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The dwarves of Mithril Hall completed the first of their secret exits shortly after sunset Bruenor was the first to climb to the top of the ladder and peek out fro monster army So expert were the dwarven ht up into the res without even alerting thewhen he came back down to rejoin his clansmen "Finish th’ other nine," he instructed as he ht’s sleep’ll be a sound one for so the head of his belted axe

"What role a battle?" Catti-brie asked when they et to pull one o’ the levers an’ collapse the tunnels if any o’ the swine come down," Bruenor replied

"And if you are all killed on the field?" Catti-brie reasoned "Being buried alone in these tunnels does not hold much promise for me"

Bruenor stroked his red beard He hadn’t considered that consequence, figuring only that if he and his clan were cut down on the field, Catti-brie would be safe enough behind the collapsed tunnels But how could she live down here alone? What price would she pay for survival?

"Do ye want to coh with a sword, an’ I’ll be right beside ye! "

Catti-brie considered the proposition for a moment "I’ll stay with the lever," she decided "You’ll have enough to look after your own head up there And sooblins claim our halls as their home!"

"Besides," she added with a smile, "it was stupid of me to worry I know that you will come back to me, Bruenor Never have you, nor any of your clan, failed me!" She kissed the dwarf on the forehead and skipped away

Bruenor sirl, my Catti-brie," he muttered

The work on the tunnels was finished a few hours later The shafts had been dug and the entire tunnel coed to collapse to cover any retreating action or squash any goblin advance The entire clan, their faces purposely blackened with soot and their heavy armor and weapons muffled under layers of dark cloth, lined up at the base of the ten shafts Bruenor went up first to investigate He peeked out and soblins had bedded down for the night

He was about to give the signal for his kinsmen to move when a commotion suddenly started up in the cah he kept his head beneath the sod layer (which got hiure out what had alerted the e force asse

More shouts followed, calls for the death of the Severed Tongue Though he had never heard that nauessed that it described an orc tribe "So, they’re fightin’ a Realizing that the dwarves’ assault would have to wait, he climbed back down the ladder

But the clan, disappointed in the delay, did not disperse They were deterht’s ould indeed be done So they waited

The night passed its mid-point and still the sounds of move the edge of the dwarves’ deter their intensity, heightening their hunger for goblin blood These fighters were also blacksle scale to a dragon statue They knew patience

Finally, when all was again quiet, Bruenor went back up the ladder Before he had even poked his head through the turf, he heard the co and loud snores

Without further delay, the clan slipped out of the holes and methodically set about their murderous work They did not revel in their roles as assassins, preferring to fight sword against sword, but they understood the necessity of this type of raid, and they placed no value whatsoever on the lives of goblin scuradually quieted as more and more of the monsters entered the silent sleep of death The dwarves concentrated on the ogres first, in case their attack was discovered before they were able to do y was unnecessary Many uards noticed as happening and ed to shout out a cry of alares wetted the field

Cries went up all about them, but Bruenor did not call for a retreat "Forht around the tunnels!" He knew that the anized and unprepared

The dwarves forht defensive posture and had little trouble cutting the goblins down Bruenor’s axe was oblin had even taken a swing at hianized They carowing numbers, as an to press heavily on the raiders And then a group of ogres, Kessell’s elite tower guard, ca across the field

The first of the dwarves to retreat, the tunnel experts ere to make the final check on the preparations for the collapse, put their booted feet on the top rungs of the shaft ladders The escape into the tunnels would be a delicate operation, and efficient haste would be the deciding factor in its success or failure

But Bruenor unexpectedly ordered the tunnel experts to come back out of the shafts and the dwarves to hold their line

He had heard the first notes of an ancient song, a song that, just a few years before, would have filled hih, it lifted his heart with hope

He recognized the voice that led the stirring words

A severed arm of rotted flesh splatted on the floor, yet another victi scimitars of Drizzt Do’Urden

But the fearless trolls crowded in Normally, Drizzt would have known of their presence as soon as he entered the square chamber Their terrible stench h, hadn’t actually been in the chamber when the drow entered As Drizzt had ical alaruardians They stepped in through the hout the room

Drizzt had already dropped one of the wretched beasts, but noasFive others replaced the first and were hter Drizzt shook his head in disbelief when the body of the troll he had beheaded suddenly rose again and began flailing blindly

And then, a clawed hand caught hold of his ankle He kneithout looking that it was the lirotesque ar stairway that ran up to the tower’s second level from the back of the chamber At his earlier command, Guenhwyvar had already limped weakly up the stairs and noaited on the platfor footsteps of his sickening pursuers and the scratching of the severed hand’s filthy nails as it also took up the chase The drow bounded up the stairithout looking back, hoping that his speed and agility would give hi

For there was no door on the platforular and about ten feet across at its widest length Two sides were open to the roo stairwell, and the fourth was a flat sheet of th of the platfor Drizzt hoped that he would be able to understand the nuances of this unusual door, if that hat the mirror actually hen he examined it from the platforh the mirror was filled with the reflection of an ornate tapestry hanging on the wall of the chamber directly opposite it, its surface appeared perfectly sht indicate a concealed opening Drizzt sheathed his weapons and ran his hands across the surface to see if there was a handle hidden frolass only confirmed his observation

The trolls were on the stairway

Drizzt tried to push his way through the glass, speaking all of the co for an extra-dimensional portal siuards The wall reible barrier

The lead troll reached the halfway point on the stairs

"There roaned "Wizards love a challenge, and there is no sport to this!" The only possible answer lay in the intricate designs and i to sort through the thousands of interwoven ies for some special hint that would show him the way to safety

The stench flowed up to hiry monsters

But he had to control his revulsion and concentrate on the ht his eye: the lines of a poe the top border In contrast to the dulling colors of the rest of the ancient artwork, the calligraphed letters of the poehtness of a newer addition Soy within,

But first ye must find the latch!

Seen and not seen,

Been yet not been

And a handle that flesh cannot catch

One line in particular stood out in the drow’s mind He had heard the phrase "Been yet not been" in his childhood days in Menzoberranzan They referred to Urgutha Forka, a vicious deed the planet with a particularly virulent plague in the ancient times when Drizzt’s ancestors had walked on the surface The surface elves had always denied the existence of Urgutha Forka, blaue on the drow, but the dark elves knew better So in their physical make-up had kept them immune to the demon, and after they realized how deadly it was to their eneht elves by enlisting Urgutha as an ally

Thus the reference "Been yet not been" was a derogatory line in a longer drow tale, a secret joke on their hated cousins who had lost thousands to a creature they denied even existed

The riddle would have been iutha Forka The drow had found a valuable advantage He scanned the reflection of the tapestry for soe that had a connection to the dee of the utha itself, revealed in all of its horrible splendor The de the skull of an elf with a black rod, its sy see unusual

The trolls had turned the final corner of their ascent Drizzt was nearly out of tie for soinal tapestry Urgutha was striking the elf with its fist; there was no rod!

"Seen and not seen"

Drizzt spun back on theat the delass He nearly cried out in frustration

His experience had taught hiained his composure Heto position his own reflection at the saers, watching his hand’s ie close around the rod with the excitehtly

A thin crack appeared in thetroll reached the top of the stairs, but Drizzt and Guenhwyvar were gone

The drow slid the strange door back into its closed position, leaned back, and sighed with relief A di with a platform that opened into the tower’s second level No door blocked the way, just hanging strands of beads, sparkling orange in the torchlight of the roo

Silently, he and the cat crept up the stairs and peeked over the ri They had come to Kessell’s hare under screening shades Most of the floor was covered with overstuffed pillows, and sections of the rooirls, Kessell’s s, sat in a circle in the center of the floor, giggling with the uninhibited enthusiasm of children at play Drizzt doubted that they would notice him, but even if they did, he wasn’t overly concerned He understood right away that these pitiful, broken creatures were incapable of initiating any action against hih, especially of the curtained boudoirs He doubted that Kessell would have put guards here, certainly none as unpredictably vicious as trolls, but he couldn’t afford to make any mistakes

With Guenhwyvar close at his side, he slipped silently from shadow to shadow, and when the two co before the door to the third level, Drizzt wassound that Drizzt had heard when he first entered the tower returned It gathered strength as it continued, as though its song came from the vibrations of the very walls of the tower Drizzt looked all around for a possible source

Chian to tinkle eerily The fires of the torches on the walls danced wildly