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The fourteentunnels and giant caverns that sud-denly opened wide before theical boots and nearly invisible behind their piis, they coround’s slope was barely perceptible, though at tiht up rocky chi theh the boundaries of claimed territories, of noar dwarves wisely kept their heads hidden Few in all the Underdark would purposely intercept a drow raiding party
By the end of a week, all of the drow could sense the dif-ference in their surroundings The depth still would have see to a surface dweller, but the dark elves were accustomed to the constant oppression of a thousand thou-sand tons of rock hanging over their heads They turned every corner expecting the stone ceiling to flyaway into the vast openness of the surface world
Breezes wafted past thema of deep earth, but moist air, scented with a hundred aroh the dark elves, in their sea-sonless environs, knew nothing of that, and the air was full of the scents of new-blosso trees
In the seductive allure of those tantalizing aroain that the place they approached holly evil and dangerous Perhaps, he thought, the scents werecreature to bring it into the surface world’s rip
The cleric of Arach Tinilith as traveling with the raiding party walked near to one wall and pressed her face against every crack she encountered "This one will suffice" she said a short ti and looked into the tiny crack, no er’s width, a second tih that?" one of the patrol estures and ended the silent conversation with a scowl
"It is daylight above" the cleric announced "We shall have to wait here"
"For how long?" Dinin asked, knowing his patrol to be on the edge of readiness with their long-awaited goal so very near
"I cannot know" the cleric replied "No more than half a cycle of Narbondel Let us remove our packs and rest while we may"
Dinin would have preferred to continue, just to keep his troops busy, but he did not dare speak against the priestess
The break did not prove a long one, though, for a couple of hours later, the cleric checked through the crack once more and announced that the time had come
"You first" Dinin said to Drizzt Drizzt looked at his brother incredulously, having no idea of how he could pass through such a tiny crack
"Come" instructed the cleric, who now held a h"
As Drizzt passed the cleric, she spoke the orb’s command word and held it over Drizzt’s head Black flakes, bl&cker than Drizzt’s ebony skin, drifted over him, and he felt a tre-mendous shudder ripple across his spine
The others looked on in amazement as Drizzt’s body nar-rowed to the width of a hair and he becae, a shadow of his for, but the crack suddenly widened before him He slipped into it, found movement in his present forh the twists, turns, and bends of the tiny channel like a shadow on the broken face of a rocky cliff He then was in a long cave, standing across froht had fallen, but even this see drow Drizzt felt himself pulled to-ward the exit, toward the surface world’s openness The other raiders began slipping through the crack and into the cavern then, one by one with the cleric co in last Drizzt was the first to feel the shudder as his body resuerly checking their weapons
"I will remain here" the cleric told Dinin "Hunt well The Spider Queen is watching"
Dinin warned his troops once again of the dangers of the surface, then he moved to the front of the cave, a small hole on the side of a rocky spur of a tall mountain "For the Spi-der Queen" Dinin proclaih the exit, under the open sky
Under the stars! While the others seeaze pulled heaven-ward to the countless points of ht, he felt his heart lift and didn’t even notice the joyful singing that rode on the night wind, so fitting it seeh to recognize it as the eldritch calling of the surface elves He crouched and surveyed the horizon, picking out the light of a single fire down in the distant expanse of a wooded valley He nudged his troops to action-and pointedly nudged the wonderment from his brother’s eyes-and started them off
Drizzt could see the anxiety on his companions’ faces, so contrasted by his own inexplicable sense of serenity He sus-pected at once that so with the whole situation In his heart Drizzt had known from the minute he had stepped out of the tunnel that this was not the vile world the masters at the Academy had taken such pains to describe He did feel unusual with no stone ceiling above hi to his heartstrings, were indeed re, as Master Hatch’net had said, then surely the next day would not be so terrible
Only confusion da of freedom that Drizzt felt, for either he had somehow fallen into a trap of perception, or his cos through tainted eyes
It fell on Drizzt as another unanswered burden: were his feelings of comfort here weakness or truth of heart?
"They are akin to the roves of our home" Dinin assured the others as they tentatively hs of a ser dark elves flinched and brought their weapons to the ready whenever a squirrel skipped across a branch overheard or an unseen bird called out to the night The dark elves’ was a silent world, far different froti could, andits lair Even a cricket’s chirp sounded ominous to the alert ears of the drow
Dinin’s course was true, and soon the faerie song drowned out every other sound and the light of a fire be-cahs Surface elves were the -would have had little chance of catching theht were drow, more skilled in stealth than the most proficient alley thief Their footfalls went un-heard, even across beds of dry, fallen leaves, and their crafted armor, shaped perfectly to the contours of their slender bodies, bent with their movements without a rustle Unnoticed, they lined the perilade, where a score of faeries danced and sang
Transfixed by the sheer joy of the elves’ play, Drizzt hardly noticed the commands his brother issued then in the silent code Several children danced a, marked only by the size of their bodies, and were no freer in spirit than the adults they accompanied So innocent they all seemed, so full of life and wistfulness, and obviously bonded to each other by friendship more profound than Drizzt had ever known in Menzoberranzan So unlike the stories Hatch’net had spun of the wretches
Drizzt sensed ain a greater advantage Still he did not take his eyes from the spectacle before him Dinin tapped hi from his belt, then slipped off into position in the brush off to the side
Drizzt wanted to stop his brother and the others, wanted to make them wait and observe the surface elves that they were so quick to name eneue weighted heavily in the sudden dryness that had come into his mouth He looked to Dinin and could only hope that his brother ht his labored breaths the exultations of battle-lust
Then Drizzt’s keen ears heard the soft thru carried on a roup dropped to the earth
"Not" Drizzt screae even he did not understand The denial sounded like just another war cry to the drow raid-ers, and before the surface elves could even begin to react, Dinin and the others were upon the, his weap-ons in hand, though he had given no thought to his next move He wanted only to stop the battle, to put an end to the scene unfolding before him
Quite at ease in their woodland home, the surface elves weren’t even arh their ranksat their bodies long after the light of life had flown fro this way and that, came be-fore Drizzt He dipped the tips of his weapons to the earth, searching for soive a ht as a sword dove into her back, its tip thrusting right through her slender form Drizzt watched, rasped the weapon hilt in both hands and twisted it savagely The fe seconds of her life, her eyes crying for le of blood
His face the exultation of ecstacy, the droarrior tore his sword free and sliced it across, taking the head froeance!" he cried at Drizzt, his face contorted in furi-ous glee, his eyes burning with a light that shone demonic to the stunned Drizzt The warrior hacked at the lifeless body one more time, then spun away in search of another kill
Only a irl, broke free of thea single word over and over Her cry was in the tongue of the surface elves, a dialect foreign to Drizzt, but when he looked upon her fair face, streaked with tears, he understood what she was saying Her eyes were on the hed even the terror of her own ie, horror, anguish, and a dozen other emotions racked Drizzt at that horrible s, to lose hily reality How easy it would have been to throay the conscience that pained him so
The elven child rushed up before Drizzt but hardly saw hiaze locked upon her dead le, clean blow Drizzt raised his sciuish between mercy and murder
"Yes, h his comrades’ screams and whoops and echoed in Drizzt’s ears like an accusation Drizzt looked up to see Dinin, covered fro alory it is to be a drow!" Dinin cried, and he punched a victorious fist into the air "today we ap-pease the Spider Queen!"