against the gnomes, he tried to kill me”
All the family, particularly Malice and Dinin, leaned for-
ward toward Drizzt, hanging on his every word.
"When I battled the elemental” Drizzt explained, spitting
out the last word as a curse upon Zaknafein. He cast an an-
gry glare at the weapon master and continued, "Masoj
Hun'ett struck me down with a bolt of lightning”
"He may have been shooting for the monster” Vierna in-
sisted. "Masoj insisted that it was he who killed the elemen-
tal, but the high priestess of the patrol denied his claim”
"Masoj waited” Drizzt replied. "He did nothing until I be-
gan to gain the advantage over the monster. Then he loosed
his magic, as much at me as at the elemental. I think he
hoped to destroy us both”
"House Hun'ett” Matron Malice whispered.
"Fifth House” Briza remarked, "under Matron SiNafay”
"So that is our enemy” said Malice.
"Perhaps not” said Dinin, wondering even as he spoke the
words why he hadn't left well enough alone. To disprove the
theory only invited more whipping.
Matron Malicp did not like his hesitation as he reconsid-
ered the argument. "Explain!" she commanded.
"Masoj Hun'ett was angry at being excluded from the sur-
face raid” said DInin. "We left him in the city, only to witness
our triumphant return” Dinin fixed his eyes straight on his
brother. "Masoj has ever been jealous of Drizzt and all the
glories that my brother has found, rightly or wrongly. Many
are jealous of Drizzt and would see him dead”
Drizzt shifted uncomfortably in his seat, knowing the last
words to be an open threat. He glanced over to Zaknafein
and marked the weapon master's smug smile.
" Are you certain of your words?" Malice said to Drizzt,
shaking him from his private thoughts.
"There is the cat” Dinin interrupted, "Masoj Hun'ett's
magical pet, though it holds closer to Drizzt's side than to
the wizard's”
"Guenhwyvar walks the point beside me” Drizzt pro- J
tested, "a position that you ordered”
"Masoj does not like it” Dinin retorted.
Perhaps that is why you put the cat there, Drizzt thought,
but he kept the words to himself. Was he seeing conspira-
cies in coincidence? Or was his world so truly filled with de-
vious schemes and silent struggles for power?
"Are you certain of your words?" Malice asked Drizzt
again, pulling him from his pondering.
"Masoj Hun'ett tried to kill me” he asserted. "I do not
know his reasons, but his intent I do not doubt!"
"House Hun'ett, then” Briza remarked, "a mighty foe”
"We must learn of them” Malice said. "Dispatch the
scouts! I will know the count of House Hun'ett's soldiers, its
wizards, and, particularly, its clerics”
"If we are wrong” Dinin said. "If House Hun'ett is not the
conspiring house-"
"We are not wrong!" Malice screamed at him.
"The yochlol said that one of us knows the identity of our
enemy” reasoned Vierna. "All we have is Drizzt's tale of
Masoj”
"Unless you are hiding something” Matron Malice
growled at Dimn, a threat so cold and wicked that it stole
the blood from the elderboy's face.
Dinin shook his head emphatically and slumped back,
having nothing more to add to the conversation.
"Prepare a communion” Malice said to Briza. ('Let us learn
of Matron SiNafay's standing with the Spider Queen”
Drizzt watched incredulously as the preparations began
at a frantic pace, each command from Matron Malice fol-
lowing a practiced defensive course. It wasn't the precision
of Drizzt's family's battle planning that amazed him-he
would expect nothing less from this group. It was the eager
gleam in every eye.
Chapter 25
The Weapon Masters
"Impudent!" growled the yochlol. The fire in the brazier
puffed, and the creature again stood behind Malice, again
draped dangerous tentacles over the matron mother. "You
dare to summon me again?"
Malice and her daughters glanced around, on the edge of
panic. They knew that the mighty being was not toying with
them; the handmaiden truly was enraged this time.
"House Do'Urden pleased the Spider Queen, it is true” the
yochlol answered their unspoken thoughts, "but that one
act does not dispel the displeasure your family brought
upon Lloth in the recent past. Do not think that all is for-
given, Matron Malice Do'Urden!"
How small and vulnerable Matron Malice felt now! Her
power paled in the face of the wrath of one of Lloth's per-
sonal servants.
"Displeasure?" she dared to whisper. "How has my family
brought displeasure to the Spider Queen? By what act?"
The handmaiden's laughter erupted in a spout of flames
and flying spiders, but the high priestesses held their posi-
tions. They accepted the heat and the crawling things as
part of their penance.
"I have told you before, Matron Malice Do'Urden” the
yochlol snarled with its droopy mouth, "and I shall tell you
one final time. The Spider Queen does not reply to ques-
tions whose answers are already known!" In a blast' of ex-
plosive energy that sent the four females of House
Do'Urden tumbling to the floor, the handmaiden was gone.
Briza was the first to recover. She prudently rushed over!
to the brazier and smothered the remaining flames, thus
closing the gate to the Abyss, the yochlol's home plane.
"Who?" screamed Malice, the powerful matriarch once
again. "Who in my family has invoked the wrath of Lloth?"
Malice appeared small again then, as the implications of the
yochlol's warning became all too clear. House Do'Urden was
about to go to war with a powerful family. Without Lloth's
favor, House Do'Urden likely would cease to exist.
"We must find the perpetrator” Malice instructed her
daughters, certain that none of them was involved. They
were high priestesses, one and all. If any of them had done
some misdeed in the eyes of the Spider Queen, the sum-
moned yochlol surely would have exacted punishment on
the spot. By itself, the handmaiden could have leveled
House Do'Urden.
Briza pulled the snake whip from her belt. "I will get the
information we require!" she promised.
"No!" said Matron Malice. "We must not reveal our search.
Be it a soldier or a member of House Do'Urden, the guilty
one is trained and hardened against pain. We cannot hope
that torture will pull the confession from his lips; not when
he knows the consequences of his actions. We must dis-
cover the cause of Lloth's displeasure immediately and
properly punish the criminal. The Spider Queen must stand
behind us in our struggles!"
"How, then, are we to discern the perpetrator?" the eldest
daughter complained, reluctantly replacing the snake whip
on her belt.
"Vierna and Maya, leave us” Matron Malice instructed.
"Say nothing of these revelations and do nothing to hint at
our purpose”
The two younger daughters bowed and scurried away,
not happy with their secondary roles but unable to do any-
thing about them.
"First we will look” Malice said to Briza. "We will see if we
can learn of the guilty one from afar”
Briza understood. "The scrying bowl” she said. She
rushed from the anteroom and into the chapel proper. In
the central altar she found the valuable item, a wide golden
bowl laced throughout with black pearls. Hands trembling,
Briza placed the bowl atop the altar and reached into the
most sacred of the many compartments. This was the hold-
ing bin for the prized possession of House Do'Urden, a great
onyx chalice.
Malice then joined Briza in the chapel proper and took the
chalice from her. Moving to the large font at the entrance to
the great room, Malice dipped the chalice into a sticky fluid,
the unholy water of her religion. She then chanted, "Spide-
rae aught icor ven” The ritual complete, Malice moved back
to the altar and poured the unholy water into the golden
bowl.
She and Briza sat down to watch.
Drizzt stepped onto the floor of Zaknafein's training gym
for the first time in more than a decade and felt as if he had
come home. He'd spent the best years of his young life
here-almost wholly here. For all the disappointments he
had encountered since-and no doubt would continue to
experience throughout his life-Drizzt would never forget
that brief sparkle of innocence, that joy, he had known
when he was a student in Zaknafein's gym.
Zaknafein entered and walked over to face his former stu-
dent. Drizzt saw nothing familiar or comforting in the
weapon master's face. A perpetual scowl now replaced the
once common smile. It was an angry demeanor trat hated
everything around it, perhaps Drizzt most of all. Or had
iZaknafein always worn such a grimace? Drizzt had to won-
der. Had nostalgia glossed over Drizzt's memories of those
years of early training? Was this mentor, who had so often
warmed Drizzt's heart with a lighthearted chuckle, actually.
the cold, lurking monster that Drizzt now saw before him?
"Which has changed, Zaknafein” Drizzt asked aloud,
"you, my memories, or my perceptions?"
Zak seemed not even to hear the whispered question.
"Ah, the young hero has returned” he said, "the warrior
with exploits beyond his years”
"Why do you mock me?" Dnzzt protested.
"He .who killed the hook horrors” Zak continued. His
swords were out in his hands now, and Drizzt responded
by drawing his scimitars. There was no need to ask the
rules of engagement in this contest, or the choice of weap-
ons.
Drizzt knew, had known before he had ever come here,
that there would be no rules this time. The weapons would
be their weapons of preference, the blades that each of
them had used to kill so many foes.
"He who killed the earth elemental” Zak snarled deri-
sively. He launched a measured attack, a simple lunge with
one blade. Drizzt batted it aside without even thinking of
the parry.
Sudden fires erupted in Zak's eyes, as if the first contact
had sundered all the emotional bonds that had tempered his
thrust. "He who killed the girl child of the surface elves!" he
cried, an accusation and no compliment. Now came the sec-
ond attack, vicious and powerful, an arcing swipe descend-
ing at Drizzt's head. "Who cut her apart to appease his own
thirst for blood!"
Zak's words knocked Dnzzt off his guard emotionally,
wrapped his heart in confusion like some devious mental
whip. Drizzt was a seasoned warrior, though, and his re-
flexes did not register the emotional distraction. A scimitar
came up to catch the descending sword and deflected it
harmlessly aside.
"Murderer!" Zak snarled openly. "Did you enjoy the dying
child's screams?" He came at Drizzt in a furious whirl,
swords dipping and diving, slicing at every angle.
Drizzt, enraged by the hypocrite's accusations, matched
the fury, screaming out for no better reason than to hear
the anger of his own voice.
Any watching the battle would have found no breath in
the next few blurring moments. Never had the Underdark
witnessed such a vicious fight as when these two masters of
the blade each attacked the demon possessing the other-
and himself.
Adamantite sparked and nicked, droplets of blood spat.
tered both the combatants, though neither felt any pain, ,
and neither knew if he'd injured the other.
Drizzt came with a two-blade sidelong swipe that drove
Zak's swords out wide. Zak followed the motion quickly,
turned a complete circle, and slammed back into Drizzt's
thrusting scimitars with enough force to knock the young
warrior from his feet. Drizzt fell into a roll and came back
up to meet his charging adversary.
A thought came over him.
Drizzt came up high, too high, and Zak drove him back on
his heels. Drizzt knew what would soon be coming; he in-
vited it openly. Zak kept Drizzt's weapons high through sev.
eral combined maneuvers. He then went with the move that
had defeated Drizzt in the past, expecting that the best
Drizzt could attain would be equal footing: double-thrust
low.
Drizzt executed the appropriate cross-down parry, as he
had to, and Zak tensed, waiting for his eager opponent to
try to improve the move. "Child killer!" he growled, goading
on Drizzt.
Jie didn't know that Drizzt had found the solution.
With all the anger he had ever known, all the disappoint-
ments of his young life gathering within his foot, Drizzt fo-
cused on Zak. That smug face, feigning smiles and drooling
for blood.
Between the hilts, between the eyes, Drizzt kicked, blow-
ing out every ounce of rage in a single blow.
Zak's nose crunched flat. His eyes lolled upward, and
blood exploded over his hollow cheeks. Zak knew that he
was falling, that the devilish young warrior would be on
him in a flash, gaining an advantage that Zak could not hope
to overcome.
"What of you, Zaknafein Do'Urden?" he heard Drizzt
snarl, distantly, as though he were falling far away. "I have
heard of the exploits of House Do'Urden's weapon master!
How he so enjoys killing!" The voice was closer now, as
Drizzt stalked in, and as the rebounding rage of Zaknafein
sent him spiraling back to the battle.
"I have heard how murder comes so very easily to Zakna-
fein!" Drizzt spat derisively. "The murder of clerics, of other
