auburn hair.
Catti-brie did not blink; she just stared hard at the dimly lit, undeniably handsome figure. There was something different about this drow, the perceptive young woman realized. She did not think that he would force himself on her. Buried within Jarlaxle's swashbuckling facade was a warped sense of honor, but a definite code nonetheless, somewhat like that of Artemis Entreri. Entreri had once held Catti-brie as a prisoner for many days, and he had not placed a hand on her except to prod her along the necessary course.
So it was with Jarlaxle, Catti-brie believed, hoped. If the mercenary truly found her attractive, he would probably try to woo her, court her attention, at least for a while.
'And your courage cannot be questioned,' Jarlaxle continued in his uncomfortably perfect surface dialect. 'To come alone to Menzoberranzan!' The mercenary shook his head in disbelief and looked to Entreri, the only other person in the small, square room. 'Even Artemis Entreri had to be coaxed here, and would leave, no doubt, if he could find the way.
'This is not a place for surface-dwellers,' Jarlaxle remarked. To accentuate his point, the mercenary jerked his hand suddenly, again taking the Cat's Eye circlet from Catti-brie's head. Blackness, deeper than even the nights in the lowest of Bruenor's mines, enveloped her, and she had to fight hard to keep a wave of panic from overwhelming her.
Jarlaxle was right in front of her. She could feel him, feel his breath, but all she saw was his red-glowing eyes, sizing her up in the infrared spectrum. Across the room, Entreri's eyes likewise glowed, and Catti-brie did not understand how he, a human, had gained such vision.
She dearly wished that she possessed it as well. The darkness continued to overwhelm her, to swallow her. Her skin felt extra sensitive; all her senses were on their very edge.
She wanted to scream, but would not give her captors the satisfaction.
Jarlaxle uttered a word that Catti-brie did not understand, and the room was suddenly bathed in soft blue light.
'In here, you will see,' Jarlaxle said to her. 'Out there, beyond your door, there is only darkness.' He teasingly held the circlet before Catti-brie's longing gaze, then dropped it into a pocket of his breeches.
'Forgive me,' he said softly to Catti-brie, taking her off her guard. 'I do not wish to torment you, but I must maintain my security. Matron Baenre desires you—quite badly I would guess, since she keeps Drizzt as a prisoner —and knows that you would be a fine way to gnaw at his powerful will.'
Catti-brie did not hide her excitement, fleeting hope, at the news that Drizzt was alive.
'Of course they have not killed him,' the mercenary went on, speaking as much to Entreri, the assassin realized, as to Catti-brie. 'He is a valuable prisoner, a wellspring of information, as they say on the surface.'
'They will kill him,' Entreri remarked—somewhat angrily, Catti-brie had the presence of mind to note.
'Eventually,' Jarlaxle replied, and he chuckled. 'But both of you will probably be long dead of old age by then, and your children as well. Unless they are half-drow,' he added slyly, tossing a wink at Catti-brie.
She resisted the urge to punch him in the eye.
'It's a pity, really, that events followed such a course,' Jarlaxle continued. 'I did so wish to speak with the legendary Drizzt Do'Urden before Baenre got him. If I had that spider mask in my possession, I would go to the Baenre compound this very night, when the priestesses are at the high ritual, and sneak in for a talk with him. Early in the ceremony, of course, in case Matron Baenre decides to sacrifice him this very night. Ah, well.' He ended with a sigh and a shrug and ran his gentle fingers through Catti-brie's thick hair one final time before he turned for the door.
'I could not go anyway,' he said to Entreri. 'I must meet with Matron Ker Horlbar to discuss the cost of an investigation.'
Entreri only smiled in response to the pointedly cruel remark. He rose as the mercenary passed, fell in behind Jarlaxle, then stopped suddenly and looked back to Catti-brie.
'I think I will stay and speak with her,' the assassin said.
'As you will,' the mercenary replied, 'but do not harm her. Or, if you do,' he corrected with another chuckle, 'at least do not scar her beautiful features.'
Jarlaxle walked out of the room and closed the door behind, then let his magical boots continue to click loudly as he walked along the stone corridor, to let Entreri be confident that he had gone. He felt in his pocket as he went, and smiled widely when he discovered, to no surprise, that the circlet had just been taken.
Chapter 21 THE LAYERS STRIPPED AWAY
Catti-brie and Entreri spent a long moment staring at each other, alone for the first time since her capture, in the small room at Bregan D'aerthe's secret complex. By the expression on Entreri's face, Catti-brie knew that he was up to something.
He held his hand up before him and shifted his fingers, and the Cat's Eye agate dropped to the end of its silver chain.
Catti-brie stared at it curiously, unsure of the assassin's motives. He had stolen it from Jarlaxle's pocket, of course, but why would he risk a theft from so dangerous a dark elf? 'Ye're as much a prisoner as I am,' Catti-brie finally reasoned. 'He's got ye caught here to do his bidding.'
'I do not like that word,' Entreri replied, 'prisoner. It implies a helpless state, and I assure you, I am never helpless.'
He was nine parts bravado, one part hope, Catti-brie knew, but she kept the thought to herself.
'And what are ye to do when Jarlaxle finds it missing?' she asked.
'I shall be dancing on the surface by that time,' the assassin replied coolly.
Catti-brie studied him. There it was, spoken plainly and dearly, beyond intrigue. But why the circlet? she continued to wonder, and then she grew suddenly afraid. Entreri may have decided that its starlight was preferable to, or complementary to, his infravision. But he would not have told her that he meant to go if he meant to leave her behind—alive.
'Ye do not need the thing,' Catti-brie reasoned, trying to keep her voice steady. 'Ye've been given the infravision and can see yer way well enough.'
'But you need it,' Entreri said, tossing the circlet to the young woman. Catti-brie caught it and held it in her hands, trying to weigh the consequences of putting it on.
'I cannot lead ye to the surface,' she said, thinking that the assassin had miscalculated. 'I found me way down only because I had the panther and the locket showing me the way to follow Drizzt.'
The assassin didn't blink.
'I said I cannot lead ye out o' here,' she reiterated.
'Drizzt can,' Entreri said. 'I offer you a dea! one that you are in no position to refuse. I will get both you and Drizzt out of Menzoberranzan, and you two will escort me back to the surface. Once there, we go our separate ways, and may they stay separate through all eternity.'
Catti-brie took a long moment to digest the startling proposition. 'Ye're thinking that I'm to trust ye?' she asked, but Entreri didn't answer, didn't have to answer. Catti-brie sat imprisoned in a room surrounded by fierce drow enemies, and Drizzt's predicament was likely even worse. Whatever the evil Entreri might offer her, it could be no worse than the alternatives.
'What about Guenhwyvar?' Catti-brie asked. 'And me bow?'
'I've the bow and quiver,' Entreri answered. 'Jarlaxle has the panther.'
'I'll not leave without Guenhwyvar,' Catti-brie said.
Entreri looked at her incredulously, as if he thought she were bluffing.
Catti-brie threw the circlet to his feet. She hopped up on the edge of a small table and crossed her arms defiantly over her chest.
Entreri looked down to the item, then to Catti-brie. 'I could make you leave,' he promised.
'If ye think ye could, then ye're thinking wrong,' Catti-brie answered. 'I'm guessing that ye'll need me help and cooperation to get through this place, and I'm not to give it to ye, not for meself and not for Drizzt, without the cat.
