Homeland Page 11

  “To what end?” Masoj remarked, not understanding the importance. “You would risk the losses of such a battle for the destruction of a lesser house?”

  “So thought House DeVir of House Do’Urden,” explained SiNafay. “In our w orld, we must be as concerned with the lower houses as with the higher ones. All of the great houses would be wise now to watch closely the moves of Daermon N’a’shezbaernon, the ninth house that is known as Do’Urden. It now has both a master and a mistress serving in the Academy and three high priestesses, with a fourth nearing the goal.”

  “Four high priestesses?” Masoj pondered. “In a single house.” Only three of the top eight houses could claim more than that. Normally, sisters aspiring to such heights inspired rivalries that inevitably thinned the ranks.

  “And the legions of House Do’Urden number more than three hundred fifty,” SiNafay continued, “all of them trained by perhaps the finest weapon master in all the city.”

  “Zaknafein Do’Urden, of course!” Masoj recalled.

  “You have heard of him?”

  “His name is often spoken at the Academy, even in Sorcere.”

  “Good,” SiNafay purred. “Then you will understand the full weight of the mission I have chosen for you,” An eager light came into Masoj’s eyes.

  “Another Do’Urden is soon to begin there,” SiNafay explained. “Not a master, but a student. By the words of those few who have seen this boy, Drizzt, at training, he will be as fine a fighter as Zaknafein. We should not allow this.”

  “You want me to kill the boy?” Masoj asked agerly.

  “No,” SiNafay replied, “not yet. I want you to learn of him, to understand the motivations of his every move. If the time to strike does come, you must be ready.”

  Masoj liked the devious assignment, but one thing still bothered him more than a little. “We still have Alton to consider,” he said. “He is impatient and daring. What are the consequences to House Hun’ett if he strikes House Do’Urden before the proper time? Might we invoke open war in the city, with House Hun’ett viewed as the perpetrator?”

  “Do not worry, my son,” Matron SiNafay replied. “If Alton DeVir makes a grievous error while in the guise of Gelroos. Hun’ett, we expose him as a murderous imposter and no member of our family. He will be an unhoused rogue with an executioner facing him from every direction.”

  Her casual explanation put Masoj at ease, but Matron SiNafay, so knowledgeable in the ways of drow society, had understood the risk she was taking from the moment she had accepted Alton DeVir into her house. Her plan seemed foolproof, and the possible gain-the elimination of this growing House Do’Urden was a tempting piece of bait.

  But the dangers, too, were very real. While it was perfectly acceptable for one house to covertly destroy another, the consequences of failure could not be ignored. Earlier that very night, a lesser house had struck out against a rival and, if the rumors held true, had failed. The illuminations of the next day would probably force the ruling council to enact a pretense of justice, to make an example of the unsuccessful attackers. In her long life, Matron SiNafay had witnessed this “justice,” several times.

  Not a single member of any of the aggressor houses-she was not even allowed to remember their names-had ever survived.

  Zak awakened Drizzt early the next morning. “Come,” he said. “We are bid to go out of the house this day.”

  All thoughts of sleep washed away from Drizzt at the news. “Outside the house?” he echoed. In all of his nineteen years, Drizzt had never once walked beyond the adamantite fence of the Do’Urden complex. He had only watched that outside world of Menzoberranzan from the balcony.

  While Zak waited, Drizzt quickly collected his soft boots and his piwafwi. “Will there be no lesson this day?” Drizzt asked.

  “We shall see,” was all that Zak replied, but in his thoughts, the weapon master figured that Drizzt might be in for one of the most startling revelations of his life. A house had failed in a raid, and the ruling council had requested the presence of all the nobles of the city, to bear witness to the weight of justice.

  Briza appeared in the corridor outside the practice room’s door. “Hurry,” she scolded. “Matron Malice does not wish our house to be among the last groups joining the gathering!”

  The matron mother herself, floating atop a blue-glowing disk-for matron mothers rarely walked through the city, led the procession out of House Do’Urden’s grand gate. Briza walked at her mother’s side, with Maya and Rizzen in the second rank and Drizzt and Zak taking up the rear. Vierna and Dinin, attending to the duties of their positions in the Academy, had gone to the ruling council’s summons with a different group.

  All the city was astir this morning, rumbling in the rumors of the failed raid. Drizzt walked through the bustle wide-eyed, staring in wonderment at the close-up view of the decorated drow houses. Slaves of every inferior race, goblins, orcs, even giants-scrambled out of the way, recognizing Malice, riding her enchanted carriage, as a matron mother.

  Drow commoners halted conversations and remained respectfully silent as the noble family passed.

  As they made their way toward the northwestern section, the location of the guilty house, they came into a lane blocked by a squabbling caravan of duergar, gray dwarves. A dozen carts had been overturned or locked together, apparently, two groups of duergar had come into the narrow lane together, neither relinquishing the right-of-way.

  Briza pulled the snake-headed whip from her belt and chased off a few of the creatures, clearing the way for Malice to float up to the apparent leaders of the two groups. The dwarves turned on her angrily-until they realized her station.

  “Beggin’ yer pardon, Madam,” one of them stammered. “Unfortunate accident is all,” Malice eyed the contents of one of the nearest carts, crates of giant crab legs and other delicacies.

  “You have slowed my journey,” Malice said calmly. “We have come to your city in hopes of trade,” the other duergar explained. He cast an angry glare at his counterpart, and Malice understood that the two were rivals, probably bartering the same goods to the same drow house.

  “I will forgive your insolence...” she offered graciously, still eyeing the crates.

  The two duergar suspected what was forthcoming. So did Zak. “We eat well tonight,” he whispered to Drizzt with a sly ink. “Matron Malice would not let such an opportunity slip by without gain.”

  “... if you can see your way to deliver half of these carts to the gate of House Do’Urden this night,” Malice finished. The duergar started to protest but quickly dismissed the foolish notion. How they hated dealing with drow elves!

  “You will be compensated appropriately,” Malice continued. “House Do’Urden is not a poor house. Between both of your caravans, you will still have enough goods to satisfy the house you came to see.”

  Neither of the duergar could refute the simple logic, but under these trading circumstances, where they had offended a matron mother, they knew the compensation for their valuable foods would hardly be appropriate. Still, the gray dwarves could only accept it ll as a risk of doing business in Menzoberranzan. They bowed politely and set their troops to clearing the way for the drow procession.

  House Teken’duis , the unsuccessful raiders of the previous night, had barricaded themselves within their two-stalagmite structure, fully expecting what was to come. Outside their gates, all of the nobles of Menzoberranzan, more than a thousand drow, had gathered, with Matron Baenre and the other seven matron mothers of the ruling council at their head. More disastrous for he guilty house, the entirety of the three schools of the Academy, students and instructors, had surrounded the Teken’duis compound. Matron Malice led her group to the front line behind the ruling matrons. As she was matron of the ninth house, only one step from the council, other drow nobles readily stepped out of her way.

  “House Teken’duis has angered the Spider Queen!” Matron Baenre proclaimed in a voice amplified by magical spells.

 
“Only because they failed,” Zak whispered to Drizzt. Briza cast both males an angry glare. Matron Baenre bade three young drow, two females and a male, to her side.

  “These are all that remain of House Freth,” she explained. “Can you tell us, orphans of House Freth,” she asked of them, “who it was that attacked your home?”

  “House Teken’duis!” they shouted together.

  “Rehearsed.” Zak commented.

  Briza turned around again. “Silence!” she whispered harshly.

  Zak slapped Drizzt on the back of the head. “Yes,” he agreed. “Do be quiet!”

  Drizzt started to protest, but Briza had already turned away and Zak’s smile was too wide to argue against.

  “Then it is the will of the ruling council,” Matron Baenre was saying, “that House Teken’duis suffer the consequences of their actions!”

  “What of the orphans of House Freth?” came a call from the crowd.

  Matron Baenre stroked the head of the oldest female, a cleric recently finished in her studies at the Academy. “Nobles they were born, and nobles they remain,” Baenre said. “House Baenre accepts them into its protection; they bear the name of Baenre now.”

  Disgruntled whispers filtered through the gathering. Three young nobles, two of them female, was quite a prize. Any house in the city gladly would have taken them in. “Baenre,” Briza whispered to Malice. “Just what the first house needs, more clerics!”

  “Sixteen high priestesses is not enough, it seems,” Malice answered.

  “And no doubt, Baenre will take any surviving soldiers of House Freth,” Briza reasoned.

  Malice was not so certain. Matron Baenre was walking a thin line by taking even the surviving nobles. If House Baenre got too powerful, Lloth surely would take exception.

  In situations such as this, where a house had been almost eradicated, surviving common soldiers were normally pooled out to bidding houses. Malice would have to watch for such an auction. Soldiers did not come cheaply, but at this time, Malice would welcome the opportunity to add to her forces, particularly if there were any magic-users to be had.

  Matron Baenre addressed the guilty house. “House Teken’duis!” she called. “You have broken our laws and have been rightfully caught. Fight if you will, but know that you have brought this doom upon yourself,” With a wave of her hand, she set the Academy, the dispatcher of justice, into motion.

  Great braziers had been placed in eight positions around House Teken’duis , attended by mistresses of Arach-Tinilith and the highest- ranking clerical students. Flames roared to life and shot into the air as the high priestesses opened gates to the lower planes. Drizzt watched closely, mesmerized, and hoping to catch a glimpse of either Dinin or Vierna.

  Denizens of the lower planes, huge, many-armed monsters, slime covered and spitting fire, stepped through the flames. Even the nearest high priestesses backed away from the grotesque horde. The creatures gladly accepted such servitude. When the signal from Matron Baenre came, they eagerly descended upon House Teken’duis.

  Glyphs and wards exploded at every corner of the house’s feeble gate, but these were mere inconveniences to the summoned creatures.

  The wizards and students of Sorcere then went into action, slamming at the top of House Teken’duis with conjured lightning bolts, balls of acid, and fireballs. Students and masters of Melee-Magthere, the school of fighters, rushed about with heavy crossbows, firing into windows where the doomed family might try to escape.

  The horde of monsters bashed through the doors. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed. Zak looked at Drizzt, and a frown replaced the master’s smile. Caught up in the excitement-and it certainly was exciting-Drizzt bore an expression of awe.

  The first screams of the doomed family rolled out from the house, screams so terrible and agonized that they stole any macabre pleasure that Drizzt might have been experiencing. He grabbed Zak’s shoulder, s pinning the weapon master to him, begging for an explanation. One of the sons of House Teken’duis, fleeing a ten armed giant monster, stepped out onto the balcony of a high window. A dozen crossbow quarrels struck him simultaneously, and before he even fell dead, three separate lightning bolts alternately lifted him from the balcony, then dropped him back onto it.

  Scorched and mutilated, the drow corpse started to tumble from its high perch, but the grotesque monster reached out a huge, clawed hand from the window and pulled it back in to devour it.

  “Drow justice,” Zak said coldly. He didn’t offer Drizzt any consolation; he wanted the brutality of this moment to stick in the young drow’s mind for the rest of his life.

  The siege went on for more than an hour, and when it was finished, when the denizens of the lower planes were dismissed through the braziers’ gates and the students and instructors of the Academy started their march back to Tier Breche, House Teken’duis was no more than a glowing lump of lifeless, molten stone.

  Drizzt watched it all, horrified, but too afraid of the consequences to run away. He did not notice the artistry of Menzoberranzan on the return trip to House Do’Urden.

  Chapter 10

  The Stain of Blood

  “Zaknafein is out of the house?” Malice asked.

  “I sent him and Rizzen to the Academy to deliver a message to Vierna,” Briza explained. “He shan’t return for many hours, not before the light of Narbondel begins its descent.”

  “That is good,” said Malice. “You both understand your duties in this farce?”

  Briza and Maya nodded. “I have never heard of such a deception,” Maya remarked. “Is it necessary?”

  “It was planned for another of the house,” Briza answered, looking to Matron Malice for confirmation. “Nearly four centuries ago.”

  “Yes,” agreed Malice. “The same was to be done to Zaknafein, but the unexpected death of Matron Vartha, my mother, disrupted the plans.”

  “That was when you became the matron mother,” Maya said.

  “Yes,” replied Malice, “though I had not passed my first century of life and was still training in Arach-Tinilith. It was not a pleasant time in the history of House Do’Urden.”

  “But we survived,” said Briza. “With the death of Matron Vartha, Nalfein and I became nobles of the house.”

  “The test on Zaknafein was never attempted,” Maya reasoned.

  “Too many other duties preceded it,” Malice answered.

  “We will try it on Drizzt, though,” said Maya.

  “The punishment of House Teken’duis convinced me that this action had to be taken,” said Malice.

  “Yes,” Briza agreed. “Did you notice Drizzt’s expression throughout the execution?”

  “I did,” answered Maya. “He was revolted.”

  “Unfitting for a drow warrior,” said Malice, “and so this duty is upon us. Drizzt will leave for the Academy in a short time, we must stain his hands with drow blood and steal his innocence.”

  “It seems a lot of trouble for a male child,” Briza grumbled. “If Drizzt cannot adhere to our ways, then why do we not simply give him to Lloth?”

  “I will bear no more children!” Malice growled in response. “Every member of this family is important if we are to ain prominence in the city!” Secretly Malice hoped for another gain in converting Drizzt to the evil ways of the drow. She hated Zaknafein as much as she desired him, and turning Drizzt into a drow warrior, a true heartless drow warrior, would distress the weapon master greatly.

  “On with it, then,” Malice proclaimed. She clapped her hands, and a large chest walked in, supported by eight animated spider legs. Behind it came a nervous goblin slave.

  “Come, Byuchyuch,” Malice said in a comforting tone. Anxious to please, the slave bounded up before Malice’s throne and held perfectly still as the matron mother went through the incantation of a long and complicated spell.

  Briza and Maya watched in admiration at their mother’s skills; the little goblin’s features bulged and twisted, and its skin darkened. A few minutes later,
the slave had assumed the appearance of a male drow. Byuchyuch looked at its features happily, not understanding that the transformation was merely a prelude to death.

  “You are a drow soldier now,” Maya said to it, “and my champion. You must kill only a single, inferior fighter to take your place as a free commoner of House Do’Urden!” After ten years as an indentured servant to the wicked dark elves, the goblin was more than eager.

  Malice rose and started out of the anteroom. “Come,” she ordered, and her two daughters, the goblin, and the animated chest fell in line behind her.

  They came upon Drizzt in the practice room, polishing the razor edge of his scimitars. He leaped straight up to silent attention at the sight of the unexpected visitors.

  “Greetings, my son,” Malice said in a tone more motherly than Drizzt had ever heard. “We have a test for you this day, a simple task necessary for your acceptance into Melee-Magthere.”

  Maya moved before her brother. “I am the youngest, beside yourself,” she declared. “Thus, I am granted the rights of challenge, which I now execute.”

  Drizzt stood confused. He had never heard of such a thing. Maya called the chest to her side and reverently opened the cover.

  “You have your weapons and your piwafwi,” she explained. “Now it is time for you to don the complete outfit of a noble of House Do’Urden,” From the chest she pulled out a pair of high black boots and handed them to Drizzt.

  Drizzt eagerly slipped out of his normal boots and put on the new ones. They were incredibly soft, and they magically shifted and adjusted to a perfect fit on his feet. Drizzt knew the magic within them: they would allow him to move in absolute silence. Before he had even finished admiring them, though, Maya gave him the next gift, even more magnificent.

  Drizzt dropped his piwafwi to the floor as he took a set of silvery chain mail. In all the Realms, there was no armor as supple and finely crafted as drow chain mail. It weighed no more than a heavy shirt and would bend as easily as silken cloth, yet could deflect the tip of a spear as surely as dwarven-crafted plate mail.