Page 55 (2/2)

Drizzt shrugged again "When you’re in the forest on a dark night, is not your hearing more keen?"

"That’s different"

"Is it?"

Dahlia started to reply, but stopped, and stopped walking, too She stared at the drow for a few heartbeats

"You may find that after a while in the Underdark, you will come to sense direction as easily as you do in the World Above," Drizzt said

"Who would wish to spend any more time in the Underdark than we have already?"

The snide remark, and the short ht Drizzt by surprise He thought to tell her about all the beautiful things that could be found in the subterranean world beneath Faerûn Even Menzoberranzan--which Dahlia, as a surface elf, could not likely see as anything but a slave--was a place of dazzling beauty Drizzt had chosen the surface world as his hoh for years it had pained his sensitive eyes He found beauty in the forests and the ays, in the clouds and the rolling fields, and in the grandeur of the mountains But there was no less beauty to be found below, he knew, though it didn’t often occur to him He had rarely been in the Underdark in the last half-century and perhaps because of that fact, he had come to see it differently He appreciated its beauty, both dorked and natural

He didn’t tell any of that to Dahlia, however She was at a disadvantage there, out of her element and surrounded by four companions ere not out of theirs She didn’t like that, Drizzt realized, and in looking at her as she again walked beside hi way before being corrected by Bruenor She didn’t knohich direction hich Her perfect armor had revealed a seam, after all

And in that seam, Drizzt noted a scar, an old and deep wound, a flicker of pain behind the always-intense gleam of her blue eyes, a hesitance in her always-confident stride, a defensive curl of her always-squared shoulders

His intrigue surprised him Her appeal at that moment overwhelmed him Of course he’d marveled at the unusual beauty of the elf, particularly at the allure of her deadly fighting dance

But so, so

"Pull it down! Pull it down!" Stokely Silverstream co their ropes froe red lizard to the floor Up ahead, hosts, battled the salamanders, but the dwarves’ victory over their ene, voracious, fearsoer victory

Stokely hih it took several heavy blows from his axe to accouard caught up to the others, the fighting had ended Dead and wounded sala with three of Stokely’s boys The two priests acco the score of warriors went to work furiously, but one of those dwarves died there in the deep corridor of Gauntlgry

But on the dwarves went, undeterred, following the ghosts and their destiny

Barely an hour later, still before theirfro down at them

Stokely stared ahead uncertainly Perhaps they could outrun the elemental-kin, but if they tried and ran intoin yer heels, me boys," the dwarf leader told his fellows "More to kill"

Not a dwarf co under white knuckles The few ghosts that had silently led the force, but no sounds of battle echoed down at Stokely’s crew

Just a call, and a cheer: "Mirabar!"

And out they came, two-score and ten, an elite squad of the Shield of Mirabar

"Well reat relief, for both groups had known battle after battle with minions of the primordial for the last several days

"Stokely Silverstream of Icewind Dale, at yer service!" the leader froraybeard stepped forward from the ranks of Mirabarran dwarves "Icewind Dale?" he asked "Be ye Battlehammers, then?"

"Aye, and well met," Stokely replied "Mithral Hall’s our older hoar Hammerstriker, at yer service, and well raybeard "For two-score years I called Mithral HallBruenor, Moradin kiss hi Banak afore Mirabar calledBruenor fell?"

"No bell can sing the tune sad enough," Torgar replied, "and heavy weighed the stones o’ his grave A dark day in Mithral Hall"

Stokely nodded, but said nothing more at that time other than, "A dark day for all dwarf-kin" Perhaps he would discuss the "end" of King Bruenor at length with Torgar later on Protocol de the death ruse of an abdicating dwarf king, but so many years removed, the whispers would not be out of order

"Torgar!" caly arse!"

Torgar spotted the shouting dwarf and his face lit up with recognition, and with fired memories of an old war

"Could that be ye, there?" the Mirabarran leader called back "Or ahosts than I thinked?"

It was no ghost

Drizzt rolled ahead and to the right, ignoring the salaed He ca the way into the last pair of beasts, just as he heard a sickly splat behind hi salamander crumbled to the floor

His parallel blades worked opposite circles, left hand under to the left, right hand under to the right, each wrapping back over spears, and with a powerful exhale, Drizzt threw his weapons and the spears out wide to either side and abruptly stopped his charge, leaning back and leaping up, double-kicking the two salamanders directly in front of him The drow landed flat on his back, but his ht, that it seemed to any onlookers--and certainly to his two surprised opponents--as if soht back to his feet