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A CLUE IN THE RIFT

A throgate held the skeletal arave it a little shake The fingers began to claw once rinned and reached the bony arits worked at a hard-to-reach spot in theye think it’ll last, elf?" he asked

Jarlaxle, too concerned to even acknowledge the dwarf’s antics, just shrugged and continued on hisAny who knew Jarlaxle would have read the gravity of the situation clearly in his uncertain expression, for rarely, if ever, had anyone ever witnessed Jarlaxle Baenre perplexed

The drow realized that he couldn’t wait for Hephaestus to come to him He didn’t want to encounter such a foe on his own, or with only Athrogate at his side He considered returning to Luskan - Kian D’aerthe could certainly help - but his instincts argued against that Once again, he would be allowing Hephaestus the offensive, and would be pitted against a foe that could apparently raise undead minions to his command with ease

Above all else, Jarlaxle wanted to take the fight to the dragon, and he believed that Cadderly ht well prove the solution to his troubles But how could he enlist the priest, as surely no willing ally of the dark elves? Except one particular dark elf

And wouldn’t it be grand to have Drizzt Do’Urden and so for the hunt? But how?

So at Jarlaxle’s direction, the pair traveled eastward,across the Silver Marches toward Mithral Hall It would take them easily a tenday, and Jarlaxle wasn’t sure he had that kind of tiht ca on a precarious perch

A cold breeze found hiainst it, he slipped fro stumble startled him His hand already in his pocket, Jarlaxle pulled forth a fistful of cera theround, it broke open and the enchantht, spewed forth

"What the - ?" Athrogate cried, startled frohtness

Jarlaxle paid hi away fro to undead creatures He threw another light bo, huddled form, then another as it veered toward a shadowy patch

"Hurry, dwarf!" the drow called, and he soon heard Athrogate huffing and puffing in pursuit As soon as Athrogate passed hihter andit near the shadowy for that sent a shiver coursing down Jarlaxle’s spine

That howl didn’t slow Athrogate in the least, and the brave dwarf charged in with abandon, his ate called upon the enchantht hand and explosive oil oozed over itscreature and sith all his le, explosive s substantial, just huate yelped in pain as a sharp touch hit his shoulder, a point of sudden and burning agony He fell back, swinging with abandon, his

The dwarf saw the specter’s dark, cold hands reaching toward histars in fro the heads to collide directly in the center of the shadowy darkness

Jarlaxle watched the battle with a curious eye, trying to gauge this foe The specter was a minion of Hephaestus, obviously, and he kneell the usual qualities of incorporeal undead denizens

Athrogate’s weapon should have harstars were heavily enchanted Even the most powerful undead creatures, the ones that existed on both the Priy, should not have such complete immunity to his assault

Jarlaxle winced and looked ahen Athrogate’sin a blinding flash, a concussive burst that forced the dwarf to stuain, the specter seemed wholly unbothered by the burst Jarlaxle took note of sostar heads collided, the specter seemed to diminish In the moment of explosion, the creature appeared to vanish or shrink

As the undead creature approached the dwarf, it grew substantial again, those dark hands reaching forth to inflictthe daered back

"More oil!" Jarlaxle yelled, a sudden idea coain"

"That hurt, elf! Me arms’re numb!"

"Do it!" Jarlaxle coain, and the burst of light caused the specter to recoil, buying Athrogate a few heartbeats Jarlaxle pulled off his hat and reached inside, and as Athrogate swung stars, the drow pulled forth a flat circle of cloth, like the black lining of his hat He threw it out and it spun, elongating as it sailed past the dwarf

The ate backward again The specter, as Jarlaxle expected, faded, began to diness, but to some other plane or diical extra-dimensional pocket created by the power of Jarlaxle’s enchanted hat, fell over the spot

The sudden glare caused by waves of energy - purple, blue, and green - rolled forth fro out a hum of sheer power The fabric of the world tore open

Jarlaxle and Athrogate floated, weightless, staring at a spot that was once a clearing in the trees but seemed to have been replaced withstarscape

"What’d’ye do, elf!" the dwarf cried, his voice antic intermittent winds

"Stay away froht push at his back, co him toward the starry spot, the rift, he knew, to the Astral Plane

Athrogate began to flail wildly, suddenly afraid, for he was not far froan to spin head over heels and all around, but the gyrations proved irrelevant to his inexorable drift toward the stars

"Not like that!" Jarlaxle called

"How, ye stupid elf?"

For Jarlaxle, the solution was easy His drift carried hirabbed on with one hand and held himself easily in place, and knew that an easy push would propel him away from the rift That was exactly what it was, Jarlaxle knew, a tear in the fabric of the Priies of two extra-di that created extra-dier than their apparent capacity, a pair of belt pouches that did the same, and several other trinkets that could facilitate si them was not unknown or unexpected

What surprised hih, was that his extra-dimensional hole had reacted in such a ith that shadowy being All he’d hoped to do was trap the thing within the ical hole when it tried to flow back into the plane of the living

"Throw soate lifted his arstars, the drow added, "Soate held his throw at the last moment then pulled his heavy pack off his back He waited until he spun around, then heaved it at the rift The opposite reaction sent the dwarf floating backward, away froh for Jarlaxle to take a chance with a rope He threw an end out toward Athrogate, close enough for the dwarf to grasp, and as soon as Athrogate held on, the drow tugged hard and brought the dwarf sailing toward hiht past

Jarlaxle took note that Athrogate drifted only a few feet before exiting the area of weightlessness and falling hard to his ru the curious starscape that loomed barely ten strides away, Jarlaxle pushed hiate as the dwarf pulled himself to his feet

"What’d’ye do?" the dwarf asked in all seriousness

"I have no idea," Jarlaxle replied

"Worked, though," Athrogate offered

Jarlaxle, not so certain of that, merely smirked

They kept watch over the rift for a short while, and gradually the pheno to its previous fire All was as it had been, except that the specter was gone

"Still going east?" Athrogate asked as he and Jarlaxle started out the next day

"That was the plan"

"The plan to win"

"Yes"

"I’ht," the dwarf said

"We defeated a minion," Jarlaxle explained "It has always beena rier"

"So we should’ve let the shadow thing win?"

Jarlaxle’s sigh elicited a loud laugh froh the day, and at caht, Jarlaxle dared to allow himself some time in Reverie

And there, in his own subconscious, Hephaestus found hiain

Clever drow, the dracolich said in his mind Did you truly believe you could so easily escape me?

Jarlaxle threw up his defenses in the forreat Underdark city He concentrated on a distinct ed on behalf of Matron Mother Baenre In that fight, a ed two separate weapons there, the drow school of le Jarlaxle had ever known, and one he would not have survived were it not for the intervention of a third weapons master, one of a lower-ranked House - House Do’Urden, actually, though that battle had been fought many decades before Drizzt drew his first breath

Thatbeen crystallized in the es distinct and clear, and a level of tuhts occupied And with such e, the drow hoped he wouldn’t surrender his current position to the intrusive Hephaestus

Well done, drow! Hephaestus congratulated him But it will not matter in the end Do you truly believe you can so easily hide from me? Do you truly believe your simple, but undeniably clever trick, would destroy one of the Seven?

One of what ’Seven’? Jarlaxle asked himself

He put the question to the back of his mind quickly and resumed his mental defense He understood that his bold stand did little or nothing to shake the confidence of Hephaestus, but he re much headway Then a notion occurred to hion, and from his Reverie entirely He stu

"The Seven," he said, and sed hard, trying to recall all that he had learned about the origins of the Crystal Shard - and the seven liches who had created it

"The Seven " Jarlaxle whispered again, and a shiver ran up his spine

Jarlaxle set the pace even swifter the next day, night the road When they saw the smoke of an encampment not far ahead, Jarlaxle pulled to a halt

"Orcs, likely," he explained to the dwarf "We are near the border of King Obould’s domain"

"Let’s kill ’em, then"

Jarlaxle shook his head "You must learn to exploit your enemies, my hairy little friend," he explained "If these are Obould’s orcs, they are not eneate said, and spat on the ground

"We go to them not as enemies, but as fellow travelers," Jarlaxle ordered "Let us see e ate’s face, he added, "But do keep your stars near at hand"

It was indeed a cah they sprang to readiness, brandishing weapons, at the casual approach of the curious pair - dwarf and drow - they held their arrows

"We are travelers froreeted the Obould and King Bruenor" Out of the corner of his ate to remain calood food to share," Jarlaxle added "And better grog"

"What’d’ye tell ’ehten and nod at one another

"That we’re all going to get drunk together," Jarlaxle whispered back "In a pig’s fat rump!" the dwarf protested

"Wherever you please," the drow replied He slid down from his saddle and dismissed his hell-spawned steed "Come, let us learn e may"

It all started rather tentatively, with Jarlaxle producing both food and "grog" aplenty The drink went over ith the orcs, even more so when the dwarf spat out his first taste of it with disgust He looked to Jarlaxle as if du potent tasting so wretched Jarlaxle responded with a wink and held out his flask to replenish Athrogate’s , but with a different mixture, the dwarf noted

Gutbuster

Not another word of coate

"You friends with Drizzt Do’Urden?" one of the orcs asked Jarlaxle, the creature’s tongue loosened by the drink

"You know of him?" the drow replied, and several of the orcs nodded "As do I! I have ht beside him on occasion - and woe to those who stand before his scio over ith the orcs, and one of thely

"Drizzt is wounded in his heart," said the orc, and the creature grinned as if that fact pleased him immensely

Jarlaxle stared hard and tried to decipher that notion "Catti-brie?" "A fool now," the orc explained "Touched by ic" A couple of the others chuckled

The Weave, Jarlaxle realized, for he was not ignorant of the trau around him Luskan, too, a city that once housed the Hosttower of the Arcane and still named many of the wizards of that place as citizens - and allies of Bregan D’aerthe - had certainly been touched by the unraveling Weave

"Where is she?" Jarlaxle asked, and the orc shrugged as if it hardly cared

But Jarlaxle surely did, for a plan was already for To defeat Hephaestus, he needed Cadderly To enlist Cadderly, he needed Drizzt Could it be that Catti-brie, and so Drizzt, needed Cadderly as well?

"Guenhwyvar," the young girl called Her eyes leveled in their sockets, showing their rich blue hue