The Crystal Shard(The Icewind Dale Trilogy 1)(106)

"Then what o' yerself?" asked Bruenor.

"I go with you," Wulfgar replied. "To repay my last debt."

"Ye owe me nothin'!" Bruenor declared.

"To you I am paid," Wulfgar agreed. "And I have paid all that I owe to Ten-Towns, and to my own people as well. But there is one debt I am not yet free of." He turned to face Drizzt squarely. "To you, friend elf."

Drizzt didn't know how to reply. He clapped the huge man on the shoulder and smiled warmly.

* * *

"Come with us, Rumblebelly," Bruenor said after they had finished an excellent lunch in the palace. "Four adventurers, out on the open plain. It'll do ye some good an' take a bit o' that belly o' yers away!"

Regis grasped his ample stomach in both hands and jiggled it. "I like my belly and intend to keep it, thank you. I may even add some more to it!"

"I cannot begin to understand why you all insist on going on this quest, anyway," he said more seriously. He had spent many hours during the winter trying to talk Bruenor and Drizzt out of their chosen path. "We have an easy life here; why would you want to leave?"

"There is more to living than fine food and soft pillows, little friend," said Wulfgar. "The lust of adventure burns our blood. With peace in the region, Ten-Towns cannot offer the thrill of danger or the satisfaction of victory." Drizzt and Bruenor nodded their assent, though Regis shook his head.

"An' ye call this pitiful place wealth?" Bruenor chuckled, snapping his stubby fingers. "When I return from Mithril Hall, I'll build ye a home twice this size an' edged in gems like ye never seen afore!"

But Regis was determined that he had witnessed his last adventure. After the meal was finished, he accompanied his friends to the door. "If you make it back..."

"Your house shall be our first stop," Drizzt assured him.

They met Kemp of Targos when they walked outside. He was standing across the road from Regis's front step, apparently looking for them.

"He is waiting for me," Wulfgar explained, smiling at the notion that Kemp would go out of his way to be rid of him.

"Farewell, good spokesman," Wulfgar called, bowing low. "Prayne de crabug ahm rinedere be-yogt iglo kes gron."

Kemp flashed an obscene gesture at the barbarian and stalked away. Regis nearly doubled over with laughter.

Drizzt recognized the words, but was puzzled as to why Wulfgar had spoken them to Kemp. "You once told me that those words were an old tundra battle cry," he remarked to the barbarian. "Why would you offer them to the man you most despite?"

Wulfgar stammered over an explanation that would get him out of this jam, but Regis answered for him.

"Battle cry?" the halfling exclaimed. "That is an old barbarian housemother's curse, usually reserved for adulturous old barbarian housefathers." The drow's lavender eyes narrowed on the barbarian as Regis continued. "It means: May the fleas of a thousand reindeer nest in your genitals."

Bruenor broke down into laughter, Wulfgar soon joining. Drizzt couldn't help but go along.

"Come, the day is long," the drow said. "Let, us begin this adventure - it should prove interesting!"

"Where will you go?" Regis asked somberly. A small part of the halfling actually envied his friends; he had to admit that he would miss them.

"To Bremen, first," replied Drizzt. "We shall complete our provisions there and strike out to the southwest."

"Luskan?"

"Perhaps, if the fates deem it."

"Good speed," Regis offered as the three companions started out without further delay.

Regis watched them disappear, wondering how he had ever picked such foolish friends. He shrugged it away and turned back to his palace - there was plenty of food left over from lunch.

He was stopped before he got through the door.

"First Citizen!" came a call from the street. The voice belonged to a warehouseman from the southern section of the city, where the merchant caravans loaded and unloaded. Regis waited for his approach.

"A man, First Citizen," the warehouseman said, bowing apologetically for disturbing so important a person. "Asking about you. He claims to be a representative from the Heroes Society in Luskan, sent to request your presence at their next meeting. He said that he would pay you well."

"His name?"

"He gave none, just this!" The warehouseman opened a small pouch of gold.

It was all that Regis needed to see. He left at once for the rendezvous with the man from Luskan.

Once again, sheer luck saved the halfling's life, for he saw the stranger before the stranger saw him. He recognized the man at once, though he hadn't seen him in years, by the emerald-encrusted dagger hilt protruding from the sheath on his hip. Regis had often contemplated stealing that beautiful weapon, but even he had a limit to his foolhardiness. The dagger belonged to Artemis Entreri.

Pasha Pook's prime assassin.

* * *

The three companions left Bremen before dawn the next day. Anxious to begin the adventure, they made good time and were far out into the tundra when the first rays of the sun peeked over the eastern horizon behind them.

Still, Bruenor was not surprised when he noticed Regis scrambling across the empty plain to catch up with them.