Starless Night

Chapter 26 CATTI-BRIE 'S SURPRISE

 
I thought that your lizard was shot out from under you, " Drizzt remarked, trying to sound confident in the face his disappointment.
Berg'inyon steeled his red glowing gaze upon the impetuous renegade and did not respond.
"A fine shot, " Dantrag agreed, "but it was only a lizard, after all, and well worth the entertainment you and your pitiful friends have provided." Dantrag casually reached over and took the long death lance from his brother's hand. "Are you ready to die, Drizzt Do'Urden?" he asked as he lowered the deadly tip.
Drizzt crouched low, feeling his balance, and crossed his scimi tars in front of him. Where were Catti-brie and Entreri? he won dered, and he feared that they had met resistance, Dantrag's soldiers?, back in the corridor.
Despair washed over him suddenly with the thought that Catti brie might already be dead, but the ranger pushed it away, reminded himself to trust her, to trust that she could take care of herself.
Dantrag's lizard leaped ahead, then skittered sideways along a wall. Drizzt had no idea of which way the creature would veer when it came near him. Back to the floor? Higher on the wall? Or might it turn right up onto the ceiling and carry its hanging rider right above the target?
Dantrag knew that Drizzt had been on the surface, where there were no ceilings, for many years, did he think the last choice the most devious?
Drizzt started toward the opposite wall, but fell to his knees instead at the same instant that Dantrag coaxed his fast running, sticky footed mount up to the ceiling. The tip of the long lance just missed the ducking ranger's head, and Drizzt leaped up as the rider passed, grabbing at the weapon's shaft.
He felt a sting in his lower back, and turned to see Berg'inyon sitting calmly atop his mount, reloading his hand crossbow.
"It does not have to be a fair fight, Drizzt Do'Urden!" Dantrag explained with a laugh. He swung his well trained mount about, brought it back to the floor, and lowered the lance once more.
Sword and dagger flashed wildly as Entreri tried to finish the stubborn dark elf. This one was a skilled fighter, though, and his parries were fast and on target. Behind the drow, the other dark elves were steadily inching toward Entreri, gaining confidence as they watched their companion hold the assassin's devilish attacks at bay
"What are you doing?" Entreri demanded of Catti-brie, seeing her kneeling beside a large mound of rock. The woman stood up and fired an arrow into the stone, then a second, then dropped back to her knees.
"What are you doing?" Entreri demanded more emphatically
"Stop yer whining and be done with the drow, " Catti-brie snarled back, and Entreri regarded her incredulously, suddenly not so sure of what to make of this surprising creature. Almost as an afterthought, Catti-brie tossed the onyx panther figurine to the floor. "Come back, Guenhwyvar, " she said too calmly "Me heroic com panion's needing yer help."
Entreri growled and went at his opponent with renewed fury, just the effect conniving Catti-brie had hoped for. His sword went into a circular movement, and his jeweled dagger poked in behind it at every opportunity
The dark elf called out something, and one of those nearest him mustered some courage and came forward to join the combatants. Entreri growled and reluctantly fell back a step, across the corridor.
A streaking arrow cut in front of the assassin, stealing his sight, and when his vision returned, he faced only one drow again, and those others watching froin behind, in the side passage, were long gone.
Entreri put a sarcastic glance at Catti-brie, but she was firing into the stone again (and talking to the returned panther) and did not hear.
Drizzt felt the burn of drow poison in his back, but felt, too, the tingling of the recently quaffed healing potions. He started to swoon, purposely, and heard Dantrag laughing at him, mocking him. The predictable click of Berg'inyon's crossbow sounded, and Drizzt fell right to the stone, the dart arcing over him and stealing the mirth from the smug weapon master as it skipped off the stone not so far from Dantrag's head.
Dantrag's charge was on before Drizzt was fully back to his feet, the weapon master coming straight at him this time. Drizzt fell to one knee, shot back up, and spun away, frantically batting at the dangerous and enchanted lance as it passed just under his high flying arm. Dantrag, incredibly fast, snapped off a backhanded slap into Drizzt's face as he passed. Drizzt, both his blades intent on keeping the lance at bay, could not respond.
Back came the weapon master, impossibly quick, and Drizzt had to dive to the side as the mighty lance scratched a deep line into the stone. Drizzt reversed his direction immediately, hoping to score a hit as the lance went past, but again Dantrag was too quick, snap ping out his own sword and not only deflecting Drizzt's lunge, but countering with a slapping strike against the side of Drizzt's out stretched hand. And then the sword went back into its sheath, too fast for Drizzt to follow the move.
Around wheeled the lizard, going up on a wall for this pass and sending Drizzt into a frantic roll back the other way
"How long, Drizzt Do'Urden?" the cocky weapon master asked, knowing that Drizzt, with all his frantic dodging had to be tiring.
Drizzt growled and could not disagree, but as he rose from the floor, turning to follow the lizard's progress, the ranger saw a glim mer of hope from the corner of his eye: the welcome face of a certain black panther as it bounded around the corridor's bend.
Dantrag was just turning his mount about for a fifth pass when Guenhwyvar barreled in. Over went the lizard, with Dantrag strapped in for the ride. The weapon master managed to somehow get loose of his bindings as the beasts continued to roll, and he came up, quite shaken, facing the ranger.
"Now the fight is fair, " Drizzt declared.
A crossbow quarrel whistled past Dantrag, and past Drizzt's blocking scimitar, to score a hit on the ranger's shoulder.
"Hardly, " Dantrag corrected, his smile returning. Faster than Drizzt's eye could follow, he snapped his two swords from their sheaths and began his measured advance. In his head his sentient sword, hungering for this fight perhaps more than the weapon master himself, telepathically agreed. Hardly.
"What are you about?" Entreri screamed when Guenhwyvar bounded past him, giving no apparent regard to his opponent. The flustered assassin took out his frustration on the lone drow facing him, hitting the unfortunate soldier with a three cut combination that left him off balance and with one of his arms severely bleeding. Entreri probably could have finished the fight right then, except that his attention was still somewhat focused on Catti-brie.
"I'm just digging holes, " the young woman said, as though that should explain everything. Several more bow shots followed in rapid succession, chipping away at the hard stone of an enormous stalactite. One arrow went through then, back into the cavern below.
"There is fighting ahead, " Entreri called. "And dark elves will soon be floating through that hole in the ceiling."
"Then be done with yer work!" Catti-brie shouted at him. "And be leaving me to me own!"
Entreri bit back his next retort, gnawed on his lips instead, and determined that if he was alive when this was all over, Catti-brie would wish that she was not.
The drow facing the assassin came on suddenly, thinking that his opponent was distracted and thinking to score a quick victory But Entreri's sword snapped left, right, and straight ahead, batting aside both weapons and scoring a minor hit, again on the bleeding arm.
They were no more than a tumbling ball of fur and scales, Guen hwyvar and the subterranean lizard locked in a raking, biting jumble. With its longer neck, the lizard had its head far to the side, biting at Guenhwyvar's flank, but Guenhwyvar stubbornly kept a firm hold on the base of the lizard's neck. More deadly still, the pan ther 's claws were inside the lizard's reach, affording Guenhwyvar a distinct advantage as they rolled. The panther's front claws kept a tight and steady hold, while Guenhwyvar 's rear legs tucked in close and began a vicious kicking rake, tearing at the reptilian beast.
Victory was at hand for the beleaguered panther, but then Guenhwyvar felt a wicked sting in the back, the sting of a sword.
The panther whipped its maw about in a frenzy, tearing out a chunk of the lizard's shoulder, but the pain brought blackness, and Guenhwyvar, already battered from the run along the walkways, had to give in, had to melt away into an insubstantial mist and follow the tunnel back to the Astral Plane.
The torn lizard rolled about on the stone, bleeding from its neck and sides, its belly hanging free of its skin. It crept away as swiftly as it could, seeking a hole in which to crawl.
Berg'inyon paid it no heed. He simply sat back on his own mount and watched the impending battle with more than a passing interest. He started to load his hand crossbow, but changed his mind and just sat back.
It occurred to Berg'inyon then that he stood only to gain, no matter who won this contest.
Hands out, his sword blades resting across his shoulders, the weapon master casually walked up to stand before Drizzt. He started to say something, so Drizzt thought, when a sword abruptly whipped out. Drizzt heaved his own weapon up to block, heard the ring of steel on steel, then Dantrag sliced out with his second blade, and punched ahead with the hilt of his first.
Drizzt could hardly register the moves. He got Twinkle up in time to block the second blade, and got punched solidly in the face. Then he was struck in the face a second time as Dantrag's other hand flew up, too quick for Drizzt to catch.
What magic did this drow possess? Drizzt wondered, for he did not believe that anyone could move so quickly
The razorlike edge of one of Dantrag's swords began to glow a distinct line of red, though it seemed no more than a dull blur to Drizzt as the weapon master continued his lightning fast routines. Drizzt could only react to each move, snap his blades this way and that and take some relief in hearing the ring of steel. All thoughts of countering the moves were gone; Drizzt could hope only that Dantrag would quickly tire.
But Dantrag smiled, realizing that Drizzt, like any other drow, could not move fast enough to effectively counter.
Twinkle caught a slice coming in at Drizzt's left; Dantrag's other sword, the glowing one, arced out wide to the right, and Drizzt was somewhat off balance as his second scimitar rushed, tip straight up, to block. The sword connected on the scimitar near its tip, and Drizzt knew that he hadn't the strength to fully stop that blow with that dif ficult angle. He dove straight down as his blade inevitably tipped in, and the sword swished above his head, went right across as Drizzt spun away, to slash against, and cut deeply into!, the stone wall.
Drizzt nearly screamed aloud at the incredible edge that weapon displayed, to cut stone as easily as if it had been a wall of Bruenor Battlehammer's favorite smelly cheese!
"How long can you continue?" Dantrag asked him, mocked him. "Already your moves are slowing, Drizzt Do'Urden. I will have your head soon." In stalked the confident weapon master, even more confident now that he had seen the legendary renegade in battle.
Drizzt had been caught by surprise, back on his heels and fear ful of the consequences of his loss. He forced himself to realize that now, forced himself to fall into a meditative trance, purely focused on his enemy He could not continue to react to Dantrag's flashing movements; he had to look deeper, to understand the methods of his cunning and skilled adversary as he had when Dantrag had first charged on the lizard. Drizzt had known the charging Dantrag would go to the ceiling, because he had managed to understand the situation through the weapon master's eyes.
And so it went now. Dantrag came with a left, right, left, left, thrust combination, but Drizzt's blades were in line for the parry every time, Drizzt actually beginning the blocks before Dantrag had begun the attacks. The weapon master's attacks were not so differ ent from Zak'nafein's during all those years of training. While Dantrag moved faster than any drow Drizzt had ever encountered, the ranger began to suspect that Dantrag could not improvise in the middle of any moves.
He caught a high riding sword, spun a complete circuit to whip Twinkle across and knock away the predictable thrust of the second. It was true, Drizzt then knew; Dantrag was as much a prisoner of his own speed as were his opponents.
In came a vicious thrust, but Drizzt was already down on his knees, one scimitar snapping up above his head to keep Dantrag's weapon riding high. The weapon master's second strike was on the way, but it fell a split second after Twinkle had reached out and cut a fine line on the side of Dantrag's shin, forcing the Baenre into a hop ping retreat instead.
With a growl of rage, the weapon master bore right back in, slapping at Drizzt's blades, slowly working them up high. Drizzt countered every move, falling in line with the attack patterns. At first, the ranger's mind worked ahead to find an effective counter strike, but then Drizzt understood Dantrag's aim in this routine, a scenario that Drizzt had played out before with his father.
Dantrag could not know, only Drizzt and Zak'nafein knew, that Drizzt had found the solution to this usually unbeatable offense.
Up higher went the scimitars, Dantrag moving under them and in. The attack was called double thrust low, wherein the aim was to get your opponent's weapons up high, then step back suddenly and come straight in with both your own blades.
Drizzt hopped back and snapped his crossed scimitars down atop the flying blades, the only parry against the cunning move, the cross down. But Drizzt was countering even as he blocked, shifting his weight to his lead foot as his back foot kicked out, between his scimitar hilts, between Dantrag's surprised eyes.
He connected squarely on the weapon master's face, staggering Dantrag back several steps. Drizzt sprang right ahead, all over the stunned drow in a wild flurry Now he was forcing the moves, strik ing repeatedly so that his opponent could not again gain the off en sive, could not use that unbelievable speed to its fullest advantage.
Now it was Dantrag who was reacting to Drizzt's blinding attacks, scimitars snapping in at him from every conceivable angle. Drizzt didn't know how long he could keep up the wild flurry, but he understood that he could not allow Dantrag to regain the offen sive, could not allow Dantrag to again put him back on his heels.
To Dantrag's credit, he managed to keep his balance well enough to defeat the attacks, and the weapon master dodged aside whenever a scimitar slipped through. Drizzt noticed that only Dantrag's hands seemed possessed of that impossible speed; the rest of the drow's body moved well, perfectly balanced, as would be expected of a Baenre weapon master. But, ultimately, except for the hands, Dantrag moved no faster than Drizzt could move.
Twinkle went straight in. Dantrag's sword banged against its side. Sly Drizzt twisted the scimitar, used its curving blade to roll it over the weapon master's sword and bite at his arm.
Dantrag leaped back, trying to break the clinch, but Drizzt paced him, scimitars waving. Again, then a third time, Drizzt turned Dantrag's perfect parries into minor hits, the fluid motions of his curving blades trapping the straight blocks of the swords.
Could Dantrag anticipate Drizzt's moves as well as Drizzt had anticipated the weapon master's? Drizzt wondered with more than a little sarcasm, and he sublimated his wicked smile. Straight ahead went Twinkle, and out snapped the blocking sword, the only pos sible defense. Drizzt started to twist the blade, and Dantrag started to retract the arm.
But Drizzt stopped suddenly and reversed the flow, Twinkle shooting across faster than Dantrag could react. The deadly scimitar gashed deeply into the weapon master's other forearm, poking it out wide, then came back across, Drizzt stepping into the move so that his extended blade slashed a tight line across Dantrag's belly
Wincing in pain, the weapon master managed to leap back from his deadly adversary "You are good, " he admitted, and though he tried to keep his confident facade, Drizzt could tell by the quiver in his voice that the last hit had been serious.
Dantrag smiled unexpectedly "Berg'inyon!" he called, looking to the side. His eyes widened indeed when he saw that his brother was no longer there.
"He wishes to be the weapon master, " Drizzt reasoned calmly
Dantrag roared in outrage and leaped ahead, his attacks coming in rapid fire, suddenly stealing the offensive.
Up flashed the sword and in stepped the furious assassin, his jeweled dagger drinking eagerly of his opponent's lifeblood. Entreri jerked the weapon once, then again, then stepped back and let the dead drow fall to the stone.
The assassin kept the presence of mind to immediately jump to the side of the passage, and shook his head helplessly as several darts knocked against the corridor wall opposite the opening.
Entreri turned to the still kneeling Catti-brie and demanded again to know what she was up to.
The auburn haired woman, so deceptively innocent looking, smiled widely and held up the last of the loaded hourglasses, then put it into one of her arrow blasted holes.
The blood drained from the assassin's face as he realized how Catti-brie had blown up the walkway back in the cavern, as he real ized what she was doing now.
"We should be running, " Catti-brie remarked, coming up from her crouch, Taulmaril in hand.
Entreri was already moving, not even looking down the side corridor as he passed it.
Catti-brie came right behind, actually laughing. She paused long enough at the hole in the floor, leading back into the main cav ern, to shout out to those levitating dark elves drifting up toward her that they weren't likely to enjoy the reception.
Thrust left, thrust right, down cut left, down cut right. Dantrag's attack came brutally swift and hard, but Drizzt's scimitars were in place for the parries and blocks, and again the cunning ranger used a third weapon, his boot, to counter. He snapped his foot up to slam the weapon master's already wounded belly
Dantrag couldn't stop from lurching over, and then he was back on the defensive again, reacting desperately as Drizzt relentlessly waded in.
Around the bend came Entreri. "Run on!" he cried, and though the assassin needed Drizzt for his ultimate escape, he did not dare to stop and pull the ranger along.
Catti-brie came next, just in time to see Drizzt's scimitars flash straight ahead, to be taken out wide and held by Dantrag's blocking swords. Up came Drizzt's knee, quicker than Dantrag's, as the two inevitably moved together, and in a sudden explosion of agony, the wounded weapon master understood that he could not hold Drizzt back.
Drizzt turned Twinkle over the blocking sword and put it in line for Dantrag's ribs, then the two seemed to pause for an instant, eye to eye.
"Zak'nafein would have defeated you, " the ranger promised grimly, and he plunged Twinkle deep into Dantrag's heart.
Drizzt turned to Catti-brie, trying to fathom the level of terror apparent in her wide eyes.
Then she was coming at him, weirdly, and it took the ranger a moment to even realize that she was off her feet, propelled by the shock wave of an explosion.