A/N: I give you a third chapter in one day! Thank all of you who have read this so far, it's definitely a delight to see that people are reading this. It's an encouragement as well. Truly I am grateful to all of you. Just a quick notice for you: I decided a while ago that I'm going to divide this story into different parts. I don't know if I'm going to do the different parts as different stories yet though. Chances are that I most likely wont, but I still wanted to give a heads up just in case.

Disclaimer: Please see previous chapters.

Do continue...

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Chapter Eight: The Cave

They reached the correct area shortly after midmorning as promised.(At least someone was good at predicting how long something would take.) They had yet to see the cave though. Not wanting to waste time, Ember drew a rough map of the area and cast her location spell. Once again the blue-grey dot appeared on the parchment. The entrance was supposed to be in the far western edge of the clearing between the two water sources.

The four companions were about to give up looking for the cave. That was when Kimmuriel fell through the ground and into a sinkhole right where the entrance of the cave was supposed to be. The others quickly ran over to aid him. Carefully they found the perimeter of the hole and marked it. Then the four who had not fallen in skillfully climbed down into it.

Immediately their instincts told them to be on guard. The farther they walked along the single tunnel, the louder their senses seemed to scream of danger. Their skin tingled with anticipation of the oncoming battle. They walked silently through the tunnel, not one making even a whisper of sound.

The tunnel widened a short while later. The walls became even more solid stone. The five knew that they were heading deep underground. To the four companions the situation was starting to become extremely familiar, after all, three of them had spent most of their lives in underground caverns such as this. They just hoped that they would not have to deal with their kin from such places.

The silence was beginning to become oppressive when they at last heard a sound other than dripping water. There were two very melodic voices. Two males speaking to each other. Kimmuriel entered his less than corporeal form and scouted ahead. His expression when he returned did not bode well to the others. Drow. He motioned in the silent hand code. All of the others nodded. No one bothered to even wonder how the girl knew the code. They are distracted. We can kill them quickly without being noticed. his hands continued.

Is there any way we can sneak around them? Drizzt's hands asked. The psionicist shook his head. The tunnel was a singular route with no turn offs. They would have to fight.

Drizzt knelt down and drew a dagger from his boot. He motioned for the others to wait quietly as he took care of the two distracted soldiers.

His years as a patrol leader served him well. The two drow never heard him coming and did not know that death was upon them until the dagger slipped silently into the backs of their necks and into their skulls. Drizzt positioned the bodies up against the wall of the cave, now the two soldiers would simply look like they were sleeping to any passerby. That is until any passerby bothered to try to wake them. He made his way back to the others and motioned for them to follow and they once again moved silently through the complex.

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Shiara felt a familiar power when he woke. He would be getting out of here soon. He was sure that the drow had yet to learn of her presence. Any that had were dead.

From what he had learned from watching the guards change, there were at least a score of drow that remained in the complex. The rest had left with the matron and her other two daughters. Vierna, as far as he knew, was now in her room probably examining the fans still. He hadn't told her anything she didn't already know about them.

A telepathic link gently made its way to his mind. He knew it was Kagome the moment it reached out to him. He gave her his location but told her not to go this way. She agreed and instead gave him a bit of her power to break the shackles holding him to the wall. Two could play at this game.

He quickly cut down his surprised guards. Then, taking their weapons, he made his way up as he found the scent he was looking for.

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A few more sneak attacks later they had found the center of the upper level of the complex. The drow had to be aware of them now. That thought was not a good one.

Surprisingly, no drow leapt out at them from the shadows. They did not let their guard down for a moment. The five soon found a door that led to a lower level. Nothing attacked them on the other side and they continued their stealthy trek downwards.

Another two dead guards led them to a storage room. They searched quietly for anything that could be of use but found nothing and moved on. The sound of more talking caught their attention soon after.

Kagome, now in the lead, peaked around a corner. Ten or so drow filled the room. She linked with Shiara's mind and asked him how many drow there were in the place to which he replied about twenty. They had already killed eight and he had killed two. This was the rest of the regiment. She looked back to the others and motioned for them to draw their weapons. Two drow soldiers each. This would be easy.

They charged into the room together, each quickly engaging battle with which ever two drow soldiers were dumb enough to attack them.

Drizzt's scimitars began their whirling dance. The two fighting him were easily dispatched with a one-two-slash combination, each drow falling dead with a fatal wound across his chest.

Entreri and Jarlaxle worked back to back, both aiding each other. They both stepped forward and cut down one opponent each with a backhand slash then without warning stepped back and turned counterclockwise and finished of the other's remaining opponent.

Kagome's dance was similar to Drizzt's. Her twin katanas carefully twisted in her hands, she landed a powerful spinning attack on both soldiers at once. Both fell at exactly the same moment with the exact same opposite wound. One left slash, one right, both to the heart.

Kimmuriel, not much of a fighter concentrated his energy into the weapons of his attackers. He let go when the pent up energy reached its peak then became less than corporeal and fell into the wall behind him. Not expecting their target to vanish, the two soldiers' weapons hit the wall and exploded on impact. Effectively ending the battle. Kimmuriel stepped out of the wall when the feel of the explosion receded.

When they were calm Kagome pointed to the next hallway and they continued on.

The feeling of energy from a spell being released stopped them all in their tracks. It seemed that there were still more drow left to fight. They went down the hallway, passing the dungeon where Shiara had been, a door leading to a side passage caught their attention and they passed through it. They felt the energies of another spell, this time Kagome recognzed the energy signature of its owner. He wanted something done and was about to make his escape...

The hallway seemed to go on forever upwards.

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"Vierna."

She heard her name from the doorway but could not believe the speaker. How could he have gotten free? Slowly she turned around and looked at him. There was no mistaking it now that she saw him. Shiara was free, and standing in her room.

Vierna hid her panic well, though he could smell her fear. She was unarmed, she had no spells to use against him, but he had no intentions of harming her. He stepped twards her making no threats whatsoever, he knew she wouldn't relax though. The drow were trained that way. Caution on the edge of paranoia.

She hadn't moved once, though she was tense. He easily lifted her up off the floor. "I wont hurt you." he whispered softly into her ear. It was the last thing she heard before she fell unconscious in his arms.

He jumped out the window into the open air and flew away with her into the early hours of the evening.