Drizzt woke with a head ache that he could not explain. Almost as if he had drunk too much of Stumpet's famed dwarven holy water. He felt hot and quickly pushed off the blankets that were on him. Sitting up he looked around the small room. Everything was as it was when he had fallen asleep, after Jade had left.
Drizzt pushed him self up from the bed, walking over to the door, a little unsteadily, and grasped the handle, pulling gently he felt that it was still locked. He sighed; he was too hot to sit back in bed, so in stead he went to the chair and table. Once he was seated he laid his head on the cool surface of the table. He felt horrible. The aching from the poison was creeping in and out not letting him be at peace
The door opened then and he looked up to see Jade, back in her grey dress, she was looking down at him with worry in her eyes.
"What is wrong?" She came to him and reaches out to touch his brow. But quickly withdrew her hand. "Drizzt, you are burning up!" He looked up at her. He wanted to say something but his throat seemed to be too parched to speak; he nodded his head in agreement.
"This should not be happening." She cursed; it was obvious to the drow that she was not speaking to him but to her self. She appeared to Drzzt to be caught in between concern and frustration. She quickly ran her hand over is chest and his arms.
"I had not intended that she would be so cruel, as this." She said, once her inspection was finished. And again Drizzt felt that she was speaking more to her self then him, but that last caused him to find his voice.
"What are you talking about?" He gasped. His body truly felt that his body was going to ignite in to flames at any moment.
"The poison takes about six days in it's self to take hold of the body. After that the poison will consume the victim in the last day. It seems to me that she sped up the process. The poison has taken hold of your body, Drizzt."
With that cold analysis Drizzt vagly wished that he had not asked. But be fore he could respond there was intense flare of heat through his body, and he cried out.
Jade, could not fathom why Raven would have the poison speed its hold over his body, knowing why she was after him it did not make sense. None the less she was not prepared for this; she needed to prepare the potion! Would he last that long?
As if to answer her, Drizzt's body jerks fiercely, and he cried out in pain, again.
"I feel as if I …am burning from …within!" He gasped.
She had to get the poison to slow down. Thinking fast, she griped him under the arms and pulled him to his feet.
"I need you to walk, can you do that?" She asked him. He looked at her, and then nodded. He leaned heavily on to her shoulders to keep him up and was able to keep pace with her as she hurried him out of the room; she turned down the hall away from her private rooms and to the lower chambers.
Her home was an elaborate set of tunnels that ran from the top of a great cliff of the Fourth Peak Mountain, down to below surface of the valley. There were many rooms on almost every level of the complex, but she had brought Drizzt to the only room on the same level as hers so she could keep an eye on him. Now she wished that she had put him in the dungeons, only because they were closer to the room she sought. She did not slow her feet as she rounded corners, and flew down steps. Drizzt was leaning heavily on her the whole way but managed to stay on his feet. Every now and then he would cry out when the pain would grow more intense.
"Almost there, we are almost there, just a little further." She would whisper to him. Please let this work!! She begged silently.
Drizzt, gripping tightly to Jade, was surprised with her tender words, even through the fog of his pain; he could see that she truly was concerned. There was so much that he did not know about her, but he felt now that she was not what he had thought she was. He wanted to tell her but he had to concentrate on keeping his feet moving and under him, as to not trip him or her.
After what seemed like hours of down ward travel, Jade brought him to a room at the end of a dark hall. She helped him lean against a wall while she fumbled for a key to the door. He looked around as he tried to catch his breath. The hall was dark and cool, he saw that there were markings on the door, which Jade was trying to open, but that was it. He closed his eyes and let the cool stone of the wall cool what it could of his flamed body. He could feel the heat rise; his entire body felt as though he was boiling from the inside out!
As if to emphasize his thoughts his body flared once more the heat more intense then ever, he cried out again, not able to stop himself, his legs buckled underneath him and he half feared he would pass out again. But Jade grabbed him to keep him from falling and rushed him through the now opened door.
Jade could feel the heat pouring from his body; he was soaked from head to toe with sweat. She could not tell how much longer he had before his body ignited. Killing him as the poison went from potion to fire.
But she saw what she need and headed straight for it, not caring about her self in the least, her thoughts on the burning body next to her. As she came closer to the edge of the out cropping cliff she rapped both arms around him, clutching him to her. Closing her eyes she prayed to her gods that this worked. Then she leaped off.
Drizzt could not see where they were going, so he was unprepared when the stone floor was lost beneath him and he felt him self falling. Jade pulled him close to her and he griped her tight as they plunged in to the water of the under ground lake.
The icy water hit his body with a force that nearly knocked him out, he felt the heat in his body flare for an instant then it was force down by the freezing waters. Drizzt felt his head break the surface and he gasped for air. Opening his eyes, he only saw the ice green orbs of the witches eyes, the fear that was present there was startling.
"Are you okay?" She asked. He nodded and tried to give her a reassuring smile. She sighed, her grip on him tightened as she started to swim toward the shore, pulling him along with her. His body had no strength left in it to help, and was forced to let her strong strokes pull him closer to land.
Once there, she helped him stagger to the sand where they both fell down in a heap, he laid on him back breathing deeply. Wondering how close he came to death.
Jade was tired, but she could not tell if it was from the frantic run down the several floors, or her fear of Drizzt's death.
She looked over at him, laying on his back next her; she could barely see him in the dim light from the few magical torches that lit the large cavern. He laid there, eyes close and breathing heavily. The sand from the beach stuck to his still wet skin. His long white hair was splayed out next to him, reaching down to his forearms. She marveled at just how striking he was. Before she knew what she was doing she was pushing a strand of hair out of his face.
Her breath caught in her throat as he opened his eyes and looked up at her. She had not realized that she was leaning over him. And she quickly sat back and looked away.
"Are you okay?" She asked again. Not knowing what else to say. Feeling him stir next to her, she looked back at him. His lavender eyes starring intently in to hers.
"Yes. Thank you." He was sitting up and to her relief and dismay he looked away from her and around the room.
"What is this place?" He asked. She looked around to. Her gaze finding the high ledge that they had dropped in to the water from.
"This is a holy place of my people. They, we, would come here to commune with our gods, and for all ceremonies. This was the largest cavern in our complex, and the lake served as a conduit to our gods." She felt a pang of longing she had not felt in a long time. She hated to speak of her people. Of her past as one of the lost race. She cleared her throat to ride her self from the memory.
"This is where I will perform the cure." She said flatly, and all the emotion that she had so far spoken with, gone. She looked back at him.
His eyes were on her. He was looking at her with a look that was a cross between bewilderment and anger.
"What?" She asked hotly.
"You! I do not understand you! One minute you are kind and caring and then next… What are you hiding?" He replied. His voice was strong, and she could tell that he was truly angry. She remained silent, not wanting to speak, afraid of what would be said.
"Please!" He pleaded. He looked away. After a moment he looked back at her.
"I need to know what you want from me. What promise do you require? Tell me and put my thought at rest." His hand coming to wrap around his stomach. And he grimaced as if in pain. She reached out to him thinking that his body was heating up again; he flinched away from her, and went on. Shaking his head in frustration.
"You show me such compassion; a kindness that I know is the real woman that you are." Those lavender orbs turned to her. "Yet you are here, asking something from me that I can not willing give with out the truth. You turn cold when you speak of why you have brought me here. I can see that there is some thing that you are not telling me." His face was pleading her to tell him. And at that moment all she wanted to do was tell him everything. She could see her self wrapping her arms around him and telling him all her fears and all that she had ever done in her life, but then she remembered what she had agreed to do, and the reason that he was here, and why Raven had poisoned him in the first place. She could not just tell him everything. But looking at him now her new she had to tell him something.
"I can not tell you what you want to hear right now." His eyes grew angry, so she hurried on. "But I can tell you that I am not an evil person."
He smiled, yet no mirth was in his eyes as he looked at her, "How am I supposed to believe that?" He asks.
"I have not done anything to you that would mark me as such. I have done all that I can do to keep you from dieing. Is that the actions of some one who would mean you harm?" She was starting to lose her temper and tried to push it back.
"Yes, Jade, you have kept me alive, but for your own gain. If I refuse your oath you will let this poison take hold of me and watch me die!"
"No." She said softly.
"Yes, that is what you have said. If you were so keen to helping me then why not just cure the poison?"
"Because I can't!" She cried."Not yet."
Again that twisted smile crossed his handsome features.
"That is right; you have to wait for me to agree to help you. You could have just cured me and then asked it, knowing that I owed you that. But no."
"I never meant to prolong this for you, I would never torture you like this if I could have helped it!" His words hurt her more because she would have done just that if she could have.
"Then let me go!" He said heatedly. His frustration appearing a flame in his eyes. "If you can not cure me now then let me go and find my own way to live. Why do you keep me here? My friends will be looking for me. Let me go to them."
"No! No one can cure you besides me. And Raven is still out there looking for you. If you leave she will find you that much faster, she could cure this poison, yes, but only to turn you over to her patron; who wants you alive. I will not let that happen. Please Drizzt." She pleaded "Just trust me on this."
He only shook his head; his faced showed so much frustration. He let his head fall in to he hands. After a moment his voice floated up through his white main of hair that hid his face from her view.
"And your 'oath' that you so desire of me, how am I to take it? I do not even know what it is you want of me."
Drizzt, please… trust me." She whispered back to him.
He looked up at her then, his face burning with anger, yet those lavender orbs were pleading.
"You keep asking me that. To trust you. Yet how can I trust you, I do not know anything about you!" He Cried. He was shaking in his anger, and she could feel his frustration, knew where it was he was coming from. She would not trust her self if the situations were reversed. He wanted to know about her. And she knew she should tell him, but the question she asked her self was not should she tell him, but could she tell him? She thought. She had never spoken to any one about herself. Shrouding herself in mystery, going by Witch, hiding all that she was. But now she would have to give up that charades. Could she do it? She asked her self again. Looking back at him she caught her self staring in to those wondrous eyes. She saw that there was so much understanding there in those depths. And lack of judgment. Even though he tried to sound cold and uncaring she knew his soul would understand, or try to. He who had faced prejudice from every race he encountered. He would not judge her. But he did not have to, she was her own judge and jury, and as she put it her own executioner. But it was Drizzt who asked this of her, and looking at him now she felt herself start to tremble.
I know cliff hanger. I am not good at those yet but I am trying! LOL! Thanks for all the reviews and please keep them comming, I need all the help I can Get! Cheers!