"What of my question." Malice dared to protest, "the reason for the summons?"
There came a bright flash that stole the four clerics vision. When their eyesight returned to them, they saw the yochlol, tiny again, and glaring out at them from the flames of the onyx bowl.
"The Spider Queen does not give an answer that is already known!" The handmaiden proclaimed, the sheer power of its otherworldly voice cutting into the drow ears. The fire erupted in another blinding flash, and the yochlol disappeared, leaving the precious bowl sundered into a dozen pieces.
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."