Starless Night
Chapter 16 MENZOBERRANZAN

 
The raft slid slowly across Donigarten, the small, dark lake on the eastern end of the great cavern that housed Menzoberranzan. Drizzt sat on the prow of the craft,  looking west as the cavern opened wide before him,  though, with his infravision, the image seemed strangely blurred. Drizzt initially attributed it to the lake's warm currents and gave it little thought. He was preoccupied, his mind looking as much in the past as in the present, reeling with stirring memories.
The rhythmic moaning of the orcan paddlers behind him allowed him to find a calmness, to flow his memories one at a time.
The drow ranger closed his eyes and willed the shift from heat  sensing infravision into the normal spectrum of light. He remem  bered the splendor of Menzoberranzan's stalagmite and stalactite structures, their intricate and crafted designs highlighted by glow  ing faerie fire of purple, blue, and red.
He wasn't prepared for what he found when he opened his eyes. The city was filled with light! Not just with faerie fires, but with sparkling dots of yellow and white, the light of torches and bright magical enchantments. For a very brief moment, Drizzt allowed himself to believe that the presence of light might be some remote indication of a changing of the dark elves' dark ways. He had always connected the perpetual gloom of the Underdark to the dark demeanor of drow, or, at least, had thought the darkness a fit  ting result of his kin's dark ways.
Why the lights? Drizzt was not arrogant enough to think that their presence might be somehow connected to the hunt for him. He did not think that he was that important to the drow, and had little more than the deep gnomes' supposition that things were awry (He had no idea that plans were being laid for an all out surface raid.) He wanted to question one of the other drow on the matter, the female, in particular, would likely have some information, but how could he broach the subject without giving away his identity as an outsider?
As if on cue, the female was at his side, sitting uncomfortably close.
"The days are long on the Isle of Rothe, " she said coyly, obvious attraction reflected in her red glowing eyes.
"1 will never get used to the light, " Drizzt replied, changing the subject and looking back toward the city. He kept his eyes operating in the normal spectrum and hoped that his leading statements might prompt some conversation on the matter. "It stings my eyes."
"Of course it does, " the female purred, moving closer, even Putting a hand inside Drizzt's elbow. "But you will get used to it in time."
In time? In time for what? Drizzt wanted to ask, for he suspected from her tone that she was referring to some specific event. He had no idea of how to begin the question, though, and, as the female moved ever closer, he found that he had more pressing problems.
In drow culture, males were subservient, and to refuse the advances of a female could invite serious trouble. "1 am Khareesa, " she whispered in his ear. "Tell me that you wish to be my slave."
Drizzt jumped up suddenly and snapped his scimitars from their sheaths. He turned away from Khareesa, focused his attention on the lake to make sure that she understood he meant no threat against her.
"What is it?" the surprised female demanded.
"A movement in the water, " Drizzt lied. "A subtle undercur  rent, as though something large just passed under our craft." Kha  reesa scowled but stood and peered into the gloomy lake. It was common knowledge in Menzoberranzan that dark things resided under the usually still waters of Donigarten. One of the games the slavers played was to make the goblins and orcs swim from the isle to the shore, to see if any of them would be pulled down to terrible deaths.
A few moments passed quietly, the only sound the continual moaning chants of the orcs lining the sides of the raft.
A third drow joined Drizzt and Khareesa on the prow, eyeing Drizzt's blue flaring scimitar. You mark us for every enemy in the area,  his hands flashed in the silent code.
Drizzt slid the scimitars away and let his eyes drift back into infravision. If our enemies are beneath the waters, then the motion of our craft marks us more than any light, his hands answered.
"There are no enemies, " Khareesa added, motioning for the third drow to go back to his station. When he left, she turned a lewd look upon Drizzt. "A warrior?" she asked, carefully regarding the purple eyed male. "A patrol leader, perhaps?"
Drizzt nodded and it was no lie; he had indeed been a patrol leader.
"Good, " Khareesa remarked. "I like males who are worth the trouble." She looked up then, took note that they were fast approach  ing the Isle of Rothe. "We will speak later, perhaps." Then she turned and swept away, brushing her hands behind her so that her robes rode high on her shapely legs.
Drizzt winced as though slapped. The last thing Khareesa had on her mind was speaking. He couldn't deny that she was beautiful,  with sculpted features, a thick mane of well groomed hair, and a finely toned body But in his years among the drow, Drizzt Do'Urden had learned to look beyond physical beauty and physical attraction. Drizzt did not separate the physical from the emotional. He was a superb fighter because he fought with his heart and would no sooner battle merely for the sake of battle than he would mate for the sake of the physical act.
"Later, " Khareesa said once more, glancing back over her deli  cate, perfectly squared shoulder.
"When worms eat your bones, " Drizzt whispered through a phony smile. For some reason, he thought of Catti-brie then, and the warmth of that image pushed away the chill of this hungry drow female.
Blingdenstone charmed Catti-brie, despite her obvious predica  ment and the fact that the svirfnebli did not treat her as a long lost friend. Stripped of her weapons, armor, jewelry, and even her boots,  she was taken into the city in just her basic clothes. The gnome escorts did not abuse her, but neither were they gentle. They tightly clasped her arms at the elbows and hoisted her and pulled her around the narrow, rocky ways of the city's defensible anterooms.
When they had taken the circlet from the woman's head, the gnomes had easily come to guess its function, and as soon as the anterooms were past, they gave the precious item back to Catti-brie. Drizzt had told her of this place, of the deep gnomes' natural blend  ing with their environment, but she had never pictured that the drow's words would ring so true. Dwarves were miners, the best in all the world, but the deep gnomes went beyond that description. They were part of the rock, it seemed, burrowing creatures wholly at one with the stone. Their houses could have been the randomly tumbled boulders of a long past volcanic eruption, their corridors,  the winding ways of an ancient river.
A hundred sets of eyes followed Catti-brie's every step as she was led across the city proper. She realized that she was probably the first human the svirfnebli had ever seen, and she did not mind the attention, for she was no less enchanted by the svirffiebli. Their features, seeming so gray and dour out in the wild tunnels, appeared softer now, gentler. She wondered what a smile would look like on the face of a svirfneblin, and she wanted to see it. These were Drizzt's friends, she kept reminding herself, and she took comfort in the drow ranger's judgment.
She was brought into a small, round room. A guard motioned for her to sit in one of three stone chairs. Catti-brie did so hesitantly,  for she recalled a tale that Drizzt had told her, of a svirfneblin chair that had magically shackled him and held him fast.
No such thing happened now, though, and a moment later, a very unusual deep gnome entered the room, dangling the magical locket with Drizzt's picture from the end of a hand that was crafted into a mithril pickaxe.
"Belwar, " Catti-brie stated, for there could not be two gnomes who so perfectly fit Drizzt's description of his dear svirfneblin friend.
The Most Honored Burrow Warden stopped in his tracks and eyed the woman suspiciously, obviously caught off guard by her recognition.
"Drizzt... Belwar, " Catti-brie said, again wrapping her arms about her, as though hugging someone. She pointed to herself and said, "Catti-brie... Drizzt, " and repeated the motion.
They could not speak two words of each other's language, but,  in a short time, using hand and body language, Catti-brie had won over the burrow warden, had even explained to him that she was searching for Drizzt.
She did not like the grave face Belwar wore at that remark, and his explanation, a single common name, the name of a drow city,  was not reassuring; Drizzt had gone into Menzoberranzan.
She was given a meal of cooked mushrooms and other plantlike growths that she did not recognize, then she was given back her items, including the locket and the onyx panther, but not the magi  cal mask.
She then was left alone, for hours it seemed, sitting in the starlit darkness, silently blessing Alustriel for her precious gift and think  ing how perfectly miserable the trek would have been without the Cat's Eye. She would not even have seen Belwar to recognize him!
Her thoughts were still on Belwar when he at last returned,  along with two other gnomes wearing long, soft robes, very unlike the rough, leatherlike, metal plated outfits typical of the race. Catti  brie figured that these two must be important, perhaps councilors.
"Firble, " Belwar explained, pointing to one of the svirfnebli, one that did not look happy.
Catti-brie figured out why a moment later, when Belwar pointed to her, then to Firble, then to the door and spoke a long sentence, the only word of which Catti-brie caught was, "Menzoberranzan."
Firble motioned for her to follow him, apparently anxious to be on their way, and Catti-brie, though she would have loved to stay in Blingdenstone and learn more about the intriguing svirfnebli, thor  oughly agreed. Drizzt was too far ahead of her already. She rose from the chair and started out, but was caught at the arm by Bel  war's pickaxe hand and turned about to face the burrow warden.
He pulled the magical mask from his belt and lifted it to her. "Drizzt, " he said, pointing his hammer hand at her face. "Drizzt."
Catti-brie nodded, understanding that the burrow warden thought it would be wise of her to walk as a drow. She turned to leave, but, on a sudden impulse, turned back and gave Belwar a peck on the cheek. Smiling appreciatively, the young woman walked from the house, and, with Firble leading the way, strode from Blingdenstone.
"How did you get Firble to agree to take her into the drow city?" the remaining gnome councilor asked the burrow warden when they were alone.
"Bivrip!" Belwar bellowed. He clapped his mithril hands together and immediately sparks and arcing lines of energy ran along his crafted hands. He put a wry look on the councilor, who merely laughed in a squeaky svirfneblin way Poor Firble.
Drizzt was glad to escort a group of orcs from the isle back to the mainland, if only so that he could avoid the eager Khareesa. She watched him go from the shore, her expression caught somewhere between a pout and anticipation, as if to say that Drizzt might have escaped, but only for now.
With the isle behind him, Drizzt put all thoughts of Khareesa from his mind. His task, and dangers, lay ahead, in the city proper,  and he honestly did not know where he would begin looking for answers. He feared that it would all come down to his surrender,  that he would have to give himself over to protect the friends that he had left behind.
He thought of Zak'nafein, his father and friend, who had been sacrificed to the evil Spider Queen in his stead. He thought of Wulf  gar, his lost friend, and memories of the young barbarian strength  ened Drizzt's resolve.
He offered no explanation to the surprised slavers awaiting the craft on the beach. His expression alone told them not to question him as he walked past their encampment, away from Donigarten.
Soon he moved easily, warily, along the winding ways of Men  zoberranzan. He passed close by several dark elves, under the more than curious eyes of dozens of house guards, standing watch from their parapets along the sides of hollowed stalactites. Drizzt carried with him an irrational notion that he might be recognized,  and had to tell himself many times that he had been out of Menzo  berranzan for more than thirty years, that Drizzt Do'Urden, even House Do'Urden, was now part of Menzoberranzan's history.
But, if that were true, why was he here, in this place where he did not want to be?
Drizzt wished that he had a piwafwi, the black cloak typical of drow outerwear. His forest green cloak, thick and warm, was more suited to the environs of the surface world and might connect him,  in the eyes of onlookers, to that rarely seen place. He kept the hood up, the cowl low, and pushed on. This would be one of many excur  sions into the city proper, he believed, as he familiarized himself once more with the winding avenues and the dark ways.
The flicker of light around a bend surprised him, stung his heat  seeing eyes, and he moved tightly against the wall of a stalagmite,  one hand under his cloak, grasping Twinkle's hilt.
A group of four drow males came around the bend, talking eas  ily, paying Drizzt no heed. They wore the symbol of House Baenre,  Drizzt noted as his vision shifted back to the normal spectrum, and one of them carried a torch!
Little that Drizzt had witnessed in all his life seemed so out of place to him. Why? he asked himself repeatedly, and he felt that this all was somehow related to him. Were the drow preparing an offensive against some surface location?
The notion rocked Drizzt to his core. House Baenre soldiers car  rying torches, getting their Underdark eyes desensitized to the light. Drizzt did not know what to think. He would have to go back to the Isle of Rothe, he decided, and he figured that that out of the way place was as good a base as any he could secure in the city Perhaps he could get Khareesa to tell him the meaning of the lights, so that the next excursion into the city proper might prove fruitful.
He stalked back through the city, cowl low, thoughts inward,  and did not notice the movements shadowing his own; few in Men  zoberranzan ever noticed the movements of Bregan D'aerthe.
Catti-brie had never viewed anything so mysterious and won  derful and, in the starlight of her vision, the glow of the stalagmite towers and hanging stalactites seemed more wonderful still. The faerie fires of Menzoberranzan highlighted ten thousand wondrous carvings, some of definite shape (mostly spiders), and others free  flowing forms, surrealistic and beautiful. She would like to come here under different circumstances, Catti-brie decided. She would like to be an explorer that discovered an empty Menzoberranzan,  that she might study and absorb the incredible drow workmanship and relics in safety
For, as overwhelmed as Catti-brie was by the magnificence of the drow city, she was truly terrified. Twenty thousand drow,  twenty thousand deadly enemies, were all about her.
As proof against the fear, the young woman tightly clasped Alustriel's magic locket and thought of the picture therein, of Drizzt Do'Urden. He was here, somewhere close, she believed, and her suspicions were confirmed when the locket flared suddenly with warmth.
Then it cooled. Catti-brie moved methodically, turning back to the north, to the secret tunnels Firble had taken her through to get to this place. The locket remained cool. She shifted to her right and faced west, across the chasm near her, the Clawrift, it was called,  and past the great, sweeping steppes that led to a higher level. Then she faced south, toward the highest and grandest section of all,  judging from the elaborate, glowing designs. Still the locket remained cool, then began to warm as the young woman continued to turn, looking past the nearest stalagmite mounds to the relatively clear section in the east.
Drizzt was there, in the east. Catti-brie took a deep breath then another, to steady her nerves and muster the courage to come fully out of the protected tunnel. She looked to her hands again, and her flowing robes, and took comfort in the apparently perfect drow dis  guise. She wished that she had Guenhwyvar beside her, remem  bered the moment in Silverymoon when the panther had loped down the streets beside her, but wasn't sure how the cat would be received in Menzoberranzan. The last thing she wanted to do was call attention to herself.
She moved quickly and quietly, throwing the hood of her robes low over her head. She hunched as she walked, and kept her grasp on the locket to guide her way and bolster her strength. She worked hard to avoid the stares of the many house sentries, and pointedly looked away whenever she saw a drow coming down the avenue toward her from the other direction.
She was almost past the area of stalagmites, could see the moss bed, the mushroom grove, even the lake beyond, when two drow came out of the shadows suddenly, blocking the way, though their weapons remained sheathed.
One of them asked her a question, which she, of course, did not understand. She subconsciously winced and noticed that they were looking at her eyes. Her eyes! Of course, they were not glowing with infravision, as the deep gnomes had informed her. The male asked his question again, somewhat more forcefully, then looked over his shoulder, toward the moss bed and the lake.
Catti-brie suspected that these two were part of a patrol, and that they wanted to know what business she might have on this side of the city. She noted the courteous way they addressed her, and remembered those things that Drizzt had taught her about drow culture.
She was a female; they, only males.
The undecipherable question came again, and Catti-brie responded with an open snarl. One of the males dropped his hands to the hilts of his twin swords, but Catti-brie pointed at them and snarled again, viciously
The two males looked to each other in obvious confusion. By their estimation, this female was blind, or at least was not using infravision, and the lights in the city were not that bright. She should not have been able to see the movement clearly, and yet, by her pointing finger, she obviously had.
Catti-brie growled at them and waved them away, and to her surprise (and profound relief), the males backed off, eyeing her sus  piciously but making no moves against her.
She started to hunch over, thinking to hide again under her cowl, but changed her mind instead. This was Menzoberranzan, full of brash dark elves, full of intrigue, a place where knowing, even pretending to know, something your rival did not know could keep you alive.
Catti-brie threw off the hood and stood straight, shaking her head as her thick hair freed itself of the folds. She stared at the two males wickedly and began to laugh.
They ran off.
The young woman nearly toppled with relief. She took another deep breath, clasped the locket in a clenched fist, and headed toward the lake.