lines on either side of his neck.
When the four friends returned to the merchant's tent with their prisoner,
they found, to their relief, the little goblin lying where Drizzt had bopped
him. Bruenor none too gently pulled the unfortunate creature up behind Sali
Dalib and tied the two back to back. Wulfgar moved to help and wound up hooking
a loop of the rope over Bruenor's forearm. The dwarf wiggled free and pushed the
barbarian away.
"Should've stayed in Mithril Hall," Bruenor grumbled. "Safer with the gray
ones than beside yerself and the girl!"
Wulfgar and Catti-brie looked to Drizzt for support, but the drow just
smiled and moved to the side of the tent.
"Ha ha ha ha ha," Sali Dalib giggled nervously. "No problem here. We deal?
Many riches, I have. What you need-"
"Shut yer mouth!" Bruenor snapped at him. The dwarf winked at Drizzt,
indicating that he meant to play the bad guy role in the encounter.
"I don't be lookin' for riches from one what's tricked me," Bruenor growled.
"Me heart's for revenge!" He looked around at his friends. "Ye all saw his face
when he thought me dead. Suren was him that put the riding bandits on us."
"Sali Dalib never-" the merchant stammered.
"I said, 'shut yer mouth!'" Bruenor shouted in his face, cowing him. The
dwarf brought his axe up and ready on his shoulder.
The merchant looked to Drizzt, confused, for the drow had replaced the mask
and now appeared as a surface elf once again. Sali Dalib guessed the truth of
Drizzt's identity, figuring the black skin to be more fitting on the deadly elf,
and he did not even think of begging for mercy from Drizzt.
"Wait on it, then," Catti-brie said suddenly, grabbing the handle of
Bruenor's weapon. "May that there be a way for this dog to save his neck."
"Bah! What would we want o' him?" Bruenor shot back, winking at Catti-brie
for playing her part to perfection.
"He'll get us to Calimport," Catti-brie replied. She cast a steely gaze at
Sali Dalib, warning him that her mercy was not easily gotten. "Suren this time
he'll take us down the true bestest road."
"Yes, yes, ha ha ha ha ha," Sali Dalib blurted. "Sali Dalib show you de
way!"
"Show?" balked Wulfgar, not to be left out. "You will lead us all the way to
Calimport."
"Very long way," grumbled the merchant. "Five days or more. Sali Dalib
cannot-"
Bruenor raised his axe.
"Yes, yes, of course," the merchant erupted. "Sali Dalib take you there.
Take you right to de gate . . . through de gate," he corrected quickly. "Sah
Dalib even get de water. We must catch de caravan."
"No caravan," Drizzt interrupted, surprising even his friends. "We will
travel alone."
"Dangerous," Sali Dalib replied. "Very, very. De Calim Desert be very full
of monsters. Dragons and bandits."
"No caravan," Drizzt said again in a tone that none of them dared question.
"Untie them, and let them get things ready."
Bruenor nodded, then put his face barely an inch from Sali Dalib's. "And I
mean to be watchin' them meself," he said to Drizzt, though he sent the message
more pointedly to Sali Dalib and the little goblin. "One trick and I'll cut 'em
in half!" Less than an hour later, five camels moved out of southern Memnon and
into the Calim Desert with ceramic water jugs clunking on their sides. Drizzt
and Bruenor led the way, following the signposts of the Trade Way. The drow wore
his mask, but kept the cowl of his cloak as low as he could, for the sizzling
sunlight on the white sands burned at his eyes, which had once been accustomed
to the absolute blackness of the underworld.
Sali Dalib, his assistant sitting on the camel in front of him, came in the
middle, with Wulfgar and Catti-brie bringing up the rear. Catti-brie kept
Taulmaril across her lap, a silver arrow notched as a continual reminder to the
sneaky merchant.
The day grew hotter than anything the friends had ever experienced, except
for Drizzt, who had lived in the very bowels of the world. Not a cloud hindered
the sun's brutal rays, and not a wisp of a breeze came to offer any relief. Sali
Dalib, more used to the heat, knew the lack of wind to be a blessing, for wind
in the desert meant blowing and blinding sand, the most dangerous killer of the
Calim.
The night was better, with the temperature dropping comfortably and a full
moon turning the endless line of dunes into a silvery dreamscape, like the
rolling waves of the ocean. The friends set a camp for a few hours, taking turns
watching over their reluctant guides.
Catti-brie awoke sometime after midnight. She sat and stretched, figuring it
to be her turn on watch.. She saw Drizzt, standing on the edge of the firelight,
staring into the starry heavens.
Hadn't Drizzt taken the first watch.? she wondered.
Catti-brie studied the moon's position to make certain of the hour. There
could be no doubt; the night grew long.
"Trouble?" she asked softly, going to Drizzt's side. A loud snore from
Bruenor answered the question for Drizzt.
"Might I spell ye, then?" she asked. "Even a drow elf needs to sleep."
"I can find my rest under the cowl of my cloak," Drizzt replied, turning to
meet her concerned gaze with his lavender eyes, "when the sun is high."
"Might I join ye, then?" Catti-brie asked. "Suren a wondrous night."
Drizzt smiled and turned his gaze back to the heavens, to the allure of the
evening sky with a mystical longing in his heart as profound as any surface elf
had ever experienced.
Catti-brie slipped her slender fingers around his and stood quietly by his
side, not wanting to disturb his enchantment further, sharing more than mere
words with her dearest of friends.
* * *
The heat was worse the next day, and even worse the following, but the
camels plodded on effortlessly, and the four friends, who had come through so
many hardships, accepted the brutal trek as just one more obstacle on the
journey they had to complete.
They saw no other signs of life and considered that a blessing, for anything
living in that desolate region could only be hostile. The heat was enemy enough,
and they felt as if their skin would simply shrivel and crack away.
Whenever one of them felt like quitting, like the relentless sun and burning
sand and heat were simply too much to bear, he or she just thought of Regis.
What terrible tortures was the halfling now enduring at the hands of his
former master?
Epilogue
From the shadows of a doorway, Entreri watched Pasha Pook make his way up
the staircase to the exit of the guildhouse. It had been less than an hour since
Pook had regained his ruby pendant and already he was off to put it to use.
Entreri had to give the guildmaster credit; he was never late for the dinner
bell.
The assassin waited for Pook to clear the house altogether, then made his
way stealthily back to the top level. The guards outside the final door made no
move to stop him, though Entreri did not remember them from his earlier days in
the guild. Pook must have prudently put out the word of Entreri's station in the
guild, according him all the privileges he used to enjoy.
Never late for the dinner bell.
Entreri moved to the door to his old room, where LaValle now resided, and
knocked softly.
"Come in, come in," the wizard greeted him, hardly surprised that the
assassin had returned.
"It is good to be back," Entreri said.
"And good to have you back," replied the wizard sincerely. "Things have not
been the same since you left us, and they have only become worse in recent
months."
Entreri understood the wizard's point. "Rassiter?"
LaValle grimaced. "Keep your back to the wall when that one is about," A
shudder shook through him, but he composed himself quickly. "But with you back
at Pook's side, Rassiter will learn his place."
"Perhaps," replied Entreri, "though I am not so certain that. Pook was as
glad to see me."
"You understand Pook," LaValle chuckled. "Ever thinking as a guildmaster! He
desired to set the rules for your meeting with him to assert his authority. But
that incident is far behind us already."
Entreri's look gave the wizard the impression that he was not so certain.
"Pook will forget it," LaValle assured him.
"Those who pursued me should not so easily be forgotten," Entreri replied.
"Pook called upon Pinochet to complete the task," said LaValle. "The pirate
has never failed."
"The pirate has never faced such foes," Entreri answered. He looked to the
table and LaValle's crystal ball. "We should be certain."
LaValle thought for a moment, then nodded his accord. He had intended to do
some scrying anyway. "Watch the ball," he instructed Entreri. "I shall see if I
can summon the image of Pinochet."
The crystal ball remained dark for a few moments, then filled with smoke.
LaValle had not dealt often with Pinochet, but he knew enough of the pirate for
a simple scrying. A few seconds later, the image of a docked ship came into view
- not a pirate vessel, but a merchant ship. Immediately Entreri suspected
something amiss.
Then the crystal probed deeper, beyond the hull of the ship, and the
assassin's guess was confirmed, for in a sectioned corner of the hold sat the
proud pirate captain, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands,
shackled to the wall.
LaValle, stunned, looked to Entreri, but the assassin was too intent on the
image to offer any explanations. A rare smile had found its way onto Entreri's
face.
LaValle cast an enhancing spell at the crystal ball. "Pinochet," he called
softly.
The pirate lifted his head and looked around.
"Where are you?" LaValle asked.
"Oberon?" Pinochet asked. "Is that you, wizard?"
"Nay, I am LaValle, Pook's sorcerer in Calimport. Where are you?"
"Memnon," the pirate answered. "Can you get me out?"
"What of the elf and the barbarian?" Entreri asked LaValle, but Pinochet
heard the question directly.
"I had them!" the pirate hissed. "Trapped in a channel with no escape. But
then a dwarf appeared, driving the reins of a flying chariot of fire, and with
him a woman archer - a deadly archer." He paused, fighting off his distaste as
he remembered the encounter.
"To what outcome?" LaValle prompted, amazed at the development.
"One ship went running, one ship - my ship - sank, and the third was
captured," groaned Pinochet. He locked his face into a grimace and asked again,
more emphatically, "Can you get me out?"
LaValle looked helplessly to Entreri, who now stood tall over the crystal
ball, absorbing every word. "Where are they?" the assassin growled, his patience
worn away.
"Gone," answered Pinochet. "Gone with the girl and the dwarf into Memnon."
"How long"
"Three days."
Entreri signaled to LaValle that he had heard enough.
"I will have Pasha Pook send word to Memnon immediately," LaValle assured
the pirate. "You shall be released."
Pinochet sank into his original, despondent position. Of course he would be
released; that had already been arranged. He had hoped that LaValle could
somehow magically get him out of the Sea Sprite's hold, thereby releasing him
from any pledges he would be forced to make to Deudermont when the captain set
him free.
"Three days," LaValle said to Entreri as the crystal darkened. "They could
be halfway here by now."
Entreri seemed amused at the notion. "Pasha Pook is to know nothing of
this," he said suddenly.
LaValle sank back in his chair. "He must be told."
"No!" Entreri snapped. "This is none of his affair."
"The guild may be in danger," LaValle replied.
"You do not trust that I am capable of handling this?" Entreri asked in a
low, grim tone. LaValle felt the assassin's callous eyes looking through him, as
though he had suddenly become just another barrier to be overcome.
But Entreri softened his glare and grinned. "You know of Pasha Pook's
weakness for hunting cats," he said, reaching into his pouch. "Give him this.
Tell him you made it for him."
He tossed a small black object across the table to the wizard. LaValle
caught it, his eyes widening as soon as he realized what it was.
Guenhwyvar.
* * *
On a distant plane, the great cat stirred at the wizard's touch upon the
statuette and wondered if its master meant to summon it, finally, to his side.
But, after a moment, the sensation faded, and the cat put its head down to
rest.
So much time had gone by.
* * *
"It holds an entity," the wizard gasped, sensing the strength in the onyx
statuette.
"A powerful entity," Entreri assured him. "When you learn to control it, you
