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"I died with o back to hi I can say?" Drizzt asked

"Me king," the dwarf answered "He’ll be waitin’ foryet that’d make Moradin turn me away! But I will I’m knowin’ that I will if I don’t end this now"

Drizzt tried to focus on the words, but a disconcerting thought had crossed his

"Bruenor will not … rise?" the drow asked, his voice hesitant He could hardly bear to look at Pwent, his old friend, in this wretched state, but to see Bruenor Battlehammer, his dearest friend for more than a century, similarly afflicted, would be more than his heart could bear, he was sure

"No, elf" Pwent assured hirave, where ye put hiood and all, and dyin’ the hero Unlike meself"

"None question the heroics of Thibbledorf Pwent, in the fight for Gauntlgryend is wide and grand, your legacy secure"

Pwent nodded and grunted in thanks and didn’t speak the obvious: that his legacy would remain secure only if he turned away from his current course And there was only one way to accomplish that

He put his thick hand atop Drizzt’s and repeated, "Ah, "

"So be it," Drizzt said, and he had trouble getting those words out of hisI want to get back to Neverwinter, and soon!"

"Farewell, my friend," Drizzt said, and he walked out of the cave "Sit in feast and hoist aBruenor in Dwarfhome"

"To Clan Battlehammer and to yerself, too, elf," Pwent answered, and it did Drizzt’s heart a bit of good to hear the serenity in his voice, as if he had truly co it as his best, or only, choice Still, Drizzt’s heart could not have been heavier as he walked out of that cave

He paused outside and turned back to regard the dark opening, though Pas now out of sight He should stay and witness this, he thought He owed that iven so much to him and to Bruenor over the decades Pwent had been as rym as any of them, and now Drizzt would just walk away and let hi sun?

"Cory look indeed

"You can’t do anything for hi over to take Drizzt’s hand "He ree with that? If so, then go and enlist him to our side A vampire is a powerful companion, I know"

Drizzt studied her, not quite understanding her real intent, and not quite able to discount her words or the possibility of taking Thibbledorf Pwent along Didn’t he owe his old friend that much at least?

"But he will eat," Dahlia added "And if he can find no food other than goblinkin, he will feast on the neck of an elf, or a huer--if he could, you would find great and powerful coht resist them or their temptations of immortality?"

"You know this?"

"I have much experience with these creatures," Dahlia explained "Thay is littered with the

"There is nothing you can do for hiard her, he found true sylad of that "There is nothing anyone can do for him, except the dwarf himself He can end his torment, as he has decided, before the curse further eats hisva themselves before the affliction could fully take hold"

Drizzt took a deep breath, but did not turn fro

"Let hiain as a hero, for few so afflicted could ever so resist the dark temptations, as he now intends"

Drizzt nodded, and knew that he had to be satisfied with that, that he had to take the small victory and hold it close In his mind, he drew a parallel between Pwent and Artemis Entreri, as he considered Dahlia’s claim that Pould indeed feast upon an elf or huoodly person That was his nature now, and it was a powerful, irresistible demand

So what of Entreri? The man had killed , or not only in the service of the greater good?

Aye, that was always the question, Drizzt recognized And it was always his hope that Entreri would find his way around that vicious nature

How ironic that Thibbledorf Pwent had to sacrifice himself, without hope, while Entreri continued to draw breath How tragic that the insurer ent’s to bear, while hope could remain for Artemis Entreri

Indeed, that reality proved to be a bitter pill

Chapter 5: Purpose

AT DRIZZT’S INSISTENCE, THE FIVE COMPANIONS LEFT NEVERWINTER EARLY the next ht before, Drizzt was deterlance to the east, to the forest where he had found the cursed Thibbledorf Pwent, and many times did that sad reality throw him back in time, to the fall of Pwent and Bruenor

He kept shaking the darkness away, andthe five coht of winter, which ca the land around the forest in deep snows and bringing sheets of dangerous ice all along the northern Sword Coast Many ti their short journey Dahlia asked Drizzt what he was planning, and er, but the drow rerin

"Port Llast?" Entreri asked when their destination became obvious, for they turned onto a trail that led down fro quarry and port city, Port Llast hardly reseer

"Ye slurring yer words for a reason?" Aris asked