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"You got us through!" Brother Herschel cried All of the friars except Jankin threw a great hug on Drizzt as soon as the drow caught up to theon lair’s entrance

"If ever there is a way that we can repay you !"

Drizzt eer eyes widened as gold trinkets and baubles rolled forth, glittering in the afternoon sun One gem in particular, a two-inch ruby, pro the friars had ever known

"For you," Drizzt explained "All of it I have no need of treasures"

The friars looked about guiltily, none of the to reveal the booty stored in his own pockets "Perhaps you should keep a bit," Mateus offered, "if you still plan to strike out on your own"

"I do," Drizzt said firmly

"You cannot stay here," reasoned Mateus "Where will you go?"

Drizzt really hadn’t given it ht All he really kneas that his place was not a the ht popped into his head

"You said it," Drizzt remarked to Jankin "You named the place a week before we entered the tunnel"

Jankin looked at hi

"Ten-Towns," Drizzt said "Land of rogues, where a rogue ht find his place"

"Ten-Towns?" Mateus balked "Surely you should reconsider your course, friend Icewind Dale is not a welco place, nor are the hardy killers of Ten-Towns"

"The wind is ever blowing," Jankin added with a wistful look in his dark and hollow eyes, "filled with stinging sand and an icy bite I will go with you!"

"And theJankin on the back of the head "Tundra yeti and white bears, and fierce barbarians! No, I would not go to Ten-Towns if Hephaestus hionnervously back toward the not-so-distant lair "There are soht and get back to the tunnel too with you," Drizzt said again "You na place, but would I find any waro to the far his words "We will buy you a horse there, and the supplies you will need I do not wish you to go away at all," he said, "but Ten-Towns seeood choice - " He looked pointedly at Jankin - "for a drow Many have found their place there Truly it is a home for he who has none"

Drizzt understood the sincerity in the friar’s voice and appreciated Mateus’s graciousness "How do I find it?" he asked

"Follow the ht hand’s reach When you get around the range, you have entered Icewind Dale Only a single peak marks the flat land north of the Spine of the World The towns are built around it May they be all that you hope!"

With that, the friars prepared to leave Drizzt clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back against the valley wall It was indeed ti with the friars, he knew, but he could not deny both the guilt and loneliness that the prospect offered The sreatly change his coive the to alter the barriers that Drizzt faced

Ten-Towns, the land that Jankin had naround for those who had nowhere else to go, brought the drow a measure of hope How ates had he approached hopefully only to be turned away at the tip of a spear? This time will be different, Drizzt told hiues, where then uered droho had spent so very long running frouilt, and prejudices he could not escape, hope was not a comfortable emotion

Drizzt caht while the friars went into the s a fine horse, but with one of their group conspicuously absent

"Where is Jankin?" Drizzt asked, concerned

"Tied up in a barn," Mateus replied "He tried to get away last night, to go back "

"To Hephaestus," Drizzt finished for him

"If he is still in a usted Herschel

"Here is your horse," Mateus said, "if the night has not changed your mind"

"And here is a nerap," offered Herschel He handed Drizzt a fine, fur-lined cloak Drizzt kne uncharacteristically generous the friars were being, and he aled his h, and he would not satisfy theroup

To display his resolve, the drow ht on Drizzt had seen a horse before, but never so close He was a along the aniht of the ani into the horse’s eyes, co his intent as best he could Then, to everyone’s shock, even Drizzt’s, the horse bent low, allowing the drow to climb easily into the saddle

"You have a ith horses," remarked Mateus "Never did you mention that you were a skilled rider"

Drizzt only nodded and did his very best to remain in the saddle when the horse started into a trot It took the drow ure out how to control the beast and he had circled far to the east - the wrong way - before he hout the circuit, Drizzt tried hard to keep up his facade, and the friars, never ones for horses themselves, merely nodded and smiled

Hours later, Drizzt was riding hard to the west, following the southern edge of the Spine of the World

"The Weeping Friars," Roddy McGristle whispered, looking down from a stony bluff at the band as they made their way back toward Mirabar’s tunnel later that sa from his sack to join Roddy, For the very first time, the sprite’s speed proved a liability Before he even realized what he was saying, Tephanis blurted, "It-cannot-be! The-dragon "

Roddy’s glare fell over Tephanis like the shadow of a thundercloud

"I-mean-I-assumed " Tephanis sputtered, but he realized that Roddy, who knew the tunnel better than he and knew, too, the sprite’s ith locks, had pretty uessed the indiscretion

"Ye took it on yerself to kill the drow," Roddy said calmly

"Please, my-master," Tephanis replied "I-did-not-mean I-feared-for-you The-drow-is-a-devil, I-say! I-sent-theht-that-you "

"Forget it," Roddy growled "Ye did what ye did, and no hten that we can fix what ye done, if the drow’s not dead"

Tephanis nodded, relieved, and zipped back into the sack Roddy scooped it up and called his dog to his side

"I’ll get the friars talking," the bounty hunter vowed, "but first " Roddy whipped the sack about, sla it into the stone wall

"Master!" came the sprite’s muffled cry

"Ye drow-stealin " Roddy huffed, and he beat the sackstone Tephanis squirin a tear with his little dagger But then the sack darkened etness and the sprite struggled noe away "Co If the drow’s alive, the friars’ll knohere to find hi Friars were an order dedicated to suffering, and a couple of them, particularly Jankin, had indeed suffered ined the level of cruelty they found at the hands of wild-eyed Roddy McGristle, and before an hour had passed, Roddy, too, was driving hard to the west along the southern edge of the e

The cold eastern wind filled his ears with its endless song Drizzt had heard it every second since he had rounded the western edge of the Spine of the World and turned north and then east, into the barren stretch of land naroan and the wind’s freezing bite willingly, for to Drizzt the rush of air caust of freedoht of the wide sea, cae Drizzt had visited the shoreline once, on his passage to Luskan, and noanted to pause and go the few ain But the cold wind re winter, and he understood the difficulty he would find in traveling the dale once the first snows had fallen

Drizzt spotted Kelvin’s Cairn, the solitary e, the first day after he had turned into the dale He ular peak as thepost to the land he would call home Tentative hope filled him whenever he focused on that roups, solitary wagons or a handful ofthe caravan route, a southwestern approach The sun was low in the west and dim, and Drizzt kept the cowl of his fine cloak pulled low, hiding his ebony skin He nodded curtly as each traveler passed

Three lakes do with the peak of rocky Kelvin’s Cairn, which rose a thousand feet above the broken plain and was capped with snow even through the short suave the area its name, only the principle city, Bryn Shander, stood apart fro whipping defiantly against the stiff wind The caravan route, Drizzt’s trail, led to this city, the region’s principlesmoke of distant fires that several other communities ithin a few miles of the city on the hill He considered his course for a o to one of these sht on to the principle city

"No," the drow said firurine Drizzt kicked his horse ahead, up the hill to the walled city’s forbidding gates

"Merchant?" asked one of the two guards standing bored before the iron-bound portal "Ye’re a bit late in the year for trading"

"No ood measure of his nerve now that the hour was upon hi to keep his tre

"Frouard asked Drizzt dropped his hand back, his courage deflected by the blunt question

"From Mirabar," he answered honestly, and then, before he could stop hi question, he reached up and pulled back his hood

Four eyes popped wide and hands immediately dropped to belted swords

"No!" Drizzt retorted suddenly "No, please" A weariness cauards could not understand Drizzt had no strength left for senseless battles of iant, the drow’s sciainst one who only battled hihed heavily indeed

"I have co steadier with each syllable, "to Ten-Towns to reside in peace" He held his hands out wide, offering no threat

The guards hardly kne to react Neither of theh they knew beyond doubt that Drizzt was one - or knew more about the race than fireside tales of the ancient war that had split the elven peoples apart

"Wait here," one of the guards breathed to the other, who didn’t seeo inforate and slipped inside as soon as it was opened wide enough to let hi, his hand never leaving his sword hilt

"If you kill me, a hundred crossboill cut you down," he declared, trying but utterly failing to sound confident

"Why would I?" Drizzt asked innocently, keeping his hands wide apart and his posture unthreatening This encounter had gone well so far, he believed In every other village he had dared approach, those first seeing him had fled in terror or chased hiuard returned a short time later with a sht blue eyes that scanned continuously, taking in every detail He wore fine clothes, and frouards showed the h rank

He studied Drizzt for a long while, considering every th, "Spokesman of Bryn Shander and Principle Spokes Council"

Drizzt dipped a short bow "I am Drizzt Do’Urden," he said, "of Mirabar and points beyond, now come to Ten-Towns"

"Why?" Cassius asked sharply, trying to catch hied "Is a reason required?"

"For a dark elf, perhaps," Cassius replied honestly Drizzt’s accepting suards, who now stood protectively close to his sides "I can offer no reason for co has been my road, Spokesman Cassius I aues, I have been told, and do not doubt that a dark elf is a rogue aical enough, and Drizzt’s sincerity cah clearly to the observant spokesht for a long while He didn’t fear the drow, or doubt the elf’s words, but he had no intention of allowing the stir that a droould cause in his city

"Bryn Shander is not your place," Cassius said bluntly, and Drizzt’s lavender eyes narrowed at the unfair proclamation Undaunted, Cassius pointed to the north "Go to Lonelywood, in the forest on the northern banks of Maer Dualdon," he offered He swung his gaze to the southeast "Or to Good Mead or Dougan’s Hole on the southern lake, Redwaters These are smaller tohere you will cause less stir and find less trouble"

"And when they refuse my entry?" Drizzt asked "Where then, fair spokesman? Out in the wind to die on the empty plain?"

"You do not know - "

"I know," Drizzt interrupted "I have played this game many times Who elcome a drow, even one who has forsaken his people and their ways and who desires nothing more than peace?" Drizzt’s voice was stern and showed no self-pity, and Cassius again understood the words to be true

Truly Cassius syue once and had been forced to the ends of the world, to forlorn Icewind Dale, to find a home There were no ends farther than this; Icewind Dale was a rogue’s last stop Another thought came to Cassius then, a possible solution to the dile at his conscience

"How long have you lived on the surface?" Cassius asked, sincerely interested

Drizzt considered the question for awhat point the spokesman meant to make "Seven years," he replied

"In the northland?"

"Yes"

"Yet you have found no hoe to take you in," Cassius said "You have survived hostile winters and, doubtless, more direct ene on your belt?"

"I aer," Drizzt said evenly

"An unusual profession for a drow," Cassius reain, more forcefully, "well trained in the ways of nature and in the use of my weapons"

"I do not doubt," Cassiusshelter and seclusion" The spokesaze to the north, to the rocky slopes of Kelvin’s Cairn "Beyond the dwarven vale lies the mountain," Cassius explained, "and beyond that the open tundra It would do Ten-Toell to have a scout on the er always seems to come from that direction"

"I came to find my home," Drizzt interrupted "You offer me a hole in a pile of rock and a duty to those whoestion appealed to Drizzt’s ranger spirit

"Would you have s are different?" Cassius replied "I’ll not let a wandering drow into Bryn Shander"

"Would a man have to prove hirim a reputation," Cassius replied evenly, without hesitation "If I were so naniates wide, would you enter and find your home? We both know better than that, drow Not everyone in Bryn Shander would be so open-hearted, I promise You would cause an uproar wherever you went and, whatever your demeanor and intent, you would be forced into battles