continued her walking, got pummeled. Bloody welts rose on the priestess's face and she staggered more than once.
Catti-brie, recovered from the shock, put her feet under her and rushed ahead, tackling Stumpet and falling over her protectively.
The barrage stopped as abruptly as it had begun.
Drizzt had the onyx figurine on the ground in front of him, quietly calling in his panther ally. He saw the enemy then, they all did, though none of them knew what to make of the creatures. They came as ghosts, slipping from the white ice onto the still-brown shore so smoothly that they seemed part of the land. They were humanoid, bipedal, large and strong and covered in shaggy white hair.
'I'd be mean too, if I was that ugly,' Bruenor remarked, moving close to Drizzt so they could calculate their next move.
'You are,' Regis said from his prone position.
Neither the drow nor the dwarf had the time or compunction to respond to the halfling. More and more enemies came off the icy sea-flanking left and right-two score, three, and still they came.
'I'm thinking we might want to turn about,' Bruenor remarked.
Drizzt hated that thought, but it seemed their only choice. He and his friends could dole out considerable damage, had battled many mighty enemies, but no less than a hundred of these creatures faced them now. They were obviously not stupid beasts, moving in an organized and cunning fashion.
Guenhwyvar was there then, beside her master, ready to spring.
'Perhaps we can scare them off,' Drizzt whispered to Bruenor, and with a word, he sent the cat springing away, a powerful rush straight ahead.
A hail of iceballs slapped against the panther's black sides, and even those creatures directly in Guenhwyvar's line did not retreat, did not waver at all. Two of them were buried where they stood, but a host of others closed in, whacking at the cat with heavy clubs. Soon it was Guenhwyvar who was in full retreat.
Catti-brie, meanwhile, had climbed up from Stumpet-who immediately rose and resumed her march until Regis likewise tackled her-and strung Taulmaril. She quickly surveyed the scene and sent fly an arrow, putting the bolt right between the wide-spread legs of the largest creature to the left of her. Again, the merciful Catti-brie wanted only to scare the things away, and
was surprised by the savage response. The creature didn't flinch, as though it didn't care whether it lived or died, and it responded, as did a score of creatures near to it, by hurling iceballs at the woman.
Catti-brie dove and rolled, but got hit several times. One strike on the temple nearly knocked her senseless. She came up in a short run, getting to the side of Drizzt, Bruenor, and the returned panther.
'I'm thinking that our road just turned the other way,' she remarked, rubbing the bruise on her forehead.
'A true warrior knows when to turn away,' Drizzt agreed, but his eyes continued to scan the icebergs on the dark sea, looking for some hint of Cryshal-Tirith, some hint that Errtu was nearby.
'Would someone please tell that to the damned dwarf!' called a flustered Regis, holding fast to one of Stumpet's sturdy legs. The entranced priestess merely walked along with him, dragging him across the tundra.
All about them, the creatures continued to flank, passing those nasty iceballs down the line for another barrage-one that the companions suspected would be accompanied by a wild charge.
They had to leave, but had not the time to drag Stumpet along with them. If she would not turn with them, surely she would be killed.
*****
'You sent them out!' Errtu roared accusingly at the crystal shard as it hovered in midair in the highest room of the Cryshal-Tirith. From the scrying mirror, the mighty balor watched his minions, the taers, as they blocked the passage of Drizzt Do'Urden, something Errtu most certainly did not desire.
'Admit it!' the fiend bellowed.
'The taers are mine to command!' Errtu screamed. The fiend knew that he merely had to think of his responses and the sentient crystal shard would «hear» them, but Errtu needed to hear the sound of his own roar at that grim time, had to vent his outrage verbally.
'No matter,' the fiend decided a moment later. 'Drizzt Do'Urden is no small foe. He and his companions will chase off the taers. You have not stopped him!'
Errtu didn't doubt the declaration. Crenshinibon, though it had certainly been weakened by its joust with the antimagic sapphire, was strong enough to dominate the stupid taers. And those creatures, more than a hundred in number, were too strong and too numerous for Drizzt and his friends to defeat. They might escape-the fleet- footed drow at least-but Stumpet was doomed, as was Bruenor Battlehammer and the chubby halfling.
Errtu considered swooping out of his tower then, or of using his magical abilities to get to that beach, to face off with the drow then and there.
Crenshinibon read his thoughts easily and the image in the scrying mirror disappeared as did Errtu's magical teleportation options, for the balor wasn't even sure of where that particular beach might be. He could take wing, of course, and he had a general idea of where Stumpet would make the Sea of Moving Ice, but he realized that by the time he arrived, Drizzt Do'Urden would likely be dead.
The fiend turned angrily on the crystal shard, and Crenshinibon met his rage with a stream of soothing thoughts, of promises of greater power and glory.
The sentient artifact didn't comprehend the level of Errtu's hatred, didn't understand that the fiend's most important reason for coming to the Prime Material Plane was to exact revenge on Drizzt Do'Urden.
Errtu, impotent and confused, stalked from the room.
*****
'We cannot leave Stumpet,' Catti-brie said, and of course, Drizzt and Bruenor agreed.
'Hit at them hard,' the drow instructed. 'Shoot your arrows to kill.'
Even as he spoke the words, the iceball volley slapped in. Poor
Stumpet got hit repeatedly; Regis took one in the head and let go of the dwarf. She continued her slow walk until three missiles hit her simultaneously, dropping her to the ground.
Catti-brie killed two taers in rapid succession, then rushed after Drizzt, Bruenor and Guenhwyvar as they charged to form a defensive ring about Stumpet and Regis. The taers were out of iceballs then, and on they came, fearlessly, brandishing clubs and howling like the north wind.
'There's only a hunnerd o' the durned things!' Bruenor blustered, hoisting his axe.
'And four of us!' yelled Catti-brie.
'Five,' Regis corrected, stubbornly pulling himself to his feet.
Guenhwyvar roared. Catti-brie fired, killing yet another.
The woman sent off another arrow, and then the creatures were too close. She dropped her precious bow and drew out the eager Khazid'hea.
Drizzt cut in front of her, double-slashing a taer across the throat, falling into a spin to his knees and thrusting ahead with Twinkle, driving the curving blade deep into a creature's belly. His other scimitar slashed horizontally behind him, tripping up the next beast as it bore down on Catti-brie.
Her downward chop sent the sharp-edged Khazid'hea right through the thing's skull and halfway down its neck. But Catti-brie had to tear her sword free immediately, and Drizzt had to get back to his feet and go into yet another scrambling maneuver, for the throng swarmed about them, closing off any escape.
They knew they were doomed … until they heard the unified cry of 'Tempus!'
Revjak and his twenty-five warriors came hard into the taer ranks, their huge weapons cutting a swath through the lines of surprised shaggy beasts.
Regis yelled out to their reinforcements, but was silenced by a taer club that slammed him on the shoulder, knocking the breath from him and sending him flying to the ground. Three of the creatures towered over him,
