own."
She headed for the door and noticed it briefly glow blue, its wood seeming to expand and tighten in the jam. Catti-brie walked up to it anyway and tugged on the handle, to no avail.
Catti-brie took a few deep breaths, counted to ten, then to twenty, and turned to face Alustriel.
"I've a friend needing me, " she explained, her tone even and dangerous. "Ye'd best be opening the door." In days to come, when she looked back on that moment, Catti-brie would hardly believe that she had threatened Alustriel, the ruler of the northwest's largest and most powerful inland city! She had threatened Alustriel, rep utably among the most powerful mages in all the north!
At that time, though, the fiery young woman meant every grim word.
"I can help, " Alustriel, obviously worried, offered. "But first you must tell me what has transpired."
"Drizzt hasn't the time, " Catti-brie growled. She tugged futilely on the wizard locked door again, then banged a fist against it and looked over her shoulder to glare at Alustriel, who had risen and was slowly walking her way. Guenhwyvar remained on the divan, though the cat had lifted its head and was regarding the two intently.
"I have to find him, " Catti-brie said.
"And where will you look?" replied Alustriel, her hands out defenselessly as she stepped before the young woman.
The simple question took the bluster out of Catti-brie's ire. Where indeed? she wondered. Where to even begin? She felt help less, standing there, in a place she did not belong. Helpless and fool ish and wanting nothing more than to be back home, beside her father and her friends, beside Wulfgar and Drizzt, with everything the way it had been.. . before the dark elves had come to Mithril Hall.
Chapter 6 DIVINE SIGN
Catti-brie awoke the next morning on a pillowy soft bed in a plush chamber filled with fine lace draperies that let the filtered sunrise gently greet her sleepy gaze. She was not used to such places, wasn't even used to sleep ing above ground.
She had refused a bath the night before, even though Lady Alustriel had promised her that the exotic oils and soaps would bubble around her and refresh her. To Catti-brie's dwarven reared sensibilities, this was all nonsense and, worse, weakness. She bathed often, but in the chill waters of a mountain stream and without scented oils from far off lands. Drizzt had told her that the dark elves could track enemies by their scent for miles through the Underdark's twisting caverns, and it seemed silly to Catti-brie to bath in aromatic oils and possibly aid her enemies.
This morning, though, with the sun cascading through the gauzy curtains, and the wash basin filled again with steamy water, the young woman reconsidered. "Suren ye're a stubborn one, " she quietly accused Lady Alustriel, realizing that Alustriel's magic was likely the reason that steam once again rose off the water.
Catti-brie eyed the line of bottles and considered the long and dirty road ahead, a road from which she might never return. Some thing welled inside her then, a need to indulge herself just once, and before her pragmatic side could argue, she had stripped off her clothes and was sitting in the hot tub, the fizzing bubbles thick about her.
At first, she kept glancing nervously to the room's door, but soon she just let herself sink lower in the tub, perfectly relaxed, her skin warm and tingling.
"I told you." The words jolted Catti-brie from her near slumber. She sat up straight, then sank back immediately, embarrassed, as she noticed not only Lady Alustriel, but a curious dwarf, his beard and hair snowy white and his gowns silken and flowing.
"In Mithril Hall, we've the habit o' knocking before we go into someone's private room, " Catti-brie, regaining a measure of her dig nity, remarked.
"I did knock, " Alustriel replied. "You were lost in the warmth of the bath."
Catti-brie brushed her wet hair back from her face, getting a handful of suds on her cheek. She managed to salvage her pride and ignore the froth for a moment, then angrily slapped it away.
Alustriel merely smiled.
"Ye can be leaving, " she snapped at the too dignified lady.
"Drizzt is indeed making for Menzoberranzan, " Alustriel announced, and Catti-brie came forward again, anxiously, her embarrassment lost in the face of more important news.
"I ventured into the spirit world last night, " Alustriel explained. "There one might find many answers. Drizzt traveled north