'Greetings,' Drizzt said to his three friends as he entered the room. Bruenor sat on his stone throne, Wulfgar and Catti-brie flanking him.
'So ye made it,' Catti-brie said absently, feigning disinterest. Drizzt smirked at their running secret; apparently Catti-brie hadn't told anyone that she had met him just outside the eastern door.
'We had not planned for this,' added Wulfgar, a giant of a man with huge, corded muscles, long, flowing blond locks, and eyes the crystal blue of the northland's sky. 'I pray that there may be an extra seat at the table.'
Drizzt smiled and bowed low in apology. He deserved their chiding, he knew. He had been away a great deal lately, for weeks at a time.
'Bah!' snorted the red-bearded Bruenor. 'I told ye he'd come back, and back to stay this time!'
Drizzt shook his head, knowing he soon would go out again, searching for… something.
'Ye hunting for the assassin, elf?' he heard Bruenor ask.
Never, Drizzt thought immediately. The dwarf referred to Artemis Entreri, Drizzt's most hated enemy, a heartless killer as skilled with the blade as the drow ranger, and determined-obsessed! — to defeat Drizzt. Entreri and Drizzt had battled in Calimport, a city far to the south, with Drizzt luckily winning the upper hand before events drove them apart. Emotionally Drizzt had brought the unfinished battle to its conclusion and had freed himself from a similar obsession against Entreri.
Drizzt had seen himself in the assassin, had seen what he might have become had he stayed in Menzoberranzan. He could not stand the image, hungered only to destroy it.
Catti-brie, dear and complicated Catti-brie, had taught Drizzt the truth, about Entreri and about himself. If he never saw Entreri again, Drizzt would be a happier person indeed.
'I've no desire to meet that one again,' Drizzt answered. He looked to Catti-brie, who sat impassively. She shot Drizzt a sly wink to show that she understood and approved.
'There are many sights in the wide world, dear dwarf,' Drizzt went on, 'that cannot be seen from the shadows, many sounds more pleasant than the ring of steel, and many smells preferable to the stench of death.'
'Cook another feast!' Bruenor snorted, hopping up from his stone seat. 'Suren the elf has his eyes fixed on j another wedding!'
Drizzt let the remark pass without reply.
Another dwarf rushed into the room, then exited, I pulling Dagna out behind him. A moment later, the flustered general returned.
'What is it?' Bruenor grumbled.
'Another guest,' Dagna explained and, even as he i spoke, a halfling, round in the belly, bopped into the room.
'Regis!' cried a surprised Catti-brie, and she and Wulfgar rushed over to greet their friend. Unexpectedly, the five companions were together again.
'Rumblebelly!' Bruenor shouted his customary nick-i name for the always hungry halfling. 'What in the Nine Hells-'
What indeed, Drizzt thought, curious that he had not spotted the traveler on the trails outside Mithril Hall. The friends had left Regis behind in Calimport, more than a thousand miles away, at the head of the thieves guild the i companions had all but decapitated in rescuing the halfling.
'Did you believe I would miss this occasion?' Regis huffed, acting insulted that Bruenor even doubted him.
'The wedding of two of my dearest friends?'
Catti-brie threw a hug on him, which he seemed to enjoy immensely.
Bruenor looked curiously at Drizzt and shook his head when he realized that the drow had no answers for this surprise. 'How'd ye know?' the dwarf asked the halfling.
'You underestimate your fame, King Bruenor,' Regis replied, gracefully dipping into a bow that sent his belly dropping over his thin belt.
The bow made him jingle as well, Drizzt noted. When Regis dipped, a hundred jewels and a dozen fat pouches tinkled. Regis had always loved fine things, but Drizzt had never seen the halfling so garishly bedecked. He wore a gem-studded jacket and more jewelry than Drizzt had ever seen in one place, including the magical, hypnotic ruby pendant.
'Might ye be staying long?' Catti-brie asked.
'I am in no hurry,' Regis replied. 'Might I have a room,' he asked Bruenor, 'to put my things and rest away the weariness of a long road?'
'We'll see to it,' Catti-brie assured him as Drizzt and Bruenor exchanged glances once more. They both were thinking the same thing: that it was unusual for a master of a back-stabbing, opportunistic thieves' guild to leave his place of power for any length of time.
'And for yer attendants?' Bruenor asked, a loaded question.
'Oh,' stammered the halfling. 'I… came alone. The Southerners do not take well to the chill of a northern spring, you know.'
'Well, off with ye, then,' commanded Bruenor. 'Suren it be me turn to set out a feast for the pleasure of yer belly.'
Drizzt took a seat beside the dwarf king as the other three scooted out of the room.
'Few folk in Calimport have ever heared o' me name, elf,' Bruenor remarked when he and Drizzt were alone.
'And who south o' Longsaddle would be knowing of the wedding?'
Bruenor's sly expression showed that the experienced dwarf agreed exactly with Drizzt's feeling. 'Suren the little one brings a bit of his treasure along with him, eh?' the dwarf king asked.
'He is running,' Drizzt replied.
'Got himself into trouble again-' Bruenor snorted '-or I'm a bearded gnome!'
'Five meals a day,' Bruenor muttered to Drizzt after the drow and the halfling had been in Mithril Hall for a week. 'And helpings bigger than a half-sized one should hold!'
Drizzt, always amazed by Regis's appetite, had no answer for the dwarf king. Together they watched Regis from across the hall, stuffing bite after bite into his greedy mouth.
'Good thing we're opening new tunnels,' Bruenor grumbled. 'I'll be needing a fair supply o' mithril to keep that one fed.'
As if Bruenor's reference to the new explorations had been a cue, General Dagna entered the dining hall. Apparently not interested in eating, the gruff, brown-bearded dwarf waved away an attendant and headed straight across the hall, toward Drizzt and Bruenor.
'That was a short trip,' Bruenor remarked to Drizzt when they noticed the dwarf. Dagna had gone out just that morning, leading the latest scouting group to the new explorations in the deepest mines far to the west of the Undercity.
'Trouble or treasure?' Drizzt asked rhetorically, and Bruenor only shrugged, always expecting-and secretly hoping for-both.
'Me king,' Dagna greeted, coming in front of Bruenor and pointedly not looking at the dark elf. He dipped in a i curt bow, his rock-set expression giving no clues about which of Drizzt's suppositions might be accurate.
'Mithril?' Bruenor asked hopefully.
Dagna seemed surprised by the blunt question. 'Yes,' he said at length. 'The tunnel beyond the sealed door j intercepted a whole new complex, rich in ore, from what we can tell. The legend of yer gem-sniffing nose'll continue to grow, me king.' He dipped into another bow, this one . even lower than the first.
'Knew it,' Bruenor whispered to Drizzt. 'Went down that way once, afore me beard even came out. Killed me and ettin…'
'But we have trouble,' Dagna interrupted, his face still expressionless.
Bruenor waited, and waited some more, for the tiresome dwarf to explain. 'Trouble?' he finally asked, realizing that Dagna had paused for dramatic effect, and that the stubborn general probably would stand quietly for the remainder of the day if Bruenor didn't offer that prompt.
'Goblins,' Dagna said ominously.
