Chapter 27 Chapter 22 Breakthrough

The plains of Quelazzo, where the most proud noble families lived, were unusually quiet.Entreri and Catti-brie, disguised as ordinary drow soldiers, walked silently through the large mushroom bushes, approaching the twenty-foot-high spiderweb fence in Baenre's courtyard. Fear gushed from the two of them like a fountain, but no one spoke, only forcing themselves to focus on the ultimate outcome of this game: either complete success or complete failure. Lying in the shadow behind a stalagmite peak, the two looked at the scene of heavy traffic in front of them: several priests stood on the magic floating disk flashing blue light, flying towards the majestic gate of the central chapel.Entreri recognized Matron Baenre, and knew that some of the people around her might be her daughters.He looked at these magic floating discs with interest, and found that the mistresses of other families were also in the team.

As Jarlaxle had said, it was a liturgy of high houses, and Entreri could not help chuckling: the cunning mercenary chief has everything figured out. "What are you laughing at?" Catti-brie had no idea why Entreri was chuckling. Entreri shook his head and scowled, signaling that the annoying woman should shut up.Catti-brie bit her lower lip to keep from spitting out the venomous words in her head.She needed Entreri now, and he needed her, and their personal feud would have to wait until the time came. Catti-brie and Entreri were biding their time.They crouched behind the stalagmite for a long time, until the long procession finally disappeared in the domed chapel.Entreri thought no less than a thousand drow, perhaps even two thousand, had entered the building, and from his position there were hardly any soldiers or lizardriders guarding the outside.

Another benefit of their choice of this timing was also shown, as Rose's chants rose from the shrine and filled the entire courtyard. "Where's the cat?" Entreri whispered to Catti-brie. Catti-brie considered the statue in her pocket for a moment, then cast a suspicious glance at Baenry's cobweb fence. "We'll get over the wall," she explained, though she had no idea how Entreri was going to get over the seemingly impenetrable fence.The spider's silk on the fence was as thick as Catti-brie's arm. Entreri nodded in agreement, and pulled out the black velvet spider mask and stuck it over his face.Catti-brie couldn't help shivering at the sight of the assassin's face, which looked like a large, grotesque spider.

"I'll just warn you once," the assassin whispered. "You're a soft-hearted fellow, and it would be foolish to do this. There is no such thing as kindness in the land of the drow. Don't try to hurt or knock us out opponents. Just kill them." Catti-brie made no answer.If Entreri could have seen the anger in her heart, he would not have said such a thing. He beckoned her to follow, and slipped carefully from shadow to shadow, under the base of the fence. Entreri tried the threads of the trap, and after making sure his fingers weren't stuck, he got a firm grip on one and ordered Catti-brie to climb onto his back.

"Be careful not to touch the fence!" he warned, "or I'll chop off whatever you stick to." Catti-brie wrapped one arm around his shoulder and wrapped one under his arm around his chest, wrapping the wretch carefully.She clasped her hands tightly together.Hold on as hard as you can. Entreri was small, no more than forty pounds heavier than Catti-brie, but he was powerful, with solid muscles built up from fighting.He began to climb easily, keeping as far away from the dangerous fence as possible, lest Catti-brie's hands should touch the spider web.The tricky part came as Entreri approached the top of the fence, and at the same time he became aware of several lizardriders approaching.

"Don't move, don't even catch your breath," he warned Catti-brie.Next to Entreri was a stalagmite attached to the spider's web fence, and he hid in the shadow of the stalagmite and climbed closer to the top of the fence. If there are no lights in Baen Rui's courtyard.These two will surely be caught, their warm silhouettes are so obvious against the cool stalagmite peak.But there were lamps and many burning torches, so the Baenre soldiers passed without using thermal vision.They passed the fence, not a foot away from where the two intruders were, but Artemis Entreri was a veteran hiding in the shadows, and the guards didn't even notice the strange protrusions on the smooth stalagmites. .

Once they were gone, Entreri straightened up on the fence and stepped over to the other side so Catti-brie could hold on to the stalagmite in her own strength.He just planned to rest for a while, but the woman started to act desperately.He didn't expect that she would let him go and climb up the stone pillar, half-climbed and half-slippery fell down from the back of Shifeng, and then turned somersault into the courtyard of Banrui's house. Entreri scrambled down the fence to catch up with her, took off his spider mask and gave her a hard look, thinking her behavior was reckless and stupid.

Catti-brie ignored him, but stared at the spiteful assassin and asked in a dangerously low voice, "Where is he?" Entreri reached into his pocket to feel the temperature of the magic box, and kept turning to face in different directions.He had already guessed where Drizzt was being held before the magic box was located: the largest stalagmite peak, the most heavily guarded place in the entire courtyard. They only hope that the strongest fighters of the Banrui family will participate in the high-level family ritual. It was not difficult to walk across the courtyard to the fine building, for it was shadowy, there were no guards, and the chants from the shrine were loud enough to drown out any noise.No family would have expected a surprise attack, or would have dared to risk annoying the Spider Queen by launching an attack during a high-ranking family ritual.The only threat to the Banrui family is an attack from another family, because the security of the courtyard is not at its strongest at this moment.

"There," Entreri whispered, and Catti-brie slipped against the wall to the great pinnacle's foyer.Entreri tapped the stone door to check for traps (although he felt that any traps set here would be magical traps and might not be discovered until they exploded right in front of his eyes, but he was going to try anyway).To his surprise, the door suddenly lifted and disappeared in a crack in the upper part, opening the entrance and revealing a narrow, dark corridor. He and Catti-brie both looked at each other suspiciously, and after a long silence, they both walked in at the same time—stepped into the corridor, and when they found that they were still alive, they both breathed a sigh of relief almost at the same time.

They didn't have it easy for long.Suddenly, a guttural call interrupted the two, perhaps questioning them.An indescribable humanoid monster appeared in front of them. This huge humanoid creature was covered with tendons, seven feet high, and five feet wide as the corridor.He came from the other end of the corridor, almost completely blocking the already dim light.His large stature, and his distinctive bull-like head, spoke of him. Catti-brie nearly jumped when the door slammed shut behind her. The Minotaur muttered in drow, repeating the question he had just asked. "I think," Entreri whispered to Catti-brie, "he was asking for the password."

"Then tell him." Easier said than done, Entreri thought, Jarlaxle never mentioned any of Baenre's house passwords.Entreri thought he should discuss this little accident with the mercenary chief if he ever had the chance. The burly minotaur took a step closer, swinging the nail stick made of fine gold in front of him. "Looks like the Minotaur wouldn't be very powerful if he wasn't holding drow-made weapons," Entreri whispered to Catti-brie again. The Minotaur took another step.He was only ten feet away from them now. "Ustan-beb...Ustan-bebo-yuru...dos," Entreri stammered, clinking the pouch in his belt. "Dost?" The Minotaur stopped and raised his head. "What are you talking about?" Catti-brie asked in a low voice. "I don't know either," Entreri admitted honestly, though he thought he had just mentioned the word about the gift. The Minotaur guard, growing impatient, let out a low growl. "Dorst?" Catti-brie asked boldly, drawing out her bow with a broad smile.She smiled brightly, and nodded her head up and down foolishly, as if she was going to give the bow to the Minotaur; at this moment, her other hand slipped into the cloak, and fumbled in the quiver at the back of her waist. arrow branch. "Dorst?" she asked again, and the Minotaur poked his chest with its thick fingers. "Yes, that's you!" Catti-brie roared, picking up her arrow, winding it, drawing it, and letting it go.Before the stupid Minotaur could even turn around and run away, the arrow had already pierced his chest, and the tail of the arrow was still shaking slightly outside his body. "Block the hole with your fingers!" Catti-brie growled, another arrow on the string. "See how many fingers you have?" She cast a quick glance at Entreri, who was staring at her, frozen.Catti-brie laughed loudly at Entreri, and thrust another arrow into the Minotaur's chest, sending him back a few steps into the larger room that the corridor led to.He fell down, and immediately more than half a dozen Minotaurs rushed out in response. "You're crazy!" Entreri yelled at her. Didn't even bother to answer.Catti-brie shot an arrow into the belly of the closest minotaur.His pain was doubled when his rushing companion stomped him down. Entreri drew his weapon to meet them, knowing he had to stop the trolls so Catti-brie could use her bow.He ran into the first Minotaur opponent two steps away from the end of the corridor, and hastily raised his sword to block the nail club thrown by the opponent, half of his body was numb from the blow. But Entreri moved much faster than the lumbering monster, and in one encounter, his dagger stabbed three times in the opponent's midsection.The nail rod came down, and Entreri's parrying sword was forced down, and he had to follow the sword to lose weight and dodge the falling nail rod. Pointing at the edge of the sword obliquely, the gleaming green edge drew a sharp line of blood on the Minotaur's jaw, breaking the bone, and the bull's tongue was also broken into two pieces. Blood spurted from the minotaur's mouth, but he still swung Entreri back with his club. A flash of silver light dazzled everyone in the battle. It was Catti-brie's arrow that pierced the shoulder of the approaching Minotaur and pierced the head of the latter. Entreri rushed forward desperately, holding out the sharp dagger with one hand and slashing with the other, hoping that the Minotaur could see nothing as clearly as he did.The swift swipe fell on him from the stunned beast, and he regained his vision only as the minotaur fell headfirst in front of him. Without hesitation, Entreri jumped on the guy's back, and then on to the other dead body next to him.Standing on top of these massive corpses, he would be as tall as the next Minotaur.He slammed his sword into the opponent's shoulder.Entreri thought the creature would be easy to deal with, since its weapon arm was wounded and limp to the side.But he had never fought a monster like the Minotaur before, so he was taken aback when the Minotaur thrust its head against his chest and picked him up. The Minotaur twisted its head and rushed towards the wall on one side of the room, and the assassin was picked between the two horns. "Oh, damn it," Catti-brie muttered, seeing a sudden void between her and the other minotaurs.She knelt down on one leg, frantically pulled out the arrow branch and shot it. A blind mass of arrows knocked down one minotaur, and then another.But the third Minotaur grabs the body of the previous one as a human shield, and Catti-brie tries to shoot him in the head without actually hurting him, and he quickly closes in. The female warrior fired another arrow, wanting to dazzle him and hoping to stop his sprinting, then swooped forward and took a few steps, slipping dangerously past the running big feet. The Minotaur charged toward the gate.With his dead companion in front of him, he never saw that Catti-brie had slid away, and he lifted the corpse and slammed it hard against the wall again. Still sitting on the ground, Catti-brie had to dodge three pairs of big tree-trunk feet to get out.The three minotaurs howled endlessly, thinking that the companions in front had crushed the little woman, and the roars covered her actions. She almost did it. The last Minotaur in the line felt something brush his leg, looked down, then gave a snarl, and clenched his nail stick in both hands. Catti-brie rolled, her bow falling in front of her.She somehow also shot an arrow, which caught the monster in the back.She raised her leg and rolled back in a ball. The nail club dropped by the dazzled minotaur came within a foot of Catti-brie's arched back, and Catti-brie stood up straight again, facing the group of monsters.Shielding her bow from her body, she twisted and stumbled out of the corridor. ※※※※ The impact knocked him out of breath.The minotaur's uninjured arm was firmly locked around Entreri's waist, and it jumped back, apparently intending to hit him again.Just a few feet away, another minotaur was cheering for its victorious companion. Entreri's dagger jabbed wildly, trying in vain to pierce the monster's hard skull. When the assassin was hit against the wall again, he felt that his bones were about to shatter.He forced himself to hold back the pain and fear to see clearly ahead, forced himself to quickly discern the situation he was facing.A cool head is a fighter's greatest advantage, so he quickly changed his strategy.Instead of forcibly attacking the solid skull, he thrust the tip of the dagger into the flesh between the two horns, slashing down and slicing the Minotaur's cheek, digging in with the same force as the blade descended. Got hit by a wall again. Entreri kept his hand on the dagger steady, confident that the dagger would do its job.At first, the blade slid smoothly and failed to penetrate, but as soon as he felt the soft part, Entreri twisted his wrist and stabbed hard. Poked the Minotaur in the eye. The assassin felt the thirsty dagger pinch the Minotaur's lifeblood, felt its pulse, sending waves of force up his arms. The Minotaur shivered for a while, but did not move again against the wall.The watching companion continued to cheer loudly, thinking that it had crushed the human into a pulp. But it fell flat dead, and Entreri fell lightly to the ground.As soon as his foot touched the ground, he quickly ran towards another minotaur, and in the blink of an eye, he launched a three-stage combined attack of sword-dagger-sword. The startled Minotaur backed away, Entreri hot on his heels, thrusting the dagger in and out steadily, sucking the energy out of him.The half-dead Minotaur swung his club stiffly, and Entreri separated with a deft movement of his sword.And his dagger feasted. ※※※※ Catti-brie fled into a small room, turned and fell to her knees.There's no need to aim, as the minotaurs are already filling the aisles to the brim. Fortunately, the closest Minotaur was unable to run at full speed because of an arrow in the thigh, but it was a stubborn fellow.After hitting one arrow after another, he still wanted to continue chasing forward. Another minotaur behind this guy was yelling furiously at a third, and that one was pushing a dead body against the wall, going the other way.But I've never heard of the Minotaur as a smart creature, and the last one in the chasing team insisted that it had nailed the woman to the wall and crushed it. The last arrow shot through the air.When leaving the string, the distance between the tip of the arrow and the nose of the charging Minotaur was no more than half a foot.The arrow pierced the Minotaur's skull between its nostrils, nearly splitting its head in two.It was killed instantly, but the undiminished body knocked Catti-brie to the ground. She wasn't seriously hurt, but there was no time and no room for her to stop the second minotaur that was charging. A figure that came in suddenly blocked the Minotaur's path, slashing and stabbing repeatedly.Dazzling for a while, the Minotaur bent down while clenching its shattered knee.It moved awkwardly aside to catch up to the foe that had just appeared, but Entreri spun on his heels and danced away with ease. He ran to the middle of the room, hiding behind a black marble pillar, and the Minotaur came after him.Entreri walked around the pillar, and the Minotaur was thinking of a countermeasure quickly (quite fast for a Minotaur), and it ran staggeringly, hooking on the stone pillar with one hand, trying to Taking advantage of the situation, he turned a corner and came back from the side. Entreri was quicker than he thought.As soon as he found himself out of sight of the Minotaur, he stopped running around the post and took a few steps back.Turning the corner, the minotaur slid into the space between the assassin and the pillar, allowing Entreri to poke it cleanly in the side and back a dozen times.Artemis Entreri never needed a better chance. ※※※※ The Minotaur lifted his companion's corpse and jumped back three steps, then roared and rushed forward, smashing the corpse towards the stone door leading to the outside. A magic arrow sizzled into his back. "Huh?" It wanted to turn around.A second arrow pierced the side and wounded its lung. "Huh?" It was out of breath, still too stupid to know what happened.Finally, she turned around and saw Catti-brie standing at the end of the aisle, she was raising her strong bow and arrow with a solemn expression. The third arrow hit the Minotaur in the side.It had barely taken two steps forward when the fourth arrow struck it in the chest, sending it stumbling backwards onto its dead companion. "Uh?" It took five more arrows, but didn't feel anything at all—it wasn't until Entreri walked up to Catti-brie and told her that the battle was over that she realized it was dead. "We're lucky that there aren't even a single drow around here," said the assassin, nervously eyeing the twelve doors and alcoves that circled the round room.Feeling the heat of the magic box, he turned to face the stone pillar in the room that went straight from the ground to the zenith. Without giving a single word of explanation, the assassin ran to the side of the stone pillar, groping around the smooth cylinder with his keen fingers. Entreri's hand stopped, and he turned to smile at Catti-brie, who couldn't help asking, "What did you find?" Reply.Part of the marble column slid away.A hollow interior emerged.Entreri tugged Catti-brie inside, and the door closed automatically behind them. "What is this?" Catti-brie demanded, thinking they had just entered a secret room.She looked at a hole in the ceiling on her left, then at a hole in the ground at her right foot. Entreri didn't answer.Following the instructions of the magic box, he moved little by little to the hole in the ground, knelt down on one leg and looked inside. Catti-brie walked up to him and stared at Entreri curiously when she saw that there was no ladder below.Then she looked around the unusual marble room, looking for a place to fasten the rope. "Maybe there's a foothold," Entreri analyzed, walking to the edge of the hole and jumping in easily.His expression changed suddenly, and he found that the weight seemed to have disappeared.And he floated in mid-air. "What's going on?" Catti-brie asked impatiently when she saw his surprise. Entreri let go of his grip on the floor, spread his fingers, and smiled smugly as he descended softly.Catti-brie followed him down the hole, floating gently, falling slowly into the darkness.Seeing Entreri just below her, Catti-brie put on a disguised magical mask and began to concentrate. "You are my prisoner," the assassin said coldly, and Catti-brie didn't realize it for a moment, thinking that Entreri had changed his mind again and was going to side with the dark elves.When she landed beside the assassin, he gestured for her taumari bow, and Catti-brie understood his intention immediately. "Give me the bow," Entreri said impatiently. Catti-brie shook her head stubbornly. The assassin knew her well enough not to argue with her on this point.He walked to the nearest wall and concentrated, and the door of this floor was quickly opened in front of him.Two male drow were waiting for them, with both crossbows loaded and arrows pointed at them, and Catti-brie wondered if it was wise to reach for them quickly. The two crossbows fell to the ground at once, and the mouths of the two drow guards opened wide - standing in front of them was Triel Baenry! Entreri grabbed Catti-brie roughly and pulled her towards him. "Drizzt Do'Urden!" he shouted in Triel's voice. The guards didn't want to argue with the eldest daughter of the Ban Rui family at all.There was no order given to them to escort Tril, or anyone but Matron Baenry, to the precious prisoner Drizzt, but neither did the order mention any female human prisoners.A guard hurried forward, while another rushed to catch Catti-brie. The young woman dropped her bow and sat slumped on the ground, so that Entreri and a dark elf each had to lift her arms to carry her forward.Another dark elf picked up the Tamari bow, and Catti-brie couldn't help feeling a little nervous when she saw the divine bow fall into the hands of an evil creature. They walked through a dark corridor and passed several iron doors.The leading elf stopped before an iron gate and took out a small stick.The stick brushed a metal plate next to the doorknob, and tapped the plate twice.The iron door slammed open. The elf who led the way turned around with a smirk, as if he was very happy to serve Triel.Entreri slapped him across the face, knocking him sideways, before the assassin's dagger pierced his throat. Catti-brie's attack wasn't as smooth as this, but it was much rougher.She turned around suddenly, raised her leg and slammed, and her knee hit the belly of the drow behind her, and the two of them hit the wall together.Then Catti-brie took half a step back and bowed her head, smashing the bridge of the other's straight nose with her forehead. After that, there was a violent rain of fists and a hard blow from the knee to the abdomen.Catti-brie twisted him into the cell, and she stood behind him.Hands passed under his arms, fingers tightly around his neck, lifting him off the ground. The drow struggled desperately but couldn't get away.Entreri came in and threw the body aside. "No mercy!" Catti-brie said through gritted teeth. Entreri walked past her calmly.The drow that Catti-brie had choked kicked and kicked, his forearm blocking Entreri's kick. "Triel!" shouted the suspicious guard. Entreri walked back and took off his mask with a smile. The moment a look of terror spread across the helpless drow's face, Entreri thrust his dagger forward and pierced his heart. Catti-brie felt the dark elf twitch, then softened.A feeling of nausea surged through her body, but it disappeared as soon as she glanced sideways to see Drizzt chained up and battered.He was hanging from the wall, moaning and trying in vain to curl up into a ball.Catti-brie threw the body to the ground and ran towards her dearest friend, noticing immediately the small but conspicuous dart stuck in his stomach. "I'm going to unplug it!" she said to Drizzt, hoping he would agree to do so.But he was so delirious that Catti-brie didn't think he even realized she was in the cell right now. Entreri moved closer and stood beside her.He only glanced briefly at the dart, paying more attention to the chains that held Drizzt. Taking a quick breath, Catti-brie grabbed the nasty short dart and pulled it out. Drizzt curled up, screaming in pain, then collapsed limply, unconscious. "There are no locks to pick!" Entreri snarled, seeing that all the chains were fastened by solid links. "Go away," Catti-brie yelled as she ran away from the wall.Entreri turned to stare at her, seeing her raise her bow and wave it sideways for him to move. Two arrows snapped the chain, and Drizzt fell to Entreri's firm catch.The scarred ranger struggled to open his bruised eyes.He didn't understand what was going on, and he couldn't recognize whether he was an enemy or a friend. "Pill bottle," he begged.Catti-brie looked around and saw rows of bottles lining the walls.She rushed to find a full bottle and showed it to Drizzt. "There's no way he's going to survive," Entreri said, as she approached with the foul-smelling potion. "He's got too many injuries. What's holding him up?" Catti-brie looked suspiciously at the bottle in her hand. The assassin followed her gaze, then nodded. "Go ahead!" he instructed.Knowing that Drizzt was in this physical condition, they had no hope of taking him out of the Baenry's courtyard. Catti-brie pressed the bottle against Drizzt's lips and pushed hard, causing him to throw his head back and take a gulp of the potion.Drizzt coughed and vomited again, and for a moment, Catti-brie was afraid that she had killed her closest friend. "Why are you here?" Drizzt's eyes widened suddenly, power flowing through his body.But he still couldn't hold himself up, and his breathing was uncomfortably shallow. Catti-brie ran to the wall to retrieve more vials, opened them and sniffed to make sure the smell was the same before pouring the potion into Drizzt's mouth.Within a few minutes, the ranger stood still, and with a look of disbelief on his face, he saw his closest friend and most destructive enemy standing side by side in front of him. "Your equipment." Entreri forced Drizzt to face the pile of equipment. Drizzt looked at Entreri instead of the pile, wondering what the wicked assassin was up to.Entreri noticed his expression.The eyes of the old enemies locked together. "There's no time!" Catti-brie yelled. "I thought you were dead," Drizzt said. "You're wrong," Entreri replied calmly.Without blinking, he walked past Drizzt and picked up the chain mail, handing it to the following drow. "Watch the aisle," Entreri said to Catti-brie.The female warrior turned and walked towards the door, which opened at this moment.She came face to face with Van der Si Baenry's staff.