Starlight Enclave by R. A. Salvatore

Author:R. A. Salvatore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Published: 2021-08-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Where the Hot Springs Flow

“We have no magic, few weapons,” Catti-brie whispered to her friends, lifting her hands in surrender. She stared in disbelief, for these were indeed drow, without doubt, in hair color and the varying hues of skin color, all with that dusky gray base. A patrol from Menzoberranzan would have appeared no different, except for the outfits they wore and the swords and short spears they carried. The material of these blades was not familiar to Catti-brie, for they were white, or bluish white, and one even shone fully blue. She couldn’t really tell from this distance, but they looked more like ice than metal, somewhat translucent—or perhaps, she thought, it was some type of glassteel. She started slowly toward the newcomers, her hands raised and empty.

The other three companions, all sitting, made no move, just stared at the unexpected drow.

The fox family, though, went running at the sight, but not away. Yipping and barking, they rushed for the drow, the adults bounding up before them and skidding to a stop, sitting excitedly, one lifting a paw and patting at the air.

The figure farthest from the companions turned back to the tunnel and began signaling with his hands.

Zaknafein, who was closest to the newcomers, began moving his fingers to mimic the strange drow.

“He is calling to and for others,” Jarlaxle whispered to Catti-brie.

“We should run,” Entreri whispered.

“Back out into the cold?” Catti-brie said openly. “We’ll die.”

The sound of her voice had five handcrossbows coming up at them as one. One of the nearer drow asked, “How did you get here?”

It took Catti-brie a moment to understand the words. She recognized the language immediately as Drow, but it sounded to her quite different from the language spoken in Menzoberranzan in both dialect and syntax, and with one word she did not recognize at all. Frighteningly, the syntax reminded her of that used by the slaad creature masquerading as a drow in the cave they had taken as their first shelter in the northland.

“They know the silent hand language,” Jarlaxle whispered so that his nearby companions could hear. “Could a giant frog even do that?”

“Yet they sound like the other one,” Catti-brie replied in similarly quiet tones.

“If that monster thought it was fooling actual drow of this land, wouldn’t it?”

“Tell them nothing of the fight in the cave,” Entreri whispered. “Nothing.”

“How did you get here?” the drow man asked again, more insistently.

“Well met,” Jarlaxle answered in the drow tongue, using his most charming and gracious voice, as if they were old friends. “We came in to get out of the cold, nothing more.”

“Keep talking,” the nearest of the newcomers prompted.

“We would have died out there. We were surprised to find it warm in here, but without it . . .” Jarlaxle let it hang there with a shrug.

“That is not what we have asked from you. How did you come to this region in the first place?”

“We’ve been hiking for tendays, looking for a long-lost associate.”

“It’s been cold for tendays,” the doubting interrogator replied.

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