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Drizzt watched every ar sat opposite hi for some hint of the barbarian’s iants helped? Had Drizzt "run the horse" as he had explained his hopes to Regis? Or was Wulfgar in worse shape now than before the battle? Was he h his actions, or inaction, hadn’t really cost thenize that he had not perfor of the battle, but had he, in his own mind, made up for that error with his subsequent actions?

Drizzt was as perceptive to such eet the slightest read of the barbarian’s inner turar moved methodically, mechanically, as he had since his return froh the n of pain, satisfaction, relief, or anything else Wulfgar was existing, but hardly living If there remained a flicker of passion within those sky-blue orbs, Drizzt could not see it

Thus, the drow ranger was left with the iiants had been inconsequential, had neither bolstered the barbarian’s desire to live nor had placed any further burdens upon Wulfgar In looking at his friend now, thea piece of fowl fro, Drizzt had to admit to himself that he had not only run out of answers but out of places to look for answers

Catti-brie ar then, and the barbarian did pause to regard her He even ht succeed where he had failed, the drow thought He and Wulfgar had been friends, to be sure, but the barbarian and Catti-brie had shared soht of it brought a tuut On the one hand he cared deeply for Wulfgar and wanted nothing more in all the world than for the barbarian to heal his e Catti-brie close to the man pained him He tried to deny it, tried to elevate himself above it, but it was there, and it was a fact, and it would not go away

He was jealous

With great effort, the drow sublih to honestly leave the couple alone He went to join Bruenor and Regis and couldn’t help but contrast the halfling’s beaar, who seeainst pure pleasure

"We’ll be out o’ the dale to out the dark silhouettes of the er to the south and east Indeed, the wagon had turned the corner and they were heading south now, no longer west The wind, which always filled the ears in Icewind Dale, had died to the occasional gust

"How’s me boy?" Bruenor asked when he noticed the dark elf

Drizzt shrugged

"Ye could’ve got him killed, ye durned fool elf," the dwarf huffed "Ye could’ve got us all killed And not for the first time!"

"And not for the last," Drizzt pro low He knew that Bruenor was playing with hiht as iants Bruenor had been upset with him, to be sure, but only because Drizzt hadn’t included hiht had long since exorcised that grudge fro the drow as a ar

"Did ye see his face e battled?" the dwarf asked more earnestly "Did ye see hiiant friend and it appeared as if me boy was about to be squished flat?"

Drizzt aded with my own concerns at the time," he explained "And with Guenhwyvar’s peril"

"Nothing," Bruenor declared "Nothing at all No anger as he lifted his haiants"

"The warrior sublier to keep in conscious control," the drow reasoned

"Bah, not like that," Bruenor retorted "I saw rage in e beyond anything me old eyes’ve ever seen And how I’d like to be seein’ it again Anger, rage, even fear!"

"I saw hiis adiant would be an ally, and if it was not, if it had joined in on the side of the other giants, then Wulfgar would have easily been killed, for he had no defense against our angle froe And yet he was not afraid at all He looked right up at the giant, and all I saas"

"Resignation," the drow finished for hiht throw at hi" Bruenor admitted

Drizzt had no answers for hiar’s traureat and had thus stolen from him his hopes and dreams, his passions and purpose, but he could find no way to put that into words that the ever-praght it ironic, in a sense, for the closest example of similar behavior he could recall was Bruenor’s own, soon after Wulfgar had fallen to the yochlol The dwarf had wandered ai

Yes, Drizzt realized, that was the key word Wulfgar was grieving

Bruenor would never understand, and Drizzt wasn’t sure that he understood

"Ti the dark elf fro, then to Bruenor

"Caa, elf Yer eyes see better’n lanced back to the fire, to Wulfgar and Cattibrie, sitting very close and talking He noted that Cattibrie wasn’t doing all of the speaking She had soar, even had hi part of Drizzt wanted to stay right there and watch their every ive in to that weakness, so he ith Bruenor and Regis to watch the ga the ceiling fall in on ye," Catti-brie said, gentlythe conversation to that fateful day in the bowels of Mithral Hall Up to now, she and Wulfgar had been sharing happier hts, battles in which the companions had overwhelh a price

Wulfgar had even joined in, telling of his first battle with Bruenor-against Bruenor-when he had broken his standard staff over the dwarf’s head, only to have the stubborn little creature swipe his legs out from under him and leave him unconscious on the field As the conversation wound on, Catti-brie focused on another pivotal event: the Grafting of Aegis-fang What a labor of love that had been, the pinnacle of Bruenor’s a career as a sar

"If he hadn’t loved ye so, he’d ne’er been able to reat a weapon," she had explained When she saw that her words were getting through to the pained ain, to the reverential treatar’s apparent deht Catti-brie to the discussion of the day of Wulfgar’s fall, to the reat relief, Wulfgar had not tightened up when she went in this direction, but had stayed with her, hearing her words and adding his ohen they seeth went from me body," Catti-brie went on "And never have I seen Bruenor closer to breaking But ent on and started fighting in yer name, and woe to our enear’s light eyes and the woest her words She thought he would respond, but he did not, and the seconds slipped away quietly

Catti-brieher head on his strong shoulder He didn’t push her away, even shifted so they would both be et Wulfgar into an emotional release But while she hadn’t achieved quite that, she recognized that she had gotten htfully expected The love had not resurfaced, but neither had the rage

It would take tiroup did indeed roll out of Icewind Dale the nextwind In the dale, the wind ca down off the cold waters of the Sea of Moving Ice At the juncture to points south, east, and north of the bulk of the er, but was h the dale And now,against the towering Spine of the World Unlike the cold breeze that gave its naentle blow The winds wafted up from warmer climes to the south or off the warback

Drizzt and Bruenor spent on, both to scout a periive soar The wo thenestled in the back of the wagon a foodstuffs

It proved to be a quiet and uneventful day of travel, except for one point where Drizzt found a particularly disturbing track, that of a huge, booted giant

"Ru low beside the ranger as he inspected the footprint

"So I would guess," Drizzt replied