Matron Malice grabbed a large piece of the shattered onyx and threw it against a wall. "Already known?" she cried in rage. "Known to whom? Who in my family keeps this secret from me?"
"Perhaps the one who knows does not know that she knows." Briza put in, trying to calm her mother. "Or perhaps the information is newly found, and she has not yet had the chance to come to you with it."
"She?" growled Matron Malice. "What ‘she’ do you speak of, Briza? We are all here. Are any of my daughters stupid enough to miss such an obvious threat to our family?"
"No, Matron!" Vierna and Maya cried together, terrified of Malice’s growing wrath, rising beyond control.
"Never have I seen any sign!" said Vierna.
"Nor I!" added Maya. "By your side I have been these many weeks, and I have seen no more than you!"
"Are you implying that I have missed something?" Malice growled, her knuckles white at her sides.
"No, Matron!" Briza shouted above the commotion, loud enough to settle her mother for the moment and turn Malice’s attention fully upon her eldest daughter.
"Not she, then." Briza reasoned. "He. One of your sons may have the answer, or Zaknafein or Rizzen, perhaps."
"Yes." agreed Vierna. "They are only males, too stupid to understand the importance of minor details."
"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 Menzoberranzan." 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 answer 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 corridor that led to their rooms when they bumped into Zaknafein, 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 endlessly recounted throughout the city. Now leave us, Elderboy. I have unfinished business with your brother."
"I leave when I choose to leave!" Dinin growled. Zak snapped a glare upon him. "I wish to speak to Drizzt, only to Drizzt, so leave."
Dinin’s hand went to his sword hilt, not a smart move. Before he even moved the weapon hilt an inch from the scabbard, Zak had slapped him twice in the face with one hand.
The other had somehow produced a dagger and put its tip at Dinin’s throat.
Drizzt watched in amazement, certain that Zak would kill Dinin if this continued.
"Leave." Zak said again, "on your life." Dinin threw his hands up and slowly backed away. "Matron 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 Matron Malice cares, the family males determine their own hierarchy. Go away, Elderboy. Come back when you have found the courage to challenge me."
"Come with me, brother." Dinin 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 system 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 sarcasm of his own. "Is it that I have inspired jealousy in another 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 abilities. You are one warrior among a race of warriors. To forget 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. I 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 feelings. 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 demeanor since Drizzt had returned from the Academy?
The sound of a whip brought Drizzt from his contemplations.
"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 intersection and peeked around. Briza and Rizzen faced off, Rizzen unarmed, but Briza holding her snakeheaded whip.
"Patron." Briza laughed, "a meaningless title. You are a male lending your seed to the matron and of no more importance."
"Four I have sired." Rizzen said indignantly.
"Three!" Briza corrected, snapping the whip to accentuate the point. "Viera is Zaknafein’s, not yours! Nalfein is dead, leaving only two. One of those is female and above you. Only Dinin 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 pa
id him any mind, had never scolded him or praised him or offered to him any advice or training. To 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 suspect 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 Lolth". 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 transfer. 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!" Masoj protested. "I hit him squarely with a lightning bolt. He never even suspected the blow to be aimed at him! I 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’Urden! When he is dead, I 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 silence 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 certain that I should 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 as 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 angry snakes. "We see together in this matter." she assured Alton. "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 concern 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 something!"
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 Matron 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. To 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 Briza’s attacks, to Briza’s dismay.
"Masoj Hun’ett." Drizzt said more loudly. "In the fight against the gnomes, he tried to kill me." All the family, particularly Malice and Dinin, leaned forward 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 angry 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 insisted. "Masoj insisted that it was he who killed the elemental, but the high priestess of the patrol denied his claim."
"Masoj waited." Drizzt replied. "He did nothing until I began 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 Malice did not like his hesitation as he reconsidered the argument. "Explain!" she commanded.
"Masoj Hun’ett was angry at being excluded from the surface 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."
"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 conspiracies in coincidence? Or was his world so truly filled with devious 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 Dinin, 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 following 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.
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