Free Exile: The Legend of Drizzt by R. A. Salvatore Page B

as he remembered his encounter with Drizzt. “You witnessed our brother’s prowess when he lived among us,” Dinin’s hands replied. “His skills have improved tenfold in his years outside the city.”
    “But what was he like?” Vierna asked, obviously intrigued by Drizzt’s ability to survive. Ever since the patrol had returned with the report that Drizzt was still alive, Vierna had secretly hoped that she would see her younger brother again. They had shared a father, so it was said, and Vierna held more sympathy for Drizzt than was wise, given Malice’s feelings for him.
    Noticing her excited expression, and remembering his own humiliation at Drizzt’s hands, Dinin cast a disapproving scowl at her. “Fear not, dear sister,” Dinin’s hands said quickly. “If Malice sends you out into the wilds this time, as I suspect she will, you will see all of Drizzt you wish to see, and more!” Dinin clapped his hands together for emphasis as he ended, and he strode right between the two females and through the anteroom’s door.
    “Your brother has forgotten how to knock,” Matron Malice said to Briza and Shi’nayne, who stood at her sides.
    Rizzen, kneeling before the throne, looked up over his shoulder to see Dinin.
    “I did not give you permission to lift your eyes!” Malice screamed at the patron. She pounded her fist on the arm of her great throne, and Rizzen fell down to his belly in fear. Malice’s next words carried the strength of a spell.
    “Grovel!” she commanded, and Rizzen crawled to her feet. Malice extended her hand to the male, all the while looking straight at Dinin. The elderboy did not miss his mother’s point.
    “Kiss,” she said to Rizzen, and he quickly began lavishingkisses onto her extended hand. “Stand,” Malice issued her third command.
    Rizzen got about halfway to his feet before the matron punched him squarely in the face, dropping him in a heap to the stone floor.
    “If you move, I shall kill you,” Malice promised, and Rizzen lay perfectly still, not doubting her in the least.
    Dinin knew that the continued show had been more for his benefit than for Rizzen’s. Still, unblinking, Malice eyed him.
    “You have failed me,” she said at length. Dinin accepted the berating without argument, without even daring to breathe until Malice turned sharply on Briza.
    “And you!” Malice shouted. “Six trained drow warriors beside you, and you, a high priestess, could not bring Drizzt back to me.”
    Briza clenched and unclenched the weakened fingers that Malice had magically restored to her hand.
    “Seven against one,” Malice ranted, “and you come running back here with tales of doom!”
    “I will get him, Matron Mother,” Maya promised as she took her place beside Shi’nayne. Malice looked to Vierna, but the second daughter was more reluctant to make such grand claims.
    “You speak boldly,” Dinin said to Maya. Immediately, Malice’s disbelieving grimace fell upon him in a harsh reminder that it was not his place to speak.
    But Briza promptly completed Dinin’s thought. “Too boldly,” she growled. Malice’s gaze descended upon her on cue, but Briza was a high priestess in the favor of the Spider Queen and was well within her rights to speak. “You know nothing of our young brother,” Briza went on, speaking as much to Malice as to Maya.
    “He is only a male,” Maya retorted. “I would—”
    “You would be cut down!” Briza yelled. “Hold your foolishwords and empty promises, youngest sister. Out in the tunnels beyond Menzoberranzan, Drizzt would kill you with little effort.”
    Malice listened intently to it all. She had heard Briza’s account of the meeting with Drizzt several times, and she knew enough about her oldest daughter’s courage and powers to understand that Briza did not speak falsely.
    Maya backed down from the confrontation, not wanting any part of a feud with Briza.
    “Could you defeat him?” Malice asked Briza, “now that you better