pull, and she tried futilely to form some words, any words.
"Casting a spell, witch?" Obould asked her. "Sorry, but that I cannot allow."
His face came forward suddenly, his jaw clamping on Kaer'lic's exposed throat. She reached up and grabbed at him and squirmed and thrashed desperately, with all her might.
Obould tore his face away, taking her throat with it. He yanked Kaer'lic back and put his bloody and battered face right before her, then spat her own flesh into her face.
"I am imbued with the blessing of Gruumsh," he said. "Did you truly believe that you could kill me?"
Kaer'lic gasped, her arms flailing wildly and uncontrollably, blood pouring from her torn throat, and bubbling from the air escaping her lungs.
Obould threw her to the ground and let her die slowly.
He scanned the region, and noted some movement on a distant ridge. It wasn't Tsinka, he knew, for he had seen her broken body on the stones as he climbed back up the mountainside.
He'd need to find a new shaman, a new consort who treated him as a god. He'd need to move quickly to reconsolidate his power, to cut short the rumors of his demise. The orcs would be fast to flee, he knew, and only he, imbued with the power of Gruumsh, could stop the retreat.
"Dark Arrows," he said with determination. "My home."
* * * * *
The weather broke, leaving the air fresh and clean, and with a warm south wind blowing. Bruenor and his friends would not stay inside, spending their days along the northern mountain spur, staring off into the north.
Pikel Bouldershoulder's bird scouts were the first to report a pair of winged horses, making all speed for Mithral Hall, and so it was not a surprise, but such a tremendous relief nonetheless, when the distinctive forms finally came into view.
Bruenor and Wulfgar moved a couple of paces out in front of the others, Regis, the Bouldershoulders, Cordio, Stumpet, and Pwent behind them, and Catti-brie in back, leaning heavily on a wooden cane and on the side of the tower.
Sunset set down on the stone before the dwarf king, Innovindil lifted her leg over before her and dropping quickly, turning as she went to support poor Fender through the move. Without that support, the dwarf would surely have tumbled off.
Wulfgar stepped forward and gently hoisted the dwarf from the pegasus, then handed him to Cordio and Stumpet, who hustled him away.
"Obould is gone," Innovindil reported. "The orcs will not hold, and all the northland will be free again."
As she finished, Sunrise landed on the stone.
"A sight for an old dwarf's sore eyes," Bruenor said.
Drizzt slipped down to the ground. He glanced at Bruenor, but his stare remained straight ahead, cutting through the ranks, which parted as surely as if he had shouldered his way through, leaving the line of sight open between the drow and Catti-brie.
"Welcome home," Regis said.
"We never doubted your return," offered Wulfgar.
Drizzt nodded at each, though he never stopped staring ahead. He patted Bruenor as he walked past. He tousled Regis's hair and he grabbed and squeezed Wulfgar's strong forearm.
But he never stopped moving and never stopped staring.
He hit Catti-brie with a great hug, pressing up against her, kissing her and crushing her, lifting her right from the ground.
And he kept walking, carrying her along.
"That is what it is to be an elf, Drizzt Do'Urden," Innovindil whispered as the two moved to, and through, Mithral Hall's new eastern door.
"Well I'll be a bearded gnome," said Bruenor.
"Hee hee hee," said Pikel, and Regis giggled, embarrassed.
They all were fairly amused, it seemed, but Bruenor's mirth disappeared when he glanced across at Wulfgar.
The big man stared at the path Drizzt and Catti-brie had taken, and there was a wince of profound pain to be found behind his mask of stoicism.
EPILOGUE
"She will understand," Drizzt said to Catti-brie, the two of them sitting on the edge of their bed early one morning, nearly two tendays after the drow's return to Mithral Hall.
"She won't, because she'll not have to," Catti-brie argued. "You told her that you would go, and so you shall. On your word."
"Innovindil will understand..." Drizzt started to argue, but his voice trailed off under Catti-brie's wilting stare. They had been over it several times already.
"You need to close that chapter of your life," Catti-brie said to him quietly, taking his hands in her own and lifting them up to her lips to kiss them. "Your scimitar cut into your own heart as deeply as it cut into