asked, just a few feet from the panther's face. The trapped cat's ears came up, and it put a plaintive look on the somewhat familiar gnome.
"Who is that?" Pumkato demanded, pointing to Catti-brie.
Although she did not understand any of the svirfneblin's words, Catti-brie realized that she would never find a better oppor tunity. She dropped her sword to the stone, reached up with her free hand and pulled off the magical mask, her features immediately reverting to those of a young human woman. The three deep gnomes near her cried out and fell back, regarding her with less than complimentary sour expressions, as though her new appear ance was quite ugly by their standards.
Pumkato mustered the courage to shuffle over to her, and he stood right in front of her.
He had known one name, Catti-brie realized, and she hoped that he would recognize another. She pointed to herself, then held her arms out wide and pulled them in as if hugging someone. "Drizzt Do'Urden?" she asked.
Pumkato's gray eyes widened, then he nodded, as though he should not have been surprised. Hiding his disgust at the human's appearance, the gnome extended one hand and helped Catti-brie to her feet.
Catti-brie moved slowly, obviously, as she took out the figurine and dismissed Guenhwyvar. Pumkato, likewise, sent his elemental back into the stone.
"Kolsen 'shea orbb, " Jarlaxle whispered, an arcane phrase rarely uttered in Menzoberranzan that roughly translated to "pull the legs off a spider."
The seemingly plain wall before the mercenary reacted to the passwords. It shifted and twisted into a spiderweb, then rotated outward, its strands tucked together, to leave a hole for the merce nary and his human escort to climb through.
Even Jarlaxle, usually one step ahead of other drow, was some what surprised, pleasantly surprised, to find Triel Baenre waiting for him in the small office beyond, the private chambers of Gromph Baenre at Sorcere, the school of magic in the drow Academy. Jarlaxle had hoped that Gromph would be about, to witness the return, but Triel was an even better witness.
Entreri came in behind the mercenary and wisely stayed behind at the sight of volatile Triel. The assassin eyed the intriguing room, perpetually bathed in soft glowing bluish light, as was most of the wizards' tower. Parchments lay everywhere, on the desk, on the three chairs, and on the floor. The walls were lined with shelves that held dozens of large, capped bottles and smaller, hourglass shaped containers, their tops off and with sealed packets lying next to them. A hundred other curious items, too strange for the surface dweller to even guess at what they might do, lay amid the jumble.
"You bring colnbluth to Sorcere?" Triel remarked, her thin eye brows angling up in surprise.
Entreri took care to keep his gaze to the floor, though he man aged a few peeks at the Baenre daughter. He hadn't viewed Triel in so strong a light before, and he thought now that she was not so beautiful by drow standards. She was too short and too stocky in the shoulders for her very angular facial features. It struck the assas sin as odd that Triel had risen so high among the ranks of drow, a race that treasured physical beauty. Her station was testament to the Baenre daughter's power, he decided.
Entreri couldn't understand very much of the Drow tongue, though he realized that Triel probably had just insulted him. Nor mally, the assassin responded to insults with weapons, but not here, not so far from his element and not against this one. Jarlaxle had warned Entreri about Triel a hundred times. She was looking for a reason to kill him, the vicious Baenre daughter was always looking for a reason to kill any colnbluth, and quite a few drow as well.
"I bring him many places, " Jarlaxle answered. "I did not think that your brother would be here to protest."
Triel looked about the room, to the fabulous desk of polished dwarf bones and the cushioned chair behind. There were no con necting rooms, no obvious hiding places, and no Gromph.
"GrQmph must be here, " Jarlaxle reasoned. "Else, why would the matron mistress of Arach Tinilith be in this place? That is a vio lation of the rules, as I remember them, as serious a breach, at least, as my bringing a non drow to Sorcere."
"Take care how you question the actions of Triel Baenre, " the