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"Outao’ blubber!" Bruenor roared

The giant eunuch planted its legs wide apart and reached down at the dith a huge hand - which Bruenor prorus, then straightened quickly, the single horn on his hel the poor eunuch up on its toes For the second time that day, its eyes crossed and it tumbled, this time its hands low to hold its neound

A killing rage evident in his gray eyes, Bruenor turned back to Pook The guildh, seemed unconcerned, and in truth, the dwarf hardly noticed the ain, which was loaded and leveled at hile eer at the pain the wretched creatures of Tarterus had caused to Catti-brie

His goal, too, was singular: the little patch of light in the glooate back to his oorld

His sciht of tearing through the deer teoal He could whirl in on the dee to slip through the gate, but could Catti-brie take the punishot her through?

The dro another way As he inched in on the back of the demodand line, he reached out wide to either side with his blades, tapping the back two demodands on their outside shoulders As the creatures reflexively turned to look back over their shoulders, Drizzt darted between the prow, nicking away the hands of any other de on Catti-brie and whirled quickly, his rage doubled He couldn’t see his target, but he knew that he had connected on soht Twinkle down and heard a demodand shriek

A heavy arm clubbed him on the side of the head, a blow that should have felled hiate only a few feet ahead - and the silhouette of a single dee

The dark tunnel of dee arm wheeled in, but Drizzt was able to duck beneath its arc

If the deht and slaughtered

Again it was instinct, faster than thought, that carried Drizzt through He slapped the demodand’s ar into the de the creature backward through the gate

The dark head and shoulders cais-fang hohty blow snapped the demodand’s backbone and jolted Drizzt, who pushed from the other side

The demodand fell dead, half in and half out of the Taros Hoop, and the stunned drow rolled li into Pook’s rooht and hesitated, but Drizzt, realizing that ed to lift his weary head froar had already discerned that he could not shatter the glassy i at it only sent his war hais-fang to his side

Then he noticed the action across the rooh with that shield?" Pook teased, wiggling the crossbow

Intent on the weapon, Bruenor hadn’t even noticed Drizzt and Catti-brie’s grand entrance "So ye’ve one shot to kill ," he spat back, unafraid of death, "and one alone" He took a detered He was an expert marksman, and his crossboas as enchanted as any weapon in the Realot it off

A twirling war hae chair over into the guild heavily into the wall

Bruenor turned with a grim smile to thank his barbarian friend, but his smile washed away and the words died in his throat when he saw Drizzt - and Catti-brie! - lying beside the Taros Hoop

The dwarf stood as if turned to stone, his eyes not blinking, his lungs not drawing breath The strength went out of his legs, and he fell to his knees He dropped his axe and shield and scrahter’s side

Wulfgar clasped the iron edges of the Taros Hoop in his hands and tried to force theether His entire upper body flushed red, and the veins and sinewy e arht

A de, but the sight of it only spurred Wulfgar on He roared to Teether, bending the edges of hoop in to e boith the planar shift, and the demodand’s arm dropped to the floor, cleanly severed Likewise, the dear’s feet, with half its body still inside the gate, twitched and turned

Wulfgar averted his eyes at the horrid spectacle of a winged de planar tunnel, bent and bowed until its skin began to rip apart

The ar, for all of his strength, could not hope to bend the thing far enough to coate warped and blocked, but for how long? When he tired, and the Taros Hoop returned to its norain Stubbornly the barbarian roared and drove on, turning his head to the side in anticipation of the shattering of the glassy surface

How pale she seemed, her lips almost blue and her skin dry and chill Her wounds were vicious, Bruenor saw, but the dwarf sensed that theinjury was neither cut nor bruise Rather, his precious girl seeiven up her desire for life when she had fallen into the darkness

She now lay limp, cold, and pale in his arers He lolled over to the side, pulling his cloak out wide, shielding Bruenor, as quite oblivious to his surroundings, and Catti-brie with his own body

Across the rooiness out of his head He rose to his knees and surveyed the rooar’s atteate

"Kill the to crawl out from under the overturned chair

LaValle wasn’t listening; he had already begun a spell

For the first tith inadequate "I cannot!" he grunted in dis to Drizzt - as he always looked to Drizzt - for an answer

The wounded droas barely coherent

Wulfgar wanted to surrender His ars seemed barely able to hold him; his friends were helpless on the floor

And his strength was not enough!

He shot his gaze to and fro, searching for some alternate method The hoop, however powerful, had to have a weakness Or, at least, to hold out any hope, Wulfgar had to believe that it did

Regis had gotten through it, had found a way to circuar found his answer

He gave a final heave on the Taros Hoop, then released it quickly, sending the portal into a ar didn’t hesitate to watch the eerie spectacle He dove down and snatched the pearl-tipped scepter froht and slaile device onto the top of the Taros Hoop, shattering the black pearl into a thousand tiny shards

At that same moment, LaValle uttered the last syllable of his spell, releasing athe hairs on his arlassy in of a spider’s web by Wulfgar’s cunning strike, broke apart altogether

The ensuing explosion rocked the foundations of the guildhouse

Thick patches of darkness swirled about the roo, and a sudden histled and howled in their ears, as though they had all been caught in the tumult of a rift in the very planes of existence Black smoke and fumes rushed in upon them The darkness becaun, it passed away and daylight returned to the battered roo the dae and the survivors

The Taros Hoop lay twisted and shattered, a bent fra stubbornly in torn patches A winged demodand lay dead on the floor, the severed arm of another creature beside it, and half the body of yet another beside that, still twitching in death, with thick, dark fluids spilling onto the floor

A dozen feet back sat Wulfgar, propped up on his elbows and looking perplexed, one ary bolt, his face blackened by the rush of s A hundred little dots of blood dotted the barbarian’s body Apparently the glassy ie

Wulfgar looked at his friends distantly, blinked his eyes a few tiroaned, catching the notice of Drizzt and Bruenor The wizard started to struggle back to his knees, but realized that he would only be exposing himself to the victorious invaders He slumped back to the floor and lay very still

Drizzt and Bruenor looked at each other, wondering what to do next

"Fine to see the light again," caaze of Catti-brie, her deep blue eyes opened once again