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  The ray came . . .

  And then he was gone, breaking apart into floating shards of light, like a thousand tiny flower petals floating down on a gentle breeze. His breeches flapped and shuddered, then also vanished into nothingness, disintegrated by the retriever’s final and most powerful ray of all.

  The demon arachnid ran in tight circles, its senses, so attuned to the life force of its victim, showing it the truth: that this creature called Drizzt was no more.

  The beast shrieked, victorious, its life’s mission completed. It began a tight spin on the spot where its prey had dissolved, eight legs skittering in the closest thing to happiness such a fiend might know. And there, it too dissolved, its massive corporeal form fast reducing to a smoky whisper that traversed the planes.

  It had done its foul job.

  About the Author

  Thirty years ago, R. A. SALVATORE created the character of Drizzt Do’Urden, the dark elf who has withstood the test of time to stand today as an icon in the fantasy genre. With his work in the Forgotten Realms, the Crimson Shadow, the DemonWars Saga, and other series, Salvatore has sold more than thirty million books worldwide and has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list more than two dozen times. He considers writing to be his personal journey, but still, he’s quite pleased that so many are walking the road beside him!

  R. A. lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Diane, and their two dogs, Pikel and Dexter. He still plays softball for his team, Clan Battlehammer, and enjoys his weekly DemonWars: Reformation RPG game. He can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RA-Salvatore-54142479810/, on Twitter at @r_a_salvatore, and at RASalvaStore.com.

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  Also by R. A. Salvatore

  The Legend of Drizzt Books

  Homeland

  Exile

  Sojourn

  The Crystal Shard

  Streams of Silver

  The Halfling’s Gem

  The Legacy

  Starless Night

  Siege of Darkness

  Passage to Dawn

  The Silent Blade

  The Spine of the World

  Sea of Swords

  Servant of the Shard

  Promise of the Witch King

  Road of the Patriarch

  The Thousand Orcs

  The Lone Drow

  The Two Swords

  The Orc King

  The Pirate King

  The Ghost King

  Gauntlgrym

  Neverwinter

  Charon’s Claw

  The Last Threshold

  The Companions

  Night of the Hunger

  Rise of the King

  Vengeance of the Iron Dwarf

  Archmage

  Maestro

  Hero

  Timeless

  Saga of the First King

  The Highwayman

  The Ancient

  The Dame

  Tales of the Coven

  Child of a Mad God

  Copyright

  Wizards of the Coast, its logo, The Legend of Drizzt, Forgotten Realms, and the dragon ampersand are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  boundless. Copyright © 2019 by Wizards of the Coast LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Harper Voyager and design are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers LLC.

  first edition

  Frontispiece and opener art © Aleks Melnik / Shutterstock

  Cover design by Richard L. Aquan

  Cover art by Aleksi Briclot

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

  Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-268862-0

  Print ISBN: 978-0-06-268863-7

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