Homeland de-1

by Robert Anthony Salvatore

  "Leaving the house?" Zak protested. "A minor error in judgment. Lolth would not be concerned with such a trifle issue."

  "Do not feign ignorance, Zaknafein. You know that the elven child lives!"

  Zak lost his breath in a sharp gasp. Malice knew! Damn it all, Lolth knew!

  "We are about to go to war." Malice continued calmly, "we are not in Lolth’s favor, and we must correct the situation."

  She eyed Zak directly. "You are aware of our ways and know that we must do this."

  Zak nodded, trapped. Anything he did now to disagree would only make matters worse for Drizzt, if matters could be worse for Drizzt.

  "The secondboy must be punished." Briza said. Another rehearsed interruption, Zak knew. He wondered how many times Briza and Malice had practiced this encounter.

  "Am I to punish him, then?" Zak asked. "I’ll not whip the boy that is not my place."

  "His punishment is none of your concern." Malice said.

  "Then why disturb my slumber?" Zak asked, trying to detach himself from Drizzt’s predicament, more for Drizzt’s sake than his own.

  "I thought that you would wish to know." Malice replied.

  "You and Drizzt became so close this day in the gym. Father and son."

  She saw! Zak realized. Malice, and probably that wretched Briza, had watched the whole encounter! Zak’s head drooped as he came to know that he had unwittingly played a part in Drizzt’s predicament.

  "An elven child lives." Malice began slowly, rolling out each word in dramatic clarity, "and a young drow must die."

  "No!" The word came out of Zak before he realized he was speaking. He tried to find some escape. "Drizzt was young. He did not understand…"

  "He knew exactly what he was doing!" Malice screamed back at him. "He does not regret his actions! He is so like you, Zaknafein! Too like you."

  "Then he can learn." Zak reasoned. "I have not been a burden to you, Mali―Matron Malice. You have profited by my presence. Drizzt is no less skilled than I, he can be valuable to us."

  "Dangerous to us." Matron Malice corrected. "You and he standing together? The thought does not please me."

  "His death will aid House Hun’ett." Zak warned, grabbing at anything he could find to defeat the matron’s intent.

  "The Spider Queen demands his death." Malice replied sternly. "She must be appeased if Daermon N’a’shezbaernon is to have any hope in its struggles against House Hun’ett."

  "I beg you, do not kill the boy."

  "Sympathy?" Malice mused. "It does not become a drow warrior, Zaknafein. Have you lost your fighting will?"

  "I am old, Malice."

  "Matron Malice!" Briza protested, but Zak put a look on her so cold that she lowered her snake whip before she had even begun to put it to use.

  "Older still will I become if Drizzt is put to his death."

  "I do not desire this either." Malice agreed, but Zak recognized her lie. She didn’t care about Drizzt, or about anything else, beyond gaining the Spider Queen’s favor.

  "Yet I see no alternative. Drizzt has angered Lolth, and she must be appeased before our war."

  Zak began to understand. This meeting wasn’t about Drizzt at all. "Take me in the boy’s stead." he said.

  Malice’s narrow grin could not hide her feigned surprise.

  This was what she had desired from the very beginning.

  "You are a proven fighter." the matron argued. "Your value, as you yourself have already admitted, cannot be underestimated. To sacrifice you to the Spider Queen would appease her, but what void will be left in House Do’Urden in the wake of your passing?"

  "A void that Drizzt can fill." Zak replied. He secretly hoped that Drizzt, unlike he, would find some escape from it all, some way around Matron Malice’s evil plots.

  "You are certain of this?"

  "He is my equal in battle." Zak assured her. "He will grow stronger, too, beyond what Zaknafein has ever attained."

  "You are willing to do this for him?" Malice sneered, eager drool edging her mouth.

  "You know that I am." Zak replied.

  "Ever the fool." Malice put in.

  "To your dismay." Zak continued, undaunted, "you know that Drizzt would do the same for me."

  "He is young." Malice purred. "He will be taught better."

  "As you taught me?" snapped Zak.

  Malice’s victorious grin became a grimace. "I warn you, Zaknafein," she growled in all her vile rage. "If you do anything to disrupt the ceremony to appease the Spider Queen, if, in the end of your wasted life, you choose to anger me one final time, I will give Drizzt to Briza. She and her torturous toys will give him to Lolth!"

  Unafraid, Zak held his head high. "I have offered myself, Malice." he spat. "Have your fun while you may. In the end, Zaknafein will be at peace. Matron Malice Do’Urden will ever be at war!"

  Shaking in anger, the moment of triumph stolen by a few simple words, Malice could only whisper, "Take him!"

  Zak offered no resistance as Vierna and Maya tied him to the spider-shaped altar in the chapel. He watched Vierna mostly, seeing an edge of sympathy rimming her quiet eyes. She, too, might have been like him, but whatever hope he had for that possibility had been buried long ago under the relentless preaching of the Spider Queen.

  "You are sad." Zak remarked to her.

  Vierna straightened and tugged tightly on one of Zak’s bonds, causing him to grimace in pain. "A pity." she replied as coldly as she could. "House Do’Urden must give much to repay Drizzt’s foolish deed. I would have enjoyed watching the two of you together in battle."

  "House Hun’ett would not have enjoyed the sight." Zak replied with a wink. "Cry not… my daughter." Vierna slapped him across the face. "Take your lies to your grave!"

  "Deny it as you choose, Vierna." was all that Zak cared to reply.

  Vierna and Maya backed away from the altar. Vierna fought to hold her scowl and Maya bit back an amused chuckle, as Matron Malice and Briza entered the room. The matron mother wore her greatest ceremonial robe, black and weblike, clinging and floating about her all at once, and Briza carried a sacred coffer.

  Zak paid them no heed as they began their ritual, chanting for the Spider Queen, offering their hopes for appeasement. Zak had his own hopes at that moment.

  "Beat them all." he whispered under his breath. "Do more than survive, my son, as I have survived. Live! Be true to the callings in your heart."

  Braziers roared to life, the room glowed. Zak felt the heat, knew that contact to that darker plane had been achieved.

  "Take this…" he heard Matron Malice chant, but he put the words out of his thoughts and continued the final prayers of his life.

  The spider-shaped dagger hovered over his chest. Malice clenched the instrument in her bony hands, the sheen of her sweat-soaked skin catching the orange reflection of the fires in a surrealistic glow.

  Surreal, like the transition from life to death.

  Chapter 28

  Rightful Owner

  How long had it been? An hour? Two? Masoj paced the length of the gap between the two stalagmite mounds just a few feet from the entrance to the tunnel that Drizzt, and then Guenhwyvar, had taken. "The cat should have returned by now." the wizard grumbled, at the end of his patience.

  Relief flooded through his face a moment later, when Guenhwyvar’s great black head peered around the edge of the tunnel, behind one of the displacer beast statue guardians. The fur around the cat’s maw was conspicuously wet with fresh blood.

  "It is done?" Masoj asked, barely able to contain a shout of elation. "Drizzt Do’Urden is dead?"

  "Hardly." came the reply. Drizzt, for all his idealism, had to admit a tinge of pleasure as a cloud of dread cooled the elated fires in the sinister wizard’s cheeks.

  "What is this, Guenhwyvar?" Masoj demanded. "Do as I bid you! Kill him now!"

  Guenhwyvar stared blankly at Masoj, then lay at Drizzt’s feet.

  "You admit your attempt on my life?" Drizzt asked.

/>   Masoj measured the distance to his adversary, ten feet. He might be able to get off one spell. Perhaps. Masoj had seen Drizzt move, quick and sure, and had little desire to chance the attack if he could find another way out of this predicament. Drizzt had not yet drawn a weapon, though the young warrior’s hands rested easily across the hilts of his deadly blades.

  "I understand." Drizzt continued calmly. "House Hun’ett and House Do’Urden are to battle."

  "How did you know?" Masoj blurted without thinking, too shocked by the revelation to consider that Drizzt might merely be goading him into a larger admission.

  "I know much but care little." Drizzt replied. "House Hun’ett wishes to wage war against my family. For what reason, I cannot guess."

  "For the vengeance of House DeVir!" came a reply from a different direction.

  Alton, standing on the side of a stalagmite mound, looked down at Drizzt.

  A smile spread over Masoj’s face. The odds had so quickly changed.

  "House Hun’ett cares not at all for House DeVir." Drizzt replied, still composed in the face of this new development. "I have learned enough of the ways of our people to know that the fate of one house is not the concern of another."

  "But it is my concern!" Alton cried, and he threw back the cowl of his hood, revealing the hideous face, scarred by acid for the sake of a disguise. "I am Alton DeVir, lone survivor of House DeVir! House Do’Urden will die for its crimes against my family, starting with you."

  "I was not even born when the battle took place." Drizzt protested.

  "Of little consequence!" Alton snarled. "You are a Do’Urden, a filthy Do’Urden. That is all that matters." Masoj tossed the onyx figurine to the ground. "Guenhwyvar!" he commanded. "Be gone!"

  The cat looked over its shoulder to Drizzt, who nodded his approval.

  "Be gone!" Masoj cried again. "I am your master! You cannot disobey me!"

  "You do not own the cat." Drizzt said calmly.

  "Who does, then?" Masoj snapped. "You?"

  "Guenhwyvar." Drizzt replied. "Only Guenhwyvar. I would think that a wizard would have a better understanding of the magic around him."

  With a low growl that might have been a mocking laugh, Guenhwyvar loped across the stone to the figurine and dissipated into smoky nothingness.

  The cat walked down the length of the planar tunnel, toward its home in the Astral Plane. Ever before had Guenhwyvar been anxious to make this journey, to escape the foul commands of its drow masters. This time, though, the cat hesitated with every stride, looking back over its shoulder to the dot of darkness that was Menzoberranzan.

  "Will you deal?" Drizzt offered.

  "You are in no position to bargain." Alton laughed, drawing out the slender wand that Matron SiNafay had given him.

  Masoj cut him short. "Wait." he said. "Perhaps Drizzt will prove valuable to our struggle against House Do’Urden." He eyed the young warrior directly. "You will betray your family?"

  "Hardly." Drizzt snickered. " As I have already said to you, I care little for the coming conflict. Let House Hun’ett and House Do’Urden both be damned, as surely they will! My concerns are personal."

  "You must have something to offer us in exchange for your gain." Masoj explained. "Otherwise, what bargain can you hope to make?"

  "I do have something to give to you in return." Drizzt replied, his voice calm, "your lives."

  Masoj and Alton looked to each other and laughed aloud, but there was a trace of nervousness in their chuckles.

  "Give me the figurine, Masoj." Drizzt continued, undaunted. "Guenhwyvar never belonged to you and will serve you no more."

  Masoj stopped laughing.

  "In return." Drizzt went on before the wizard could reply, "I will leave House Do’Urden and not take part in the battle."

  "Corpses do not fight." Alton sneered.

  "I will take another Do’Urden with me." Drizzt spat at him. "A weapon master. Surely House Hun’ett will have gained an advantage if both Drizzt and Zaknafein…"

  "Silence!" Masoj screamed. "The cat is mine! I do not need any bargains from a pitiful Do’Urden! You are dead, fool, and House Do’Urden’s weapon master will follow you to your grave!"

  "Guenhwyvar is free!" Drizzt growled.

  The scimitars came out in Drizzt’s hands. He had never really fought a wizard before, let alone two, but he remembered vividly from past encounters the sting of their spells. Masoj had already begun to cast, but of more concern was Alton, out of quick reach and pointing that slender wand.

  Before Drizzt ever decided his course of action, the issue was settled for him. A cloud of smoke engulfed Masoj and he fell back, his spell disrupted with the shock. Guenhwyvar was back.

  Alton was out of Drizzt’s reach. Drizzt could not hope to get to the wizard before the wand went off, but to Guenhwyvar’s streamlined feline muscles, the distance was not so great. Hind legs tamped a footing and snapped, launching the hunting panther through the air.

  Alton brought the wand to bear on this new nemesis in time and released a mighty bolt, scorching Guenhwyvar’s chest. Greater strength than a single bolt, though, would be needed to deter the ferocious panther. Stunned but still fighting, Guenhwyvar slammed into the faceless wizard, dropping him off the back side of the stalagmite mound. The lightning bolt’s flash stunned Drizzt as well, but he continued to pursue Masoj and could only hope that Guenhwyvar had survived. He rushed around the base of the other stalagmite mound and came face-to-face with Masoj, once again in the act of spellcasting. Drizzt didn’t slow, he ducked his head and barreled into his opponent, his scimitars leading the way.

  He slipped right through his opponent, right through the image of his opponent!

  Drizzt crashed heavily into the stone and rolled aside, trying to escape the magical attack he knew was coming.

  This time, Masoj, standing fully thirty feet behind the projection of his image, was taking no chances with a miss. He launched a volley of magical missiles of energy that veered unerringly to intercept the dodging fighter. They slammed into Drizzt, jolting him, bruising him under his skin.

  But Drizzt was able to shake away the numbing pain and regain his footing. He knew where the real Masoj was standing now and had no intention of letting the trickster out of sight again.

  A dagger in his hand, Masoj watched Drizzt’s stalking approach.

  Drizzt didn’t understand. Why wasn’t the wizard preparing another spell? The fall had reopened the wound in Drizzt’s shoulder, and the magical bolts had torn his side and a leg. The wounds were not serious, though, and Masoj had no chance against him in physical combat.

  The wizard stood before him, unconcerned, dagger drown and a wicked smile on his face.

  Face down on the hard stone, Alton felt the warmth of his own blood running freely between the melted holes that were his eyes. The cat was higher up the side of the mound, not yet fully recovered from the lightning bolt.

  Alton forced himself up and raised his wand for a second strike… but the wand had snapped in half.

  Frantically Alton recovered the other piece and held it up before his disbelieving eyes. Guenhwyvar was coming again, but Alton didn’t notice.

  The glowing ends of the wand, a power building within the magical stick, enthralled him. "You cannot do that." Alton whispered in protest.

  Guenhwyvar leaped just as the broken wand exploded.

  A ball of fire roared up into Menzoberranzan’s night, chunks of rubble rocketed off the great cavern’s eastern wall and ceiling, and both Drizzt and Masoj were knocked from their feet.

  "Now Guenhwyvar belongs to no one," Masoj sneered, tossing the figurine to the ground.

  "No DeVir remains to claim vengeance on House Do’Urden." Drizzt growled back, his anger holding off his despair. Masoj became the focus of that anger, and the wizard’s mocking laughter led Drizzt toward him in a furious rush.

  Just as Drizzt got in range, Masoj snapped his fingers and was gone.

  "Invisible." Drizzt roared,
slicing futilely at the empty air before him. His exertions took the edge from his blind rage and he realized that Masoj was no longer in front of him. How foolish he must seem to the wizard. How vulnerable!

  Drizzt crouched to listen. He sensed a distant chanting from up above, on the cavern wall.

  Drizzt’s instincts told him to dive to the side, but his new understanding of wizards told him that Masoj would anticipate such a move. Drizzt feigned to the left and heard the climactic words of the building spell. As the lightning blast thundered harmlessly to the side, Drizzt sprinted straight ahead, hoping his vision would return in time for him to get to the wizard.

  "Damn you!" Masoj cried, understanding the feint as soon as he had errantly fired. Rage became terror in the next instant, as Masoj caught sight of Drizzt, sprinting across the stone, leaping the rubble, and crossing the sides of the mounds with all the grace of a hunting cat.

  Masoj fumbled in his pockets for the components to his next spell. He had to be quick. He was fully twenty feet from the cavern floor, perched on a narrow ledge, but Drizzt was moving fast, impossibly fast!

  The ground beneath him did not register in Drizzt’s conscious thoughts. The cavern wall would have seemed unclimbable to him in a more rational state, but now he gave it not a care. Guenhwyvar was lost to him. Guenhwyvar was gone.

  That wicked wizard on the ledge, that embodiment of demonic evil, had caused it. Drizzt sprang to the wall, found one hand free―he must have discarded one scimitar―and caught a tenuous hold. It wasn’t enough for a rational drow, but Drizzt’s mind ignored the protests of the muscles in his straining fingers. He had only ten feet to go.

  Another volley of energy bolts thudded into Drizzt, hammering the top of his head in rapid succession.

  "How many spells remain, wizard?" he heard himself defiantly cry as he ignored the pain.

  Masoj fell back when Drizzt looked up at him, when the burning light of those lavender orbs fell upon him like a pronouncement of doom. He had seen Drizzt in battle many times, and the sight of the fighting young warrior had haunted him through all the planning of this assassination. But Masoj had never seen Drizzt enraged before. If he had, he never would have agreed to try to kill Drizzt. If he had, he would have told Matron SiNafay to go sit on a stalagmite.