with a wave of his hand. "Or are ye just thinkin' ye know more than ye know?"
"Not a guess, but an observation," Drizzt replied. "Every step of the way out of Icewind Dale has been heavier than the previous one for Bruenor Battlehammer-every step except those that temporarily turn us aside from our destination, like the journey to Mirabar and this chase through the mountains."
Bruenor leaned forward and grabbed Dagnabbit's empty bowl. He gave it a shake, dunked it in the nearly-empty stew pot, then brought it in and licked the thick broth from his stubby fingers.
"Course, in Mithral Hall I might be getting me stew served to me in fine bowls, on fine platters, and with fine napkins."
"And you never liked napkins."
Bruenor shrugged, his expression showing Drizzt that he was certainly catching on.
"Appoint a steward, then, and at once upon your return," the drow offered. "Be a king on the road, expanding the influence of his people, and searching for an even more ancient and greater lost kingdom. Mithral Hall can run itself. If you did not believe that, you never would have gone to Icewind Dale in the first place."
"It's not so easy."
"You are the king. You define what a king is. This duty will trap you, and that is your fear, but it will only do so if you allow yourself to be trapped by it. In the end, Bruenor Battlehammer alone decides the fate of Bruenor Battlehammer."
"I'm thinkin' ye're making it a bit too easy there, elf," the dwarf replied, "but I'm not saying ye're wrong."
He ended with a sigh, and drowned it in a huge gulp of hot stew.
"Do you know what you want?" Drizzt asked. "Or are you a bit confused, my friend?"
"Do ye remember when we first went huntin' for Mithral Hall?" Bruenor asked. "Remember me trickin' ye by makin' ye think I was on me dyin' bed?"
Drizzt gave a little laugh - it was a scene he would never forget. They, leading the folk of Ten-Towns, had just won victory over the minions of Akar Kessell, who possessed the Crystal Shard. Drizzt had been taken in to Bruenor, who seemed on his deathbed-but only so that he could trick the drow into agreeing to help him find Mithral Hall.
"I did not need much convincing," Drizzt admitted.
"I thinked two things when we found the place, ye know," said Bruenor. "Oh, me heart was pumping, I tell ye! To see me home again... to avenge me ancestors. I'm tellin' ye, elf, riding that dragon down to the darkness was the greatest single moment o' me life, though I was thinkin' it was the last moment o' me life when it was happening!"
Drizzt nodded and knew what was coming.
"And what else were you thinking when we found Mithral Hall?" he prompted, because he knew that Bruenor had to say this out loud, had to admit it openly.
"Thrilled, I was, I tell ye truly! But there was something else ..." He shook his head and sighed again. "When we got back from the southland and me clan retook our home, a bit of sadness found me heart."
"Because you came to realize that it was the adventure and the road more than the goal."
"Ye're knowin' it, too!" Bruenor blurted.
"Why do you think that I, and Catti-brie, were quick to leave Mithral Hall after the drow war? We are all alike, I fear, and it will likely be the end of us all."
"But what a way to go, eh elf?"
Drizzt gave a laugh, and Bruenor was fast to join in, and it seemed to Drizzt as if a great weight had been lifted off the dwarf's shoulders. But the chuckling from Bruenor stopped abruptly, a serious expression clouding his face.
"What o' me girl?" he asked. "What're ye to do if she gets herself killed on the road? How're ye not to be blaming yerself forever more?"
"It is something that I have thought of often," Drizzt admitted.
"Ye seen what it done to Wulfgar," said Bruenor. "Made him forget his place and spend all his time looking out for her."
"And that was his mistake."
"So, ye're saying ye don't care?"
Drizzt laughed aloud.
"Do not lead me to places I did not intend to go," he retorted. "I care- of course I do-but you tell me this, Bruenor Battlehammer, is there anyone in all the world who loves Catti-brie, or Wulfgar, more than yourself? Will you then put them in Mithral Hall and hold them safely there?