back to their drinking. Bruenor drained mug after mug, but Drizzt cradled that single glass of fine wine.
Many minutes passed before either spoke again, and it was Bruenor, cracking in a tone that seemed all seriousness, which made it all the funnier, "Hey, elf, me next grandkid won't be striped, will it?"
"As long as it doesn't have a red beard," Drizzt replied without missing a beat.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"I heard you were traveling with a great barbarian warrior named Wulfgar," Bellany said to Morik when the rogue finally woke up long after the following dawn.
"Wulfgar?" Morik echoed, rubbing the sleep from his dark eyes and running his fingers through his matted black hair. "I have not seen Wulfgar in many months."
He didn't catch on to the telling manner in which Bellany was scrutinizing him.
"He went south, to find Deudermont, I think," Morik went on, and he looked at Bellany curiously. "Am I not enough man for you?" he asked.
The dark-haired sorceress smirked in a neutral manner, pointedly not answering the rogue's question. "I ask only for a friend of mine," she said.
Morik's smile was perfectly crude. "Two of you, eh?" he asked. "Am I not man enough?"
Bellany gave a great sigh and rolled to the side of the bed, gathering up the bedclothes about her and dragging them free as she rose.
Only then, upon the back of her naked shoulder, did Morik take note of the curious brand.
"So you have not spoken with Wulfgar in months?" the woman asked, moving to her clothing.
"Why do you ask?"
The suspicious nature of the question had the sorceress turning about to regard Morik, who was still reclining on the bed, lying on his side and-propped up on one elbow.
"A friend wishes to know of him," Bellany said, rather curtly.
"Seems like a lot of people are suddenly wanting to know about him," the rogue remarked. He fell to his back and threw one arm across his eyes.
"People like a dark elf?" Bellany asked.
Morik peeked out at her from under his arm, his expression answering the question clearly.
Wider went his eyes when the sorceress lifted the robe that was lying across one chair, and produced from beneath it a thin, black wand. Bellany didn't point it at him, but the threat was obvious.
"Get dressed, and quickly," Bellany said. "My lady will speak with you."
"Your lady?"
"I've not the time to explain things now," Bellany replied. "We've a long road ahead of us, and though I have spells to speed us along our way, it would be better if we were gone from Luskan within the hour."
Morik scoffed at her. "Gone to where?" he asked. "I have no plans to leave . . ."
His voice trailed off as Bellany came back over to the edge of the bed, placing one knee up on it in a sexy pose, and lowered her face, putting one finger across her pouting lips.
"There are two ways we can do this, Morik," she explained quietly and calmly - too calmly for the sensibilities of the poor, surprised rogue. "One will be quite pleasurable for you, I am sure, and will guarantee your safe return to Luskan, where your friends here will no doubt comment on the wideness and constancy of your smile."
Morik regarded the enticing woman for a few moments. "Don't even bother to tell me the other way," he agreed.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Arumn Gardpeck has not seen him," Catti-brie reported, "nor have any of the other regulars at the Cutlass - and they see Morik the Rogue almost every day."
Drizzt considered the words carefully. It was possible, of course, that the absence of Morik - he was not at his apartment, nor in any of his familiar haunts - was nothing more than coincidence. A man like Morik was constantly on the move, from one deal to another, from one theft to another.
But more than a day had passed since the four friends had begun their search for the rogue, using all the assets at their disposal, including the Luskan town guard, with no sign of the man. Given what had happened in Waterdeep with the agents of Sheila Kree, and given that Morik was a known associate of Wulfgar, Drizzt was not pleased by this disappearance.
"You put word in at the Hosttower?" Drizzt asked Regis.
"Robbers to a wizard," the halfling replied. "But yes, they will send word to Sea Sprite's wizard, Robillard, as soon as