in the dark, would go with him. Regis, feeling unusually brave and useful, silently came to the same conclusion.
Still, the two were surprised when Drizzt and Bruenor walked back to the group.
"Get ye to the last guard room, and all the way to the Undercity if need be," Bruenor commanded the column leader.
The dwarf's jaw dropped with amazement. "But, me king," he sputtered.
"Get ye!" Bruenor growled.
"And leave yerself alone out here?" the stunned dwarf asked.
Bruenor's smile was wide and wicked as he looked from the dwarf to Drizzt, to Catti-brie, to Regis, and to Guenhwyvar, then finally, back to the dwarf.
"Alone?" Bruenor replied, and the other dwarf knowing the prowess of his king's companions, conceded the point.
"Get ye back and win," Bruenor said to him. "Me and me friends got some huntin' to do."
The two groups split apart once more, both grimly determined, but neither overly optimistic.
Drizzt whispered something to the panther, and Guenhwyvar took up the lead as before. To this point, the companions had been lying in wait for every enemy group that came their way, but now, with the grim news from the Undercity and the eastern door, Drizzt changed that tactic. If they could not avoid the small groups of drow and other monsters, then they would fight, but otherwise, their path now was more direct. Drizzt wanted to find the priestesses (and he knew it had to be priestesses) who had led this march. The dwarves' only chance was to decapitate the enemy force.
And so the companions were now, as Drizzt had quietly put it to Bruenor, "hunting the head."
Regis, last in line, shook his head and looked more than once back the way the dwarven column had marched. "How do I always get myself into this?" the halfling whispered. Then, looking at the backs of his hardy, sometimes reckless friends, he knew he had his answer.
Catti-brie heard the halfling's resigned sigh, understood its source, and managed to hide her smile.
Chapter 24 FIERY FURY
Alustriel watched from her high perch as the southern face of Fourthpeak flickered with light that seemed to be blinking like the stars above. The exchange of enchanted pellets from the defenders and countering dark magic from the invaders was furious. As she brought her chariot around the southwestern cliffs, the Lady of Silverymoon grew terribly afraid, for the defenders had been pushed into a U formation, surrounded on all sides by goblins, kobolds, and fierce drow warriors.
Still, the forces of the four armies fought well, practically back to back, and their line was strong. No great number could strike at them from the gap at the top of the U, the logical weak spot, because of the almost sheer cliffs, and the defenders were tightly packed enough along the entire line to hold against any concentrated assaults.
Even as Alustriel fostered that thought, her hopes were put to the test. A group of goblins, led by huge bugbears, seven-foot, hairy versions of goblins, formed into a tight diamond and spearheaded into the defenders' eastern flank.
The line wavered; Alustriel almost revealed herself with a flurry of explosive magic.
But amidst the chaos and the press rose one sword above all others, one song above all others.
Berkthgar the Bold, his wild hair flying, sang to Tempus with all his heart, and Bankenfuere hummed as it swept through the air. Berkthgar ignored the lesser goblins and charged straight for the bugbears, and each mighty swipe cut one of them down. The loader of Settlestone took a vicious hit, and another, but no hint of pain crossed his stern visage or slowed his determined march.
Those bugbears who escaped the first furious moments of the huge man's assault fled from him thereafter, and with their leaders so terrified, the goblins quickly lost heart for the press and the diamond disintegrated into a fleeing mob.
Many would be the songs to celebrate Berkthgar, Alustriel knew, but only if the defenders won. If the dark elves succeeded in their conquest, then all such heroics would be lost to the ages, all the songs would be buried beneath a black veil of oppression. That could not happen, the Lady of Silverymoon decided. Even if Mithril Hall were to fall this night, or the next, the war would not be lost. All of Silverymoon would mobilize against the drow, and she would go to Sundabar, in the east, to Citadel Adbar, stronghold of King Harbromme and his dwarves, and all the way to Waterdeep, on the Sword Coast, to muster the necessary forces