raid twenty years ago-"
"I know the story” Masoj growled, and he finished the sen-
tence for Alton. "A wizard's fireball expanded beyond its
normal dimensions, killing several drow. Dangerous side-
effects, you masters called it, though I've a belief that the
wizard conveniently disposed of some enemies under the
guise of an accident!"
"Yes” Alton agreed. "So said the rumors. In the absence of
evidence. . “ He let the thought go, seeing that he was doing
little to comfort Masoj. "That was so long ago” he said, try-
ing to offer some hope. "Have you no recourse?"
"None” Masoj replied. "Things move so very slowly in
Menzoberranzan; I doubt that the masters have even begun.
their investigation into the matter.
"A pity” Alton said. "It would have been the perfect oppor-
tunity”
"No more of that!" Masoj scolded. "Matron SiNafay has not
given me her command to eliminate Drizzt Do'Urden or his
brother. You have already been warned to keep your per-
sonal desires to yourself. When the matron bids me to
strike, I will not fail her. Opportunities can be created
"You speak as if you already know how Drizzt Do'Urden
will die” Alton said.
An smile spread over Masoj's face as he reached into the .
pocket of his robe and produced the onyx figurine, his un.
thinking magical slave, which the foolish Drizzt had come to
trust so dearly. "Oh, I do” he replied, giving the statuette of
Guenhwyvar an easy toss, then catching it and holding it out
on display.
"I do.
The members of the chosen raiding party quickly came to
realize that this would be no ordinary mission. They did not
go out on patrol from Menzoberranzan at all during the
next week. Rather, they remained, day and night, seques-
teredwithin a barrack of Melee-Magthere. Through nearly
every waking hour, the raiders huddled around an oval ta-
ble in a conference room, hearing the detailed plans of their
pending adventure, and, over and over again, Master Hat-
ch'net, the master of Lore, spinning his tales of the vile
elves.
Drizzt listened intently to the stories, allowing himself,
forcing himself, to fall within Hatch'net's hypnotic web. The
tales had to be true; Drizzt did not know what he would
hold onto to preserve his principles if they were not.
Dinin presided over the raid's tactical preparations, dis-
playing maps of the long tunnels the group would travel,
grilling them over and over until they had memorized the
route perfectly.
To this, as well, the eager raiders-except for Drizzt-
listened intently, all the while fighting to keep their excite-
ment from bursting out in a wild cheer. As the week of
preparations neared its end, Drizzt took note that one mem-
ber of the patrol group had not been attending. At first,
Drizzt had reasoned that Masoj was learning his duties in
the raid in Sorcere, with his old masters. With the depar-
ture time fast approaching and the battle plans clearly tak-
ing shape, though, Drizzt began to understand that Masoj
would not be joining them.
"Where is our wizard?" Drizzt dared to ask in the late I
hours of one session.
Dinin, not appreciating 1he interruption, glared at his
brother. "Masoj will not be joining us” he answered, know-
ing that others might now share Drizzt's concern, a distrac-
tion they could not afford at such a critical time.
"Sorcere has decreed that no wizards may travel to the
surface, Master Hatch'net explained. "Masoj Hun'ett will
await your return in the city. It is a great loss to you indeed,
for Masoj has proven his worth many times over. Fear not,
though, for a cleric of Arach- Tinilith shall accompany you.
"What of . . Drizzt began above the approving whispers
of the other raiders.
Dinin cut his brother's thoughts short, easily guessing the
question. "The cat belongs to Masoj” he said flatly. "The cat
stays behind.
"I could talk to Masoj” Drizzt pleaded.
Dinin's stern glance answered the question without the
need for words. "Our tactics will be different on the sur-
face” he said to all the group, silencing their whispers. "The
surface is a world of distance, not the blind enclosures of
bending tunnels. Once our enemies are spotted, our task
will be to surround them, to close off the distances” He
looked straight at his young brother. "We will have no need
of a point guard, and in such a conflict, a spirited cat could
well prove more trouble than aid”
Drizzt had to be satisfied with the answer. Arguing would
not help, even jf he could get Masoj to let him take the
panther-which he knew in his heart he could not. He
shook the brooding desires out of his head and forced him-
self to hear his brother's words. This was to be the greatest
challenge of Drizzt's young life, and the greatest danger.
Over the final two days, as the battle plan became in-
grained into every thought, Drizzt found himself growing
more and more agitated. Nervous energy kept his palms
moist with sweat, and his eyes darted about, too alert.
Despite his disappointment over Guenhwyvar, Drizzt
could not deny the excitement that bubbled within him.
This was the adventure he had always wanted, the answer
to his questions of the truth of his people. Up there, in the
vast strangeness of that foreign world, lurked the surface
elves, the unseen nightmare that had become the common
enemy, and thus the common bond, of all the drow. Drizzt
would discover the glory of battle, exacting proper revenge
upon his people's most hated foes. Always before, Drizzt
had fought out of necessity, in training gyms or against the
stupid monsters that ventured too near his home.
Drizzt knew that this encounter would be different. This
time his thrusts and cuts would be carried by the strength
of deeper emotions, guided by the honor of his people and
their common courage and resolve to strike back against
their oppressors. He had to believe that.
Drizzt lay back in his cot the night before the raiding par-
ty's departure and brought his scimitars through some
slow-motion maneuvers above him.
"This time” he whispered aloud to the blades while mar-
veling at their intricate dance even at such a slow speed.
"This time your ring will sound out in the song of justice!"
He placed the scimitars down at the side of his cot and
rolled over to find some needed sleep. "This time” he said
again, teeth clenched and eyes shining with determination.
Were his proclamations his belief or his hope? Drizzt had
dismissed the disturbing question the very first time it had
entered his thoughts, having T1;0 more room for doubts than
he had for brooding. He no longer considered the possibility
of disappointment; it had no place in the heart of a drow
warrior.
To Dinin, though, studying Drizzt curiously from the
shadows of the doorway, it sounded as if his younger
brother was trying to convince himself of the truth of his
own words.
Chapter 20
That Foreign World
The fourteen members of the patrol group made their
way through twisting tunnels and giant caverns that sud-
denly opened wide before them. Silent on magical boots and
nearly invisible behind their piwafwis, they communicated
only in their hand code. For the most part, the ground's
slope was barely perceptible, though at times the group
climbed straight up rocky chimneys, every step and every
handhold drawing them nearer their goal. They crossed
through the boundaries of claimed territories, of monsters
and the other races, but the hated gnomes and even the
duergar dwarves wisely kept their heads hidden. Few in all
the Underdark would purposely intercept a drow raiding
party.
By the end of a week, all of the drow could sense the dif-
ference in their surroundings. The depth still would have
seemed stifling to a surface dweller, but the dark elves were
accustomed to the constant oppression of a thousand thou-
sand tons of rock hanging over their heads. They turned
every corner expecting the stone ceiling to flyaway into the
vast openness of the surface world.
Breezes wafted past them-not the sulfur-smelling hot
winds rising off the magma of deep earth, but moist air,
scented with a hundred aromas unknown to the drow. It
was springtime above, though the dark elves, in their sea-
sonless environs, knew nothing of that, and the air was full
of the scents of new-blossomed flowers and budding trees.
In the seductive allure of those tantalizing aromas, Drizzt
had to remind himself again and again that the place they
approached was wholly evil and dangerous. Perhaps, he
thought, the scents were merely a diabolical lure, a bait to
an unsuspecting creature to bring it into the surface world's
murderous grip.
The cleric of Arach. Tinilith who was traveling with the
raiding party walked near to one wall and pressed her face
against every crack she encountered. "This one will suffice”
she said a short time later. She cast a spell of seeing and
looked into the tiny crack, no more than a finger's width, a
second time.
"How are we to get through that?" one of the patrol memo
bers signaled to another. Dinin caught the gestures and
ended the silent conversation with a scowl.
"It is daylight above” the cleric announced. "We shall have
to wait here”
"For how long?" Dinin asked, knowing his patrol to be on
the edge of readiness with their long-awaited goal so very
near.
"I cannot know” the cleric replied. "No more than half a
cycle of Narbondel. Let us remove our packs and rest while
we may”
Dinin would have preferred to continue, just to keep his
troops busy, but he did not dare speak against the priestess.
The break did not prove a long one, though, for a couple of
hours later, the cleric checked through the crack once more
and announced that the time had come.
"You first” Dinin said to Drizzt. Drizzt looked at his
brother incredulously, having no idea of how he could pass
through such a tiny crack.
"Come” instructed the cleric, who now held a many-holed
orb. "Walk past me and continue through”
As Drizzt passed the cleric, she spoke the orb's command
word and held it over Drizzt's head. Black flakes, bl&cker
than Drizzt's ebony skin, drifted over him, and he felt a tre-
mendous shudder ripple across his spine.
The others looked on in amazement as Drizzt's body nar-
rowed to the width of a hair and he became a two-
dimensional image, a shadow of his former self.
Drizzt did not understand what was happening, but the
crack suddenly widened before him. He slipped into it,
found movement in his present form merely an enactment
of will, and, drifted through the twists, turns, and bends of
the tiny channel like a shadow on the broken face of a rocky
cliff. He then was in a long cave, standing across from its sin-
gle exit.
A moonless night had fallen, but even this seemed bright
to the deep-dwelling drow. Drizzt felt himself pulled to-
ward the exit, toward the surface world's openness. The
other raiders began slipping through the crack and into the
cavern then, one by one with the cleric coming in last.
Drizzt was the first to feel the shudder as his body resumed
its natural state. In a few moments, they all were eagerly
checking their weapons.
"I will remain here” the cleric told Dinin. "Hunt well. The
Spider Queen is watching”
Dinin warned his troops once again of the dangers of the
surface, then he moved to the front of the cave, a small hole
on the side of a rocky spur of a tall mountain. "For the Spi-
der Queen” Dinin proclaimed. He took a steadying breath
and led them through the exit, under the open sky.
Under the stars! While the others seemed nervous under
those revealing lights, Drizzt found his gaze pulled heaven-
ward to the countless points of mystical twinkling. Bathed
in the starlight, he felt his heart lift and didn't even notice
the joyful singing that rode on the night wind, so fitting it
seemed.
Dinin heard the song, and he was experienced enough to
recognize it as the eldritch calling of the surface elves. He
crouched and surveyed the horizon, picking out the light of
a single fire down in the distant expanse of a wooded valley.
He nudged his troops to action-and pointedly nudged the
wonderment from his brother's eyes-and started them off.
Drizzt could see the anxiety on his companions' faces, so
contrasted by his own inexplicable sense of serenity. He sus-
pected at once that something was very wrong with the
whole situation. In his heart Drizzt had known from the
minute he had stepped out of the tunnel that this was not
the vile world the masters at the Academy had taken such
pains to describe. He did feel unusual with no stone ceiling
above him, but not uncomfortable. If the stars, calling to his
heartstrings, were indeed reminders of what the next day
might bring, as Master Hatch'net had said, then surely the
next day would not be so terrible.
Only confusion dampened the feeling of freedom that
Drizzt felt, for either he had somehow fallen into a trap of
perception, or his companions, his brother included,
viewed their surroundings through tainted eyes.
It fell on Drizzt as another unanswered burden: were his
feelings of comfort here weakness or truth of heart?
"They are akin to the mushroom groves of our home”
Dinin assured the others as they tentatively moved under
the perimeter boughs of a small forest, "neither sentient nor
harmful”
Still, the younger dark elves flinched and brought their
weapons to the ready whenever a squirrel skipped across a
