Again the two elves looked to each other, Tarathiel nodding.
"That was how she evaded us in Silverymoon," he said to his partner.
"She came after you," Innovindil reasoned. "We knew that such was her course, though we knew not where you might be. We tried to stop her—you must believe us when we tell you that Ellifain was beyond reason and was acting on her own and against the wishes of our people."
"She was beyond reason," Drizzt agreed.
"And you met her in battle?" Tarathiel quietly asked, his voice full of concern.
Drizzt glanced up at him but lowered his eyes almost immediately and sighed yet again.
"I had no desire to … had I known, I would have …" he stammered. He took a deep breath and looked directly at the pair. "I caught up to her in the company of some thieves that I and my companions were pursuing. I had no idea of who she was—or even that she was a 'she'—when we joined in combat. It was not until…"
"Until you struck the killing blow," Tarathiel reasoned, and Innovindil looked away.
Drizzt's responding silence spoke volumes.
"I feared that it would end this way," Tarathiel said to Drizzt. "We tried to save Ellifain from herself—no doubt you did as well, or that you would have, had you known."
"But she was full of a rage that transcended all rationality," Innovindil added. "With every tale we heard about your exploits in the service of the goodly races, she grew even more outraged, convinced that it was all a lie. Convinced that Drizzt Do'Urden was all a lie."
Drizzt didn't blink as he responded, "Perhaps I am."
"Is that what you believe?" Innovindil asked, and Drizzt merely shrugged.
"We do not judge you harshly for defending yourself against Ellifain," Tarathiel remarked.
"It would change nothing if you did," said Drizzt, and that seemed to take the pair off their balance a bit.
"And so we can fight together in our common cause," Tarathiel went on. "Side-by-side."
Drizzt stared at him for a short while, then looked back at Innovindil. It was a tempting offer, but it entailed a commitment that Drizzt was not yet ready to take. He looked back to Tarathiel and shook his head.
"I hunt alone," he explained. "But I will be there to support you if I may, in times when you are in need."
He gathered up the marvelous silken shirt then and started to go.
"We will always be in need of your help," Tarathiel said from behind him. "And would you not be stronger if…"
"Let him go," Drizzt heard Innovindil remark to her companion. "He is not yet ready."
* * *
The next morning, Drizzt Do'Urden sat on a bluff looking back at the area of the elves' cave, mulling over the generous offer Tarathiel had given him. He had just admitted to killing their friend and kin, and yet, neither had judged him at all harshly.
It put a whole new light on the unfortunate Ellifain incident for Drizzt Do'Urden, but he just wasn't certain of how that light might yet shine.
And he was confronted with the prospect of new friendship, of new allies, and while the thought tempted him on a very basic level, it also frightened him profoundly.
He had known great friends once and the greatest allies anyone could ever hope to command.
Once.
So he sat and he stared, torn apart inside, wondering what might be and what should be.
Always, always, he found the image of the blasted tower tumbling, taking Bruenor down with it.
Drizzt felt an urgent need to go back to his own cave then, to feel the one-horned helmet, to smell the scent of Bruenor, and to remember his lost friends. He started off.
Before the end of the day, though, he was drawn back to that bluff, looking across the stones to the lair of Innovindil and Tarathiel.
He watched with great interest as one of the pegasi swooped past, bearing Tarathiel down to the cave entrance. To his surprise, the elf dismounted and did not go right in, but rather, ran out his way and called to him.
"Drizzt Do'Urden!" Tarathiel cried. "Come! I have news that concerns us all!"
Despite his reservations, despite the deep pain that pervaded his every fiber, Drizzt found himself trotting along to join the pair.
* * *
"Yet another tribe crawls from its dark hole," Innovindil said to Drizzt when he entered the cave. "Tarathiel has seen them marching along the foothills of the Spine of the World."
"You called me in to tell me of orcs in the area?" Drizzt asked incredulously. "There is no shortage of—"
"Not just any orcs, but a new tribe," Tarathiel interrupted. "We have seen them flocking to this cause, one tribe after another. Now we have found a group that has not yet linked up."
"If we strike at them hard, they might go back to their holes," Innovindil explained. "That would be a great victory to our cause." When Drizzt didn't overtly react, she added, "It would be a great victory for those dwarves defending Mithral Hall."
"How many?" Drizzt heard himself asking.
"A small tribe—perhaps fifty," Tarathiel replied.
"The three of us are to kill fifty orcs?" Drizzt asked.
"Better to kill ten and turn the other forty around," Tarathiel replied.
"Let them whisper in their tunnels about certain death awaiting any who go to the call of the orc leader," Innovindil added.
"The orcs and giants have amassed a great army," Tarathiel explained. "Thousands of orcs and hundreds of giants, we fear, and truthfully, our efforts against such a great army will prove a minor factor in the end result. But the more ominous cloud for those in the region, the dwarves of Mithral Hall, the elves of the Moonwood, the people of Silverymoon, are the seemingly limitless reinforcements pouring out of the Spine of the World."
"Tens of thousands more orcs and goblins may flock to the call of whoever it is who leads this army," Innovindil put in.
"But perhaps we can stem that flow of vermin," said Tarathiel. "Let us turn back the orcs, that they warn their fellows about leaving the mountains. Our kills could be multiplied many times over concerning monsters who choose not to join in." He paused and stared hard at Drizzt.
"This is, perhaps, our chance to make a real difference in this war. Just we three."
Drizzt couldn't deny the potential of Tarathiel's plan.
"Quickly, then," Tarathiel remarked when it became obvious that Drizzt wasn't going to argue. "We must hit them before they travel far from the caves, before the fall of night."
* * *
Drizzt marveled at how precisely the two elves angled their descending mounts, putting themselves in line with the setting sun as they approached the orc force.
Beside the drow, Guenhwyvar gave an anxious growl, but Drizzt held her back.
In came the two elves and their winged mounts, and their bows began to hum. And the orcs began to shriek and to point up to the sky.
"Now, Guen," Drizzt whispered, and he turned the panther loose.
Guenhwyvar bounded away along a line north of the orcs, while Drizzt sprinted off the other way, hemming the tribe on the south. He found his first battle soon after, even as orcs across the way screamed out in terror at the sight of Guenhwyvar. Drizzt leaped atop a boulder and stood staring down at a pair of orcs who had taken cover from the elves' arrow barrage. He waited for them to finally look up before dropping between them.
Out went Twinkle, a killing blow to his left, while he turned Icingdeath to the flat side as he slapped hard at the orc on his right, sending the creature scrambling away.
Behind him and to his left, the pegasi set down, and the two elves let fly another round of arrows, then leaped free and drew their weapons.
"For the Moon wood!" Drizzt heard Tarathiel cry.
Despite the urgent moment, Drizzt Do'Urden was wearing a grin when he came out hard from behind that boulder, leaping into a devastating spin at the closest ranks of orcs.