"Call to it” the matron mistress instructed the naked student.
Tentatively, the young cleric spread her arms out wide and whispered, "Glabrezu”
The flames danced about the rim of the brazier. The smoke wafted into Drizzt's face, compelling him to inhale it. His legs tingled on the edge of numbness, yet they somehow felt more sensitive, more alive, than they ever had before.
"Glabrezu” he heard the student say again louder, and Drizzt heard, too, the roar of the flames. Brightness assaulted him, but somehow he didn't seem to care. His gaze roamed about the room, unable to find a focus, unable to place the strange, dancing sights in accord with the ritual's sounds.
He heard the high priestesses gasping and coaxing the student on, knowing the conjuring to be at hand. He heard the snap of the snake whip-another incentive?-and cries of
"Glabrezu!" from the student. So primal, so powerful, were these screams that they cut through Drizzt and the other males in the room with an intensity they never would have believed possible.
The flames heard the call. They roared higher and higher and began to take shape. One sight caught the vision of all in the room now-caught it and held it fully. A giant head, a goat-horned dog, appeared within the flames, apparently studying this alluring young drow student who had dared to utter its name.
Somewhere beyond the otherplanar form, the snake whip cracked again, and the female student repeated her call, her cry beckoning, praying.
The giant denizen of the lower planes stepped through the flames. The sheer unholy power of the creature stunned Drizzt. Glabrezu towered nine feet and seemed much more, with muscled arms ending in giant pincers instead of hands and a second set of smaller arms, normal arms, protruding from the front of its chest.
Drizzt's instincts told him to attack the monster and rescue the female student, but when he looked around for support, he found the matron mistress and the other teachers of the school back in their ritualistic chanting, this time with an excited edge permeating their every word.
Through all the haze and the daze, the talJtalizing, dizzying aroma of the smoky red incense continued its assault on reality. Drizzt trembled, teetered on a narrow ledge of control, his gathering rage fighting the scented smoke's confusing allure. Instinctively, his hands went to the hilts of the scimitars on his belt.
Then a hand brushed against his leg.
He looked down to see a mistress, reclined and asking him to join her-a scene that had suddenly become general around the chamber.
The smoke continued its assault on him. ;
The mistress beckoned to him, her fingernails lightly scraping the skin of his leg.
Drizzt ran his fingers through his thick hair, trying to find some focal point in the dizziness. He did not like this loss of control, this mental numbness that stole the fine edge of his reflexes and alertness.
He liked even less the scene unfolding before him. The sheer wrongness of it assaulted his soul. He pulled away from the mistress's hopeful grasp and stumbled across the room, tripping over numerous entwined forms too engaged to take note of him. He made the exit as quickly as his wobbly legs could carry him, and he rushed out of the room, pointedly closing the door behind him.
Only the screams of the female student followed him. No stone or mental barricade could block them out.
Drizzt leaned heavily against the cool stone wall, grasping at his stomach. He hadn't even paused to consider the implications of his actions; he knew only that he had to get out of that foul room.
Vierna then was beside him, her robe opened casually in the front. Drizzt, his head clearing, began to wonder about the price of his actions. The look on his sister's face, he noted with still more confusion, was not one of scorn.
"You prefer privacy” she said, her hand resting easily on Drizzt's shoulder. Vierna made no move to close her robe. "I understand” she said.
Drizzt grabbed her arm and pulled her away. "What insanity is this?" he demanded.
Vierna's face twisted as she came to understand her brother's true intentions in leaving the ceremony. "You refused a high priestess!" she snarled at him. "By the laws, she could kill you for your insolence”
"I do not even know her” Drizzt shot back. "I am expected to-"
"You are expected to do as you are instructed!"
"I care nothing for her” Drizzt stammered. He found he could not hold his hands steady.
"Do you think Zaknafein cared for Matron Malice?" Vierna replied, knowing that the reference to Drizzt's hero would surely sting him. Seeing that she had indeed wounded her brother, Vierna softened her expression and took his arm. "Come back” she purred, "into the room.
There is still time”
Drizzt's cold glare stopped her as surely as the point of a scimitar.
"The Spider Queen is the deity of our people” Vierna sternly reminded him. "I am one of those who speaks her will”
"I would not be so proud of that” Drizzt retorted, clinging to his anger against the wave of very real fear that threatened to defeat his principled stand.
Vierna slapped him hard across the face. "Go back to the ceremony!" she demanded.
"Go kiss a spider” Drizzt replied. "And may its pincers tear your cursed tongue from your mouth” It was Vierna now who could not hold her hands steady.
"You should take care when you speak to a high priestess” she warned.
"Damn your Spider Queen!" Drizzt spat. "Though I am certain Lloth found damnation eons ago!"
"She brings us power!" Vierna shrieked.
"She steals everything that makes us worth more than the stone we walk upon!" Drizzt screamed back.
"Sacrilege'" Vierna sneered, the word rolling off her tongue like the whistle of the matron mistress's snake whip.
A climactic, anguished scream erupted from inside the room.
"Evil union” Drizzt muttered, looking away.
"There is a gain” Vierna replied, quickly back in control of her temper.
Drizzt cast an accusing glance her way. "Have you had a similar experience?"
"I am a high priestess” was her simple reply. Darkness hovered all about Drizzt, outrage so intense that he nearly swooned. "Did it please you?" he spat.
"It brought me power” Vierna growled back. "You cannot understand the value”
"What did it cost you?"
Vierna's slap nearly knocked Drizzt from his feet. "Come with me” she said, grabbing the front of his robe. "There is a place I want to show to you”
They moved out from Arach-Tinilith and across the Academy's courtyard. Drizzt hesitated when they reached the pillars that marked the entrance to Tier Breche.
"I cannot pass between these” he reminded his sister. "I am not yet graduated from Melee-Magthere”
"A formality” Vierna replied, not slowing her pace at all. "I am a mistress of Arach-Tinilith; I have the power to graduate you”
Drizzt wasn't certain of the truth of Vierna's claim, but she was indeed a mistress of Arach-Tinilith. As much as Drizzt feared the edicts of the Academy, he didn't want to anger Vierna again.
He followed her down the wide stone stairs and out into the meandering roadways of the city proper.
"Home?" he dared to ask after a short while.
"Not yet” came the curt reply. Drizzt didn't press the point any further.
They veered off to the eastern end of the great cavern, across from the wall that held House Do'Orden, and came to the entrances of three small tunnels, all guarded by glowing statues of giant scorpions. Vierna paused for just a moment to consider which was the correct course, then led on again, down the smallest of the tunnels.
The minutes became an hour, and still they walked. The passage widened and soon led them into a twisting catacomb of crisscrossing corridors. Drizzt quickly lost track of the path behind them as they made their way through, but Vierna followed a predetermined course that she knew well.
Then, beyond a low archway, the floor suddenly dropped away and they found themselves on a narrow ledge overlooking a wide chasm. Drizzt looked at his sister curiously but held his question when he saw that she was deep in the concentration. She uttered a few simple commands, then tapped herself and Drizzt on the forehead.
"Come” she instructed, and she and Drizzt stepped off the ledge and levitated down to the chasm floor.
A thin mist, from some unseen hot pool or tar pit, hugged the stone. Drizzt could sense the danger here, and the evil.
A brooding wickedness hung in the air as tangibly as the mist.
"Do not fear” Vierna signaled to him. "I have put a spell of masking upon us. They cannot see us”
"They?" Drizzt's hands asked, but even as he motioned in the code, he heard a scuttling off to the side. He followed Vierna's gaze down to a distant boulder and the wretched thing perched upon it.
At first, Drizzt thought it was a drow elf, and from the waist up, it was indeed, though bloated and pale. Its lower body, though, resembled a spider, with eight arachnid legs to support its frame. The creature held a bow ready in its hands but seemed confused, as though it could not discern what had entered its lair.
Vierna was pleased by the disgust on her brother's face as he viewed the thing. "Look upon it well, younger brother” she signaled. "Behold the fate of those who anger the Spider Queen”
"What is it?" Drizzt signaled back quickly.
"A drider” Vierna whispered in his ear. Then, back in the silent code, she added, "Lloth is not a merciful deity”
Drizzt watched, mesmerized, as the drider shifted its position on the boulder, searching for the intruders. Drizzt couldn't tell if it was a male or female, so bloated was its torso, but he knew that it didn't matter. The creature was not a natural creation and would leave no descendants behind, whatever its gender. It was a tormented body, nothing more, hating itself, in all probability, more than everything else around it.
"I am merciful” Vierna continued silently, though she knew her brother's attention was fully on the drider. She rested back flat against the stone wall.
Drizzt spun on her, suddenly realizing her intent. Then Vierna sank into the stone. "Goodbye, little brother” came her final call. "This is a better fate than you deserve”
"No!" Drizzt growled, and he clawed at the empty wall until an arrow sliced into his leg. The scimitars flashed out in his hands as he spun back to face the danger. The drider took aim for a second shot.
Drizzt meant to dive to the side, to the protection of another boulder, but his wounded leg immediately fell numb and useless. Poison.
Drizzt just got one blade up in time to deflect the second arrow, and he dropped to one knee to clutch at his wound.
He could feel the cold poison making its way through his limb, but he stubbornly snapped off the arrow shaft and turned his attention back to the attacker. He would have to worry about the wound later, would have to hope that he could tend to it in time. Right now, his only concern was to get out of the chasm.
He turned to flee, to seek a sheltered spot where he could levitate back up to the ledge, but he found himself face-to-face with another drider.
An axe sliced by his shoulder, barely missing its mark.
Drizzt blocked the return blow and launched his second scimitar into a thrust, which the drider stopped with a second axe.
Drizzt was composed now, and was confident that he could defeat this foe, even with one leg limiting his mobility-until an arrow cracked into his back.
Drizzt lurched forward under the weight of the blow, but managed to parry another attack from the drider before him. Drizzt dropped to his knees and fell face-down.
When the axe-wielding drider, thinking Drizzt dead, started toward him, Drizzt kicked into a roll that put him squarely under the creature's bulbous belly. He plunged his scimitar up with all his strength, then curled back under the deluge of spidery fluids.
The wounded drider tried to scurry away but fell to the side, its insides draining out onto the stone floor. Still, Drizzt had no hope. His arms, too, were numb now, and when the other wretched creature descended upon him, he could not hope to fight it off. He struggled to cling to consciousness, searching for some way out, battling to the bitter end. His eyelids became heavy. . . .
Then Drizzt felt a hand grab his robe, and he was roughly lifted to his feet and slammed against the stone wall.
He opened his eyes to see his sister's face.
"He lives” Drizzt heard her say. "We must get him back quickly and tend to his wounds”
Another figure moved in front of him.
"I thought this the best way” Vierna apologized.
"We cannot afford to lose him” came an unemotional reply. Drizzt recognized the voice from his past. He fought through the blur and forced his eyes to focus.
"Malice” he whispered. "Mother”
Her enraged punch brought him into a clearer mind-set.
"Matron Malice!" she growled, her angry scowl only an inch from Drizzt's face. "Do not ever forget that!"
To Drizzt, her coldness rivaled the poison's, and his relief at seeing her faded away as quickly as it had flooded through him.
"You must learn your place!" Malice roared, reiterating the command that had haunted Drizzt all of his young life.
"Hear my words” she demanded, and Drizzt heard them keenly. "Vierna brought you to this place to have you killed. She showed you mercy” Malice cast a disappointed glance at her daughter.
"I understand the will of the Spider Queen better than she” the matron continued, her spittle spraying Drizzt with every word. "If ever you speak ill of Lloth, our goddess, again, I will take you back to this place myself! But not to kill you; that would be too easy” She jerked Drizzt's head to the side so that he could look upon the grotesque remains of the drider he had killed.
"You will come back here” Malice assured him, "to become a drider!"
Part 4
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Tentatively, the young cleric spread her arms out wide and whispered, "Glabrezu”
The flames danced about the rim of the brazier. The smoke wafted into Drizzt's face, compelling him to inhale it. His legs tingled on the edge of numbness, yet they somehow felt more sensitive, more alive, than they ever had before.
"Glabrezu” he heard the student say again louder, and Drizzt heard, too, the roar of the flames. Brightness assaulted him, but somehow he didn't seem to care. His gaze roamed about the room, unable to find a focus, unable to place the strange, dancing sights in accord with the ritual's sounds.
He heard the high priestesses gasping and coaxing the student on, knowing the conjuring to be at hand. He heard the snap of the snake whip-another incentive?-and cries of
"Glabrezu!" from the student. So primal, so powerful, were these screams that they cut through Drizzt and the other males in the room with an intensity they never would have believed possible.
The flames heard the call. They roared higher and higher and began to take shape. One sight caught the vision of all in the room now-caught it and held it fully. A giant head, a goat-horned dog, appeared within the flames, apparently studying this alluring young drow student who had dared to utter its name.
Somewhere beyond the otherplanar form, the snake whip cracked again, and the female student repeated her call, her cry beckoning, praying.
The giant denizen of the lower planes stepped through the flames. The sheer unholy power of the creature stunned Drizzt. Glabrezu towered nine feet and seemed much more, with muscled arms ending in giant pincers instead of hands and a second set of smaller arms, normal arms, protruding from the front of its chest.
Drizzt's instincts told him to attack the monster and rescue the female student, but when he looked around for support, he found the matron mistress and the other teachers of the school back in their ritualistic chanting, this time with an excited edge permeating their every word.
Through all the haze and the daze, the talJtalizing, dizzying aroma of the smoky red incense continued its assault on reality. Drizzt trembled, teetered on a narrow ledge of control, his gathering rage fighting the scented smoke's confusing allure. Instinctively, his hands went to the hilts of the scimitars on his belt.
Then a hand brushed against his leg.
He looked down to see a mistress, reclined and asking him to join her-a scene that had suddenly become general around the chamber.
The smoke continued its assault on him. ;
The mistress beckoned to him, her fingernails lightly scraping the skin of his leg.
Drizzt ran his fingers through his thick hair, trying to find some focal point in the dizziness. He did not like this loss of control, this mental numbness that stole the fine edge of his reflexes and alertness.
He liked even less the scene unfolding before him. The sheer wrongness of it assaulted his soul. He pulled away from the mistress's hopeful grasp and stumbled across the room, tripping over numerous entwined forms too engaged to take note of him. He made the exit as quickly as his wobbly legs could carry him, and he rushed out of the room, pointedly closing the door behind him.
Only the screams of the female student followed him. No stone or mental barricade could block them out.
Drizzt leaned heavily against the cool stone wall, grasping at his stomach. He hadn't even paused to consider the implications of his actions; he knew only that he had to get out of that foul room.
Vierna then was beside him, her robe opened casually in the front. Drizzt, his head clearing, began to wonder about the price of his actions. The look on his sister's face, he noted with still more confusion, was not one of scorn.
"You prefer privacy” she said, her hand resting easily on Drizzt's shoulder. Vierna made no move to close her robe. "I understand” she said.
Drizzt grabbed her arm and pulled her away. "What insanity is this?" he demanded.
Vierna's face twisted as she came to understand her brother's true intentions in leaving the ceremony. "You refused a high priestess!" she snarled at him. "By the laws, she could kill you for your insolence”
"I do not even know her” Drizzt shot back. "I am expected to-"
"You are expected to do as you are instructed!"
"I care nothing for her” Drizzt stammered. He found he could not hold his hands steady.
"Do you think Zaknafein cared for Matron Malice?" Vierna replied, knowing that the reference to Drizzt's hero would surely sting him. Seeing that she had indeed wounded her brother, Vierna softened her expression and took his arm. "Come back” she purred, "into the room.
There is still time”
Drizzt's cold glare stopped her as surely as the point of a scimitar.
"The Spider Queen is the deity of our people” Vierna sternly reminded him. "I am one of those who speaks her will”
"I would not be so proud of that” Drizzt retorted, clinging to his anger against the wave of very real fear that threatened to defeat his principled stand.
Vierna slapped him hard across the face. "Go back to the ceremony!" she demanded.
"Go kiss a spider” Drizzt replied. "And may its pincers tear your cursed tongue from your mouth” It was Vierna now who could not hold her hands steady.
"You should take care when you speak to a high priestess” she warned.
"Damn your Spider Queen!" Drizzt spat. "Though I am certain Lloth found damnation eons ago!"
"She brings us power!" Vierna shrieked.
"She steals everything that makes us worth more than the stone we walk upon!" Drizzt screamed back.
"Sacrilege'" Vierna sneered, the word rolling off her tongue like the whistle of the matron mistress's snake whip.
A climactic, anguished scream erupted from inside the room.
"Evil union” Drizzt muttered, looking away.
"There is a gain” Vierna replied, quickly back in control of her temper.
Drizzt cast an accusing glance her way. "Have you had a similar experience?"
"I am a high priestess” was her simple reply. Darkness hovered all about Drizzt, outrage so intense that he nearly swooned. "Did it please you?" he spat.
"It brought me power” Vierna growled back. "You cannot understand the value”
"What did it cost you?"
Vierna's slap nearly knocked Drizzt from his feet. "Come with me” she said, grabbing the front of his robe. "There is a place I want to show to you”
They moved out from Arach-Tinilith and across the Academy's courtyard. Drizzt hesitated when they reached the pillars that marked the entrance to Tier Breche.
"I cannot pass between these” he reminded his sister. "I am not yet graduated from Melee-Magthere”
"A formality” Vierna replied, not slowing her pace at all. "I am a mistress of Arach-Tinilith; I have the power to graduate you”
Drizzt wasn't certain of the truth of Vierna's claim, but she was indeed a mistress of Arach-Tinilith. As much as Drizzt feared the edicts of the Academy, he didn't want to anger Vierna again.
He followed her down the wide stone stairs and out into the meandering roadways of the city proper.
"Home?" he dared to ask after a short while.
"Not yet” came the curt reply. Drizzt didn't press the point any further.
They veered off to the eastern end of the great cavern, across from the wall that held House Do'Orden, and came to the entrances of three small tunnels, all guarded by glowing statues of giant scorpions. Vierna paused for just a moment to consider which was the correct course, then led on again, down the smallest of the tunnels.
The minutes became an hour, and still they walked. The passage widened and soon led them into a twisting catacomb of crisscrossing corridors. Drizzt quickly lost track of the path behind them as they made their way through, but Vierna followed a predetermined course that she knew well.
Then, beyond a low archway, the floor suddenly dropped away and they found themselves on a narrow ledge overlooking a wide chasm. Drizzt looked at his sister curiously but held his question when he saw that she was deep in the concentration. She uttered a few simple commands, then tapped herself and Drizzt on the forehead.
"Come” she instructed, and she and Drizzt stepped off the ledge and levitated down to the chasm floor.
A thin mist, from some unseen hot pool or tar pit, hugged the stone. Drizzt could sense the danger here, and the evil.
A brooding wickedness hung in the air as tangibly as the mist.
"Do not fear” Vierna signaled to him. "I have put a spell of masking upon us. They cannot see us”
"They?" Drizzt's hands asked, but even as he motioned in the code, he heard a scuttling off to the side. He followed Vierna's gaze down to a distant boulder and the wretched thing perched upon it.
At first, Drizzt thought it was a drow elf, and from the waist up, it was indeed, though bloated and pale. Its lower body, though, resembled a spider, with eight arachnid legs to support its frame. The creature held a bow ready in its hands but seemed confused, as though it could not discern what had entered its lair.
Vierna was pleased by the disgust on her brother's face as he viewed the thing. "Look upon it well, younger brother” she signaled. "Behold the fate of those who anger the Spider Queen”
"What is it?" Drizzt signaled back quickly.
"A drider” Vierna whispered in his ear. Then, back in the silent code, she added, "Lloth is not a merciful deity”
Drizzt watched, mesmerized, as the drider shifted its position on the boulder, searching for the intruders. Drizzt couldn't tell if it was a male or female, so bloated was its torso, but he knew that it didn't matter. The creature was not a natural creation and would leave no descendants behind, whatever its gender. It was a tormented body, nothing more, hating itself, in all probability, more than everything else around it.
"I am merciful” Vierna continued silently, though she knew her brother's attention was fully on the drider. She rested back flat against the stone wall.
Drizzt spun on her, suddenly realizing her intent. Then Vierna sank into the stone. "Goodbye, little brother” came her final call. "This is a better fate than you deserve”
"No!" Drizzt growled, and he clawed at the empty wall until an arrow sliced into his leg. The scimitars flashed out in his hands as he spun back to face the danger. The drider took aim for a second shot.
Drizzt meant to dive to the side, to the protection of another boulder, but his wounded leg immediately fell numb and useless. Poison.
Drizzt just got one blade up in time to deflect the second arrow, and he dropped to one knee to clutch at his wound.
He could feel the cold poison making its way through his limb, but he stubbornly snapped off the arrow shaft and turned his attention back to the attacker. He would have to worry about the wound later, would have to hope that he could tend to it in time. Right now, his only concern was to get out of the chasm.
He turned to flee, to seek a sheltered spot where he could levitate back up to the ledge, but he found himself face-to-face with another drider.
An axe sliced by his shoulder, barely missing its mark.
Drizzt blocked the return blow and launched his second scimitar into a thrust, which the drider stopped with a second axe.
Drizzt was composed now, and was confident that he could defeat this foe, even with one leg limiting his mobility-until an arrow cracked into his back.
Drizzt lurched forward under the weight of the blow, but managed to parry another attack from the drider before him. Drizzt dropped to his knees and fell face-down.
When the axe-wielding drider, thinking Drizzt dead, started toward him, Drizzt kicked into a roll that put him squarely under the creature's bulbous belly. He plunged his scimitar up with all his strength, then curled back under the deluge of spidery fluids.
The wounded drider tried to scurry away but fell to the side, its insides draining out onto the stone floor. Still, Drizzt had no hope. His arms, too, were numb now, and when the other wretched creature descended upon him, he could not hope to fight it off. He struggled to cling to consciousness, searching for some way out, battling to the bitter end. His eyelids became heavy. . . .
Then Drizzt felt a hand grab his robe, and he was roughly lifted to his feet and slammed against the stone wall.
He opened his eyes to see his sister's face.
"He lives” Drizzt heard her say. "We must get him back quickly and tend to his wounds”
Another figure moved in front of him.
"I thought this the best way” Vierna apologized.
"We cannot afford to lose him” came an unemotional reply. Drizzt recognized the voice from his past. He fought through the blur and forced his eyes to focus.
"Malice” he whispered. "Mother”
Her enraged punch brought him into a clearer mind-set.
"Matron Malice!" she growled, her angry scowl only an inch from Drizzt's face. "Do not ever forget that!"
To Drizzt, her coldness rivaled the poison's, and his relief at seeing her faded away as quickly as it had flooded through him.
"You must learn your place!" Malice roared, reiterating the command that had haunted Drizzt all of his young life.
"Hear my words” she demanded, and Drizzt heard them keenly. "Vierna brought you to this place to have you killed. She showed you mercy” Malice cast a disappointed glance at her daughter.
"I understand the will of the Spider Queen better than she” the matron continued, her spittle spraying Drizzt with every word. "If ever you speak ill of Lloth, our goddess, again, I will take you back to this place myself! But not to kill you; that would be too easy” She jerked Drizzt's head to the side so that he could look upon the grotesque remains of the drider he had killed.
"You will come back here” Malice assured him, "to become a drider!"
Part 4
Guenhwyvar
What eyes are these that see
The pain I know in my innermost soul?
What eyes are these that see
The twisted strides of my kindred,
Led on in the wake of toys unbridled:
Arrow, bolt, and sword tip?
Yours. . . aye, yours,
Straight run and muscled spring,
Soft on padded paws, sheathed claws,
Weapons rested for their need,
Stained not by frivolous blood
Or murderous deceit.
Face to face, my mirror,
Reflection in a still pool by light.
Would that I might keep that image
Upon this face mine own.
Would that I might keep that heart
Within my breast untainted.
Hold tight to the proud honor of yo
Mighty Guenhwyvar,
And hold tight to my side,
My dearest friend.
-Drizzt Do'Urden
Chapter 17
Homecoming
Drizzt was graduated-formally-on schedule and with the highest honors in his class. Perhaps Matron Malice had whispered into the right ears, smoothing over her son's indiscretions, but Drizzt suspected that more likely none of those present at the Ceremony of Graduation even remembered that he had left.
He moved through the decorated gate of House Do'Urden, drawing stares from the common soldiery, and over to the cavern floor below the balcony. "So I am home” he remarked under his breath, "for whatever that means” After what had happened in the drider lair, Drizzt wondered if he would ever view House Do'Urden as his home again. Matron Malice was expecting him. He didn't dare arrivp,.late.
"It is good that you are home” Briza said to him when she saw him rise up over the balcony's railing.
Drizzt stepped tentatively through the entryway beside his oldest sister, trying to get a firm grasp on his surround. ings. Home, Briza called it, but to Drizzt, House Do'Urden seemed as unfamiliar as the Academy had on his first day as a student. Thn years was not such a long time in the centuries of life a drow elf might know, but to Drizzt, more than the decade of absence now separated him from this place.
Maya joined them in the great corridor leading to the chapel anteroom. "Greetings, Prince Drizzt” she said, and Drizzt couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not. "We have heard of the honors you achieved at Melee-Magthere.
Your skill did House Do'Urden proud” In spite of her words, Maya could not hide a derisive chuckle as she finished the thought. "Glad, I am, that you did not become drider food”
Drizzt's glare stole the smile from her face.
Maya and Briza exchanged concerned glances. They knew of the punishment Vierna had put upon their younger brother, and of the vicious scolding he had received at the hands of Matron Malice. They each cautiously rested a hand on their snake whips, not knowing how foolish their dangerous young brother might have become.
It was not Matron Malice or Drizzt's sisters that now had Drizzt measuring every step before he took it. He knew where he stood with his mother and knew what he had to do to keep her appeased. There was another member of the family, though, that evoked both confusion and anger in Drizzt. Of all his kin, only Zaknafein pretended to be what he was not. As Drizzt made his way to the chapel, he glanced anxiously down every side passage, wondering when Zak would make his appearance.
"How long before you leave for patrol?" Maya asked, pulling Drizzt from his contemplations.
"Two days” Drizzt replied absently, his eyes still darting from shadow to shadow. Then he was at the anteroom door, with no sign of Zak. Perhaps the weapon master was within, standing beside Malice.
"We know of your indiscretions; Briza snapped, suddenly cold, as she placed her hand on the latch to the anteroom's door. Drizzt was not surprised by her outburst. He was beginning to expect such explosions from the high priestesses of the Spider Queen.
"Why could you not just enjoy the pleasures of the ceremony?" Maya added. "We are fortunate that the mistresses and the matron of the Academy were too involved in their own excitement to note your movements. You would have brought shame upon our entire house!"
"You might have placed Matron Malice in Lloth's disfavor; Briza was quick to add.
The best thing I could ever do for her, Drizzt thought. He quickly dismissed the notion, remembering Briza's uncanny proficiency at reading minds.
"Let us hope he did not” Maya said grimly to her sister.
"The tides of war hang thick in the air?'
"I have learned my place” Drizzt assured them. He bowed low. "Forgive me, my sisters, and know that the truth of the drow world is fast opening before my young eyes. Never will I disappoint House Do'Urden in such a way again?' So pleased were his sisters at the proclamation that the ambiguity of Drizzt's words slipped right past them. Then Drizzt, not wanting to push his luck too far, also slipped past them, making his way through the door, noting with relief that Zaknafein was not in attendance.
"All praises to the Spider Queen!" Briza yelled after him.
Drizzt paused and turned to meet her gaze. He bowed low a second time. "As it should be” he muttered. Creeping behind the small group, Zak had studied Drizzt's every move, trying to measure the toll a decade at the Academy had exacted on the young fighter.
Gone now was the customary smile that lit Drizzt's face.
Gone, too, Zak supposed, was the innocence that had kept this one apart from the rest of Menzoberranzan.
Zak leaned back heavily against the wall in a side passage.
He had caught only portions of the conversation at the anteroom door. Most clearly he had heard Drizzt's heartfelt accord with Briza's honoring of Lloth.
"What have I done?" the weapon master asked himself. He looked back around the bend in the main corridor, but the door to the anteroom had already closed.
"Truly, when I look upon the drow-the drow warrior!-that was my most treasured, I shame for my cowardice” Zak lamented. "What has Drizzt lost that I might have saved?"
He drew his smooth sword from its scabbard, his sensitive fingers running the length of the razor edge. "A finer blade you would be had you tasted the blood of Drizzt Do'Urden, to deny this world, our world, another soul for its taking, to free that one from the unending torments of life!" He lowered the weapon's tip to the floor.
"But I am a coward” he said. "I have failed in the one act that could have brought meaning to my pitiful existence. The secondboy of House Do'Urden lives, it would appear, but Drizzt Do'Urden, my 'Two-hands, is long dead” Zak looked back to the emptiness where Drizzt had been standing, the weapon master's expression suddenly a grimace.
"Yet this pretender lives.
"A drow warrior”
Zak's weapon clanged to the stone floor and his head slumped down to be caught by the embrace of his open palms, the only shield Zaknafein Do'Urden had ever found. Drizzt spent the next day at rest, mostly in his room, trying to keep out of the way of the other members of his immediate family. Malice had dismissed him without a word in their initial meeting, but Drizzt did not want to confront her again. Likewise, he had little to say to Briza and Maya, fearing that sooner or later they would begin to understand the true connotations of his continuing stream of blasphemous responses. Most of all, though, Drizzt did not want to see Zaknafein, the mentor he had once thought of as his salvation against the realities around him, the one glowing light in the darkness that was Menzoberranzan.
That, too, Drizzt believed, had been only a lie.
On his second day home, when Narbondel, the time clock of the city, had just begun its cycle of light, the door to Drizzfs small chamber swung open and Briza walked in.
"An audience with Matron Malice” she said grimly.
A thousand thoughts rushed through Drizzts mind as he grabbed his boots and followed his oldest sister down the passageways to the house chapel. Had Malice and the others discovered his true feelings toward their evil deity? What punishments did they now have waiting for him? Unconsciously, Drizzt eyed the spider carvings on the chapel's arched entrance.
"You should be more familiar and more at ease with this place” Briza scolded, noting his discomfort. "It is the place of our people's highest glories”
Drizzt lowered his gaze and did not respond-and was careful not to even think of the many stinging retorts he felt in his heart.
His confusion doubled when they entered the chapel, for Rizzen, Maya, and Zaknafein stood before the matron mother, as expected. Beside them, though, stood Dinin and Vierna.
"We are all present” Briza said, taking her place at her mother's side.
"Kneel” Malice commanded, and the whole family fell to its knees. The matron mother paced slowly around them all, each pointedly dropping his or her eyes in reverence, or just in common sense, as the great lady walked by.
Malice stopped beside Drizzt. "You are confused by the presence of Dinin and Vierna” she said. Drizzt looked up at her. "Do you not yet understand the subtle methods of our survival?"
"I had thought that my brother and sister were to continue on at the Academy” Drizzt explained.
"That would not be to our advantage” Malice replied.
"Does it not bring a house strength to have mistresses and masters seated at the Academy?" Drizzt dared to ask.
"It does” replied Malice, "but it separates the power. You have heard tidings of war?"
"I have heard hinting of trouble” said Drizzt, looking over at Vierna, "though nothing more tangible”
"Hinting?" Malice huffed, angered that her son could not understand the importance. "They are more than most houses ever hear before the blade falls!" She spun away from Drizzt and addressed the whole group. "The rumors hold truth” she declared.
"Who?" asked Briza. "What house conspires against House Do'Urden?"
"None behind us in rank” Dinin replied, though the question had not been asked to him and it was not his place to speak unbidden.
"How do you know this?" Malice asked, letting the oversight pass. Malice understood Dinin's value and knew that his contributions to this discussion would be important.
"We are the ninth house of the city” Dinin reasoned, "but among our ranks we claim four high priestesses, two of them former mistresses of Arach-Tinilith” He looked at Zak.
"We have, as well, two former masters of Melee-Magthere, and Drizzt was awarded the highest laurels from the school of fighters. Our soldiers number nearly four hundred, all skilled and battle-tested. Only a few houses claim more”
"What is your point?" Briza asked sharply.
"We are the ninth house” Dinin laughed, "but few above us could defeat us. . . “
"And none behind” Matron Malice finished for him. "You show good judgment, Elderboy. I have come to the same conclusions”
"One of the great houses fears House Do'Urden” Vierna concluded. "It needs us gone to protect its own position”
"That is my belief” Malice answered. "An uncommon practice, for family wars usually are initiated by the lower-ranking house, desiring a better position within the city hierarchy”
"Then we must take great care” Briza said.
Drizzt listened carefully to their words, trying to make sense of it all. His eyes never left Zaknafein, though, who knelt impassively at the side. What did the callous weapon master think of all this? Drizzt wondered. Did the thought of such a war thrill him, that he might be able to kill more dark elves?
Whatever his feelings, Zak gave no outward clue. He sat quietly and by all appearances was not even listening to the conversation.
"It would not be Baenre” Briza said, her words sounding like a plea for confirmation. "Certainly we have not yet become a threat to them!"
"We must hope you are correct” Malice replied grimly, remembering vividly her tour of the ruling house. "Likely, it is one of the weaker houses above us, fearing its own unsteady position. I have not yet been able to learn any incriminating information against any in particular, so we must prepare for the worst. Thus, I have called Vierna and Dinin back to my side”
"If we learn of our enemies, . . “ Drizzt began impulsively.
All eyes snapped upon him. It was bad enough for the elderboy to speak without being addressed, but for the secondboy, just graduated from the Academy, the act could be considered blasphemous.
Wanting all perspectives, Matron Malice again let the oversight pass. "Continue” she prompted.
"If we discover which house plots against us” Drizzt said quietly, "could we not expose it?"
"To what end?" Briza snarled at him. "Conspiracy without action is no crime”
"Then might we use reason?" Drizzt pressed, continuing against the barrage of incredulous glares that came at him from every face in the room-except from Zak's. "If we are the stronger, then let them submit without battle. Rank House Do'Urden as it should be and let the assumed threat to the weaker house be ended”
Malice grabbed Drizzt by the front of his cloak and heaved him to his feet. "I forgive your foolish thoughts” she growled, "this time!" She dropped him back to the floor, and the silent reprimands of his siblings descended upon him. Again, though, Zak's expression did not match the others in the room. Indeed, Zak put a hand up over his mouth to hide his amusement. Perhaps there remained a bit of the Drizzt Do'Urden he had known, he dared to hope. Perhaps the Academy had not fully tainted the young fighter's spirit. Malice whirled on the rest of the family, simmering fury and lust glowing in her eyes. "This is not the time to fear! This” she cried, a slender finger pointing out from in front of her face, "is the time to dream! We are House Do'Urden, Daermon N'a'shezbaernon, of power beyond the under-standing of the great houses. We are the unknown entity of this war. We hold every advantage!
"Ninth house?" she laughed. "In short time, only seven houses will remain ahead of us!"
"What of the patrol?" Briza cut in. "Are we to allow the secondboy to go off alone, exposed?"
"The patrol will begin our advantage” the conniving matron explained. "Drizzt will go, and included in his group will be a member of at least four of the houses above us”
"One may strike at him” Briza reasoned.
"No” Malice assured her. "Our enemies in the coming war would not reveal themselves so clearly-not yet. The appointed assassin would have to defeat two Do'Urdens in such a confrontation”
"Two?" asked Vierna.
"Again, Lloth has shown us her favor” explained Malice.
"Dinin will lead Drizzt's patrol group”
The elderboy's eyes lit up at the news. "Then Drizzt and I might become the assassins in this conflict” he purred.
The smile disappeared from the matron mother's face.
"You will not strike without my consent” she warned in a tone so cold that Dinin fully understood the consequences of disobedience, ''as you have done in the past”
Drizzt did not miss the reference to Nalfein, his murdered brother. His mother knew! Malice had done nothing to punish her murderous son. Now Drizzt's hand went up to his face, to hide an expression of horror that only could have brought him trouble in this setting.
"You are there to learn” Matron Malice said to Dinin, "to protect your brother, as Drizzt is there to protect you. Do not destroy our advantage for the gain of a single kill” An evil smile found its way back onto her bonehued face. "But, if you learn of our enemy, . . “ she said.
"If the proper opportunity presents itself, . . “ Briza finished, guessing her mother's wicked thoughts and throwing an equally vile smile the matron's way.
Malice looked upon her eldest daughter with approval.
Briza would prove a fine successor for the house!
Dinin's smile became wide and lascivious. Nothing pleased the elderboy of House Do'Urden more than the opportunity for an assassination.
"Go, then, my family” Malice said. "Remember that unfriendly eyes are upon us, watching our every move, waiting for the time to strike”
Zak was the first out of the chapel, as always, this time with an added spring in his step. It wasn't the prospect of fighting another war that guided his moves, though the thought of killing more clerics of the Spider Queen certainly pleased him. Rather, Drizzt's display of naivete, his continued misconceptions of the common weal of drow existence, brought Zak hope.
Drizzt watched him go, thinking Zak's strides reflected his desire to kill. Drizzt didn't know whether to follow and confront the weapon master here and now or to let it pass, to shrug it away as readily as he had dismissed most of the cruel world around him. The decision was made for him when Matron Malice stepped in front of him and kept him in the chapel.
"To you, I say this” she began when they were alone. "You have heard the mission I placed upon your shoulders. I will not tolerate failure!"
Drizzt shrank back from the power of her voice.
"Protect your brother” came the grim warning, "or I shall give you to Lloth for judgment”
Drizzt understood the implications, but the matron took the pleasure to spell them out anyway.
"You would not enjoy your life as a drider”
A lightning blast cut across the still black waters of the underground lake, searing the heads of the approaching water trolls. Sounds of battle echoed through the cavern. Drizzt had one monster-scrags, they were called-cornered on a small peninsula, blocking the wretched thing's path back to the water. Normally, a single drow faced off evenly against a water troll would not have the advantage, but as the others of his patrol group had come to see in the past few weeks, Drizzt was no ordinary young drow.
The scrag came on, oblivious to its peril. A single, blinding movement from Drizzt lopped off the creature's reaching arms. Drizzt moved in quickly for the kill, knowing too well the regenerative powers of trolls.
Then another scrag slipped out of the water at his back.
Drizzt had expected this, but he gave no outward indication that he saw the second scrag coming. He kept his concentration ahead of him, driving deep slashes into the maimed and all but defenseless troll's torso.
Just as the monster behind him was about to latch its claws onto him, Drizzt fell to his knees and cried, "Now!"
The concealed panther, crouched in the shadows at the peninsula's base, did not hesitate. One great stride brought Guenhwyvar into position, and it sprang, crashing heavily onto the unsuspecting scrag, tearing the life from the thing before it could respond to the attack.
Drizzt finished off his troll and turned to admire the panther's work. He extended his hand, and the great cat nuzzled it. How well the two fighters had come to know each other! thought Drizzt.
Another blast of lightning thundered in, this one close enough to steal Drizzt's sight.
"Guenhwyvar!" Masoj Hun'ett, the bolt's caster, cried. "To my side!"
The panther managed to brush against Drizzt's leg as it moved to obey. When his vision returned, Drizzt walked off in the other direction, not wanting to view the scolding that Guenhwyvar always seemed to receive when he and the cat worked together.
Masoj watched Drizzt's back as he went, wanting to put a third bolt right between the young Do'Urden's shoulder blades. The wizard of House Hun'ett did not miss the specter of Dinin Do'Urden, off to the side, watching with more than casual glances.
"Learn your loyalties!" Masoj snarled at Guenhwyvar. To often, the panther left the wizard's side to join in combat with Drizzt. Masoj knew that the cat was better complemented by the moves of a fighter, but he knew, too, the vulnerability of a wizard involved in spellcasting. Masoj wanted Guenhwyvar at his side, protecting him from enemies-he shot another glance at Dinin-and "friends" alike.
He threw the statuette to the ground at his feet. "Begone!" he commanded.
In the distance, Drizzt had engaged another scrag and made short work of it as well. Masoj shook his head as he watched the display of swordsmanship. Every day, Drizzt grew stronger.
"Give the order to kill him soon, Matron SiNafay” Masoj whispered. The young wizard did not know how much longer he would be able to carry out the task. Masoj wondered whether he could win the fight even now. Drizzt shielded his eyes as he struck a torch to seal a dead troll's wounds. Only fire ensured that trolls would not recuperate, even from the grave.
The other battles had died away as well, Drizzt noted, and he saw the flames of torches springing up all across the bank of the lake. He wondered if all of his twelve drow companions had survived, though he also wondered if he truly cared. Others were more than ready to take their places. Drizzt knew that the only companion who really mattered-Guenhwyvar-was safely back in its home on the Astral Plane.
"Form a guard!" came Dinin's echoing command as the slaves, goblins, and orcs moved in to search for troll treasure, and to salvage whatever they might of the scrags.
When the fires had consumed the scrag he'd set ablaze, Drizzt dipped his torch in the black water, then paused for a ' moment to let his eyes readjust to the darkness. "Another day” he said softly, "another enemy defeated”
He liked the excitement of patrolling, the thrill of the edge of danger, and the knowledge that he was now putting his weapons to use against vile monsters.
Even here, though, Drizzt could not escape the lethargy that had come to pervade his life, the general resignation that marked his every step. For, though his battles these days were fought against the horrors of the Underdark, monsters killed of necessity, Drizzt had not forgotten the meeting in the chapel of House Do'Urden.
He knew that his scimitars soon would be put to use against the flesh of drow elves.
Zaknafein looked out over Menzoberranzan, as he so often did when Drizzt's patrol group was out of the city. Zak was torn between wanting to sneak out of the house to fight at Drizzt's side, and hoping that the patrol would return with the news that Drizzt had been slain.
Would Zak ever find the answer to the dilemma of the youngest Do'Urden? he wondered. Zak knew that he could not leave the house; Matron Malice was keeping a very close eye on him. She sensed his anguish over Drizzt, Zak knew, and she most definitely did not approve. Zak was often her lover, but they shared little other than that.
Zak thought back to the battles he and Malice had fought over Vierna, another child of common concern, centuries before. Vierna was a female, her fate sealed from the moment of her birth, and Zak could do nothing to halt the assault of the Spider Queen's overwhelming religion.
Did Malice fear that he might have better luck influencing the actions of a male child? Apparently the matron did, but even Zak was not so certain if her fears were justified; even he couldn't measure his influence over Drizzt.
He peered out over the city now, silently watching for the patrol group's return-waiting, as always, for Drizzt's safe return, but secretly hoping, that his dilemma would be ended by the claws and fangs of a lurking monster.
He moved through the decorated gate of House Do'Urden, drawing stares from the common soldiery, and over to the cavern floor below the balcony. "So I am home” he remarked under his breath, "for whatever that means” After what had happened in the drider lair, Drizzt wondered if he would ever view House Do'Urden as his home again. Matron Malice was expecting him. He didn't dare arrivp,.late.
"It is good that you are home” Briza said to him when she saw him rise up over the balcony's railing.
Drizzt stepped tentatively through the entryway beside his oldest sister, trying to get a firm grasp on his surround. ings. Home, Briza called it, but to Drizzt, House Do'Urden seemed as unfamiliar as the Academy had on his first day as a student. Thn years was not such a long time in the centuries of life a drow elf might know, but to Drizzt, more than the decade of absence now separated him from this place.
Maya joined them in the great corridor leading to the chapel anteroom. "Greetings, Prince Drizzt” she said, and Drizzt couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not. "We have heard of the honors you achieved at Melee-Magthere.
Your skill did House Do'Urden proud” In spite of her words, Maya could not hide a derisive chuckle as she finished the thought. "Glad, I am, that you did not become drider food”
Drizzt's glare stole the smile from her face.
Maya and Briza exchanged concerned glances. They knew of the punishment Vierna had put upon their younger brother, and of the vicious scolding he had received at the hands of Matron Malice. They each cautiously rested a hand on their snake whips, not knowing how foolish their dangerous young brother might have become.
It was not Matron Malice or Drizzt's sisters that now had Drizzt measuring every step before he took it. He knew where he stood with his mother and knew what he had to do to keep her appeased. There was another member of the family, though, that evoked both confusion and anger in Drizzt. Of all his kin, only Zaknafein pretended to be what he was not. As Drizzt made his way to the chapel, he glanced anxiously down every side passage, wondering when Zak would make his appearance.
"How long before you leave for patrol?" Maya asked, pulling Drizzt from his contemplations.
"Two days” Drizzt replied absently, his eyes still darting from shadow to shadow. Then he was at the anteroom door, with no sign of Zak. Perhaps the weapon master was within, standing beside Malice.
"We know of your indiscretions; Briza snapped, suddenly cold, as she placed her hand on the latch to the anteroom's door. Drizzt was not surprised by her outburst. He was beginning to expect such explosions from the high priestesses of the Spider Queen.
"Why could you not just enjoy the pleasures of the ceremony?" Maya added. "We are fortunate that the mistresses and the matron of the Academy were too involved in their own excitement to note your movements. You would have brought shame upon our entire house!"
"You might have placed Matron Malice in Lloth's disfavor; Briza was quick to add.
The best thing I could ever do for her, Drizzt thought. He quickly dismissed the notion, remembering Briza's uncanny proficiency at reading minds.
"Let us hope he did not” Maya said grimly to her sister.
"The tides of war hang thick in the air?'
"I have learned my place” Drizzt assured them. He bowed low. "Forgive me, my sisters, and know that the truth of the drow world is fast opening before my young eyes. Never will I disappoint House Do'Urden in such a way again?' So pleased were his sisters at the proclamation that the ambiguity of Drizzt's words slipped right past them. Then Drizzt, not wanting to push his luck too far, also slipped past them, making his way through the door, noting with relief that Zaknafein was not in attendance.
"All praises to the Spider Queen!" Briza yelled after him.
Drizzt paused and turned to meet her gaze. He bowed low a second time. "As it should be” he muttered. Creeping behind the small group, Zak had studied Drizzt's every move, trying to measure the toll a decade at the Academy had exacted on the young fighter.
Gone now was the customary smile that lit Drizzt's face.
Gone, too, Zak supposed, was the innocence that had kept this one apart from the rest of Menzoberranzan.
Zak leaned back heavily against the wall in a side passage.
He had caught only portions of the conversation at the anteroom door. Most clearly he had heard Drizzt's heartfelt accord with Briza's honoring of Lloth.
"What have I done?" the weapon master asked himself. He looked back around the bend in the main corridor, but the door to the anteroom had already closed.
"Truly, when I look upon the drow-the drow warrior!-that was my most treasured, I shame for my cowardice” Zak lamented. "What has Drizzt lost that I might have saved?"
He drew his smooth sword from its scabbard, his sensitive fingers running the length of the razor edge. "A finer blade you would be had you tasted the blood of Drizzt Do'Urden, to deny this world, our world, another soul for its taking, to free that one from the unending torments of life!" He lowered the weapon's tip to the floor.
"But I am a coward” he said. "I have failed in the one act that could have brought meaning to my pitiful existence. The secondboy of House Do'Urden lives, it would appear, but Drizzt Do'Urden, my 'Two-hands, is long dead” Zak looked back to the emptiness where Drizzt had been standing, the weapon master's expression suddenly a grimace.
"Yet this pretender lives.
"A drow warrior”
Zak's weapon clanged to the stone floor and his head slumped down to be caught by the embrace of his open palms, the only shield Zaknafein Do'Urden had ever found. Drizzt spent the next day at rest, mostly in his room, trying to keep out of the way of the other members of his immediate family. Malice had dismissed him without a word in their initial meeting, but Drizzt did not want to confront her again. Likewise, he had little to say to Briza and Maya, fearing that sooner or later they would begin to understand the true connotations of his continuing stream of blasphemous responses. Most of all, though, Drizzt did not want to see Zaknafein, the mentor he had once thought of as his salvation against the realities around him, the one glowing light in the darkness that was Menzoberranzan.
That, too, Drizzt believed, had been only a lie.
On his second day home, when Narbondel, the time clock of the city, had just begun its cycle of light, the door to Drizzfs small chamber swung open and Briza walked in.
"An audience with Matron Malice” she said grimly.
A thousand thoughts rushed through Drizzts mind as he grabbed his boots and followed his oldest sister down the passageways to the house chapel. Had Malice and the others discovered his true feelings toward their evil deity? What punishments did they now have waiting for him? Unconsciously, Drizzt eyed the spider carvings on the chapel's arched entrance.
"You should be more familiar and more at ease with this place” Briza scolded, noting his discomfort. "It is the place of our people's highest glories”
Drizzt lowered his gaze and did not respond-and was careful not to even think of the many stinging retorts he felt in his heart.
His confusion doubled when they entered the chapel, for Rizzen, Maya, and Zaknafein stood before the matron mother, as expected. Beside them, though, stood Dinin and Vierna.
"We are all present” Briza said, taking her place at her mother's side.
"Kneel” Malice commanded, and the whole family fell to its knees. The matron mother paced slowly around them all, each pointedly dropping his or her eyes in reverence, or just in common sense, as the great lady walked by.
Malice stopped beside Drizzt. "You are confused by the presence of Dinin and Vierna” she said. Drizzt looked up at her. "Do you not yet understand the subtle methods of our survival?"
"I had thought that my brother and sister were to continue on at the Academy” Drizzt explained.
"That would not be to our advantage” Malice replied.
"Does it not bring a house strength to have mistresses and masters seated at the Academy?" Drizzt dared to ask.
"It does” replied Malice, "but it separates the power. You have heard tidings of war?"
"I have heard hinting of trouble” said Drizzt, looking over at Vierna, "though nothing more tangible”
"Hinting?" Malice huffed, angered that her son could not understand the importance. "They are more than most houses ever hear before the blade falls!" She spun away from Drizzt and addressed the whole group. "The rumors hold truth” she declared.
"Who?" asked Briza. "What house conspires against House Do'Urden?"
"None behind us in rank” Dinin replied, though the question had not been asked to him and it was not his place to speak unbidden.
"How do you know this?" Malice asked, letting the oversight pass. Malice understood Dinin's value and knew that his contributions to this discussion would be important.
"We are the ninth house of the city” Dinin reasoned, "but among our ranks we claim four high priestesses, two of them former mistresses of Arach-Tinilith” He looked at Zak.
"We have, as well, two former masters of Melee-Magthere, and Drizzt was awarded the highest laurels from the school of fighters. Our soldiers number nearly four hundred, all skilled and battle-tested. Only a few houses claim more”
"What is your point?" Briza asked sharply.
"We are the ninth house” Dinin laughed, "but few above us could defeat us. . . “
"And none behind” Matron Malice finished for him. "You show good judgment, Elderboy. I have come to the same conclusions”
"One of the great houses fears House Do'Urden” Vierna concluded. "It needs us gone to protect its own position”
"That is my belief” Malice answered. "An uncommon practice, for family wars usually are initiated by the lower-ranking house, desiring a better position within the city hierarchy”
"Then we must take great care” Briza said.
Drizzt listened carefully to their words, trying to make sense of it all. His eyes never left Zaknafein, though, who knelt impassively at the side. What did the callous weapon master think of all this? Drizzt wondered. Did the thought of such a war thrill him, that he might be able to kill more dark elves?
Whatever his feelings, Zak gave no outward clue. He sat quietly and by all appearances was not even listening to the conversation.
"It would not be Baenre” Briza said, her words sounding like a plea for confirmation. "Certainly we have not yet become a threat to them!"
"We must hope you are correct” Malice replied grimly, remembering vividly her tour of the ruling house. "Likely, it is one of the weaker houses above us, fearing its own unsteady position. I have not yet been able to learn any incriminating information against any in particular, so we must prepare for the worst. Thus, I have called Vierna and Dinin back to my side”
"If we learn of our enemies, . . “ Drizzt began impulsively.
All eyes snapped upon him. It was bad enough for the elderboy to speak without being addressed, but for the secondboy, just graduated from the Academy, the act could be considered blasphemous.
Wanting all perspectives, Matron Malice again let the oversight pass. "Continue” she prompted.
"If we discover which house plots against us” Drizzt said quietly, "could we not expose it?"
"To what end?" Briza snarled at him. "Conspiracy without action is no crime”
"Then might we use reason?" Drizzt pressed, continuing against the barrage of incredulous glares that came at him from every face in the room-except from Zak's. "If we are the stronger, then let them submit without battle. Rank House Do'Urden as it should be and let the assumed threat to the weaker house be ended”
Malice grabbed Drizzt by the front of his cloak and heaved him to his feet. "I forgive your foolish thoughts” she growled, "this time!" She dropped him back to the floor, and the silent reprimands of his siblings descended upon him. Again, though, Zak's expression did not match the others in the room. Indeed, Zak put a hand up over his mouth to hide his amusement. Perhaps there remained a bit of the Drizzt Do'Urden he had known, he dared to hope. Perhaps the Academy had not fully tainted the young fighter's spirit. Malice whirled on the rest of the family, simmering fury and lust glowing in her eyes. "This is not the time to fear! This” she cried, a slender finger pointing out from in front of her face, "is the time to dream! We are House Do'Urden, Daermon N'a'shezbaernon, of power beyond the under-standing of the great houses. We are the unknown entity of this war. We hold every advantage!
"Ninth house?" she laughed. "In short time, only seven houses will remain ahead of us!"
"What of the patrol?" Briza cut in. "Are we to allow the secondboy to go off alone, exposed?"
"The patrol will begin our advantage” the conniving matron explained. "Drizzt will go, and included in his group will be a member of at least four of the houses above us”
"One may strike at him” Briza reasoned.
"No” Malice assured her. "Our enemies in the coming war would not reveal themselves so clearly-not yet. The appointed assassin would have to defeat two Do'Urdens in such a confrontation”
"Two?" asked Vierna.
"Again, Lloth has shown us her favor” explained Malice.
"Dinin will lead Drizzt's patrol group”
The elderboy's eyes lit up at the news. "Then Drizzt and I might become the assassins in this conflict” he purred.
The smile disappeared from the matron mother's face.
"You will not strike without my consent” she warned in a tone so cold that Dinin fully understood the consequences of disobedience, ''as you have done in the past”
Drizzt did not miss the reference to Nalfein, his murdered brother. His mother knew! Malice had done nothing to punish her murderous son. Now Drizzt's hand went up to his face, to hide an expression of horror that only could have brought him trouble in this setting.
"You are there to learn” Matron Malice said to Dinin, "to protect your brother, as Drizzt is there to protect you. Do not destroy our advantage for the gain of a single kill” An evil smile found its way back onto her bonehued face. "But, if you learn of our enemy, . . “ she said.
"If the proper opportunity presents itself, . . “ Briza finished, guessing her mother's wicked thoughts and throwing an equally vile smile the matron's way.
Malice looked upon her eldest daughter with approval.
Briza would prove a fine successor for the house!
Dinin's smile became wide and lascivious. Nothing pleased the elderboy of House Do'Urden more than the opportunity for an assassination.
"Go, then, my family” Malice said. "Remember that unfriendly eyes are upon us, watching our every move, waiting for the time to strike”
Zak was the first out of the chapel, as always, this time with an added spring in his step. It wasn't the prospect of fighting another war that guided his moves, though the thought of killing more clerics of the Spider Queen certainly pleased him. Rather, Drizzt's display of naivete, his continued misconceptions of the common weal of drow existence, brought Zak hope.
Drizzt watched him go, thinking Zak's strides reflected his desire to kill. Drizzt didn't know whether to follow and confront the weapon master here and now or to let it pass, to shrug it away as readily as he had dismissed most of the cruel world around him. The decision was made for him when Matron Malice stepped in front of him and kept him in the chapel.
"To you, I say this” she began when they were alone. "You have heard the mission I placed upon your shoulders. I will not tolerate failure!"
Drizzt shrank back from the power of her voice.
"Protect your brother” came the grim warning, "or I shall give you to Lloth for judgment”
Drizzt understood the implications, but the matron took the pleasure to spell them out anyway.
"You would not enjoy your life as a drider”
A lightning blast cut across the still black waters of the underground lake, searing the heads of the approaching water trolls. Sounds of battle echoed through the cavern. Drizzt had one monster-scrags, they were called-cornered on a small peninsula, blocking the wretched thing's path back to the water. Normally, a single drow faced off evenly against a water troll would not have the advantage, but as the others of his patrol group had come to see in the past few weeks, Drizzt was no ordinary young drow.
The scrag came on, oblivious to its peril. A single, blinding movement from Drizzt lopped off the creature's reaching arms. Drizzt moved in quickly for the kill, knowing too well the regenerative powers of trolls.
Then another scrag slipped out of the water at his back.
Drizzt had expected this, but he gave no outward indication that he saw the second scrag coming. He kept his concentration ahead of him, driving deep slashes into the maimed and all but defenseless troll's torso.
Just as the monster behind him was about to latch its claws onto him, Drizzt fell to his knees and cried, "Now!"
The concealed panther, crouched in the shadows at the peninsula's base, did not hesitate. One great stride brought Guenhwyvar into position, and it sprang, crashing heavily onto the unsuspecting scrag, tearing the life from the thing before it could respond to the attack.
Drizzt finished off his troll and turned to admire the panther's work. He extended his hand, and the great cat nuzzled it. How well the two fighters had come to know each other! thought Drizzt.
Another blast of lightning thundered in, this one close enough to steal Drizzt's sight.
"Guenhwyvar!" Masoj Hun'ett, the bolt's caster, cried. "To my side!"
The panther managed to brush against Drizzt's leg as it moved to obey. When his vision returned, Drizzt walked off in the other direction, not wanting to view the scolding that Guenhwyvar always seemed to receive when he and the cat worked together.
Masoj watched Drizzt's back as he went, wanting to put a third bolt right between the young Do'Urden's shoulder blades. The wizard of House Hun'ett did not miss the specter of Dinin Do'Urden, off to the side, watching with more than casual glances.
"Learn your loyalties!" Masoj snarled at Guenhwyvar. To often, the panther left the wizard's side to join in combat with Drizzt. Masoj knew that the cat was better complemented by the moves of a fighter, but he knew, too, the vulnerability of a wizard involved in spellcasting. Masoj wanted Guenhwyvar at his side, protecting him from enemies-he shot another glance at Dinin-and "friends" alike.
He threw the statuette to the ground at his feet. "Begone!" he commanded.
In the distance, Drizzt had engaged another scrag and made short work of it as well. Masoj shook his head as he watched the display of swordsmanship. Every day, Drizzt grew stronger.
"Give the order to kill him soon, Matron SiNafay” Masoj whispered. The young wizard did not know how much longer he would be able to carry out the task. Masoj wondered whether he could win the fight even now. Drizzt shielded his eyes as he struck a torch to seal a dead troll's wounds. Only fire ensured that trolls would not recuperate, even from the grave.
The other battles had died away as well, Drizzt noted, and he saw the flames of torches springing up all across the bank of the lake. He wondered if all of his twelve drow companions had survived, though he also wondered if he truly cared. Others were more than ready to take their places. Drizzt knew that the only companion who really mattered-Guenhwyvar-was safely back in its home on the Astral Plane.
"Form a guard!" came Dinin's echoing command as the slaves, goblins, and orcs moved in to search for troll treasure, and to salvage whatever they might of the scrags.
When the fires had consumed the scrag he'd set ablaze, Drizzt dipped his torch in the black water, then paused for a ' moment to let his eyes readjust to the darkness. "Another day” he said softly, "another enemy defeated”
He liked the excitement of patrolling, the thrill of the edge of danger, and the knowledge that he was now putting his weapons to use against vile monsters.
Even here, though, Drizzt could not escape the lethargy that had come to pervade his life, the general resignation that marked his every step. For, though his battles these days were fought against the horrors of the Underdark, monsters killed of necessity, Drizzt had not forgotten the meeting in the chapel of House Do'Urden.
He knew that his scimitars soon would be put to use against the flesh of drow elves.
Zaknafein looked out over Menzoberranzan, as he so often did when Drizzt's patrol group was out of the city. Zak was torn between wanting to sneak out of the house to fight at Drizzt's side, and hoping that the patrol would return with the news that Drizzt had been slain.
Would Zak ever find the answer to the dilemma of the youngest Do'Urden? he wondered. Zak knew that he could not leave the house; Matron Malice was keeping a very close eye on him. She sensed his anguish over Drizzt, Zak knew, and she most definitely did not approve. Zak was often her lover, but they shared little other than that.
Zak thought back to the battles he and Malice had fought over Vierna, another child of common concern, centuries before. Vierna was a female, her fate sealed from the moment of her birth, and Zak could do nothing to halt the assault of the Spider Queen's overwhelming religion.
Did Malice fear that he might have better luck influencing the actions of a male child? Apparently the matron did, but even Zak was not so certain if her fears were justified; even he couldn't measure his influence over Drizzt.
He peered out over the city now, silently watching for the patrol group's return-waiting, as always, for Drizzt's safe return, but secretly hoping, that his dilemma would be ended by the claws and fangs of a lurking monster.
Chapter 18
The Black Room
"My greetings, Faceless One” the high priestess said, pushing past Alton into his private chambers in Sorcere.
"And mine to you, Mistress Vierna” Alton replied, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. Vierna Do'Urden coming to see him at this time had to be more than coincidence. "What act has brought me the honor of a visit from a mistress of Arach-Tinilith?"
"No longer a mistress” said Vierna. "I have returned to my home”
Alton paused to consider the news. He knew that Dinin Do'Urden had also resigned his position at the Academy.
"Matron Malice has brought her family back together” Vierna continued. "There are stirrings of war. You have heard them, no doubt?"
"Just rumors” Alton stuttered, now beginning to understand why Vierna had come to call on him. House Do'Urden had used the Faceless One before in its plotting-in its attempt to assassinate Alton! Now, with rumors of war whis-pered throughout Menzoberranzan, Matron Malice was reestablishing her network of spies and assassins.
"You know of them?" Vierna asked sharply.
"I have heard little” Alton breathed, careful now not to anger the powerful female. "Not enough to report to your house. I did not even suspect that House Do'Urden was involved until now, when you informed me” Alton could only hope that Vierna had no detection spell aimed at his words. Vierna relaxed, apparently appeased by the explanation.
"Listen more carefully to the rumors, Faceless One” she said. "My brother and I have left the Academy; you are to be the eyes and ears of House Do'Urden in this place”
"But. . “ Alton stuttered.
Vierna held up a hand to stop him. "We know of our failure in our last transaction” she said. She bowed low, something a high priestess rarely did to a male. "Matron Malice sends her deepest apologies that the unguent you received for the assassination of Alton DeVirdid not restore the features to your face”
Alton nearly choked on the words, now understanding why an unknown messenger had delivered the jar of healing salve some thirty years before. The cloaked figure was an agent of House Do'Urden, come to repay the Faceless One for his assassination of Alton! Of course, Alton had never even tried the unguent. With his luck, it would have worked, and would have restored the features of Alton DeVir.
"This time, your payment cannot fail” Vierna went on, though Alton, too caught up in the irony of it all, hardly listened. "House Do'Urden possesses a wizard's staff but no wizard worthy to wield it. It belonged to Nalfein, my brother, who died in the victory over DeVir”
Alton wanted to strike out at her. Even he wasn't that stupid, though.
"If you can discern which house plots against House Do'Urden” Vierna promised, "the staff will be yours! A treasure indeed for such a small act”
"I will do what I can” Alton replied, having no other response to the incredible offer.
"That is all Matron Malice asks of you” said Vierna, and she left the wizard, quite certain that House Do'Urden had secured a capable agent within the Academy.
"Dinin and Vierna Do'Urden have resigned their positions” said Alton excitedly as the diminutive matron mother came to him later that same evening.
"This is already known to me” replied SiNafay Hun'ett.
She looked around disdainfully at the littered and scorched room, then took a seat at the small table.
"There is more” Alton said quickly, not wanting SiNafay to get upset about being disturbed over old news. "I have had a visitor this day, Mistress Vierna Do'Urden'"
"She suspects?" Matron SiNafay growled.
"No, no!" Alton replied. "Quite the opposite. House Do'Urden wishes to employ me as a spy, as it once employed the Faceless One to assassinate me'"
SiNafay paused for a moment, stunned, then issued a laugh straight from her belly. "Ah, the ironies of our lives!" she roared.
"I had heard that Dinin and Vierna were sent to the Academy only to oversee the education of their younger brother” remarked Alton.
"An excellent cover” SiNafay replied. "Vierna and Dinin were sent as spies for the ambitious Matron Malice. My compliments to her”
"Now they suspect trouble” Alton stated, sitting opposite his matron mother.
"They do” agreed SiNafay. "Masoj patrols with Drizzt, but House Do'Urden has also managed to plant Dinin in the group”
"Then Masoj is in danger” reasoned Alton.
"No” said SiNafay. "House Do'Urden does not know that House Hun'ell perpetrates the threat against it, else it would not have come to you for information. Matron Malice knows your identity”
A look of terror crossed Alton's face.
"Not your true identity” SiNafay laughed at him. "She knows the Faceless One as Gelroos Hun'ell, and she would not have come to a Hun'ell if she suspected our house”
"Then we have an excellent opportunity to throw House Do'Urden into chaos!" Alton cried. "If I implicate another house, even Baenre, perhaps, our position will be strengthened” He chuckled at the possibilities. "Malice will reward me with a staff of great power-a weapon I will turn against her at the proper moment!"
"Matron Malice!" SiNafay corrected sternly. Even though she and Malice were soon to be open enemies, SiNafay would not permit a male to show such disrespect to a matron mother. "Do you really believe that you could carry out such a deception?"
"When Mistress Vierna returns. . “
"You will not deal with a lesser priestess with such valued information, foolish DeVir. You will face Matron Malice her-self, a formidable foe. If she sees through your lies, do you know what she will do to your body?"
Alton gulped audibly. "I am willing to take the risk” he said, crossing his arms resolutely on the table.
"What of House Hun'ett when the biggest lie is revealed?"
SiNafay asked. "What advantage will we enjoy when Matron Malice knows the Faceless One's true identity?"
"I understand” Alton answered, crestfallen but unable to refute SiNafay's logic. "Then what are we to do? What am I to do?" Matron SiNafay was already considering their next
moves. "You will resign your tenure” she said at length. "Return to House Hun'ett, within my protection”
"Such an act might also implicate House Hun'ett to Matron Malice” Alton reasoned.
"It may” replied SiNafay, "but it is the safest route. I will go to Matron Malice in feigned anger, telling her to leave House Hun'ett out of her troubles. If she wishes to make an informant of a member of my family, then she should come to me for permission-though I'll not grant it this time!"
"And mine to you, Mistress Vierna” Alton replied, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. Vierna Do'Urden coming to see him at this time had to be more than coincidence. "What act has brought me the honor of a visit from a mistress of Arach-Tinilith?"
"No longer a mistress” said Vierna. "I have returned to my home”
Alton paused to consider the news. He knew that Dinin Do'Urden had also resigned his position at the Academy.
"Matron Malice has brought her family back together” Vierna continued. "There are stirrings of war. You have heard them, no doubt?"
"Just rumors” Alton stuttered, now beginning to understand why Vierna had come to call on him. House Do'Urden had used the Faceless One before in its plotting-in its attempt to assassinate Alton! Now, with rumors of war whis-pered throughout Menzoberranzan, Matron Malice was reestablishing her network of spies and assassins.
"You know of them?" Vierna asked sharply.
"I have heard little” Alton breathed, careful now not to anger the powerful female. "Not enough to report to your house. I did not even suspect that House Do'Urden was involved until now, when you informed me” Alton could only hope that Vierna had no detection spell aimed at his words. Vierna relaxed, apparently appeased by the explanation.
"Listen more carefully to the rumors, Faceless One” she said. "My brother and I have left the Academy; you are to be the eyes and ears of House Do'Urden in this place”
"But. . “ Alton stuttered.
Vierna held up a hand to stop him. "We know of our failure in our last transaction” she said. She bowed low, something a high priestess rarely did to a male. "Matron Malice sends her deepest apologies that the unguent you received for the assassination of Alton DeVirdid not restore the features to your face”
Alton nearly choked on the words, now understanding why an unknown messenger had delivered the jar of healing salve some thirty years before. The cloaked figure was an agent of House Do'Urden, come to repay the Faceless One for his assassination of Alton! Of course, Alton had never even tried the unguent. With his luck, it would have worked, and would have restored the features of Alton DeVir.
"This time, your payment cannot fail” Vierna went on, though Alton, too caught up in the irony of it all, hardly listened. "House Do'Urden possesses a wizard's staff but no wizard worthy to wield it. It belonged to Nalfein, my brother, who died in the victory over DeVir”
Alton wanted to strike out at her. Even he wasn't that stupid, though.
"If you can discern which house plots against House Do'Urden” Vierna promised, "the staff will be yours! A treasure indeed for such a small act”
"I will do what I can” Alton replied, having no other response to the incredible offer.
"That is all Matron Malice asks of you” said Vierna, and she left the wizard, quite certain that House Do'Urden had secured a capable agent within the Academy.
"Dinin and Vierna Do'Urden have resigned their positions” said Alton excitedly as the diminutive matron mother came to him later that same evening.
"This is already known to me” replied SiNafay Hun'ett.
She looked around disdainfully at the littered and scorched room, then took a seat at the small table.
"There is more” Alton said quickly, not wanting SiNafay to get upset about being disturbed over old news. "I have had a visitor this day, Mistress Vierna Do'Urden'"
"She suspects?" Matron SiNafay growled.
"No, no!" Alton replied. "Quite the opposite. House Do'Urden wishes to employ me as a spy, as it once employed the Faceless One to assassinate me'"
SiNafay paused for a moment, stunned, then issued a laugh straight from her belly. "Ah, the ironies of our lives!" she roared.
"I had heard that Dinin and Vierna were sent to the Academy only to oversee the education of their younger brother” remarked Alton.
"An excellent cover” SiNafay replied. "Vierna and Dinin were sent as spies for the ambitious Matron Malice. My compliments to her”
"Now they suspect trouble” Alton stated, sitting opposite his matron mother.
"They do” agreed SiNafay. "Masoj patrols with Drizzt, but House Do'Urden has also managed to plant Dinin in the group”
"Then Masoj is in danger” reasoned Alton.
"No” said SiNafay. "House Do'Urden does not know that House Hun'ell perpetrates the threat against it, else it would not have come to you for information. Matron Malice knows your identity”
A look of terror crossed Alton's face.
"Not your true identity” SiNafay laughed at him. "She knows the Faceless One as Gelroos Hun'ell, and she would not have come to a Hun'ell if she suspected our house”
"Then we have an excellent opportunity to throw House Do'Urden into chaos!" Alton cried. "If I implicate another house, even Baenre, perhaps, our position will be strengthened” He chuckled at the possibilities. "Malice will reward me with a staff of great power-a weapon I will turn against her at the proper moment!"
"Matron Malice!" SiNafay corrected sternly. Even though she and Malice were soon to be open enemies, SiNafay would not permit a male to show such disrespect to a matron mother. "Do you really believe that you could carry out such a deception?"
"When Mistress Vierna returns. . “
"You will not deal with a lesser priestess with such valued information, foolish DeVir. You will face Matron Malice her-self, a formidable foe. If she sees through your lies, do you know what she will do to your body?"
Alton gulped audibly. "I am willing to take the risk” he said, crossing his arms resolutely on the table.
"What of House Hun'ett when the biggest lie is revealed?"
SiNafay asked. "What advantage will we enjoy when Matron Malice knows the Faceless One's true identity?"
"I understand” Alton answered, crestfallen but unable to refute SiNafay's logic. "Then what are we to do? What am I to do?" Matron SiNafay was already considering their next
moves. "You will resign your tenure” she said at length. "Return to House Hun'ett, within my protection”
"Such an act might also implicate House Hun'ett to Matron Malice” Alton reasoned.
"It may” replied SiNafay, "but it is the safest route. I will go to Matron Malice in feigned anger, telling her to leave House Hun'ett out of her troubles. If she wishes to make an informant of a member of my family, then she should come to me for permission-though I'll not grant it this time!"