opponents.
Then Aegis-fang magically returned to Wulfgar's waiting grasp, and it was
his turn to charge.
Three of Deudermont's crew, trying to cross over, were cut down on the
central boarding plank, and now the pirates came rushing back across the opening
to flood the Sea Sprite's deck.
Drizzt Do'Urden stemmed the tide. Scimitars in hand - Twinkle glowing an
angry blue light - the elf sprang lightly onto the wide boarding plank.
The group of pirates, seeing only a single, slender enemy barring the way,
expected to bowl right through.
Their momentum slowed considerably when the first rank of three stumbled
down in a whirring blur of blades, grasping at slit throats and bellies.
Deudermont and the helmsman, rushing to support Drizzt, slowed and watched
the display. Twinkle and its companion scimitar rose and dipped with blinding
speed and deadly accuracy. Another pirate went down, and yet another had his
sword struck from his hand, so he dove into the water to escape the terrible
elven warrior.
The remaining five pirates froze as if paralyzed, their mouths hanging open
in silent screams of terror.
Deudermont and the helmsman also jumped back in surprise and confusion, for
with Drizzt absorbed in the concentration of battle, the magical mask had played
a trick of its own. It had slipped from the drow's face, revealing his dark
heritage to all around.
* * *
"Even if ye flame the sails, the ship'll get in," Catti-brie observed,
noting the short distance between the remaining pirate ship and the tangled
ships at the entrance to the channel.
"The sails?" Bruenor laughed. "Suren I mean to get more than that!"
Catti-brie stood back from the dwarf, digesting his meaning. "Ye're daft!"
She gawked as Bruenor brought the chariot down to deck level.
"Bah! I'll stop the dogs! Hang on, girl!"
"The demons, I will!" Catti-brie shouted back. She patted Bruenor on the
head and went with an alternate plan, dropping from the back of the chariot and
into the water.
"Smart girl," Bruenor chuckled, watching her splash safely. Then his eyes
went back to the pirates. The crew at the rear of the ship had seen him coming
and were diving every which way to get clear.
Pinochet, at the front of the ship, looked back at the unexpected commotion
just as Bruenor crashed in.
"Moradin!"
* * *
The dwarf's war cry resounded to the decks of the Sea Sprite and the third
pirate vessel, above all the din of battle. Pirates and sailors alike on the
embattled ships glanced back at the explosion on Pinochet's flagship, and
Pinochet's crew answered Bruenor's cry with one of terror.
Wulfgar paused at the plea to the dwarven god, remembering a dear friend who
used to shout such names at his enemies.
Drizzt only smiled.
* * *
As the chariot crashed to the deck, Bruenor rolled off the back and
Alustriel's dweomer came apart, transforming the chariot into a rolling ball of
destruction. Flames swept across the deck, licked at the masts, and caught the
bottoms of the sails.
Bruenor regained his feet, his mithril axe poised in one hand and shining
golden shield strapped across his other. But no one cared to challenge him at
that moment. Those pirates who had escaped the initial devastation were
concerned only with escape.
Bruenor spat at them and shrugged. And then, to the amazement of those few
who saw him, the crazy dwarf walked straight into the flames, heading forward to
see if any of the pirates up front wanted to play.
Pinochet knew at once that his ship was lost. Not the first time, and
probably not the last, he consoled himself as he calmly motioned his closest
officer to help him loose a small rowboat. Two of his other crewmen had the same
idea and were already untying the little boat when Pinochet got there.
But in this disaster, it was every man for himself, and Pinochet stabbed one
of them in the back and chased the other away.
Bruenor emerged, unbothered by the flames, to find the front of the ship
nearly deserted. He grinned happily when he saw the little boat, and the pirate
captain, touch down in the water. The other pirate was bent over the rail,
untying the last of the lines.
And as the pirate hoisted one leg over the rail, Bruenor helped him along,
putting a booted foot into his rear and launching him clear of the rail, and of
the little rowboat.
"Turn yer back, will ye?" Bruenor grunted at the pirate captain as the dwarf
dropped heavily into the rowboat. "I've a girl to pick out of the water!"
Pinochet gingerly slid his sword out of its sheath and peeked back over his
shoulder.
"Will ye?" Bruenor asked again.
Pinochet swung about, chopping down viciously at the dwarf.
"Ye could've just said no," Bruenor taunted, blocking the blow with his
shield and launching a counter at the man's knees.
* * *
Of all the disasters that had befallen the pirates that day, none horrified
them more than when Wulfgar went on the attack. He had no need for a boarding
plank; the mighty barbarian leaped the gap between the ships. He drove into the
pirate ranks, scattering rogues with powerful sweeps of his war hammer.
From the central plank, Drizzt watched the spectacle. The drow had not
noticed that his mask had slipped, and he wouldn't have had time to do anything
about it anyway. Meaning to join his friend, he rushed the five remaining
pirates on the plank. They parted willingly, preferring the water below to the
killing blades of a drow elf.
Then the two heroes, the two friends, were together, cutting a swath of
destruction across the deck of the pirate ship. Deudermont and his crew, trained
fighters themselves, soon cleared the Sea Sprite of pirates and had won over
every boarding plank. Now knowing victory to be at hand, they waited at the rail
of the pirate ship, escorting the growing wave of willing prisoners back to the
Sea Sprite's hold while Drizzt and Wulfgar finished their task.
* * *
"You will die, bearded dog!" Pinochet roared, slashing with his sword.
Bruenor, trying to settle his feet on the rocking boat, let the man keep the
offensive, holding his own strikes for the best moments.
One came unexpectedly as the pirate Bruenor had booted from the burning ship
caught up to the drifting rowboat. Bruenor watched his approach out of the
corner of his eye.
The man grabbed the side of the little boat and hoisted himself up - only to
be met with a blow to the top of the head by Bruenor's mithril axe.
The pirate dropped back down beside the rowboat, turning the water crimson.
"Friend o' yers?" Bruenor taunted.
Pinochet came on even more furiously, as Bruenor had hoped. The man missed a
wild swing, overbalancing to Bruenor's right. The dwarf helped Pinochet along,
shifting his weight to heighten the list of the boat and slamming his shield
into the pirate captain's back.
"On yer life," Bruenor called as Pinochet bobbed back above the water a few
feet away, "lose the sword!" The dwarf recognized the importance of the man, and
he preferred to let someone else row.
With no options open to him, Pinochet complied and swam back to the little
boat. Bruenor dragged him over the side and plopped him down between the oars.
"Turn 'er back!" the dwarf roared. "And be pullin' hard!"
* * *
"The mask is down," Wulfgar whispered to Drizzt when their business was
finished. The drow slipped behind a mast and replaced the magical disguise.
"Do you think they saw?" Drizzt asked when he returned to Wulfgar's side.
Even as he spoke, he noticed the Sea Sprite's crew lining the deck of the pirate
ship and eyeing him suspiciously, their weapons in hand.
"They saw," Wulfgar remarked. "Come," he bade Drizzt, heading back toward
the boarding plank. "They will accept this!"
Drizzt wasn't so certain. He remembered other times when he had rescued men,
only to have them turn on him when they saw under the cowl of his cloak and
learned the true color of his skin.
But this was the price of his choice to forsake his own people and come to
the surface world.
Drizzt grabbed Wulfgar by the shoulder and stepped by him, resolutely
leading the way back to the Sea Sprite. Looking back at his young friend, he
winked and pulled the mask off his face. He sheathed his scimitars and turned to
confront the crew.
"Let them know Drizzt Do'Urden," Wulfgar growled softly behind him, lending
Drizzt all the strength he would ever need.
12
Comrades
Bruenor found Catti-brie treading water beyond the carnage of Pinochet's
ship. Pinochet paid the young woman no attention, though. Far in the distance,
the crew on his remaining ship, the bulky artillery vessel, had brought the
fires under control, but had turned tail and sailed away with all the speed it
could muster.
"I thought ye had forgot me," Catti-brie said as the rowboat approached.
"Ye should've stayed by me side," the dwarf laughed at her.
"I've not the kinship with fire as yerself," Catti-brie retorted with a bit
of suspicion.
Bruenor shrugged. "Been that way since the halls," he replied. "Mighten be
me father's father's armor."
Catti-brie grabbed the side of the low-riding boat and started up, then
paused in a sudden realization as she noticed the scimitar strapped across
Bruenor's back. "Ye've got the drow's blade!" she said, remembering the story
Drizzt had told her of his battle with a fiery demon. The magic of the
ice-forged scimitar had saved Drizzt from the fire that day. "Suren that's yer
salvation!"
"Good blade," Bruenor muttered, looking at its hilt over his shoulder. "The
elf should find it a name!"
"The boat will not hold the weight of three," Pinochet interrupted.
Bruenor turned an angry glare on him and snapped, "Then swim!"
Pinochet's face contorted, and he started to rise threateningly.
Bruenor recognized that he had taunted the proud pirate too far. Before the
man could straighten, the dwarf slammed his forehead into Pinochet's chest,
butting him over the back of the rowboat. Without missing a beat, the dwarf
grabbed Catti-brie's wrist and hoisted her up by his side. "Put yer bow on him,
girl," he said loudly enough for Pinochet, once again bobbing in the water, to
hear. He threw the pirate the end of a rope. "If he don't keep up, kill 'im!"
Catti-brie set a silver-shafted arrow to Taulmaril's string and took a bead
on Pinochet, playing through the threat, though she had no intention of
finishing off the helpless man. "They call me bow the Heartseeker," she warned
"Suren ye'd be wise to swim."
The proud pirate pulled the rope around him and paddled.
* * *
"No drow's coming back to this ship!" one of Deudermont's crewmen growled at
Drizzt.
The man took a slap on the back of the head for his words, and then
sheepishly moved aside as Deudermont stepped up to the boarding plank. The
captain studied the expressions of his crewmen as they surveyed the drow who had
been their companion for weeks.
"What'll ye do with him?" one sailor dared to ask.
"We've men in the water," the captain replied, deflecting the pointed
question. "Get them out and dry, and throw the pirates in chains." He waited a
moment for his crewmen to disperse, but they held their positions, entranced by
the drama of the dark elf.
"And get these ships untangled!" Deudermont roared.
He turned to face Drizzt and Wulfgar, now only a few feet from the plank.
"Let us retire to my cabin," he said calmly. "We should talk."
Drizzt and Wulfgar did not answer. They went with the captain silently,
absorbing the curious, fearful, and outraged stares that followed them.
Deudermont stopped halfway across the deck, joining a group of his crew as
they looked to the south, past Pinochet's burning ship, to a small rowboat
pulling hard in their direction.
"The driver of the fiery chariot that rushed across the sky," one of the
crewman explained.
"He took down that ship!" another exclaimed, pointing to the wreckage of
Pinochet's flagship, now listing badly and soon to sink. "And sent the third one
running!"
"Then a friend of ours, he is indeed!" the captain replied.
"And of ours," Drizzt added, turning all eyes back upon him. Even Wulfgar
looked curiously at his companion. He had heard the cry to Moradin, but had not
dared to hope that it was indeed Bruenor Battlehammer rushing to their aid.
"A red-bearded dwarf, if my guess is correct," Drizzt continued. "And with
him, a young woman."
Wulfgar's jaw dropped open. "Bruenor?" he managed to whisper. "Catti-brie?"
Drizzt shrugged. "That is my guess."
"We shall know soon enough," Deudermont assured them. He instructed his
crewmen to bring the passengers of the rowboat to his cabin as soon as they came
aboard, then he led Drizzt and Wulfgar away, knowing that on the deck the drow
