. "Would Lloth then betray it to you?"
"Our enemies hold every advantage” Malice protested.
"They know of House Do'Urden. No doubt they watch us every day, laying their plans. We ask Lloth Qnly to give us knowledge equal to that of our enemies. Reveal them and let us prove which house is more worthy of victory”
"What if your enemies are greater than you?" asked the handmaiden. "Would Matron Malice Do'Urden then call upon Lloth to intervene and save her pitiful house?"
"No!" cried Malice. "We would call upon those powers that Lloth has given us to fight our foes. Even if our enemies are the more powerful, let Lloth be assured that they will suffer great pain for their attack on House Do'Urden!"
Again the handmaiden sank back within itself, finding the link to its home plane, a place darker than Menzoberranzan. Malice clenched tightly to Briza's hand, to her right, and Vierna's, to her left. They in turn passed along the confirmation of their bond to Maya, at the foot of the circle.
"The Spider Queen is pleased, Matron Malice Do'Urden” the handmaiden said at length. "Trust that she will favor House Do'Urden more than your enemies when battle rings out-perhaps. . . " Malice flinched at the ambiguity of that final word, grudgingly accepting that Lloth never made any promises, at any time.
"What of my question” Malice dared to protest, "the reason for the summons?"
There came a bright flash that stole the four clerics' vision. When their eyesight returned to them, they saw the yochlol, tiny again, and glaring out at them from the flames of the onyx bowl.
"The Spider Queen does not give an answer that is already known!" The handmaiden proclaimed, the sheer power of its otherworldly voice cutting into the drow ears. The fire erupted in another blinding flash, and the yochlol disappeared, leaving the precious bowl sundered into a dozen pieces.
Matron Malice grabbed a large piece of the shattered onyx and threw it against a wall. "Already known?" she cried in rage. "Known to whom? Who in my family keeps this secret from me?"
"Perhaps the one who knows does not know that she knows” Briza put in, trying to calm her mother. "Or perhaps the information is newly found, and she has not yet had the chance to come to you with it”
"She?" growled Matron Malice. "What 'she' do you speak of, Briza? We are all here. Are any of my daughters stupid enough to miss such an obvious threat to our family?"
"No, Matron!" Vierna and Maya cried together, terrified of Malice's growing wrath, rising beyond control.
"Never have I seen any sign!" said Vierna.
"Nor I!" added Maya. "By your side I have been these many weeks, and I have seen no more than you!"
"Are you implying that I have missed something?" Malice growled, her knuckles white at her sides.
"No, Matron!" Briza shouted above the commotion, loud enough to settle her mother for the moment and turn Malice's attention fully upon her eldest daughter.
"Not she, then” Briza reasoned. "He. One of your sons may have the answer, or Zaknafein or Rizzen, perhaps”
"Yes” agreed Vierna. "They are only males, too stupid to understand the importance of minor details”
"Drizzt and Dinin have been out of the house” added Briza, "out of the city. In their patrol group are children of every powerful house, every house that would dare to threaten us!"
The fires in Malice's eyes glowed, but she relaxed at the reasoning. "Bring them to me when they return to Menzoberranzan” she instructed Vierna and Maya. "You” she said to Briza, "bring Rizzen and Zaknafein. All the family must be present, so that we may learn what we may learn!"
"The cousins, and the soldiers, too?" asked Briza. "Perhaps one beyond the immediate family knows the answer”
"Should we bring them together, as well?" offered Vierna, her voice edged with the rising excitement of the moment.
"A gathering of the whole clan, a general war party of House Do'Urden?"
"No” Malice replied, "not the soldiers or the cousins. I do not believe they are involved in this; the handmaiden would have told us the answer if one of my direct family did not know it. It is my embarrassment to ask a question whose an. swer should be known to me, whose answer someone within the circle of my family knows” She gritted her teeth as she spat out the rest of her thoughts.
"I do not enjoy being embarrassed!"
Drizzt and Dinin came into the house a short while later, exhausted and glad the adventure was over. They had barely passed the entrance and turned down the wide corridor that led to their rooms when they bumped into Zaknafein, coming the other way.
"So the hero has returned” Zak remarked, eyeing Drizzt directly. Drizzt did not miss the sarcasm in his voice.
"We've completed our job-successfully” Dinin shot back, more than a little perturbed at being excluded from Zak's greeting. "I led-"
"I know of the battle” Zak assured him. "It has been endlessly recounted throughout the city. Now leave us, Elderboy. I have unfinished business with your brother”
"I leave when I choose to leave!" Dinin growled. Zak snapped a glare upon him. "I wish to speak to Drizzt, only to Drizzt, so leave”
Dinin's hand went to his sword hilt, not a smart move. Before he even moved the weapon hilt an inch from the scabbard, Zak had slapped him twice in the face with one hand.
The other had somehow produced a dagger and put its tip at Dinin's throat.
Drizzt watched in amazement, certain that Zak would kill Dinin if this continued.
"Leave” Zak said again, "on your life” Dinin threw his hands up and slowly backed away. "Matron Malice will hear of this!" he warned.
"I will tell her myself” Zak laughed at him. "Do you think she will trouble herself on your behalf, fool? As far as Matron Malice cares, the family males determine their own hierarchy. Go away, Elderboy. Come back when you have found the courage to challenge me”
"Come with me, brother” Dinin said to Drizzt.
"We have business” Zak reminded Drizzt.
Drizzt looked to both of them, once and back again, stunned by their open willingness to kill each other. "I will stay” he decided. "I do indeed have unfinished business with the weapon master”
"As you choose, hero” Dinin spat, and he turned on his heel and stormed away.
"You have made an enemy” Drizzt remarked to Zak.
"I have made many” Zak laughed, "and I will make many more before my day ends! But no mind. Your actions have inspired jealousy in your brother-your older brother. You are the one who should be wary”
"He hates you openly” reasoned Drizzt.
"But would gain nothing from my death” Zak replied. "I am no threat to Dinin, but you. . . " He let the word hang in the air.
"Why would I threaten him?" Drizzt protested. "Dinin has nothing I desire”
"He has power” Zak explained. "He is the elderboy now but was not always”
"He killed Nalfein, the brother I never met”
"You know of this?" said Zak. "Perhaps Dinin suspects that another secondboy will follow the same course he took to become the elderboy of House Do'Urden”
"Enough” Drizzt growled, tired of the whole stupid system of ascension. How well you know it, Zaknafein, he thought. How many did you murder to attain your position?
"An earth elemental” Zak said, blowing a low whistle with the words. "It is a powerful foe that you defeated this day” He bowed low, showing Drizzt mockery beyond any doubt.
"What is next for the young hero? A daemon, perhaps? A demigod? Surely there is nothing that can-"
"Never have I heard such senseless words stream from your mouth” Drizzt retorted. Now it was time for some sarcasm of his own. "Is it that I have inspired jealousy in another besides my brother?"
"Jealousy?" Zak cried. "Wipe your nose, sniveling little boy! A dozen earth elementals have fallen to my blade!
Daemons, too! Do not overestimate your deeds or your abilities. You are one warrior among a race of warriors. To forget that surely will prove fatal” He ended the line with pointed emphasis, almost in a sneer, and Drizzt began to consider again just how real their appointed "practice" in the gym would become.
"I know my abilities” Drizzt replied, "and my limitations. 1 have learned to survive”
"As have I” Zak shot back, "for so many centuries!"
"The gym awaits” Drizzt said calmly.
"Your mother awaits” Zak corrected. "She bids us all to the chapel. Fear not, though. There will be time for our meeting”
Drizzt walked past Zak without another word, suspecting that his and Zak's blades would finish the conversation for them. What had become of Zaknafein? Drizzt wondered.
Was this the same teacher who had trained him those years before the Academy? Drizzt could not sort through his feelings. Was he seeing Zak differently because of the things he had learned of Zak's exploits, or was there truly something different, something harder, about the weapon master's demeanor since Drizzt had returned from the Academy?
The sound of a whip brought Drizzt from his contemplations.
"I am your patron!" he heard Rizzen say.
"That's of no consequence!" retorted a female voice, the voice of Briza. Drizzt slipped to the corner of the next intersection and peeked around. Briza and Rizzen faced off, Rizzen unarmed, but Briza holding her snake-headed whip.
"Patron” Briza laughed, "a meaningless title. You are a male lending your seed to the matron and of no more importance”
"Four I have sired” Rizzen said indignantly.
"Three!" Briza corrected, snapping the whip to accentuate the point. "Viema is Zaknafein's, not yours! Nalfein is dead, leaving only two. One of those is female and above you. Only Dinin is truly under your rank!"
Drizzt sank back against the wall and looked behind him to the empty corridor he had just walked. He had always suspected that Rizzen was not his true father. The male had never paid him any mind, had never scolded him or praised him or offered to him any advice or training. To hear Briza say it, though, . .. and Rizzen not deny it!
Rizzen fumbled about for some retort to Briza's stinging words. "Does Matron Malice know of your desires?" he snarled. "Does she know that her eldest daughter seeks her title?"
"Every eldest daughter seeks the title of matron mother” Briza laughed at him. "Matron Malice would be a fool to suspect otherwise. I assure you that she is not, nor am I. I will get the title from her when she is weak with age. She knows and accepts this as fact.'
"You admit that you will kill her?"
"If not I, then Vierna. If not Vierna, then Maya. It is our way, stupid male. It is the word of Lloth.' Rage burned in Drizzt as he heard the evil proclamations, but he remained silent at the corner.
"Briza will not wait for age to steal her mother's power” Rizzen snarled, "not when a dagger will expedite the transfer. Briza hungers for the throne of the house!"
Rizzen's next words came out as an indecipherable scream as the six-headed whip went to work again and again.
Drizzt wanted to intervene, to rush out and cut them both down, but, of course, he could not. Briza acted now as she had been taught, followed the words of the Spider Queen in asserting her dominance over Rizzen. She wouldn't kill him, Drizzt knew.
But what if Briza got carried away in the frenzy? What if she did kill Rizzen? In the empty void that was beginning to grow in his heart, Drizzt wondered if he even cared.
"You let him escape'" Matron SiNafay roared at her son.
"You will learn not to disappoint me'"
"No, my matron!" Masoi protested. "I hit him squarely with a lightning bolt. He never even suspected the blow to be aimed at him! 1 could not finish the deed; the monster had me caught in the gate to its own plane!"
SiNafay bit her lip, forced to accept her son's reasoning. She knew that she had given Masoj a difficult mission.
Drizzt was a powerful foe, and to kill him without leaving an obvious trail would not be easy.
"I will get him” Masoj promised, determination showing on his face "I have the weapon readied; Drizzt will be dead before the tenth cycle, as you commanded”
"Why should I grant you another chance?" SiNafay asked him. "Why should I believe that you will fare better the next time you try?"
"Because I want him dead!" Masoj cried. "More than even you, my matron. I want to tear the life from Drizzt Do'Urden! When he is dead, I want to rip out his heart and display it as a trophy!"
SiNafay could not deny her son's obsession. "Granted” she said. "Get him, Masoj Hun'ett. On your life, strike the first blow against House Do'Urden and kill its secondboy”
Masoj bowed, the grimace never leaving his face, and swept out of the room.
"You heard everything?" SiNafay signaled when the door had closed behind her son. She knew that Masoj might well have his ear to the door, and she did not want him to know of this conversation.
"I did” Alton replied in the silent code, stepping out from behind a curtain.
"Do you concur with my decision?" SiNafay's hands asked.
Alton was at a loss. He had no choice but to abide by his matron mother's decisions, but he did not think that SiNafay had been wise in sending Masoj back out after Drizzt. His silence grew long.
"You do not approve” Matron SiNafay bluntly motioned.
"Please, Matron Mother” Alton replied quickly. "I would not..."
"You are forgiven” SiNafay assured him. "I am not so certain that I should have allowed Masoj a second opportunity.
Too much could go wrong”
"Then why?" Alton dared to ask. "You did not grant me a second chance, though I desire Drizzt Do'Urden's death as fiercely as any”
SiNafay cast him a scornful glare, sending him back on his courageous heels. "You doubt my judgment?"
"No!" Alton cried aloud. He slapped a hand over his mouth and dropped to his knees in terror. "Never, my matron” he signaled silently. "I just do not understand the problem as clearly as you. Forgive me my ignorance”
SiNafay's laughter sounded like the hiss of a hundred angry snakes. "We see together in this matter” she assured Alton. "I would no more give Masoj a second chance than I gave you”
"But-" Alton started to protest.
"Masoj will go back after Drizzt, but this time he will not be alone” SiNafay explained. "You will follow him, Alton DeVir. Keep him safe and finish the deed, on your life”
Alton beamed at the news that he would finally find some taste of vengeance. SiNafay's final threat didn't even con. cem him. "Could it ever be any other way?" his hands asked casually.
"Think!" Malice growled, her face close, her breath hot on Drizzt's face. "You know somethifig!"
Drizzt slumped back from the overpowering figure and glanced nervously around at his gathered family. Dinin, similarly grilled just a moment ago, kneeled with his chin in hand. He tried vainly to come up with an answer before Matron Malice upped the level of the interrogation techniques. Dinin did not miss Briza's motions toward her snake whip, and the unnerving sight did little to aid his memory.
Malice slapped Drizzt hard across the face and stepped away. "One of you has learned the identity of our enemies” she snapped at her sons. "Out there, on patrol, one of you has seen some hint, some sign”
"Perhaps we saw it but did not know it for what it was” Dinin offered.
"Silence!" Malice screamed, her face bright with rage.
"When you know the answer to my question, you may speak! Only then!" She turned to Briza. "Help Dinin find his memory!"
Dinin dropped his head to his arms, folded on the floor in front of him, and arched his back to accept the torture. 1b do otherwise would only enrage Malice more.
Drizzt closed his eyes and recounted the events of his many patrols. He jerked involuntarily when he heard the snake whip's crack and his brother's soft groan.
"Masoj” Drizzt whispered, almost unconsciously. He looked up at his mother, who held her hand out to halt Briza's attacks-to Briza's dismay.
"Masoj Hun'ett” Drizzt said more loudly. "In the fight against the gnomes, he tried to kill me” All the family, particularly Malice and Dinin, leaned forward toward Drizzt, hanging on his every word.
"When I battled the elemental” Drizzt explained, spitting out the last word as a curse upon Zaknafein. He cast an angry glare at the weapon master and continued, "Masoj Hun'ett struck me down with a bolt of lightning”
"He may have been shooting for the monster” Vierna insisted. "Masoj insisted that it was he who killed the elemental, but the high priestess of the patrol denied his claim” "Masoj waited” Drizzt replied. "He did nothing until I began to gain the advantage over the monster. Then he loosed his magic, as much at me as at the elemental. I think he hoped to destroy us both”
"House Hun'ett” Matron Malice whispered.
"Fifth House” Briza remarked, "under Matron SiNafay”
"So that is our enemy” said Malice.
"Perhaps not” said Dinin, wondering even as he spoke the words why he hadn't left well enough alone. To disprove the theory only invited more whipping.
Matron Malice did not like his hesitation as he reconsidered the argument. "Explain!" she commanded.
"Masoj Hun'ett was angry at being excluded from the surface raid” said DInin. "We left him in the city, only to witness our triumphant return” Dinin fixed his eyes straight on his brother. "Masoj has ever been jealous of Drizzt and all the glories that my brother has found, rightly or wrongly. Many are jealous of Drizzt and would see him dead”
Drizzt shifted uncomfortably in his seat, knowing the last words to be an open threat. He glanced over to Zaknafein and marked the weapon master's smug smile.
"Are you certain of your words?" Malice said to Drizzt, shaking him from his private thoughts.
"There is the cat” Dinin interrupted, "Masoj Hun'ett's magical pet, though it holds closer to Drizzt's side than to the wizard's”
"Guenhwyvar walks the point beside me” Drizzt protested, "a position that you ordered”
"Masoj does not like it” Dinin retorted. Perhaps that is why you put the cat there, Drizzt thought, but he kept the words to himself. Was he seeing conspiracies in coincidence? Or was his world so truly filled with devious schemes and silent struggles for power?
"Are you certain of your words?" Malice asked Drizzt again, pulling him from his pondering.
"Masoj Hun'ett tried to kill me” he asserted. "I do not know his reasons, but his intent I do not doubt!"
"House Hun'ett, then” Briza remarked, "a mighty foe”
"We must learn of them” Malice said. "Dispatch the scouts! I will know the count of House Hun'ett's soldiers, its wizards, and, particularly, its clerics”
"If we are wrong” Dinin said. "If House Hun'ett is not the conspiring house-"
"We are not wrong!" Malice screamed at him.
"The yochlol said that one of us knows the identity of our enemy” reasoned Vierna. "All we have is Drizzt's tale of Masoj”
"Unless you are hiding something” Matron Malice growled at Dinin, a threat so cold and wicked that it stole the blood from the elderboy's face.
Dinin shook his head emphatically and slumped back, having nothing more to add to the conversation.
"Prepare a communion” Malice said to Briza. 'Let us learn of Matron SiNafay's standing with the Spider Queen”
Drizzt watched incredulously as the preparations began at a frantic pace, each command from Matron Malice following a practiced defensive course. It wasn't the precision of Drizzt's family's battle planning that amazed him – he would expect nothing less from this group. It was the eager gleam in every eye.
"What of your brothers?" asked Malice. "How did House Do'Urden fare in this encounter?"
"As with the surface elves, Dinin's hand slew five” replied Briza. "They say that he led the main assault fearlessly, and he killed the most gnomes?'
Matron Malice beamed with the news, though she suspected that Briza, standing patiently behind a smug smile, was holding something dramatic back from her. "What of Drizzt?" the matron demanded, having no patience for her daughter's games. "How many svirfnebli fell at his feet?"
"None” Briza replied, but still the smile remained. "Still the day belonged to Drizzt," she added quickly, seeing an angry scowl spreading across her volatile mother's face. Malice did not seem amused.
"Drizzt defeated an earth elemental” Briza cried, "all alone, almost, with only minor help from a wizard! The high priestess of the patrol named the kill his!" Matron Malice gasped and turned away. Drizzt had ever been an enigma to her, as fine with the blade as any but lacking the proper attitude and the proper respect. Now this: an earth elemental! Malice herself had seen such a monster ravage an entire drow raiding party, killing a dozen sea-soned warriors before wandering off on its way. Yet her son, her confusing son, had defeated one single-handedly!
"Lloth will favor us this day” Briza commented, not quite understanding her mother's reaction.
Briza's words struck an idea in Malice. "Gather your sisters” she commanded. "We shall meet in the chapel. If House Do'Urden so fully won the day out in the tunnels, perhaps the Spider Queen will grace us with some information”
"Vierna and Maya await the forthcoming news in the city plaza” Briza explained, mistakenly believing her mother to be referring to information about the battle. "Surely we will know the entire story within an hour”
"I care nothing for a battle against gnomes!" Malice scolded. "You have told everything that is important to our family; the rest does not matter. We must parlay your brothers' heroics into gain”
To learn of our enemies!" Briza blurted as she realized what her mother had in mind.
"Exactly” replied Malice. "To learn which house it is that threatens House Do'Urden. If the Spider Queen truly finds favor with us this day, she may grace us with the knowledge we need to defeat our enemies!"
A short while later, the four high priestesses of House Do'Urden gathered around the spider idol in the chapel anteroom. Before them, in a bowl of the deepest onyx, burned the sacred incense-sweet, deathlike, and favored by the yochlol, the handmaidens of Lloth.
The flame moved through a variety of colors, from orange to green to brilliant red. It then took shape, heard the beckons of the four priestesses and the urgency in the voice of Matron Malice. The top of the fire, no longer dancing, smoothed and rounded, assumed the form of a hairless head, then stretched upward, growing. The flame disappeared, consumed by the yochlol's image, a half-melted pile of wax with grotesquely elongated eyes and a drooping mouth.
"Who has summoned me?" the small figure demanded telepathically. The yochlol's thoughts, too powerful for its diminutive stature, boomed within the heads of the gathered drow.
"I have, handmaiden” Malice replied aloud, wanting her daughters to hear. The matron bowed her head. "I am Malice, loyal servant of the Spider Queen” In a puff of smoke, the yochlol disappeared, leaving only glowing incense embers in the onyx bowl. A moment later, the handmaiden reappeared, full size, standing behind Matron Malice. Briza, Vierna, and Maya held their breath as the being laid two sickly tentacles on their mother's shoulders.
Matron Malice accepted the tentacles without reply, confident in her cause for summoning the yochlol.
"Explain to me why you dare to disturb me” came the yochlol's insidious thoughts.
"To ask a simple question” Malice replied silently, for no words were necessary to communicate with a handmaiden.
"One whose answer you know”
"Does this question interest you so greatly?" the yochlol asked. "You risk such dire consequences”
"It is imperative that I learn the answer” replied Matron Malice. Her three daughters watched curiously, hearing the yochlol's thoughts but only guessing at their mother's unspoken replies.
"If the answer is so important, and it is known to the handmaidens, and thus to the Spider Queen, do you not believe that Lloth would have given it to you if she so chose?"
"Perhaps, before this day, the Spider Queen did not deem me worthy to know” Malice responded. "Things have changed”
The handmaiden paused and rolled its elongated eyes back into its head as if communicating with some distant plane.
"Greetings, Matron Malice Do'Urden” the yochlol said aloud after a few tense moments. The creature's spoken voice was calm and overly smooth for the thing's grotesque appearance.
"My greetings to you, and to your mistress, Queen of Spiders” replied Malice. She shot a wry smile at her daughters and still didn't turn to face the creature behind her. Appar. ently Malice's guess of Lloth's favor had been correct.
"Daermon N'a'shezbaernon has pleased Lloth” the hand. maiden said. "The males of your house have won the day, even above the females that journeyed with them. I must accept Matron Malice Do'Urden's summons” The tentacles slid off Malice's shoulders, and the yochlol stood rigid be. hind her, awaiting her commands.
"Glad I am to please the Spider Queen” Malice began. She sought the proper way to phrase her question. "For the summons, as I have said, I beg only the answer to a simple question”
"Ask it” prompted the yochlol, and the mocking tone told Malice and her daughters that the monster already knew the question.
"My house is threatened, say the rumors” said Malice.
"Rumors?" The yochlol laughed, an evil, grating sound.
"I trust in my sources” Malice replied defensively. would not have called upon you if I did not believe the threat” "Continue” said the yochlol, amused by the whole affair.
"They are more than rumors, Matron Malice Do'Urden. Another house plans war upon you”
Maya's immature gasp brought scornful eyes upon her from her mother and her sisters.
"Name this house to me” Malice pleaded. "If Daermon N'a'shezbaernon truly has pleased the Spider Queen this day, then I bid Lloth to reveal our enemies, that we might destroy them!"
And if this other house also has pleased the Spider Queen?" the handmaiden mused. "Would Lloth then betray it to you?"
"Our enemies hold every advantage” Malice protested.
"They know of House Do'Urden. No doubt they watch us every day, laying their plans. We ask Lloth Qnly to give us knowledge equal to that of our enemies. Reveal them and let us prove which house is more worthy of victory”
"What if your enemies are greater than you?" asked the handmaiden. "Would Matron Malice Do'Urden then call upon Lloth to intervene and save her pitiful house?"
"No!" cried Malice. "We would call upon those powers that Lloth has given us to fight our foes. Even if our enemies are the more powerful, let Lloth be assured that they will suffer great pain for their attack on House Do'Urden!"
Again the handmaiden sank back within itself, finding the link to its home plane, a place darker than Menzoberranzan. Malice clenched tightly to Briza's hand, to her right, and Vierna's, to her left. They in turn passed along the confirmation of their bond to Maya, at the foot of the circle.
"The Spider Queen is pleased, Matron Malice Do'Urden” the handmaiden said at length. "Trust that she will favor House Do'Urden more than your enemies when battle rings out-perhaps. . . " Malice flinched at the ambiguity of that final word, grudgingly accepting that Lloth never made any promises, at any time.
"What of my question” Malice dared to protest, "the reason for the summons?"
There came a bright flash that stole the four clerics' vision. When their eyesight returned to them, they saw the yochlol, tiny again, and glaring out at them from the flames of the onyx bowl.
"The Spider Queen does not give an answer that is already known!" The handmaiden proclaimed, the sheer power of its otherworldly voice cutting into the drow ears. The fire erupted in another blinding flash, and the yochlol disappeared, leaving the precious bowl sundered into a dozen pieces.
Matron Malice grabbed a large piece of the shattered onyx and threw it against a wall. "Already known?" she cried in rage. "Known to whom? Who in my family keeps this secret from me?"
"Perhaps the one who knows does not know that she knows” Briza put in, trying to calm her mother. "Or perhaps the information is newly found, and she has not yet had the chance to come to you with it”
"She?" growled Matron Malice. "What 'she' do you speak of, Briza? We are all here. Are any of my daughters stupid enough to miss such an obvious threat to our family?"
"No, Matron!" Vierna and Maya cried together, terrified of Malice's growing wrath, rising beyond control.
"Never have I seen any sign!" said Vierna.
"Nor I!" added Maya. "By your side I have been these many weeks, and I have seen no more than you!"
"Are you implying that I have missed something?" Malice growled, her knuckles white at her sides.
"No, Matron!" Briza shouted above the commotion, loud enough to settle her mother for the moment and turn Malice's attention fully upon her eldest daughter.
"Not she, then” Briza reasoned. "He. One of your sons may have the answer, or Zaknafein or Rizzen, perhaps”
"Yes” agreed Vierna. "They are only males, too stupid to understand the importance of minor details”
"Drizzt and Dinin have been out of the house” added Briza, "out of the city. In their patrol group are children of every powerful house, every house that would dare to threaten us!"
The fires in Malice's eyes glowed, but she relaxed at the reasoning. "Bring them to me when they return to Menzoberranzan” she instructed Vierna and Maya. "You” she said to Briza, "bring Rizzen and Zaknafein. All the family must be present, so that we may learn what we may learn!"
"The cousins, and the soldiers, too?" asked Briza. "Perhaps one beyond the immediate family knows the answer”
"Should we bring them together, as well?" offered Vierna, her voice edged with the rising excitement of the moment.
"A gathering of the whole clan, a general war party of House Do'Urden?"
"No” Malice replied, "not the soldiers or the cousins. I do not believe they are involved in this; the handmaiden would have told us the answer if one of my direct family did not know it. It is my embarrassment to ask a question whose an. swer should be known to me, whose answer someone within the circle of my family knows” She gritted her teeth as she spat out the rest of her thoughts.
"I do not enjoy being embarrassed!"
Drizzt and Dinin came into the house a short while later, exhausted and glad the adventure was over. They had barely passed the entrance and turned down the wide corridor that led to their rooms when they bumped into Zaknafein, coming the other way.
"So the hero has returned” Zak remarked, eyeing Drizzt directly. Drizzt did not miss the sarcasm in his voice.
"We've completed our job-successfully” Dinin shot back, more than a little perturbed at being excluded from Zak's greeting. "I led-"
"I know of the battle” Zak assured him. "It has been endlessly recounted throughout the city. Now leave us, Elderboy. I have unfinished business with your brother”
"I leave when I choose to leave!" Dinin growled. Zak snapped a glare upon him. "I wish to speak to Drizzt, only to Drizzt, so leave”
Dinin's hand went to his sword hilt, not a smart move. Before he even moved the weapon hilt an inch from the scabbard, Zak had slapped him twice in the face with one hand.
The other had somehow produced a dagger and put its tip at Dinin's throat.
Drizzt watched in amazement, certain that Zak would kill Dinin if this continued.
"Leave” Zak said again, "on your life” Dinin threw his hands up and slowly backed away. "Matron Malice will hear of this!" he warned.
"I will tell her myself” Zak laughed at him. "Do you think she will trouble herself on your behalf, fool? As far as Matron Malice cares, the family males determine their own hierarchy. Go away, Elderboy. Come back when you have found the courage to challenge me”
"Come with me, brother” Dinin said to Drizzt.
"We have business” Zak reminded Drizzt.
Drizzt looked to both of them, once and back again, stunned by their open willingness to kill each other. "I will stay” he decided. "I do indeed have unfinished business with the weapon master”
"As you choose, hero” Dinin spat, and he turned on his heel and stormed away.
"You have made an enemy” Drizzt remarked to Zak.
"I have made many” Zak laughed, "and I will make many more before my day ends! But no mind. Your actions have inspired jealousy in your brother-your older brother. You are the one who should be wary”
"He hates you openly” reasoned Drizzt.
"But would gain nothing from my death” Zak replied. "I am no threat to Dinin, but you. . . " He let the word hang in the air.
"Why would I threaten him?" Drizzt protested. "Dinin has nothing I desire”
"He has power” Zak explained. "He is the elderboy now but was not always”
"He killed Nalfein, the brother I never met”
"You know of this?" said Zak. "Perhaps Dinin suspects that another secondboy will follow the same course he took to become the elderboy of House Do'Urden”
"Enough” Drizzt growled, tired of the whole stupid system of ascension. How well you know it, Zaknafein, he thought. How many did you murder to attain your position?
"An earth elemental” Zak said, blowing a low whistle with the words. "It is a powerful foe that you defeated this day” He bowed low, showing Drizzt mockery beyond any doubt.
"What is next for the young hero? A daemon, perhaps? A demigod? Surely there is nothing that can-"
"Never have I heard such senseless words stream from your mouth” Drizzt retorted. Now it was time for some sarcasm of his own. "Is it that I have inspired jealousy in another besides my brother?"
"Jealousy?" Zak cried. "Wipe your nose, sniveling little boy! A dozen earth elementals have fallen to my blade!
Daemons, too! Do not overestimate your deeds or your abilities. You are one warrior among a race of warriors. To forget that surely will prove fatal” He ended the line with pointed emphasis, almost in a sneer, and Drizzt began to consider again just how real their appointed "practice" in the gym would become.
"I know my abilities” Drizzt replied, "and my limitations. 1 have learned to survive”
"As have I” Zak shot back, "for so many centuries!"
"The gym awaits” Drizzt said calmly.
"Your mother awaits” Zak corrected. "She bids us all to the chapel. Fear not, though. There will be time for our meeting”
Drizzt walked past Zak without another word, suspecting that his and Zak's blades would finish the conversation for them. What had become of Zaknafein? Drizzt wondered.
Was this the same teacher who had trained him those years before the Academy? Drizzt could not sort through his feelings. Was he seeing Zak differently because of the things he had learned of Zak's exploits, or was there truly something different, something harder, about the weapon master's demeanor since Drizzt had returned from the Academy?
The sound of a whip brought Drizzt from his contemplations.
"I am your patron!" he heard Rizzen say.
"That's of no consequence!" retorted a female voice, the voice of Briza. Drizzt slipped to the corner of the next intersection and peeked around. Briza and Rizzen faced off, Rizzen unarmed, but Briza holding her snake-headed whip.
"Patron” Briza laughed, "a meaningless title. You are a male lending your seed to the matron and of no more importance”
"Four I have sired” Rizzen said indignantly.
"Three!" Briza corrected, snapping the whip to accentuate the point. "Viema is Zaknafein's, not yours! Nalfein is dead, leaving only two. One of those is female and above you. Only Dinin is truly under your rank!"
Drizzt sank back against the wall and looked behind him to the empty corridor he had just walked. He had always suspected that Rizzen was not his true father. The male had never paid him any mind, had never scolded him or praised him or offered to him any advice or training. To hear Briza say it, though, . .. and Rizzen not deny it!
Rizzen fumbled about for some retort to Briza's stinging words. "Does Matron Malice know of your desires?" he snarled. "Does she know that her eldest daughter seeks her title?"
"Every eldest daughter seeks the title of matron mother” Briza laughed at him. "Matron Malice would be a fool to suspect otherwise. I assure you that she is not, nor am I. I will get the title from her when she is weak with age. She knows and accepts this as fact.'
"You admit that you will kill her?"
"If not I, then Vierna. If not Vierna, then Maya. It is our way, stupid male. It is the word of Lloth.' Rage burned in Drizzt as he heard the evil proclamations, but he remained silent at the corner.
"Briza will not wait for age to steal her mother's power” Rizzen snarled, "not when a dagger will expedite the transfer. Briza hungers for the throne of the house!"
Rizzen's next words came out as an indecipherable scream as the six-headed whip went to work again and again.
Drizzt wanted to intervene, to rush out and cut them both down, but, of course, he could not. Briza acted now as she had been taught, followed the words of the Spider Queen in asserting her dominance over Rizzen. She wouldn't kill him, Drizzt knew.
But what if Briza got carried away in the frenzy? What if she did kill Rizzen? In the empty void that was beginning to grow in his heart, Drizzt wondered if he even cared.
"You let him escape'" Matron SiNafay roared at her son.
"You will learn not to disappoint me'"
"No, my matron!" Masoi protested. "I hit him squarely with a lightning bolt. He never even suspected the blow to be aimed at him! 1 could not finish the deed; the monster had me caught in the gate to its own plane!"
SiNafay bit her lip, forced to accept her son's reasoning. She knew that she had given Masoj a difficult mission.
Drizzt was a powerful foe, and to kill him without leaving an obvious trail would not be easy.
"I will get him” Masoj promised, determination showing on his face "I have the weapon readied; Drizzt will be dead before the tenth cycle, as you commanded”
"Why should I grant you another chance?" SiNafay asked him. "Why should I believe that you will fare better the next time you try?"
"Because I want him dead!" Masoj cried. "More than even you, my matron. I want to tear the life from Drizzt Do'Urden! When he is dead, I want to rip out his heart and display it as a trophy!"
SiNafay could not deny her son's obsession. "Granted” she said. "Get him, Masoj Hun'ett. On your life, strike the first blow against House Do'Urden and kill its secondboy”
Masoj bowed, the grimace never leaving his face, and swept out of the room.
"You heard everything?" SiNafay signaled when the door had closed behind her son. She knew that Masoj might well have his ear to the door, and she did not want him to know of this conversation.
"I did” Alton replied in the silent code, stepping out from behind a curtain.
"Do you concur with my decision?" SiNafay's hands asked.
Alton was at a loss. He had no choice but to abide by his matron mother's decisions, but he did not think that SiNafay had been wise in sending Masoj back out after Drizzt. His silence grew long.
"You do not approve” Matron SiNafay bluntly motioned.
"Please, Matron Mother” Alton replied quickly. "I would not..."
"You are forgiven” SiNafay assured him. "I am not so certain that I should have allowed Masoj a second opportunity.
Too much could go wrong”
"Then why?" Alton dared to ask. "You did not grant me a second chance, though I desire Drizzt Do'Urden's death as fiercely as any”
SiNafay cast him a scornful glare, sending him back on his courageous heels. "You doubt my judgment?"
"No!" Alton cried aloud. He slapped a hand over his mouth and dropped to his knees in terror. "Never, my matron” he signaled silently. "I just do not understand the problem as clearly as you. Forgive me my ignorance”
SiNafay's laughter sounded like the hiss of a hundred angry snakes. "We see together in this matter” she assured Alton. "I would no more give Masoj a second chance than I gave you”
"But-" Alton started to protest.
"Masoj will go back after Drizzt, but this time he will not be alone” SiNafay explained. "You will follow him, Alton DeVir. Keep him safe and finish the deed, on your life”
Alton beamed at the news that he would finally find some taste of vengeance. SiNafay's final threat didn't even con. cem him. "Could it ever be any other way?" his hands asked casually.
"Think!" Malice growled, her face close, her breath hot on Drizzt's face. "You know somethifig!"
Drizzt slumped back from the overpowering figure and glanced nervously around at his gathered family. Dinin, similarly grilled just a moment ago, kneeled with his chin in hand. He tried vainly to come up with an answer before Matron Malice upped the level of the interrogation techniques. Dinin did not miss Briza's motions toward her snake whip, and the unnerving sight did little to aid his memory.
Malice slapped Drizzt hard across the face and stepped away. "One of you has learned the identity of our enemies” she snapped at her sons. "Out there, on patrol, one of you has seen some hint, some sign”
"Perhaps we saw it but did not know it for what it was” Dinin offered.
"Silence!" Malice screamed, her face bright with rage.
"When you know the answer to my question, you may speak! Only then!" She turned to Briza. "Help Dinin find his memory!"
Dinin dropped his head to his arms, folded on the floor in front of him, and arched his back to accept the torture. 1b do otherwise would only enrage Malice more.
Drizzt closed his eyes and recounted the events of his many patrols. He jerked involuntarily when he heard the snake whip's crack and his brother's soft groan.
"Masoj” Drizzt whispered, almost unconsciously. He looked up at his mother, who held her hand out to halt Briza's attacks-to Briza's dismay.
"Masoj Hun'ett” Drizzt said more loudly. "In the fight against the gnomes, he tried to kill me” All the family, particularly Malice and Dinin, leaned forward toward Drizzt, hanging on his every word.
"When I battled the elemental” Drizzt explained, spitting out the last word as a curse upon Zaknafein. He cast an angry glare at the weapon master and continued, "Masoj Hun'ett struck me down with a bolt of lightning”
"He may have been shooting for the monster” Vierna insisted. "Masoj insisted that it was he who killed the elemental, but the high priestess of the patrol denied his claim” "Masoj waited” Drizzt replied. "He did nothing until I began to gain the advantage over the monster. Then he loosed his magic, as much at me as at the elemental. I think he hoped to destroy us both”
"House Hun'ett” Matron Malice whispered.
"Fifth House” Briza remarked, "under Matron SiNafay”
"So that is our enemy” said Malice.
"Perhaps not” said Dinin, wondering even as he spoke the words why he hadn't left well enough alone. To disprove the theory only invited more whipping.
Matron Malice did not like his hesitation as he reconsidered the argument. "Explain!" she commanded.
"Masoj Hun'ett was angry at being excluded from the surface raid” said DInin. "We left him in the city, only to witness our triumphant return” Dinin fixed his eyes straight on his brother. "Masoj has ever been jealous of Drizzt and all the glories that my brother has found, rightly or wrongly. Many are jealous of Drizzt and would see him dead”
Drizzt shifted uncomfortably in his seat, knowing the last words to be an open threat. He glanced over to Zaknafein and marked the weapon master's smug smile.
"Are you certain of your words?" Malice said to Drizzt, shaking him from his private thoughts.
"There is the cat” Dinin interrupted, "Masoj Hun'ett's magical pet, though it holds closer to Drizzt's side than to the wizard's”
"Guenhwyvar walks the point beside me” Drizzt protested, "a position that you ordered”
"Masoj does not like it” Dinin retorted. Perhaps that is why you put the cat there, Drizzt thought, but he kept the words to himself. Was he seeing conspiracies in coincidence? Or was his world so truly filled with devious schemes and silent struggles for power?
"Are you certain of your words?" Malice asked Drizzt again, pulling him from his pondering.
"Masoj Hun'ett tried to kill me” he asserted. "I do not know his reasons, but his intent I do not doubt!"
"House Hun'ett, then” Briza remarked, "a mighty foe”
"We must learn of them” Malice said. "Dispatch the scouts! I will know the count of House Hun'ett's soldiers, its wizards, and, particularly, its clerics”
"If we are wrong” Dinin said. "If House Hun'ett is not the conspiring house-"
"We are not wrong!" Malice screamed at him.
"The yochlol said that one of us knows the identity of our enemy” reasoned Vierna. "All we have is Drizzt's tale of Masoj”
"Unless you are hiding something” Matron Malice growled at Dinin, a threat so cold and wicked that it stole the blood from the elderboy's face.
Dinin shook his head emphatically and slumped back, having nothing more to add to the conversation.
"Prepare a communion” Malice said to Briza. 'Let us learn of Matron SiNafay's standing with the Spider Queen”
Drizzt watched incredulously as the preparations began at a frantic pace, each command from Matron Malice following a practiced defensive course. It wasn't the precision of Drizzt's family's battle planning that amazed him – he would expect nothing less from this group. It was the eager gleam in every eye.
Chapter 25
The Weapon Masters
"Impudent!" growled the yochlol. The fire in the brazier puffed, and the creature again stood behind Malice, again draped dangerous tentacles over the matron mother. "You dare to summon me again?"
Malice and her daughters glanced around, on the edge of panic. They knew that the mighty being was not toying with them; the handmaiden truly was enraged this time.
"House Do'Urden pleased the Spider Queen, it is true” the yochlol answered their unspoken thoughts, "but that one act does not dispel the displeasure your family brought upon Lloth in the recent past. Do not think that all is forgiven, Matron Malice Do'Urden!"
How small and vulnerable Matron Malice felt now! Her power paled in the face of the wrath of one of Lloth's personal servants.
"Displeasure?" she dared to whisper. "How has my family brought displeasure to the Spider Queen? By what act?"
The handmaiden's laughter erupted in a spout of flames and flying spiders, but the high priestesses held their positions. They accepted the heat and the crawling things as part of their penance.
"I have told you before, Matron Malice Do'Urden” the yochlol snarled with its droopy mouth, "and I shall tell you one final time. The Spider Queen does not reply to questions whose answers are already known!" In a blast' of explosive energy that sent the four females of House
Do'Urden tumbling to the floor, the handmaiden was gone.
Briza was the first to recover. She prudently rushed over to the brazier and smothered the remaining flames, thus closing the gate to the Abyss, the yochlol's home plane.
"Who?" screamed Malice, the powerful matriarch once again. "Who in my family has invoked the wrath of Lloth?"
Malice appeared small again then, as the implications of the yochlol's warning became all too clear. House Do'Urden was about to go to war with a powerful family. Without Lloth's favor, House Do'Urden likely would cease to exist.
"We must find the perpetrator” Malice instructed her daughters, certain that none of them was involved. They were high priestesses, one and all. If any of them had done some misdeed in the eyes of the Spider Queen, the summoned yochlol surely would have exacted punishment on the spot. By itself, the handmaiden could have leveled House Do'Urden.
Briza pulled the snake whip from her belt. "I will get the information we require!" she promised.
"No!" said Matron Malice. "We must not reveal our search.
Be it a soldier or a member of House Do'Urden, the guilty one is trained and hardened against pain. We cannot hope that torture will pull the confession from his lips; not when he knows the consequences of his actions. We must discover the cause of Lloth's displeasure immediately and properly punish the criminal. The Spider Queen must stand behind us in our struggles!"
"How, then, are we to discern the perpetrator?" the eldest daughter complained, reluctantly replacing the snake whip on her belt.
"Vierna and Maya, leave us” Matron Malice instructed.
"Say nothing of these revelations and do nothing to hint at our purpose”
The two younger daughters bowed and scurried away, not happy with their secondary roles but unable to do anything about them.
"First we will look” Malice said to Briza. "We will see if we can learn of the guilty one from afar”
Briza understood. "The scrying bowl” she said. She rushed from the anteroom and into the chapel proper. In the central altar she found the valuable item, a wide golden bowl laced throughout with black pearls. Hands trembling, Briza placed the bowl atop the altar and reached into the most sacred of the many compartments. This was the holding bin for the prized possession of House Do'Urden, a great onyx chalice.
Malice then joined Briza in the chapel proper and took the chalice from her. Moving to the large font at the entrance to the great room, Malice dipped the chalice into a sticky fluid, the unholy water of her religion. She then chanted, "Spide-rae aught icor ven” The ritual complete, Malice moved back to the altar and poured the unholy water into the golden bowl.
She and Briza sat down to watch.
Drizzt stepped onto the floor of Zaknafein's training gym for the first time in more than a decade and felt as if he had come home. He'd spent the best years of his young life here-almost wholly here. For all the disappointments he had encountered since-and no doubt would continue to experience throughout his life-Drizzt would never forget that brief sparkle of innocence, that joy, he had known when he was a student in Zaknafein's gym.
Zaknafein entered and walked over to face his former student. Drizzt saw nothing familiar or comforting in the weapon master's face. A perpetual scowl now replaced the once common smile. It was an angry demeanor that hated everything around it, perhaps Drizzt most of all. Or had Zaknafein always worn such a grimace? Drizzt had to wonder. Had nostalgia glossed over Drizzt's memories of those years of early training? Was this mentor, who had so often warmed Drizzt's heart with a lighthearted chuckle, actually. the cold, lurking monster that Drizzt now saw before him?
"Which has changed, Zaknafein” Drizzt asked aloud,
"you, my memories, or my perceptions?"
Zak seemed not even to hear the whispered question.
"Ah, the young hero has returned” he said, "the warrior with exploits beyond his years”
"Why do you mock me?" Dnzzt protested.
"He who killed the hook horrors” Zak continued. His swords were out in his hands now, and Drizzt responded by drawing his scimitars. There was no need to ask the rules of engagement in this contest, or the choice of weapons.
Drizzt knew, had known before he had ever come here, that there would be no rules this time. The weapons would be their weapons of preference, the blades that each of them had used to kill so many foes.
Malice and her daughters glanced around, on the edge of panic. They knew that the mighty being was not toying with them; the handmaiden truly was enraged this time.
"House Do'Urden pleased the Spider Queen, it is true” the yochlol answered their unspoken thoughts, "but that one act does not dispel the displeasure your family brought upon Lloth in the recent past. Do not think that all is forgiven, Matron Malice Do'Urden!"
How small and vulnerable Matron Malice felt now! Her power paled in the face of the wrath of one of Lloth's personal servants.
"Displeasure?" she dared to whisper. "How has my family brought displeasure to the Spider Queen? By what act?"
The handmaiden's laughter erupted in a spout of flames and flying spiders, but the high priestesses held their positions. They accepted the heat and the crawling things as part of their penance.
"I have told you before, Matron Malice Do'Urden” the yochlol snarled with its droopy mouth, "and I shall tell you one final time. The Spider Queen does not reply to questions whose answers are already known!" In a blast' of explosive energy that sent the four females of House
Do'Urden tumbling to the floor, the handmaiden was gone.
Briza was the first to recover. She prudently rushed over to the brazier and smothered the remaining flames, thus closing the gate to the Abyss, the yochlol's home plane.
"Who?" screamed Malice, the powerful matriarch once again. "Who in my family has invoked the wrath of Lloth?"
Malice appeared small again then, as the implications of the yochlol's warning became all too clear. House Do'Urden was about to go to war with a powerful family. Without Lloth's favor, House Do'Urden likely would cease to exist.
"We must find the perpetrator” Malice instructed her daughters, certain that none of them was involved. They were high priestesses, one and all. If any of them had done some misdeed in the eyes of the Spider Queen, the summoned yochlol surely would have exacted punishment on the spot. By itself, the handmaiden could have leveled House Do'Urden.
Briza pulled the snake whip from her belt. "I will get the information we require!" she promised.
"No!" said Matron Malice. "We must not reveal our search.
Be it a soldier or a member of House Do'Urden, the guilty one is trained and hardened against pain. We cannot hope that torture will pull the confession from his lips; not when he knows the consequences of his actions. We must discover the cause of Lloth's displeasure immediately and properly punish the criminal. The Spider Queen must stand behind us in our struggles!"
"How, then, are we to discern the perpetrator?" the eldest daughter complained, reluctantly replacing the snake whip on her belt.
"Vierna and Maya, leave us” Matron Malice instructed.
"Say nothing of these revelations and do nothing to hint at our purpose”
The two younger daughters bowed and scurried away, not happy with their secondary roles but unable to do anything about them.
"First we will look” Malice said to Briza. "We will see if we can learn of the guilty one from afar”
Briza understood. "The scrying bowl” she said. She rushed from the anteroom and into the chapel proper. In the central altar she found the valuable item, a wide golden bowl laced throughout with black pearls. Hands trembling, Briza placed the bowl atop the altar and reached into the most sacred of the many compartments. This was the holding bin for the prized possession of House Do'Urden, a great onyx chalice.
Malice then joined Briza in the chapel proper and took the chalice from her. Moving to the large font at the entrance to the great room, Malice dipped the chalice into a sticky fluid, the unholy water of her religion. She then chanted, "Spide-rae aught icor ven” The ritual complete, Malice moved back to the altar and poured the unholy water into the golden bowl.
She and Briza sat down to watch.
Drizzt stepped onto the floor of Zaknafein's training gym for the first time in more than a decade and felt as if he had come home. He'd spent the best years of his young life here-almost wholly here. For all the disappointments he had encountered since-and no doubt would continue to experience throughout his life-Drizzt would never forget that brief sparkle of innocence, that joy, he had known when he was a student in Zaknafein's gym.
Zaknafein entered and walked over to face his former student. Drizzt saw nothing familiar or comforting in the weapon master's face. A perpetual scowl now replaced the once common smile. It was an angry demeanor that hated everything around it, perhaps Drizzt most of all. Or had Zaknafein always worn such a grimace? Drizzt had to wonder. Had nostalgia glossed over Drizzt's memories of those years of early training? Was this mentor, who had so often warmed Drizzt's heart with a lighthearted chuckle, actually. the cold, lurking monster that Drizzt now saw before him?
"Which has changed, Zaknafein” Drizzt asked aloud,
"you, my memories, or my perceptions?"
Zak seemed not even to hear the whispered question.
"Ah, the young hero has returned” he said, "the warrior with exploits beyond his years”
"Why do you mock me?" Dnzzt protested.
"He who killed the hook horrors” Zak continued. His swords were out in his hands now, and Drizzt responded by drawing his scimitars. There was no need to ask the rules of engagement in this contest, or the choice of weapons.
Drizzt knew, had known before he had ever come here, that there would be no rules this time. The weapons would be their weapons of preference, the blades that each of them had used to kill so many foes.