Vierna shrugged. "They are just rumors." she said. "Rumors to be listened to!"
"We have been accused of a wrongful deed?" Drizzt asked. "Surely our family must callout this false accuser." Vierna and Dinin exchanged smiles. "Wrongful?" Vierna laughed.
Drizzt’s expression revealed his confusion.
"On the very night you were born." Dinin explained, "House DeVir ceased to exist. An excellent attack, thank you."
"House Do’Urden?" gasped Drizzt, unable to come to terms with the startling news. Of course, Drizzt knew of such battles, but he had held out hope that his own family was above that sort of murderous action.
"One of the finest eliminations ever carried out." Vierna boasted. "Not a witness left alive."
"You… our family… murdered another family?"
"Watch your words, Secondboy." Dinin warned. "The deed was perfectly executed. In the eyes of Menzoberranzan, therefore, it never happened."
"But House DeVir ceased to exist." said Drizzt.
"The child." said Dinin with a laugh.
A thousand possibilities assaulted Drizzt at that awful moment, a thousand pressing questions that he needed answered. One in particular stood out vividly, welling like a lump of bile in his throat.
"Where was Zaknafein that night?" he asked.
"In the chapel of House DeVir’s clerics, of course." replied Vierna. "Knafein plays his part in such business so very well."
Drizzt rocked back on his heels, hardly able to believe what he was hearing. He knew that Zak had killed drow before, had killed clerics of Lolth before, but Drizzt had always assumed that the weapon master had acted out of necessity, in self-defense.
"You should show more respect to your brother." Vierna scolded him. "To draw weapons against Dinin! You owe him your life!"
"You know?" Dinin chuckled, casting Vierna a curious glance.
"You and I were melded that night." Vierna reminded him. "Of course I know."
"What are you talking about?" asked Drizzt, almost afraid to hear the reply.
"You were to be the third born male in the family." Vierna explained, "the third living son."
"I have heard of my brother Nal…". The name stuck in Drizzt’s throat as he began to understand. All he had ever been able to learn of Nalfein was that he had been killed by another drow.
"You will learn in your studies at Arach-Tinilith that third living sons are customarily sacrificed to Lolth." Vierna continued. "So were you promised. On the night that you were born, the night that House Do’Urden battled House DeVir, Dinin made his ascent to the position of elderboy." She cast a sly glance at her brother, standing with his arms proudly crossed over his chest.
"I can speak of it now." Vierna smiled at Dinin, who nodded his head in accord. "It happened too long ago for any punishment to be brought against Dinin."
"What are you talking about?" Drizzt demanded. Panic hovered all about him. "What did Dinin do?"
"He put his sword into Nalfein’s back." Vierna said calmly.
Drizzt swam on the edge of nausea. Sacrifice? Murder?
The annihilation of a family, even the children? What were his siblings talking about?
"Show respect to your brother!" Vierna demanded. "You owe him your life.
"I warn the both of you." she purred, her ominous glare shaking Drizzt and knocking Dinin from his confident pedestal. "House Do’Urden may be on a course of war. If either of you strike out against the other, you will bring the wrath of all your sisters and Matron Malice―four high priestesses―down upon your worthless soul!" Confident that her threat carried sufficient weight, she turned and left the room.
"I will go." Drizzt whispered, wanting only to skulk away to a dark corner.
"You will go when you are dismissed!" Dinin scolded. "Remember your place, Drizzt Do’Urden, in the Academy and in the family."
"As you remembered yours with Nalfein?"
"The battle against DeVir was won." Dinin replied, taking no offense. "The act brought no peril to the family."
Another wave of disgust swept over Drizzt. He felt as if the floor were climbing up to swallow him, and he almost hoped that it would.
"It is a difficult world we inhabit." Dinin said.
"We make it so." Drizzt retorted. He wanted to continue further, to implicate the Spider Queen and the whole amoral religion that would sanction such destructive and treacherous actions. Drizzt wisely held his tongue, though. Dinin wanted him dead he, understood that now. Drizzt understood as well that if he gave his scheming brother the opportunity to turn the females of the family against him, Dinin surely would.
"You must learn," Dinin said, again in a controlled tone, "to accept the realities of your surroundings. You must learn to recognize your enemies and defeat them."
"By whatever means are available." Drizzt concluded.
"The mark of a true warrior!" Dinin replied with a wicked laugh.
"Are our enemies drow elves?"
"We are drow warriors!" Dinin declared sternly. "We do what we must to survive."
"As you did, on the night of my birth." Drizzt reasoned, though at this point, there was no remaining trace of outrage in his resigned tone. "You were cunning enough to get away cleanly with the deed."
Dinin’s reply, though expected, stung the younger drow profoundly.
"It never happened."
Chapter 15
On The DarkSide
"I am Drizzt…"
"I know who you are." replied the student mage, Drizzt’s appointed tutor in Sorcere. "Your reputation precedes you. Most in all the Academy have heard of you and of your prowess with weapons."
Drizzt bowed low, a bit embarrassed.
"That skill will be of little use to you here." the mage went on, "I am to tutor you in the wizardly arts, the dark side of magic, we call them. This is a test of your mind and your heart, meager metal weapons will play no part. Magic is the true power of our people!"
Drizzt accepted the berating without reply. He knew that the traits this young mage was boasting of were also necessary qualities of a true fighter. Physical attributes played only a minor role in Drizzt’s style of battle. Strong will and calculated maneuvers, everything the mage apparently believed only wizards could handle, won the duels that Drizzt fought.
"I will show you many marvels in the next few months." the mage went on, "artifacts beyond your belief and spells of a power beyond your experience!"
"May I know your name?" Drizzt asked, trying to sound somewhat impressed by the student’s continued stream of self-glorification. Drizzt had already learned quite a lot about wizardry from Zaknafein, mostly of the weaknesses inherent in the class. Because of magic’s usefulness in situations other than battle, drow wizards were accorded a high position in the society, second to the clerics of Lolth. It was a wizard, after all, who lighted the glowing Narbondel, time clock of the city, and wizards who lighted faerie fires on the sculptures of the decorated houses.
Zaknafein had little respect for wizards. They could kill quickly and from a distance, he had warned Drizzt, but if one could get in close to them, they had little defense against a sword.
"Masoj." replied the mage. "Masoj Hun’ett of House Hun’ett, beginning my thirtieth and final year of study. Soon I will be recognized as a full wizard of Menzoberranzan, with all of the privileges accorded my station."
"Greetings, then, Masoj Hun’ett." Drizzt replied. "I, too, have but a year remaining in my training at the Academy, for a fighter spends only ten years."
"A lesser talent." Masoj was quick to remark. "Wizards study thirty years before they are even considered practiced enough to go out and perform their craft."
Again Drizzt accepted the insult graciously. He wanted to get this phase of his instruction over with, then finish out the year and be rid of the Academy altogether.