Page 2 (1/2)

Drizzt Do’Urden stood on the very edge of the beaht the guide rope of the flying jib This ship was a smooth runner, perfect in balance and ballast and with the best of crews, but the sea was rough this day and the Sea Sprite cut and bounced through the rolls at full sail, throwing a heavy spray

Drizzt didn’t mind He loved the feel of the spray and the wind, the s the water, skipping the waves Drizzt’s thick white hair flipped in the breeze, billowing like his green cape behind hi almost as fast as the water wetted it Splotches of white caked salt could not lessen the luster of his ebony skin, which glistened etness His violet eyes sparkled with joy as he squinted at the horizon and caught a fleeting glimpse of the sails of the ship they pursued

Pursued and would catch, Drizzt knew, for there was no ship north of Baldur’s Gate that could outrun Captain Deudermont’s Sea Sprite She was a three-ht

and sleek and full of sail The square-rigged caravel they were chasing could put up a fair run in a straight line, but anytihtest bit, the Sea Sprite could angle inside it, gaining ground Always gaining ground

That hat she was ineers and wizards of Waterdeep, funded by the lords of that city, the schooner was a pirate chaser How thrilled Drizzt had been to discover the good fortunes of his old friend, Deudermont, hom he had sailed all the way from Waterdeep to Calimshan in pursuit of Arte That journey, particularly the fight in Asavir’s Channel when Captain Deudermont had ith no sainst three pirate ships, including the flagship of the notorious Pinochet, had caught the attention of sailors andthe Sword Coast When the Lords of Waterdeep had completed this schooner, they had offered it to Deuderinal Sea Sprite, but no seaman could resist this new beauty Deudermont had accepted a coht to name the vessel and allowed him to handpick his crew

Drizzt and Catti-brie had arrived in Waterdeep sorand harbor of the seaport, and Deudermont found his old friends, he pro his crew of forty That was six years and twenty-seven voyages ago A lanes of the Sword Coast, particularly ae Thirty-seven victories, and still she sailed

Now nuht

The caravel had noticed the of Waterdeep That hardly ion carried the distinctive design of the Sea Sprite, the three ular, lateen sails Up cas, and so the chase was on in full

Drizzt was at the point, one foot on the lion-headed ra every second He felt the sheer power of the sea bucking beneath him, felt the spray and the wind He heard the , for several of the Sea Sprite’s creere

minstrels and whenever the chase was on, they took up their instrus

"Two thousand!" Catti-brie yelled down from the crow’s nest It was a ot down to five hundred, the creould e ballistadeck in the Sea Sprite’s stern, two going to the s crossbows e Drizzt would join Deuder the close combat The drow’s free hand slipped to the hilt of one of his sciht The Sea Sprite was a vicious foe from a distance It had crack archers, a skilled ballista team, a particularly nasty wizard, an evoker full of fireballs and lightning bolts, and of course, Catti-brie with her deadly bow, Taulmaril the Heartseeker But it was in close, when Drizzt and his panther coet across, that the Sea Sprite was truly deadly

"Eighteen hundred!" came Catti-brie’s next call Drizzt nodded at the confir The Sea Sprite was running faster than ever Drizzt had to wonder if her keel was even getting wet!

The drow dropped a hand into his pouch, feeling for the urine that he used to su if he should even call to Guenhwyvar this time The panther had been aboard forthe hundreds of rats that threatened the ship’s food stores, and was likely exhausted

"Only if I need you, my friend," Drizzt whispered The Sea Sprite cut hard to starboard and Drizzt had to take up the guide rope in both hands He steadied hiaze to the horizon, to the square-rigged ship growing larger by thefor the co battle He immersed himself in the hiss and splash of the water below hi the wind, and in Catti-brie’s calls

Fifteen hundred, a thousand

"Black cutlass, lined in red!" the young wolass, she was able to discern the design on the snapping flag of the caravel

Drizzt didn’t know the insignia, didn’t care about it The caravel was a pirate ship, one of the many who had overstepped their bounds near Waterdeep’s harbors As in any waters with trading routes, there had always been pirates on the Sword Coast Until the last few years, though, the pirates had been so specific codes of conduct When Deudermont had defeated Pinochet in Asavir’s Channel, he had subsequently let the pirate go free That was the way, the unspoken agreeer was that the case The pirates of the north had becoer simply looted, but the crews, particularly if any females were aboard, were tortured and murdered Many ruined hulks had been found adrift in the waters near Waterdeep The pirates had crossed the line

Drizzt, Deuder paid handsomely for their work, but down to every last man and woman (with the possible exception of the wizard, Robillard) they weren’t chasing pirates for the gold

They were fighting for the victims

"Five hundred!" Catti-brie called down

Drizzt shook himself from his trance and looked to the caravel He could see the ht, an army of ants The Sea Sprite’s creas outnumbered, possibly two to one, Drizzt realized, and the caravel was heavily armed She carried a fair-sized catapult on her stern deck, and probably a ballista beneath that, ready to shoot out from the open s

The drow nodded and turned back to the deck The crossbows fixed on the bridge and the ballista werethe pull of their longbows Thebegan High above the deck, Drizzt spotted Catti-brie, Taullass in the other He whistled to her and she gave a quick wave in response, her excitement obvious

How could it be otherwise? The chase, the wind, the ood work here S the bea Deuder bored as usual, sitting on the edge of the poop deck

Every so often he waved one hand in the direction of theon that hand, a silver band set with a diamond, and its sparkle now caesture froust of wind into the already straining sails Drizzt heard the creak of protest from the mainmast and understood their uncanny speed

"Carrackus," Captain Deudermont remarked as soon as the droas beside him "Black cutlass outlined in red"

Drizzt looked at hi the name

"Used to sail with Pinochet," Deudership He was a those we battled in Asavir’s Channel"

"Captured?" Drizzt asked

Deuder, a sea troll"

"I do not re out of the way," Deuder to the depths as soon as Wulfgar turned us about to ram his ship"

Drizzt re friend that nearly turned the original Sea Sprite on its stern, right into the faces of so h," Deudermont continued "By all reports, it was he who rescued Pinochet’s wounded ship when I set hi allied with Pinochet still?" Drizzt asked

Deuderrimly The implications were obvious Pinochet couldn’t come after the troublesome Sea Sprite personally because in return for his freedoainst Deuder enemies He had many allies like Carrackus ere not bound by his personal oath

Drizzt knew at that moment that Guenhwyvar would be needed and he took the intricate figurine from his pouch He studied Deuderht, slender but well-ray hair and beard neatly trimmed He was a refined captain, his dress irand ball as on the open sea Now his eyes, so light in hue that they seemed to reflect the colors about them rather than to possess any color of their own, revealed his tension Rumors had followed the Sea Sprite for ainst the vessel With confirmation that this caravel was allied with Pinochet, Deuder

Drizzt glanced back at Robillard, as up on one knee now, arms outstretched and eyes closed, deep in meditation Now the drow understood the reason Deudermont had put them at such a reckless speed

A mo the view of the caravel, which was now barely a hundred yards away A loud splash to the side told the A moment later, a burst of fire erupted in the air before the steah it

"They’ve a wizard," Drizzt re," Deudermont was quick to reply He looked back to Robillard "Keep your measures defensive," he ordered "We can take them with ballista and bow!"

"All the fun for you," Robillard called back dryly

Deudered a smile, despite his obvious tension

"Bolt!" came a cry, several cries, from forward Deudermont instinctively spun the wheel The Sea Sprite leaned into the leeward turn so deeply that Drizzt feared they would capsize

At the sae ballista bolt ripped past, snapping a line, skipping off the edge of the poop deck right beside a surprised Robillard and rebounding to tear a small hole in the crossjack-the sail on the mizzenmast

"Secure that line," Deuder that way, his feetline in hand and quickly tied it off, then got to the rail as the Sea Sprite straightened He looked to the caravel, now barely fifty yards ahead and to starboard The water between the two ships rolled wildly Whitecaps spit water that was blown into ht in a tremendous wind

The crew of the caravel didn’t understand, and so they put their bows in line and began firing, but even the heaviest of their crossbow quarrels was turned harh the wall of wind that Robillard had put between the ships

The archers of the Sea Sprite, accustomed to such tactics, held their shots Catti-brie was above the all as was the archer poised in the crow’s nest of the other ship-an ugly seven-foot-tall gnoll with a face that seemed more canine than human

The monstrous creature loosed its heavy arrow first, a fine shot that sank the bolt deep into the noll ducked below the wooden wall of its own crow’s nest, readying another arrow

No doubt the duht itself safe, for it didn’t understand Taulmaril

Catti-brie took her time, steadied her hand as the Sea Sprite closed

Thirty yards

Her arroent off like a streak of lightning, trailing silver sparks and blasting through the feeble protection of the caravel’s crow’s nest as though it were no stronger than a sheet of old parchh into the air The dooave a shriek, bounced off the crossbeam of the caravel’s mainmast, and spun head over heels to splash into the sea, quickly left behind by the speeding ships

Catti-brie fired again, angling down, concentrating on the catapult crew She hit one man, a half-orcish brute by the looks of hi pitch

The caravel’s gunners hadn’t properly compensated for the sheer speed of the Sea Sprite and the schooner crossed under the pitch and was long gone by the tiht the schooner alongside the caravel, barely twenty yards of water between them Suddenly the water in that narrow channel stopped its hipped turmoil and the archers of the Sea Sprite let flypitch

Catti-brie let fly for the catapult itself this ti thebeaht into the caravel’s hull at sea level

Deuder away, satisfied with the pass More , soared between the ships before Robillard created a wall of blocking mist behind the Sea Sprite’s stern

The caravel’s wizard put a lightning bolt right into the y was dispersed soes of the Sea Sprite, knocking severalfar over the rail and straining to watch the caravel’s deck with his hair flying wildly fro bolt, spotted the wizard, amidships, near theperpendicular to the pirate ship, was too far away, the drow called upon his innate powers, sulobe of impenetrable darkness and dropped it over thethe caravel’s deck, for he had hit the ht the wizard It would follow and blind hiic Even erous wizard clearly

"Catti-brie!" Drizzt cried

"I have hiain, sending two streaks into that ball of blackness