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"We may have been set up," Deudermont replied "Perhaps Dunkin informed our sailor friends here that the Sea Sprite would be without a certain dark elf crewman for a while"
"I’ Taulmaril over her shoulder and started up the mainmast
Robillard and Harkle caerous situation They nodded to Deudermont and moved astern, beside Waillan and his ballista crew
Then they waited, all of the movements of the three ships carefully, and then a fourth pushed off fro encircled, the captain knew, but also he knew that the Sea Sprite could put up anchor and be out to sea inthe run And all the while, between the ballista and the archers, particularly Catti-brie and that devastating bow of hers, the Sea Sprite could e they offered
Deudermont’s primary concern at that ht befall the drow if they had to leave him behind?
That notion disappeared, but a new fear lass in hand, yelled down that Drizzt was on his way back Deudermont and many others followed the woman’s point and could just make out the tiny rowboat in front and to starboard of the third ship drifting out of the harbor
"Robillard!" Deudermont yelled
The wizard nodded and peered intently to spot the craft He began casting a spell immediately, but even as the first words left hisa bail of pitch into the water right beside the rowboat, nearly capsizing her
"Up sails!" Deuderh anchor!"
Catti-brie’s bow hu caravel, though the ship was still more than three hundred yards away
All the harbor seemed to come to life iman their turn to catch the wind, the third ship launched another volley at the rowboat, and the sails of the fourth ship, indeed a part of the conspiracy, unfurled
Before Robillard’s spell began its effect, a third ball of pitch hit just behind the rowboat, taking part of her stern with her Still,
the enchant at her and speeding her suddenly in the direction of the Sea Sprite Drizzt put up the now-useless oars while Dunkin bailed frantically, but even though they ed rowboat could not stay afloat long enough to get to the Sea Sprite’s side
Robillard recognized that fact and as the craft floundered, the wizard dispelled his ic, else Drizzt and Dunkin would have been drowned beneath the enchanted wave
Deuder to measure the distance and the tiured that as soon as the sails were up, he would have to turn the Sea Sprite in toward the harbor, for he would not leave Drizzt behind, no matter the risk
His calculations quickly shifted when he saw that Drizzt, Dunkin in toi furiously toward the ship
Dunkin was even more surprised by this turn of events than was Deudermont When the rowboat went under, the et away from the drow Drizzt’s carried twin scimitars and wore a suit of chain ured that the droould cling to hih, Drizzt could not only stay above the water, but could swied of the finest n by Buster Bracer of Clan Battlehammer, one of the finest smithies in all the Real hiht up to Dunkin and dragged the man out in the direction of the Sea Sprite al nearly a quarter of the distance before the startledon his own
"They are co his friend would make it
"But they lost the chest!" Robillard observed, pointing to the floundering rowboat Right behind the wreckage and co faster still was the third pirate ship, her sails now full of wind
"I will get it!" cried Harkle Harpell, wanting desperately to be of soan an enchant that they had to so caravel if Drizzt was to have any chance ofalh, and looked to Harkle curiously
Robillard’s eyes widened considerably as he considered a fish that appeared suddenly on the deck at Harkle’s feet "No!" he cried, reaching for the Harpell, figuring out what type of spell Harkle had enacted "You cannot cast an extra dimension on an iteuessed correctly; Harkle was trying to pull in the sinking ion where the rowboat and the chest went down It was a good idea, or would have been, except that the chest Tarnheel had pro-a contained extra-dimensional space that could hold much more voluht The problem was that extra-dimensional spells and ite into a chest of holding, for exa nearby into the Astral Plane, or even worse, into the unknown space between the planes of existence
"Oops," Harkle apologized, realizing his error and trying to let go of his enchantht in the area where the row-boat had gone down, rocking the approaching caravel and rolling into Drizzt and Dunkin, hurling them toward the Sea Sprite The water churned and danced, then began to roll, foriant whirlpool
"Sail on!" Deudermont cried as ropes were thrown out to Drizzt and Dunkin "Sail on, for all our lives!"
The sails fell open, and crewainst the wind At once the Sea Sprite lurched and rolled away, gliding swiftly out of the harbor
Things were not as easy for the pursuing caravel The pirate ship tried to tack and turn, but was too close to thewhirlpool She crested the lip and was pulled sideways violently,tossed overboard into the turmoil Around she went, once and then twice Those aboard the Sea Sprite watched her sails diminish as she sank lower and lower into the spin
But other than horrified Harkle, the eyes of those on the Sea Sprite had to go outward, to the two vessels lying in wait Robillard called up athat Deudere, but to slip by, out into the open waters Waillan’s crew fired at will, as did the archers, while several crew them, hauled Drizzt and a very shaken Dunkin Tallmast aboard
"Sealed," Drizzt said to Deuder a capped scroll tube that obviously contained the map to Caerwich
Deudero to the wheel Both surveyed the situation, and both figured that the Sea Sprite would have little trouble slipping through this trap
The situation looked bright, to those looking forward But hanging over the stern rail, Harkle Harpell could only watch in dismay Rationally, he knew that his unintentional catastrophe had probably saved Drizzt and the other man in the rowboat, and probably would entle Harkle could not suffer the sights of the tur men He muttered, "oh, no," over and over, searched his ht help the poor men of the caravel
But then, almost as suddenly as it had appeared, the whirlpool dissipated, the water flattening to perfect, glassy cal so low to the side that her sails nearly touched the water
Harkle breathed a deep sigh of relief and thanked whatever godsThe water was full of sailors, but they all seeet to the swamped hull
Harkle clapped his hands happily and ran down fro Deudereers trading shots with the Sea Sprite, though none of the three were close enough to inflict any real dae
Deudere
"Have you any more fireballs in you?" Deudermont asked
Harkle paled So soon after the horror of the whirlpool, he really didn’t have the heart to burn up another vessel But that wasn’t what sly Deudermont had in mind
"Put one in the water between our enemies," the captain explained, then looked to Drizzt "I’ll run for theto port, then we’ll have time to contend with only one of the pirate ships up close"
Drizzt nodded Harkle brightened, and was nal, then skipped a fireball just under the waves There came a flash and then a thick cloud of steaers predictably turned to cut off such an escape Soon before plunging into the ling outside the pirate ship farthest to the left
They would pass close, but that didn’t bother Deudermont much, not with the Sea Sprite’s speed and Robillard’s ed Deuderh Robillard’s defensive shields and snipping through a fair aun!" Harkle roared
"A what?" Drizzt and Deudermont asked at the saan spinning large circles in the air "Big arquebus"
"A what?" the two asked again
Harkle couldn’t begin to explain, but his horrified expression spoke volu, a fiendish concoction of Gondish priests that used sheer explosive energy to launch missiles from metal barrels, and oftentimes, to inadvertently blow apart the barrels "One in ten," was the saying a that one in ten atteured these pirates erous attack
But still, even if the one in ten rule held true, nine in ten could take the Sea Sprite out of the water!
Harkle knew that he had to act as the seconds passed, as the others, even Robillard, looked on helplessly, not understanding what they were suddenly up against Smokepoas more common in the far eastern reaches of the Realms, and had even been used in Cormyr, so it was said Of course, there were rumors that it had surfaced just a bit on the Sword Coast, mostly aboard
ships Harkle considered his options, considered the volume of smokepowder and its volatility, considered the weapons he had at his disposal
"A metal cylinder!" Catti-brie called down froh the steas near to it?" Harkle cried back
"I cannot see!" Catti-brie called, for the cloud continued to drift and to obscure her vision of the pirate ship’s deck
Harkle knew that ti out The smokepowder cannon wasn’t very accurate, but it didn’t have to be, for one of its shots could take down ahit on the hull would likely blow a hole large enough to sink the schooner
"Ai near to it!"
Catti-brie was never one to trust in Harkle Harpell, but his reasoning then seemed unusually sound She put up Taul to disable the crew near to the cylinder, if not take out the weapon itself Through the fog, she saw the sparks as one enchanted arrow skipped off the cylinder, then heard a cry of pain as she nailed one of the gunners
The Sea Sprite ran on, nearing the pirate ship Harkle bit at his fingernails Dunkin, who also knew of se ears
"Oh, turn away the ship," Harkle bade Deuderht into our faces, and knock us under the waves"
Deudermont didn’t kno to respond He had already learned that Robillard’s ic couldn’t stop the slanced back to Robillard, he found the wizard frantically creating gusts of wind to speed their passage, apparently with no intent of even trying to stop a second shot Still, if the captain tried to turn to port, he would likely be in range of that weapon for soht not be able to even get past the pirate ship and into the cloud, ht ram the ship head-on Even if they could then defeat the crew of this ship, her two re the Sea Sprite
"Get the wizard and get to theet the cat We need you now,the light of a torch near to where Catti-brie had pointed out the cylinder, shouted out "no tih, Catti-brie saw the torch, and with its light, she also saw the large sacks that Harkle had inquired about She instinctively ai to slow the sreed with Harkle, shifting her aiht for the pile of sacks on the pirate’s decking
Her arrow streaked in the instant before thepractically parallel to the pirate ship It was just an instant, but in that time, the torchbearer was foiled, was blown into the air as the streaking arrow sliced into the sacks of volatile sht up on end The fireball was beyond anything Harkle, or even Robillard, had ever seen, and the sheer concussion and flying debris nearly cleaned the Sea Sprite’s deck of standing crewmen, and tore many holes in the schooner’s lateen sails
The Sea Sprite lurched wildly, left and right, before Deuderain his senses and steady the wheel But she plowed on, leaving the trap behind
"By the gods," Catti-brie er had been, there was now only flotsa bodies
Drizzt, too, was stunned Looking on the carnage, he thought he was previewing the end of the world He had never seen such devastation, such coh sh smokepowder could flatten all the world
"Smokepowder?" he said to Harkle
"From Gondish priests," the wizard replied
"Damn them all," muttered Drizzt, and he walked away
Later that day, as the creorked to repair the tears in the sails, Drizzt and Catti-brie took a break and leaned on the rail of the schooner’s bow, looking down at the ereat distance they had yet to travel
Finally Catti-brie couldn’t stand the suspense any longer "Did ye beat hih he didn’t understand
"His tyrancy," Catti-brie explained
"I brought the h it was lost"
"Ah, but Dunkin pro woman said slyly
Drizzt looked at her "The contest was never important," he said "Not toto let the drow slip out of this one
"Sometimes it is better to allow so important a leader and valuable an ally to retain his pride and his reputation," Drizzt replied, looking back to the sea, then to thefor some assistance
"Ye let hi pleased by that prospect
"I never said that," Drizzt replied
"So he beat ye on his own," the young woed as he walked away toward the mizzenmast to help out the crew forward, apparentlyto join Drizzt and Catti-brie at the rail
Catti-brie continued to stare at the drow as the wizards walked up The woman did not knohat to make of Drizzt’s cryptic answers Drizzt had let Tarnheel win, she figured, or at least had allowed thewoman did not understand, she didn’t want to think that Tarnheel had actually beaten Drizzt; she didn’t want to think that anyone could beat Drizzt
Both Robillard and Harkle were s woman’s expression
"Drizzt beat him," Robillard said at last
Startled, Catti-brie turned to the wizard
"That is what you ondering about," Robillard reasoned
"We watched it all," Harkle said "Oh, of course we did A goodcrouch, his best imitation of Drizzt in combat, which of course seean, ht so quickly and sot hit," Robillard interjected "His tyrancy was still swinging forward, attacking a ghost, I suppose"
That made sense to Catti-brie; the host step"
"He learned better, he did!" howled Harkle
"Suffice it to say that his tyrancy will not be sitting down anytime soon," Robillard finished, and the tizards exploded into laughter, as ani wo still Catti-brie was s too She no the truth of Drizzt’s claiht wasn’t important to him She’d make certain that she teased the drow about it in the days to co because Drizzt had won
For some reason, that was very important to Catti-brie