Page 8 (1/2)

Entreri stood on a hill a fewlow behind hiis and friends had used this same spot for their last stop before they entered Luskan and, in fact, the assassin’s fire burned in the very sah Entreri had ’s party had made since he had picked up their trail just south of the Spine of the World He wouldtheir marches in an effort to better understand their actions

Now, unlike the party before him, Entreri’s eyes were not on the city wall, nor toward Luskan at all Several caht to the north, on the road back to Ten-Towns It wasn’t the first tihts had appeared behind hi followed He had slowed his frantic pace, figuring that he could easily round while the companions went about their business in Luskan He wanted to secure his own back fro Entreri had even left telltale signs of his passing, baiting his pursuers in closer

He kicked the embers of the fire low and cli it better to er in the back

Into the night he rode, confident in the darkness This was his tie of one who lived in shadows

He tethered his h to the campfires to finish the trek on foot He realized now that this was aon the road to Luskan at this tied at him Many years of experience had honed his instinct for survival and he knew better than to ignore it

He crept in, seeking the easiest way into the circle of wagons Merchants always lined many sentries around the perimeter of their camps, and even the pull-horses presented a problem, for the merchants kept them tied close beside their harnesses

Still, the assassin would not waste his ride He had come this far and meant to find out the purpose of those who followed hi on his belly, hethe ca Too silently for even wary ears to hear, he passed two guards playing at bones Then he went under and between the horses, the beasts lowering their ears in fear, but re quiet

Halfway around the circle, he was nearly convinced that this was an ordinary ht when he heard a faht in the distance"

Entreri stopped, for he knew the speaker

"Yeah, over there," a ons and peeked over the side The speakers stood a short distance froht in the direction of his ca her sword comfortably

"I have underestimated you," Entreri whispered to hier was already in his hand "A mistake I shan’t repeat," he added, then crouched low and searched for a path to his target

"Ye been good toto ye, as Regis and the others’ll be"

"Then tell ency?"

Catti-brie struggled with the memories of the assassin She hadn’t yet co’s house, and knew that she wouldn’t until she had avenged the deaths of the tarven friends and resolved her own huhtened and she did not reply

"As you wish," the man conceded "Your reasons justify the run, we do not doubt If we seem to pry, it only shows our desire to help you however we may"

Catti-brie turned to hih had been said, and the two stood and stared at the empty horizon in silence

Silent, too, was the approach of death

Entreri slipped out froon and rose suddenly between therasped Catti-brie’s neck tightly enough to prevent her screa across the breadth of Entreri’s shoulders, Catti-brie saw the horrific expression locked onto her companion’s face, but she couldn’t understand why he hadn’t cried out, for his mouth was not covered

Entreri shifted back a bit and she knew Only the jeweled dagger’s hilt was visible, its crosspiece flat against the underside of the man’s chin The slender blade had found the er

Entreri used the weapon’s handle to guide his victiain the woman found herself paralyzed before the horror of Entreri She felt that she should wrench away and shout out to the cah he would surely kill her Or draw her sword and at least try to fight back But she watched helplessly as Entreri slipped her own dagger fro her loith him, replaced it in the man’s fatal wound

Then he took her sword and pushed her down under the wagon and out beyond the camp’s periain and again, for the assassin, confident of the level of terror, didn’t even hold her as they slipped deeper into the night He knew, and she had to adive up her life so easily

Finally, when they were a safe distance froer "Follow ain?"

She did not answer, but found so

Entreri sensed it, too "If you call out, I shall kill you," he declared flatly "And then, by my word, I shall return to the merchants and kill them all as well!"

She believed hi the quiver in her voice "It is one of the duties of hed at her again Then he looked into the distance, his features assu an introspective tilt "Perhaps this will play to s of a plan for in his mind

Catti-brie studied him, worried that he had found some way to turn her excursion into harm for her friends

"I’ll not kill you - not yet," he said to her "When we find the halfling, his friends will not defend hi to aid ye!" Catti-brie spat"Nothing!"

"Precisely," Entreri hissed "You shall do nothing Not with a blade at your neck - " he brought the weapon up to her throat in aat your sirl, I shall uilt And your answers to the merchants who believe you murdered their companion!" In truth, Entreri didn’t believe for a er would fool the ical weapon ained to instill yet another doubt and worry into her jumble of emotions

Catti-brie did not reply to the assassin’s staten of emotion No, she told herself, it won’t be like that!

But deep inside, she wondered if her determination only ain by the horror of Entreri’s presence, and that the scene would unfold exactly as he had predicted

Jierdan found the caic to track the mysterious rider all the way froht direction

Tensed and his sword drawn, Jierdan moved in The place was deserted, but it had not been that way for long Even from a few feet away, the soldier fro warainst the line of the horizon, he crept toward a pack and blanket off to the side of the fire

Entreri rode histhat what he had left ht have drawn some visitors Catti-brie sat in front of hih she fully believed, to her own disgust, that her own terror made the bonds unnecessary

The wary assassin realized that sootten near the place He slid fro his prisoner with hi obvious pleasure in the gris "If you struggle, he will kick the life froht as though he were an extension of its darkness

Jierdan dropped the pack back to the ground, frustrated, for its contents wereabout the owner The soldier was a veteran of ns and had bested man and orc alike a hundred ti unusual, and deadly, about the rider A e to ride alone on the brutal course from Icewind Dale to Luskan was no novice to the ways of battle

Jierdan was startled, then, but not too surprised, when the tip of a blade came to rest suddenly in the vulnerable hollow on the back of his neck, just below the base of his skull He neitherthat the rider would ask for so the weapon home

Entreri could see that his pack had been searched, but he recognised the furred uniform and knew that this man was no thief "We are beyond the borders of your city," he said, holding his knife steady "What business have you in ate," he replied "I have come to meet a rider from Icewind Dale"

"What rider?"

"You"

Entreri was perplexed and uncomfortable with the soldier’s response Who had sent this man, and how had he knohere to look? The assassin’s first thoughts centered on Regis’s party Perhaps the halfling had arranged for souard Entreri slipped his knife back info its sheath, certain that he could retrieve it in time to foil any attack

Jierdan understood the calht have had for striking at this man flew fro it wise to explain hi to your mutual benefit"