Part 4

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Drizzt hugged his knees to his chest to conserve body heat. "Why are you here?"

Artemis gave him a look.

This was the next day. Though they had no way to prove it, they knew when they woke up that it was the morning of a new day. Their warriors' senses were too finely honed to lose track of time, even in a cell. Artemis had drank more water, but refused to touch the crackers.

Drizzt nibbled on them. "So…?"

Artemis was still staring at him. "Why do you care?"

Drizzt shrugged. "Call it curiosity."

The ex-assassin looked away. "I could call it a lot of things."

"Nosiness?" Drizzt said with a smile.

"That's one of my choices."

"I told you why I was here," Drizzt said.

"You did not," Artemis protested immediately.

Drizzt laughed.

Artemis flushed, growling at him. "Do not play games with me. I hardly like raising my voice."

Drizzt considered. That was true. The assassin did seem more of a soft-spoken type. A thorny soft-spoken type, but still not inclined to shouting. "Then I will tell you."

Artemis raised an eyebrow.

"I have been accused of some crime," Drizzt said. "That is the only explanation."

"You'd better hope not," Artemis said. "Those the Magistrate catches are usually put to death, in spite of all pleas to the contrary. If I were you, I would hold out for a mistake. Drow all look alike to most surface dwellers."

It took two seconds for Drizzt to realize Artemis was talking about himself. "Even if I spoke for you, you don't believe you'll be leaving here alive."

Artemis snorted. "And would you do such a foolhardy and pointless thing?"

"Execution is not justice if the person has changed their ways," Drizzt said, shifting uncomfortably. He was too aware of the sour taste in his mouth left by the stale crackers.

"I am too old to change my ways."

"You already have!" Drizzt exclaimed. He waved his hands. "Can't you see it? You're not the same person I faced a thousand times! You're different!"

"More downtrodden," Artemis corrected. "Not different. I am the same as I have always been, and I always will be. The only proper end for a person like me is execution in front of the masses. It upsets you, but it is the truth. I can't help if it wounds your idealistic spirit."

Drizzt glared at him. "Listen to yourself. The assassin I knew would never say such a thing."

Artemis paused before responding. He seemed unsure of himself for a moment. Then he put on a hard-edged mask. "You never knew me."

Drizzt couldn't contain himself any longer from moving throughout the room. He was tired and hungry, true, but now he was also angry. "If you want to be executed, you will have to find a different room," he snapped.

Artemis glared at him. "Why is that?"

"I can't watch someone whose life is so close to turning around throw it all away for the sake of preserving their personal angst."

Artemis laughed incredulously. "And you're one to talk."

"Yes. I am." Drizzt stopped and looked straight at him. "It's true, I was a miserable creature. I am sorry that I bothered everyone I met with my insecurity about being a drow. But I got over that. I decided that I didn't care. If the love of my life didn't care, I shouldn't care either. And I don't."

"So love is the answer."

Drizzt almost couldn't speak, facing the look that came into the assassin's eyes. He didn't know what it was, but he knew he was going to let the wrong thing come out of his mouth. "Yes," he finally said, because he knew he was doomed to say it eventually.

"You're wrong." Artemis looked at the floor with smoldering eyes. "You're wrong, Drizzt."

Drizzt flinched. Artemis said his name almost like a swear word.

"Let me tell you something about love, Drizzt. Love stabs deeper than the longest stiletto, stings more than the worst wound you've ever had, and humiliates more deeply than all the scum and villainy in the world has the power to do."

Drizzt sat down. "You sound like you have some earthly burdens to let go of," he said quietly.

"I killed. Twice."

Drizzt didn't understand. He's killed innumerable times.

"First, the lover of a woman I didn't even know. I pushed her when she fell unconscious before I realized that she wasn't threatening me. Then, the woman I loved fell through a window. Because of me. It killed her. I can't see how anyone could have survived what I did to her."

"You didn't kill on purpose?"

Artemis' chin trembled slightly. "No."

Drizzt raised his eyes to the ceiling. He got up and started to pace restlessly again. "Let me see if I understand this. You're saying that you killed someone you loved because you got into some kind of argument, and somehow she ended up going through a window, and because of something you did, she's dead now."

Artemis smiled at him. "Argument is a mild way of describing an attempt on my life."

Drizzt didn't want to know. He didn't know what was making him ask these things, since the life Artemis led was nothing short of one mess, one nightmare after another, and he derived no pleasure at all from listening to the recital of Artemis' miseries. "She tried to kill you."

"Yes."

"And you threw her out a window."

"…Yes."

"And you're sorry because she died?"

"How would you feel if your lover died?" Artemis snapped. "Would it matter what she did? She wasn't thinking clearly! She had problems of her own, and when I proved to be weak and defective, it is no wonder that she broke under the strain." He turned away. "It is not Calihye's fault. It will never be Calihye's fault. It's my fault."

Drizzt knew what Artemis was feeling. He'd felt the same way after facing Ellifain and living. He'd wanted Ellifain to kill him. He'd tortured that child, and it was because of him that she was mad. But I got through it! I have family, and friends who care about me! You can't just give up after facing something terrible.

Drizzt measured his words carefully. "It may be that nothing can change that, but there are things…and people, to live for."

His words were met with a derisive, disbelieving sound from Artemis. "Who am I living for? Jarlaxle? You? The promise of meeting someone before I die?"

How can a man who's lived forty years have no one? "Then think about things you want to do."

"I want," Artemis said slowly, "to kill Jarlaxle for causing me this much pain."

Drizzt grimaced. "That's a start."

"A bad start."

Drizzt shrugged. "I can't blame you. I'm sure a lot of people want Jarlaxle dead."

"No…" Artemis shook his head. "Revenge isn't the way. I've had ample opportunities for revenge, and I haven't taken them. Revenge is what brought me to this cell. To death."

"You see?" Drizzt asked. "You have changed."

"That may be." He looked at Drizzt. "But what good is that now?"

"I can't tell." Drizzt shrugged. His face hardened. "Neither can you, unless you escape from this cell."

"Now he wants me to escape." Artemis rolled his eyes. "Where to? Mithral Hall?"

Drizzt scowled at him. "How about Calimport? You seem to like that place well enough."

"Calimport, however, doesn't like me," Artemis said. "I've been as banished as anyone has ever been from that place. If I escaped here, only to go there, I would have been served just as well waiting for my execution."

Drizzt groaned. "Is there any place that wants you?"

"I'll let you think about that."

Though he wasn't angered by Artemis nearly as easily as he had been in the past, Drizzt felt waves of exasperation coming in. "Then take it one step at a time. Think about escaping first before you decide where you want to go."

He gestured to their dirty cell. The cobwebs in the corners, the dirty straw, the stone walls encrusted with gritty black grime and stinking mold, the chamber pots. "Do you really want to stay here for the rest of your life?"

"Your logic is impeccable," Artemis said. "Except that I won't have to spend the rest of my life here. I'm likely to be dead before the week is out."

Drizzt stomped his foot. "You're hopeless."

"And you're childish. I think we're even."

"If you think I'm so childish, you won't mind if I do this, then," Drizzt said. He flashed Artemis a rude gesture and crossed his arms. Then he stuck his tongue out at the assassin.

"Bravo. This is the drow who changed everyone's perceptions about him." Artemis rubbed his chin. "How…did you do that, again?"

"By cutting off everyone's heads so there were no more faulty brains to think with," Drizzt said. He maintained a solemn face. "That way they knew I was a peaceful, law-abiding drow."

Artemis tried not to, but he ended up smiling at that. "Makes sense. I see your true brilliance."

Drizzt bowed.