Boundless Read online

  Dedication

  To Diane. And to Julian, Camillo, Dominic, Charlie, and Owen, the next generation as this wonderful journey continues.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Dramatis Personae

  Maps

  Prologue

  Part 1: The Daggers of Bregan D’aerthe Chapter 1: Running Free

  Chapter 2: The Unexpected Interloper

  Chapter 3: Those Strange Oblodran Creatures

  Chapter 4: Perfecting the Edges

  Chapter 5: Fair and Not Square

  Chapter 6: Squaring Up

  Chapter 7: Stripped Naked

  Part 2: Every Front Chapter 8: Commander Zhindia

  Chapter 9: Epler Veien

  Chapter 10: Clandestine

  Chapter 11: Skitterwombles in the Sarcophobulous

  Chapter 12: Icy Waves and Demon Fire

  Chapter 13: In the Shadows

  Part 3: Cultural Boundaries Chapter 14: If Only

  Chapter 15: Every Angle

  Chapter 16: Deaths Deserved, Deaths Undeserved

  Chapter 17: Trapped

  Chapter 18: The Words He Knew

  Chapter 19: When the Blood Dried

  Part 4: The Afflicted Chapter 20: Flotsam

  Chapter 21: Bad Spideys

  Chapter 22: . . . Mentormentor . . .

  Chapter 23: Sinking Ship Kurth

  Chapter 24: The Eyes of the World

  Chapter 25: She Is My Friend

  Chapter 26: Down Below

  Chapter 27: The End

  About the Author

  Also by R. A. Salvatore

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Dramatis Personae

  In the past . . . all of them drow.

  House Do’Urden

  Matron Malice: The young and ferocious drow leads House Do’Urden. Ambitious and insatiable, she is determined to climb the hierarchy of Menzoberranzan’s nearly eighty houses to one day gain a seat on the Ruling Council reserved for the top eight houses.

  Zaknafein Do’Urden: Former weapon master of House Simfray, Zaknafein was plucked from the battle which destroyed that house and given to the insatiable and ambitious Matron Malice Do’Urden to serve as her weapon master and consort. With Zaknafein in the fold, House Do’Urden is considered a real threat to many of those houses ranked above them.

  Patron Rizzen: Malice’s open consort, father of Nalfein, he is considered an incredibly mediocre companion by the ambitious Malice.

  Nalfein Do’Urden: Malice’s oldest son, elderboy of the house, Nalfein is everything one might expect from the loins of Patron Rizzen.

  Briza Do’Urden: Malice’s eldest daughter. Huge and formidable.

  House Xorlarrin

  Matron Zeerith Xorlarrin: Powerful leader of the city’s fourth-ranked house.

  Horroodissomoth Xorlarrin: Xorlarrin house wizard and former master of Sorcere, the drow academy for practitioners of arcane magic.

  Kiriy: Priestess of Lolth, daughter of Zeerith and Horroodissomoth.

  House Simfray

  Matron Divine Simfray: Ruler of the minor house.

  House Tr’arach

  Matron Hauzz: Deceased matron of the minor house.

  Duvon Tr’arach: Son of Matron Hauzz, former weapon master of House Tr’arach, determined to prove himself.

  Daungelina Tr’arach: Oldest daughter of Matron Hauzz and first priestess of the minor house.

  Dab’nay Tr’arach: Daughter of Matron Hauzz. With the fall of the house, currently in the service of Jarlaxle.

  House Baenre

  Matron Mother Yvonnel Baenre: Also known as Yvonnel the Eternal, Matron Mother Baenre is the undisputed leader not only of the First House, but of the entire city. While other families might refer to their matron as “matron mother,” all in the city use that title for Yvonnel Baenre. She is the oldest living drow, and has been in a position of great power longer than the longest memory of anyone in the city.

  Gromph Baenre: Matron Mother Baenre’s oldest child, archmage of Menzoberranzan, the highest-ranking man in the city, and most formidable wizard in the entire Underdark, by many estimations.

  Dantrag Baenre: Son of Matron Mother Baenre, weapon master of the great house, considered one of the greatest warriors in the city.

  Triel, Quenthel, and Sos’Umptu Baenre: Three of Matron Mother Baenre’s daughters, priestesses of Lolth.

  Other Notables

  K’yorl Odran: Matron of House Oblodra, notable for its use of the strange mind magics called psionics.

  Jarlaxle: A houseless rogue who began Bregan D’aerthe, a mercenary band quietly serving the needs of many drow houses, but mostly serving its own needs.

  Arathis Hune: Drow lieutenant to Jarlaxle and assassin extraordinaire. Taken into the band, as with many of the members, after the fall of his house.

  In the present . . . many races.

  Drizzt Do’Urden: Born in Menzoberranzan and fled the evil ways of the city. Drow warrior, hero of the north, and Companion of the Hall, along with his four dear friends.

  Catti-brie: Human wife of Drizzt, Chosen of the goddess Mielikki, skilled in both arcane and divine magic. Companion of the Hall.

  Regis (Spider Parrafin): Halfling husband of Donnola Topolino, leader of the halfling community of Bleeding Vines. Companion of the Hall.

  King Bruenor Battlehammer: Eighth king of Mithral Hall, tenth king of Mithral Hall, now king of Gauntlgrym, an ancient dwarven city he reclaimed with his dwarven kin. Companion of the Hall. Adoptive father of both Wulfgar and Catti-brie.

  Wulfgar: Born to the Tribe of the Elk in Icewind Dale, the giant human was captured by Bruenor in battle and became the adopted son of the dwarf king. Companion of the Hall.

  Artemis Entreri: Former nemesis of Drizzt, the human assassin is the drow warrior’s near equal or equal in battle. Now he runs with Jarlaxle’s Bregan D’aerthe band, and considers Drizzt and the other Companions of the Hall friends.

  Guenhwyvar: Magical panther, companion of Drizzt, summoned to his side from the Astral Plane.

  Andahar: Drizzt’s summoned steed, a magical unicorn. Unlike the living Guenhwyvar, Andahar is a purely magical construct.

  Lord Dagult Neverember: Open lord of Waterdeep and lord protector of Neverwinter. A dashing and ambitious human.

  Penelope Harpell: The leader of the eccentric wizards known as the Harpells, who oversee the town of Longsaddle from their estate, the Ivy Mansion. Penelope is a powerful wizard, mentoring Catti-brie, and has dated Wulfgar on occasion.

  Donnola Topolino: Halfling wife of Regis, and leader of the halfling town of Bleeding Vines. She came from Aglarond, in the distant east, where she once headed a thieves’ guild.

  Inkeri Margaster: A lady of Waterdeep, the noblewoman is considered the leader of the Waterdhavian House of Margaster.

  Alvilda Margaster: Cousin of Inkeri. Also a noble lady of Waterdeep.

  Brevindon Margaster: Inkeri’s brother, another Waterdhavian noble.

  Grandmaster Kane: A human monk who has transcended his mortal coil and become a being beyond the Material Plane, Kane is the Grandmaster of Flowers of the Monastery of the Yellow Rose in far-off Damara. He is friend and mentor to Drizzt as the drow tries to find peace at last along a turbulent road.

  Dahlia Syn’dalay (Dahlia Sin’felle): A tall and beautiful blue-eyed elf, Dahlia strives to surprise as much with her appearance as with her brilliant fighting techniques. Once the lover of Drizzt, she is now the companion of Artemis Entreri, the two finding a better way together than either ever paved alone.

  Thibbledorf Pwent: A walking weapon in his spiked and sharp-ridged armor, Pwent is a battle-hardened dwarf whose loyalty is as strong as the aroma emanatin
g from him. He led every seemingly suicidal charge with a cry of “Me King!” and gave his life saving King Bruenor in the bowels of Gauntlgrym. His death was not the end of Pwent, though, for he was slain by a vampire, and now continues as one—a cursed and miserable thing, haunting the lowest tunnels of Gauntlgrym and satisfying his insatiable hunger by feeding on the goblins beyond the dwarven realm.

  The Brothers Bouldershoulder, Ivan and Pikel: Ivan Bouldershoulder is a grizzled old veteran of many battles, mundane and magical. He’s risen to a position of great trust as a commander in Bruenor’s Gauntlgrym guard. More eccentric and extreme than Ivan, the green-haired Pikel fancies himself a druid, or “doo-dad,” and helped Donnola Topolino create wonderful vineyards in Bleeding Vines. His limited and stilted vocabulary only adds to the deceptive innocence of this quite powerful dwarf.

  Kimmuriel Oblodra: A powerful drow psionicist, Kimmuriel serves as coleader of Bregan D’aerthe beside Jarlaxle. He is the logic foil to the emotional Jarlaxle, and Jarlaxle knows it.

  Eternal Beings

  Lolth, the Lady of Chaos, the Demon Queen of Spiders, the Queen of the Demonweb Pits: The mighty demon Lolth reigns as the most influential goddess of the drow, particularly in the greatest drow city, Menzoberranzan, known as the City of Spiders for the devotion of its inhabitants. True to her name, the Lady of Chaos constantly shocks her followers, keeping her true plans buried beneath the webbing of other more obvious and understandable schemes. Her end goal, above all, is chaos.

  Eskavidne and Yiccardaria: Lesser demons known as yochlol, they serve as two of the handmaidens of Lolth. The pair have proven so resourceful and skilled that Lolth gives them great rein in walking the ways of the drow and making a glorious mess of everything.

  Maps

  Prologue

  The Year of Dwarvenkind Reborn

  Dalereckoning 1488

  He could hear the labored breathing of his poor pony, but Regis didn’t dare slow. For the shadows within the shadows were not far away, black, misshapen things, lumbering and twisted by evil and unrelenting anger.

  Demons. Everywhere in the forest, demons.

  The halfling weaved about the trees, urging poor Rumblebelly on. He came down around a stone, the trail bending to the south and into a clearing. He winced, noting the sheen of sweat on his pinto’s brown-and-white coat.

  At least now he could stop, but only briefly, and only because Showithal Terdidy, one of the leaders of the Grinning Ponies, rode into the small clearing from the other direction.

  “Where is Doregardo?” Regis asked, pulling up alongside his friend.

  Showithal nodded back the way he had come. “The wood’s thick with the fiends,” he said. “We’ll not get through.”

  “And they’re all heading in the same direction,” Regis added.

  Showithal nodded. “Doregardo is convinced that these monsters are guided by a greater purpose, and that they know of Bleeding Vines,” he explained. “The beasts are moving in a wide arc, by all reports coming up and down the line, and will strike the town all at once.”

  “Then you’ve got to get there before them,” Regis ordered. “All of you, turn about and ride as if the lives of all in Bleeding Vines depend upon your speed, for surely that is the truth.”

  “The farms . . . the villages . . .”

  Regis shook his head. “You cannot get to them, and even if any of you did, you’d only be leading demons to new victims. The farmers will hear the monsters. They have lived in the wilds all their lives. They will shelter and hide. You must get to Bleeding Vines. All of you.”

  “All of us, Spider Parrafin,” Showithal corrected.

  Again Regis shook his head. “Waterdeep must be told,” Regis explained. It was terribly hard for him to speak those words. He wanted nothing more than to turn about and gallop all the way back to Bleeding Vines, then ride the tram beside his beloved Donnola and his dear Rumblebelly all the way to the safety of Gauntlgrym. But he could not. Not now.

  Not in this life.

  In his previous life, Regis had been the tagalong, too often making victory more difficult for his beloved Companions of the Hall instead of helping them to achieve their goals—at least, that’s the way he viewed it. In those long-ago years, Regis had been the least of the heroes. This time, this rebirth, he had determined to change that course. He would be no burden. He would live as a hero worthy of the friendship of Drizzt, Bruenor, Catti-brie, and Wulfgar.

  Now his path was clear before him. He had to get to Waterdeep, the great City of Splendors, the Crown of the North, the most influential and powerful city in all of Faerun. The lords of Waterdeep could turn back the demon tide, and Regis had to get to them.

  “If you’re on to Waterdeep, then you’re not riding alone,” Showithal insisted, moving his own pony up beside Rumblebelly.

  “Go tell the Grinning Ponies to return to Bleeding Vines,” Regis ordered. “That mission, too, is critical.”

  A commotion in the trees to the side turned the two.

  Demons.

  “Go!” Regis ordered, and he slapped the flank of Showithal’s pony, sending the mount leaping away, then quick-turned Rumblebelly and galloped off into the darkness in the other direction.

  Heavy footsteps followed him as he wove again through the trees, and buzzing loomed overhead, above the canopy.

  “I know, my friend,” he whispered into poor Rumblebelly’s ear. “Give me this run and you’ll find a rest.”

  Regis didn’t believe it. He knew Rumblebelly would give him all that he asked for, but understood, too, that he would likely run his beautiful blue-eyed pony quite literally to its death.

  But he had no choice.

  They were all around him. They were above, and, he found out to his great dismay, they were below him, for the ground to the side erupted suddenly, huge pincers snipping tree roots with ease and a massive demon clawing up from the earth. A hulking four-armed glabrezu emerged with long, loping strides, easily pacing Rumblebelly.

  Behind Regis, a vulture-like fiend leaped and half flew, half ran in close pursuit.

  Rumblebelly’s breathing came in ragged gasps, and Regis knew that he could no longer outrun this demon.

  Still, he said, “No,” and he put his head lower, coaxing his poor mount ahead more swiftly, recklessly even, and hoped that he would not crash into a tree.

  No halfling had ever ridden a pony better than Doregardo, Showithal Terdidy fervently believed, and his dear friend was proving it to him yet again.

  Doregardo effortlessly took his black stallion through the tangle of trees, hardly slowing for the obstacles and brambles, anticipating each turn far ahead and leaning in, urging his pony ever forward, obviously confident that the animal would obey. That the mount had full confidence in him was just as obvious.

  A host of demons chased Doregardo, including several he had cleverly and brilliantly pulled from their pursuit of Showithal. They would not catch Doregardo, Showithal believed.

  No one could catch the great Doregardo of the Grinning Ponies.

  He paced his mount down a slope into another copse of trees, the demons scrambling close behind. Despite his confidence, Showithal held his breath, and indeed grimaced when he saw those trees shaking violently and heard the growls and roars and shrieks of the fiends.

  But Doregardo came galloping out the side, he and his mount showing not a mark as far as the distant Showithal could see, and there was no immediate pursuit—indeed, the battle in the copse continued.

  Showithal Terdidy managed a smile despite the desperate situation. Doregardo had turned the demons back on each other, a tangling mess of clawing, biting, chaotic frenzy.

  When the two rejoined in a small clearing a short time later, it was clear that Doregardo had bought them both some time.

  “Our companions have all turned back for Bleeding Vines,” Doregardo told his second-in-command. “We’ve lost none, but that will not hold true for long.”

  “Too many of the beasts,” Showithal
agreed.

  As if on cue, the brush behind them began to shake violently and a pair of misshapen demons burst into the clearing. The halfling pair were already away, though, Doregardo letting Showithal lead in a straightaway run for the distant settlement, while he went back into his forest dance.

  But more shadows loomed at their flanks, and a loud buzzing sound followed them overhead, and for all their efforts and all of Doregardo’s brilliant maneuvering, when the pair joined once more on a wide road farther along, they knew that they were in deep trouble. They came together again soon after in another small clearing, now understanding the depth of their predicament.

  “Others will make it,” Doregardo said somberly to his friend.

  “We’ll make it!” Showithal insisted.

  Doregardo nodded, but clearly he was not convinced. Nor was Showithal, for now the moving shadows were ahead of them, left and right in the trees.

  “Right, then,” Doregardo remarked. “Full charge, you. Head down and gallop for all your pony’s life. I’ll keep our ugly fiend friends busy. My love to Spider and Lady Donnola, aye?”

  He kicked his pony and started away, but barely got moving, for Showithal grabbed his reins, holding him and the pony back.

  Doregardo looked at him curiously.

  “You’ll break me clear, only for me to be caught farther along,” Showithal explained. “And you know it. Only Doregardo can get to Bleeding Vines, and only alone.”

  “Others will get there,” Doregardo insisted.

  “Perhaps, but is that a chance you are willing to take? How many will be slaughtered if they are not forewarned?”

  “Warn them, then, and I will join you!”