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Dust continued to settle in the wide chaht; one of the torches had been extinguished beneath a falling chunk of I stone, its glow snuffed out in the blink of an eye Snuffed out like the light in Wulfgar’s eyes When the ruer pieces of collapsed ceiling settled, Catti-brie turned herself about andthe rubble-filled alcove She wiped the dirt fro istered fully
The monster’s one visible tentacle, still wrapped about the young woe, near the rubble, twitching reflexively
Beyond it there was only piled rock The enormity of the situation overwhelmed Catti-brie She swayed to the side, nearly swooned, finding her strength only when a burst of anger and denial welled up within her She tore her feet free of the tentacle and scrambled ahead on all fours She tried to stand, but her head throbbed, keeping her low Again came the wave of weak nausea, the invitation to fall back into unconsciousness
Wulfgar!
Catti-brie crawled on, slapped aside the twitching tentacle, and began digging into the stone pile with her bare hands, scraping her skin and tearing a fingernail painfully How similar this collapse seemed to the one that had taken Drizzt on the co of Mithril Hall But that had been a dwarf-designed trap, a rigged fall that dropped out the floor as it had dropped out a ceiling block, sending Drizzt careening safely into a lower corridor
This was no rigged trap, Catti-brie reminded herself; there was no chute to a lower charoan, a whiet Wulfgar fro that the rocks had collapsed in an angle that would allow the barbarian to survive
Then Bruenor was beside her, dropping his axe and shield to the floor and going at the pile with abandon The powerful dwarf e stones aside, but when the outer rim of the cave-in had been cleared, he stopped his work and stood staring blankly at the pile
Catti-brie kept digging, didn’t notice her father’s frown
After , Bruenor understood the truth The collapse was complete
The lad was gone
Catti-brie continued to dig, and to sniffle, as her an to tell her what her heart continued to deny
Bruenor put his hand on her arm to stop her from her pointless work, and when she looked up at hih dwarf’s heart Her face was grime-covered Blood was caked on one cheek, and her hair was matted to her head Bruenor then saw only Catti-brie’s eyes, doelike orbs of deepest blue, glistening with moisture
Bruenor slowly shook his head
Catti-brie fell back to a sitting position, her bleeding hands li How many times had she and her friends come so close to this final point? she wondered How reedy clutches at the last instant?
The odds had caught up to thear, here and now, suddenly, without warning
Gone was the hter, leader of his tribe, the hty Drizzt Do’Urden, could do nothing to help hie what had happened
"He savedwoman whispered Bruenor seemed not to hear her The dwarf continually wiped at the dust in his eyes, at the dust that collected in the large teardrops that gathered and then slipped down, streaking his dirty cheeks Wulfgar had been like a son to Bruenor The tough dwarf had taken the young Wulfgar - just a boy back then - into his home after a battle, ostensibly as a slave but in truth to teach the lad a better way Bruenor had ar into a man who could be trusted, a man of honest character The happiest day in the dwarf’s life, even happier than the day Bruenor had reclaiar and Catti-brie had announced they would wed
Bruenor kicked a heavy stone, the force of his blow shifting it aside
There lay Aegis-fang
The brave dwarf’s knees eak at the sight of the marvelous warhammer’s head, etched with the syod, the Keeper of Secrets Under the Mountain Bruenor forced deep breaths into his lungs and tried to steady hith to reach down and work the hareatest creation, the epito abilities He had put all of his love and skill into forging the haar
Catti-brie’s seht of the weapon Quiet sobsfrail in the di her display He re of Mithril Hall, that he was responsible for his subjects - and for his daughter He slipped the precious warha pack and hooked an ar her to her feet
"We can’t do a thing for the boy," Bruenor whispered Catti-brie pulled away fro as she tossed several smaller stones aside She could see the futility of it all, could see the tons of dirt and stones,the alcove But Catti-brie dug anyway, si up on the barbarian No other apparent course offered any hope
Bruenor’s hands gently closed about her upper ared hirabbed her again, forcefully, lifting her fro her back from the pile He put her down hard, with his wide shoulders squared between her and the pile, and whichever way Catti-brie went to get around hi!" he shouted into her face a dozen tiot to try!" she finally pleaded with hi to let her back to the digging
Bruenor shook his head - only the tears in his dark eyes, his obvious distress, prevented Catti-brie fro hi to slip past the stubborn dwarf
"It’s over," Bruenor said to her "The boyave himself for us, yerself andstupid pains keep ye here, in danger"
Catti-brie’s body seemed to slu She did not ar’s burial cairn, as Bruenor retrieved his shield and axe The dwarf caood-byes," he offered, and he silently waited aCatti-brie away, first to her bow, then froh which they had coarded hi their course
"Pwent and the cat’ll have to find their oay about," Bruenor answered her blank stare,her confusion
Catti-brie wasn’t worried about Guenhwyvar She knew that nothing could bring the panther serious harurine, and she wasn’t worried about the er at all
"What about Drizzt?" she asked siuess is that the elf’s alive," Bruenor answered with confidence "One of them drow asked me about hiot away froot a better chance o’ getting clear of these tunnels than the two of us Might be that the cat’s with hiht be that he needs us," Catti-brie argued, pulling free of Bruenor’s gentle touch She flipped the bow over her shoulder and crossed her arriirl," Bruenor ordered sternly "We’re not for knohere Drizzt , that he really is alive!"
"Are ye willing to take the chance?" Catti-brie asked si us? We lost one friend, is I’ up on Drizzt, not for any risk" She winced as anotherlost on Tarterus, another plane of existence, when Drizzt Do’Urden had bravely faced unspeakable horrors to bring her home
"Ye rehtdwarf blink and turn away
"I’ain, "not for any risk" She looked to the tunnel entrance across the here the escaping dark elves apparently had taken flight "Not for any damned dark elves and their hell-spawned friends!"
Bruenor stayed quiet for a long while, thinking of Wulfgar, ht be about, ain If it was Bruenor lost down there, and Drizzt up here, the dwarf had no doubt which course Drizzt would choose
He looked again at Catti-brie and at the pile behind her He had just lost Wulfgar How could he risk losing Catti-brie as well?
Bruenor lookeddeterirl," the dwarf said quietly
They retrieved the reh the exit on the opposite side of the cha friend
One who had not been raised in the perpetual gloom of the Underdark would not have noticed the subtle shift in the depth of the darkness, the slight tingling breeze of fresher air To Drizzt the changes came as obviously as a slap across the face, and he picked up his pace, hoisting Regis tight to his side
"What is it?" the scared halfling de about as if he expected Artemis Entreri to jump out of the nearest shadows and devour hi upward Drizzt hesitated, his direction sense screanored those silent pleas, though, and continued on, hopeful that the opening to the outside world would be accessible enough for hiet a welcome breath of fresh air
It was They rounded a bend in the tunnel and felt the chilly burst of wind in their faces, saw a lighter opening ahead, and saw beyond it towering h of relief echoed Drizzt’s sentiis on When they came out of the tunnel, both of them were nearly overcome by the splendor of the mountainous scene spread wide before them, by the sheer beauty of the surface world under the stars, so rehts of the Underdark The wind, rushing past them, seee, two-thirds of the way to the bottom of a steep, thousand-foot cliff A narrow path wound up to their right, down to the left, but at only a slight angle, which offered little hope that it would continue long enough to get them either up or down the cliff
Drizzt considered the towering wall He knew he could easily et up to the top without too much trouble, but he didn’t think he’d be able to bring Regis with hi in an unknown stretch of wilderness, not knowing how long it et back to Mithril Hall
His friends, not so far aere in trouble
"Keeper’s Dale is up there," Regis re to the northwest, "probably no more than a few o back in"
While Regis did not see that he could not get off this ledge in his present condition
"Well done," came Entreri’s voice from up around the bend The assassin’s dark silhouette ca like his heat-seeing eyes "I knew you would come to this place," he explained to Drizzt "I knew you would sense the clean air and ratulate er asked
"Both!" Entreri replied with a hearty laugh The white of his teeth disappeared, replaced by a cold frown, as he continued to approach "The tunnel you passed fifty yards back will indeed take you to the higher level, where you’ll likely find your friends - your dead friends, no doubt"
Drizzt didn’t take the bait, didn’t let his rage send hiet there, can you?" Entreri teased "You alone could keep ahead of ht I demand But, alas for your wounded co and you can run free!"
Drizzt didn’t justify the absurd thought with a reply
"I would leave hiis as he spoke The halfling gave a curious whi hold of Drizzt’s aris had suffered at Entreri’s vile hands
"You will not leave hio established that difference between us, the difference you call strength, but that I know to be weakness" He was only a dozen strides away; his slender sword hissed free of its scabbard, illulow "And so to our business," he said "And so to our destiny Do you like the battlefield I have prepared? The only way off this ledge is the tunnel behind you, and so I, like yourself, cannot flee, must play it out to the end" He looked over the cliff as he spoke "A deadly drop for the loser," he explained, sht with no reprieve"
Drizzt could not deny the sensations that came over him, the heat in his breast and behind his eyes He could not deny that, in some repressed corner of his heart and soul, he wanted this challenge, wanted to prove Entreri wrong, to prove the assassin’s existence to be worthless Still, the fight would never have happened if Drizzt Do’Urden had been given a reasonable choice The desires of his ego, he understood and fully accepted, were no valid reason for is helpless behind hi dark elf enee had to be met
He felt the hard metal of his scimitar hilts in his hands, let his eyes slip back fully into the norry blue
Entreri halted, sword at one side, dagger at the other, and motioned for Drizzt to approach
For the third tiainst the assassin’s slender blade; the third time, and, as far as both Drizzt and Entreri were concerned, the very last ti his steps on the unorthodox arena The ledge was perhaps ten feet wide at this point, but narrowed considerably just behind Drizzt and just behind Entreri
A backhand slash with the sword led Entreri’s routine, dagger thrust following
Two solid parries sounded, and Drizzt snapped one sci that was closed by a retreating sword in the blink of an eye, with Drizzt’s attack slapped harmlessly aside
They circled, Drizzt inside and near the wall, the assassineasily near the drop Entreri slashed low, unexpectedly leading with the dagger this time