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It didn’t take hiure out the implications of those sobs

"Where is Dahlia?" Drizzt deo Quick appeared in his cell, soh he couldn’t be certain

"Ah, you have heard the weeping of your twisted coo Quick replied "Yes, I am afraid that Dahlia and your other companions have met a most unfortunate end, and now stand as trophies in my hall"

Drizzt lowered his eyes, unable to even scream out in protest He was surprised by how profoundly the news had hit him, surprised to realize how deeply he had come to value Dahlia’s companionship Perhaps he couldn’t love her as he had loved Catti-brie, but she had become, at least, a friend

And it wasn’t just the loss of Dahlia that brought hione "Entreri," he heard hi, and he couldn’t deny the sense of loss

And so too with Aris, of whom he was quite fond, and Afafrenfere

"You have walked into so far beyond you, Drizzt Do’Urden of Menzoberranzan," Draygo Quick said, and it surprised Drizzt to hear a sincere tone of regret in the Netherese lord’s voice He looked back up, trying to find soo Quick’s expression to reveal the lie of his concerns, but he found no such thing

"To the detrio Quick continued "Of course I would defendless?"

"It would need less defending if you were not a thief and kidnapper," Drizzt retorted

"Kidnapper? You walked into my home!"

"Of Guenhwyvar," Drizzt clarified "You stole fro to you"

"Ah, yes, of course," said Draygo "The cat As I said, you have stu apparently quite beyond you, but perhaps there is hope for both of us I do not think that I will have need of the cat e are done, so perhaps you will find her co carrot had Drizzt inadvertently leaning forward, before he realized the revealing posture and corrected hio into the realm of false hope

The Netherese lord would never let hiain

He would find hio Quick came to him each day, alith questions about Drizzt’s past, about the priestesses of Lolth and about his life on the surface while following the tenets of the goddess Mielikki and the ways of the ranger

Drizzt resisted those questions at first, but his stubbornness couldn’t long hold, and some tendays later, he came to look forward to those visits

For accoo careatly improved, and was fed to hi shade, a child

One day Draygo Quick arrived with a trio of burly guards Twoup for the chains as they did

"If you struggle in the least, I will torture Effron to death before your eyes," was all that Draygo Quick bothered to say, and he took his leave

The guards put a black hood over Drizzt’s head and carried hi him in a room somewhere within the castle above They set him down in a chair, told him to reo will come to you soon," one said as they departed

Drizzt looked around at his new hohts went to the notion of escape, but he quickly diso Quick had Effron, and Guenhwyvar, and where o, in any case?

The Netherese lord had told hi far above him, and Drizzt didn’t doubt the truth of that clai time and place

Part 4: Icewind Dale

I found, to er

The anger, the frustration, the profound sense of loss yet again reer dispersed into a eneral distaste for the unfairness and harshness of life itself

I had to keep reo Quick!

What a strange realization that becaainst Luskan’s beach I remember the moment vividly, as it happened all at once (whereas the loss of the focal point took rand residence, relaxing in luxury, eating fine food, and with o’s staff had provided, when I was struck duo Quick--or if not affinity, perhaps, then er toward him

How had that happened?

Why had that happened?

This Netherese lord had imprisoned me in the most terrible of circueon cell He hadn’t torturedby his servants had often been harsh, including slaps and punches and more than a few kicks to my ribs And wasn’t the mere reality of rotesque torture?

This Netherese lord had set a medusa upontie to those coveted bygone days They were gone Dahlia, Entreri, Aris, and Afafrenfere, turned to stone and dead by the o Quick

Yet, we had invaded his ho notion seeth, day by day, as radually improved

And that was the key of it all, I cao Quick had played a subtle and tantalizing ga our lives Bit by bit, and literally, at first, bite by bite, with i food in terms of both quality and quantity

It is difficult for a starving man to slap the hand that feeds him

And when basic needs like sustenance dohts, it is no less difficult to reer, or re words steal those h every improvement felt momentous indeed), that I re animosity toward the old warlock shade