Gone. The pain was gone in one sudden moment.
Lavender eyes opened to see a familiar face staring down at him. Catti-Brie's eyes were dark with concern. Torchlight flickered. She was lifting his head, pouring a potion down his throat. He swallowed obediently, trying to gather his strength. He felt so weak, so tired.
There was a sudden motion at his wrists, and then they moved apart. He realized he had been bound. The thought made no sense.
"Where?" He asked. "How?" The potion had soothed any pain in his throat, but still it felt dry, hoarse. He struggled into a sitting position.
Bruenor moved over to help support him. Strength was returning to his limbs. "Easy, laddie," he murmured in his gruff way. "We almost lost you."
"But now ye're home," Catti-brie told him, life and joy sparkling in her eyes. "Alustriel found you in the portal, and we brought you home." She wrapped her strong arms around his shoulders, pulling him against her in a tight hug. Her lips found his, and she put every bit of her relief and happiness into that kiss.
Drizzt couldn't kiss her back. His lips were still against the motions of hers. "Brionne." He spoke, pulling away from her. Dread settled into his chest. Her eyes were wide and uncomprehending. He could see the hurt in them at his rejection. Hurt he had caused.
"There was a young man and woman with me," he began. The thought of Brionne and Nala, left behind in their master's hands, alone without him to guard them, was too painful to contemplate. "Please. Please tell me they are here, and safe."
Bruenor and Catti-Brie shared a glance. "They're here an' safe." Bruenor finally muttered just before Drizzt began to despair. "But we had no way of knowin'. That woman was sayin' the things he done, and I thought he was the one to do the stabbin'."
Drizzt pushed himself up to his feet. The world swayed for a moment, then he was stronger, as his body accepted the healing of the potion he had been given.
"Where are they?" he asked, looking from one of his friends' eyes to the other.
"Down the passage," Catti-Brie told him, gesturing to the one archway that led from the room they were currently in. Her voice was quiet in a strange way. Her eyes seemed haunted by guilt or something like it, and that frightened him.
The red-haired archer took a torch and moved to guide him. He reached into his pouch, feeling the need for the wordless support of his oldest of friends. "Guenhyvar." He called, and mist poured out of the figurine, to pool and become the huge black panther.
He rested one hand on the sleek black shoulder, gaining strength from her silent company. Large feline eyes regarded him for a moment, and then he was walking, following Catti-brie down through the twisting passageways.
It took only a short distance for him to notice the reluctance in her steps. At any other time, he would have worried for her. He would have asked her what was wrong. At this time, he felt an overwhelming need to hurry. He couldn't wait. "Brionne!" he shouted into the winding passageways.
A moment's pause, then a voice answering, "Drizzt?" It echoed through the winding passages. It was Brionne's voice, filled with hope, fear, and urgency.
Drizzt stepped past Catti-Brie and her torch. His eyes shifted to see in the darkness as she hurried after him. He moved as if he had walked here before, though the caves were new to him. He heard in the echoes the shapes of the tunnels, the map of the walls.
"Drizzt!" Catti-Brie called after him. He came to a fork in the way and took the left passage without hesitation. He couldn't reply to his long-time friend as she called after him. Here, close; he stepped through an opening and was in a small chamber. He saw Brionne, on his knees, his head turned to the side as he spoke with Nala, who was hiding behind him.
"Drizzt, we didn't know," Catti-Brie was saying. "There was no way we could tell."
In the flickering glow of her torch, he let his eyes shift back to the spectrum of light.
His heart lurched in his chest, and he felt for a moment like he was going to fall. "Brionne..." he whispered. The young man blinked against the sudden glare of the torch, but he met Drizzt's gaze with a mix of fear and hope. There was blood, dried into his hair, against his fair skin. And the bruise, marking the outer curve of his left eye, swelling from his brow bone to his cheek. Rough cord held his wrists and elbows immobile.
Wordless, Drizzt took the few steps to his lover's side, crouching next to him. As if drawn there, his fingers reached out to hover just above the bruise. Brionne flinched away from the anticipated pain. The flinch cut to the heart of him, and he wanted nothing more than to take him into his arms, to kiss the injuries away, to make him whole and happy again. But the young man hadn't encouraged him, by word or deed, and they had never touched in love under the eyes of another. Without guidance, he did not act on his impulses.
"Drizzt? What has happened? Where are we?" The words coming in the common tongue of Faerun were almost as much of a shock as the distress on the young man's face. Only once, in all the fear and exhaustion of their travels, had he seen through the mask Brionne made of his face, to see the pain he hid so well. The mask was gone now, along with his certainty, his feeling of purpose.
Drizzt had started to untie the bindings around his wrists, but stopped, reaching out to touch the unblemished side of his lover's face. Brionne closed his eyes and leaned into the caress. "All is well." He promised. "We are in my home, though I do not know how. You will be safe here. Nala will be safe. You are free here, both of you."
Brionne nodded, shaken and afraid still, but seemed to believe his words. Drizzt went back to untying the knots in the rope. He felt almost frantic to get them off, so great was his distress at seeing his lover bound. The hilt of a dagger tapped him on the shoulder and he took it, looking up with brief gratitude at Catti-Brie.
"How did this happen?" he asked, trying to keep the tone of accusation from his voice and failing. With growing anger he sliced the ropes between Brionne's wrists, then turned him slightly to get at those behind his back.
"Forgive me." He looked with surprise at Brionne, the last person he would have expected to answer. "I did not know they were your friends." The dark-haired man was rubbing the feeling back into his wrists and elbows, and Drizzt reached out to help him, glancing at Catti-Brie.
A mixture of surprise and guilt showed in her blue eyes. He looked back at Brionne and was met with a soft and apologetic smile.
He glanced over Brionne's shoulder next. "Nala?" he asked. "Are you well?" The girl nodded, though she clung close to Brionne with as much desperation as she had the first day they met in the alley.
"Can you stand?" he asked Brionne, who nodded, though his eyes were unsure. Drizzt slipped an arm around his waist and helped him to his feet. He moved awkwardly, as if his legs had gone to sleep from sitting too long. How long have they been here? He couldn't help but wonder.
"Where are ye going?" Catti-Brie's voice was soft, questioning.
Drizzt froze. After so many days of desperate flight, the need for motion had infected him like an illness.
"They should not be here, in these tunnels," he said, trying to put his feelings into words. "They should be under the sky, the sun, the stars..."