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His real confusion only added to the deception at the time "Dark elf?" he asked as if he didn’t understand He looked up at the dragon and repeated the words, even on looked all around, his gaze falling like twin beacons across the treasurefor solobe, halfway across the room "I mean you!" Hephaestus roared suddenly, and the force of the yell knocked Drizzt over backward "Dark elf!"

"Drow?" Drizzt said, recovering quickly and daring now to stand "No, not I" He surveyed hinition "Yes, of course," he said "So often do I forget this , low, increasingly irowl and Drizzt knew he had better h soon I ht be if Hephaestus cannot help on’s curiosity "You have heard of hty Hephaestus I aandevinasander of Chult, an old black of no san, but the dragon let the word trail away Hephaestus had heard of the black, of course; dragons knew the naons in all the world Hephaestus knew, too, as Drizzt had hoped he would, that Mergandevinasander had purple eyes

To aid hih the explanation, Drizzt recalled his experiences with Clacker, the unfortunate pech who had been transformed by a wizard into the foran soot one of theh, a paladin!"

Hephaestus seeht of it, congratulated himself silently

"How his silvery armor sizzled under the acid of my breath!"

"Pity to so waste him" Hephaestus interjected "Paladins do make such fine meals!"

Drizzt sht Hoould a dark elf taste? he could not help but wonder with the dragon’s mouth so very near "I would have killed them all - and a fine treasure take it would have been - but for that wretched wizard! It was he that did this terrible thing to ly

"Polymorph?" Hephaestus asked, and Drizzt noted a bit of sympathy - he prayed - in the voice

Drizzt nodded soles, and h " Hephaestus widened his eyes at the pause, and the pitiful, confused look that Drizzt gave actually backed the dragon up

"I have found this sudden affinity to spiders," Drizzt muttered "To pet theon looks like, Drizzt thought when he glanced back up at the beast Coins and trinkets tinkled all throughout the rooon’s spine

The friars in the low tunnel couldn’t see the exchange, but they could h and understood what the drow had in mind For the first time that any of them could recall, Brother Jankin was stricken speechless, but Mateustheir shared sentiot a measure of fortitude, that one!" The portly friar chuckled, and he slapped a hand across his ownthat he had spoken too loudly

"Why have you corily Drizzt skidded backward under the force but , hty Hephaestus!" Drizzt pleaded "I have no choice I traveled to Menzoberranzan, the city of drow, but this wizard’s spell was powerful, they toldto dispel it So I coreat and powerful Hephaestus, renowned for your abilities with spells of transmutation Perhaps one of my own kind "

"A black?" came the thunderous roar, and this time, Drizzt did fall "Your own kind?"

"No, no, a dragon," Drizzt said quickly, retracting the apparent insult and hopping back to his feet - thinking that he rowl told Drizzt that he needed a diversion, and he found it behind the dragon, in the deep scorch ular alcove Drizzt figured this here Hephaestus earned his considerable payores The drow couldn’t help but shudder as he wondered how ht have found their end between those blasted walls

"What caused such a cataclysm?" Drizzt cried in awe Hephaestus dared not turn away, suspecting treachery A on realized what the dark elf had noticed and the growl disappeared

"What god has cohty Hephaestus, and blessed you with such a spectacle of power? Nowhere in all the realms is there stone so torn! Not since the fires that forh!" Hephaestus boomed "You who are so learned does not know the breath of a red?"

"Surely fire is the aze froht the flames be? Surely not so as to wreak such devastation!"

"Would you like to see?" ca hiss

"Yes!" Drizzt cried, then, "No!" he said, dropping into a fetal curl He knealking a tentative line here, but he kneas a necessary gamble "Truly I would desire to witness such a blast, but truly I fear to feel its heat"

"Then watch, Mergandevinasander of Chult!" Hephaestus roared "See your better!" The sharp intake of the dragon’s breath pulled Drizzt two steps forward, brought his white hair stinging around into his eyes, and nearly tore the blanket-cloak from his back On the mound behind him, coins toppled forward in a noisy rush

Then the dragon’s serpentine neck swung about in a long and wide arc, putting the great red’s head in line with the alcove

The ensuing blast stole the air fro, both froh, as the dragon fire consu, thunderous blaze Drizzt noted, too, that Hephaestus closed his eyes tightly when he breathed his fire

When the conflagration was finished, Hephaestus swung back triu at the alcove, at thefron his awe

"By the gods!" he whispered harshly Heexpression "By the gods," he said again "Mergandevinasander of Chult, who thought himself supreme, is humbled"

"And well he should be!" Hephaestus booandevinasander It is a fact that could save your life if ever a red coreed "But I fear that I shall have no door" Again he looked down at his form and scoith disdain "No door beyond one in the city of dark elves!"

"That is your fate, not mine," Hephaestus said "But I shall take pity on you I shall let you depart alive, though that ismy slumber!"

This was the critical moment, Drizzt knew He could have taken Hephaestus up on the offer; at thatmore than to be out of there But his principles and Mooshie’s o What of his companions in the tunnel? he reminded himself And what of the adventures for the bards’ books?

"Devour h he could hardly believe the words as he spoke theonkind cannot be content with life as a dark elf"

Hephaestus’s huge onkind!" Drizzt wailed "Our nu, while the huons, to be stolen by wizards and paladins!" The way he spat that last word gave Hephaestus pause

"And alas for Mergandevinasander," Drizzt continued dramatically, "to be struck down thus by a huhtiest of dragonkind!"

"Outshines!" Hephaestus cried, and the whole chamber trembled under the power of that roar

"What am I to believe?" Drizzt yelled back, soon’s volu kind? Nay, that I cannot believe, that the world shall not believe!" Drizzt ai for all he orth He did not have to be reminded of the price of failure "They will say, one and all from all the wide realms, that Hephaestus dared not try to dispel the wizard’s ainst so powerful a spell for fear that his weakness would invite that saon plunder!

"Ah!" Drizzt shouted, wide-eyed "But will not Hephaestus’s perceived surrender also give the wizard and his nasty thieving friends hope of such plunder? And what dragon possesses more to steal than Hephaestus, the red of rich Mirabar?"

The dragon was at a loss Hephaestus liked his way of life, sleeping on treasures ever-growing fro merchants He didn’t need the likes of heroic adventurers poking around in his lair! Those were the exact senti on

"Toon roared "This day I conteandevinasander shall be a black once more! Then he shall depart, his tail aflame, if he dares utter one more blasphemous word! Now I must take on in drow for in all the world I am not as sound a sleeper as many thieves have wished!"

Drizzt did not doubt a word of it, of course, so while things had gone as well as he had hoped, he found himself in a bit of a mess He couldn’t wait a day to resume his conversation with the red, nor could his friends Hoould proud Hephaestus react, Drizzt wondered, when the dragon tried to counter a spell that didn’t even exist? And what, Drizzt told himself as he neared panic, would he do if Hephaestus actually did change hion?

"Of course, the breath of a black has advantages over a red’s," Drizzt blurted as Hephaestus swung away

The red ca fury

"Would you like to feel reat would come your boasts then, I must wonder?"

"No, not that" Drizzt replied, "Take no insult, hty Hephaestus Truly the spectacle of your fires stole my pride! But the breath of a black cannot be underestimated It has qualities beyond even the power of a red’s fire!"

"How say you?"

"Acid, O Hephaestus the Incredible, Devourer of Ten Thousand Cattle," Drizzt replied "Acid clings to a knight’s ar torht?" Hephaestus asked sarcastically "Metal er, I fear," Drizzt adaze "A red’s breath coers, to the enerowled "How long can your breath last, pitiful black? Longer can I breath, I know!"

"But " Drizzt began, indicating the alcove This tion’s sudden intake pulled Drizzt several steps forward and nearly whipped hih to cry out the appointed signal, "Fires of the Nine Hells!" as Hephaestus swung his head back in line with the alcove

"The signal!" Mateus said above the tumult "Run for your lives! Run!"

"Never!" cried the terrified Brother Herschel, and the others, except for Jankin, didn’t disagree

"Oh, to suffer so!" the shaggy-haired fanatic wailed, stepping from the tunnel

"We have to! On our lives!" Mateus reoing the wrong way

They struggled at the tunnel exit for several seconds and then the other friars, realizing that perhaps their only hope soon would pass theroup tu path from the wall When they recovered, they were surely in a fix, and they danced about aimlessly, not sure of whether to cliht out for the exit Their desperate scra hardly made any headway up the slope, especially with Mateus still trying to rein in Jankin, so the exit was the only way Tripping all over themselves, the friars fled across the room

Even their terror did not prevent each of the up a pocketful of baubles as he passed

Never had there been such a blast of dragon fire! Hephaestus, eyes closed, roared on and on, disintegrating the stone in the alcove Great gouts of flame burst out into the roory dragon did not relent, deter visitor once and for all

The dragon peeked once, to witness the effects of his display Dragons knew their treasure roo in the world, and Hephaestus did notacross the main chamber toward the exit

The breath stopped abruptly and the dragon swung about "Thieves!" he roared, splitting stone with his thunderous voice

Drizzt knew that the gareat, spear-filled maw snapped at the drow Drizzt stepped to the side and leaped, having nowhere else to go He caught one of the dragon’s horns and rode up with the beast’s head Drizzt ed to scraed dragon tried to shake him free Drizzt reached for a scimitar but found a pocket instead, and he pulled out a handful of dirt Without the slightest hesitation, the drow flung the dirt down into the dragon’s evil eye

Hephaestus went berserk, snapping his head violently, up and down and all about Drizzt held on stubbornly, and the devious dragon discerned a better method

Drizzt understood Hephaestus’s intent as the head shot up into the air at full speed The ceiling was not so high - not co fall, but a preferable fate by far, and Drizzt dropped off just before the dragon’s head slaained his feet as Hephaestus, hardly slowed by the crushing impact, sucked in his breath Luck saved the drow, and not for the first or the last time, as a considerable chunk of stone fell froon’s head Hephaestus’s breath blurted out in a harmless puff and Drizzt darted with all speed over the treasuredown behind

Hephaestus roared in rage and loosed the rest of his breath, without thinking, straight for the emstones cracked under the pressure The htly packed, but Drizzt, against the opposite side, felt his back afla and old

Out caon reared The drow rushed straight in bravely, stupidly, whacking aith all his strength He stopped, stunned, after only two blows, both sciht as well have banged theh, had paid the attack no heed "My gold!" the dragon wailed Then the beast looked down, his laold!" Hephaestus said again, wickedly

Drizzt shrugged sheepishly, then he ran

Hephaestus snapped his tail about, sla the rooold!" the dragon roared over and over as he slaht piles

Drizzt fell behind another urine

"I son purred - as if a thunderstorm could purr - not far from Drizzt’s mound

In response, the panther ca away Drizzt, down at the botto the steps, as Hephaestus rushed forward

"I shall chew you apart, shape-changer!" the dragon bellowed, and his gaping mouth snapped down at Guenhwyvar

But teeth, even dragon teeth, had little effect on the insubstantial mist that Guenhwyvar suddenly becaed to pocket a few baubles as he rushed out, his retreat covered by the din of the frustrated dragon’s tantruone when Hephaestus recovered and spotted hion roared and started after Drizzt

In the goblin tongue, knowing froon wouldn’t know he knew, Drizzt yelled, "When the stupid beast follows et the rest!"

Hephaestus skidded to a stop and spun about, eyeing the low tunnel that led to thetoa robbery from behind Hephaestus stalked over to the tunnel and slaood s over

The thieves had o out under the wide sky if he wanted to catch the the dragon’s lucrative business In the end, Hephaestus settled the dilehly eat the next merchant party that came his way His pride restored in that resolution, one that he undoubtedly would forget as soon as he returned to his sleep, the dragonwhat he could from the mounds he inadvertently had melted