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The sentry junized Drizzt as a drow Drizzt scowled at hiht ye be doin’ in theboth his question and tone politely

"Walking," Drizzt replied coldly, still feigning anger at the gruff greeting he had initially received

"Anduhwho uard

Entreri studied the gray dwarf’s obvious terror of Drizzt It appeared that the drow carried eventhe races of the underworld than a the surface dwellers The assassin made a mental note of this, determined to deal with Drizzt even more cautiously in the future

"I am Drizzt Do’Urden, of the house of Daermon N’a’shezbaernon, ninth fa no reason to lie

"Greetings!" cried the sentry, overly anxious to gain the favor of the stranger "Mucknuggle, I be, of Clan Bukbukken" He bowed low, his gray beard sweeping the floor "Not often do we greet guests in thethat I could be helpin’ ye with?"

Drizzt thought for a moo on his hopes that they had, they would be e "My business here is coar "I ale looked at him curiously "Satisfied?"

"Your people have delved too deep," Drizzt explained "You have disturbed one of our tunnels with your digging Thus we have coain inhabited by eneray one, you should be proud"

The sentry straightened his belt and sucked in his belly Clan Bukbukken was indeed proud of its setup, though they had in truth stolen the entire operation from Clan Battlehaht ye be headin’ now, Drizzt Do’Urden? T’see the boss?"

"Who would I seek if I were?"

"Ain’t ye not heared o’ Shi chuckle "The Drake o’ Darkness, he be, black as black and fiercer than a pinstuck demon! Don’t know ’ow he’ll take to drow elves in his mines, but we’ll be seein’!"

"I think not," replied Drizzt "I have learned all that I came to learn, and now looain"

"Me thinkin’s that ye’re goin’ to the boss," said Mucknuggle, drawing e frohty leader’s nanarly arshield

Drizzt resuer into the fabric under his cloak, pointing in the Duergar’s direction Mucknuggle noted the move, as did Entreri, and the assassin nearly fell back in confusion at the reaction of the Duergar A noticeable ashen pall caray features and he stood perfectly still, not even daring to draw breath

"My trail leads hoain

"Hohten I be of sohtly ht, figuring their chances would be better if they at least knew the quickest route "A chasle "In the time before Clan Bukbukken, we heard it naloole corrected "The left tunnel at the next fork," he offered, pointing down the hallway "And a straight run from there"

Drizzt didn’t like the sound of the gorge’s new na for the to waste any ar was all too willing to let hi, as far aside as he could

Entreri looked back at Mucknuggle as they passed and saw hi nervous sweat from his brow "We should have killed hi his kin after us"

"No faster than a dead body, or a eneral alarm," replied Drizzt "Perhaps a feill come to confirm his tale, but at leastthe way out He would not have dared to lie to me, in fear that my inquiry was just a test of the truth of his words My people have been known to kill for such lies"

"What did you do to him?" Entreri asked

Drizzt couldn’t help but chuckle at the ironic benefits of his people’s sinister reputation He poked the finger under the fabric of his cloak again "Envision a crossbow sh to fit into your pocket," he explained "Would it not et? The drow are well known for such crossbows"

"But how deadly could so sainst a suit ofwhy the threat had been so effective

"Ah, but the poison," Drizzt s away down the corridor

Entreri stopped and grinned at the obvious logic How devious and merciless the drow must be to command so powerful a reaction to so simple a threat! It seeeration

Entreri found that he was beginning to admire these black elves

The pursuit came faster than they had expected, despite their swift pace The stamp of boots sounded loudly and then disappeared, only to reappear at the next turn even closer than before Side-passages, Drizzt and Entreri both understood, cursing every turn in their oisting tunnel Finally, when their pursuers were nearly upon them, Drizzt stopped the assassin

"Just a few," he said, picking out each individual footfall

"The group froe," Entreri surmised "Let us make a stand But be quick, there are ht that came into the assassin’s eyes seemed dreadfully familiar to Drizzt

He didn’t have time to ponder the unpleasant i full concentration for the business at hand, then pulled the hidden dagger out of his boot - no time for secrets from Entreri now - and found a shadowed recess on the tunnel wall Entreri did likewise, positioning himself a few feet farther down from the drow and across the corridor

Seconds passed sloith only the faint shuffle of boots Both co that they had not been passed by

Suddenly the soundout of a secret door and into the main tunnel

"Can’t be far now!" Drizzt and Entreri heard one of them say

"The drake’ll be feedin’ us well fer this catch!" hooted another

All clad in shininght of the hidden companions

Drizzt looked at the dull steel of his sciainst arh escaped hiical weapon

Entreri saw the problem, too, and knew that they had to somehow balance the odds Quickly he pulled a pouch of coins from his belt and hurled it farther down the corridor It sailed through the glooain

The Duergar band straightened as one "Just ahead!" one of theed for the next bend Between the waiting drow and assassin

The shadows exploded into ray dwarves Drizzt and Entreri struck together, seizing the e, when the first of the band had reached the assassin and the last was passing Drizzt

The Duergar shrieked in surprised horror Daggers, saber, and sci death, poking at the sea metal When they found one, they drove the point home with ar recovered from the initial shock of the attack, two lay dead at the drow’s feet, a third at Entreri’s, and yet another stu his belly in with a blood-soaked hand

"Back to back!" Entreri shouted, and Drizzt, thinking the sah the disorganized dwarves Entreri took another one down just as they ca over its shoulder at the approaching drow just long enough for the jeweled dagger to slip through the seaether, back against back, twirling in the wake of each other’s cloak andtheir weapons in blurred ar hesitated before their attack to sort out where one enean

With cries to Shiodlike ruler, they came on anyway

Drizzt scored a series of hits at once that should have felled his opponent, but the arher stuff than the steel scimitar and his thrusts were turned aside Entreri, too, had trouble finding an opening to poke through against the mithril mail and shields

Drizzt turned one shoulder in and let the other fall away from his companion Entreri understood and followed the drow’s lead, dipping around right behind hiained ar did not even try to keep up Opponents changed continually, the drow and Entreri co around to parry away the sword or axe that the other had blocked on the last swing They let the rhythar to fall into the patterns of their dance, and then, Drizzt still leading, stuttered their steps, and even reversed the flow

The three Duergar, evenly spaced about the pair, did not knohich direction would bring the next attack

Entreri, practically reading the drow’s every thought by this point, saw the possibilities As he ned a reversed attack, freezing the Duergar just long enough for Drizzt, co

"Take him!" the assassin cried in victory

The sciainst two They stopped the dance and faced off evenly

Drizzt swooped about his s the wall The Duergar, intent on the killing blades of the drow, hadn’t noticed Drizzt’s third weapon join the fray

The gray dwarf’s surprise was only sur fatal blohen Drizzt’s trailing cloak floated in and fell over hi him in a blackness that would only deepen into the void of death

Contrary to Drizzt’s graceful technique, Entreri worked with sudden fury, tying up his dith undercuts and lightning-fast counters, always airay dwarf understood the tactic as his fingers began to numb under the nicks of severalhis shield in to protect the vulnerable hand

Exactly as Entreri had expected He rolled around opposite thethe back of the shield, and a seam in the mithril arer drove in furiously, taking a lung and hurling the Duergar to the stone floor The gray dwarf lay there, hunched up on one elbow, and gasped out his final breaths

Drizzt approached the final dwarf, the one who had been wounded in the initial attack, leaning against the wall only a few yards away, torchlight reflecting grotesque red off the pool of blood below hiht in him He raised his broadsword to le, Drizzt saw, and a silent plea of low fro in the hues of a dozen distinct gemstones, spun by Drizzt and ended his internal debate

Entreri’s dagger buried deep into Mucknuggle’s eye

The dwarf didn’t even fall, so clean was the blow He just held his position, leaning against the stone But now the blood pool was fed froe and did not even flinch as the assassin walked coolly by to retrieve the weapon

Entreri pulled the dagger out roughly then turned to face Drizzt as Mucknuggle tumbled down to splash in the blood

"Four to four," the assassin growled "You did not believe that I would let you get the upper count?"

Drizzt did not reply, nor blink

Both felt the sweat in their palms as they clutched their weapons, a pull upon them to complete what they had started in the alcove above

So alike, yet so drale’s death did not play upon Drizzt at that s about his vile co he held to kill Entreri went far deeper than the anger heEntreri wouldthe darker side of himself, Drizzt believed, for he could have been as this ainst what hehis kin, and often were the times that he considered his decision to leave their ways and their dark city a feeble atteer would have found Mucknuggle’s eye

Entreri looked upon Drizzt with equal disdain What potential he saw in the drow! But tempered by an intolerable weakness Perhaps in his heart the assassin was actually envious for the capacity for love and conized in Drizzt So much akin to him, Drizzt only accentuated the reality of his own es were truly within, they would never gain a perch high enough to influence Arte hiht could ever cut through that callous barrier of darkness He hter has no place for weakness

They were closer now, though neither of the upon the for the other to show his hand

Each wanting the other to be the first to yield to their coe of the tenets of their existence

The stamp of booted feet broke the spell