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"Zaknafein is out of the house?" Malice asked
"I sent hie to Vierna" Briza explained "He shan’t return for ins its descent"
"That is good" said Malice "You both understand your du-ties in this farce?"
Briza and Maya nodded "I have never heard of such a de-ception" Maya remarked "Is it necessary?"
"It was planned for another of the house" Briza answered, looking to Matron Malice for confirreed Malice "The same was to be done to Zaknafein, but the unexpected death of Matron Vartha, my mother, disrupted the plans"
"That hen you became the h I had not passedin Arach Tinilith It was not a pleasant time in the history of House Do’Urden"
"But we survived" said Briza "With the death of Matron Vartha, Nalfein and I became nobles of the house"
"The test on Zaknafein was never attempted" Maya rea-soned
"Too many other duties preceded it" Malice answered
"We will try it on Drizzt, though" said Maya
"The punishment of House Thken’duis convinced me that this action had to be taken" said Malice
"Yes" Briza agreed "Did you notice Drizzt’s expression throughout the execution?"
"I did" answered Maya "He was revolted"
"Unfitting for a droarrior" said Malice, "and so this duty is upon us Drizzt will leave for the Academy in a short time, we must stain his hands with drow blood and steal his innocence"
"It seerumbled
"If Drizzt cannot adhere to our ways, then why do we not siive hirowled in re-sponse "Every ain proain in converting Drizzt to the evil ways of the drow She hated Zaknafein asDrizzt into a droarrior, a true heartless droarrior, would distress the weapon reatly
"On with it, then" Malice proclaie chest walked in, supported by eight ani-oblin slave
"Co tone Anxious to please, the slave bounded up before Malice’s throne and held perfectly still as theand complicated spell
Briza and Maya watched in adoblin’s features bulged and twisted, and its skin darkened A few minutes later, the slave had assumed the appearance of a male drow Byuchyuch looked at its fea-tures happily, not understanding that the transformation was merely a prelude to death
"You are a drow soldier now" Maya said to it, "and hter to take your place as a free commoner of House Do’Urden!" After ten years as an indentured servant to the wicked dark elves, the goblin was er
Malice rose and started out of the anteroooblin, and the ani-mated chest fell in line behind her
They cae of his sciht of the unexpected visitors
"Greetings, my son" Malice said in a tone more motherly than Drizzt had ever heard "We have a test for you this day, a sithere"
Maya est, beside yourself" she declared "Thus, I ae, which I now execute"
Drizzt stood confused He had never heard of such a thing Maya called the chest to her side and reverently opened the cover
"You have your weapons and your pii" she ex-plained "Now it is time for you to don the complete outfit of a noble of House Do’Urden" Froh black boots and handed theerly slipped out of his normal boots and put on the new ones They were incredibly soft, and they ically shifted and adjusted to a perfect fit on his feet Drizzt knew the ic within them: they would allow him to move in ab-solute silence Before he had even finished adift, even nifi-cent
Drizzt dropped his pii to the floor as he took a set of silvery chain mail In all the Realms, there was no arhed no more than a heavy shirt and would bend as easily as silken cloth, yet could deflect the tip of a spear as surely as dwarven-crafted plate ht with teapons" Maya said, "and therefore need no shield But put your sci to a drow noble" She handed Drizzt a black leather belt, its clasp a huge eeifts must be earned" As Drizzt started to don the outfit, Malice oblin, which stood nervously in the growing realization that its fight would be no simple task
"When you kill hioblin’s smile returned tenfold; it could not coainst Drizzt
When Drizzt again fastened his pii around his neck, Maya introduced the phony drow soldier "This is Byuchyuch" she said, "iftsand your proper place in the fa the contest to be a siin, then" he said, drawing his sciave Byuchyuch a cooblin took up the sword and shield that Maya had provided andto take aoffensive strikes In only a h, Drizzt realized how badly Byuchyuch handled the sword and shield Not knowing the truth of the creature’s identity, Drizzt could hardly believe that a droould show such ineptitude eapons He wondered if Byuchyuch was baiting hiht, contin-ued his cautious approach
After a few s, however, Drizzt felt coainst Byuchyuch’s shield The goblin-drow responded with a lu thrust, and Drizzt slapped its sword from its hand with his free blade and executed a siainst the hollow of Byuchyuch’s chest
"Too easy" Drizzt un