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"About those other lovers, you mean," Dahlia said, and she let a hint of wickedness slip into her tone But any hopes that Entreri was looking for a voyeuristic thrill were quickly dashed by the stern-faced assassin

"Which one represents Herzgo Alegni?" Entreri asked

Dahlia tried unsuccessfully to keep the startled look off her face Why would he say such a thing? Particularly now?

"I notice that you did not ni’s death," Entreri said, and Dahlia realized that a long while had passed while she had chewed over Entreri’s previous comment "You didn’t remove any, or shift any from one ear to the other Why is that?"

"You do not wish to hear," Dahlia replied

"Should I be jealous? Or afraid?"

"You do not seerinned back at her, a look that a on

"Herzgo Alegni was my rapist, never a lover," she said evenly, and Entreri nodded and didn’t see tone, and seelad of it

"And ill you move the black diamond?"

Dahlia stared at him sternly, but didn’t reply

"The old swords a full glass with his right hand and draining it He wiped his ht hand, dispose with your left"

Again Dahlia sat silent, digesting the assassin’s cutting insights Of course, none of the diani, but it was also true that all of thea her lovers was because of hi her lovers was because of hih to win the necessary fight and end her own pain

And thus all of them served to satiate the woni’s just reward …

But what about Drizzt, then, she wondered?

They drank soet very close to Entreri as they sat on his bed, and made sure to turn just so, that she could afford hi views of her blouse, unbuttoned low And she made sure to touch him just so, to comfort him at first, then to tantalize hi that very effect

"You deny it, but you love Drizzt," Entreri said unexpectedly, throwing her back, but just a bit

"I am not with Drizzt," she protested

"Because you love him, and he has pushed you away Dahlia cannot accept that, can she?"

"Do you really want to talk about Drizzt?" she said, deteret sidetracked

"Or are you, perhaps, jealous of him?" Entreri posed "Jealousy, or simple admiration?"

Dahlia sat back and stared at hier than you," Entreri explained "Because of his choices I can assure you, from first-hand experience, that Drizzt’s ho you have ever known--even the violation by Alegni"

"I do not think you can ry

"A vile place Horrid in every regard"

"And worse than anything I have known?"

Entreri paused for athe question deeply, but then he nodded "Or at least as bad And Drizzt grew up there, betrayed always by his family

"As bad?" Dahlia said and she pointedly snorted "Do you speak of s for Drizzt? Jealousy? Admiration? Or of your own?"

"No, it really is love for you, I think," Entreri said, dodging "I don’t blame you Drizzt survived Drizzt has thrived, where you have not"

"Where we have not," Dahlia insisted

Entreri had no answer

They drank some more, and their talk turned to their current situation, but Dahlia would hear no further discussion regarding Drizzt, and indeed, when Entreri tried to bring up the subject of the drow, Dahlia fell over hiry kiss

And though she had intended to feign exactly this to reach her oal was nowhere in Dahlia’s rabbed at his shirt and began unbuttoning it He tried to protest, but half-heartedly, his objections no s Dahlia stirred in him

Down the hallway a bit, a door cracked open, and a shadowy face peeked into the corridor, watching Entreri’s rented room

The sounds fro behind that door, and it brought a scowl to the face of the watcher

Effron Alegni resisted his initial urge to charge into that other rooic on the couple He re, then pointedly re Drizzt, not these two