Maestro

by R. A. Salvatore

  “What’d’ye know, girl?” Athrogate asked.

  “Limestone,” she said, holding up the shard.

  “Too hard,” Athrogate replied. “Marble, then, but aye, too brittle!”

  “Crystalline,” Ambergris added.

  “What do you know?” Gromph demanded.

  “No wizard built this tower,” she said to the great drow. “And no priest, and no dwarf, and no dragon, and no giant,” she added, looking in turn at Ambergris, Athrogate, the dragon sisters, and Caecilia. “Though all helped, do not doubt.”

  “Now you speak in riddles?” an agitated Gromph remarked.

  “Though all helped, and all were surely needed,” Catti-brie said. “To contain the magic.”

  “Say it plainly, woman,” an obviously intrigued Lord Parise begged. The scholar Shadovar leaned forward, pulled toward Catti-brie.

  “The Hosttower of the Arcane was built by the primordial beast that resides in Gauntlgrym,” she answered with all confidence. She had seen. In the intense heat, the shard had revealed itself, and through the intense fire and through her Ring of Elemental Command, Catti-brie had peered into the realm of fire once more, and had heard the echo of the primordial’s memory.

  A hundred confused, mostly disapproving scowls came back at her.

  “The roots were first, bit by bit, the tree grown later,” the woman explained, to even more confused stares.

  “Grown?” Lord Parise and Caecilia asked in unison, and Catti-brie nodded.

  “As if t’were alive?” Ambergris asked, and Catti-brie nodded.

  “Then we canno’ rebuild it and Gauntlgrym’s doomed,” Athrogate said logically.

  “Yes, we can,” said the smiling Catti-brie, looking right at Gromph. “Yes, we can.”

  BY THE TIME Tiago’s sword hit the floor, Drizzt already had his second arrow away, this one shooting up at the trio on the balcony.

  The woman in the middle of the group smiled even as the enchanted missile sped for her face. Her wards caused it to explode into a shower of harmless, multi-colored sparks long before it got near enough to hit her.

  So Drizzt would send a steady stream, he decided, but before he had the next arrow on the bowstring, he was in utter blackness.

  Instinctively, and quite used to such an occurrence, he dived into a roll. So experienced was he with the drow darkness that he knew precisely how many rolls he would need to get out the side of it, figuring it had been centered on him.

  And so he came around to his knees ready to shoot.

  But was still in total darkness.

  He fired anyway, knowing the general direction, but only one shot. He had to be moving quickly.

  And so he was rolling again, over and over, and each one seemed slower to him, and he couldn’t understand that. The floor felt less solid—it was as if he rolled in bubbling tar, as though he were sinking into it. It caught him and held him and tried to flow up over him.

  It was just darkness then, and Drizzt wasn’t even rolling, just flopping slightly, his shoulder coming off the floor but sagging back down, broken and caught.

  CHAPTER 21

  Secular Hubris

  GROMPH BAENRE WAS IN A FOUL MOOD—MORE FOUL THAN USUAL, even. The witch had taken the lead from him with her knowledge of fire and of the primordial.

  He sat in his grand chair, behind his grand desk, staring at the tent flap through which Caecilia had just departed.

  Even she had fallen for Catti-brie’s lies.

  And the Shadovar Lord Parise, too, with whom Gromph had spoken right before Caecilia had come to call. It made no sense to him. How could anyone believe Catti-brie’s lies? How could any of these learned scholars for a moment think it a good idea to let a primordial of fire free of its cage, even a bit?

  And worse, the former archmage mused, why would anyone believe a simple human above the words of Gromph?

  He tapped the tips of his fingers together, as he did when deep in thought, and tried to organize a new strategy regarding the dragon sisters. They might be his last hope to stop Catti-brie. The foolish Harpells would blindly follow her, and if the dwarves were to be persuaded, it wouldn’t be from anything he might say.

  Into Gromph’s thoughts, then, came a plea, and it took the archmage a while to sort it out.

  I wish to speak with you directly, Archmage.

  When he at last identified the source of the communication Gromph’s eyes went wide, and his lips curled down in a most wicked scowl.

  “Come in!” he said and telepathically imparted at the same time. “Oh do!”

  “Know that I come at the behest of the hive-mind,” a voice replied, both in Gromph’s head, and in his room, and he watched as Kimmuriel appeared in view, stepping through the distance-bending magic of psionics.

  “I am connected to them even now, Archmage, and they will look unfavorably upon you should you try to foolishly take out your vengeance upon me,” Kimmuriel warned. “They are quite involved now in the wake of the summoning of Demogorgon and the breaking of the boundaries of the Faerzress.”

  How Gromph wanted to lash out and obliterate this impudent fool. Ever since he had completed the incantation, to find the Prince of Demons materializing in his chamber in Sorcere, Gromph had known that Kimmuriel had waged the ultimate deception upon him, and had ruined his name and reputation. And now here Kimmuriel stood, in Gromph’s own room, vulnerable.

  Or perhaps not.

  Gromph bit back the invective bubbling in his throat and the spell he wanted to utter to obliterate Kimmuriel. He had no desire to anger the illithid hive-mind. There wasn’t much in the multiverse that frightened Archmage Gromph Baenre, but angering a hive-mind wasn’t something he ever wanted to experience.

  “How dare you come to this place?” he said.

  “You requested an emissary from the hive-mind to aid in the work on the Hosttower.”

  “But you?” an incredulous Gromph cried.

  Kimmuriel shrugged. “The choice is theirs, not mine. I am bid to be here, by your side, and so I am.”

  “Perhaps the illithids wished to see you destroyed, then.”

  Kimmuriel sighed. “I was equally deceived, Archmage,” he said with a respectful bow.

  “Were you now?” Gromph answered, full of doubt.

  “Yes, and by Lady Lolth herself. It was she who deigned to weaken the Faerzress, so that she could expel the demon lords from the Abyss and gain control of the plane.”

  Gromph cocked an eyebrow at that, his expression both incredulous, and despite his best intentions and great discipline, intrigued.

  “Yvonnel has risen,” Kimmuriel said, and Gromph’s expression shifted more to confusion.

  “Your daughter,” the psionicist clarified. “She has taken control of the levers of power of Menzoberranzan.”

  “She is a baby!”

  “No more,” Kimmuriel replied. “Never in her mind, with the memories of Yvonnel the Eternal, and now, through wizardry, neither in body.”

  “Quenthel is no more the matron mother?”

  “In name only. Yvonnel has cowed the Melarni and crowned the Champion of Lolth—a most unlikely champion—to prepare for the destruction of the beast you summoned to the Underdark.”

  “You babble!”

  “She knows where you are, Archmage,” Kimmuriel warned. “Yvonnel is well aware of your location, and the circumstances around it. Even now, she speaks with Jarlaxle in the dungeons of House Baenre.”

  Gromph started to argue, but that last bit of information stole his breath.

  “She may call upon you, and in that event, you would be wise to heed that summons,” Kimmuriel said. “But for now …” He held out his hand to Gromph, and the archmage stared at him incredulously.

  “Come,” said Kimmuriel.

  “To where?” Gromph demanded. “To Yvonnel?”

  “To the hive-mind,” Kimmuriel explained. “At their invitation, and this is no small honor. Witness this and you will understand your daughter, and t
hat is knowledge I believe will serve you well in the coming days of chaos and conflict.”

  “Then why would Kimmuriel offer it to me?”

  “In exchange that my debt to you be repaid,” said Kimmuriel. “I wish to return to Bregan D’aerthe, and to serve as the emissary of the illithids, and here, you, too, will remain. I would not spend my days expecting retribution.”

  “Retribution you earned.”

  Kimmuriel shrugged. “These are strange times of unexpected occurrence, Archmage. I did not know that the invocation I helped you to sort out through the combination of magic arcane and psionic would bring Demogorgon to the Underdark, or that it would so damage the Faerzress as to give other mighty demons access to the corridors of Faerûn’s underworld.

  “Had I known that, surely I would have helped you to avoid that … trouble.” He shrugged again. “Come, Archmage. You will find the journey enlightening in ways you could not ever before imagine.”

  Gromph tapped his fingers together again, staring at this confusing drow. The hive-mind!

  From everything Gromph had ever learned regarding the mind flayers—and thanks to Methil El Viddenvelp, his knowledge of the subject was extensive—the illithid hive-mind was perhaps the greatest repository of knowledge and understanding of the multiverse in existence.

  He took Kimmuriel’s hand.

  THE FLOOR STILL had him. Even though Drizzt had come to believe once more that he still had a corporeal body, that he wasn’t dead, he couldn’t feel anything, even pain. Nor could he see. The blackness remained.

  Then he heard a woman’s cry and he knew the voice.

  Dahlia.

  Drizzt struggled against the magical bonds that had entrapped him. With great effort, he forced his eyes open. The blackness began to lighten, ever so gradually.

  He heard another cry of terror from Dahlia, then his own grunt as he tried futilely to stand. He surrendered and exhaled, only to have his chin drop to his chest, and then he realized he was standing,. He was chained to a pole with his arms outstretched to either side, held by strong cords.

  Many more sounds came into focus: movement all around him; Dahlia softly weeping; another voice, Entreri’s voice, calming her.

  “Iblith,” another woman said with utter contempt.

  “Whenever her mind allows her some clarity, she realizes the truth of her desperate situation,” another said, speaking in the tongue of the drow, and the rhythm of the words, abrupt and harsh halts breaking up flowing lines of melody, all too clearly reminded Drizzt of the paradox of his people.

  At once, the drow were beautiful and flowing, yet hard and sharp as Underdark stone. Melodic and discordant. Alluring and vile.

  The blackness had become a lighter gray now as he floated back into consciousness, and now and again he noted the ghostly silhouette of a form moving past him.

  “Ah, Jarlaxle, whatever am I to do with you?” one asked.

  “Let us go, of course. We are of more use to you back where we belong than in the dungeons of House Baenre.”

  The dungeons of House Baenre.

  Those five words assaulted Drizzt’s sensibilities. He had been in this most awful place before.

  His eyes focused at last, and he blinked against the sting of the torchlight. He had no idea how he had come to this terrible dungeon—he tried to remember the culmination of the fight in the Do’Urden chapel. He saw again Tiago’s head explode under the power of his enchanted arrow. He considered the trio on the balcony, three drow women, two in fine robes and one standing naked.

  He blinked open his eyes again, to find one of that same group standing right in front of him, smiling disarmingly. Despite the horrors of his surroundings, despite his very real fears, Drizzt was surprised to see that he could not deny the beauty of this very young drow. Her long hair, so lustrous that it sparkled in reflections of the torchlight, shined mostly white, but all the colors of the rainbow seemed captured within that, revealing hints of those colors with the slightest turn of the head. Her eyes were a startling amber, but not uniformly. Like her hair, they teased with color—the softest pink, a hint of blue.

  “I am glad you returned to us, Drizzt Do’Urden,” she said, moving closer and running her hand lightly over Drizzt’s naked chest.

  There was some magic in her fingers. The sensation seemed to pull his senses nearer to his own skin somehow.

  “I—I did not wish to … fight him,” Drizzt stammered, not even knowing what he could say. He was in the dungeon of House Baenre, after all, and he had just splattered the head of a Baenre noble.

  “You seemed willing enough,” the woman answered.

  Drizzt didn’t want to take his eyes off the young woman, but he couldn’t help but notice a second drow, one more his own age, wearing the robes of the matron mother. She stood to the side and scowled at him fiercely, appearing very much as if she wanted to torture him to death then and there.

  Drizzt steeled his own gaze and locked stares with her. He didn’t care. He truly didn’t care, and that indifference revealed that he would not be intimidated.

  The woman in front of him turned and glanced at the matron mother, nodding and obviously noting the glowering exchange.

  “Leave us,” she instructed the matron mother.

  When that older drow woman turned about and swept out of the dungeon chamber, Drizzt looked back at the young creature in front of him, his expression betraying his incredulity.

  “Petty creatures, these matron mothers,” the woman said. “Do you not agree?”

  “Who are you?”

  “I am young and I am old,” she teased. “I am new to the City of Spiders, yet I know its memory more fully and clearly than the oldest of the old dark elves. I am bound to lead here, to rule as Matron Mother Baenre, and yet I find myself intrigued by …” She grinned and ran her finger over Drizzt’s lips. “By you. Why is that, do you suppose, Drizzt Do’Urden?”

  “I am sure that I do not know.” Drizzt steadied himself with a deep breath and pulled his gaze from the young woman, staring past her defiantly.

  “Are you so removed?” she asked. “Are you so above all that you have left behind?”

  “Do you always speak in riddles?”

  The woman laughed and snapped her fingers, and Drizzt, without any movement of his own, turned right around, though he had no sensation of movement. He was suddenly just facing the other way.

  He tried to sort through that disorienting shift, but lost those questions as soon as he registered the image in front of him. There sat Entreri, who was once again in his normal, human form, along with Jarlaxle and Dahlia, the three locked in a prison of bars that crackled and sparked and was made of streaks of lightning.

  “Still uninterested?” the woman teased from behind Drizzt.

  Jarlaxle stood up and shrugged, as if apologetic for his failure. “Almost,” he said, motioning to Dahlia.

  “Only because I allowed it,” the woman replied rather sharply.

  Jarlaxle shrugged again.

  The young drow stepped by Drizzt and waved her hand. “Be gone,” she said, and the glowing cage turned black and disappeared from Drizzt’s sight. No longer did he hear Dahlia’s sobs or the crackle of lightning sparks, or any other noises coming from the magical cage.

  “What am I to do with them?” the woman asked with exaggerated exasperation. She turned back to Drizzt, smiling again. “I cannot make a drider of Artemis Entreri, but I am certain I can find other ways to torment him.”

  “Do you think to impress me, or disgust me?”

  “Do I disgust you, Drizzt Do’Urden?” she asked in a very innocent voice, and she moved up right in front of him again and ran her hands lightly about his face and chest. “Is that what you feel, truly?”

  “What do you want? And who are you?” he demanded.

  She slapped him across the face, and he could hardly believe the strength behind the blow. He felt his legs go weak beneath him and knew that the only thing keeping him upright were
the ties that bound him.

  “Whatever I want from you, I will take,” she warned. “And who am I? I am Yvonnel the Eternal. Do you not understand? I am Matron Mother Baenre, whenever I choose to be. This is my city, and these my subjects. My city, Menzoberranzan, which you have betrayed.”

  “Never.”

  “Never? Shall I recount the many treacheries of Drizzt Do’Urden? Shall I speak of the dwarf you befriended who split my head in half?”

  That remark hit Drizzt as hard as the previous slap, and he looked upon this young drow woman with deep confusion. Was he lost in time and space, meandering through his life rewound as if in a dream, again?

  “I raised no army against Menzoberranzan,” Drizzt answered, little strength in his voice or in his heart, so overwhelmed and confused was he at that dark moment.

  “Neither did you help our cause. Indeed, you fought against your own people.”

  “Bruenor is my friend. The dwarves were my own people—by choice, and not by blood.”

  “And so you admit your treachery.”

  “I admit my free will. Nothing more.”

  She laughed. “Ah yes, your choice, your free will, that led to the chop of a dwarf king’s axe.”

  “Upon the head of your namesake,” Drizzt said, trying to make sense of it all.

  Yvonnel laughed again. “Oh, much more than that!”

  Drizzt could only look at her with confusion.

  “Enough of this,” Yvonnel said with a dismissive wave, her voice calm once more. “What is past is past. Now tell me, what am I to do with your friends?”

  “Whatever you please.”

  “You don’t believe that. You cannot believe that. I asked you a question.”

  Drizzt looked away.

  “If you do not care, I will bring them in here, lay them before you, and cut them up into little pieces,” Yvonnel said. “Is that what you want?”

  Drizzt refused to look at her, refused to give her the satisfaction of an answer.

  “Or I could let them go.”

  “You will never do that,” Drizzt replied, still not looking at her.