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LOOKING IN THE MIRROR

"You are a weapon of disproportion," Artee of his bed in the snature weapon, the jeweled dagger It hung in the wall an inch from the tall mirror, stuck fast from a throw made in frustration just a , but the way the candlelight played on the red garnet near the base of the po, or as if it was alive

It does not satisfy you to wound, Entreri thought, or even to kill No, that is not enough

The dagger had served Entreri well for h streets of Caliainst seely insurmountable obstacles He had been surrounded by murderers all of his life, and had bettered the in the wall had played no small part in that Entreri could use it to do more than wound or kill; he could use its vampiric properties to steal the very life-force froht Youfrom your victims - their lives, their very souls What ?

Entreri snorted softly and helplessly at that last self-evident question He shifted on the bed just a bit,himself so that he could see his reflection in the tall, ornate er in his hand to let fly, he had taken ailassy reminder out of existence Only at the last second had he shifted his aier into the wall instead

Entreri hated the mirror It was Jarlaxle&039;s prize, not his The drow spent far toohiled just right across his brow Everything was a pose for that one, and no one appreciated Jarlaxle&039;s beautyhis cloak back over one shoulder and turn just so, then reverse the cloak and strike a pose exactly opposite Siht, then back again, coordinating it with the cloak No detail of his appearance was too minor to escape Jarlaxle&039;s clever eye

But when Artemis Entreri looked into the e he did not like He didn&039;t appear anywhere near his more than four decades of life Fit and trim, with finely-honed e, feho looked upon Entreri would think him beyond thirty At Jarlaxle&039;s insistence and constant badgering, he kept his black hair neatly triht, and his face was almost always clean-shaven except for the small mustache he had come to favor He wore silk clothes, finely cut and fit - Jarlaxle would have it no other way

There was one thing about Entreri&039;s appearance, however, that the meticulous and finicky drow could not rerayish quality that made him feel as if he should be on display in a coffin, Entreri&039;s gaze inevitably slipped back to that jeweled dagger The weapon had done that to him, had taken the life essence from an extra-dimensional humanoid known as a shade and had drawn it into Entreri&039;s huh for you to siaze alternated through the sentence froain

"On the contrary," came a s only when necessary, and usually I find that to be s spurred me to the deed in the first place"

Entreri turned his head to watch Jarlaxle enter the roo loudly on the wooden floor Anot a whisper of sound, Entreri knew, for Jarlaxle could silence theht

"You look disheveled," the drow remarked He reached over to the dark wood bureau and pulled Entreri&039;s white shirt from it, then tossed it to the seated assassin

"I just awakened"

"Ah, the tigress I brought you last night drove you to slumber"

"Or she bored me to sleep"

"You worryyou entereds his thoughts, he knew, if not reading theical device

"Where is the red-haired lass?"

Entreri looked around the sed "I suspect that she left"

"Even with sleep caking your eyes, you relanced back at his dagger, and at his reflection, the side-by-side is He dropped his face into his hands and rubbed his bleary eyes

He lifted his head at the sound of banging to see Jarlaxle using the poer to nail soift fro his hands away to reveal the pals and jaide

Entreri wasn&039;t surprised Ilnezhara and her sister Tazmikella had become their benefactors, or their employers, or their companions, or whatever else Ilnezhara and Tazmikella wanted, so it seemed The sisters held every truons

Always dragons lately

Entreri had never laid eyes upon a dragon until he&039;d met Jarlaxle Since that ti of the blue," Jarlaxle whispered to the statuette, and the figurine&039;s eyes flared with a bright, icy blue light for just a moment then dimmed

"What did you just do?"

Jarlaxle turned to face Entreri, his s "Let us just say that it would not do to walk through that doorithout first identifying the dragon type"

"Blue?"

"For now," the drow teased

"How do you knoon&039;t change it on you when you&039;re out?" Entreri asked, determined to turn the tables on the cocky dark elf

Jarlaxle tapped his eye patch "Because I can see through doors," he explained "And the eyes will always give it away" His sain

"You are certain that the tigress has gone?" he asked

"Or she&039;s become very, very small"

Jarlaxle cast a sour expression Entreri&039;s way "Is she under your bed?"

"You wear the eye patch Just look through it"

"Ah, you wound ain," said the drow "Tell me, my friend, if I peer into your chest, will I see but a cavity where your heart should be?"

Entreri stood up and pulled on his shirt "Infor his jeweled dagger out of the wall, "that I ht cut out Jarlaxle&039;s heart to serve as replacee for the likes of Entreri, I fear"

Entreri started to respond, but found that he hadn&039;t the heart for it