Chapter 14 Chapter 11 In vain

"Right here?" Battle asked furiously, so that his rough voice could drown out the rustling wind.He had left Mithril Hall with Regis and Bruenor—actually forcing the halfling to take him out—to find Artemis Entreri's body. "Find clues where clues are found," Panter said with typical puns. Regis pulled down the hood of his oversized cloak so the wind wouldn't sting him.They were in a narrow valley, a ravine where two gales seemed to merge into a rapid. "Nearby," Regis said, shrugging to indicate he wasn't sure.When he came out to find Entreri, badly wounded, he had taken the higher route, along the canyon tops and other ledges.He was sure he had been in this area before, but from this angle the scene looked so different that he couldn't be sure.

"We will find him, my lord," Thiberdorf assured Bruno. "What's the use of that?" muttered a frustrated Bruno. Regis flinched at the dwarf's flat tone.He could clearly tell that Bruno had fallen into a state of despair again.The dwarves failed to find their way through the maze of tunnels beneath Mithril Hall, but a thousand dwarves continued their search.News from the east was also bleak—if Catti-brie and Drizzt had been to Silvermoon, they were far from there by now.Bruno gradually realized that the whole search was futile.Weeks passed, and he still hadn't found a way out of Mithril Hall to reach his friends.The dwarf king gradually lost hope.

"But, my lord!" roared Panter, "he knows the way." "He's dead," Bruno reminded the fighting maniac. "Don't worry!" Panter yelled. "The priest can talk to the dead—maybe he's got a map. Oh, we'll find our way to Drow City, I said, and I'll fight for my king! I Kill all the elves—except that ranger friend," he added, winking at Regis, "and bring your daughter back!" Bruno just sighed and signaled Pant to continue searching.Grumbling as he was, the dwarf king secretly hoped that the sight of Entreri's mangled body would give him some satisfaction.

They continued their search for a while, Regis occasionally glancing out from under his hood to get his bearings.Finally, the halfling recognized a high outcrop of a mineral vein, a spiky rock sticking out. "There," he pointed, "it must be there." Panter glanced up, then headed straight for the valley floor.He crawled around, sniffing the ground as if he could smell corpses. Regis looked at Panter, amused, and turned to Bruno, who was facing the wall.The dwarf king rested his hand on the stone and shook his head. "What's the matter?" Regis asked, walking over.Hearing Regis' question, and noticing his king, Panter hurried to them.

As Regis approached, he noticed a gray mass tangled across the stone wall.Keith moved closer as Bruno tore a bit of light off the stone to show them. "What is it?" Regis asked again, boldly touching it.A sticky thread stuck to his retracted fingers, and it took some effort to shake off the sticky stuff. Bruno made several difficult swallows.Panter ran off to sniff the wall, then ran to examine the other wall of the canyon. "It's something left by a spider's web." The dwarf king replied gloomyly.Bruenor and Regis looked up at the protruding stone together, wondering silently what a spiderweb that had appeared under the fallen assassin meant.

※※※※ The movements of the fingers were so fast that he could not see clearly, giving instructions that the assassin could not understand.He shook his head abruptly, and the excited drow waved his hand and said, "Ibris." Then he left. Ibris.The words echoed in Artemis Entreri's mind."Trash" in drow, the word he had heard most since Jarlaxle had brought him to this hideous place.What did the drow warrior expect from him?He was only just beginning to learn the delicate drow sign language, a language with so delicate finger movements that Entreri doubted that even one in twenty humans could even get by.At the same time, he was also desperately learning Drow's spoken language.He knew a few words and had a rudimentary grasp of drow sentence structure, allowing him to put together basic meaning.

And he understood the word Ibris perfectly. The assassin leaned against the wall of the small cave, where the Dayet mercenary group was based this week.He felt insignificant and humble, more than ever.Jarlaxle had first revived him in a hole in the ravine outside Mithril Hall, where he thought the mercenary chief had proposed taking him to Menzoberranzan (which Entreri now thinks was more like order) was a brilliant idea, a wonderful adventure. This is no adventure, this is living hell.Entreri was a nondrow human among twenty thousand intolerant drow.They don't particularly hate humans, no more than they hate other races.But because he was a non-drow race, the once-mighty Assassin found him lower than the lowest rank of drow fighters in Dayet's mercenary regiment.No matter what he did, no matter whom he killed, Artemis Entreri would never rank higher than twenty thousand and one in Menzoberranzan.

And those spiders!Entreri hated spiders and all kinds of things that crawled around drow cities.They are bred into different breeds that are larger and more poisonous, and are kept as pets.And killing a spider is a crime, and it will be punished with a punishment called kissing the mark of Quael, that is, tortured to death.At the eastern end of the cavern, where moss and mushrooms grew thickly along the shores of East Negaton Lake, Entreri was often sent to keep watch on the goblin slaves grazing there, while thousands of spiders crawled about.They crawled around and over him, dangling a thread that dangled inches from the tormented man's face.

The assassin drew out the long sword that was shining with green light, and raised the sharp blade to his eyes.At least there were more lights in the city now, and for reasons unknown to Entreri, magical lights and flickering torches were becoming more and more common in Menzoberranzan. "It would be unwise to dye such a beautiful weapon with drow's blood." A familiar voice came from the door, speaking Common Tongue easily.Entreri did not take his eyes off his sword when Jarlaxle entered the room. "You think I'm capable of hurting a mighty drow," the assassin replied, "how can I be a piece of shit..." he was about to ask back.But Jarlaxle's laugh mocked his self-pity.Cui Li looked at the mercenary leader, saw him holding the wide-brimmed hat in his hand, and fiddled with the feathers of the Dai Cuima bird on it.

"I have never underestimated your outstanding ability, assassin," Jarlaxle said. "You have survived several battles with Drizzt Do'Urden. No one in Menzoberranzan can match you." "I'm on a par with him," Entreri said through gritted teeth.It definitely hurt him.He had fought Drizzt several times, but only twice had he not been interrupted prematurely.Both times, Entreri was the loser.Entreri was eager to win back and prove that he was the stronger fighter.However, he had to at least admit to himself in his heart that he didn't want to fight Drizzt anymore.After his first defeat to Drizzt in the muddy sewers and streets of Calimport, Entreri lived in a day-to-day plot of vengeance, his whole life revolving around one thing—with Trace. One more fight.However, after the second defeat, he was hung pitifully scarred and pitiful on a rock jutting out of the windswept canyon...

but why?Entreri didn't understand.Why did he no longer wish to fight that drow rebellion again?Has the conclusion been proven that he has decided to surrender?Or was he just too scared?The emotion troubled Artemis Entreri, as unsettling as he had felt in the drow city. "I'm on par with him," he repeated quietly, trying to muster up his confidence. "If I were you I wouldn't say that openly," replied the mercenary chief. "Dandro Banri and Yodjante Angodan will fight to decide who will kill you first." .” Entreri did not blink; his sword shone brightly, as if reflecting his seething pride and rage. Jarlaxle laughed again. "Determine who will fight you first." The mercenary leader corrected, bowing low to express his apology. The dazed assassin still didn't blink his eyes.Perhaps killing a well-known drow warrior would restore his confidence?He hesitated.Or be defeated again, and living to face defeat is worse than being killed. Entreri sheathed his sword abruptly.He had never been so indecisive.Even as a child making his living on the unforgiving streets of Calishite's crowded city, Entreri had the confidence to win with confidence.But not here, not in this place. "Your subordinates insulted me." He suddenly attacked, turning the disadvantage in the way of a mercenary leader. Jarlaxle laughed and pushed the hat back on his bald head. "Kill some of them," he suggested, and Entreri wondered if the ruthless, calculating drow was joking. "The others won't bother you." Entreri spat on the ground.Don't bother him?Others would wait until he was asleep and then chop him up to feed the spiders in Lake Tonegaton.The thought interrupted the assassin's squinting thoughts, and made him wince.He had already killed a female (worse than killing a male in Menzoberranzan), and some family in the city might be starving their spiders for a feast of human flesh right now. "Oh, but you are so rude," said the mercenary chief, as if pitying him.Entreri sighed and looked away, wiping the wet spit from his mouth with his hand.What has he become now?In Calimport, in the guilds, even in front of the pashas and others who claimed to be his master, he had mastered himself.He had been a killer, hired by the most cunning and double-dealing thieves in the Realms, and no one would stand against Artemis Entreri.How he longed to see the gray skies of Calimport again! "Don't worry, my Ebir," Jarlaxle said, using the drow word for a reliable friend, "Ebir." "You'll see the sun rise again." Seeing Entreri's face , the mercenary leader smiled happily, obviously understanding that what he just read was the true thoughts in the assassin's mind. "You and I will watch the dawn from the doorsteps of Mithril Hall." Entreri understood that they were going to follow Drizzt back.Judging from the burning lights of Menzoberranzan, he gradually understood: the Warhammer clan will be crushed this time! "You will see," Jarlaxle continued to tease him, "unless the Horba family finds out at that time that it was you who killed one of their family's matrons." With a knock of his boots and a tilt of his hat, Jarlaxle turned and walked away. Jarlaxle knows!And that woman was a mistress!Overwhelmed with grief, Entreri fell heavily against the wall.How did he know that ugly monster in the alley was actually a damned mistress? The walls seemed to press towards him, suffocating him.Cold sweat broke out from his normally impassive face, and breathing became difficult.All his thoughts were focused on the possibility of escape, but all his thoughts inevitably bumped into the stubborn stone wall.Logic traps him as much as the drow's blade. He tried to escape once, crossing the East Negaton Lake and escaped from Menzoberranzan by the east exit.But where can he go?The Underdark is a labyrinth of treacherous tunnels and caverns filled with monsters that assassins don't know how to deal with.Entreri belonged to a completely different surface world.He didn't know the wild Underdark, and he didn't expect to live long here.Of course he'll never find his way back to the surface.He was trapped, trapped to death, stripped of his pride and dignity, and sooner or later he would end up in a miserable death.