ice, his mother, had so enjoyed hearing the bloody recount.
ing. Drizzt remembered the elven child's horror at the sight
of her dead mother. Would he, or any dark elf, be so devas.
tated if they looked upon such a sight. Unlikely, he thought.
Drizzt hardly shared a loving bond with Malice, and most
draw would be too engaged in measuring the consequences
of their mother's death to their own station to feel any sense
of loss.
Would Malice have cared if either Drizzt or Dinin had
fallen in the raid? Again Drizzt knew the answer. All that
Malice cared about was how the raid affected her own base
of power. She had reveled in the notion that her children
had pleased her evil goddess.
What favor would Uoth show to House Do'Urden if she
knew the truth of Drizzt's actions? Drizzt had no way to
measure how much, if any, interest the Spider Queen had
taken in the raid. Lloth remained a mystery to him, one he
had no desire to explore. Would she be enraged if she knew
the truth of the raid? Or if she knew the truth of Drizzt's
thoughts at this moment?
Drizzt shuddered to think of the punishments he might
be bringing upon himself, but he had already firmly de-
cided upon his course of action, whatever the conse-
quences. He would return to House Do'Urden in a week. He
would go then to the practice gym for a reunion with his old
teacher.
He would kill Zaknafein in a week.
Caught up in the emotions of a dangerous and heartfelt
decision, Zaknafein hardly heard the biting scrape as he ran
the whetstone along his sword's gleaming edge.
The weapon had to be perfect, with no jags or burrs. This
deed had to be executed without malice or anger.
A clean blow, and Zak would rid himself of the demons of
his own failures, hide himself once again within the sanctu-
ary of his private chambers, his secret world. A clean blow,
and he would do what he should have done a decade before.
"If only I had found the strength then; he lamented. "How
much grief might I have spared Drizzt? How much pain did
his days at the Academy bring to him, that he is so very
changed?" The words rang hollow in the empty room. They
were just words, useless now, for Zak had already decided
that Drizzt was out of reason's reach. Drizzt was a drow
warrior, with all of the wicked connotations carried in such
a title.
The choice was gone to Zaknafein if he wished to hold any
pretense of value to his wretched existence. This time, he
could not stay his sword. He had to kill Drizzt.
Chapter 22
Gnomes,Wicked Gnomes
Among the twists and turns of the tunnel mazes of the
Underdark, slipping about their silent way, went the
svirfnebli, the deep gnomes. Neither kind nor evil, and so
out of place in this world of pervading wickedness, the deep
gnomes survived and thrived. Haughty fighters, skilled in
crafting weapons and armor, and more in tune to the songs
of the stone than even the evil gray dwarves, the svirfnebli
continued their business of plucking gems and precious
metals in spite of the perils awaiting them at every turn.
When the news came back to Blingdenstone, the cluster
of tunnels and caverns that composed the deep gnomes'
city, that a rich vein of gemstones had been discovered
twenty miles to the east-as the rockworm, the thoqqua,
burrowed-Burrow-warden Belwar Dissengulp had to
climb over a dozen others of his rank to be awarded the
privilege of leading the mining expedition. Belwar and all of
the others knew well that forty miles east-as the rock-
worm burrowed-would put the expedition dangerously
close to Menzoberranzan, and that even getting there
would mean a week of hiking, probably through the territo-
ries of a hundred other enemies. Fear was no measure
against the love svirfnebli had for gems, though, and every
day in the Underdark was a risk.
When Belwar and his forty miners arrived in the small ca-
vern described by the advance scouts and inscribed with
the gnomes' mark of treasure, they found that the claims
had not been exaggerated. The burrow-warden took care
not to get overly excited, though. He knew that twenty
thousand drow elves, the svirfnebli's most hated and feared
enemy, lived fewer than five miles away.
Escape tunnels became the first order of business, wind-
ing constructions high enough for a three-foot gnome but
not for a taller pursuer. All along the course of these the
gnomes placed breaker walls, designed to deflect a light-
ning bolt or offer some protection from the expanding
flames of a fireball.
Then, when the true mining at last began, Belwar kept
fully a third of his crew on guard at all times and walked the
area of the work with one hand always clutching the magi-
cal emerald, the summoning stone, he kept on a chain
around his neck.
"Three full patrol groups” Drizzt remarked to Dinin
when they arrived at the open "field" on the eastern side of
Menzoberranzan. Few stalagmites lined this region of the
city, but it did not seem so open now, with dozens of anxious
drow milling about.
"Gnomes are not to be taken lightly” Dinin replied. "They
are wicked and powerful-"
" As wicked as surface elves?" Drizzt had to interrupt, cov-
ering his sarcasm with false exuberance.
" Almost” his brother warned grimly, missing the connota-
tions of Drizzt's question. Dinin pointed off to the side,
where a contingent of female drow was coming in to join
the group. "Clerics” he said, "and one of them a high priest-
ess. The rumors of activity must have been confirmed”
A shudder coursed through Drizzt, a tingle of prebattle
excitement. That excitement was altered and lessened,
though, by fear, not of physical harm, or even of the
gnomes. Drizzt feared that this encounter might be a repeat
of the surface tragedy.
He shook the black thoughts away and reminded himself
that this time, unlike the surface expedition, his home was
being invaded. The gnomes had crossed the boundaries of
the draw realm. If they were as evil as Dinin and all the oth-
ers claimed, Menzoberranzan had no choice but to respond
with force. If.
Drizzt's patrol, the most celebrated group among the
males, was selected to lead, and Drizzt, as always, took the
point position. Still unsure, he wasn't thrilled with the as-
signment, and as they started out, Drizzt even contem-
plated leading the group astray. Or perhaps, Drizzt thought,
he could contact the gnomes privately before the others ar.
rived and warn them to flee.
Drizzt realized the absurdity of the notion. He couldn't
stop the wheels of Menzoberranzan from turning along
their designated course, and he couldn't do anything to hin-
der the two score drow warriors, excited and impatient, at
his back. Again he was trapped and on the edge of despair.
Masoj Hun'ett appeared then and made everything better.
"Guenhwyvar!" the young wizard called, and the great
panther came bounding. Masoj left the cat beside Drizzt
and headed back toward his place in the line.
Guenhwyvar could no more hide its elation at seeing
Drizzt than Drizzt could contain his own smile. With the in-
terruption of the surface raid, and then his time back home,
he hadn't seen Guenhwyvar in mere than a month.
Guenhwyvar thumped against Drizzt's side as it passed,
nearly knocking the slender drow from his feet. Drizzt re-
sponded with a heavy pat, vigorously rubbing a hand over
the cat's ear.
They both turned back together, suddenly conscious of
the unhappy glare boring into them. There stood Masoj,
arms crossed over his chest and a visible scowl heating up
his face.
"I shan't use the cat to kill Drizzt” the young wizard mut-
tered to himself. "I want the pleasure for myself
Drizzt wondered if jealousy prompted that scowl. Jeal-
ousy of Drizzt and the cat, or of everything in general? Ma-
soj had been left behind when Drizzt had gone to the
surface. Masoj had been no more than a spectator when the
victorious raiding party returned in glory. Drizzt backed
away from Guenhwyvar, sensitive to the wizard's pain.
As soon as Masoj had moved away to take his position far-
ther down the line, Drizzt dropped to one knee and threw a
headlock on Guenhwyvar.
Drizzt found himself even gladder for Guenhwyvar's
companionship when they passed beyond the familiar tun-
nels of the normal patrol routes. It was a saying in Menzo-
berranzan that "no one is as alone as the point of a draw
patrol” and Drizzt had come to understand this keenly in
the last few months. He stopped at the far end of a wide way
and held perfectly still, focusing his ears and eyes to the
trails behind him. He knew that more than forty drow were
approaching his position, fully arrayed for battle and agi-
tated. Still, not a sound could Drizzt detect, and not a mo.
tion was discernable in the eerie shadows of cool stone.
Drizzt looked down at Guenhwyvar, waiting patiently by his
side, and started off again.
He could sense the hot presence of the war party at his
back. That intangible sensation was the only thing that dis-
proved Drizzt's feelings that he and Guenhwyvar were
quite alone.
Near the end of that day, Drizzt heard the first signs of
trouble. As he neared an intersection in the tunnel, cau-
tiously pressed close to one wall, he felt a subtle vibration in
the stone. It came again a second later, and then again, and
Drizzt recognized it as the rhythmic tapping of a pick or
hammer.
He took a magically heated sheet, a small square that fit
into the palm of his hand, out of his pack. One side of the
item was shielded in heavy leather, but the other shone
brightly to eyes seeing in the infrared spectrum. Drizzt
flaslted it down the tunnel behind him, and a few seconds
later, Dinin came up to his side.
"Hammer” Drizzt signaled in the silent code, pointing to
the wall. Dinin pressed against the stone and nodded in con-
firmation.
"Fifty yards?" Dinin's hand motions asked.,
"Less than one hundred” Drizzt confirmed.
With his own prepared sheet, Dinin flashed the get-ready
signal into the gloom behind him, then moved with Drizzt
and Guenhwyvar around the intersection toward the tap-
ping.
Only a moment later, Drizzt looked upon svirfnebli
gnomes for the very first time. 1\'\10 guards stood barely
twenty feet away, chest-high to a drow and hairless, with
skin strangely akin to the stone in both texture and heat ra-
diations. The gnomes' eyes glowed brightly in the telltale
red of infravision. One glance at those eyes reminded Drizzt
and Dinin that deep gnomes were as much at home in the
darkness as were the drow, and they both prudently
ducked behind a rocky outcropping in the tunnel.
Dinin promptly signaled to the next drow in line, and so
on, until the entire party was alerted. Then he crouched
low and peeked out around the bottom of the outcropping.
The tunnel continued another thirty feet beyond the gnome
guards and around a slight bend, ending in some larger
chamber. Dinin couldn't clearly see this area, but the glow
of it, from the heat of the work and a cluster of bodies,
spilled out into the corridor.
Again Dinin signaled back to his hidden comrades, and
then he turned to Drizzt. "Stay here with the cat” he in-
structed, and he darted back down around the intersection
to formulate plans with the other leaders.
Masoj a few places back in the line, noted Dinin's move-
ment and wondered if the opportunity to deal with Drizzt
had suddenly come upon him. If the patrol was discovered
with Drizzt all alone up in front, was there some way Masoj
could secretly blast the young Do'Urden? The opportunity,
if ever it was truly there, passed quickly, though, as other
drow soldiers came up beside the plotting wizard. Dinin
soon returned from the back of the line and headed back to
join his brother.
"The chamber has many exits” Dinin signaled to Drizzt
when they were together. "The other patrols are moving
into Dosition around the !!nome!;"
"Might we parley with the gnomes?" Drizzt's hands asked
in reply, almost subconsciously. He recognized the expres-
sion spreading across Dinin's face, but knew that he had al-
ready plung~d in. "Send them away without conflict?"
Dinin grabbed Drizzt by the front of his piwafwi and
pulled him close, too close, to that terrible scowl. "I will for-
get that you asked that question” he whispered, and he
dropped Drizzt back to the stone, considering the issue
closed.
"You start the fight” Dinin signaled. "When you see the
sign from behind, darken the corridor and rush past the
guards. Get to the gnome leader; he is the key to their
strength with the stone”
Drizzt didn't fully understand what gnomish power his
brother hinted at, but the instructions seemed simple
enough, if somewhat suicidal.
"Take the cat if the cat will go” Dinin continued. "The en-
tire patrol will be by your side in moments. The remaining
groups will corne in from the other passages”
Guenhwyvar nuzzled up to Drizzt, more than ready to
follow him into battle. Drizzt took comfort in that when
Dinin departed, leaving him alone again at the front. Only a
few seconds later carne the command to attack. Drizzt
shook his head in disbelief when he saw the signal; how fast
drow warriors found their positions!
He peeked around at the gnomish guards, still holding
their silent vigil, completely unaware. Drizzt drew his
blades and patted Guenhwyvar for luck, then called upon
the innate magic of his race and dropped a globe of dark-
ness in the corridor.
Squeals of alarm sounded throughout the tunnels, and
Drizzt charged in, diving right into the darkness between
