"We have come to the entrance of the dale," he stated calmly, though his
heart was pounding at the discovery.
The other three moved up to join him. Just below the rim they saw a
carved step, the first in a long line moving down the face of the cliff,
and shaded perfectly by the coloration of the stone to make the entire
construction virtually invisible from any other angle.
Regis swooned when he looked over, nearly overwhelmed by the thought of
descending hundreds of feet on a narrow stair without even a handhold.
"We'll surely fall to our deaths!" he squeaked and backed away.
But again Bruenor wasn't asking for opinions or arguments. He started
down, and Drizzt and Wulfgar moved to follow, leaving Regis with no choice
but to go. Drizzt and Wulfgar sympathized with his distress, though, and
they helped him as much as they could, Wulfgar even scooping him up in his
arms when the wind began to gust.
The descent was tentative and slow, even with Bruenor in the lead, and
it seemed like hours before the stone of the canyon floor had moved any
closer to them.
"Five hundred to the left, then a hundred more," Bruenor sang when they
finally got to the bottom. The dwarf moved along the wall to the south,
counting his measured paces and leading the others past towering pillars of
stone, great monoliths of another age that had seemed as mere piles of
fallen rubble from the rim. Even Bruenor, whose kin had lived here for many
centuries, did not know any tales that spoke of the monoliths' creation or
purpose. But whatever the reason, they had stood a silent and imposing
vigil upon the canyon floor for uncounted centuries, ancient before the
dwarves even arrived, casting ominous shadows and belittling mere mortals
who had ever walked here.
And the pillars bent the wind into an eerie and mournful cry and gave
the entire floor the sensation of something beyond the natural, timeless
like the Holdfast, and imposing a realization of mortality upon onlookers,
as though the monoliths mocked the living with their ageless existence.
Bruenor, unbothered by the towers, finished his count.
"Five hundred to the left, then a hundred more, The hidden lines of the
secret door."
He studied the wall beside him for any marking that would indicate the
entrance to the halls.
Drizzt, too, ran his sensitive hands across the smooth stone. "Are you
certain?" he asked the dwarf after long minutes of searching, for he had
felt no cracks at all.
"I am!" Bruenor declared. "Me people were cunning with their workings
and I fear that the door is too well in hiding for an easy find."
Regis moved in to help, while Wulfgar, uncomfortable beneath the
shadows of the monoliths, stood guard at their backs.
Just a few seconds later, the barbarian noticed movement from where
they'd come, back over by the stone stair. He dipped into a defensive
crouch, clutching Aegis-fang as tightly as ever before. "Visitors," he said
to his friends, the hiss of his whisper echoing around as though the
monoliths were laughing at his attempt at secrecy.
Drizzt sprang out to the nearest pillar and started making his way
around, using Wulfgar's frozen squint as a guide. Angered at the
interruption, Bruenor pulled a small hatchet from his belt and stood ready
beside the barbarian, and Regis behind them.
Then they heard Drizzt call out, "Catti-brie!" and were too relieved
and elated to pause and consider what might have possibly brought their
friend all the way from Ten-Towns, or how she had ever found them.
Their smiles disappeared when they saw her, bruised and bloodied and
stumbling toward them. They rushed to meet her, but the drow, suspecting
that someone might be in pursuit, slipped along through the monoliths and
took up a lookout.
"What bringed ye?" Bruenor cried, grabbing Catti-brie and hugging her
close. "And who was it hurt ye? He'll feel me hands on his neck!"
"And my hammer!" Wulfgar added, enraged at the thought of someone
striking Catti-brie.
Regis hung back now, beginning to suspect what had happened.
"Fender Mallot and Grollo are dead," Catti-brie told Bruenor.
"On the road with ye? But why?" asked the dwarf.
"No, back in Ten-Towns," Catti-brie answered. "A man, a killer, was
there, looking for Regis. I chased after him, trying to get to ye to warn
ye, but he caught me and dragged me along."
Bruenor spun a glare upon the halfling, who was even farther back now,
and hanging his head.
"I knew ye'd found trouble when ye came running up on the road outside
the towns!" He scowled. "What is it, then? And no more of yer lying tales!"
"His name is Entreri," Regis admitted. "Artemis Entreri. He came from
Calimport, from Pasha Pook." Regis pulled out the ruby pendant. "For this."
"But he is not alone," Catti-brie added. "Wizards from Luskan search
for Drizzt."
"For what reason?" Drizzt called from the shadows.
Catti-brie shrugged. "They been taking care not to tell, but me guess
is that they seek some answers about Akar Kessell."
Drizzt understood at once. They sought the Crystal Shard, the powerful
relic that had been buried beneath the avalanche on Kelvin's Cairn.
"How many?" asked Wulfgar. "And how far behind?"
"Three they were," Catti-brie answered. "The assassin, a mage, and a
soldier from Luskan. A monster they had with them. A golem, they called it,
but I've ne'er seen its likes before."
"Golem," Drizzt echoed softly. He had seen many such creations in the
undercity of the dark elves. Monsters of great power and undying loyalty to
their creators. These must be mighty foes indeed, to have one along.
"But the thing is gone," Catti-brie continued. "It chased me on me
flight, and would have had me, no doubting, but I pulled a trick on it and
sent a mountain of rock on its head!"
Bruenor hugged her close again. "Well done, me girl," he whispered.
"And I left the soldier and the assassin in a terrible fight,"
Catti-brie went on. "One is dead, I guess, and the soldier seems most
likely. A pity, it is, for he was a decent sort."
"He'd have found me blade for helping the dogs at all!" Bruenor
retorted. "But enough of the tale; there'll be time for telling. Ye're at
the hall, girl, do ye know? Ye're to see for yerself the splendors I been
telling ye about all these years! So go and rest up." He turned around to
tell Wulfgar to see to her, but noticed Regis instead. The halfling had
problems of his own, hanging his head and wondering if he had pushed his
friends too far this time.
"Fear not, my friend," said Wulfgar, also seeing Regis's distress. "You
acted to survive. There is no shame in that. Though you should have told us
the danger!"
"Ah, put yer head up, Rumblebelly!" Bruenor snapped. "We expect as much
from ye, ye no-good trickster! Don't ye be thinkin' we're surprised!"
Bruenor's rage, an angry possessor somehow growing of its own volition,
suddenly mounted as he stood there chastising the halfling.
"How dare ye to put this on us?" he roared at Regis, moving Catti-brie
aside and advancing a step. "And with me home right before me!"
Wulfgar was quick to block Bruenor's path to Regis, though he was truly
amazed at the sudden shift in the dwarf. He had never seen Bruenor so
consumed by emotion. Catti-brie, too, looked on, stunned.
"'Twas not the halfling's fault," she said. "And the wizards would've
come anyway!"
Drizzt returned to them then. "No one has made the stair yet," he said,
but when he took a better notice of the situation, he realized that his
words had not been heard.
A long and uncomfortable silence descended upon them, then Wulfgar took
command. "We have come too far along this road to argue and fight among
ourselves!" he scolded Bruenor.
Bruenor looked at him blankly, not knowing how to react to the
uncharacteristic stand Wulfgar had taken against him. "Bah!" the dwarf said
finally, throwing up his hands in frustration. "The fool halfling'll get us
killed . . . but not to worry!" he grumbled sarcastically, moving back to
the wall to search for the door.
Drizzt looked curiously at the surly dwarf, but was more concerned with
Regis at this point. The halfling, thoroughly miserable, had dropped to a
sitting position and seemed to have lost all desire to go on. "Take heart,"
Drizzt said to him. "Bruenor's anger will pass. The essence of his dreams
stands before him."
"And about this assassin who seeks your head," Wulfgar said, moving to
join the two. "He shall find a mighty welcome when he gets here, if ever he
does." Wulfgar patted the head of his warhammer. "Perhaps we can change his
mind about this hunt!"
"If we can get into the mines, our trail might be lost to them," Drizzt
said to Bruenor, trying to further soothe the dwarf's anger.
"They'll not make the stair," said Catti-brie. "Even watching your
climb down, I had trouble finding it!" .
"I would rather stand against them now!" Wulfgar declared. "They have
much to explain, and they'll not escape my punishment for the way they have
treated Catti-brie!"
"Ware the assassin," Catti-brie warned him. "His blades mean death, and
no mistaking!"
"And a wizard can be a terrible foe," added Drizzt. "We have a more
important task before us - we do not need to take on fights that we can
avoid."
"No delays!" said Bruenor, ending any rebuttals from the big barbarian.
"Mithril Hall stands before me, and I'm meaning to go in! Let them follow,
if they dare." He turned back to the wall to resume his search for the
door, calling for Drizzt to join him. "Keep the watch, boy," he ordered
Wulfgar. "And see to me girl."
"A word of opening, perhaps?" Drizzt asked when he stood alone again
with Bruenor before the featureless wall.
"Aye," said Bruenor, "there be a word. But the magic that holds to it
leaves it after a while, and a new word must be named. None were here to
name it!"
"Try the old word, then."
"I have, elf, a dozen times when we first came here." He banged his
fist on the stone. "Another way there be, I know," he growled in
frustration.
"You will remember," Drizzt assured him. And they set back to
inspecting the wall.
Even the stubborn determination of a dwarf does not always pay off, and
the night fell and found the friends sitting outside the entrance in the
darkness, not daring to light a fire for fear of alerting their pursuers.
Of all their trials on the road, the waiting so very close to their goal
was possibly the most trying. Bruenor began to second-guess himself,
wondering if this was even the correct place for the door. He recited the
song he had learned as a child in Mithril Hall over and over, searching for
some clues he might have missed.
The others slept uneasily, especially Catti-brie, who knew that the
silent death of an assassin's blade stalked them. They would not have slept
at all, except that they knew that the keen, ever vigilant eyes of a drow
elf watched over them.
* * *
A few miles down the trail behind them, a similar camp had been set.
Entreri stood quietly, peering to the trails of the eastern mountains for
signs of a campfire, though he doubted that the friends would be so
careless as to light one if Catti-brie had found and warned them. Behind
him, Sydney lay wrapped in a blanket upon the cool stone, resting and
recovering from the blow Cattibrie had struck her.
The assassin had considered leaving her - normally he would have
without a second thought - but Entreri needed to take some time anyway to
regroup his thoughts and figure out his best course of action.
Dawn came and found him standing there still, unmoving and
contemplative. Behind him, the mage awoke.
"Jierdan?" she called, dazed. Entreri stepped back and crouched over
her.
"Where is Jierdan?" she asked.
"Dead," Entreri answered, no hint of remorse in his voice. "As is the
golem."
"Bok?" Sydney gasped.
"A mountain fell on him," Entreri replied.
"And the girl?"
"Gone." Entreri looked back to the east. "When I have seen to your
needs, I will go," he said. "Our chase is ended."
"They are close," Sydney argued. "You will give up your hunt?"
Entreri grinned. "The halfling will be mine," he said evenly, and
Sydney had no doubt that he spoke the truth. "But our party is disbanded. I
will return to my own hunt, and you to yours, though I warn you, if you
take what is mine, you will mark yourself as my next prey."
Sydney considered the words carefully. "Where did Bok fall?" she asked
on a sudden thought.
Entreri looked along the trail to the east. "In a vale beyond the
copse."
"Take me there," Sydney insisted. "There is something that must be
done."
Entreri helped her to her feet and led her along the path, figuring
that he would part with her when she had put her final business to rest. He
had come to respect this young mage and her dedication to her duty, and he
trusted that she would not cross him. Sydney was no wizard, and no match
