Chapter 29 Chapter 24 The Mark of the Drow

A strange wail echoed between the stone walls of the cave complex, the tone was primitive and painful, and the resonance penetrated to the center of the mountain. The points of Le'lorinel's sword and dagger sank into the floor.The elf ended his training session and turned to face the open door of the house and the passage outside, where the terrible cry still echoed. "What's going on?" Le'lorinel asked as a figure rushed past.The elf hurried after him, and he supposed it was Jule Pepper. Le'lorinel pursued Jule along winding corridors to a set of large rooms directly above those belonging to Sheila Kree and her trusted marked brethren, and he entered the Lairs of Guruga and Brugge.

Le'lorinel had to dodge aside as he entered, as a huge chair flew by and crashed into the stone.Choguruga's horrific cries and screams came again.Le'lorinel looked past the female ogre, realizing it was a mournful wail. For in the middle of the floor lay the bloated corpse of another ogre, a young and strong ogre.Sheila Kree and Bellany stood over the corpse, while another ogre knelt beside it, its huge, ugly head resting on top of the corpse.At first, Le'lorinel thought it was Brugg, but then the elf saw the giant ogre leader watching from the wall behind them.It didn't take long for Le'lorinel to figure out that there was nothing sincere about the mask of pain that Bruegel was wearing.

From Le'lorinel's point of view it might have been Brugge's doing. "Basenk! My baby!" Choguruga screamed, with a concern very different from that of a typical female ogre mother. "Basenk! Basenk!" Sheila Kree stepped up to speak to the female ogre, perhaps to comfort her, but Choguruga then went into another dancing fit as she lifted a rock from the huge fire pit and threw it against the wall Up—not too far from the crouching Brugger, Le'lorinel noticed. "They found Basenk's body at an outpost to the north," Bellany explained to Jules and Le'lorinel, as the witch approached them. "Looks like a couple of them were killed. The guy, Pork, thought it would be safer to bring back Basenk's body," she explained, pointing to the ogre kneeling beside the body.

"It sounds like you don't think he should," Jule Pepper pointed out. Bellany shrugged, as if it didn't matter. "Look at that poor fellow," she whispered, pointing her jaw at the crazed Choguruga. "She's likely to kill half the ogres in Golden Bay, or allow herself to be killed by Brugge." "Or by Sheila," Jule said, because it was clear that Sheila Kree seemed to be losing her patience with the female ogre. "There's always that possibility," Bellany said deadpan. "How did this happen?" Le'lorinel asked. "It's not too unusual," Bellany replied. "We lose some ogres every year, especially in winter. These idiots have absolutely no good sense to restrain their need to smack people. Soldiers in the Spine of the World community are veterans, even Drogu It's not easy for a monster as strong and well-armed as Luga's ogre."

As Bellany answered, Le'lorinel moved quietly towards Basink's swollen corpse.At this point, he noticed that Sheila seemed to be temporarily in control of Choguruga, and the elf dared to move a little closer, looking down at the corpse. Le'lorinel suddenly found it difficult to breathe.The cuts on the body are numerous, beautifully placed, and curved in many different places.Curved like the blade of a machete.Noticing a gash behind Basenk's hip, the elf reached down and turned the body slightly on its side.The imprint resembles the imprint of a beautiful machete, very much like the knife Le'lorinel let him use when Tunewek played a certain dark elf, and Le'lorinel suddenly looked up, trying to understand all this , he realized that it was not ordinary soldiers who knocked down this strong ogre.

The elf almost laughed out loud - the desire to laugh only got stronger when Le'lorinel noticed that Brugg was sobbing and wiping his eyes as if they were crying, and they were pretty sure his eyes weren't crying .But another howl from behind was a sure reminder that a certain female ogre might not be happy for anyone to take this tragedy lightly. Le'lorinel stood up quickly, walked back to Jules and Bellany, then continued to move out of the room, running down the hallway to the safety of the upper floor.There, the elf gasped and laughed heartily, trembling and terrified at the same time.

Because Le'lorinel knew that Drizzt Do'Urden did it, and knew that the drow was in this area—not too far away, if that ogre could kill Basenk in such cold weather. If shipped back. "Thank you, E'kressa," the elf whispered. Le'lorinel instinctively stretched out his hands towards the sword and dagger, and then closed them together in front of him, turning the magic ring with the fingers of his right hand on the fingers of his left hand.After all these years, it was finally happening.With careful planning, he studied Drizzt's fighting style and techniques, trained and consulted some of the best swordsmen in northern Faerûn on how to counter the drow's mobility.He pays the price, labors for years, to pay for rings, partners, information.After so much, it's finally going to happen.

Le'lorinel could barely breathe.Drizzt was nearby.It must have been that dangerous dark elf who killed Basenk. The elf paced up and down the room, then went out into the hall, past Bellany and Sheila's room, to the little room at the end of the corridor that Jules Pepper had furnished for the winter. Not long after, the three women arrived, shaking their heads, telling crude jokes and laughing at Choguruga's antics, while Sheila Kree was imitating the crazed female ogre perfectly. "It was a bad time to go," Bellany pointed out. "You missed the big show." "Poor Choguruga," Jule said with a grin.

"You mean poor Brugge," Sheila quickly corrected, and the three of them laughed. "Well, you'd better tell me what you know about this," Sheila said to Le'lorinel, and the elf didn't join in the laughter, didn't show the slightest smile, and in those blue and gold Behind the eyeballs, a blazing flame burned. "Apparently, I was here when Basenk was killed," Le'lorinel reminded. Bellany was the first to laugh. "What do you know," said the Witch. "As soon as you walked up to Basenk's body, you knew..." "You think that damned drow did it to Basenk," Sheila Kree reasoned.

Le'lorinel didn't answer, but kept an extremely serious and heavy face. "That's what you think!" "The mountains here are a great place, with many dangerous enemies," interjected Jule Pepper. "Thousands of enemies could lay their hands on that stupid young ogre." Before Le'lorinel had time to retort, Bellany said, "Mmm," and stepped forward, in front of the other two, a delicate hand raised to his pursed lips. "But you looked at the wound," the witch reasoned. "A curved wound, like a machete," Le'lorinel confirmed.

"A sword can cut a wound like that if the target is falling when the stab is struck," Sheila put in. "The wound doesn't tell you as much as you think." "They told me everything I needed to know," Le'lorinel replied. "They landed with precision," Jule reasoned. "The swordsman who cut down Basenk is not a novice." "And I know that Choguruga gave him many of the potions you gave her," she added to Bellany. This made even Sheila raise her eyebrows in surprise.Basenk is no ordinary ogre.He's huge, strong, and well-trained, and some of those potions are horrible enhancements. "That's Drizzt," Le'lorinel said confidently. "He's nearby, probably on his way to us." "That's what the fortuneteller who sent you here told me," said Bellany, who knew the story well. "E'kressa the dwarf. He sent me to find the mark of Aegis' Fang, for that mark will bring Drizzt Do'Urden." Jule and Bellany looked at each other, then turned to face Sheila Kree, who was standing with her head bowed, lost in thought. "It could be soldiers in the tower," the pirate chief said at last, "it could be reinforcements from one of the hamlets. It could be a band of wandering heroes, or even other monsters, trying to claim the spoils of war." "It could be Drizzt Do'Urden," cut Jule, who had firsthand experience dealing with dangerous drow and their heroic friends. Sheila looked at the tall, slender woman, nodded, then turned her gaze to Le'lorinel. "Are you ready for him—if that's him, and coming here?" The elf stood tall and straight, chest proudly held out. "I haven't prepared for anything else in years." "If he can take Basenk down, he'll be hard to fight, don't you doubt," the pirate chief added. "We're all going to be there to help," Bellany pointed out, but Le'lorinel didn't seem intimidated by the prospect. "I know him as he is," explained the elf. "If Drizzt Do'Urden comes to us, he's dead." "Under your sword," Bellany said with a grin. "Or by his own sword," Le'lorinel replied with his usual mysticism. "Then we hope it's Drizzt," Sheila agreed. "But you can't be sure. Those towers in the mountains are heavily guarded. Many of Choguruga's kin have been killed for fighting them, or simply for being on the road. There are too many soldiers and too many Adventurer with a heroic mind. You can't tell if it's Drizzt or someone else." Le'lorinel didn't argue with that.Let Sheila Kree think what she loves. Yet Le'lorinel heard E'kressa's words again. Le'lorinel knew it was Drizzt, and Le'lorinel prepared.Nothing else mattered—Sheila, Drizzt's friends, the ogres, none of it mattered.