a threatening snarl. "And don't ye play games with me, Rumblebelly."
Regis was getting more than a little tired of being assaulted by his supposed friends. The quick thinking halfling immediately con cocted a ruse about Catti-brie having run off to Silverymoon in search of Drizzt. It wouldn't be a complete lie, after all.
Looking at Bruenor 's scarred face, twisted in rage, but so obvi ously filled with pain, the halfling could not bring himself to fib.
"Put me down, " he said quietly, and apparently Bruenor under stood the halfling's empathy, for the dwarf gently lowered Regis to the ground.
Regis brushed his tunic straight, then waggled a fist before the dwarf king. "How dare you?" he roared.
Bruenor went back on his heels at the unexpected and unchar acteristic outburst, but the halfling did.not relent.
"First Drizzt comes to me and forces me to hold a secret, " Regis expounded, "then Catti-brie comes in and pushes me around until I tell her. Now you... . What fine friends I have surrounded myself with!"
The stinging words calmed the volatile dwarf, but only a little. What secret might Regis be hinting at?
Thibbledorf Pwent bounded into the room then, his armor squeaking no less, though his face, beard, and hands were certainly smeared with grease. He stopped beside Bruenor, surveying the unexpected situation for just a moment.
Pwent rubbed his hands eagerly in front of him, then ran them down the front of his cruelly ridged armor. "Should I hug him?" he asked his king hopefully.
Bruenor slapped a hand out to hold the eager battlerager at bay. "Where's me girl?" the dwarf king asked a third time, this time quietly and calmly, as though he was asking a friend.
Regis firmed his jaw, then nodded and began. He told Bruenor everything, even his role in aiding Catti-brie, in handing her the assassin's dagger and the magical mask.
Bruenor 's face began to twist in rage again, but Regis stood tall (relatively speaking) and dispelled the rising ire.
"Am I to trust in Catti-brie any less than you would?" Regis asked simply, reminding the dwarf that his human daughter was no child, and no novice to the perils of the road.
Bruenor didn't know how to take it all. A small part of him wanted to throttle Regis, but he understood that he would simply be playing out his frustration, and that the halfling was really not to blame. Where else could he turn, though? Both Drizzt and Catti-brie were long gone, well on their way, and Bruenor had no idea of how he could get to them!
Neither did the scarred dwarf, at that moment, have any strength to try. He dropped his gaze to the stone floor, his anger played out and his grief returned, and, without another word, he walked from the room. He had to think, and for the sake of his dearest friend and his beloved daughter, he had to think fast.
Pwent looked to Regis and Buster for answers, but they simply shook their heads.
A slight shuffle, the padded footsteps of a hunting cat, perhaps, was all that Drizzt could discern. The drow ranger stood perfectly still, all his senses attuned to his surroundings. If it was the cat, Drizzt knew that it was close enough to have caught his scent, that it undoubtedly knew that something had wandered into its territory~
Drizzt spent a moment scrutinizing the area. The tunnel contin ued haphazardly, sometimes wide, sometimes narrow, and this entire section was broken and uneven, the floor full of bumps and holes and the walls lined by natural alcoves and deep nooks. The ceiling, too, was no longer constant, sometimes low and sometimes high. Drizzt could see the varied gradations of heat on the high walls ahead and knew that those walls were lined by ledges in many places.
A great cat could jump up there, watching its intended prey from above.
The thought was not a settling one, but Drizzt had to press on. To backtrack, he would have to go all the way to the chute and climb to a higher level, then wander about in the hopes that he would find another way down. Drizzt didn't have time to spare; neither did his friends.
He put his back against the wall as he continued, stalking in a crouch, one scimitar drawn and the other, Twinkle, ready in its sheath. Drizzt did not want the magical blade's glow to further reveal his position, though he knew that hunting cats in the