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His tone had all eyes looking his way
"Be warned," Entreri griht be on the road soon after"
Chapter 6: The Battle of Port Llast
THE CHEERING FOLLOWED THE FIVE COMPANIONS ALL THE WAY BACK TO Stonecutter’s Solace, and even inside the tavern, where their table was visited repeatedly by proud Port Llast villagers, clapping their backs and proood in the seaside town
"They’ve been starved for such a night as we have given them," Drizzt remarked in one of the few moments when the five found the, this town has been in retreat, the minions of Uht back to that?" Aris asked
"Only if we allow it," Afafrenfere interjected before Drizzt could, and the drow nodded and sreement and appreciation
Others ca a fistful of foas, and the conversation widened to s thethrown their way The dwarf took it all in with a gap-toothed s the accolades, but not as much as she enjoyed the ale
Afafrenfere, too, reveled in the glory, though he wouldn’t partake of alcohol, pushing the s placed in front of hiris all the happier
Truly, Drizzt enjoyed watching his companions’ reaction to the celebration , and the libations, of which he would only ris, who reminded him of so many old friends he had known in his decades in Mithral Hall, and Afafrenfere, who appeared to be validating the dwarf’s belief in the goodly bent of his disposition What warh, was the reaction, the sincere sht
The journey to Gauntlgry her ni had taken iven, Drizzt knew On the road to Gauntlgryht at the winged bridge, Entreri had posited that perhaps the expectation of revenge had sated Dahlia’s unrelenting anger better than the realization of that revenge The way Entreri had explained it to Drizzt was that a person could always pretend that some future event would solve many more proble
Drizzt winced slightly as he watched the young elf woht of Dahlia ni’s head with her wildly-spinning flails The tears, the horror, the unrelenting anger … no, not anger, for that word hardly sufficed to describe the eed Dahlia
Drizzt had coe, of course, for Dahlia had painted for hini had h she was barely more than a child at the time
And now, in addition to the co revenge, there came a second rub, an even deeper, or at least, an evenissue: that of the twisted tiefling warlock, Dahlia’s son What turly delicate frame, Drizzt wondered? What questions, unanswerable, and what deep regrets?
Drizzt could only i in his past to the stor within Dahlia While he had faced his own trials and trauma, even the betrayals of his own fa elf had faced--and indeed, that only ree he had been when he had left House Do’Urden to serve his tithere
He wanted to empathize, to understand and to offer soht say would surely sound hollow
He couldn’t truly understand
Which had hi his head toward someone who, apparently, could Bound by trauma, Artemis Entreri and Dahlia had found comfort in each other That much seemed undeniable to Drizzt He understood now their quiet words, and what a fool he felt hier True, the wicked Charon’s Claw had nified his response, and had prodded hies of the two entwined in passion, but still it felt to Drizzt as if, blinded by his own needs and pride, he had failed an important test in his relationship with Dahlia
And where he had failed, this man Entreri had succeeded
He watched the assassin now, sitting cal the drinks, and even pats on the back, but with a distant, detached expression
Drizzt leaned over and whispered to Entreri when he found a break in the strearatulations, "You ht, in the good we have wrought"
Arte of an ettin "Actually," he corrected, "the way I see it, we helped them and they threw rocks at us"
"They didn’t knoas you on the roof," Drizzt argued
"Still hurts"
But even Entreri’s unrelenting sarcasht for Drizzt He had led his co for exactly this situation and outcoht, for this night exceeded his wildest hopes for their venture to Port Llast
And it was only the beginning, Drizzt Do’Urden vowed, lifting ain toast to Artemis Entreri