Charon's claw

COMRADES IN COMMON CAUSE

Dahlia fought hard against the stubborn webbing to turn her head. She didn’t want to miss the demise of her tormentor, and was quite pleased when Entreri’s sword split open the shade’s skull.

She wriggled some more and managed to free her head almost completely, though the rest of her remained tightly bound. As she glanced around, she came to understand that she was alone-alone with this man Entreri, Alegni’s champion. After a moment to catch his breath and retrieve his thrown knife, he started toward her, sword leveled her way.

Dahlia twisted and strained, struggling to free up one arm. But then she settled, knowing she could not hope to defend herself.

The sword was close.

Dahlia stared the small, cold man in the eye, trying to discern his intent.

The sword came in at the side of her neck and she stiffened and held her breath. But Entreri began to cut the webbing away.

“I am truly touched,” she said sarcastically after she had recovered from the shock.

“Shut up,” Entreri said as he continued freeing her.

“Are you embarrassed by your concern for me?” the elf woman quipped.

“Concern?”

“You’re here, against your master’s allies,” Dahlia reasoned.

“Because I hate him more than I hate you,” Entreri was quick to reply. “Do not presume that such thoughts shine brightly upon you.”

His last words were lost in the rumble of a low and threatening growl, and Entreri froze, and Dahlia smiled-she could see six hundred pounds of musclerippled panther crouching right behind him.

“You have met my friend Guenhwyvar, no doubt?” she asked with a grin.

Artemis Entreri didn’t move.

“Hold!” came a call from the side, as Drizzt Do’Urden, limping only slightly, came over the ridge. Whether he was speaking to Entreri or Guenhwyvar, neither Dahlia nor Entreri could be sure.

Both, likely.

Entreri dismissed the drow with a snicker and drove his sword down halfway to the ground, greatly loosening the bindings on Dahlia.

“A change of heart?” Drizzt asked when he came beside the pair. Dahlia extracted herself from the webs. Behind Entreri, Guenhwyvar remained poised to leap upon the small man.

“Easy, Guen,” Drizzt prompted the cat, and her ears came up.

“Why have you returned?” Dahlia asked Entreri as she continued to pull strands from her clothing. She wasn’t feeling particularly generous, and didn’t much like being rescued. She intended to push Artemis Entreri, and hopefully to push him far away.

When he didn’t immediately answer her question, Dahlia stopped plucking the webs. Her question had struck him hard, obviously. She was caught by surprise, for she had never expected to see him in such a pensive pose.

“Why?” she asked again, sharply and loudly, but only to pull the man from his apparent introspection.

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

Dahlia felt Drizzt’s gaze upon her and glanced his way. His visage was cold, as if chastising her for going after Entreri so bluntly. The man had just saved her life, after all. She offered a shrug.

“Well, why did you leave us, then?” Dahlia asked, a bit more cordially.

“Herzgo Alegni carries my old sword,” Entreri replied. “My old sword, sentient and telepathic, can learn things from me. Being with you endangered you, and while I care not a whit for the lives of either of you, I do not wish for you to fail in your quest.”

“And yet, despite your words, here you are, endangering us.”

“I know your intent,” Entreri replied. “Being closer to Alegni makes it more likely that he will learn of your intentions from me.”

“So we should just kill you,” said Dahlia, and she kept any hint of humor out of her voice.

“You will die first,” Entreri promised.

Drizzt stepped between them. Only then did Dahlia realize that she and Entreri had begun drifting together, face to face, unblinking.

“I thought to simply go away, though I could not escape Alegni if I fled Faerun itself,” Entreri explained.

“And you just happened upon us?” Drizzt asked.

Entreri shook his head. “I don’t know how much I’ll be able to help you before Alegni-before my old sword-lays me low on the street,” he admitted. “And yet, here I am,” he added, looking around at the dead Shadovar, “helping you on your way. Alegni and Charon’s Claw did not hinder my blade as I struck at your enemies, whom I would have to presume serve as his allies.”

He looked Drizzt directly in the eye, and Dahlia noted that they shared something, some long and deep bond and obvious respect.

“I’m not going back to serve him,” Entreri stated flatly. “There is no amount of pain, no amount of torture, that will put me beside Herzgo Alegni.”

To her surprise, Dahlia realized that she believed him-not only that he intended as he said, but also that this grayish man was possessed of inner power great enough to do as he had just claimed.

She stepped back and let Drizzt and Entreri have their conversation, and caught only a few snips of the dialogue, as Entreri admitted that his mere presence with them might well have compromised any hope of secrecy they might harbor, or that this attack might have been directed to this place and against them because of his previous proximity to them.

Dahlia knew from his responses and body language that Drizzt would accept Entreri as a companion on this mission, and when she let down her own stubbornness, she realized that if Drizzt did not, she would insist. She focused mostly on Entreri then, staring at him, understanding him.

She saw the pain.

She knew that pain.

“An interesting dilemma,” Drizzt said to Dahlia a short while later. In the distance, they could see Entreri gathering firewood, as they had agreed.

“You doubt his sincerity?”

“Strangely, no,” said Drizzt. “I have known this man for many years-”

“Yet, you have not known of him for many years,” Dahlia was quick to point out.

“True enough.” Drizzt nodded in deference to her obvious logic. “But in our time together, I came to know who he truly was. I saw him emotionally stripped naked in Menzoberranzan, raw and unprotected. He is many things-including many heinous traits that I cannot abide-but in a strange way, there is honor in Artemis Entreri, and there always has been.” As he spoke the words, Drizzt thought about that first encounter with the assassin, when Entreri had held Catti-brie captive for days. Helpless and at his mercy-and yet the assassin had shown her great mercy in that time.

But there were other times, when Entreri had not been so kind, Drizzt thought, and he remembered a halfling’s finger…

He looked away from Dahlia, to Entreri-a confusing link to a distant past.

“He won’t willingly betray us,” Dahlia said, and Drizzt spun back on her. “He hates Herzgo Alegni as I do.”

“Why?” Drizzt asked.

Dahlia looked at him curiously.

“Why do you hate Herzgo Alegni?” Drizzt almost fell back a step as Dahlia’s face tightened. She spat on the ground at Drizzt’s feet.

“So you believe Entreri will not willingly betray us, and I agree,” Drizzt said quickly, thinking it wise to change the subject. “But what about unwillingly? He has already admitted that his mere presence with us might well have tipped Alegni off to our intentions. The sword holds him, and seems to know his every thought.”

Dahlia turned her gaze to the distant Entreri, and slowly shook her head. “It cannot,” she said, and she seemed to be speaking more to herself than to Drizzt. “Sentient weapons do not hold such power.”

“It enslaves him.”

“It feels his intentions, his anger, his move to action,” Dahlia replied. “That is a different matter. The sword reacts to his impulses, as Kozah’s Needle heeds my call, and it is powerful enough because of their long history to overrule his demands.”

“You cannot know that."

“As you cannot know that your fear is well founded,” Dahlia said. “Artemis Entreri did not lead those Shadovar to us, as he was near Neverwinter while they were out on the hunt. Perhaps his presence with us allowed his sword to understand the general course of our intent, but perhaps not nearly as specifically as you believe-else why would he have been allowed to get so near to Neverwinter without a host of Alegni’s guards falling over him? The sword does not know his every thought and every move. I cannot believe that, particularly when he and the sword are not near each other. It’s a sword, not a god!”

“But we will get near, and so Entreri will be near to the sword, and there remains the possibility,” Drizzt reasoned.

“So you would abandon this potentially powerful ally out of that fear?”

The drow thought about that for a long while, and realized that he really didn’t want to walk a separate road from Entreri. Once again, this man tied him to a past for which he longed, a time when the world seemed simpler to him, and far more comfortable. Still, despite all of that, he heard himself saying, “Yes.”

“Then he will seek out Alegni on his own-he won’t turn from that. I saw the pain in his eyes, and he will not turn from that! So we each will strike at Neverwinter, and weaker will we both be-”

“There is a third option,” Drizzt interrupted.

Dahlia eyed him curiously.

“There are ways to block such telepathic intrusions,” Drizzt explained, the idea just coming to him-and it seemed one that solved many of his current problems and addressed many of his current fears. “Jarlaxle’s eye patch-do you recall it? It was so enchanted. With it, the mercenary rendered himself invisible from magical and telepathic spying, and such dominance as the sword has shown over Entreri.”

“So we’ll go and find Jarlaxle and he’ll help us?”

“He has ties to Entreri, as well-”

“He is dead,” Dahlia stated flatly. “You saw him die. You saw him go over the rim of the primordial pit only heartbeats before the creature vomited its killing spew. Accept it, you fool!”

Drizzt had no way to answer. He wasn’t sure that his hopes for Jarlaxle were simply a matter of refusing to accept the obvious. He had seen Jarlaxle dodge too many arrows. By all indications, Jarlaxle had died in Gauntlgrym. Who could have survived the power of the primordial erupting from inside that rim of fire, after all?

But Drizzt had once made the mistake of thinking some dear friends dead without conclusive proof, and he didn’t intend to travel that fool’s road again. Maybe Jarlaxle’s charred remains lay on the side of the primordial’s pit, or perhaps he had fallen into the fiery maw of the lava beast and nothing at all remained of him.

Or maybe not.

“So you’d use Entreri’s dilemma to once again take me far from this place,” Dahlia said. “To once again turn me from my quest.”

Her anger was clear for Drizzt to see. “If Jarlaxle is to be found, then wonderful, for he, too, would prove a valuable ally,” he said. “But the point stands even if Jarlaxle does not. There are items, or enchantments, which we might procure to protect Entreri from the prying sword.”

“Do you think he has not already looked for such things?”

Drizzt wasn’t sure what to say. At the very least, Dahlia’s point showed that they might spend months in search of their answer. In his many decades of adventuring, had Drizzt ever encountered anything other than Jarlaxle’s eye patch that might provide the needed shield, after all? And even that eye patch had failed Jarlaxle against the mind-bending manipulation of Crenshinibon, the drow reminded himself. He looked back at Entreri, who was approaching now, and gave a resigned sigh.

“So will you send me away or accept my help?” Entreri asked when he got to them, and he dropped an armful of kindling on the ground beside the small fire pit the drow had dug.

“Are we that obvious?” Drizzt asked.

“It’s the discussion I would be having were our situations reversed,” said Entreri.

“And you would send us away.”

“No, I would cut out your heart,” the assassin quipped, and he went to sorting the firewood. “Makes things simpler, you see.”

“Would you settle for having your skull crushed?” Dahlia asked, and if she was joking at all, her voice didn’t reflect it.

Entreri dropped a piece of kindling and rose, turning slowly to face the woman. “If it were that easy, I would have been killed already,” he said, expressionless. “And you will not turn me away. I’ve made my choice now, and my road is for Neverwinter, beside you or not.”

“We fear the sword,” Drizzt explained. “Should we not?”

Perhaps it was the simple honesty of that statement, Drizzt thought, or maybe it was because he wasn’t questioning Entreri’s word, but simply addressing influences that might prove beyond the assassin’s control, but Entreri seemed to relax then.

“Is there a way we can protect you from the intrusions? Do you even know when you are being scoured?”

“Idalia’s Flute,” Entreri replied, and it seemed as if he was looking far, far away then. He snorted and shook his head.

“A magical item?” Dahlia asked.

“One I possessed for some time,” Entreri explained. “If I had it now, I’m sure that I could defeat the call of Charon’s Claw, or at least offer some resistance.”

He looked into Drizzt’s questioning expression.

“Jarlaxle has it,” Entreri explained. “He repaired it, used it to lure me back to his side, then took it from me when he sold me into slavery to the Netherese.”

“Ah, then we should find Jarlaxle and seek his help,” said Dahlia, and Drizzt felt the bite of her sarcasm keenly.

Entreri stared at her incredulously, obviously not appreciating her sarcasm.

“How complete is Claw’s understanding of your thoughts?” Dahlia asked, her tone changing suddenly then, as if she were truly interested, as if she had an idea.

“You assume that I know when Claw is in my thoughts,” Entreri replied.

“Tell us everything you know about Neverwinter’s defenses,” Dahlia said with a wry grin, as if her desire to learn of those defenses-surely authentic-was only part of her reasoning.

Entreri looked to Drizzt, who, after studying Dahlia, recognized her plan and matched her smile. He looked back at Entreri and nodded.

With a shrug, Entreri explained the layout of the city, and detailed the wall’s strong points and its weaknesses. He knew where Alegni slept, and where the tiefling could usually be found. He told of the various Shadovar encampments around the city, as well, and as he moved along in his recounting, he too began to smile.

Drizzt nodded again, this time at Dahlia and her clever ploy to determine if Claw was then within Entreri’s thoughts, which, given the level and detail of the information he was providing-information that could prove fatal to Herzgo Alegni-the sword likely was not.

“Neither of you are schooled in the ways of wizards,” Dahlia said when Entreri was done.

“Enough so to kill them when they annoy me,” said Entreri.

“I have studied the magical arts,” the elf explained. She held up Kozah’s Needle. “Particularly those aspects that affect the creation of magical items. I am no novice to such weapons-to be so ignorant while wielding this weapon would be dangerous.”

“And your point?”

“It is not likely that this sword, Charon’s Claw, remains in your thoughts,” Dahlia explained. “More likely, the sword reacts to those forceful commands you make to your muscles.”

Entreri screwed up his face, clearly skeptical of the reasoning, or not understanding it.

“Kozah’s Needle knows when I need it to release its energy,” Dahlia said.

“Because you dominate the staff, as I once dominated Charon’s Claw,” Entreri replied.

But Dahlia was shaking her head. “Sentient weapons, all but the very greatest, are not separate beings. They have pride and demand of their wielder-such is part of the magic imbued within their metal or wood. But they aren’t conscious beings, plotting and conniving for personal gain. Charon’s Claw has come to dominate you through your long affiliation. All that truly means is that Charon’s Claw recognizes your action cues. It knows when you mean to strike and how you mean to strike, and what you wish its role to be in that strike, were you wielding it. Now, it retains that clear recognition of your action cues, and so it can react to them faster than you can counter the reaction.”

Entreri’s expression showed him to be less than convinced.

“What properties does the sword possess?”

“The ability to trail an opaque veil of ash,” Entreri replied hesitantly, not sure where this was going.

“And how quickly can the sword create this trail if called upon by its wielder?”

“Instantly,” said Entreri, and he suddenly seemed more intrigued.

“And would the sword ever put forth this ashen trail without your call?”

The assassin thought on that for a moment, then shook his head, but without much conviction.

“Your bond with it was so strong that you are not even sure if you consciously had to call upon it any longer,” Drizzt reasoned. “And so now you presume, logically, that the sword is reading your thoughts.”

“You don’t understand the pain this sword can inflict upon me,” Entreri answered.

Dahlia shrugged.

“The sword can dominate him,” Drizzt reminded her.

Entreri added, “And so just having me with you might compromise your mission, as I said.”

“And if Charon’s Claw was in your mind,” Dahlia asked the assassin, “would it have allowed you to kill that shade warrior and free me from the web? For surely Herzgo Alegni would have me brought to him in bindings.”

“So it is not a constant intrusion,” Drizzt said. “But how will we know?”

Dahlia broke Kozah’s Needle into two four-foot lengths, then. She regarded them for a few moments-and it seemed to Drizzt that she was communicating with the weapon-then tossed one length to Entreri.

“Certainly Kozah’s Needle will recognize the intrusion of a different sentience,” she explained.

Entreri stared at the length of metal, then put it up as if testing its balance.

“Do not even think to wield it as a weapon,” Dahlia said. “And at the first signs of any battle, return it immediately! But as we travel, let this serve as our sentry. If your sword attempts to infiltrate your mind, that bo stick you carry will know of it, and the one I carry will inform me.”

Drizzt and Entreri exchanged looks then, and both could only nod in admiration of the resourceful elf woman.

On a high turn along the southern coastal road, Drizzt and his two companions looked down upon Neverwinter. Nestled within the wider ruins of the old city, the newer construction and wall were clear to see-at least, those parts of the wall that were not obscured in shadow.

It wasn’t the shadow from any trees, or the angle of the sun behind any of the nearby hills in the region, that hid the wall, but a dull haze-a magical shadow, a fog brought forth from the Shadowfell itself.

“The Netherese have reinforced,” Dahlia stated, her tone aptly expressing what all three realized as they looked down upon Alegni’s stronghold. She turned a suspicious eye upon Entreri and remarked, “Perhaps the wretch does know of our plans.”

“If every setback is to be pinned to my cloak, then tell me now,” Entreri replied. Drizzt couldn’t help but smile at the perfect timbre in Entreri’s voice, conveying the man’s apparent boredom and just a bit of a threat. He was ever calm, and so there was always that threat, Drizzt understood. He looked at Dahlia to see if she had caught it, and her expression, a mixture of anger and only slightly-hidden surprise, confirmed the drow’s suspicion.

“How many, do you think?” Drizzt asked, thinking it wise to deflect this conversation.

“Perhaps he fears that we’re coming for him-surely he knows of Sylora Salm’s fate,” Entreri reasoned. He dropped down from his nightmare steed and climbed atop a large stone to get a better vantage point. Drizzt and Dahlia slipped down from Andahar and moved to join him.

“Several score, at least,” Entreri explained when they arrived. He pointed out a handful of Shadovar encampments just outside the city wall. “Alegni has tightened his defensive ring, as well.”

“If he knows of Sylora, then perhaps he believes that the Thayans will strike out recklessly, at least initially,” Drizzt said.

Entreri nodded his agreement. “Whether against our threat or that of the Thayans, Herzgo Alegni has prepared his city for defense.”

“Perhaps, then, we would do well to shrink back into the forest and let the time of potential crisis pass,” Drizzt offered, and no sooner had he gotten the words out of his mouth when Dahlia joined right in.

“Your advice on every development is to wait and hide,” she retorted sharply. “How you ever earned a reputation for being anything more than a coward eludes me, Drizzt Do’Urden.”

Drizzt’s eyes widened, particularly given the adventures he and Dahlia had already shared in their short time together. In addition to the assault on Sylora’s fortress, they had gone to Gauntlgrym side by side and battled a lich and a primordial.

He didn’t know how to respond, but Entreri did. It wasn’t often that Drizzt or anyone else had heard Artemis Entreri laugh aloud, but he was surely doing so then.

Drizzt stared hard at Dahlia. A part of him wanted to strike back at her, for he found that he didn’t much like being mocked, and found, to his surprise, that he truly did not like being mocked in front of Artemis Entreri. That last revelation did surprise him more than a little, but he couldn’t deny it.

“And you would throw yourself in front of any danger, because you foolishly believe yourself immortal,” he said, though it took him a long while to find his voice.

“Or she simply does not care,” Entreri replied before Dahlia could, and the assassin and Dahlia exchanged a look then that set Drizzt back on his heels.

Entreri understood something about her that he did not, Drizzt realized. Yes, he too had wondered about exactly what Entreri had just claimed, but even though he might recognize the possibility, Drizzt knew from the glance his two companions had shared that Entreri understood this part of Dahlia on a much deeper level than he ever could.

Again to his surprise, and there were many that morning on the high road, Drizzt found that the revelation bothered him more than a little.

“How would you have us get into Neverwinter, then?” the drow asked, bringing the conversation back to the point. “You know their defenses,” he said to Entreri. “Where are they weak?”

“I knew their defenses,” the assassin replied, glancing back down at the city. “It would seem they are much stronger now.”

“Too strong?” Drizzt asked.

“No,” Dahlia replied.

Entreri shrugged. “They have weaknesses. Jelvus Grinch, perhaps the leading citizen among the settlers, is no friend to Herzgo Alegni. Their alliance-one that I created-was wrought of mutual hatred of the Thayans, and from the beginning, the citizens of Neverwinter have been wary of the Netherese. They are much like the folk of Ten-Towns.”

Drizzt nodded eagerly, appreciating Entreri’s attempt to bring this to a better level of his own understanding, and indeed, his own limited experiences with the folk of the new Neverwinter somewhat confirmed the assassin’s comparison. “They intend to pick their own rulers,” Entreri finished.

“And they wouldn’t choose the Netherese,” Dahlia reasoned.

“Would you?”

Dahlia spat on the ground.

“How can we exploit this?” Drizzt asked. “I know Jelvus Grinch-how might I meet with him and enlist his aid?” Even as he spoke the words, though, Drizzt began entertaining doubts regarding that course. As he looked down at Neverwinter, the deep pockets of shadow gave him pause. If he enlisted Grinch and others in this personal vendetta of Dahlia’s, would he not, perhaps, be creating a possible massacre within Neverwinter?

Even as Entreri began laying out some manner in which he might arrange such a liaison, Drizzt was shaking his head.

“If your old sword notices one instant of our plotting, and that plotting includes Jelvus Grinch, many in Neverwinter will be killed,” Drizzt interrupted.

“Then how?” Dahlia demanded. “If I must fight my way through that garrison, then so be it, but I will not turn aside.”

Entreri began to smile immediately, as a thought obviously came over him.

“What do you know?” Drizzt prompted.

“When the river flowed as lava and the hot ash piled deep on Neverwinter, I was trapped under that bridge,” he explained, pointing to a distant structure, one that had been known as the Winged Wyvern Bridge. “I had no idea how I would ever get out of there, and yet I could not stay. The heat from the river…” His voice trailed off and he shook his head.

Drizzt recalled his own experiences when the volcano blew, when he watched from afar as the mountain crumbled into a river of roiling stone and ash, when the shock wave rushed across the forests, leveling ancient trees as if they were insignificant strands of grass. The power of the spectacle had brought Drizzt to his knees. What must it have been like to be in Neverwinter that awful day, to see the devastation up close, to hear the screams of men, women, and children as they were burned and buried alive?

“How did you survive?” the drow prompted somberly.

“I crawled off the bridge,” Entreri replied, “and to the street, but it was too deep in ash-hot ash-for me to plow along it. And the stones were falling thick. I saw more than one person crushed under a fiery boulder. The buildings, strong as they seemed, provided no shelter. Those who hid inside were buried under rubble or chased out by the fires-everywhere were fires. The air was too thick to breathe.”

“So you died and the sword brought you back,” Dahlia reasoned, but Entreri shook his head.

Drizzt solved the riddle by remembering the layout of Neverwinter, whose streets he had walked several times. He, too, had often been drawn to the bridges, to the river that served as the city’s heart.

“You couldn’t pass along the street, so you went back to the river, near the bridge,” he said.

“To swim in the lava?” Dahlia mocked.

But Drizzt just shook his head and kept looking at Entreri.

“There was an opening along the bank, above the level of the river,” the assassin explained. “And the water flowing from it was relatively cool.”

“You crawled out of Neverwinter through her sewers,” Drizzt reasoned. “Do you think they remain open?” He watched Dahlia as he spoke, and noted that her smirk disappeared.

Entreri pointed down to the south of the city, to where the great river meandered into the Sword Coast. “It’s possible.”