"But the way he did it!" Dinin exclaimed. "He hacked her apart, sent all of Lolth’s fury slicing into her twitching body! The Spider Queen must have treasured that kill above all the others."
"Only one." Matron Malice said again, her scowl hardly softening.
"He would have had two." Dinin continued. "Shar Nadal of House Maevret stole one from his blade, another female."
"Then Lolth will look with favor on House Maevret." Briza reasoned.
"No." Dinin replied. "Drizzt punished Shar Nadal for his actions. The son of House Maevret would not respond to the challenge."
The memory stuck in Drizzt’s thoughts. He wished that Shar Nadal had come back at him, so he could have vented his rage more fully. Even that wish sent pangs of guilt coursing through Drizzt.
"Well done, my children." Malice beamed, now satisfied that both of them had acted properly in the raid. "The Spider Queen will look upon House Do’Urden with favor for this event. She will guide us to victory over this unknown house that seeks to destroy us."
Zaknafein left the audience hall with his eyes down and one hand nervously rubbing his sword’s hilt. Zak remembered the time he had deceived Drizzt with the light bomb, when he had Drizzt defenseless and beaten. He could have spared the young innocent from his horrid fate. He could have killed Drizzt then and there, mercifully, and released him from the inevitable circumstances of life in Menzoberranzan.
Zak paused in the long corridor and turned back to watch the chamber. Drizzt and Dinin came out then, Drizzt casting Zak a single, accusatory look and pointedly turning away down a side passage.
The gaze cut through the weapon master. "So it has come to this." Zak murmured to himself. "The youngest warrior of House Do’Urden, so full of the hate that embodies our race, has learned to despise me for what I am."
Zak thought again of that moment in the training gym, that fateful second when Drizzt’s life teetered on the edge of a poised sword. It indeed would have been a merciful act to kill Drizzt at that time.
With the sting of the young drow warrior’s gaze still cutting so keenly into his heart, Zak couldn’t decide whether the deed would have been more merciful to Drizzt or to himself.
"Leave us." Matron SiNafay commanded as she swept into the small room lighted by a candle’s glow. Alton gawked at the request it was, after all, his personal room! Alton prudently reminded himself that SiNafay was the matron mother of the family, the absolute ruler of House Hun’ett. With a few awkward bows and apologies for his hesitation, he backed out of the room.
Masoj watched his mother cautiously as she waited for Alton to move away. From SiNafay’s agitated tone, Masoj understood the significance of her visit. Had he done something to anger his mother? Or, more likely, had Alton? When SiNafay spun back on him, her face twisted in evil glee, Masoj realized that her agitation was really excitement.
"House Do’Urden has erred!" she snarled. "It has lost the Spider Queen’s favor!"
"How?" Masoj replied. He knew that Dinin and Drizzt had returned from a successful raid, an assault that all of the city was talking about in tones of high praise.
"I do not know the details." Matron SiNafay replied, finding a measure of calmness in her voice. "One of them, perhaps one of the sons, did something to displease Lolth. This was told to me by a handmaiden of the Spider Queen. It must be true!"
"Matron Malice will work quickly to correct the situation." Masoj reasoned. "How long do we have?"
"Lolth’s displeasure will not be revealed to Matron Malice." SiNafay replied. "Not soon. The Spider Queen knows all. She knows that we plan to attack House Do’Urden, and only an unfortunate accident will inform Matron Malice of her desperate situation before her house is crushed!"
"We must move quickly." Matron SiNafay went on. "Within ten cycles of Narbondei, the first strike must fall! The full battle will begin soon after, before House Do’Urden can link its loss to our wrongdoing."
"What is to be their sudden loss?" Masoj prompted, thinking, hoping, he had already guessed the answer.
His mother’s words were like sweet music to his ears.
"Drizzt Do’Urden." she purred, "the favored son. Kill him". Masoj rested back and clasped his slender fingers behind his head, considering the command.
"You will not fail me." SiNafay warned.
"I will not." Masoj assured her. "Drizzt, though young, is already a powerful foe. His brother, a former master of Melee-Magthere, is never far from his side." He looked up at his matron mother, his eyes gleaming. "May I kill the brother, too?"
"Be cautious, my son." SiNafay replied. "Drizzt Do’Urden is your target. Concentrate your efforts toward his death.
"As you command." Masoj replied, bowing low. SiNafay liked the way her young son heeded to her desires without question. She started out of the room, confident in Masoj’s ability to perform the task.
"If Dinin Do’Urden somehow gets in the way." she said, turning back to throw Masoj a gift for his obedience, "you may kill him, too."
Masoj’s expression revealed too much eagerness for the second task.
"You will not fail me!" SiNafay said again, this time in an open threat that stole some of the wind out of Masoj’s filling sails. "Drizzt Do’Urden must die within ten days!"
Masoj forced any distracting thoughts of Dinin out of his mind. "Drizzt must die." he whispered over and over, long after his mother had gone. He already knew how he wanted to do it. He only had to hope that the opportunity would come soon.
The awful memory of the surface raid followed Drizzt, haunted him, as he wandered the halls of Daermon N’a’shezbaernon. He had rushed from the audience chamber as soon as Matron Malice had dismissed him, and had slipped away from his brother at the first opportunity, wanting only to be alone.
The images remained, the broken sparkle in the young elven girl’s eyes as she knelt over her murdered mother’s corpse the elven woman’s horrified expression, twisting in agony as Ghar Nadal ripped the life from her body. The surface elves were there in Drizzt’s thoughts; he could not dismiss them. They walked beside Drizzt as he wandered, as real as they had been when Drizzt’s raiding group had descended upon their joyful song.
Drizzt wondered if he would ever be alone again. Eyes down, consumed by his empty sense of loss, Drizzt did not mark the path before him. He jumped back, startled, when he turned a corner and bumped into somebody. He stood facing Zaknafein.
"You are home." the weapon master said absently, his blank face revealing none of the tumultuous emotions swirling through his mind.
Drizzt wondered if he could properly hide his own grimace. "For a day." he replied, equally nonchalant, though his rage with Zaknafein was no less intense. Now that Drizzt had witnessed the wrath of drow elves firsthand, Zak’s reputed deeds rang out to Drizzt as even more evil. "My patrol group goes back out at Narbondel’s first light."
"So soon?" asked Zak, genuinely surprised.
"We are summoned." Drizzt replied, starting past. Zak caught him by the arm.
"General patrol?" he asked.
"Focused." Drizzt replied. "Activity in the eastern tunnels."
"So the heroes are summoned." chuckled Zak.
Drizzt did not immediately respond. Was there sarcasm in Zak’s voice? Jealousy, perhaps, that Drizzt and Dinin were allowed to go out to fight, while Zak had to remain within the House Do’Urden’s confines to fulfill his role as the family’s fighting instructor? Was Zak’s hunger for blood so great that he could not accept the duties thrust upon them all?