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"Irowled the yochlol The fire in the brazier puffed, and the creature again stood behind Malice, again draped dangerous tentacles over the ain?"

Malice and her daughters glanced around, on the edge of panic They knew that thewith theed this time

"House Do’Urden pleased the Spider Queen, it is true" the yochlol answered their unspoken thoughts, "but that one act does not dispel the displeasure your faht upon Lloth in the recent past Do not think that all is for-given, Matron Malice Do’Urden!"

How small and vulnerable Matron Malice felt now! Her power paled in the face of the wrath of one of Lloth’s per-sonal servants

"Displeasure?" she dared to whisper "How has ht displeasure to the Spider Queen? By what act?"

The hand spiders, but the high priestesses held their posi-tions They accepted the heat and the crawling things as part of their penance

"I have told you before, Matron Malice Do’Urden" the yochlol snarled with its droopy mouth, "and I shall tell you one final time The Spider Queen does not reply to questions whose answers are already known!" In a blast’ of explosive energy that sent the four fe to the floor, the handone

Briza was the first to recover She prudently rushed over! to the brazier and sate to the Abyss, the yochlol’s home plane

"Who?" screaain "Who in my family has invoked the wrath of Lloth?"

Malice appeared sain then, as the i becao to ith a powerful family Without Lloth’s favor, House Do’Urden likely would cease to exist

"We hters, certain that none of theh priestesses, one and all If any of them had done some misdeed in the eyes of the Spider Queen, the sum-moned yochlol surely would have exacted punishment on the spot By itself, the handmaiden could have leveled House Do’Urden

Briza pulled the snake whip froet the information we require!" she promised

"No!" said Matron Malice "We must not reveal our search

Be it a soldier or a uilty one is trained and hardened against pain We cannot hope that torture will pull the confession from his lips; not when he knows the consequences of his actions We must dis-cover the cause of Lloth’s displeasure immediately and properly punish the criles!"

"How, then, are we to discern the perpetrator?" the eldest daughter co the snake whip on her belt

"Vierna and Maya, leave us" Matron Malice instructed

"Say nothing of these revelations and do nothing to hint at our purpose"

The two younger daughters bowed and scurried away, not happy with their secondary roles but unable to do any-thing about them

"First ill look" Malice said to Briza "We will see if we can learn of the guilty one fro bowl" she said She rushed from the anteroom and into the chapel proper In the central altar she found the valuable itehout with black pearls Hands tre, Briza placed the bowl atop the altar and reached into thebin for the prized possession of House Do’Urden, a great onyx chalice

Malice then joined Briza in the chapel proper and took the chalice froreat room, Malice dipped the chalice into a sticky fluid, the unholy water of her religion She then chanted, "Spide-rae aught icor ven" The ritual complete, Malice olden bowl

She and Briza sat down to watch

Drizzt stepped onto the floor of Zaknafein’s training gym for the first time in more than a decade and felt as if he had co life here-almost wholly here For all the disappointments he had encountered since-and no doubt would continue to experience throughout his life-Drizzt would never forget that brief sparkle of innocence, that joy, he had knohen he was a student in Zaknafein’s gym

Zaknafein entered and walked over to face his for in the weapon master’s face A perpetual sco replaced the once co around it, perhaps Drizzt rilossed over Drizzt’s ? Was this hthearted chuckle, actually the cold, lurking ed, Zaknafein" Drizzt asked aloud, "you, my memories, or my perceptions?"

Zak see hero has returned" he said, "the warrior with exploits beyond his years"

"Why do you mock me?" Dnzzt protested

"He who killed the hook horrors" Zak continued His swords were out in his hands now, and Drizzt responded by drawing his sciement in this contest, or the choice of weap-ons

Drizzt knew, had known before he had ever come here, that there would be no rules this time The weapons would be their weapons of preference, the blades that each of them had used to kill so many foes

"He who killed the earth elemental" Zak snarled deri-sively He launched a e with one blade Drizzt batted it aside without even thinking of the parry

Sudden fires erupted in Zak’s eyes, as if the first contact had sundered all the emotional bonds that had teirl child of the surface elves!" he cried, an accusation and no compliment Now ca swipe descend-ing at Drizzt’s head "Who cut her apart to appease his own thirst for blood!"

Zak’s words knocked Dnzzt off his guard emotionally, wrapped his heart in confusion like soh, and his re-flexes did not register the emotional distraction A sci sword and deflected it harmlessly aside

"Murderer!" Zak snarled openly "Did you enjoy the dying child’s screa and diving, slicing at every angle

Drizzt, enraged by the hypocrite’s accusations,out for no better reason than to hear the anger of his own voice

Any watching the battle would have found no breath in the next few blurring ht as when these twothe other-and himself

Adamantite sparked and nicked, droplets of blood spat tered both the coh neither felt any pain, , and neither knew if he’d injured the other

Drizzt ca swipe that drove Zak’s swords out wide Zak followed the motion quickly, turned a co sci warrior from his feet Drizzt fell into a roll and caht cah, and Zak drove hi; he in-vited it openly Zak kept Drizzt’s weapons high through sev eral combined maneuvers He then ith thethat the best Drizzt could attain would be equal footing: double-thrust low

Drizzt executed the appropriate cross-down parry, as he had to, and Zak tensed, waiting for his eager opponent to try to i on Drizzt

Jie didn’t know that Drizzt had found the solution With all the anger he had ever known, all the disappoint- within his foot, Drizzt fo-cused on Zak That s for blood

Between the hilts, between the eyes, Drizzt kicked, blow-ing out every ounce of rage in a single blow

Zak’s nose crunched flat His eyes lolled upward, and blood exploded over his hollow cheeks Zak knew that he was falling, that the devilish young warrior would be on hie that Zak could not hope to overcome

"What of you, Zaknafein Do’Urden?" he heard Drizzt snarl, distantly, as though he were falling far away "I have heard of the exploits of House Do’Urden’s weapon !" The voice was closer now, as Drizzt stalked in, and as the rebounding rage of Zaknafein sent hi back to the battle

"I have heard how murder comes so very easily to Zakna-fein!" Drizzt spat derisively "The murder of clerics, of other drow! Do you so enjoy it all?" He ended the question with a blow from each scimitar, attacks meant to kill Zak, to kill the demon in them both

But Zaknafein was now fully back to consciousness, hat-ing himself and Drizzt equally At the lastfast, throwing Drizzt’s arms wide Then Zak finished with a kick of his own, not so strong from the prone position but accurate in its search for Drizzt’s groin

Drizzt sucked in his breath and twirled away, forcing himself back into co to his feet "Do you so enjoy it all?" he ain