the unseen guards and rolling back to his feet on the other
side of his spell, only two running strides from the small
chamber. He saw a dozen gnomes scrambling about, trying
to prepare their defenses. Few of them paid Drizzt any at-
tention, though, as the sounds of battle erupted from vari-
ous side corridors.
One gnome chopped a heavy pick at Drizzt's shoulder.
Drizzt got a blade up to block the blow but was amazed at
the strength in the diminutive gnome's arms. Still, Drizzt
could then have killed his attacker with the other scimitar.
Too many doubts, and too many memories, though,
haunted his actions. He brought a leg up into the gnome's
belly, sending the little creature sprawling.
Belwar Dissengulp, next in line for Drizzt, noted how eas-
ily the young drow had dispatched one of his finest fighters
and knew that the time had already come to use his most
powerful magic. He pulled the emerald summoning stone
from his neck and threw it to the ground at Drizzt's feet.
Drizzt jumped back, sensing the emanations of magic. Be-
hind him, Drizzt heard the approach of his companions,
overpowering the shocked gnome guards and rushing to
join him in the chamber. Then Drizzt's attentions went
squarely to the heat patterns of the stone floor in front of
him. The grayish lines wavered and swam, as if the stone
was somehow coming alive.
The other drow fighters roared in past Drizzt, bearing
down on the gnome leader and his charges. Drizzt didn't
follow, guessing that the event unfolding at his feet was
more critical than the general battle now echoing through-
out the complex.
Fifteen feet tall and seven wide, an angry, towering hu-
manoid monster of living stone rose before Drizzt.
"Elemental" came a scream to the side. Drizzt glanced
over to see Masoj, Guenhwyvar at his side, fumbling
through a spellbook, apparently in search of some
dweomer to battle this unexpected monster. Th Drizzt's dis-
may, the frightened wizard mumbled a couple of words and
vanished.
Drizzt set his feet under him, and took a measure of the
monster, ready to spring aside in an instant. He could sense
the thing's power, the raw strength of the earth embodied
in living arms and legs.
A lumbering arm swung out in a wide arc, whooshing
above Drizzt's ducking head and slamming into the cavern
wall, crushing rocks into dust.
"Do not let it hit me” Drizzt instructed himself in a whis-
per that came out as a disbelieving gasp. As the elemental
recoiled its arm, Drizzt poked a scimitar at it, chipping away
a small chunk, barely a scratch. The elemental grimaced in
pain-apparently Drizzt could indeed hurt it with his en-
chanted weapons.
Still standing in the same spot off to the side, the invisible
Masoj held his next spell in check, watching the spectacle
and waiting for the combatants to weaken each other. Per-
haps the elemental would destroy Drizzt altogether. Invisi-
ble shoulders gave a resigned shrug. Masoj decided to let
the gnomish power do his dirty work for him.
The monster launched another blow, and another, and
Drizzt dove forward and scrambled through the thing's
stone pillar legs. The elemental reacted quickly and
stomped heavily with one foot, barely missing the agile
drow, and sending branching cracks in the floor for many
feet in either direction.
Drizzt was up in a flash, slicing and thrusting with both
his blades into the elemental's backside, then springing back
out of reach as the monster swung about, leading with an-
other ferocious blow.
The sounds of battle grew more distant. The gnomes had
taken flight-those that were still alive-but the drow war.
riors were in full pursuit, leaving Drizzt to face the elemen-
tal.
The monster stomped again, the thunder of its foot nearly
knocking Drizzt from his feet, and then it came in hard, fall-
ing down at Drizzt, using the tonnage of its body as a
weapon. If Drizzt had been even slightly surprised, or if his
reflexes had not been honed to such perfection, he surely
would have been crushed flat. He managed to get to the side
of the monster's bulk, while taking only a glancing blow
from a swinging arm.
Dust rushed up from the terrific impact; cavern walls and
ceiling cracked and dropped flecks and stones to the floor.
As the elemental regained its feet, Drizzt backed away,
overwhelmed by such unconquerable strength.
He was all alone against it, or so Drizzt thought. A sudden
ball of hot fury enveloped the elemental's head, claws rak-
ing deep scratches into its face.
"Guenhwyvart" Drizzt and Masoj shouted in unison,
Drizzt in elation that an ally had been found, and Masoj in
rage. The wizard did not want Drizzt to survive this battle,
and he dared not launch any magical attacks, at Drizzt or
the elemental, with his precious Guenhwyvar in the way.
"Do something, wizard!" Drizzt cried, recognizing the
shout and understanding now that Masoj was still around.
The elemental bellowed in pain, its cry sounding as the
rumble of huge boulders crashing down a rocky mountain.
Even as Drizzt moved back in to help his feline friend, the
monster spun, impossibly quick, and dove headfirst to the
floor.
"No!" Drizzt cried, realizing that Guenhwyvar would be
crushed. Then the cat and the elemental, instead of slam-
ming against the stone, sank down into it!
The purple flames of faerie fire outlined the figures of the
gnomes, showing the way for drow arrows and swords.
The gnomes countered with magic of their own, illusionary
tricks mostly. "Down here!" one drow soldier cried, only to
slam face first into the stone of a wall that had appeared as
the entrance to a corridor.
Even though the gnome magic managed to keep the dark
elves somewhat confused, Belwar Dissengulp grew fright-
ened. His elemental, his strongest magic and only hope, was
taking too long with the single drow warrior far back in the
main chamber. The burrow-warden wanted the monster by
his side when the main combat began. He ordered his forces
into tight defensive formations, hoping that they could hold
out.
Then the drow warriors, detained no more by gnomish
tricks, were upon them, and fury stole Belwar's fear. He
lashed out with his heavy pickaxe, smiling grimly as he felt
the mighty weapon bite into draw flesh.
All magic was aside now, all formations and carefully laid
battle plans dissolved into the wild frenzy of the brawl.
Nothing mattered, except to hit the enemy, to feel the pick
head or blade sinking into flesh. Above all others, deep
gnomes hated the drow, and in all the Underdark there was
nothing a dark elf enjoyed more than slicing a svirfnebli into
littler pieces.
Drizzt rushed to the spot, but only the unbroken section
of floor remained. "Masoj?" he gasped, looking for some an.
swers from the one schooled in such strange magic.
Before the wizard could answer, the floor erupted behind
Drizzt. He spun, weapons ready, to face the towering ele-
mental.
Then Drizzt watched in helpless agony as the broken mist
that was the great panther, his dearest companion, rolled
off the elemental's shoulders and broke apart as it neared
the floor.
Drizzt ducked another blow, though his eyes never left
the dissipating dust-and-mist cloud. Was Guenhwyvar no
more? Was his only friend gone from him forever? A new
light grew in Drizzt lavender eyes, a primal rage that sim-
mered throughout his body. He looked back to the elemen-
tal, unafraid.
"You are dead” he promised, and he walked in.
The elemental seemed confused, though of course it
could not understand Drizzt's words. It dropped a heavy
arm straight down to squash its foolish opponent. Drizzt did
not even raise his blades to parry, knowing that every ounce
of his strength could not possibly deflect such a blow. Just
as the falling arm was about to reach him, he dashed for-
ward, within its range.
The quickness of his move surprised the elemental, and
the ensuing flurry of swordplay took Masoj's breath away.
The wizard had never seen such grace in battle, such fluid-
ity of motion. Drizzt climbed up and down the elemental's
body, hacking and slashing, digging the points of his weap-
ons home and flicking off pieces of the monster's stone skin.
The elemental howled its avalanche howl and spun in cir-
cles, trying to catch up to Drizzt and squash him once and
for all. Blind anger brought new levels of expertise to the
magnificent young swordsman, though, and the elemental
caught nothing but air or its own stony body under its
heavy slaps.
"Impossible” Masoj muttered when he found his breath.
Could the young Do'Urden actually defeat an elemental?
Masoj scanned the rest of the area. Several drow and many
gnomes lay dead or grievously wounded, but the main fight-
ing was moving even farther away as the gnomes found
their tiny escape tunnels and the drow, enraged beyond
good sense, followed them.
Guenhwyvar was gone. In this chamber, only Masoj, the
elemental, and Drizzt remained as witnesses. The invisible
wizard felt his mouth draw up in a smile. Now was the time
to strike.
Drizzt had the elemental lurching to one side, nearly
beaten, when the bolt roared in, a blast of lightning that
blinded the young drow and sent him flying into the cham-
ber's back wall. Drizzt watched the twitch of his hands, the
wild dance of his stark white hair before his unmoving eyes.
He felt nothing-no pain, no reviving draw of air into his
lungs-and heard nothing, as if his life force had been some-
how suspended.
The attack dispelled Masoj's dweomer of invisibility, and
he came back in view, laughing wickedly. The elemental,
down in a broken, crumbled mass, slowly slipped back into
the security of the stone floor.
"Are you dead?" the wizard asked Drizzt, the voice break-
ing the hush of Drizzt's deafness in dramatic booms. Drizzt
could not answer, didn't really know the answer anyway.
"Tho easy” he heard Masoj say, and he suspected that the
wizard was referring to him and not the elemental.
Then Drizzt felt a tingling in his fingers and bones and his
lungs heaved suddenly, grabbing a volume of air. He gasped
in rapid succession, then found control of his body and real-
ized that he would survive.
Masoj glanced around for returning witnesses and saw
none. "Good” he muttered as he watched Drizzt regain his
senses. The wizard was truly glad that Drizzt's death had
not been so very painless. He thought of another spell that
would make the moment more fun.
A hand-a gigantic stone hand-reached out of the floor
just then and grasped Masoj's leg, pulling his feet right into
the stone.
The wizard's face twisted in a silent scream.
Drizzt's enemy saved his life. Drizzt snatched up one of
the scimitars from the ground and hacked at the elemental's
arm. The weapon sliced in, and the monster, its head reap-
pearing between Drizzt and Masoj, howled in rage and pain
and pulled the trapped wizard deeper into the stone.
With both hands on the scimitar's hilt, Drizzt struck as
hard as he could, splitting the elemental's head right in half.
This time the rubble did not sink back into its earthen plane;
this time the elemental was destroyed.
"Get me out of here!" Masoj demanded. Drizzt looked at
him, hardly believing that Masoi was still alive, for he was
waist deep in solid stone.
"How?" Drizzt gasped. "You. . “ He couldn't even find the
words to express his amazement.
"Just get me out!" the wizard cried.
Drizzt fumbled about, not knowing where to begin.
"Elementals travel between planes” Masoj explained,
knowing that he had to calm Drizzt down if he ever wanted
to get out of the floor. Masoj knew, too, that the conversa-
tion could go a long way in deflecting Drizzt's obvious suspi-
cions that the lightning bolt had been aimed at him. "The
ground an earth elemental traverses becomes a gate be-
tween the Plane of Earth and our plane, the Material Plane.
The stone parted around me as the monster pulled me in,
but it is quite uncomfortable” He twitched in pain as the
stone tightened around one foot. "The gate is closing fast!"
"Then Guenhwyvar might be . . “ Drizzt started to reason.
He plucked the statuette right out of Masoj's front pocket
and carefully inspected it for any flaws in its perfect design.
"Give me that!" Masoj demanded, embarrassed and angry.
Reluctantly, Drizzt handed the figurine over. Masoj
glanced at it quickly and dropped it back into the pocket. f
"Is Guenhwyvar unharmed?" Drizzt had to ask. !
"It is not your concern” Masoj snapped back. The wizard,
too, was worried about the cat, but at this moment,
Guenhwyvar was the least of his troubles. "The gate is clos.
ing” he said again. "Go get the clerics!"
Before Drizzt could start off, a slab of stone in the wall be.
hind him slid away, and the rock-hard fist of Belwar Dis-
sengulp slammed into the back of his head.
Chapter 23
A Single Clean Blow
"The gnomes took him” Masoj said to Dinin when the pa-
trol leader returned to the cavern. The wizard lifted his
arms over his head to give the high priestess and her assist-
ants a better view of his predicament.
"Where?" Dinin demanded. "Why did they let you live?"
Masoj shrugged. "A secret door” he explained, "some-
where on the wall behind you. I suspect that they would
have taken me as well, except. . “ Masoj looked down at the
floor, still holding him tightly up to the waist. "The gnomes
would have killed me, but for your arrival”
