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Streay 2) RA Salvatore 56620K 2023-08-30

"Pitiful?" Drizzt echoed incredulously "It is you that I pity, assassin"

The drow’s disapproval stung Entreri more than he would have expected "Then pity yourself!" he shot back angrily "For you are o to them, your words will hold the truth," Drizzt continued, more calmly now "For then my life will be of no value, less even than your own! Beyond my embrace of the heartless emptiness that rules your world, my entire life would then be noto die, but secure in his realization that he was indeed very different from the e that he had escaped his own heritage

Bruenor cah the curtain, a wild s over his shoulder, and the keg tied to his back Regis looked upon hih of what the dwarf had in mind to be worried for his friend

"What are ye lookin’ at?" Bruenor said with a wink

"You are crazy," Regis replied, Bruenor’s plan coer he studied the dwarf

"Aye, we agreed on that afore our road e’er began!" snorted Bruenor He cal concern for his little friend "Ye deserve better’n what I’ve given ye, Rumblebelly," he said, y

"Never have I known a is replied

Bruenor pulled the ge, confusing Regis even more He reached around to his back and loosened a strap fastened between his pack and his belt and took out his old hel in reiven this helar had hit hio, when first they met as enemies

Bruenor put the helis saw hiht of old friend

"Keep the hel of Mithril Hall!"

"Then it is yours," Regis argued, holding the crown back out to Bruenor

"Nay, not by is Bruenor of Icewind Dale, I ah ivein enuine concern, "What are you going to do?"

"Mind to yer own part in this!" Bruenor snorted, suddenly the snarling leader once ettin’ yerself frorowled threateningly at the halfling to keep hi a torch froh the door to the cavern before Regis could even on’s black fore and returning to its patrolling level Bruenor watched it for a few et a feel for the rhythm of its course

"Yer ed "Here’s one froar and Catti-brie "But whenon the back of a worm, I ain’t about to miss!"

"Bruenor!" Catti-brie screae

It was too late Bruenor put the torch to the oil-soaked cloak and raised hisand swerved in closer to the riate - and was as amazed as the dwarf’s friends when Bruenor, his shoulder and back aflae and streaked down upon it

Ihosts of Clan Battlehammer had joined their hands with Bruenor’s upon the weapon handle and lent hith, the dwarf’s initial blow drove the loom’s back Bruenor crashed down behind, but held fast to the e of oil broke apart with the impact and spewed flaloo into the stone wall of the gorge

Bruenor would not be thrown Savagely, he grasped the handle, waiting for the opportunity to tear the weapon free and drive it hoorge, helplessly calling out to their doo hi the black depths of despair

When the barbarian looked upon Bruenor, sprawled aon’s spell and, without the slightest hesitation, launched Aegis-fang The haon swerved again in its surprise, clipping the other wall of the gorge

"Are ye ar

"Take up your bow," Wulfgar told her "If a true friend of Bruenor’s you be, then let hirasp and he launched it again, scoring a second hit

Catti-brie had to accept the reality She could not save Bruenor froht - she could aid the dwarf in gaining his desired end Blinking away the tears that came to her, she took Taulon

Both Drizzt and Entreri watched Bruenor’s leap in utter aed ahead, nearly to the ri friends, but in the coon, they could not hear

Entreri was directly below hih he risked losing the only challenge he had ever found in this life As Drizzt scrarabbed his ankle and pulled hilooon flesh The dragon cried out from a pain it never believed it could know

The thud of the warha lines of silver! And the dwarf! Relentless in his attacks, so the length of the gorge, dipping suddenly, then swooping back up and rolling over and about Catti-brie’s arrows found it at every turn And Wulfgar, wiser with each of his strikes, sought the best opportunities to throw the warha in the wall, then driving the monster into the stone with the force of his throw

Flames, stone, and dust fleildly with each thunderous i out to his father and his kin beyond that, the dwarf absolved hihosts of his past and given his friends a chance for survival He didn’t feel the bite of the fire, nor the buon flesh below his blade, and the reverberations of Shionized cries

Drizzt tu for soe twenty feet below the assassin and ed to stop his descent

Entreri nodded his approval and his aim, for the drow had landed just where he had hoped "Farewell, trusting fool!" he called down to Drizzt and he started up the wall

Drizzt never had trusted in the assassin’s honor, but he had believed in Entreri’s pragmatism This attack made no practical sense "Why?" he called back to Entreri "You could have had the pendant without recourse!

"The gem is mine," Entreri replied

"But not without a price!" Drizzt declared "You know that I will come after you, assassin!"

Entreri looked down at hirin "Do you not understand, Drizzt Do’Urden? That is exactly the purpose!"

The assassin quickly reached the riar and Catti-brie continued their assault on the dragon To his right, Regis stood ena’s surprise was cohtem-studded helm and went limp with fear as Entreri silently picked hion tried to find another e and pain had carried it too far into the battle, though It had taken too ain and again

Still the tireless dwarf twisted and pounded the axe into its back

One last ti to snake its neck around so that it could at least take vengeance upon the cruel dwarf It hungtook it in the eye

The dragon rolled over in blinded rage, lost in a dizzying swirl of pain, headlong into a jutting portion of the wall

The explosion rocked the very foundations of the cavern, nearly knocking Catti-brie from her feet and Drizzt froe caht that aze of Drizzt Do’Urden’s lavender eyes bidding him farewell from the darkness of the wall

Broken and beaten, the flalided and spun, descending into the deepest blackness it would ever know, a blackness from which there could be no return The depths of Garu of Mithril Hall