glared at Drizzt, stopping the angry student in his tracks.
"Except for you!" Hatch'net snarled. "I cannot ignore the
fact that you downed two of the beasts and helped with a
third” Hatch'net scolded, "but you endangered the rest of
us with your foolish bravado!"
"I warned of the sentries-" Drizzt stuttered.
"Damn your warningl" shouted the master. "You went off
without command! You ignored the accepted methods of
battle! You led us in here blindly! Look at the corpse of your
fallen companion!" Hatch'net raged, pointing to the dead
student in the corridor. "His blood is on your hands!
"I meant to save the child” Drizzt argued.
"We all meant to save the child!" retorted Hatch'net.
Drizzt was not so certain. What would a child be doing
out in these corridors all alone? How convenient that a
group of hook horrors, a rarely seen beast in the region of
Menzoberranzan, just happened by to provide training for
this "practice patrol” Tho convenient, Drizzt knew, consid-
ering that the passages farther from the city teemed with
the true patrols of seasoned warriors, wizards, and even
clerics.
"You knew what was around the bend in the tunnel”
Drizzt said evenly, his eyes narrowing at the master.
The slap of a blade across the wound on his back made
Drizzt lurch in pain, and he nearly lost his footing. He
turned to find Dinin glaring down at him.
"Keep your foolish words unspoken” Dinin warned in a
harsh whisper, "or 1 will cut out your tongue”
"The child was a plant” Drizzt insisted when he was alone
with his brother in Dinin's room.
Dinin's response was a stinging smack across the face.
"They sacrificed him for the purpose of the drill” growled
the unrelenting younger Do'Urden.
Dinin launched a second punch, but Drizzt caught it in
midswing. "You know the truth of my words” Drizzt said.
"You knew about it all along”
"Learn your place, Secondboy” Dinin replied in open
threat, "in the Academy and in the family” He pulled away
from his brother.
"Th the Nine Hells with the Academy!" Drizzt spat at
Dinin's face. "If the family holds similar. . “ He noticed that
Dinin's hands now held sword and dirk.
Drizzt jumped back, his own scimitars coming out at the
ready. "I have no desire to fight you, my brother” he said.
"Know well that if you attack, I will defend. Only one of us
will walk out of here”
Dinin considered his next move carefully. If he attacked
and won, the threat to his position in the family would be at
an end. Certainly no one, not even Matron Malice, would
question the punishment he levied against his impertinent
younger brother. Dinin had seen Drizzt in battle, though.
Two hook horrors! Even Zaknafein would be hard pressed
to attain such a victory. Still, Dinin knew that if he did not
carry through with his threat, if he let Drizzt face him
down, he might give Drizzt confidence in their future strug-
gles, possibly inciting the treachery he had always expected
from the secondboy.
"What is this, then?" came a voice from the room's door-
way. The brothers turned to see their sister Vierna, a mis-
tress of Arach- Tinilith. "Put your weapons away” she
scolded. "House Do'Urden cannot afford such infighting
now!"
Realizing that he had been let off the hook, Dinin readily
complied with the demands, and Drizzt did likewise.
"Consider yourselves fortunate” said Vierna, "for I'll not
tell Matron Malice of this stupidity. She would not be merci-
ful, I promise you”
"Why have you come unannounced to Melee-Magthere?"
asked the elderboy, perturbed by his sister's attitude. He,
too, was a master of the Academy, even if he was only a
male, and deserved some respect.
Vierna glanced up and down the hallway, then closed the
door behind her. "Th warn my brothers” she explained qui-
etly. "There are rumors of vengeance against our house”
"By what family?" Dinin pressed. Drizzt just stood back in
confused silence and let the two continue. "For what deed?"
"For the elimination of House DeVir, I would presume” re-
plied Vierna. "Little is known; the rumors are vague. I
wanted to warn you both, though, so that you might keep
your guard especially high in the coming months”
"House DeVir fell many years ago” said Dinin. "What pen-
alty could still be enacted?"
Vierna shrugged. "They are just rumors” she said. "Ru-
mors to be listened to!"
"We have been accused of a wrongful deed?" Drizzt
asked. "Surely our family must callout this false accuser”
Vierna and Dinin exchanged smiles. "Wrongful?" Vierna
laughed.
Drizzt's expression revealed his confusion.
"On the very night you were born” Dinin explained,
"House DeVir ceased to exist. An excellent attack, thank
you”
"House Do'Urden?" gasped Drizzt, unable to come to
terms with the startling news. Of course, Drizzt knew of
such battles, but he had held out hope that his own family
was above that sort of murderous action.
"One of the finest eliminations ever carried out” Vierna
boasted. "Not a witness left alive”
"You. . . our family. . . murdered another family?"
"Watch your words, Secondboy” Dinin warned. "The
deed was perfectly executed. In the eyes of Menzoberran-
zan, therefore, it never happened”
"But House DeVir ceased to exist” said Drizzt.
"The child” said Dinin with a laugh.
A thousand possibilities assaulted Drizzt at that awful mo-
ment, a thousand pressing questions that he needed an-
swered. One in particular stood out vividly, welling like a
lump of bile in his throat.
"Where was Zaknafein that night?" he asked.
"In the chapel of House DeVir's clerics, of course” replied
Vierna. "
Knafein plays his part in such business so very well”
Drizzt rocked back on his heels, hardly able to believe
what he was hearing. He knew that Zak had killed drow be-
fore, had killed clerics of Lloth before, but Drizzt had al.
ways assumed that the weapon master had acted out of
necessity, in self.defense.
"You should show more respect to your brother” Vierna
scolded him. "Th draw weapons against Dinin! You owe him
your life!"
"You know?" Dinin chuckled, casting Vierna a curious
glance.
"You and I were melded that night” Vierna reminded him.
"Of course I know”
"What are you talking about?" asked Drizzt, almost afraid
to hear the reply.
"You were to be the third.born male in the family” Vierna
explained, "the third living son”
"I have heard of my brother Nal-" The name stuck in
Drizzt's throat as he began to understand. All he had ever
been able to learn of Nalfein was that he had been killed by
another drow.
"You will learn in your studies at Arach. Tinilith that third
living sons are customarily sacrificed to Lloth” Vierna con.
tinued. "So were you promised. On the night that you were
born, the night that House Do'Urden battled House DeVir,
Dinin made his ascent to the position of elderboy” She cast a
sly glance at her brother, standing with his arms proudly
crossed over his chest.
"I can speak of it now” Vierna smiled at Dinin, who nod-
ded his head in accord. "It happened too long ago for any
punishment to be brought against Dinin”
"What are you talking about?" Drizzt demanded. Panic
hovered all about him. "What did Dinin do?"
"He put his sword into Nalfein's back” Vierna said calmly.
Drizzt swam on the edge of nausea. Sacrifice? Murder?
The annihilation of a family, even the children? What were
his siblings talking about?
"Show respect to your brother!" Vierna demanded. "You
owe him your life.
"I warn the both of you” she purred, her ominous glare
shaking Drizzt and knocking Dinin from his confident ped-
estal._"House Do'Urden may be on a course of war. If either
of you strike out against the other, you will bring the wrath
of aU your sisters and Matron Malice-four high
priestesses-down upon your worthless soul!" Confident
that her threat carried sufficient weight, she turned and
left the room.
"I will go” Drizzt whispered, wanting only to skulk away
to a dark corner.
"You will go when you are dismissed!" Dinin scolded. "Re-
member your place, Drizzt Do'Urden, in the Academy and
in the family”
" As you remembered yours with Nalfein?"
"The battle against DeVir was won” Dinin replied, taking
no offense. "The act brought no peril to the family”
Another wave of disgust swept over Drizzt. He felt as if
the floor were climbing up to swallow him, and he almost
hoped that it would.
"It is a difficult world we inhabit” Dinin said.
"We make it so” Drizzt retorted. He wanted to continue
further, to implicate the Spider Queen and the whole
amoral religion that would sanction such destructive and
treacherous actions. Drizzt wisely held his tongue, though.
Dininwanted him dead; he understood that now. Drizzt un-
derstood as well that if he gave his scheming brother the op-
portunity to turn the females of the family against him,
Dinin surely would.
"You must learn” Dinin said, again in a controlled tone, "to
accept the realities of your surroundings. You must learn to
recognize your enemies and defeat them”
"By whatever means are available” Drizzt concluded.
"The mark of a true warrior!" Dinin replied with a wicked
laugh.
"Are our enemies drow elves?"
"We are drow warriors!" Dinin declared sternly. "We do
what we must to survive."
" As you did, on the night of my birth” Drizzt reasoned,
though at this point, there was no remaining trace of out-
rage in his resigned tone. "You were cunning enough to get
away cleanly with the deed”
Dinin's reply, though expected, stung the younger drow
profoundly.
"It never happened”
Chapter 15
On The DarkSide
"I am Drizzt-"
"I know who you are” replied the student mage, Drizzt's
appointed tutor in Sorcere. "Your reputation precedes you.
Most in all the Academy have heard of you and of your
prowess with weapons”
Drizzt bowed low, a bit embarrassed.
"That skill will be of little use to you here” the mage went
on. "I am to tutor you in the wizardly arts, the dark side of
magic, we call them. This is a test of your mind and your
heart; meager metal weapons will play no part. Magic is the
true power of our people!"
Drizzt accepted the berating without reply. He knew that
the traits this young mage was boasting of were also neces-
sary qualities of a true fighter. Physical attributes played
only a minor role in Drizzt's style of battle. Strong will and
calculated maneuvers, everything the mage apparently be-
lieved only wizards could handle, won the duels that Drizzt
fought.
"I will show you many marvels in the next few months”
the mage went on, "artifacts beyond your belief and spells
of a power beyond your experience!"
"May I know your name?" Drizzt asked, trying to sound
somewhat impressed by the student's continued stream of
self-glorification. Drizzt had already learned quite a lot
about wizardry from Zaknafein, mostly of the weaknesses
inherent in the class. Because of magic's usefulness in situa-
tions other than battle; drow wizards were accorded a high
position in the society, second to the clerics of Lloth. It was a
wizard, after all, who lighted the glowing Narbondel, time
clock of the city, and wizards who lighted faerie fires on the
sculptures of the decorated houses.
Zaknafein had little respect for wizards. They could kill
quickly and from a distance, he had warned Drizzt, but if
one could get in close to them, they had little defense
against a sword.
"Masoj” replied the mage. "Masoj Hun'ett of House
Hun'ett, beginning my thirtieth and final year of study. Soon
I will be recognized as a full wizard of Menzoberranzan,
with all of the privileges accorded my station”
"Greetings, then, Masoj Hun'ett” Drizzt replied. "I, too,
have but a year remaining in my training at the Academy,
for a fighter spends only ten years”
"A lesser talent” Masoj was quick to remark. "Wizards
study thirty years before they are even considered prac-
ticed enough to go out and perform their craft”
Again Drizzt accepted the insult graciously. He wanted to
get this phase of his instruction over with, then finish out
the year and be rid of the Academy altogether.
Drizzt found his six months under Masoj's tutelage actu-
ally the best of his stay at the Academy. Not that he came to
care for Masoj; the budding wizard constantly sought ways
to remind Drizzt of fighters' inferiority. Drizzt sensed a
competition between himself and Masoj, almost as if the
mage were setting him up for some future conflict. The
young fighter shrugged his way through it, as he always
had, and tried to get as much out of the lessons as he could.
Drizzt found that he was quite proficient in the ways of
magic. Every drow, the fighters included, possessed a de-
gree of magical talent and certain innate abilities. Even
drow children could conjure a globe of darkness or edge
their opponents in a glowing outline pf harmless colored
flames. Drizzt handled these tasks easily, and in a few
weeks, he could manage several cantrips and a few lesser
