03 The Halfling's Gem by Forgotten Realms

Author:Forgotten Realms [Realms, Forgotten]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-04-10T14:55:15.011000+00:00

"Just a boy!" Bruenor explained to the drow as he approached. "A street boy," Drizzt corrected, stepping around Bruenor and Wulfgar and starting back, "with eyes and ears that miss little. "How can you set us up?" Drizzt whispered to Dondon while moving close to the building, out of sight of the too curious hordes. Dondon shrugged. "There is, plenty to steal; a whole bunch of merchants came in today. What are you looking for?" Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Catti-brie took up defensive positions around Drizzt and the boy, their eyes outward to the streets but their ears trained on the suddenly interesting conversation. Drizzt crouched low and led Dondon's gaze with his own toward the building at the end of the circle. "Pook's house," Dondon remarked offhandedly. "Toughest house in Calimport." "But it has a weakness," Drizzt prompted. "They all do," Dondon replied calmly, playing perfectly the role of a cocky street survivor. "Have you ever been in there?" "Maybe I have." "Have you ever seen a hundred gold pieces?" Dondon let his eyes light up, and he purposely and pointedly shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Get him back in the rooms," Catti-brie said. "Ye be drawing too many looks out here." Dondon readily agreed, but he shot Drizzt a warning in the form of an icy stare and proclaimed, "I can count to a hundred!" When they got back to the room, Drizzt and Bruenor fed Dondon a steady stream of coins while the halfling laid out the way to a secret back entrance to the guildhouse. "Even the thieves," Dondon proclaimed, "do not know of it!" The friends gathered closely, eager for the details. Dondon made the whole operation sound easy. Too easy. Drizzt rose - and turned away, hiding his chuckle from the informant. Hadn't they just been talking about Entreri making contact? Barely minutes before this enlightening boy so conveniently arrived to guide them. "Wulfgar, take off his shoes," Drizzt said. His three friends turned to him curiously. Dondon squirmed in his chair. "His shoes," Drizzt said again, turning back and pointing to Dondon's feet. Bruenor, so long a friend of a halfling, caught the drow's reasoning and didn't wait for Wulfgar to respond. The dwarf grabbed at Dondon's left boot and pulled it off, revealing a thick patch of foot hair - the foot of a halfling. Dondon shrugged helplessly and sank back in his chair. The meeting was taking the exact course that Entreri had predicted. "He said he could set us up," Catti-brie remarked sarcastically, twisting Dondon's words into a more sinister light. "Who sent ye?" Bruenor growled. "Entreri," Wulfgar answered for Dondon. "He works for Entreri, sent here to lead us into a trap." Wulfgar leaned over Dondon, blocking out the candlelight with his huge frame. Bruenor pushed the barbarian aside and took his place. With his boyish looks, Wulfgar simply could not be as imposing as the pointy-nosed, red-bearded, fire-eyed dwarven fighter with the battered helm. "So, ye little sneakster," Bruenor growled into Dondon's face.

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