gone three running strides, Dahlia struck next.
As Entreri pulled his nightmare up short, Dahlia cried out for Sylora to “Defeat this!” and used all the momentum of the stopping mount to hurl Kozah’s Needle, spearlike, at her foe.
His jaw hanging open in surprise, Drizzt watched as the long staff slammed into Sylora’s thin bubble shield and exploded into such a display of arcing lightning and thunderous reverberations that the night itself was momentarily stolen.
Andahar neighed, pawed the ground, and reared up, but Drizzt clamped his legs tighter and held his balance.
And when the explosion of pure energy roiled and coiled and slammed Sylora, sending her flying backward through the air, the drow was ready. Another lightning arrow soared off, flying true to its target. Then a second missile from the right flank joined the first, a large black missile, as Guenhwyvar leaped high and long and crashed into Sylora as she descended into the smoking Dread Ring.
They landed out of sight, within the black fumes, with a roar and a shriek, both primal, followed by… silence.
Drizzt looked to Entreri and Dahlia, Andahar and the nightmare pawing the ground.
And all three companions breathed easier when Guenhwyvar walked back out of the ring.
Dahlia slipped down from the nightmare’s back and walked forward to retrieve Kozah’s Needle, which lay on the ground right in front of the blackness. She picked it up and casually continued, not even looking back, but walking right into the intimidating smoke.
“Dahlia!” Drizzt called.
“I’m not following her,” Entreri said.
Dahlia found Sylora Salm some dozen long strides into the Dread Ring. She lay on the black ground, twisted weirdly with one leg up behind her head and one of her arms beneath her. Blood flowed from her left shoulder where Drizzt’s first arrow had struck her, from her right side where his more recent missile had struck, and from deep claw marks on the side of her face and throat.
But those were the least of her wounds, for Kozah’s Needle had broken through that magical shield to open the center of her chest. Even in the dim light, Dahlia could see the woman’s heart. It still beat, just once, then again after a long pause.
“Finish me,” Sylora said, her voice thick with pain.
Dahlia bent over so her face was very near to Sylora’s.
“Please,” the doomed sorceress mouthed. “Finish me.”
Dahlia reached down as if to comply and Sylora closed her eyes.
But Dahlia instead just roughly pulled the crow cloak out from around Sylora, jarring her to the side and drawing a gasp of profound agony.
With a last smirk at Sylora, Dahlia threw the cloak around her own shoulders and walked back out the way she’d come.
“She’s dead,” Sylora Salm heard Dahlia announce to her companions, followed soon after by the clip-clop of hooves receding into the forest.
They ran on for a long while, putting leagues behind them, Entreri’s nightmare and Drizzt’s unicorn gliding effortlessly through the forest night. Finally, in one moonlit clearing, Entreri pulled up his fire-breathing, fire- stomping mount and slipped down from the saddle.
“So, in the end battle, we didn’t need your help at all,” Dahlia pointed out, flipping down to the ground beside him. She grinned as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
“You’d prefer to be dead outside Sylora’s tower?” Entreri asked. “I understand.”
Andahar trotted into the clearing then. Drizzt dropped from his mount and walked over to join the pair, leaving the unicorn a safe distance from Entreri’s nightmare. He wore a curious expression-jealousy perhaps?-as he scrutinized Dahlia and Entreri.
“We’re done here,” Dahlia announced to Drizzt.
“Valindra Shadowmantle remains-”
“I don’t care. Not for her, not for this war. This was a personal grudge between me and Sylora Salm, and Sylora Salm is dead.”
“And I don’t care about Sylora Salm, other than how killing her might benefit me,” Entreri replied.
He and Dahlia exchanged intense stares.
“And me?” Dahlia asked. “Would you still wish to bring my head to your master?”
“You just said you were leaving, so what would it matter?”
“It might matter to me,” Dahlia replied, and Entreri laughed. He never stopped staring into Dahlia’s blue eyes.
“What’s your next move?” Drizzt asked the assassin, abruptly and pointedly. “Where will you go?”
“Back to Neverwinter, as I am bound,” Entreri replied, and he gave a helpless shrug. This was a critical moment, he realized, and he knew he hadn’t thought any of it through quite thoroughly enough. He had no idea how to pivot now, how to coax Drizzt and Dahlia to go back with him and rid him of his burden.
“Perhaps with Sylora dead and Dahlia gone, Alegni will be done with me, and I can return to the south in peace,” he said.
“Who?”
Dahlia’s voice, like her expression, went stone cold. It caught Entreri by surprise.
“Who?” Entreri echoed.
“ Who will be done with you?” Dahlia said.
“Alegni.”
“What is his name?” Dahlia demanded.
“Aleg-”
“His whole name.”
“He’s a Netherese lord, a tiefling Shadovar named Herzgo Alegni,” Entreri slowly replied, enunciating every syllable clearly, scrutinizing Dahlia as he spoke.
He saw it, then, the profound pain that flickered behind Dahlia’s eyes-primal, beyond anything any physical cut could ever inflict.
“What is it?” Drizzt asked, and Entreri glanced his way just long enough to realize that the drow didn’t recognize the depth of Dahlia’s profound agony.
Dahlia swayed and seemed as if she might fall over.
“What?” Drizzt asked again, coming up to support her.
“Apparently she’s acquainted with my master,” Entreri started to say, but Dahlia cut him short by spitting in his face.
Drizzt grabbed her by the shoulders and held her back. “Dahlia, what is it?” he insisted, keeping his face right in front of hers, trying to bring her back from whatever emotional ledge she’d walked out onto.
“Speak his name again,” Dahlia said to Entreri.
“Herzgo Alegni.”
“Your master, your friend.”
“Hardly. My slaver, my hated enemy,” Entreri assured her as she pressed against Drizzt, trying to get at Entreri.
That seemed to calm Dahlia, so much so that when Drizzt shook her and forced her to look at him again, she said, “Had I known that Aleg…” She stopped and swallowed hard, and seemed incapable of even speaking the name.
Entreri couldn’t believe his good luck. He did indeed recognize the profound pain in Dahlia’s eyes and knew that in simply speaking Alegni’s name, he’d inadvertently made the important pivot needed to lure these two into his personal battle.
“Had I known he led the Netherese, I would have remained at Sylora Salm’s side,” Dahlia said to Drizzt.
Drizzt glanced over his shoulder at Entreri with obvious concern.
Entreri hardly noticed, and didn’t return the look, for now it occurred to him that even being here at this time might well be aiding his hated master. Alegni had the sword, and the sword had Entreri. It could access his innermost thoughts and memories at any time.
