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Noise from the corridor turned Jarlaxle&039;s head, but not the wo under his breath and dragging Canthan at the end of one arerkhan

The woman looked at him with a mixture of surprise, curiosity, and horror

Entreri had no tirabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her aside, then dropped Canthan before Olgerkhan

Arrayan came back at hi look the woman had ever seen

With her out of the way, Entreri turned his attention to Olgerkhan He grabbed the large half-orc&039;s hand and pulled it out over the groaning Canthan He put his dagger into Olgerkhan&039;s pallanced at Arrayan then at Jarlaxle, and he drove the dagger down into Canthan&039;s back

He slipped his thuer&039;s jeweled hilt, and willed the blade to feed The va the very soul of Canthan and feeding it back to its wielder

Olgerkhan&039;s chest lifted and his eyes opened as he coughed forth his first breath in asp for a moment His eyes widened in horror as he ca He tried to pull his hand away

But Entreri held hi him to feed until Canthan&039;s life-force was simply no ht between horror and joy She came forward and Entreri did not try to stop her He extracted his dagger frorasp andwith joy and saying, "It was always you," over and over again

Olgerkhan just shook his head, staring blankly at Entreri for a th and health renewed Then he focused on Arrayan, upon her words, and he buried his face in her hair

"Ah, the kindness of your heart," Jarlaxle remarked to the assassin "How unselfish of you, since the contender for your prize was about to be no more"

"Maybe I just wanted Canthan dead"

"Then maybe you should have killed hihed all at once

"Where is Ellery?" Entreri asked

"I believe that you nicked her heart"

Entreri shook his head at the insanity of it all

"She was unreliable, in any case," Jarlaxle said "Obviously so I do take offense omen I have bedded turn on me with such fury"

"If it happens often, then perhaps you should work on your technique"

That had Jarlaxle laughing, but just for a moment "So we are five," he said "Or perhaps four," he added, glancing at the hole

"Stubborn dwarf?" asked the assassin

"Is there any other kind?"

Entreri ly one," he called down "Your wizard friend is dead"

"Bah!" Athrogate snorted

Entreri glanced back at Jarlaxle then rabbed Canthan&039;s corpse, and hauled hi him with a splat beside the surprised dwarf

"Your friend is dead," Entreri said again, and the dwarf didn&039;t bother to argue the point "And so now you&039;ve a choice"

"Eat hiate asked

"Eat hi up beside Entreri to peer in at the dwarf "Or you could come out of the hole and help us"

"Help ye what?"

"Win," said the drow

"Didn&039;t ye just stop that possibility when Canthan put it forth?"

"No," Jarlaxle said with certainty "Canthan rong He believed that Arrayan was the continuing source of power for the castle, but that is not so She was the beginning of the enchantment, &039;tis true, but this place is far beyond her"

The drow had all of the others listening by then, with Olgerkhan, the color returned to his face, standing solidly once more

"If I believed otherwise, then I would have killed Arrayan , a great and powerful one"

"How do you know this?" Entreri asked, and he seeate

"I saw enough of the book to recognize that it has a different design than the one Herabalus," the drow explained "And there is so else" He put a hand over the extra-dimensional pocket button he wore, where he kept the skull-shaped geth here, a iven all that I know of Zhengyi and all that the dragon sisters told me, with their words and with the fear that was so evident in their eyes, it is not hard forabout?" asked Entreri

"Dragon sisters?" Athrogate added, but no one paid hi," said Jarlaxle "I know he exists and I knohere he is"

"And you kno to kill him?" Entreri asked It was a hopeful question, but one that was not answered with a hopeful response

The assassin let it go at that, surely realizing he&039;d never get a straight answer fro then, looking up intently

"Are you with us? Or should we leave you to eat your friend and starve?" Entreri asked

Athrogate looked down at Canthan then back up at Entreri "Don&039;t look like he&039;d taste too good, and one thing I&039;ood" and "food" a bit off on both, so that they seeht a scowl to Entreri&039;s face

"He starts that again and he&039;s staying in the hole," he re off his belt that he ain

"We&039;ll have your word that you&039;ll ainst any of us," Entreri said

"Ye&039;re to be takin&039; me word?"

"No, but then I can kill you with a clearer conscious"

"Bwahaha!"

"I do so hate him," Entreri muttered to Jarlaxle, and he rin, thinking that perhaps it was yet another reason for hiate out and by their side The dwarf&039;s lack of concern for Canthan was genuine, Jarlaxle knew, and Athrogate would not go against them unless he found it to be in his best interests

Which, of course, was the ith all of Jarlaxle&039;s friends