run headlong into a behemoth.
"No dead ends," the drow whispered - a prayer if he ever heard one - with every blind turn.
He soon came into a wider corridor lined on both sides with statues of various shapes and size. Most were of ice, though a few of stone. Some were giant-sized, but most reflected the stature of a human or an elf. The detailing and craftsmanship was as finely worked as dwarven stone, and the elegance of the artwork was not lost on the drow - the statues would not have seemed out of place in Menzoberranzan or in an elven village. He had little time to pause and admire the pieces, though, for he heard the giants behind him and in front, and horns blowing from deeper in the seemingly endless complex.
He pulled his cloak from his shoulders and cut to the side, toward a cluster of several elf-sized statues.
* * * * *
Innovindil could only hope that the floor stayed stone and was not glazed over with ice, for she could ill afford to allow Sunset to slow the run with giants scrambling all around her. She came upon corridor after corridor, turning sometimes and running straight at others, meaning to turn at some others and yet finding a group of enemies coming at her from that direction.... A blind run was the best the elf could manage. Or a blind flight, for every now and then she put the pegasus up into the air to gain speed. She had to take care, though, for airborne, Sunset could not navigate the sharp, right-angled turns. Innovindil watched ahead and behind, and looked up repeatedly. She kept hoping that the ceiling would open up before her so that she could lift Sunset into a short flight, perhaps one that would get them both out through a natural chimney or a worked skylight.
At one corner, the elf and her pegasus nearly slammed into the stone wall, for the angle of the turn proved to be more than ninety degrees. Sunset skidded to a rough stop, brushing the stone as Innovindil brought the pegasus about.
Innovindil sucked in her breath as they realigned and she prompted the pegasus to run again, for that moment of stillness left her vulnerable, she knew.
And so she was only a little surprised when she saw a gigantic spear of ice - a long, shaped icicle - soaring at her from down the previous corridor. She ducked instinctively, and if she had not, she would have been skewered. Even with the near miss, the elf was almost dislodged, for the spear shattered on the stone above her and a barrage of ice chips showered over her.
Stubbornly holding her seat, Innovindil kicked her heels into Sunset's flank and bade him to run on. She heard a shout behind her and to the side, from whence the spear had come, and she understood enough of the frost giant language, which was somewhat akin to Elvish, to understand that a giantess was berating the spear thrower.
"Do you want to hurt Gerti's new pet?"
"The pegasus or the elf?" the giant answered, his booming voice echoing off the stone behind Innovindil.
"Both, then!" the giantess laughed.
For some reason, their tone made Innovindil think that catching the spear in her chest would have been preferable.
* * * * *
Two giants charged down the corridor, only occasionally glancing to either side until one suddenly lurched to the left and gave a victorious shout.
The other yelled, "Clever!" when it, too, noticed the cloak on the statue - a cloak not carved of stone, but flowing as only fabric could.
With a single stride to the side, the first giant brought a heavy club to bear, crushing down on the cloak. The ice statue beneath it exploded into a shower of shards and splinters.
"Oh, you broke Mardalade's work!" the other shouted.
"T-the drow?" the first stammered and dropped its club.
"Finds you quite amusing," came an answer from behind, and both giants spun around.
Drizzt, skipping down the other way, paused long enough to offer a salute, then a smile as he pointed back behind the behemoths.
Neither turned - until they heard the low growl of a giant panther.
The two giants spun and ducked as six hundred pounds of black-furred muscle leaped over them, cutting close enough so that both threw up their hands and ducked even lower, one falling to the stone.
Drizzt sprinted away. He used the moment of reprieve to try to sort out the maze of crisscrossing corridors.