drow! Do you so enjoy it all?" He ended the question with a
blow from each scimitar, attacks meant to kill Zak, to kill the
demon in them both.
But Zaknafein was now fully back to consciousness, hat-
ing himself and Drizzt equally. At the last moment, his
swords came up and crossed, lightning fast, throwing
Drizzt's arms wide. Then Zak finished with a kick of his
own, not so strong from the prone position but accurate in
its search for Drizzt's groin.
Drizzt sucked in his breath and twirled away, forcing
himself back into composure when he saw Zaknafein, still
dazed, rising to his feet. "Do you so enjoy it all?" he managed
to ask again.
"Enjoy?" the weapon master echoed.
"Does it bring you pleasure?" Drizzt grimaced.
"Satisfaction!" Zak corrected. "I kill. Yes, I kill”
"You teach others to kill!"
"To kill drow!" Zak roared, and he was back in Drizzt's
face, his weapons up but waiting for Drizzt to make the
next move.
Zak's words again entwined Drizzt in a mesh of confu-
sion. Who was this drow standing before him?
"Do you think that your mother would let me live if I did
not serve her evil designs?" Zak cried.
Drizzt did not understand.
"She hates me” Zak said, more in control as he began to
understand Drizzt's confusion, "despises me for what I
know” Drizzt cocked his head.
" Are you so blind to the evil around you?" Zak yelled in his
face. "Or has it consumed you, as it consumes all of them, in
this murderous frenzy that we call life?"
"The frenzy that holds you?" Drizzt retorted, but there
was little conviction in his voice now. If he understood Zak's
words correctly-if Zak played the killing game simply be-
cause of his hatred for the perverted drow-the most Drizzt
could blame him for was cowardice.
"No frenzy holds me” Zak replied. "I live as best I can.
survive in a world that is not my own, not my heart” The la-
ment in his words, the droop of his head as he admitted his
helplessness, struck a familiar chord in Drizzt. "I kill, kill
drow, to serve Matron Malice-to placate the rage, the frus-
tration, that I know in my soul. When I hear the children
scream . . . " His gaze snapped up on Drizzt and he rushed in
all of a sudden, his fury returned tenfold.
Drizzt tried to get his scimitars up, but Zak knocked one
of them across the room and drove the other aside. He
rushed in step with Drizzt's awkward retreat until he had
Drizzt pinned against a wall. The tip of Zak's sword drew a
droplet of blood from Drizzt's throat.
"The child lives!" Drizzt gasped. "I swear, I did not kill the
elven child!"
Zak relaxed a bit but still held Drizzt, sword to throat.
Dinin said-"
"Dinin was mistaken” Drizzt replied frantically. "Fooled
by me. I knocked the child down-only to spare her-and
covered her with the blood of her murdered mother to
mask my own cowardice!"
Zak leaped back, overwhelmed.
"I killed no elves that day” Drizzt said to him. "The only
times I desired to kill were my own companions!"
"So now we know” said Briza, staring into the scrying
bowl, watching the conclusion of the battle between Drizzt
and Zaknafein and hearing their every word. "It was Drizzt
who angered the Spider Queen”
"You suspected him all along, as did I” Matron Malice re-
plied, "though we both hoped differently.
"So much promise!" Briza lamented. "How I wish that one -
had learned his place, his values. Perhaps. . . "
"Mercy?" Matron Malice snapped at her. "Do you show
mercy that would further invoke the Spider Queen's dis-
pleasure?"
"No, Matron” Briza replied. "I had only hoped that Drizzt
could be used in the future, as you have used Zaknafein all
these years. Zaknafein is growing older”
"We are about to fight a war, my daughter” Malice re-
minded her. "Lloth must be appeased. Your brother has
brought his fate upon himself; his actions were his own to
decide”
"He decided wrongly”
The words hit Zaknafein harder than Drizzt's boot had.
The weapon master threw his swords to the ends of the
room and rushed in on Drizzt. He buried him in a hug so in-
tense that it took the young drow a long moment to even re-
alize what had happened.
"You have survived!" Zak said, his voice broken by muf.
fled tears. "Survived the Academy, where all the others
died!"
Drizzt returned the embrace, tentatively, still not guess-
ing the depth of Zak's elation.
"My son!"
Drizzt nearly fainted, overwhelmed by the admission of
what he had always suspected, and even more so by the
knowledge that he was not the only one in his dark world
angered by the ways of the drow. He was not alone.
"Why?" Drizzt asked, pushing Zak out to arm's length.
"Why have you stayed?"
Zak looked at him incredulously. "Where would 1 go? No
one, not even a drow weapon master would survive for long
out in the caverns of the Underdark. Tho many monsters,
and other races, hunger for the sweet blood of dark elves”
"Surely you had options”
"The surface?" Zak replied. "Th face the painful inferno
every day? No, my son, 1 am trapped, as you are trapped”
Drizzt had feared that statement, had feared that he
would find no solution from his newfound father to the di-
lemma that was his life. Perhaps there were no answers.
"You will do well in Menzoberranzan” Zak said to comfort
him. "You are strong, and Matron Malice will find an appro-
priate place for your talents, whatever your heart may de-
sire”
"To live a life of assassinations, as you have?" Drizzt asked,
trying futilely to keep the rage out of his words.
"What choice is before us?" Zak answered, his eyes seek. :
ing the unjudging stone of the floor.
"I will not kill drow” Drizzt declared flatly.
Zak's eyes snapped back on him. "You will” he assured his
son. "In Menzoberranzan, you will kill or be killed”
Drizzt looked away, but Zak's words pursued him, could
not be blocked out.
"There is no other way; the weapon master continued
softly. "Such is our world. Such is our life. You have escaped
this long, but you will find that your luck soon will change”
He grabbed Drizzt's chin firmly and forced his son to look at
him directly.
"I wish that it could be different; Zak said honestly, "but it
is not such a bad life. I do not lament killing dark elves. I per-
ceive their deaths as their salvation from this wicked exist-
ence. If they care so dearly for their Spider Queen, then let
them go and visit her!"
Zak's growing smile washed away suddenly. "Except for
the children” he whispered. "Often have I heard the cries of
dying children, though never, I promise you, have I caused
them. I have always wondered if they, too, are evil, born
evil. Or if the weight of our dark world bends them to fit our
foul ways”
"The ways of the demon Lloth; Drizzt agreed.
They both paused for many heartbeats, each privately
weighing the realities of his own personal dilemma. Zak was
next to speak, having long ago come to terms with the life
that was offered to him.
"Lloth; he chuckled. "She is a vicious queen, that one. I
would sacrifice everything for a chance at her ugly face!"
"I almost believe you would” Drizzt whispered, finding
his smile.
Zak jumped back from him. "I would indeed” he laughed
heartily. "So would you!"
Drizzt flipped his lone scimitar up into the air, letting it
spin over twice before catching it again by the hilt. "True
enough!" he cried. "But no longer would 1 be alone!"
Chapter 26
Angler Of The Underdark
Drizzt wandered alone through the maze of Menzober-
ranzan, drifting past the stalagmite mounds, under the leer-
ing points of the great stone spears that hung from the
cavern's high ceiling. Matron Malice had specifically or-
dered all of the family to remain within the house, fearing
an assassination attempt by House Hun'ett. Tho much had
happened to Drizzt this day for him to obey. He had to
think, and contemplating such blasphemous thoughts, even
silently, in a house full of nervous clerics might get him into
serious trouble.
This was the quiet time of the city; the heat-light of Nar-
bondel was only a sliver at the stone's base, and most of the
drow comfortably slept within their stone houses. Soon af-
ter he slipped through the adamantite gate of the House
Do'Urden compound, Drizzt began to understand the wis-
dom of Matron Malice's command. The city's quiet now'
seemed to him like the crouched hush of a predator. It was
poised to drop upon him from behind everyone of the:
many blind corners he faced on this trek. "
He would find no solace here in which he might truly con-
template the day's events, the revelations of Zaknafein, kin-
dred in more than blood. Drizzt decided to break all the
rules-that was the way of the drow, after all-and head out
of the city, down the tunnels he knew so well from his
weeks of patrol. ~
An hour later, he was still walking, lost in thought and
feeling safe enough, for he was well within the boundaries
of the patrol region. '
He entered a high corridor, ten paces wide and with bro-
ken walls lined in loose rubble and crossed by many ledges.
It seemed as though the passage once had been much wider.
The ceiling was far beyond sight, but Drizzt had been
through here a dozen times, up on the many ledges, and he
gave the place no thought.
He envisioned the future, the times that he and Zaknafein,
his father, would share now that no secrets separated them.
Together they would be unbeatable, a team of weapon mas-
ters, bonded by steel and emotions. Did House Hun'ett truly
understand what it would be facing? The smile on Drizzt's
face disappeared as soon as he considered the implications:
he and Zak, together, cutting through House Hun'ett's ranks
with deadly ease, through the ranks of drow elves-killing
their own people.
Drizzt leaned against the wall for support, understanding
firsthand the frustration that had racked his father for
many centuries. Drizzt did not want to be like Zaknafein,
living only to kill, existing in a protective sphere of violence,
but what choices lay before him? Leave the city?
Zak had balked when Drizzt asked him why he had not
left. "Where would I go?" Drizzt whispered now, echoing
Zak's words. His father had proclaimed them trapped, and
so it seemed to Drizzt.
"Where would I go?" he asked again. "1i'avel the Under-
dark, where our people are so despised and a single drow
would become a target for everything he passed? Or to the
surface, perhaps, and let that ball of fire in the sky burn out
my eyes so that I may not witness my own death when the
elven folk descend upon me?"
The logic of the reasoning trapped Drizzt as it had
trapped Zak. Where could a drow elf go? Nowhere in all the
Realms would an elf of dark skin be accepted.
Was the choice then to kill? to kill drow?
Drizzt rolled over against the wall, his physical movement
an unconscious act, for his mind whirled down the maze of
his future. It took him a moment to realize that his back was
against something other than stone.
He tried to leap away, alert again now that his surround-
ings were not as they should be. When he pushed out, his
feet came up from the ground and he landed back in his
original position. Frantically, before he took the time to con-
sider his predicament, Drizzt reached behind his neck with
both hands.
They, too, stuck fast to the translucent cord that held him.
Drizzt knew his folly then, and all the tugging in the world
would not free his hands from the line of the angler of the
Underdark, a cave fisher.
"Foo!!" he scolded himself as he felt himself lifted from the
ground. He should have suspected this, should have been
more careful alone in the caverns. But to reach out bare-
handed! He looked down at the hilts of his scimitars, useless
in their sheaths.
The cave fisher reeled him in, pulled him up the long wall
toward its waiting maw.
Masoj Hun'ett smiled smugly to himself as he watched
Drizzt depart the city. Time was running short for him, and
Matron SiNafay would not be pleased if he failed again in his
mission to destroy the secondboy of House Do'Urden. Now;
Masoj's patience had apparently paid off, for Drizzt had
come out alone, had left the city! There were no witnesses.
It was too easy.
Eagerly the wizard pulled the onyx figurine from his .
pouch and dropped it to the ground. "Guenhwyvar!" he
called as loudly as he dared, glancing around at the nearest
Istalagmite house for signs of activity.
The dark smoke appeared and transformed a moment
later into Masoj's magical panther. Masoj rubbed his hands
together, thinking himself marvelous for having concocted
such a devious and ironic end to the heroics of Drizzt
Do'Urden
"I have a job for you” he told the cat, "one that you'll not
enjoy!"
Guenhwyvar slumped casually and yawned as though the
wizard's words were hardly a revelation.
"Your point companion has gone out on patrol” Masoj ex-
plained as he pointed down the tunnel, "by himself. It's too
dangerous”
Guenhwyvar stood back up, suddenly very interested.
"Drizzt should not be out there alone” Masoj continued.
