him quietly.
The dwarf merely shrugged, and when his shoulders came back down from that action, they seemed to Drizzt lower than ever.
The very next morning dark clouds rumbled up from the south off the winds of the Spine of the World, threatening to deluge the region with a torrent of rain that would turn the thawed ground into a quagmire. Still, Drizzt and Catti-brie set out from Ten-Towns, running fast for Luskan. Running fast for answers all four of the friends needed desperately to hear.
Chapter 5 THE HONESTY OF LOVE
ulfgar was the first off Sea Sprite when the pirate hunter returned to her berth at Waterdeep's long wharf. The barbarian leaped down to the dock before the ship had even been properly tied in, and his stride as he headed for shore was long and determined.
"Will you take him back out?" Robillard asked Deudermont, the two of them standing amidships, watching Wulfgar's departure.
"Your tone indicates to me that you do not wish me to," the captain answered, and he turned to face his trusted wizard friend.
Robillard shrugged.
"Because he interfered with your plan of attack?"Deudermont asked.
"Because he jeopardized the safety of the crew with his rash actions," the wizard replied, but there was little venom in his voice, just practicality. "I know you feel a debt to this one, Captain, though for what reason I cannot fathom. But Wulfgar is not Drizzt or Catti-brie. Those two were disciplined and understood how to play a role as part of our crew. This one is more like . . . more like Harkle Harpell, I say! He finds a course and runs down it without regard to the consequences for those he leaves behind. Yes, we fought two successful engagements on this venture, sank a pirate, and brought another one in - "
"And captured two crews nearly intact," Deudermont added.
"Still," the wizard argued, "in both of those fights, we walked a line of disaster." He knew he really didn't have to convince Deudermont, knew the captain understood as well as he did that Wulfgar's actions had been less than exemplary.
"We always walk that line," Deudermont said.
"Too close to the edge this time," the wizard insisted. "And with a long fall beside us."
"You do not wish me to invite Wulfgar back."
Again came the wizard's noncommittal shrug. "I wish to see the Wulfgar who took Sea Sprite through her trials at the Pirate Isles those years ago," Robillard explained. "I wish to fight beside the Wulfgar who made himself so valuable a member of the Companions of the Hall, or whatever that gang of Drizzt Do'Urden's was called. The Wulfgar who fought to reclaim Mithral Hall and who gave his life, so it had seemed, to save his friends when the dark elves attacked the dwarf kingdom. All these tales I have heard of this magnificent barbarian warrior, and yet the Wulfgar I have known is a man consorting with thieves the likes of Morik the Rogue, the Wulfgar who was indicted for trying to assassinate you."
"He had no part in that," Deudermont insisted, but the captain did wince even in denial, for the memory of the poison and of the Prisoner's Carnival was a painful one.
Deudermont had lost much in granting Wulfgar his reprieve from the vicious magistrate that day in Luskan. By association, by his generosity to those the magistrates believed were truly not deserving, Deudermont had sullied Sea Sprite's reputation with the leaders of that important northern port. For Deudermont had stolen their show, had granted so unexpected a pardon, and all of that without any real proof that Wulfgar had not been involved in the attempt on his life.
"Perhaps not," Robillard admitted. "And Wulfgar's character on this voyage, whatever his shortcomings, has borne out your decision to grant the pardon, I admit. But his discretion on the open waters has not borne out your decision to take him aboard Sea Sprite"
Captain Deudermont let the wizard's honest and fair words sink in for a long while. Robillard could be a crotchety and judgmental sort, a curmudgeon in the extreme, and a merciless one concerning those he believed had brought their doom upon themselves. In this case, though, his words rang of honest truth, of simple and undeniable observation. That truth stung Deudermont. When he'd encountered Wulfgar in Luskan, a bouncer in a seedy tavern, he recognized the big man's fall from glory and had tried to entice Wulfgar away from that life. Wulfgar had denied him outright, had even refused to admit