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THE BROKEN CONTINUUM
Drizzt Do’Urden slipped out of his bedroll and reached his bare ar sky It was good to be on the road, out of Mithral Hall after the dark winter It was invigorating to ses, and to feel the wind across his shoulders and through his long, thick white hair It was good to be alone with his wife
The dark elf rolled his head in wide circles, stretching his neck He reached up high again, kneeling on his blankets The breeze was chill across his naked fororated him and made him feel alive with sensation
He slowlyevery round that had served as his mattress, then paced away fro of boulders to catch a view of Catti-brie
Dressed only in her colorful noether in front of her in a pose of deep concentration Drizzt marveled at her sih, and Catti-brie’s natural beauty was neither diarment
They were on the road back to Mithral Hall from the city of Silveryreat Lady Alustriel, ruled It had not been a good visit So, so the wizards that all was not ith the Weave of ic Reports and whispers froicat all, of brilliant spellcasters falling to apparent insanity
Alustriel had adrity of Mystra’s Weave itself, the very source of arcane energy, and the look on her face, ashen, was so Drizzt had never before witnessed froone to Mithral Hall those reat horde had crawled from their mountain holes in murderous frenzy It was indeed a crestfallen and fearful look that Drizzt would never have thought possible on the face of that renowned champion, one of the Seven Sisters, Chosen of Mystra, beloved ruler of ilance, observation, and meditation were Alustriel’s orders of the day, as she and all others scraht be happening, and Catti-brie, less than a decade a wizard but showing great promise, had taken those orders to heart
That’s why she had risen so early, Drizzt knew, and had moved away from the distractions of the encampment and his presence, to be alone with her meditation
He smiled as he watched her, her auburn hair still rich in color and thick to her shoulders, blowing in the breeze, her fore, perhaps, but still so beautiful and inviting to hihts
She slowly spread her hands out wide as if in invitation toonly to her elbows Drizzt s upward a few feet in easy levitation Purple flames of faerie fire flickered to life across her body, appearing as extensions of the violet fabric of the blouse, as if its ust of wind buffeted her, blowing her auburn mane out wide behind her
Drizzt could see that she was i to create more intimacy with the Weave as she contemplated the fears Alustriel had relayed
A flash of lightning in the distance startled Drizzt and he jerked his head toward it as a rumble of thunder followed
He crinkled his brow in confusion The daas cloudless, but lightning it had been, reaching fro blue bolt lingering along the distant terrain
Drizzt had been on the surface for forty-five years, but he had never seen any natural phenomenon quite like that He had witnessed terrific storms from the deck of Captain Deuderulf the Caliround in an hour’s ti once, in Icewind Dale, and he figured the sight before hiy
But this lightning traveled in a straight line, and trailed behind it a curtain of blue-white, shie its speed, other than to note that the curtain of blue fire expanded behind it
It appeared to be crossing the countryside to the north of his position He glanced up at Catti-brie, floating and glowing on the hilltop to the east, and he wondered whether he should disturb her lanced at the line of lightning and his lavender eyes widened in shock It had accelerated suddenly and had changed course, angling in his direction
He turned fro straight at her!
"Cat!" Drizzt yelled, and started running She seeical anklets sped Drizzt on his way, his legswas faster, and he could only cry out again and again as it sizzled past hiy His hair rose up wildly fro on all sides
"Cat!" he yelled to the hovering, glooman "Catti-brie! Run!"
She was deep in herher head to glance at Drizzt
But too late Her eyes widened just as the speeding ground lightning engulfed her Blue sparks flew fro spases