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The rogue Dinin h the dark avenues of Menzoberranzan, the city of drow A renegade, with no fahter kneell the perils of the city, and kne to avoid the cavern’s western wall and could not help but pause and stare Twin stalagmite mounds supported a blasted fence around the whole of the place, and two sets of broken doors, one on the ground and one beyond a balcony twenty feet up the wall, hung open aardly on twisted and scorched hinges Howthe private quarters of the nobles of his house, House Do’Urden?

House Do’Urden It was forbidden even to speak the nahth-ranked a the sixty or so drow fa council; and he, Dinin, had been a Master at Melee-Magthere, the School of Fighters, at the fa before the compound, it seemed to Dinin as if the place were a thousand years relory His family was no more, his house lay in ruins, and Dinin had been forced to take up with Bregan D’aerthe, an infaue drow mouthed quietly He shook his slender shoulders and pulled his concealing pii cloak around hi how vulnerable a houseless drow could be A quick glance toward the center of the cavern, toward the pillar that was Narbondel, showed him that the hour was late At the break of each day, the Arch-e of Menzoberranzan went out to Narbondel and infused the pillar with aheat that would work its way up, then back down To sensitive drow eyes, which could look into the infrared spectru clock

Now Narbondel was alo more than halfway across the city, to a secret cave within the Clawrift, a great chas out from Menzoberranzan’s northwestern wall There Jarlaxle, the leader of Bregan D’aerthe, waited in one of his hter cut across the center of the city, passed right by Narbondel, and besidea dozen separate falowing inhouse walls or along the bridges connecting arded the lone stranger carefully, hand crossbows or poisoned javelins held ready until Dinin was far beyond them

That was the way in Menzoberranzan: always alert, always distrustful

Dinin gave one careful look around when he reached the edge of the Clawrift, then slipped over the side and used his innate powers of levitation to slowly descend into the chasain looked into the bolts of readied hand crossbows, but these ithdrawn as soon as the nized Dinin as one of their own

Jarlaxle has been waiting for you, one of the guards signaled in the intricate silent hand code of the dark elves

Dinin didn’t bother to respond He owed couards his way down a short tunnel that soon branched into a virtual maze of corridors and rooms Several turns later, the dark elf stopped before a shiainst its surface, letting his body heateyes on the other side would understand as a knock

"At last," he heard a moment later, in Jarlaxle’s voice "Do co far too long"

Dinin paused aon the unpredictable mercenary’s inflections and words Jarlaxle had called him Khal’abbil, "my trusted friend," his nickname for Dinin since the raid that had destroyed House Do’Urden (a raid in which Jarlaxle had played a prominent role), and there was no obvious sarcas wrong at all But, why, then, had Jarlaxle recalled hi mission to House Vandree, the Seventeenth House of Menzoberranzan? Dinin wondered It had taken Dinin nearly a year to gain the trust of the iuard, a position, no doubt, that would be severely jeopardized by his unexplained absence from the house coue soldier decided He held his breath and forced his way into the opaque barrier It seeh he did not get wet, and, after several long steps across the flowing extraplanar border of two planes of existence, he forced his way through the seeical door and entered Jarlaxle’s slow, allowing Dinin to shift his eyes froht spectruain, as always, when he looked at Jarlaxle

The mercenary leader sat behind a stone desk in an exotic cushioned chair, supported by a single stem with a swivel so that it could rock back at a considerable angle Co way back, his slender hands clasped behind his clean-shaven head (so unusual for a drow!)

Just for amusement, it seeh black boot hitting the stone with a resounding thu the stone just as hard, but this bootnot a whisper

The ht eye this day, Dinin noted

To the side of the desk stood a tre little humanoid creature, barely half Dinin’s five-and-a-half-foot height, including the s brow

"One of House Oblodra’s kobolds," Jarlaxle explained casually "It see found its way in, but cannot so easily find its way back out"

The reasoning seemed sound to Dinin House Oblodra, the Third House of Menzoberranzan, occupied a tight compound at the end of the Clawrift and was rumored to keep thousands of kobolds for torturous pleasure, or to serve as house fodder in the event of a war

"Do you wish to leave?" Jarlaxle asked the creature in a guttural, sierly, stupidly

Jarlaxle indicated the opaque door, and the creature darted for it It had not the strength to penetrate the barrier, though, and it bounced back, nearly landing on Dinin’s feet Before it even bothered to get up, the kobold foolishly sneered in contempt at the mercenary leader

Jarlaxle’s hand flicked several tihter reflexively tensed, but knew better than to move, knew that Jarlaxle’s aim was always perfect

When he looked down at the kobold, he saw five daggers sticking from its lifeless body, a perfect star formation on the scaly creature’s little chest

Jarlaxle only shrugged at Dinin’s confused stare "I could not allow the beast to return to Oblodra," he reasoned, "not after it learned of our coh He started to retrieve the daggers, but Jarlaxle reminded him that there was no need

"They will return of their own accord," the e of his bloused sleeve to reveal thehis wrist "Do sit," he bade his friend, indicating an unremarkable stool at the side of the desk "We have much to discuss"

"Why did you recall me?" Dinin asked bluntly as he took his place beside the desk "I had infiltrated Vandree fully"