Disclaimers and crap: see first post

A/N Thanks to my reviewers for keeping me motivated on this story. I couldn't do it without you (actually I could, I just wouldn't bother). Thank you for sticking with it.

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Entreri held his fingers laced, his hands made into a stirrup for Drizzt to stand on as he pushed the other's slight weight upwards.

They had found a narrow tunnel that ended in a sliver of daylight showing through a gap in the earth. The woman had slipped the statue of the cat through that hole, though not out of arm's reach should their plan fail. The cat had worked at digging down into the hole while the humans and the drow worked the earth from their side. Having nothing better to dig with than their daggers had proved hard work, and the result of their labor was an opening not four hand-lengths long and half that wide. Large stones, too large to be moved, stopped their excavation at that point, and they decided to test the hole's size and see if it was possible for them to escape this way. If not, it could be several days still until they found a way out.

Drizzt's free foot thumped into Entreri's head and he let out a soft curse. He braced the drow's foot up with his knee, and then moved the offending foot onto his shoulder, where Drizzt could get better purchase. He looked up, and became too aware of how vulnerable the dark elf was from this position, with his armor off and the vein on the inside of his thigh so close, so easy to open.

One quick slash, and his life's blood would spill from him... it was a killing blow as sure as a slit throat, and in this position, wedged into the tight confines of the gap in the earth, the drow would be half-dead before he could squirm free and offer a fight. A moment to kill the woman; all that would remain is to wait for the cat to take its rest. Move the corpse out of the way, climb out, and collect the statuette. It was the best opportunity to finish this that he had seen yet; the best chance to kill Drizzt before he could leave.

The hilt of his dagger was cool in his hand, but he could not draw the blade. He had no doubts that Drizzt would cause him pain, that the drow would leave him. In twenty years, he had not hesitated in a case where the personal consequences to himself had been so clear.

And now he did not hesitate; he chose. He chose to let Drizzt live, to go back to his life and his friends and leave Entreri somewhere on the way, more broken than when they had first touched. If I do one good thing in this world, it will be this: that I did not destroy something of beauty, no matter the harm it would cause me.

Entreri shoved, Drizzt scrambled, and suddenly there was only a gash of sunlight above him where the drow's legs had been.

Grey eyes stared up into the golden light, and he fought to not feel the ache of abandonment. The woman is still down here. He knew Drizzt would not leave his long-time companion, no matter how little attachment he had for Entreri.

A dark figure eclipsed the sun as Drizzt leaned back over the hole in the ground. "Here." That single word held hope and joy and the dark hand reached out, fingers curled in silent beckoning.

Entreri's eyes stung as he took that hand. Too long away from the sun... he thought, blinking away what he refused to acknowledge as tears.

Catti-brie stretched out on the ground by the fire. What she would have thought of as uncomfortable three moons ago was now a wonder. Dry leaves and green grass crinkled under her, and the smell of living growing things filled her senses.

Guenhwyvar had brought down a deer while they were extracting themselves from the ground, and they dined that eve on fresh hot cooked meat. She could not remember a meal that she had appreciated more. It was a delight to be above the ground, to see the sky, to have open air all around them instead of the oppressive walls of stone and earth.

Drizzt seemed almost himself again, to her thinking. It was almost possible to forget what had happened to him, what he had been forced to endure. The way he smiled when he tipped his head back and gazed at the stars made it almost seem a religious rapture. Perhaps it was. She imagined him like this on that first night he had stepped above-ground. Even the drow clothing he still wore seemed somehow fitting in this reenactment.

Her eyes fell onto the last of their party. She had expected him to leave as soon as they saw sky, despite what had passed underground or perhaps because of it, but he had stayed. Entreri hid his emotions better than Drizzt, but as the man settled down to his rest, his eyes seldom strayed from the dark elf's face. There was a connection there. She could see it, even if the two involved seemed loathe to address it.

She may not have understood it, but she could not doubt its authenticity, and so she was very puzzled when Entreri turned his back to the fire and the man whose arms he had sought every time they had rested since the waterfall. She was even more puzzled when Drizzt watched the sleeping man's back for long minutes, conflict written over his fine features. When Drizzt walked over to the opposite side of the fire and stretched out to sleep himself, she knew she owed it to her friend to do now what she hadn't done in the Baelre complex. She had to act.

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