Page 21 (1/2)

Drizzt and Wulfgar were pleasantly surprised when they found the back entrance to the verbeeg lair It sat high up on the steep incline on the western side of the rocky outcropping Piles of garbage and bones lay strewn about the ground at the bottom of the rocks, and a thin but steady stream of smoke wafted out of the open cave, scented with the flavors of roasting mutton

The two companions crouched in the brush below the entrance for a short while, noting the degree of activity The htened considerably "I wonder if we’ll be in tiar shook his head and laughed at the dark elf’s uncanny coh the two often heard sounds fro and occasional voices, no giant showed itself outside the cave until shortly before , presumably the lair’s cook from its dress, shuffled out onto the doorstep and due iron pot down the slope

"He’s mine," said Drizzt, suddenly serious "Can you provide a distraction?"

"The cat will do," Wulfgar answered, though he wasn’t keen on being alone with Guenhwyvar

Drizzt crept up the rocky slope, trying to stay in the dark shadows as he went He knew that he would reot above the entrance, but the cli was slow When he was al by the entrance, apparently lifting a second pot of garbage for duo A call fro how little tiet to safety, Drizzt sprinted the last few feet to the door level and peered around the corner into the torchlit kitchen

The rooe stone oven on the wall across frohtly ajar, and behind this Drizzt heard several giant voices The cook was nowhere in sight, but a pot of garbage sat on the floor just inside the entrance

"He’ll be back soon," the drow muttered to himself as he picked his handholds and crept noiselessly up the wall and above the cave entrance At the base of the slope, a nervous Wulfgar sat absolutely motionless as Guenhwyvar stalked back and forth before hiiant chef cae, Guenhwyvar reat leap took the cat to the base of the slope Tilting its head up at the cook, the black panther growled

"Ah, git outa here, ye iant, apparently unimpressed and unsurprised by the sudden appearance of the panther, "afore I squash yer head an’ drop ye into a stewin’ pot"

The verbeeg’s threat was an idle one Even as it stood shaking an oversized fist, its attention fully on the cat, the dark shape that was Drizzt Do’Urden sprang from the wall onto its back His sci an ear-to-ear s a cry the verbeeg tue Abruptly Drizzt dropped to the cave step and spun around, praying that no other giants had entered the kitchen

He was safe for the ar crested the ledge, he signaled to theiants) and sparsely stocked There was one table on the right hich held several pans Next to it was a large chopping block with a garish cleaver, rusty and jagged and apparently unwashed for weeks, buried into it Over to Drizzt’s left were shelves holding spices and herbs and other supplies The droent to investigate these as Wulfgar- and occupied - rooer than the kitchen A long table divided the room in half, and beyond it, directly across froiants sat at the side of the table closest to Wulfgar, a fourth stood between theroup feasted onand taunting each other - a typical dinner gathering of verbeeg Wulfgar noted withinterest that the monsters tore the meat from the bones with their bare hands There weren’t any weapons in the roo he had found on the shelves, drew one of his sciar "Six," Wulfgar whispered, pointing to the rooerly Drizzt peeked through the door and quickly forar, then to the door "Right," he whispered Then he indicated hiar understood him perfectly, but wondered why he hadn’t included Guenhwyvar The barbarian pointed to the cat

Drizzt ar understood Even the skeptical barbarian was confident that Guenhwyvar would figure out where it best fit in

Wulfgar shook the nervous tingles out of his htly With a quick wink to his coh the door and pounced at the nearest target The giant, the only one of the group standing at the tied to turn and face his attacker, but that was all Aegis-fang swung in a loeep and rose with deadly accuracy, siant’s lower chest With his incredible strength, Wulfgar actually lifted the huge round It fell, broken and breathless, beside the barbarian, but he paid it nohis second strike

Drizzt, Guenhwyvar close on his heels, rushed past his friend toward the two stunned giants seated farthest to the left at the table He jerked open the bag he held and twirled as he reached his targets, blinding theing his sci and then rolling backward over the top of the wooden table Guenhwyvar sprang on the other giant, his powerful jaws tearing out theon the far side of the table were the first of their group to truly react One leaped to stand ready to ly singling itself out as Wulfgar’s next target, bolted for the back door

Wulfgarwithout hesitation If Drizzt, at that time in midroll across the table, had realized just how close his forht have had a few choice words for his friend But the ha’s shoulder and knocking the h force to break its neck

The giant Drizzt had gored lay squir its throat in a futile attempt to quell the flow of its lifeblood And Guenhwyvar was having little trouble dispatching the other Only two verbeeg reht

Drizzt finished his roll and landed on his feet on the far side of the table, ni He darted around, putting hie hands outstretched, spun around and charged But the drow’s second sci dance of death As each blade flashed out, it sent another of the giant’s gnarled fingers spinning to the floor Soon the verbeeg had nothing more than two bloodied stued beyond sanity, it swung its clublike arms wildly Drizzt’s sci the creature’s iant had rushed the unarar and lifted hiar tightened his er foe fro the bones in his back

The barbarian had trouble finding his breath Enraged he slaiant’s chin and raised his hand for a second blow

But then, following the dweoical war haar drove hoiant’s eye The giant loosened its grip, reeling backward in agony The world had become such a blur of pain to theover Wulfgar’s head and speeding toward its skull It felt a hot explosion as the heavy ha the lifeless body into the table and knocking stew and mutton all over the floor

"Don’t spill the food!" cried Drizzt in er as he rushed to retrieve a particularly juicy-looking chop

Suddenly they heard heavy-booted footsteps and shouts co down the corridor behind the second door "Back outside!" yelled Wulfgar as he turned toward the kitchen

"Hold!" shouted Drizzt "The fun is just beginning!" He pointed to a dim, torchlit tunnel that ran off the left wall of the rooar knew that they were pushing their luck, but once again he found hiain the barbarian was sinning of the tunnel and raced off into the di uncomfortably close at his side, when he realized that Drizzt wasn’t following He turned around just in time to see the drow stroll casually out of the room and past the wooden bea dagger, its wicked tip planted firar from the darkness

Drizzt stepped to the side, behind one of the ht behind me," he explained calar’s jaw dropped open when a pack of frothing verbeeg charged into the tunnel, never noticing the concealed drow

"Prayne de crabug ohar shouted as he spun on his heel and sprinted off down the corridor, hoping that it didn’t lead to a dead end

Drizzt pulled the mutton off the end of his blade and accidentally dropped it to the ground, cursing silently at the waste of good food Licking the dagger clean, he waited patiently As the last verbeeg raer into the back of the trailing giant’s knee, and scooted around the other side of the beaiant howled in pain, but by the time it or its companions had turned back around, the droas nowhere to be seen

Wulfgar rounded a bend and slipped against the wall, easily guessing what had stopped the pursuit The pack had turned back when they found that there was another intruder nearer the exit

A giant leaped through the supports and stood with its legs wide apart and its club ready, its eyes going froure out which route the unseen assailant had taken Behind it and off to the side, Drizzt pulled a siants could be stupid enough to fall for the saue with good fortune, the elf scrambled out behind his next victim and, before its co, drove one of the knives deep into the giant’s thigh, severing the haiant lurched over to the side and Drizzt, hopping by, et the thick veins in a verbeeg’s neck make when the monster’s jaw is clenched in pain

But the drow had no time to pause and ponder the fortunes of battle The rest of the pack - five angry giants - had already thrown aside their wounded companion in the tunnel and were only a few strides behind He put the second knife deep into the verbeeg’s neck and headed for the door leading deeper into the lair He would haveback into the roo are quite adept at rock throwing, and this one was better than et, and its throas true

Wulfgar’s throas on target, too Aegis-fang shattered the backbone of the trailing giant as it passed its wounded coet Drizzt’s dagger out of its knee, stared in disbelief at its suddenly dead coe of the ferocious barbarian

Out of the corner of his eye, Drizzt saw the stone co his head caved in, but the heavyto the floor The world spun around hiht to reorient hiiant was co seeed to hold his attention He fixed his eyes on it, straining to find a focus and force everything else to stop spinning

A verbeeg finger

The droas back Quickly, he reached for his weapon

He knew that he was too late when he saw the giant, club raised for a death bloering above hiiant stepped into the e The one nuis-fang comfortably back in his hands, swatted it aside and continued into the roo for his as it turned and launched itself as high and far as its sleekover Drizzt started to swing its club at the prone elf, Drizzt saw a shade of black cross in front of its face A jagged tear lined the giant’s cheek Drizzt understood what had happened when he heard Guenhwyvar’s padded paws set down on the table and propel the cat further across the rooiant now joined the first and both had their clubs poised to strike, Drizzt had gained all the ti movement, he slid one of the sciiant’s groin The ht the blow from its comrade on the back of its head The drowon his feet and again thrusting upward, this ti his body to follow the blade

Hesitation had cost another giant its life For as the stunned verbeeg stared dumbfoundedly at its friend’s brains splattered all over its club, the drow’s curved blade sliced under its rib cage, tearing through lungs and finding its mark in the monster’s heart

Tiiant The club it had dropped seemed to take minutes to reach the floor With the barely perceptibleslid back fro, but the floor never caar hoped that he had hit the wounded giant in the tunnel hard enough to keep it out of the fray for a while - he would be in a tight spot indeed if it came up behind hi and counter-thrusting with the two giants he now faced He needn’t have worried about his backside, though, for the wounded verbeeg sluainst the wall in the tunnel, oblivious to its surroundings And, in the opposite direction, Drizzt had just finished off the other two giants Wulfgar laughed aloud when he saw his friend wiping the blood fro back across the roo noticed the dark elf, too, and it jue this new foe

"Ay, ye little runt, ye think ye can face iant

Feigning desperation, Drizzt glanced all about hi a stalking belly-crawl, Guenhwyvar had slithered behind the giant bodies, trying to get into a favorable position Drizzt took a sreat cat’s path

The giant’s club crashed into Wulfgar’s ribs and pushed hiher stuff than wood, though, and he took the blow stoically, returning it two-fold with Aegis-fang Again the verbeeg struck, and again Wulfgar countered The barbarian had been fighting with hardly a break for over ten h his veins, and he barely felt winded He began to appreciate the endless hours toiling for Bruenor in theDrizzt had led hi their sessions as his blows started to fall with increasing frequency on his tiring opponent

The giant advanced on Drizzt "Arg, hold yer ground, ye rowled "An’ none o’ yer sneaky tricks! We wants to see how ye does in a fair fight"

Just as the two ca few feet and sank his fangs deep into the back of the verbeeg’s ankle Reflexively, the giant shot a glance at the rear attacker, but it recovered quickly and shot its eyes back to the elf

Just in ti its chest

Drizzt answered the monster’s puzzled expression with a question "Where in the nine hells did you ever find the notion that I would fight fair?"

The verbeeg lurched away The blade hadn’t found its heart, but it knew that the wound would soon prove fatal if untended Blood poured freely down the monster’s leather tunic, and it labored visibly as it tried to breath Drizzt alternated his attacks with Guenhwyvar, striking and ducking away fro counter while his partner rushed in on the iant did, too, that this fight would soon be over

The giant fighting Wulfgar could no longer sustain a defensive posture with its heavy club Wulfgar was beginning to tire as well, so he started to sing an old tundra war song, the Song of Tee He waited for the verbeeg’s club to inch inevitably doard and then launched Aegis-fang once, twice, and then a third tiar nearly collapsed in exhaustion after the third swing, but the giant lay crumpled on the floor The barbarian leaned wearily on his weapon and watched his two friends nip and scratch their verbeeg to pieces

"Well done!" Wulfgar laughed when the last giant fell

Drizzt walked over to the barbarian, his left ar limply at his side His jacket and shirt were torn where the stone had struck, and the exposed skin of his shoulder ollen and bruised

Wulfgar eyed the wound with genuine concern, but Drizzt answered his unspoken question by raising the arrimaced in pain with the effort "It’ll be quick to ar "Just a nasty buainst the bodies of thirteen verbeeg!"

A low groan issued froar corrected "Apparently one is not quite done kicking" With a deep breath, Wulfgar lifted Aegis-fang and turned to finish the task

"Aon his ed you in the tunnel, you yelled soue, I believe What was it you said?"

Wulfgar laughed heartily "An old Elk tribe battle cry," he explained "Strength to my friends, and death to my foes!"

Drizzt eyed the barbarian suspiciously and wondered just how deep ran Wulfgar’s ability to fabricate a lie on deainst the tunnel hen the two coer reht fast between two bones The giant eyed the ely calm eyes as they approached

"Ye’ll pay fer all o’ this," it spat at Drizzt "Biggrin’ll play with ye afore killin’ ye, be sure o’ that!"

"So it has a tongue," Drizzt said to Wulfgar And then to the giant, "Biggrin?"

"Laird o’ the cave," answered the giant "Biggrin’ll be a wantin’ to rin!" storar "We have a debt to repay; a little ar ain Drizzt’s scimitar flashed and poised an inch from the hed the giant, genuinely uncaring The monster’s ease unnerved Drizzt "I serve the iant "Glory is to die for Akar Kessell!"

Wulfgar and Drizzt looked at each other uneasily They had never seen or heard of this kind of fanatical dedication in a verbeeg, and the sight disturbed the which had always kept then froness to devote themselves wholeheartedly to any cause and their inability to follow one leader:

"Who is Akar Kessell?" dehed evilly "If friends o’ the towns ye be, ye’ll know soon enough!"