that maybe he would not be able to stop the impetu ous Catti-brie.
Catti-brie shook her head and started for the door again.
"Wait!" Regis called, begged, and the young woman pivoted about to regard him. Regis hung in a precarious position. It seemed to him that he should run out shouting for Bruenor, or for General Dagna, or for any of the dwarves, enlisting allies to hold back Catti brie, physically if need be. She was crazy; her decision to run off after Drizzt made no sense at all.
But Regis understood her desire, and he sympathized with her with all his heart.
"If it was meself who left, " Catti-brie began, "and Drizzt who wanted to follow...
Regis nodded in agreement. If Catti-brie, or any of them, had gone into apparent peril, Drizzt Do'Urden would have taken up the chase, and taken up the fight, no matter the odds. Drizzt, Wulfgar, Catti-brie, and Bruenor had gone more than halfway across the con tinent in search of Regis when Entreri had abducted him. Regis had known Catti-brie since she was just a child, and had always held her in the highest regard, but never had he been more proud of her than at this very moment.
"A human will be a detriment to Drizzt in Menzoberranzan, " he said again.
"I care not, " Catti-brie said under her breath. She did not under stand where Regis's words were leading.
Regis hopped off his bed and rushed across the room. Catti-brie braced, thinking he meant to tackle her, but he ran past, to his desk, and pulled open one of its lower drawers. "So don't be a human, " the halfling proclaimed, and he tossed the magical mask to Catti brie.
Catti-brie caught it and stood staring at it in surprise as Regis ran back past her, to his bed.
Entreri had used the mask to get into Mithril Hall, had, through its magic, so perfectly disguised himself as Regis that the halfling's friends, even Drizzt, had been taken in.
"Drizzt really is making for Silverymoon, " Regis told her.
Catti-brie was surprised, thinking that the drow would have simply gone into the Underdark through the lower chambers of Mithril Hall. When she thought about it, though, she realized that Bruenor had placed many guards at those chambers, with orders to keep the doors closed and locked.
"One more thing, " Regis said. Catti-brie looped the mask on her belt and turned to the bed, to see Regis standing on the shifted mat tress, holding a brilliantly jeweled dagger in his hands.
"I won't need this, " Regis explained, "not here, with Bruenor and his thousands beside me." He held the weapon out, but Catti brie did not immediately take it.
She had seen that dagger, Artemis Entreri's dagger, before. The assassin had once pressed it against her neck, stealing her courage, making her feel more helpless, more a little girl, than at any other time in her life. Catti-brie wasn't sure that she could take it from Regis, wasn't sure that she could bear to carry the thing with her.
"Entreri is dead, " Regis assured her, not quite understanding her hesitation.
Catti-brie nodded absently, though her thoughts remained filled with memories of being Entreri's captive. She remembered the man's earthy smell and equated that smell now with the aroma of pure evil. She had been so powerless.. . like the moment when the ceiling fell in on Wulfgar. Powerless now, she wondered, when Drizzt might need her?
Catti-brie firmed her jaw and took the dagger. She clutched it tightly, then slid it into her belt.
"Ye mustn't tell Bruenor, " she said.
"He'll know, " Regis argued. "I might have been able to turn aside his curiosity about Drizzt's departure, Drizzt is always leav ing, but Bruenor will soon realize that you are gone."
Catti-brie had no argument for that, but, again, she didn't care. She had to get to Drizzt. This was her quest, her way of taking back control of a life that had quickly been turned upside down.
She rushed to the bed, wrapped Regis in a big hug, and kissed him hard on the cheek. "Farewell, me friend!" she cried, dropping him to the mattress. "Farewell!"
Then she was gone, and Regis sat there, his chin in his plump hands. So many things had changed in the last day. First Drizzt, and now Catti-brie. With Wulfgar gone, that left only Regis and Bruenor of the five friends remaining in Mithril Hall.
Bruenor! Regis rolled to his side