Part 3

-----------------------

Drizzt mulled over his words in foreboding silence. Why bother with defenses when I know they will fail me? He slowly realized that his flesh was crawling. It couldn't truly be the end, could it?

"We are cut off from the rest of the world," Drizzt said. "That's what you believe."

Artemis shrugged. "Believe what you want. All I know is that I was taken here against my will, under duress, and now I sit here with you in a cell I do not remember coming to."

"We're…we're outside Luskan. Or I thought we were."

"That explains everything," Artemis said dryly. He gestured to the dirty cell around them. "This is a perfect example of Luskan justice."

Drizzt snorted. "Dirty, inexplicable, and crazy-making?"

"Yes."

They sat in silence.

"It's cold –" Artemis said.

"Yes."

Artemis gave Drizzt a look. "Don't interrupt me."

"Oh? You were saying something else?"

"Yes." Artemis glared. "Now, as I was saying, it's cold of them to leave you here."

"Who?" Drizzt asked, frowning.

The assassin gave him a look as if he were insane. "Your friends. The people who are never out of your sight. If you're so relatively close to home, where are they? Why have you been captured when you're known in this area as a hero of the land?"

"Why do you care?" Drizzt asked. "You're going to die."

"Call it curiosity."

"Well, if you call it curiosity, then how about this: my friends are law abiding citizens, and they are probably appealing to the forces of justice inside this town to let us go."

"You."

"What?" Drizzt stared at him.

Artemis stared back. "You, Do'Urden. They're appealing the forces of justice inside Luskan to let you go. Not me."

"I said that."

Artemis laughed. "You said 'us'."

Drizzt suddenly found himself blushing horribly. "I – Well…We…You are the only other person in here. So I made a mistake," he snapped. "Pardon my slip of the tongue. They're petitioning to let me go, and we're all going to leave you here to die."

Artemis raised both eyebrows at him and crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall comfortably. "You sound as though you don't want to."

"What?"

"Whatever happened to executing the evil assassin?" Artemis asked, clearly teasing.

Drizzt looked away. "Execution is a little harsh, don't you think?"

"Do I?"

"Then you can't learn from your mistakes," Drizzt said.

"That's nothing new," Artemis said, shrugging. "To make a mistake is to die."

"That's not true!"

The assassin looked at him directly until he stilled his tongue. "Calm yourself. Do you always get so worked up over an argument?"

Drizzt crossed his arms. "Only if the person I'm arguing with is wrong."

Artemis laughed. "Then you must be worked up all the time. You always think your opponent is wrong."

"You're trying to change the subject." Drizzt's eyes flashed. "If you die before you can learn, then you'll never make any worthy contributions to the world."

The assassin looked as though he was going to say something, but he paused and stopped himself. "That may be true."

"Then what is your problem?" Drizzt exclaimed. "Do you want to die?"

"It's not a question of want, Do'Urden. We are going to die. Luskan does not simply let its precious prisoners go. Prisoners escape, or they are executed. If your friends aren't willing to do something illegal to save you, you are going to die as surely as I am."

Drizzt sat back helplessly, a million retorts on his lips.

"Breaking the law is no way to fix things," he finally said.

Artemis smiled. "How about this: If there were no laws, there would be no way to break them."

"You're insane! That's a fool's logic! We have to have laws."

"Why?"

Drizzt turned away. "I have seen what happens without them." He was referring to Menzoberranzan. Judging by the hard look in Entreri's eyes, he knew what the elf was talking about.

"That may be true," Artemis said. "But you…I gather that you have never been on the wrong side of the law before. It is not pleasant."

"I've been on the wrong side of the law lots of times!" Drizzt said. "I was constantly being locked up for being the color I am."

"But that's not a law," Artemis said. "That's racism. Nothing more. When it is a law that keeps you here, Do'Urden, you will find that the chains do not break nearly so easily."

"Lady Alustriel will help me," Drizzt said quietly. "If I know my friends, they have already contacted her."

Artemis rested the back of his head against the wall and closed his eyes. "Then good luck."

"Artemis?"

Artemis sat perfectly still.

Drizzt took that as a sign he was still listening. "What did Jarlaxle do? Exactly? I mean, why did you leave?" He was taking a chance, guessing that it has been Artemis who left first, and not Jarlaxle, but he thought his intuition would steer him right.

"You wouldn't understand."

Drizzt let the silence rest for a while before trying again. "What do you mean?"

Artemis sighed. "You are an annoying cellmate. Perhaps I should ask for a transfer when they check to make sure we're both going to survive for the trial."

"Entreri."

"I do not ever want to hear that name again! Entreri is not my name!"

Drizzt sat there, looking at him with wide eyes. He tried to think of something to say to that. "Oh."

"Yes. 'Oh'." Artemis snorted. "How would you like to find out that the name you have been carrying around isn't even your father?"

"I…"

"Or your mother's?"

Drizzt got the picture. "I wouldn't like it."

"I wouldn't like it." Artemis looked at the ceiling. "Now he's become the King of Understatements." He looked Drizzt in the eyes. "Yes, exactly. You'd feel that name was a travesty, wouldn't you. Another joke the gods decided to play on you for Ao knows what reason. You wouldn't want to hear it again, would you?"

"Sorry."

The ex-assassin sighed. He studied the mold in the mortar between stones in the floor. "I still…cannot come to terms with that. I suppose I never will. I would not have enough time even if I lived for another century."

"Your name?"

"Yes."

Drizzt started putting together the pieces, and he felt a sense of pervasive dread. "It…This is what Jarlaxle did to you, isn't it."

Artemis looked at him questioningly.

"He found out your name. Where it came from."

Artemis passed a hand over his eyes. "Yes, and no."

Drizzt bit his lip. There was a question he'd had for a long time, and now he thought he might believe the answer. He thought…maybe it was time to ask it. He'd almost stopped caring about the answer, but now, he did care. "Why did you become an assassin?"

Artemis gave him a look. His expression told clearly that he thought was he was about to say was utterly ridiculous. "I thought killing would keep me safe."

"That's a perfectly logical idea," Drizzt said, trying to look as innocent as possible. He didn't know what would happen if he laughed. The assassin suddenly reminded him of Zaknafein, back when he thought of him as Uncle Zak. Crazy, unpredictable, and as prone to laughter at one of his comments as he was to beating Drizzt unconscious for it.

Artemis snorted. "It has its fallacies."

"I see."

They were interrupted by a scraping racket. A guard was opening their cell door. He grunted, glanced at them, and tossed two things at their feet. One was a large canteen. The other was an object bundled up in cheap brown paper.

Drizzt covered his ears at the ensuing scraping racket as the guard closed their door again.

Artemis looked to him.

Drizzt took that as a sign that it was his responsibility. He sighed and unwrapped the paper bundle. He wrinkled his nose. "Stale crackers."

"Hmm." Artemis rubbed his chin, pretending to consider deeply. "I'll wait for breakfast."

Drizzt grinned. "I thought you were going to switch cells."

"Slipped my mind."

Drizzt tossed him the canteen. "Sounds like dehydration."

The assassin caught it, and looked at it for a moment. Then he gave Drizzt a strange, unreadable look and took a drink of water. He silently put the cap back on and held it out.

Drizzt walked across the cell and accepted it, taking a drink of his own. Then, looking around, he took a chance and sat down where he was.

Artemis made a noncommittal sound at his relocation to the assassin's side of the cell and then turned away.

"I'll take that as a welcome," Drizzt said.

"Mmmn."