Alustriel was fully half a foot above Catti-brie's five and a half, and gracefully slender. She wore a purple gown of the finest silk, with many layers that seemed to hug her womanly curves and hide them alluringly all at once. A high crown of gold and gems sat atop her head.
Guenhwyvar and the lady apparently were not strangers, for the panther lay quietly on its side, eyes dosed contentedly.
For some reason that she did not understand, that bothered Catti-brie.
'I have wondered when we would at last meet,' Alustriel said quietly.
Catti-brie fumbled to replace the cap on the vial and replace it on the table, but Alustriel put her long, slender hands over the young woman's (and Catti-brie felt like a young and foolish girl at that moment!) and eased the vial into her belt pouch instead.
'Drizzt has spoken often of you,' Alustriel went on, 'and fondly.'
That thought, too, bothered Catti-brie. It might have been unintentional, she realized, but it seemed to her that Alustriel was being just a bit condescending. And Catti-brie, standing in road-dusty traveling clothes, with her hair hardly brushed, certainly was not comfortable beside the fabulous woman.
'Come to my private chambers,' the lady invited.
'There we might speak more comfortably.' She started out, stepping over the sleeping panther. 'Do come along, Guen!' she said, and the cat perked up immediately, shaking away its laziness.
'Guen?' Catti-brie mouthed silently. She had never heard anyone besides herself, and very rarely Drizzt, call the panther so familiarly. She gave a look to the cat, her expression hurt, as she obediently followed Alustriel out of the room.
What had at first seemed to Catti-brie an enchanted palace now made her feel terribly out of place as Alustriel led her along the sweeping corridors and through the fabulous rooms. Catti-brie kept looking to her own trail, wondering fearfully if she might be leaving muddy tracks across the polished floors.
Attendants and other guests—true nobility, the young woman realized—stared as the unlikely caravan passed, and Catti-brie could not return the gazes. She felt small, so very small, as she walked behind the tall and beautiful Alustriel.
Catti-brie was glad when they entered Alustriel's private sitting room and the lady closed the door behind them.
Guenhwyvar padded over and hopped up on a thickly upholstered divan, and Catti-brie's eyes widened in shock.
'Get off there!' she whispered harshly at the panther, but Alustriel only chuckled as she walked past, dropping a hand absently on the comfortable caf s head and motioning for Catti-brie to take a seat.
Again Catti-brie turned an angry gaze on Guenhwyvar, feeling somewhat betrayed. How many times had Guenhwyvar plopped down on that very same couch? she wondered.
'What brings the daughter of King Bruenor to my humble city?' Alustriel asked. 'I wish I had known that you would be coming. I could have better prepared.'
'I seek Drizzt,' Catti-brie answered curtly, then winced and sat back at the sharper-than-intended tone of her reply.
Alustriel's expression immediately grew curious. 'Drizzt?' she echoed. 'I have not seen Drizzt in some time. I had hoped that you would tell me that he, too, was in the city, or at least on his way.'
Suspicious as she was, thinking that Drizzt would try to avoid her and that Alustriel would undoubtedly go along with his wishes, Catti-brie found that she believed the woman.
'Ah, well.' Alustriel sighed, sincerely and obviously disappointed. She perked up immediately. 'And how is your father?' she asked politely. 'And that handsome Wulf-gar?'
Alustriel's expression changed suddenly, as though she had just realized that something must be terribly out of place. 'Your wedding?' she asked hesitantly as Catti-brie's lips thinned in a scowl. 'I was preparing to visit Mithril Hall…'
Alustriel paused and studied Catti-brie for a long while.
Catti-brie sniffed and braced herself. 'Wulfgar is dead,' she said evenly, 'and me father is not as ye remember him. I've come in search of Drizzt, who has gone out from the halls.'
'What has happened?' Alustriel demanded.
Catti-brie rose from her chair. 'Guenhwyvar!' she called, rousing the panther. 'I've not the time for tales,' she said curtly to Alustriel. 'If Drizzt has not come to Silvery-moon, then I've taken too much of yer time already, and too much o' me own.'
She headed for the door and noticed it briefly glow blue, its wood seeming to expand and tighten in the jam. Catti-brie walked up to it anyway and tugged on the handle, to no avail.
Catti-brie took a few deep breaths, counted to ten, then to twenty, and turned to face Alustriel.
'I've a friend needing me,' she explained, her tone even and dangerous. 'Ye'd best be opening the door.' In days to come, when she looked back on that moment, Catti-brie would hardly believe that she had threatened Alustriel, the ruler of the northwest's largest and most powerful inland city! She had threatened Alustriel, reputably among the most powerful mages in all the north!
At that time, though, the fiery young woman meant every grim word.
'I can help,' Alustriel, obviously worried, offered. 'But first you must tell me what has transpired.'
'Drizzt hasn't the timeI' Catti-brie growled. She tugged futilely on the wizard-locked door again, then banged a fist against it and looked over her shoulder to glare at Alustriel, who had risen and was slowly walking her way. Guenhwyvar remained on the divan, though the cat had lifted its head and was regarding the two intently.
'I have to find him,' Catti-brie said.
'And where will you look?' replied Alustriel, her hands out defenselessly as she stepped before the young woman.
Chapter 6 DIVINE SIGN
Catti-brie awoke the next morning on a pillowy soft bed in a plush chamber filled with fine lace draperies that let the filtered sunrise gently greet her sleepy gaze. She was not used to such places, wasn't even used to sleeping above ground. She had refused a bath the night before, even though Lady Alustriel had promised her that the exotic oils and soaps would bubble around her and refresh her. To Catti-brie's dwarven-reared sensibilities, this was all nonsense and, worse, weakness. She bathed often, but in the chill waters of a mountain stream and without scented oils from far-off lands. Drizzt had told her that the dark elves could track enemies by their scent for miles through the Underdark's twisting caverns, and it seemed silly to Catti-brie to bath in aromatic oils and possibly aid her enemies.
This morning, though, with the sun cascading through the gauzy curtains, and the wash basin filled again with steamy water, the young woman reconsidered. 'Suren ye're a stubborn one,' she quietly accused Lady Alustriel, realizing that Alustriel's magic was likely the reason that steam once again rose off the water.
Catti-brie eyed the line of bottles and considered the long and dirty road ahead, a road from which she might never return. Something welled inside her then, a need to indulge herself just once, and before her pragmatic side could argue, she had stripped off her clothes and was sitting in the hot tub, the fizzing bubbles thick about her.
At first, she kept glancing nervously to the room's door, but soon she just let herself sink lower in the tub, perfectly relaxed, her skin warm and tingling.
'I told you.' The words jolted Catti-brie from her near-slumber. She sat up straight, then sank back immediately, embarrassed, as she noticed not only Lady Alustriel, but a curious dwarf, his beard and hair snowy white and his gowns silken and flowing.
'In Mithril Hall, we've the habit o' knocking before we go into someone's private room,' Catti-brie, regaining a measure of her dignity, remarked.
'I did knock,' Alustriel replied. 'You were lost in the warmth of the bath.'
Catti-brie brushed her wet hair back from her face, getting a handful of suds on her cheek. She managed to salvage her pride and ignore the froth for a moment, then angrily slapped it away.
Alustriel merely smiled.
