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Streay 2) RA Salvatore 18460K 2023-08-30

"For other reasons"

Dendybar’s breath came hard to him as he viewed the scene, Sydney’s corpse stuffed into a corner of a dark rooe was replaced by a view of the bottoe

"No!" Dendybar screa a the rubble The mottled wizard shook visibly "Where is the drow?" he dee away and stood silent, pleased at Dendybar’s distress

"Where is the drow?" Dendybar repeated, hed at hie My service to you is ended!" The apparition puffed into fire and was gone

Dendybar leaped wildly fro brazier over "I shall torment you a thousand times for your insolence!" he yelled into the emptiness of the room His mind spun with the possibilities Sydney dead Bok dead Entreri? The drow and his friends? Dendybar needed answers He could not forsake his search for the Crystal Shard, could not be denied the power he sought

Deep breaths steadied his of a spell He saw the bottoe into sharp focus within his h the ritual, the scene becaible Dendybar experienced it fully; the darkness, the hollow emptiness of the shadoalls and the alh the ravine, the jagged hardness of the broken stone under his feet

He stepped out of his thoughts and into Garue

"Bok," he whispered as he stared down at the twisted and broken for stirred A rock rolled away froled to rise before its creator Dendybar watched in disbelief, aolem was so resilient as to survive such a drop, and such

Dendybar studied the thing for a long in to restore it "Bok!" he greeted it e to him "Come, my pet I shall take you back ho Dendybar against the wall The wizard, still not understanding, started to order the golerasped Dendybar by the throat, lifting hi off any further corabbed and flailed at the arh came to his ears A ball of fire appeared above the torn stu into a faed in terror He realized that he had overstepped his limits, had summoned the specter too many times He had never truly dishtly that he probably wouldn’t have been strong enough to push the specter from the ic circle of protection, he was at the rinned, his dooleht discuss your treachery!"

A snap of bone echoed across the stones, the ball of fire puffed away, and wizard and golee, half buried in a pile of debris, the fires of the burning dragon had died to a smoky smolder

Another rock shifted and rolled away