Homeland de-1

by Robert Anthony Salvatore

  The other drow fighters roared in past Drizzt, bearing down on the gnome leader and his charges. Drizzt didn’t follow, guessing that the event unfolding at his feet was more critical than the general battle now echoing throughout the complex.

  Fifteen feet tall and seven wide, an angry, towering humanoid monster of living stone rose before Drizzt.

  "Elemental" came a scream to the side. Drizzt glanced over to see Masoj, Guenhwyvar at his side, fumbling through a spellbook, apparently in search of some dweomer to battle this unexpected monster. To Drizzt’s dismay, the frightened wizard mumbled a couple of words and vanished.

  Drizzt set his feet under him, and took a measure of the monster, ready to spring aside in an instant. He could sense the thing’s power, the raw strength of the earth embodied in living arms and legs.

  A lumbering arm swung out in a wide arc, whooshing above Drizzt’s ducking head and slamming into the cavern wall, crushing rocks into dust.

  "Do not let it hit me." Drizzt instructed himself in a whisper that came out as a disbelieving gasp. As the elemental recoiled its arm, Drizzt poked a scimitar at it, chipping away a small chunk, barely a scratch. The elemental grimaced in pain, apparently Drizzt could indeed hurt it with his enchanted weapons.

  Still standing in the same spot off to the side, the invisible Masoj held his next spell in check, watching the spectacle and waiting for the combatants to weaken each other. Perhaps the elemental would destroy Drizzt altogether. Invisible shoulders gave a resigned shrug. Masoj decided to let the gnomish power do his dirty work for him. The monster launched another blow, and another, and Drizzt dove forward and scrambled through the thing’s stone pillar legs. The elemental reacted quickly and stomped heavily with one foot, barely missing the agile drow, and sending branching cracks in the floor for many feet in either direction.

  Drizzt was up in a flash, slicing and thrusting with both his blades into the elemental’s backside, then springing back out of reach as the monster swung about, leading with another ferocious blow.

  The sounds of battle grew more distant. The gnomes had taken flight―those that were still alive―but the drow warriors were in full pursuit, leaving Drizzt to face the elemental.

  The monster stomped again, the thunder of its foot nearly knocking Drizzt from his feet, and then it came in hard, falling down at Drizzt, using the tonnage of its body as a weapon. If Drizzt had been even slightly surprised, or if his reflexes had not been honed to such perfection, he surely would have been crushed flat. He managed to get to the side of the monster’s bulk, while taking only a glancing blow from a swinging arm.

  Dust rushed up from the terrific impact cavern walls and ceiling cracked and dropped flecks and stones to the floor.

  As the elemental regained its feet, Drizzt backed away, overwhelmed by such unconquerable strength.

  He was all alone against it, or so Drizzt thought. A sudden ball of hot fury enveloped the elemental’s head, claws raking deep scratches into its face.

  "Guenhwyvar" Drizzt and Masoj shouted in unison, Drizzt in elation that an ally had been found, and Masoj in rage. The wizard did not want Drizzt to survive this battle, and he dared not launch any magical attacks, at Drizzt or the elemental, with his precious Guenhwyvar in the way.

  "Do something, wizard!" Drizzt cried, recognizing the shout and understanding now that Masoj was still around. The elemental bellowed in pain, its cry sounding as the rumble of huge boulders crashing down a rocky mountain. Even as Drizzt moved back in to help his feline friend, the monster spun, impossibly quick, and dove headfirst to the floor.

  "No!" Drizzt cried, realizing that Guenhwyvar would be crushed. Then the cat and the elemental, instead of slamming against the stone, sank down into it!

  The purple flames of faerie fire outlined the figures of the gnomes, showing the way for drow arrows and swords. The gnomes countered with magic of their own, illusionary tricks mostly. "Down here!" one drow soldier cried, only to slam face first into the stone of a wall that had appeared as the entrance to a corridor.

  Even though the gnome magic managed to keep the dark elves somewhat confused, Belwar Dissengulp grew frightened. His elemental, his strongest magic and only hope, was taking too long with the single drow warrior far back in the main chamber. The burrow-warden wanted the monster by his side when the main combat began. He ordered his forces into tight defensive formations, hoping that they could hold out.

  Then the drow warriors, detained no more by gnomish tricks, were upon them, and fury stole Belwar’s fear. He lashed out with his heavy pickaxe, smiling grimly as he felt the mighty weapon bite into drow flesh.

  All magic was aside now, all formations and carefully laid battle plans dissolved into the wild frenzy of the brawl. Nothing mattered, except to hit the enemy, to feel the pick head or blade sinking into flesh. Above all others, deep gnomes hated the drow, and in all the Underdark there was nothing a dark elf enjoyed more than slicing a svirfnebli into little pieces.

  Drizzt rushed to the spot, but only the unbroken section of floor remained. "Masoj?" he gasped, looking for some answers from the one schooled in such strange magic. Before the wizard could answer, the floor erupted behind Drizzt. He spun, weapons ready, to face the towering elemental.

  Then Drizzt watched in helpless agony as the broken mist that was the great panther, his dearest companion, rolled off the elemental’s shoulders and broke apart as it neared the floor.

  Drizzt ducked another blow, though his eyes never left the dissipating dust-and-mist cloud. Was Guenhwyvar no more? Was his only friend gone from him forever? A new light grew in Drizzt lavender eyes, a primal rage that simmered throughout his body. He looked back to the elemental, unafraid.

  "You are dead." he promised, and he walked in.

  The elemental seemed confused, though of course it could not understand Drizzt’s words. It dropped a heavy arm straight down to squash its foolish opponent. Drizzt did not even raise his blades to parry, knowing that every ounce of his strength could not possibly deflect such a blow. Just as the falling arm was about to reach him, he dashed forward, within its range.

  The quickness of his move surprised the elemental, and the ensuing flurry of swordplay took Masoj’s breath away. The wizard had never seen such grace in battle, such fluidity of motion. Drizzt climbed up and down the elemental’s body, hacking and slashing, digging the points of his weapons home and flicking off pieces of the monster’s stone skin.

  The elemental howled its avalanche howl and spun in circles, trying to catch up to Drizzt and squash him once and for all. Blind anger brought new levels of expertise to the magnificent young swordsman, though, and the elemental caught nothing but air or its own stony body under its heavy slaps.

  "Impossible." Masoj muttered when he found his breath.

  Could the young Do’Urden actually defeat an elemental? Masoj scanned the rest of the area. Several drow and many gnomes lay dead or grievously wounded, but the main fighting was moving even farther away as the gnomes found their tiny escape tunnels and the drow, enraged beyond good sense, followed them.

  Guenhwyvar was gone. In this chamber, only Masoj, the elemental, and Drizzt remained as witnesses. The invisible wizard felt his mouth draw up in a smile. Now was the time to strike.

  Drizzt had the elemental lurching to one side, nearly beaten, when the bolt roared in, a blast of lightning that blinded the young drow and sent him flying into the chamber’s back wall. Drizzt watched the twitch of his hands, the wild dance of his stark white hair before his unmoving eyes. He felt nothing―no pain, no reviving draw of air into his lungs―and heard nothing, as if his life force had been somehow suspended.

  The attack dispelled Masoj’s dweomer of invisibility, and he came back in view, laughing wickedly. The elemental, down in a broken, crumbled mass, slowly slipped back into the security of the stone floor.

  "Are you dead?" the wizard asked Drizzt, the voice breaking the hush of Drizzt’s deafness in dramatic booms. Drizzt could not answer, did
n’t really know the answer anyway.

  "Too easy." he heard Masoj say, and he suspected that the wizard was referring to him and not the elemental.

  Then Drizzt felt a tingling in his fingers and bones and his lungs heaved suddenly, grabbing a volume of air. He gasped in rapid succession, then found control of his body and realized that he would survive.

  Masoj glanced around for returning witnesses and saw none. "Good." he muttered as he watched Drizzt regain his senses. The wizard was truly glad that Drizzt’s death had not been so very painless. He thought of another spell that would make the moment more fun.

  A hand―a gigantic stone hand―reached out of the floor just then and grasped Masoj’s leg, pulling his feet right into the stone.

  The wizard’s face twisted in a silent scream.

  Drizzt’s enemy saved his life. Drizzt snatched up one of the scimitars from the ground and hacked at the elemental’s arm. The weapon sliced in, and the monster, its head reappearing between Drizzt and Masoj, howled in rage and pain and pulled the trapped wizard deeper into the stone.

  With both hands on the scimitar’s hilt, Drizzt struck as hard as he could, splitting the elemental’s head right in half. This time the rubble did not sink back into its earthen plane this time the elemental was destroyed.

  "Get me out of here!" Masoj demanded. Drizzt looked at him, hardly believing that Masoi was still alive, for he was waist deep in solid stone.

  "How?" Drizzt gasped. "You…" He couldn’t even find the words to express his amazement.

  "Just get me out!" the wizard cried.

  Drizzt fumbled about, not knowing where to begin.

  "Elementals travel between planes." Masoj explained, knowing that he had to calm Drizzt down if he ever wanted to get out of the floor. Masoj knew, too, that the conversation could go a long way in deflecting Drizzt’s obvious suspicions that the lightning bolt had been aimed at him. "The ground an earth elemental traverses becomes a gate between the Plane of Earth and our plane, the Material Plane. The stone parted around me as the monster pulled me in, but it is quite uncomfortable." He twitched in pain as the stone tightened around one foot. "The gate is closing fast!"

  "Then Guenhwyvar might be…" Drizzt started to reason.

  He plucked the statuette right out of Masoj’s front pocket and carefully inspected it for any flaws in its perfect design.

  "Give me that!" Masoj demanded, embarrassed and angry.

  Reluctantly, Drizzt handed the figurine over. Masoj glanced at it quickly and dropped it back into the pocket.

  "Is Guenhwyvar unharmed?" Drizzt had to ask.

  "It is not your concern." Masoj snapped back. The wizard, too, was worried about the cat, but at this moment, Guenhwyvar was the least of his troubles. "The gate is closing." he said again. "Go get the clerics!"

  Before Drizzt could start off, a slab of stone in the wall behind him slid away, and the rock-hard fist of Belwar Dissengulp slammed into the back of his head.

  Chapter 23

  A Single Clean Blow

  "The gnomes took him." Masoj said to Dinin when the patrol leader returned to the cavern. The wizard lifted his arms over his head to give the high priestess and her assistants a better view of his predicament.

  "Where?" Dinin demanded. "Why did they let you live?"

  Masoj shrugged. "A secret door." he explained, "somewhere on the wall behind you. I suspect that they would have taken me as well, except…" Masoj looked down at the floor, still holding him tightly up to the waist. "The gnomes would have killed me, but for your arrival."

  "You are fortunate, wizard." the high priestess said to Masoj. "I have memorized a spell this day that will release the stone’s hold on you." She whispered some instructions to her assistants and they took out water skins and pouches of clay and began tracing a ten foot square on the floor around the trapped wizard. The high priestess moved over to the wall of the chamber and prepared for her prayers.

  "Some have escaped." Dinin said to her.

  The high priestess understood. She whispered a quick detection spell and studied the wall. "Right there." she said. Dinin and another male rushed over to the spot and soon found the almost imperceptible outline to the secret door.

  As the high priestess began her incantation, one of her cleric assistants threw the end of a rope to Masoj. "Hold on." the assistant teased, "and hold your breath!"

  "Wait…" Masoj began, but the stone floor all around him transformed into mud and the wizard slipped under.

  The clerics, laughing, pulled Masoj out a moment later.

  "Nice spell." the wizard remarked, spitting mud.

  "It has its purposes." replied the high priestess. "Especially when we fight against the gnomes and their tricks with the stone. I carried it as a safeguard against earth elementals." She looked at a piece of rubble at her feet, unmistakably one eye and the nose of such a creature. "I see that my spell was not needed in that manner."

  "I destroyed that one." Masoj lied.

  "Indeed." said the high priestess, unconvinced. She could tell by the cut of the rubble that a blade had made the wound. She let the issue drop when the scrape of sliding stone turned them all to the wall.

  "A maze." moaned the fighter beside Dinin when he peered into the tunnel. "How will we find them?" Dinin thought for a moment, then spun on Masoj. "They have my brother." he said, an idea coming to mind. "Where is your cat?"

  "About." Masoj stalled, guessing Dinin’s plan and not really wanting Drizzt rescued.

  "Bring it to me." Dinin ordered. "The cat can smell Drizzt."

  "I cannot… I mean." Masoj stuttered.

  "Now, wizard!" Dinin commanded. "Unless you wish me to tell the ruling council that some of the gnomes escaped because you refused to help!"

  Masoj tossed the figurine to the ground and called for Guenhwyvar, not really knowing what would happen next. Had the earth elemental really destroyed Guenhwyvar? The mist appeared, in seconds transforming into the panther’s corporeal body.

  "Well." Dinin prompted, indicating the tunnel.

  "Go find Drizzt!" Masoj commanded the cat. Guenhwyvar sniffed around the area for a moment, then bounded off down the small tunnel, the drow patrol in silent pursuit.

  "Where…" Drizzt started when he finally began the long climb from the depths of unconsciousness. He understood that he was sitting, and knew, too, that his hands were bound in front of him.

  A small but undeniably strong hand caught him by the back of the hair and pulled his head back roughly.

  "Quiet!" Belwar whispered harshly, and Drizzt was surprised that the creature could speak his language. Belwar let go of Drizzt and turned to join other svirfnebli.

  From the chamber’s low height and the gnomes nervous movements, Drizzt realized that this group had taken flight.

  The gnomes began a quiet conversation in their own tongue, which Drizzt could not begin to understand. One of them asked the gnome who had ordered Drizzt to be quiet, apparently the leader, a heated question. Another grunted his accord and spoke some harsh words, turning on Drizzt with a dangerous look in his eyes.

  The leader slapped the other gnome hard on the back and sent him off through one of the two low exits in the chamber, then put the others into defensive positions. He walked over to Drizzt. "You come with us to Blingdenstone." he said in hesitant words.

  "Then?" Drizzt asked.

  Belwar shrugged. "The king will decide. If you cause me no trouble, I’ll tell him to let you go."

  Drizzt laughed cynically.

  "Well, then." said Belwar, "if the king says to kill you, I’ll make sure it comes in a single clean blow." Again Drizzt laughed. "Do you believe that I believe?" he asked. "Torture me now and have your fun. That is your evil way!"

  Belwar started to slap him but held his hand in check.

  "Svirfnebli don’t torture!" he declared, louder than he should have. "Drow elves torture!" He turned away but spun back, reiterating his promise. "A single clean blow."

  Drizzt
found that he believed the sincerity in the gnome’s voice, and he had to accept that promise as a measure of mercy far greater than the gnome would have received if Dinin’s patrol had captured him. Belwar turned to walk away, but Drizzt, intrigued, had to learn more of the curious creature.

  "How have you learned my language?" he asked.

  "Gnomes are not stupid." Belwar retorted, unsure of what Drizzt was leading to.

  "Nor are drow." Drizzt replied earnestly, "but I have never heard the language of the svirfnebli spoken in my city."

  "There once was a drow in Blingdenstone." Belwar explained, now nearly as curious about Drizzt as Drizzt was about him.

  "Slave." Drizzt reasoned.

  "Guest!" Belwar snapped. "Svirfnebli keep no slaves!"

  Again Drizzt found that he could not refute the sincerity in Belwar’s voice. "What is your name?" he asked.

  The gnome laughed at him. "Do you think me stupid?"

  Belwar asked. "You desire my name that you might use its power in some dark magic against me!"

  "No." Drizzt protested.

  "I should kill you now for thinking me stupid!" Belwar growled, ominously lifting his heavy pick. Drizzt shifted uncomfortably, not knowing what the gnome would do next.

  "My offer remains." Belwar said, lowering the pick. "No trouble, and I tell the king to let you go." Belwar didn’t believe that would happen any more than did Drizzt, so the svirfneblin, with a helpless shrug, offered Drizzt the next best thing. "Or else, a single clean blow."

  A commotion from one of the tunnels turned Belwar away. "Belwar." called one of the other gnomes, rushing back into the small chamber. The gnome leader turned a wary eye on Drizzt to see if the drow had caught the mention of his name.

  Drizzt wisely kept his head turned away, pretending not to listen. He had indeed heard the name of the gnome leader who had shown him mercy. Belwar, the other svirfneblin had said. Belwar, a name that Drizzt would never forget. Fighting from down the passageway caught everyone’s attention, then, and several svirfnebli scrambled back into the chamber. Drizzt knew from their excitement that the drow patrol was close behind.