Page 17 (1/2)

Book 3

Desert Empires

16 Never a Fouler Place

Entreri slipped through the shadows of Calih a forest at twilight This was his home, the place he knew best, and all the street people of the city would ain walked beside them or behind thehtly whenever the hushed whispers co the newcoend of his reputation - no matter hoell earned - interfere with the constant state of readiness that had kept hih the years In the streets, a reputation of power onlyreputations of their own

Thus, Entreri’s first task in the city, outside of his responsibilities to Pasha Pook, was to re-establish the network of informants and associates that entrenched him in his station He already had an important job for one of the, and he knehich one

"I had heard you were back," squeaked a di as a human boy not yet into adolescence when Entreri ducked and entered his abode "I guess most have"

Entreri took the co friend?"

"Little," replied Dondon, "and lots" He moved to the table in the darkest corner of his s the ally, in a cheap inn called the Coiled Snake "The rules of the street do not change, but the players do" Dondon looked up from the table’s unlit lamp to catch Entreri’s eyes with his own

"Arte explained, wanting to make sure that Entreri fully understood his previous statement "The royal suite had a vacancy"

Entreri nodded his accord, causing the halfling to relax and sigh audibly

"Pook still controls the merchants and the docks," said Entreri "Who owns the streets?"

"Pook, still," replied Dondon, "at least in naents" Dondon paused for a h every word before he spoke it "Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Pasha Pook does not control the streets, but rather that he still has the streets controlled"

Entreri knew, even before asking, what the little halfling was leading to "Rassiter," he said grimly

"There is much to be said about that one and his crew," Dondon chuckled, resuht the lantern

"Pook loosens his reins on the wererats, and the ruffians of the street take care to stay out of the guild’s way," Entreri reasoned

"Rassiter and his kind play hard"

"And fall hard"

The chill of Entreri’s tone brought Dondon’s eyes back up fro truly recognized the old Artehter who had built his shadowy empire one ally at a time An involuntary shudder rippled up Dondon’s spine, and he shifted uncomfortably on his feet

Entreri saw the effect and quickly switched the subject "Enough of this," he said "Let it not concern you, little one I have a job for you that is ot the lantern’s wick to take, and he pulled up a chair, eager to please his old boss

They talked for more than an hour, until the lantern becaainst the insistent blackness of the night Then Entreri took his leave, through theand into the alley He didn’t believe that Rassiter would be so foolish as to strike before taking full in to understand the diain, Entreri didn’t ence scale

Perhaps it was Entreri, though, who didn’t truly understand his enemy, or how completely Rassiter and his wretched minions had come to dominate the streets over the last three years Less than fiveopen again

And Rassiter stepped through

"What did he want?" the swaggering fighter asked, plopping comfortably into a chair at the table

Dondontwo uard in the hall Afterstill felt uncomfortable around Rassiter

"Coain, his toneDondon wanted was to get caught in a crossfire between the wererats and the assassin, but he had little choice but to answer Rassiter If Entreri ever learned of the double-cross, Dondon knew that his days swiftly end

Yet, if he didn’t spill out to Rassiter, his demise would be no less certain, and the hed at the lack of options and spilled his story, detail by detail, to Rassiter

Rassiter gave no countermands to Entreri’s instructions He would let Dondon play out the scenario exactly as Entreri had devised it Apparently, the wererat believed he could twist it into his own gains He sat quietly for a longthe anticipation of the easy victory, his broken teeth gleaht

"You will run with us this night?" he asked the halfling, satisfied that the assassin business was coht" He squeezed one of Dondon’s cherublike cheeks "The fur will be thick, eh?"

Dondon pulled away froht," he replied, a bit too sharply

Rassiter cocked his head, studying Dondon curiously He always had suspected that the halfling was not coht this defiance be linked to the return of his old boss? Rassiter wondered

"Tease hi an even more curious look froun to understand this man you face," Dondon continued, unshaken "Artemis Entreri is not to be toyed with - not by the wise He knows everything If a half-sized rat is seen running with the pack, then ht up, in spite of his revulsion for the e barely an inch from Rassiter’s nose

"Forfeit," he reiterated, "at the least"

Rassiter spun out of the chair, sending it bouncing across the roole day for his liking Everywhere he turned, tre lips uttered the assassin’s naain as he strode angrily to the door It is Rassiter they should fear!

He felt the telltale itching on his chin, then the crawling sensation of tingling groept through his body Dondon backed away and averted his eyes, never comfortable with the spectacle

Rassiter kicked off his boots and loosened his shirt and pants The hair was visible now, rushing out of his skin in scraggly patches and cluainst the wall as the fever took hied, particularly around his face He subliony was no less intense this ti his very first transfors, as apink tail that ran out the back of his trousers, as a rodent

"Joinhis revulsion, Dondon quickly declined Looking at the rat wondered how he had ever allowed Rassiter to bite hiht you power!" Rassiter had proht To look and s this, but a disease

Rassiter guessed at the halfling’s distaste, and he curled his rat snout back in a threatening hiss, then turned for the door

He spun back on Dondon before exiting the roo "Do as you were bid and hide away!"

"No doubt to that," Dondon whispered as the door slammed shut

The aura that distinguished Calimport as home to so very ers froar, Bruenor, and Catti-brie eary of the Cali down on the city of Calimport ain

It retched Merander scale, with the divisions of wealth so blatantly obvious that Calimport cried out as ultimately perverted to the four friends Elaborate houses, ination, dotted the cityscape Yet, right beside those palaces loo clay or ragged skins The friends couldn’t guess how many people roamed the place - certainly more than Waterdeep and Memnon combined! - and they knew at once that in Calimport, as in Memnon, no one had ever bothered to count

Sali Dalib dis the others do likewise, and led them down a final hill and into the unwalled city The friends found the sights of Calimport no better up close Naked children, their bellies bloated from lack of food, scrailded, slave-drawn carts rushed through the streets Worse still were the sides of those avenues, ditchesas open sewers in the city’s poorest sections There were thrown the bodies of the impoverished, who had fallen to the roadside at the end of their miserable days

"Suren Ruhts when he spoke of ho his cloak over his face to deflect the awful stench "Pastfor this place!"

"De greatest city in de world, dis be!" Sali Dalib spouted, lifting his arar, Bruenor and Catti-brie shot hi was not their idea of greatness Drizzt paid thethe inevitable comparison between Calimport and another city he had known, Menzoberranzan Truly there were similarities, and death was no less common in Menzoberranzan, but Calimport somehow seemed fouler than the city of the drow Even the weakest of the dark elves had thefamily ties and deadly innate abilities The pitiful peasants of Calih, and more so their children, seemed helpless and hopeless indeed

In Menzoberranzan, those on the lowest rungs of the power ladder could fight their way to a better standing For the h, there would only be poverty, a day-to-day squalid existence until they landed on the piles of buzzard-pecked bodies in the ditches

"Take us to the guildhouse of Pasha Pook," Drizzt said, getting to the point, wanting to be done with his business and out of Calimport, "then you are dismissed"

Sali Dalib paled at the request "Pasha Poop?" he stammered "Who is dis?"

"Bah!" Bruenor snorted, erously close to the merchant "He knows him"

"Suren he does," Catti-brie observed, "and fears hian

Twinkle came out of its sheath and slipped to a stop under thetheSali Dalib of the drow’s heritage Once again, his suddenly grim demeanor unnerved even his own friends "I think of my friend," Drizzt said in a cal into the city, "tortured even as we delay"

He snapped his scowl at Sali Dalib "As you delay! You will take us to the guildhouse of Pasha Pook," he reiterated, more insistently, "and then you are dismissed"

"Pook? Oh, Pook," the merchant beamed "Sali Dalib know dis man, yes, yes Everybody know Pook Yes, yes, I take you dere, den I go"

Drizzt replaced the e "If you or your little companion try to flee," he promised so calmly that neither the merchant nor his assistant doubted his words for a moment, "I will hunt you down and kill you"

The drow’s three friends exchanged confused shrugs and concerned glances They felt confident that they knew Drizzt to his soul, but so grim was his tone that even they wondered how much of his promise was an idle threat

It took h the maze that was Cali more than to be off the streets and away from the fetid stench Finally, to their relief, Sali Dalib turned a final corner, to Rogues Circle, and pointed to the unreuildhouse