Entreri shook his head and scowled, indicating that the troublesome young woman should shut her mouth. Catti-brie bit her bottom lip and did not spew the many venomous replies she had in mind. She needed Entreri now, and he needed her; their personal hatred would have to wait.
And wait is exactly what Catti-brie and Entreri did. They squatted behind the mound for many minutes as the long procession gradually disappeared into the domed chapel. Entreri figured that many more than a thousand drow, maybe even two thousand, had gone into the structure, and few soldiers, or lizard-riders, could now be seen from his position.
Another benefit of their timing soon showed itself as songs to Lloth filtered out of the chapel's doors, filling the air about the compound.
'The cat?' Entreri whispered to Catti-brie.
Catti-brie felt the statuette in her pouch and considered the question, then looked doubtfully at the Baenre web fence. 'When we get over,' she explained, though she had no idea of how Entreri meant to pass that seemingly impenetrable barrier. The strands of the fence were as thick as Catti-brie's forearm.
Entreri nodded his agreement and took out the black velvet spider mask and slipped it over his head. Catti- brie couldn't contain a shudder as she regarded the assassin, his head now resembling some grotesque caricature of a huge spider.
'I will warn you only once,' the assassin whispered. 'You are a merciful one, foolishly so, but there is no place for mercy in the realm of the drow. Do not think to wound or knock unconscious any opponents we cross. Go for the kill.'
Catti-brie didn't bother to reply, and if Entreri could see into the fires raging inside the young woman, he would not have bothered to utter the remark.
He motioned for her to follow, then picked his careful way from shadow to shadow to the base of the fence.
Entreri touched the strands tentatively, making certain that his fingers would not stick, then he took a firm hold and bade Catti-brie to climb on his back.
'Take care that you do not touch the fence!' he warned. 'Else I will have to remove whatever limb you have stuck.'
Catti-brie gingerly took hold of the evil man, wrapping her arms about his chest, one over one shoulder, the other under Entreri's arm. She clasped her hands tightly and squeezed with all her strength.
Entreri was not a big man, not forty pounds heavier than Catti-brie herself, but he was strong, his muscles honed for fighting, and he easily began his ascent, keeping his body as far from the dangerous fence as possible so that the young woman's hands did not get entangled. The trickiest part came at the top of the barrier, particularly when Entreri spotted a couple of lizard-riding soldiers approaching.
'Do not even breathe,' he warned Catti-brie, and he inched along the top rim of the fence to take as much cover as possible in the shadows of an anchoring stalagmite post.
If there had been no lights in the Baenre compound, the two surely would been caught, their warm forms showing distinctively against the cooler stone of the mound. But lights were on, including many burning torches, and the Baenre soldiers were not using their infravision as they walked their posts. They passed by the fence no more than a dozen feet from the two intruders, but so adept at hiding in the shadows was Artemis Entreri that they never noticed the strange jut in the previously smooth stalagmite.
When they were gone, Entreri pulled himself to a standing position atop the fence and twisted to the side, so that Catti-brie could brace herself against the mound. He had only intended to take a short rest, but the young woman, desperate to be on with things, unexpectedly shifted off his back, onto the mound, and half slid, half climbed down its back side, coming to a roll hi the Baenre compound.
Entreri hustled down the fence to join her, snapped off the mask, and glared at her, thinking her actions rash and stupid.
Catti-brie did not retreat from that look, just eyed the hated assassin dangerously and mouthed, 'Where?'
Entreri slipped a hand into one pocket and felt for the magical locket, then turned about, facing different directions until the item seemed most warm. He had guessed Drizzt's location before the locket had even confirmed it: the great mound, the best guarded position in the entire compound.
They could only hope that most of Baenre's elite soldiers were attending the high ritual.
Crossing the compound to the elaborate structure was not difficult, for few guards were apparent, the shadows were many, and the singing emanating from the chapel amply covered any noise. No house would expect an attack, or dare to invoke the Spider Queen's anger by launching an attack, during a high ritual, and since the only possible threat to House Baenre was from another drow house, security in the compound was not at its highest point.
'In there,' Entreri whispered as he and Catti-brie came flat against the walls flanking the doorway to the huge, hollowed stalagmite. Gently, Entreri touched the stone door to try to discern any traps (though he figured that any traps would be magical in nature and he would find them when they blew up in his face). To his surprise, the portal suddenly rose, disappearing into a crack in the top of the?amb? and revealing a narrow, dimly lit corridor.
He and Catti-brie exchanged doubtful looks, and after a long, silent pause, both stepped in together—and both nearly fell over with relief when they realized that they were still alive in the corridor.
Their relief was not long-lived, however, for it was stolen by a guttural call, a question, perhaps. Before the pair could decipher any of the words, the form of a huge, muscular humanoid, easily seven feet tall and as wide as the five-foot corridor, stepped into the other end, almost completely stealing the diminutive light The creature's sheer bulk, and its distinctive, bull-like head, revealed its identity.
Catti-brie nearly jumped out of her boots when the door slid closed behind her.
The minotaur grunted the question again, in the Drow tongue.
'He's asking for a password,' Entreri whispered to Catti-brie. 'I think.'
'So give it to him.'
Easier said than done, Entreri knew well, for Jarlaxle had never mentioned any password to the inner Baenre structures. Entreri would have to take issue with the mercenary over that small slip, he decided—if he ever got the chance.
The monstrous minotaur advanced a threatening step, waving a spiked adamantite rod out in front of it.
'As if minotaurs aren't formidable enough without giving them drow-made weapons,' Entreri whispered to Catti-brie.
Another step put the minotaur barely ten feet from the companions.
'Usstan belbol. . usstan belbau ulu.. dos,' Entreri stuttered, and he jingled a pouch on his belt. 'Dosst?'
The minotaur stopped its advance and screwed up its bullish features.
'What did you say?' Catti-brie whispered.
'I have no idea,' Entreri admitted, though he thought he had mentioned something about a gift.
A low snarl emitted from the increasingly impatient minotaur guard's mouth.
'Dosst' Catti-brie asked boldly, holding out her bow in one hand and trying to appear cheerful. She smiled widely and bobbed her head stupidly, as though offering the bow, all the while slipping her other hand inside the folds of her traveling cloak, feeling for an arrow in the quiver at her hip.
'Dosst?' she asked again, and the minotaur poked itself in the chest with a huge, stubby finger.
'Yeah, yerself!' Catti-brie growled, and out snapped the arrow, fitted to the string and fired before the stupid minotaur even got its back down. The arrow slammed into the monster's chest and sent it staggering backward.
'Use yer finger to fill the hole!' Catti-brie roared, fitting another arrow. 'And how many fingers ye got?'
She glanced quickly to Entreri, who was staring at her dumbfoundedly. Catti-brie laughed at him and put another arrow into the monster's chest, driving it back several more steps, where it toppled into the wider room beyond the corridor. When it fell, more than half a dozen other minotaurs were ready to take its place.
'You are crazy!' Entreri shouted at the woman.
Not bothering to answer, Catti-brie slammed an arrow into the closest minotaur's belly. It doubled over in pain and was plowed under by its charging comrades.
