A/N: There's not much of a change with this chapter. Quick point out, I know that Drizzt's sister Briza was the one with the six-headed snake whip but I figured as Matron of House Do'Urden, Malice could have one too.
Warning: Mild spoilers for The Legacy and Exile. Sorry, but it's important to my plotline.
Disclaimer: Please see previous chapter
Moving on.....
Chapter Two: Dreams and Nightmares
She was lying at the base of an old oak tree. Her blood pooled around her in a crimson puddle, spattered as though she had hit the ground hard. Amazingly, she was still alive. How was anyone's guess. The four companions made their camp in the clearing, cleaned and dressed the young woman's wounds, then put her down on some extra bedding. It was likely she would not wake for a while, though she had stirred when they moved her.
How someone could possibly harm such a beautiful creature was beyond all of them, though three of them were drow, and the one that wasn't had grown up on the dangerous streets of Calimport. As much as they sometimes disliked each other, they could all agree on one thing: they wanted to kill whoever had done this. They wondered what type of monster had done such a thing. Her wounds were serious and unlike anything they had ever seen; no weapon they knew of could cause such injuries.
After a few hours she began to move again, this time she woke with a start and looked around. It appeared that she knew where she was, but didn't know why she was half naked and well bandaged in someone's bedroll. Then, all of the sudden she started to cry; she hadn't seen her rescuers yet. She drew her knees up to her chest and put her head down on them. Her long black hair fell over her delicate, shaking shoulders in a waterfall of ebony silk.
Finally Entreri could take no more of the sound. For once, something seemed to pull at the assassin's heartstrings. He stepped out of the tree line and cautiously walked over to the girl. He gently put his hand on her shoulder unsure of his actions, bidding her to look at him as he sat down. She looked up at him; the sight of her eyes stole his breath away. They were very beautiful even though they were tear stricken; their grey seemed to glow in the dim moonlight. Her bottom lip trembled as she willed herself to speak and finally she asked, "What are you doing here?"
The question caught Entreri off guard; he had been expecting her to ask who he was. He answered her question anyway, "We found you here at the base of the tree. We've been taking care of you for the last few hours."
At his answer the girl looked up at the sky, it had been a while since the half demon left her there. It was night time now. "Why?" she asked, her lip began to tremble again. She tried to hold back her tears but couldn't. Entreri put his arm gently around her not knowing what she meant by the question until she continued. "Why did you save me?"
Sobs wracked her small body and she repeated the question. The assassin said nothing; he didn't know what to do. Luck was with him though; Jarlaxle stepped out of the trees and sat with the two of them, placing his arm around the girl as Entreri had done. "How could we not save you, little one?" the drow asked, petting her hair trying calm her. "We could not simply leave you there. You do not deserve such a thing." The girl just looked up at him in a daze and said nothing. She allowed herself to be lain back down and fell into a restless sleep.
Strangely, through this whole scene, neither Drizzt nor Kimmuriel stepped out of the trees. Drizzt looked on from a different view, as if he was watching something long past. His companion's voices sounded hollow and metallic, like someone had recorded them and was playing them over again. He looked over at Kimmuriel wondering what was going on. Kimmuriel just watched with a blank stare, not seeing anything it seemed. They came out of the trees like a trance long after the girl had fallen asleep.
The four sat together around their campfire not knowing what to do or think. Nothing like this had never happened to any of them before. They kept watch in shifts as usual. Drizzt was the first to claim Reverie, followed shortly by sleep for Entreri. Jarlaxle and Kimmuriel stayed up keeping watch together. None of them felt all that comfortable in the woods, not after they found the girl. There was something that felt wholly unnatural about the place. The night air was too cold and silent, nothing moved around them.
---
Drizzt entered his Dreamscape normally this time. Secret was already there waiting for him. Upon seeing him, she leapt into his arms with a delighted cry and kissed him passionately. He set her down eagerly returning her kiss. When they separated for air he asked, "What was that in the woods?" The look on her face darkened clearly telling him that she knew what he was talking about. She took a deep breath and started to explain.
"That was something that happened a long time ago. For some reason the spirits in the woods choose to relive it. I don't know why, I think they do it because they feel the need to tell the girl's story but don't have another way to."
Drizzt nodded at her explanation. It was something he could believe. As a ranger he was more in tune with the forest than the others were. He had felt a profound sadness upon entering it but had said nothing to the others about it. "What of my friends then? Did the spirits take them over?"
Secret nodded. "In a way yes; two people rescued the girl in the forest. One of them was said to be a cold hearted demon lord, the other was his father who was very kind. They had been traveling together when they happened upon her in the forest and took care of her. I would imagine that your friends are of like mind with those two. That's why you were left alone and the other one wasn't all there."
The tale made sense to the ranger and he chose not to question further except to ask about he girl's fate. Secret told him that the girl lived and went back to her village. That made Drizzt feel a bit better, at least the girl hadn't died. He wanted to ask what happened to injure her in the first place but chose not to. Something about this was making Secret very upset. He laughed inside at the nickname; Secret was keeping secrets it seemed.
After a few moments of silence, the latter abruptly looked up at him. "You will reach the village tomorrow. It's about half a day's hike out of the forest. The village is right at its edge." Her form shuddered without warning. A look of pain crossed her face.
Drizzt panicked not knowing how to help. Part of him started to fear that he would never see her again if she completely vanished. "Secret!" he cried, " What's happening to you?!"
She fell to the ground, "I don't know! Something is..... attacking... me!" She screamed and it echoed like a banshee's keen throughout the Dreamscape. Then just as quickly as she began to quake, she disappeared.
A high, wicked laughter filled the Dreamscape in her absence. Thick, dark tendrils wrapped themselves around the drow ranger's lithe body and forcefully threw him to the ground.
In the bedroll next to the drow ranger, Entreri was abruptly woken up as Drizzt inadvertently kicked him in his sleep. He was about to wake the young drow and share a few choice words with him when he saw the state the latter was in. Drizzt tossed and turned violently in his Reverie, it was almost as if he was fighting something. Suddenly the drow ranger's eyes popped wide open. He tried to stand but collapsed back down onto his bedroll his hands reaching to grasp at something above him. He began the aggressive rolling all over again.
The assassin called Jarlaxle and Kimmuriel over to his side. If something was attacking Drizzt it might decide to go after them all. He for one, hardly wished to be killed in his sleep.
The mercenary leader sat down next to the younger drow not intending to leave his side. "Find out what is wrong with him!" he commanded the psionicist, who nodded and fell into a trance that would bring him into Drizzt's mind. He had attempted this during the other drow's other dreams but was pushed out by a gentle force, this time nothing denied him entry. He fell into Drizzt's Dreamscape.
It was quiet, but Kimmuriel knew that meant nothing. He sensed that there was something very wrong here, the air was buzzing with an eerie sense of foreboding. Something was in the drow ranger's mind that shouldn't be. Without warning, a big black form bumped into him from behind sending him reeling forward to the surprisingly soft grass in Drizzt's dream. The psionicist looked up immediately recognizing the ranger's panther. "Guenwhyvar? But what are you doing here?" he asked the cat. The panther nudged him again leading him forward. Apparently the panther had sensed her master's pain and had come to his aid. Kimmuriel let her lead him farther into the Dreamscape.
Not long after, his sensitive ears picked up the sharp sound of a cracking whip. And a loud, wicked laughter. That laughter sounded strangely familiar. As he neared what seemed to be a clearing in the Dreamscape, he soon saw the owner of that nefarious sound, his attention though was on her whip. The long six snake-headed whip of a drow priestess, a weapon he knew well.
The dreaded weapon came down hard on Drizzt's bloodied form making him scream again and curl into a tight ball on the ground. It would have continued on had not the wielder of that weapon been attacked by six-hundred pounds of angry panther. The priestess screamed, in pain or fury he could not tell. Then she vanished before the cat could get the kill. Kimmuriel rushed over to the ranger's fallen form. He was still alive and the vicious wounds were actually healing right before his eyes. The younger drow appeared to be in shock nonetheless.
"But that was.... That was.... how... how is she here... dead... she's dead..." he stuttered almost incoherently. Kimmuriel did not normally comfort people but he had to calm Drizzt down if they were going to get out of his Dreamscape. He put his hands on the younger drow's shoulders holding him steady, forcing him to take a deep breath and start over. Drizzt obliged and continued carefully. "Matron Malice, she's dead. How was she here? She cannot possibly be here!" Kimmuriel honestly had no answer for that question. He knew as well that Matron Malice was dead. Gently, he led the younger drow out of the Dreamscape.
Jarlaxle let out an audible sigh of relief when Drizzt and Kimmuriel woke. The ranger was still obviously quite shaken; something terrible had happened to him. He told Entreri to take Drizzt over to a nearby hot spring they had passed earlier and help him calm down. Meanwhile he sat with Kimmuriel who filled him in.
---
The assassin helped Drizzt remove his clothes and into the water. He sat at the spring's edge ready to give further assistance even though he didn't really want too. However, seeing his former rival in such a state did unnerve him more than he cared to admit. Never had he seen Drizzt Do'Urden so shaken. Not once in all of their battles with each other or even when they had escaped from House Baenre in Menzobarranzan. Something truly horrible must have happened in the drow ranger's dream. He wondered if the girl in his dreams had anything to do with it. His instincts told him that she did not. But still...
He looked over to the ranger who was now attempting to untangle his long white hair with his fingers, and failing. He reached into his pocket and found a comb which he handed to Drizzt. The ranger smiled appreciatively and combed his hair taking comfort in the simple act.
After a few more minutes, Drizzt finished with his bath. "Entreri?" he called in an uncharacteristically small voice. The assassin looked up from the ground. "I'm done, please help me out." Entreri nodded and easily lifted the slighter elf out of the water. He helped him redress and the two walked back to their camp.
"Entreri?" the drow asked, the assassin looked over at him and he continued, "Why are you being so helpful to me?"
The assassin just shrugged. Honestly, he thought, he would like to know that answer himself. He knew that Drizzt wanted a real answer, but seeing that he had none, the drow let the question drop. Truly Entreri was grateful for that. Had it been Jarlaxle instead, the elf wouldn't have shut up. He wondered again what the crafty mercenary was up to making him pretty much babysit Drizzt.
What Kimmuriel reported to him was very disturbing. How had Matron Malice, Drizzt's dead mother, have been in the ranger's dream? He knew that spirits of the dead interacted with the dreams of the living frequently, but what Kimmuriel had described to him didn't sound like any type of spirit he knew of. There was no way Malice could be alive, Lolth did not let the souls of her failed priestesses back into the living world. Well, Jarlaxle mused, not usually. Not unless it interested or would amuse her greatly. There had to be some kind of gain for the fickle goddess.
He knew for a fact she was dead, he had watched as Malice's oldest daughter Briza beat her to death with her snake-headed whip. For that same day, House Do'Urden fell, with no small help from Bregan D'aerthe.
Malice had failed to kill Drizzt with the spirit-wraith of Zaknafain and so Lolth had ordered her demise to First Matron Baenre. The old matron had given the task to Jarlaxle and his band of mercenaries.
Drizzt's whole family was dead. Or at least they had been.
Zaknafain had been sacrificed to Lolth for Drizzt's 'sins'. Then, ten years later, he had been reanimated as a zombie to hunt his son down. During their last battle the soul of Zak came through, and he would not kill his own son. The spirit-wraith broke free of Malice's control and threw himself into a lake of acid.
Malice had been killed by Briza. Briza and Maya had been killed in the fall of House Do'Urden.
Drizzt's brother Dinin and his sister Vierna had survived the fall, only to go after Drizzt again at Mithral Hall. Dinin had not wanted to go. So Vierna, under the spell of Triel Baenre, changed him into a drider; the horrible cross between a drow and an Underdark spider. He became a monster twisted and transmutated into one bloated form.
Vierna had, unfortunately, been killed by Drizzt. He hadn't wanted to kill her, but in the end he was left with no choice. The spell on Vierna had been strong; she had fought until the end. Drizzt had warned her not to go after her other weapons after he cut apart her snake-headed whip, but she did, and he had put a scimitar through her heart. Death had ended Triel's spell. The last thing Drizzt had said to his sister was, "I am sorry." Vierna just shook her head. The daughter of Zaknafain thought it better that she die for what she had done and she did not blame her little brother. She was once again the only other member of his family that he cared about other than Zaknafain. Drizzt buried her on the surface half a day later and placed flowers on her grave because he knew that she would have liked them.
Drizzt's whole family was dead. Or at least they had been.
Not long after he and Entreri returned, Drizzt had reported that the girl in his dream said that the village was half a day away. Kimmuriel confirmed this by checking through one of his doors. They set off as soon as the sun rose not wanting to waste anymore time.
