Passage to Dawn

dangerous thing, a fiendish concoction of Gondish priests that used sheer explosive energy to launch missiles from metal barrels, and oftentimes, to inadvertently blow apart the barrels. 'One in ten,' was the saying among those who knew smokepowder best, meaning that one in ten attempts to fire would likely blow up in your face. Harkle figured these pirates must truly despise the Sea Sprite to risk such a dangerous attack.

But still, even if the one in ten rule held true, nine in ten could take the Sea Sprite out of the water!

Harkle knew that he had to act as the seconds passed, as the others, even Robillard, looked on helplessly, not understanding what they were suddenly up against. Smokepowder was more common in the far eastern reaches of the Realms, and had even been used in Cormyr, so it was said. Of course, there were rumors that it had surfaced just a bit on the Sword Coast, mostly aboard

ships. Harkle considered his options, considered the volume of smokepowder and its volatility, considered the weapons he had at his disposal.

'A metal cylinder!' Catti-brie called down from the crow's nest, spotting the targeting gun through the steam.

'With bags near to it?' Harkle cried back.

'I cannot see!' Catti-brie called, for the cloud continued to drift and to obscure her vision of the pirate ship's deck.

Harkle knew that time was running out. The smokepowder cannon wasn't very accurate, but it didn't have to be, for one of its shots could take down a mast, and even a glancing hit on the hull would likely blow a hole large enough to sink the schooner.

'Aim for it!' Harkle cried out. 'For the cylinder and the decking near to it!'

Catti-brie was never one to trust in Harkle Harpell, but his reasoning then seemed unusually sound. She put up Taulmaril and sent off an arrow, then another, thinking to disable the crew near to the cylinder, if not take out the weapon itself. Through the fog, she saw the sparks as one enchanted arrow skipped off the cylinder, then heard a cry of pain as she nailed one of the gunners.

The Sea Sprite ran on, nearing the pirate ship. Harkle bit at his fingernails. Dunkin, who also knew of smokepowder guns, tugged at his large ears.

'Oh, turn away the ship,' Harkle bade Deudermont. 'Too close, too close. They'll fire it off again right into our faces, and knock us under the waves.'

Deudermont didn't know how to respond. He had already learned that Robillard's magic couldn't stop the smokepowder weapon. Indeed, when the captain glanced back to Robillard, he found the wizard frantically creating gusts of wind to speed their passage, apparently with no intent of even trying to stop a second shot. Still, if the captain tried to turn to port, he would likely be in range of that weapon for some time, and if he tried to veer to starboard, he might not be able to even get past the pirate ship and into the cloud, might ram the ship head-on. Even if they could then defeat the crew of this ship, her two remaining friends would have little trouble in overcoming the Sea Sprite.

'Get the wizard and get to them,' Deudermont said to Drizzt. 'And get the cat. We need you now, my friend!'

Drizzt started to move, but Harkle, spotting the light of a torch near to where Catti-brie had pointed out the cylinder, shouted out 'no time!' and dove flat to the deck.

From on high, Catti-brie saw the torch, and with its light, she also saw the large sacks that Harkle had inquired about. She instinctively aimed for the torchbearer, thinking to slow the smokepowder crew, but then took a chance and agreed with Harkle, shifting her aim slightly and letting fly, straight for the pile of sacks on the pirate's decking.

Her arrow streaked in the instant before the man put the torch to the cannon, as the Sea Sprite was running practically parallel to the pirate ship. It was just an instant, but in that time, the torchbearer was foiled, was blown into the air as the streaking arrow sliced into the sacks of volatile smokepowder.

The pirate ship nearly stood straight up on end. The fireball was beyond anything Harkle, or even Robillard, had ever seen, and the sheer concussion and flying debris nearly cleaned the Sea Sprite's deck of standing crewmen, and tore many holes in the schooner's lateen sails.

The Sea Sprite lurched wildly, left and right, before Deudermont could regain his senses and steady the wheel. But she plowed on, leaving the trap behind.

'By the gods,' Catti-brie muttered, truly horrified, for where the pirate square-rigger had been, there was now only flotsam and jetsam, splinters, charred wood, and floating bodies.

Drizzt, too, was stunned. Looking on the carnage, he thought he was previewing the end of the world. He had never seen such devastation, such complete carnage, not even from a powerful wizard. Enough smokepowder could flatten a mountain, or a city. Enough smokepowder could flatten all the world.

'Smokepowder?' he said to Harkle.

'From Gondish priests,' the wizard replied.

'Damn them all,' muttered Drizzt, and he walked away.

Later that day, as the crew worked to repair the tears in the sails, Drizzt and Catti-brie took a break and leaned on the rail of the schooner's bow, looking down at the empty water and considering the great distance they had yet to travel.

Finally Catti-brie couldn't stand the suspense any longer. 'Did ye beat him?' she asked.

Drizzt looked at her curiously, as though he didn't understand.

'His tyrancy,' Catti-brie explained.

'I brought the map,' Drizzt replied, 'and the chest, though it was lost.'

'Ah, but Dunkin promised it whether ye won or lost,' the young woman said slyly.

Drizzt looked at her. 'The contest was never important,' he said. 'Not to me.'

'Did ye win or lose?' Catti-brie pressed, not willing to let the drow slip out of this one.

'Sometimes it is better to allow so important a leader and valuable an ally to retain his pride and his reputation,' Drizzt replied, looking back to the sea, then to the mizzenmast, where a crewman was calling for some assistance.

'Ye let him beat ye?' Catti-brie asked, not seeming pleased by that prospect.

'I never said that,' Drizzt replied.

'So he beat ye on his own,' the young woman reasoned.

Drizzt shrugged as he walked away toward the mizzenmast to help out the crewman. He passed by Harkle and Robillard, who were coming forward, apparently meaning to join Drizzt and Catti-brie at the rail.

Catti-brie continued to stare at the drow as the wizards walked up. The woman did not know what to make of Drizzt's cryptic answers. Drizzt had let Tarnheel win, she figured, or at least had allowed the man to fight him to a draw. For some reason the young woman did not understand, she didn't want to think that Tarnheel had actually beaten Drizzt; she didn't want to think that anyone could beat Drizzt.

Both Robillard and Harkle were smiling widely as they considered the young woman's expression.

'Drizzt beat him,' Robillard said at last.

Startled, Catti-brie turned to the wizard.

'That is what you were wondering about,' Robillard reasoned.

'We watched it all,' Harkle said. 'Oh, of course we did. A good match.' Harkle went into a fighting crouch, his best imitation of Drizzt in combat, which of course seemed a mockery to Catti-brie. 'He started left,' Harkle began, making the move, 'then ran to the right so quickly and smoothly that Tarnheel never realized it.'

'Until he got hit,' Robillard interjected. 'His tyrancy was still swinging forward, attacking a ghost, I suppose.'

That made sense to Catti-brie; the move they had just described was called 'the ghost step.'

'He learned better, he did!' howled Harkle.

'Suffice it to say that his tyrancy will not be sitting down anytime soon,' Robillard finished, and the two wizards exploded into laughter, as animated as Catti-brie had ever seen Robillard.

The young woman went back to the rail as the two walked away, howling still. Catti-brie was smiling too. She now knew the truth of Drizzt's claims that the fight wasn't important to him. She'd make certain that she