Drizzt glared at her and she recoiled, feeling the same bitter chill that Zaknafein had cast over her earlier in the night.
"I instructed you not to leave the house." Malice said again, still holding calm. "Why did you disobey me?"
"I had matters to attend." Drizzt replied, "urgent matters. I did not wish to bother you with them."
"War is upon us, my son." Matron Malice explained. "You are vulnerable out in the city by yourself. House Do’Urden cannot afford to lose you now."
"My business had to be handled alone." Drizzt answered.
"Is it completed?"
"It is."
"Then I trust that you will not disobey me again." The words came calm and even, but Drizzt understood at once the severity of the threat behind them.
"To other matters, then." Malice went on.
"Where is Zaknafein?" Drizzt dared to ask again.
Briza mumbled some curse under her breath and pulled the whip from her belt. Matron Malice threw an outstretched hand in her direction to stay her. They needed tact, not brutality, to bring Drizzt under control at this critical time. There would be ample opportunities for punishment after House Hun’ett was properly defeated.
"Concern yourself not with the fate of the weapon master." Malice replied. "He works for the good of House Do’Urden even as we speak, on a personal mission."
Drizzt didn’t believe a word of it. Zak would never have left without his weapons. The truth hovered about Drizzt’s thoughts, but he wouldn’t let it in.
"Our concern is House Hun’ett." Malice went on, addressing them all. "The war’s first strikes may fall this day."
"The first strikes already have fallen." Drizzt interrupted.
All eyes came back to him, to his wounds. He wanted to continue the discussion about Zak but knew that he would only get himself, and Zak, if Zak was still alive, into further trouble. Perhaps the conversation would bring him more clues.
"You have seen battle?" Malice asked.
"You know of the Faceless One?" Drizzt asked.
"Master of the Academy." Dinin answered, "of Sorcere, have dealt with him often."
"He has been of use to us in the past." said Malice, "but no more, I believe. He is a Hun’ett, Gelroos Hun’ett."
"No." Drizzt replied. "Once he may have been, but Alton DeVir is his name… was his name."
"The link!" Dinin growled, suddenly comprehending. "Gelroos was to kill Alton on the night of House DeVir’s fall!
"It would seem that Alton DeVir proved the stronger." mused Malice, and all became clear to her. "Matron SiNafay Hun’ett accepted him, used him to her gain." she explained to her family. She looked back to Drizzt. "You battled with him?"
"He is dead." Drizzt answered. Matron Malice cackled with delight.
"One less wizard to deal with." Briza remarked, replacing the whip on her belt.
"Two." Drizzt corrected, but there was no boasting in his voice. He was not proud of his actions. "Masoj Hun’ett is no more."
"My son!" Matron Malice cried. "You have brought us a great edge in this war!" She glanced all about her family, infecting them, except Drizzt, with her elation. "House Hun’ett may not even choose to strike us now, knowing its disadvantage. We will not let them get away! We will destroy them this day and become the Eighth House of Menzoberranzan! Woe to the enemies of Daermon N’a’shezbaernon!
"We must move at once, my family." Malice reasoned, her hands rubbing over each other in excitement. "We cannot wait for an attack. We must take the offensive! Alton DeVir is gone now the link that justifies this war is no more. Surely the ruling council knew of Hun’ett’s intentions, and with both her wizards dead and the element of surprise lost, Matron SiNafay will move quickly to stop the battle."
Drizzt’s hand unconsciously slipped into Zak’s pouch; the others joined Malice in her plotting.
"Where is Zak?" Drizzt demanded again, above the chorus.
Silence dropped as quickly as the tumult had begun.
"He is of no concern to you, my son." Malice said to him, still keeping to her tact despite Drizzt’s impudence. "You are the weapon master of House Do’Urden now. Lolth has forgiven your insolence, you have no crimes weighing against you. Your career may begin anew, to glorious heights!"
Her words cut through Drizzt as surely as his own scimitar might. "You killed him." he whispered aloud, the truth too awful to be contained in silent thought.
The matron’s face suddenly gleamed, hot with rage. "You killed him!" she shot back at Drizzt. "Your insolence demanded repayment to the Spider Queen!"
Drizzt’s tongue got all tangled up behind his teeth.
"But you live." Malice went on, relaxing again in her chair, "as the elven child lives!’
Dinin was not the only one in the room to gasp audibly.
"Yes, we know of your deception." Malice sneered. "The Spider Queen always knew. She demanded restitution!’
"You sacrificed Zaknafein?" Drizzt breathed, hardly able to get the words out of his mouth. "You gave him to that damned Spider Queen?"
"I would watch how I spoke of Queen Lolth." Malice warned. "Forget Zaknafein. He is not your concern. Look to your own life, my warrior son. All glories are offered to you, a station of honor!’
Drizzt was indeed looking to his own life at that moment at the proposed path that offered him a life of battle, a life of killing drow.
"You have no options." Malice said to him, seeing his inward struggle. "I offer to you now your life. In exchange, you must do as I bid, as Zaknafein once did!’
"You kept your bargain with him." Drizzt spat sarcastically.
"I did!" Matron Malice protested. "Zaknafein went willingly to the altar, for your sake!"
Her words stung Drizzt for only a moment. He would not accept the guilt for Zaknafein’s death! He had followed the only course he could, on the surface against the elves and here in the evil city.
"My offer is a good one." Malice said. "I give it here, before all the family. Both of us will benefit from the agreement… Weapon Master?"
A smile spread across Drizzt’s face when he looked into Matron Malice’s cold eyes, a grin that Malice took as acceptance.
"Weapon master?" Drizzt echoed. "Not likely."
Again Malice misunderstood. "I have seen you in battle." she argued. "Against wizards! You underestimate yourself."
Drizzt nearly laughed aloud at the irony of her words.
She thought he would fail where Zaknafein had failed, would fall into her trap as the former weapon master had fallen, never to climb back out. "It is you who underestimate me, Malice." Drizzt said with threatening calm.
"Matron!" Briza demanded, but she held back, seeing that Drizzt and everyone else was ignoring her as the drama played out.
"You ask me to serve your evil designs." Drizzt continued.
He knew but didn’t care that all of them were nervously fingering weapons or preparing spells, were waiting for the proper moment to strike the blasphemous fool dead. Those childhood memories of the agony of snake whips reminded him of the punishment for his actions. Drizzt’s fingers closed around a circular object, adding to his courage, though he would have continued in any case.
"They are a lie, as our―no, your―people are a lie!"
"Your skin is as dark as mine." Malice reminded him. "You are a drow, though you have never learned what that means!"
"Oh, I do know what it means."
"Then act by the rules!" Matron Malice demanded.
"Your rules?" Drizzt growled back. "But your rules are a damned lie as well, as great a lie as that filthy spider you claim as a deity!"
"Insolent slug!" Briza cried, raising her snake whip.
Drizzt struck first. He pulled the object, the tiny ceramic globe, from Zaknafein’s pouch.