demanded, running past, running for the mound. The dwarf skittered to a stop, though, foiled by the ravine separating the mound from the slope, which was too far across for him to jump.
Then Bruenor had to dive to the side as a rock sailed at him from a position along the side of that mound, just up above him.
Wulfgar came past, roaring "Tempus!" and making the leap across the ravine. The barbarian crashed along some rocks, but settled himself quickly onto a narrow trail winding its way up along the steep slope.
"Should've thrown me first," Bruenor grumbled, and he dived aside again as another rock crashed by.
The dwarf did pick out a path that would get him to the winding trail, but he knew he would be far behind Wulfgar by that point. "Girl! I need ye!" he howled.
He turned back to see the fallen ogre shudder again as another arrow buried itself deep into its skull.
Catti-brie rushed up, falling to one knee and setting off a stream of arrows at the concealed rock-thrower. The brute popped up once more, rock high over its head, but it fell away as an arrow sizzled past.
Catti-brie and Bruenor heard the roars of battle as Wulfgar reached the brute. Off ran the dwarf, while Catti-brie dropped the onyx figurine to the ground, called for the cat, then put her bow right back to work. For on a ledge high above Wulfgar's position, a new threat had arrived, a group of archers firing bows instead of hurling boulders.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Is it them?" Morik the Rogue asked, pushing against the unyielding door of Bellany's private chambers. He looked up at the swelled wood and understood that the sorceress had magically sealed it. "Bellany?"
In response, the door seemed to exhale and shrink to normal size, and Morik crept through.
"Bellany?"
"I believe your friend and his companions have come to retrieve the warhammer," came a voice from right in front of Morik. He nearly jumped out of his boots, for he could not see the woman standing before him.
"Wizards," he muttered as he settled down. "Where is Sheila Kree?"
There came no answer.
"Did you just shrug?" the rogue surmised.
Bellany's ensuing giggle told him she had.
"What of you, then?" Morik asked. "Are you to hide up here, or join in the fray?"
"Sheila instructed me to divine the source of the commotion, and so I have," the invisible sorceress answered.
A smile widened on Morik's face. He understood well what Bellany's cryptic answer meant. She was waiting to see who would win out before deciding her course. The rogue's respect for the sorceress heightened considerably at that moment.
"Have you another such enchantment?" he asked. "For me?"
Bellany was spellcasting before he ever finished the question. In a few moments Morik, too, vanished from sight.
"A minor enchantment only," Bellany explained. "It will not last for long."
"Long enough for me to find a dark hole to hide in," Morik answered, but he ended short, hearing sounds from outside, farther down the mountainside.
"They are fighting out along the trail," the sorceress explained.
A moment later, Bellany heard the creak from the other room and saw an increase in light as Morik moved through the outer door. The sorceress went to the side of the room, then heard a cry of surprise from across the way - from Le'lorinel's room.
Chapter 27 BLIND VENGEANCE
"Crunch! Crunch!" the huge ogre roared, speaking to the elf and waving Aegis-fang.
"Slash, slash," came a remark behind the brute, spinning it around in surprise.
"Huh?"
The elf moved out around the side of the ogre and froze in place, staring hard at the slender dark figure who had come into the room.
Slowly Drizzt reached up and pulled his wet shirt down from in front of his face.
The ogre staggered, eyes bulging, but the drow was no longer even looking at the brute. He was staring hard at the elf, at the pair of blue, gold-flecked eyes staring out at him from behind the holes in a thin black mask, regarding him with haunting familiarity and intense hatred.
The ogre stammered over a couple more words, finally blurting, "Drow!"
"And no friend," said the elf. "Crunch him."
Drizzt, his scimitars still sheathed, simply stared at the elf, trying to figure out where he had seen those eyes before, where he had seen this elf before. And how had this one known right away that he was an enemy, almost as if expecting him?
"He has come to