"Drizzt and Dinin have been out of the house” added
Briza, "out of the city. In their patrol group are children of
every powerful house, every house that would dare to
threaten us!"
The fires in Malice's eyes glowed, but she relaxed at the
reasoning. "Bring them to me when they return to Menzo-
berranzan” she instructed Vierna and Maya. "You” she said
to Briza, "bring Rizzen and Zaknafein. All the family must
be present, so that we may learn what we may learn!"
"The cousins, and the soldiers, too?" asked Briza. "Perhaps
one beyond the immediate family knows the answer”
"Should we bring them together, as well?" offered Vierna,
her voice edged with the rising excitement of the moment.
"A gathering of the whole clan, a general war party of
House Do'Urden?"
"No” Malice replied, "not the soldiers or the cousins. I do
not believe they are involved in this; the handmaiden would
have told us the answer if one of my direct family did not
know it. It is my embarrassment to ask a question whose an.
swer should be known to me, whose answer someone
within the circle of my family knows” She gritted her teeth
as she spat out the rest of her thoughts.
"I do not enjoy being embarrassed!"
Drizzt and Dinin came into the house a short while later,
exhausted and glad the adventure was over. They had
barely passed the entrance and turned down the wide cor-
ridor that led to their rooms when they bumped into Zakna-
fein, coming the other way.
"So the hero has returned” Zak remarked, eyeing Drizzt
directly. Drizzt did not miss the sarcasm in his voice.
"We've completed our job-successfully” Dinin shot back,
more than a little perturbed at being excluded from Zak's
greeting. "I led-"
"I know of the battle” Zak assured him. "It has been end-
lessly recounted throughout the city. Now leave us, Elder-
boy. I have unfinished business with your brother”
"I leave when I choose to leave!" DiDin growled.
Zak snapped a glare upon him. "I wish to speak to Drizzt,
only to Drizzt, so leave”
DiDin's hand went to his sword hilt, not a smart move. Be-
fore he even moved the weapon hilt an inch from the scab-
bard, Zak had slapped him twice in the face with one hand.
The other had somehow produced a dagger and put its tip
at DiDin's throat.
Drizzt watched in amazement, certain that Zak would kill
DiDin if this continued.
"Leave” Zak said again, "on your life”
DiDin threw his hands up and slowly backed away. "Ma-
tron Malice will hear of this!" he warned.
"I will tell her myself” Zak laughed at him. "Do you think
she will trouble herself on your behalf, fool? As far as Ma-
tron Malice cares, the family males determine their own hi-
erarchy. Go away, Elderboy. Come back when you have
found the courage to challenge me”
"Come with me, brother” DiDin said to Drizzt.
"We have business” Zak reminded Drizzt.
Drizzt looked to both of them, once and back again,
stunned by their open willingness to kill each other. "I will
stay” he decided. "I do indeed have unfinished business
with the weapon master”
"As you choose, hero” Dinin spat, and he turned on his
heel and stormed away.
"You have made an enemy” Drizzt remarked to Zak.
"I have made many” Zak laughed, "and I will make many
more before my day ends! But no mind. Your actions have
inspired jealousy in your brother-your older brother. You
are the one who should be wary”
"He hates you openly” reasoned Drizzt.
"But would gain nothing from my death” Zak replied. "I
am no threat to Dinin, but you. . . " He let the word hang in
the air.
"Why would I threaten him?" Drizzt protested. "Dinin has
nothing I desire”
"He has power” Zak explained. "He is the elderboy now
but was not always”
"He killed Nalfein, the brother I never met”
"You know of this?" said Zak. "Perhaps Dinin suspects that
another secondboy will follow the same course he took to
become the elderboy of House Do'Urden”
"Enough” Drizzt growled, tired of the whole stupid sys-
tem of ascension. How well you know it, Zaknafein, he
thought. How many did you murder to attain your position?
"An earth elemental” Zak said, blowing a low whistle with
the words. "It is a powerful foe that you defeated this day”
He bowed low, showing Drizzt mockery beyond any doubt.
"What is next for the young hero? A daemon, perhaps? A
demigod? Surely there is nothing that can-"
"Never have I heard such senseless words stream from
your mouth” Drizzt retorted. Now it was time for some sar-
casm of his own. "Is it that I have inspired jealousy in an-
other besides my brother?"
"Jealousy?" Zak cried. "Wipe your nose, sniveling little
boy! A dozen earth elementals have fallen to my blade!
Daemons, too! Do not overestimate your deeds or your abili-
ties. You are one warrior among a race of warriors. 1b for-
get that surely will prove fatal” He ended the line with
pointed emphasis, almost in a sneer, and Drizzt began to
consider again just how real their appointed "practice" in
the gym would become.
"I know my abilities” Drizzt replied, "and my limitations. 1
have learned to survive”
"As have I” Zak shot back, "for so many centuries!"
"The gym awaits” Drizzt said calmly.
"Your mother awaits” Zak corrected. "She bids us all to
the chapel. Fear not, though. There will be time for our
meeting”
Drizzt walked past Zak without another word, suspecting
that his and Zak's blades would finish the conversation for
them. What had become of Zaknafein? Drizzt wondered.
Was this the same teacher who had trained him those years
before the Academy? Drizzt could not sort through his feel-
ings. Was he seeing Zak differently because of the things he
had learned of Zak's exploits, or was there truly something
different, something harder, about the weapon master's de-
meanor since Drizzt had returned from the Academy?
The sound of a whip brought Drizzt from his contempla-
tions.
"I am your patron!" he heard Rizzen say.
"That's of no consequence!" retorted a female voice, the
voice of Briza. Drizzt slipped to the corner of the next inter-
section and peeked around. Briza and Rizzen faced off,
Rizzen unarmed, but Briza holding her snake-headed
whip.
"Patron” Briza laughed, "a meaningless title. You are a
male lending your seed to the matron and of no more im-
portance”
"Four I have sired” Rizzen said indignantly.
"Three!" Briza corrected, snapping the whip to accentu-
ate the point. "Viema is Zaknafein's, not yours! Nalfein is
dead, leaving only two. One of those is female and above
you. Only Dimn is truly under your rank!"
Drizzt sank back against the wall and looked behind him
to the empty corridor he had just walked. He had always
suspected that Rizzen was not his true father. The male had
never paid him any mind, had never scolded him or praised
him or offered to him any advice or training. 1b hear Briza
say it, though, . .. and Rizzen not deny it!
Rizzen fumbled about for some retort to Briza's stinging
words. "Does Matron Malice know of your desires?" he
snarled. "Does she know that her eldest daughter seeks her
title?"
"Every eldest daughter seeks the title of matron mother”
Briza laughed at him. "Matron Malice would be a fool to sus-
pect otherwise. I assure you that she is not, nor am I. I will
get the title from her when she is weak with age. She knows
and accepts this as fact?'
"You admit that you will kill her?"
"If not I, then Vierna. If not Vierna, then Maya. It is our
way, stupid male. It is the word of Lloth?'
Rage burned in Drizzt as he heard the evil proclamations,
but he remained silent at the corner.
"Briza will not wait for age to steal her mother's power”
Rizzen snarled, "not when a dagger will expedite the trans-
fer. Briza hungers for the throne of the house!"
Rizzen's next words came out as an indecipherable
scream as the six-headed whip went to work again and
again.
Drizzt wanted to intervene, to rush out and cut them both
down, but, of course, he could not. Briza acted now as she
had been taught, followed the words of the Spider Queen in
asserting her dominance over Rizzen. She wouldn't kill him,
Drizzt knew.
But what if Briza got carried away in the frenzy? What if
she did kill Rizzen? In the empty void that was beginning to
grow in his heart, Drizzt wondered if he even cared.
"You let him escape'" Matron SiNafay roared at her son.
"You will learn not to disappoint me'"
"No, my matron!" Masoi protested. "I hit him squarely
with a lightning bolt. He never even suspected the blow to
be aimed at him! 1 could not finish the deed; the monster
had me caught in the gate to its own plane!"
SiNafay bit her lip, forced to accept her son's reasoning.
She knew that she had given Masoj a difficult mission.
Drizzt was a powerful foe, and to kill him without leaving
an obvious trail would not be easy.
"I will get him” Masoj promised, determination showing
on his face "I have the weapon readied; Drizzt will be dead
before the tenth cycle, as you commanded”
"Why should I grant you another chance?" SiNafay asked
him. "Why should I believe that you will fare better the next
time you try?"
"Because I want him dead!" Masoj cried. "More than even
you, my matron. I want to tear the life from Drizzt Do'Ur-
den! When he is dead, want to rip out his heart and display
it as a trophy!"
SiNafay could not deny her son's obsession. "Granted” she
said. "Get him, Masoj Hun'ett. On your life, strike the first
blow against House Do'Urden and kill its secondboy”
Masoj bowed, the grimace never leaving his face, and
swept out of the room.
"You heard everything'?" SiNafay signaled when the door
had closed behind her son. She knew that Masoj might well
have his ear to the door, and she did not want him to know
of this conversation.
"I did” Alton replied in the silent code, stepping out from
behind a curtain.
"Do you concur with my decision?" SiNafay's hands asked.
Alton was at a loss. He had no choice but to abide by his
matron mother's decisions, but he did not think that SiNafay
had been wise in sending Masoj back out after Drizzt. His si-
lence grew long.
"You do not approve” Matron SiNafay bluntly motioned.
"Please, Matron Mother” Alton replied quickly. "I would
not..."
"You are forgiven” SiNafay assured him. "I am not so cer-
tain that I shoutd have allowed Masoj a second opportunity.
Too much could go wrong”
"Then why?" Alton dared to ask. "You did not grant me a
second chance, though I desire Drizzt Do'Urden's death 8S
fiercely as any”
SiNafay cast him a scornful glare, sending him back on his
courageous heels. "You doubt my judgment?"
"No!" Alton cried aloud. He slapped a hand over his mouth
and dropped to his knees in terror. "Never, my matron” he
signaled silently. "I just do not understand the problem as
clearly as you. Forgive me my ignorance”
SiNafay's laughter sounded like the hiss of a hundred an-
gry snakes. "We see together in this matter” she assured AI.
ton. "I would no more give Masoj a second chance than I
gave you”
"But-" Alton started to protest.
"Masoj will go back after Drizzt, but this time he will not
be alone” SiNafay explained. "You will follow him, Alton
DeVir. Keep him safe and finish the deed, on your life”
Alton beamed at the news that he would finally find some
taste of vengeance. SiNafay's final threat didn't even con.
cem him. "Could it ever be any other way?" his hands asked
casually.
"Think!" Malice growled, her face close, her breath hot on
Drizzt's face. "You know somethifig!"
Drizzt slumped back from the overpowering figure and
glanced nervously around at his gathered family. Dinin,
similarly grilled just a moment ago, kneeled with his chin in
hand. He tried vainly to come up with an answer before Ma-
tron Malice upped the level of the interrogation techniques.
Dinin did not miss Briza's motions toward her snake whip,
and the unnerving sight did little to aid his memory.
Malice slapped Drizzt hard across the face and stepped
away. "One of you has learned the identity of our enemies”
she snapped at her sons. "Out there, on patrol, one of you
has seen some hint, some sign”
"Perhaps we saw it but did not know it for what it was”
Dinin offered.
"Silence!" Malice screamed, her face bright with rage.
"When you know the answer to my question, you may
speak! Only then!" She turned to Briza. "Help Dinin find his
memory!"
Dinin dropped his head to his arms, folded on the floor in
front of him, and arched his back to accept the torture. 1b
do otherwise would only enrage Malice more.
Drizzt closed his eyes and recounted the events of his
many patrols. He jerked involuntarily when he heard the
snake whip's crack and his brother's soft groan.
"Masoj” Drizzt whispered, almost unconsciously. He
looked up at his mother, who held her hand out to halt Bri.
za's attacks-to Briza's dismay.
"Masoj Hun'ett” Drizzt said more loudly. "In the fight
