Drizzt was composed now, and was confident that he could defeat this foe, even with one leg limiting his mobility, until an arrow cracked into his back.
Drizzt lurched forward under the weight of the blow, but managed to parry another attack from the drider before him. Drizzt dropped to his knees and fell face-down.
When the axe-wielding drider, thinking Drizzt dead, started toward him, Drizzt kicked into a roll that put him squarely under the creature’s bulbous belly. He plunged his scimitar up with all his strength, then curled back under the deluge of spidery fluids.
The wounded drider tried to scurry away but fell to the side, its insides draining out onto the stone floor. Still, Drizzt had no hope. His arms, too, were numb now, and when the other wretched creature descended upon him, he could not hope to fight it off. He struggled to cling to consciousness, searching for some way out, battling to the bitter end. His eyelids became heavy…
Then Drizzt felt a hand grab his robe, and he was roughly lifted to his feet and slammed against the stone wall.
He opened his eyes to see his sister’s face.
"He lives." Drizzt heard her say. "We must get him back quickly and tend to his wounds."
Another figure moved in front of him.
"I thought this the best way." Vierna apologized.
"We cannot afford to lose him." came an unemotional reply. Drizzt recognized the voice from his past. He fought through the blur and forced his eyes to focus.
"Malice." he whispered. "Mother."
Her enraged punch brought him into a clearer mind-set.
"Matron Malice!" she growled, her angry scowl only an inch from Drizzt’s face. "Do not ever forget that!"
To Drizzt, her coldness rivaled the poison’s, and his relief at seeing her faded away as quickly as it had flooded through him.
"You must learn your place!" Malice roared, reiterating the command that had haunted Drizzt all of his young life.
"Hear my words." she demanded, and Drizzt heard them keenly. "Vierna brought you to this place to have you killed. She showed you mercy." Malice cast a disappointed glance at her daughter.
"I understand the will of the Spider Queen better than she." the matron continued, her spittle spraying Drizzt with every word. "If ever you speak ill of Lolth, our goddess, again, I will take you back to this place myself! But not to kill you that would be too easy." She jerked Drizzt’s head to the side so that he could look upon the grotesque remains of the drider he had killed.
"You will come back here." Malice assured him, "to become a drider!"
Part 4
Guenhwyvar
What eyes are these that see
The pain I know in my innermost soul?
What eyes are these that see
The twisted strides of my kindred,
Led on in the wake of toys unbridled
Arrow, bolt, and sword tip?
Yours… aye, yours,
Straight run and muscled spring,
Soft on padded paws, sheathed claws,
Weapons rested for their need,
Stained not by frivolous blood
Or murderous deceit.
Face to face, my mirror,
Reflection in a still pool by light.
Would that I might keep that image
Upon this face mine own.
Would that I might keep that heart
Within my breast untainted.
Hold tight to the proud honor of yours
Mighty Guenhwyvar,
And hold tight to my side,
My dearest friend.
Drizzt Do’Urden
Chapter 17
Homecoming
Drizzt was graduated―formally―on schedule and with the highest honors in his class. Perhaps Matron Malice had whispered into the right ears, smoothing over her son’s indiscretions, but Drizzt suspected that more likely none of those present at the Ceremony of Graduation even remembered that he had left.
He moved through the decorated gate of House Do’Urden, drawing stares from the common soldiery, and over to the cavern floor below the balcony. "So I am home," he remarked under his breath, "for whatever that means." After what had happened in the drider lair, Drizzt wondered if he would ever view House Do’Urden as his home again. Matron Malice was expecting him. He didn’t dare arrive late.
"It is good that you are home." Briza said to him when she saw him rise up over the balcony’s railing.
Drizzt stepped tentatively through the entryway beside his oldest sister, trying to get a firm grasp on his surroundings. Home, Briza called it, but to Drizzt, House Do’Urden seemed as unfamiliar as the Academy had on his first day as a student. Ten years was not such a long time in the centuries of life a drow elf might know, but to Drizzt, more than the decade of absence now separated him from this place.
Maya joined them in the great corridor leading to the chapel anteroom. "Greetings, Prince Drizzt." she said, and Drizzt couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not. "We have heard of the honors you achieved at Melee-Magthere. Your skill did House Do’Urden proud."
In spite of her words, Maya could not hide a derisive chuckle as she finished the thought. "Glad, I am, that you did not become drider food."
Drizzt’s glare stole the smile from her face.
Maya and Briza exchanged concerned glances. They knew of the punishment Vierna had put upon their younger brother, and of the vicious scolding he had received at the hands of Matron Malice. They each cautiously rested a hand on their snake whips, not knowing how foolish their dangerous young brother might have become.
It was not Matron Malice or Drizzt’s sisters that now had Drizzt measuring every step before he took it. He knew where he stood with his mother and knew what he had to do to keep her appeased. There was another member of the family, though, that evoked both confusion and anger in Drizzt. Of all his kin, only Zaknafein pretended to be what he was not. As Drizzt made his way to the chapel, he glanced anxiously down every side passage, wondering when Zak would make his appearance.
"How long before you leave for patrol?" Maya asked, pulling Drizzt from his contemplations.
"Three days." Drizzt replied absently, his eyes still darting from shadow to shadow. Then he was at the anteroom door, with no sign of Zak. Perhaps the weapon master was within, standing beside Malice.
"We know of your indiscretions", Briza snapped, suddenly cold, as she placed her hand on the latch to the anteroom’s door. Drizzt was not surprised by her outburst. He was beginning to expect such explosions from the high priestesses of the Spider Queen.
"Why could you not just enjoy the pleasures of the ceremony?" Maya added. "We are fortunate that the mistresses and the matron of the Academy were too involved in their own excitement to note your movements. You would have brought shame upon our entire house!"
"You might have placed Matron Malice in Lolth’s disfavor," Briza was quick to add.
The best thing I could ever do for her, Drizzt thought. He quickly dismissed the notion, remembering Briza’s uncanny proficiency at reading minds.
"Let us hope he did not." Maya said grimly to her sister.
"The tides of war hang thick in the air?"
"I have learned my place." Drizzt assured them. He bowed low. "Forgive me, my sisters, and know that the truth of the drow world is fast opening before my young eyes. Never will I disappoint House Do’Urden in such a way again."
So pleased were his sisters at the proclamation that the ambiguity of Drizzt’s words slipped right past them. Then Drizzt, not wanting to push his luck too far, also slipped past them, making his way through the door, noting with relief that Zaknafein was not in attendance.
"All praises to the Spider Queen!" Briza yelled after him.
Drizzt paused and turned to meet her gaze. He bowed low a second time. "As it should be." he muttered. Creeping behind the small group, Zak had studied Drizzt’s every move, trying to measure the toll a decade at the Academy had exacted on the young fighter.