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"You could have run!" he shouted at her, and there was a profound shakiness to his voice

"I know," she whispered "But I didn’t know"

"Why didn’t you just leave me? Do you know the pain I have suffered?"

"You were h, she realized, for that was all she had Before Effron could reply, she stood up and walked for the ladder

"You can leave us in Memnon," she told him, "and I will not stop you You can find me and kill me if you choose I will not resist, and I will dee upon you, whateverup the ladder and not back at him, she paused and waited for a tirade that did not come

So Dahlia left him there

"Do you wish to talk about it?" Drizzt asked Dahlia that night when he came to her as she sat alone on the deck Guenhwyvar paced wearily beside him

Dahlia turned to Drizzt and stared at hi from the tone There was no hostility there He knew about her tryst with Entreri, she kneithout doubt, for Aris had warned Entreri of Effron’s revelations, and he in turn had told Dahlia

But neither was there comprehension in Drizzt, Dahlia believed, and apparently that showed in her expression, for Drizzt then rerew up in a dark place Perhaps I do not understand that which you have suffered, but er than you have been alive, was spent a of murder and deception"

Dahlia licked her lips, a bit off guard by this uncharacteristic display Drizzt was reaching out to her Despite the distance that had grown between theulf that had driven her to Arte here The elf woman reached over and patted Guen and the panther curled up at her feet, gave a great, toothy yawn, and sank down to the deck

She appreciated Drizzt’s integrity, but still, there was nothing for her to say Not then

Drizzt reached out his arrateful for the hug She even ad to further intimacy, she wouldn’t stop him

But he didn’t, and in a roundabout way, that seemed to Dahlia a rejection in and of itself She moved to line up with Drizzt’s face and kissed him passionately

Or tried to, for he turned away at the last rabbed at hi to push herself upon hi for that, however, and he held her there

So she punched hied her close again, tighter this ti her arms

She wanted to kill him!

Nay, she wanted to, needed to, ainst her and inside her She needed to devour him, to use him as her emotional anchor, to know that he loved her as she …

Dahlia stopped struggling and found it hard to breathe

After a short while, Drizzt pushed her back to arain, as often as you can"

Dahlia felt her jaw drop open, and she held that pose as Drizzt turned to theDahlia as surely as he was the cat, for he then scrambled up to his post--a post that had becohts

Dahlia didn’t knohat to think, or what to feel She needed Drizzt at that moment, but he had left

She needed her lover

Dahlia had never needed a lover

Never!

Until now, and she needed hione to Entreri that night in Baldur’s Gate? Was it anger that had driven her to his bed? Or was it fear of these startling and undeniable feelings toward this rogue drow?

She felt as if she were on that cliff again, throwing Effron to the wind She had ruined him on that fateful day, but she had invariably ruined herself as well

Had she done the sa to Entreri?

She watched Guenhwyvar dissolving into gray ness, and she saw that as an appropriate representation of her relationship with Drizzt

"Go to Effron," Drizzt called down to her, and she felt as if he were reading her inner turmoil "You can repair this"

Effron

"Effron," she whispered under her breath

Dahlia found herself terrified of even daring to hope She wanted nothing more than to cut her orist and melt down onto the deck and sob until death mercifully ended this cruel torhts, denying the despair

Eventually, the elf woed to turn and look over her shoulder, in the direction of the aft hatch and the small room where Effron remained

She went there, quietly, and didn’t even rouse the sleeping dwarf and monk, or Effron, who tossed and turned in his hammock with troubled dreams She quietly set the chair near that hammock, and eventually put her hand on Effron’s twisted shoulder, whispering for him to be still

She fell asleep there, and when she woke up, she found Effron staring back at her fro no move to push her hand away, for it remained on his shoulder

She tried to decipher the young warlock’s expression, but found she could not Certainly, the pain reular features, but what she could not then see, however, was the venom that had been so clear previously

Dahlia sed hard "We put into Memnon this day," she said "I hold to my word, if that is your choice" Her voice nearly broke apart as she finished, "I hope you will sail back out with us"