Ellifain. You do not return to her for Innovindil. You owe Innovindil and her people nothing, so yes, they will understand. It's yourself that you owe. You need to return. To put Ellifain to rest and to put Drizzt at peace."
"How can I leave you now?"
"How can you not?" Catti-brie grinned at him. "I do not doubt that you'll return to me, even if your companion on your journey is a beautiful elf.
"Besides," the woman went on, "I'll not be here in any case. I have promised Wulfgar that I will journey with him to Silverymoon and beyond, if necessary."
Drizzt nodded his agreement with that last part. According to the dwarf ferry pilot, Delly Curtie did come near his craft before it set off for the eastern bank with the refugees from the north, and he did recall seeing the woman hand something, perhaps a baby, over to one of the other human women. He couldn't be certain who - they all looked alike to him, so he declared.
Wulfgar wasn't about to wait until spring to set off in pursuit of Colson, and Catti-brie wasn't about to let him go alone.
"You cannot go with us," Catti-brie said. "Your presence will cause too much a stir in those gossiping towns, and will tell whoever has the child that we're in pursuit. So you've your task to perform, and I've mine."
Drizzt didn't argue any longer.
"Regis is staying with Bruenor?" Drizzt asked.
"Someone's got to. He's all out of sorts since word that Obould, or an orc acting in Obould's stead, continues to hold our enemies in cohesion. Bruenor thought they would have begun their retreat by now, but all reports from the north show them continuing their work unabated."
"The Kingdom of Dark Arrows...." Drizzt mouthed, shaking his head. "And Alustriel and all the others will not go against it."
Catti-brie squeezed his hand tighter. "We'll find a way."
Sitting so close to her, Drizzt couldn't believe anything else, couldn't believe that every problem could not be solved.
Drizzt found Bruenor in his audience hall a short while later, Regis sitting beside him and the Bouldershoulder brothers, packed for the road, standing before him.
"Well met again, ye dark one," Ivan greeted the drow. "Me and me brother ..." Ivan paused.
"Me brudder!" said Pikel.
"Yeah, we're off for home to see if Cadderly can do something about me ... about Pikel's arm. Won't be much fighting to be found up here for a few tendays, at least. We're thinking to come back and kill a few more orcs." Ivan turned to Bruenor. "If ye'll have us, King Bruenor."
"Would any ruler be so foolish as to refuse the help of the Bouldershoulders?" Bruenor asked graciously, though Drizzt could hear the simmering anger behind Bruenor's every sound.
"Boom!" shouted Pikel.
"Yeah, boom," said Ivan. "Come on, ye green-bearded cousin o' Cadderly's pet squirrel. Get me home - and no small roots, ye hear?"
"Hee hee hee."
Drizzt watched the pair depart the hall, then turned to Bruenor and asked, "Will your kingdom ever be the same?"
"Good enough folk, them two," said Bruenor. "Green-bearded one scares me, though."
"Boom!" said Regis.
Bruenor eyed him threateningly. "First time ye say 'hee hee hee,' I'm pulling yer eyebrows out."
"The folk o' the towns're going to let them stay, elf," the dwarf said, turning back to Drizzt. "Durned fools're to let the stinking orcs have what they took."
"They see no way around it, and no reason to find one."
"And that's their folly. Obould, or whatever smelly pig-face that's taking his place, ain't to sit there and argue trade routes."
"I do not disagree."
"Can't let them stay."
"Nor can we hope to dislodge them without allies," Drizzt reminded the dwarf.
"And so we're to find them!" Bruenor declared. "Ye heading off with Invo ... Inno . .. that durned elf?"
"I promised to take her to Ellifain's body, that Ellifain might be properly returned to the Moonwood."
"Good enough then."
"You know that I will return to you."
Bruenor nodded. "Gauntlgrym," he said, and both Drizzt and Regis were caught off guard.
"Gauntlgrym," Bruenor said again. "We three. Me girl if she's ready and me boy if he's back from finding his little girl. We're to find our answers at Gauntlgrym."
"How do you know that?" Regis asked.
"I know that Moradin didn't let me come back to sign a treaty with any stinking, smelly, pig-faced orc," Bruenor replied. "I know that I can't fight him alone and that I ain't yet convinced enough to fight beside me."
"And you believe that you will find answers to your dilemma in a long-buried dwarven