Homeland (The Legend of Drizzt #1)(86)

“He killed Nalfein, the brother I never met.”

“You know of this?” said Zak. “Perhaps Dinin suspects that another secondboy will follow the same course he took to become the elderboy of House Do’Urden.”

“Enough,” Drizzt growled, tired of the whole stupid system of ascension. How well you know it, Zaknafein, he thought. How many did you murder to attain your position?

“An earth elemental,” Zak said, blowing a low whistle with the words. “It is a powerful foe that you defeated this day,” He bowed low, showing Drizzt mockery beyond any doubt.

“What is next for the young hero? A daemon, perhaps? A demigod? Surely there is nothing that can-.”

“Never have I heard such senseless words stream from your mouth,” Drizzt retorted. Now it was time for some sarcasm of his own. “Is it that I have inspired jealousy in another besides my brother?”

“Jealousy?” Zak cried. “Wipe your nose, sniveling little boy! A dozen earth elementals have fallen to my blade! Daemons, too! Do not overestimate your deeds or your abilities. You are one warrior among a race of warriors. To forget that surely will prove fatal.” He ended the line with pointed emphasis, almost in a sneer, and Drizzt began to consider again just how real their appointed “practice,” in the gym would become.

“I know my abilities,” Drizzt replied, “and my limitations. I have learned to survive.”

“As have I,” Zak shot back, “for so many centuries!”

“The gym awaits,” Drizzt said calmly.

“Your mother awaits,” Zak corrected. “She bids us all to the chapel. Fear not, though. There will be time for our meeting.”

Drizzt walked past Zak without another word, suspecting that his and Zak’s blades would finish the conversation for them. What had become of Zaknafein? Drizzt wondered. Was this the same teacher who had trained him those years before the Academy? Drizzt could not sort through his feelings. Was he seeing Zak differently because of the things he had learned of Zak’s exploits, or was there truly something different, something harder, about the weapon master’s demeanor since Drizzt had returned from the Academy?

The sound of a whip brought Drizzt from his contemplations. “I am your patron!” he heard Rizzen say.

“That’s of no consequence!” retorted a female voice, the voice of Briza. Drizzt slipped to the corner of the next intersection and peeked around. Briza and Rizzen faced off, Rizzen unarmed, but Briza holding her snake- headed whip.

“Patron,” Briza laughed, “a meaningless title. You are a male lending your seed to the matron and of no more importance.”

“Four I have sired,” Rizzen said indignantly.

“Three!” Briza corrected, snapping the whip to accentuate the point. “Vierna is Zaknafein’s, not yours! Nalfein is dead, leaving only two. One of those is female and above you. Only Dinin is truly under your rank!”

Drizzt sank back against the wall and looked behind him to the empty corridor he had just walked. He had always suspected that Rizzen was not his true father. The male had never paid him any mind, had never scolded him or praised him or offered to him any advice or training. To hear Briza say it, though... and Rizzen not deny it!

Rizzen fumbled about for some retort to Briza’s stinging words. “Does Matron Malice know of your desires?” he snarled. “Does she know that her eldest daughter seeks her title?”

“Every eldest daughter seeks the title of matron mother,” Briza laughed at him. “Matron Malice would be a fool to suspect otherwise. I assure you that she is not, nor am I. I will get the title from her when she is weak with age. She knows and accepts this as fact!”

“You admit that you will kill her?”

“If not I, then Vierna. If not Vierna, then Maya. It is our way, stupid male. It is the word of Lloth!” Rage burned in Drizzt as he heard the evil proclamations, but he remained silent at the corner.

“Briza will not wait for age to steal her mother’s power,” Rizzen snarled, “not when a dagger will expedite the transfer. Briza hungers for the throne of the house!”

Rizzen’s next words came out as an indecipherable scream as the six-headed whip went to work again and again.

Drizzt wanted to intervene, to rush out and cut them both down, but, of course, he could not. Briza acted now as she had been taught, followed the words of the Spider Queen in asserting her dominance over Rizzen. She wouldn’t kill him, Drizzt knew.

But what if Briza got carried away in the frenzy? What if she did kill Rizzen? In the empty void that was beginning to grow in his heart, Drizzt wondered if he even cared.

“You let him escape,” Matron SiNafay roared at her son. “You will learn not to disappoint me.”

“No, my matron!” Masoj protested. “I hit him squarely with a lightning bolt. He never even suspected the blow to be aimed at him! I could not finish the deed; the monster had me caught in the gate to its own plane!”

SiNafay bit her lip, forced to accept her son’s reasoning. She knew that she had given Masoj a difficult mission.

Drizzt was a powerful foe, and to kill him without leaving an obvious trail would not be easy.

“I will get him,” Masoj promised, determination showing on his face “I have the weapon readied; Drizzt will be dead before the tenth cycle, as you commanded.”