strong assassins. Watch well your back.' And then she was gone, back through the secret door into the Copper Ante.
Entreri just blew a sigh and walked along. He didn't question his return to Calimport, for either way it simply didn't seem important to him. Nor did he start looking more deeply into the shadows that lined the dark street. Perhaps one or more held his killer. Perhaps not.
Perhaps it simply did not matter.
'Perry,' Giunta the Diviner said to Kadran Gordeon as the two watched the young thug steal along the rooftops, shadowing, from a very safe distance, the movements of Artemis Entreri. 'A lieutenant for Bodeau.'
'Is he watching?' Kadran asked.
'Hunting,' the wizard corrected.
Kadran didn't doubt the man. Giunta's entire life had been spent in observation. This wizard was the watcher, and from the patterns of those he observed he could then predict with an amazing degree of accuracy their next movements.
'Why would Bodeau risk everything to go after Entreri?' the fighter asked. 'Surely he knows of the kelp- enwalling order, and Entreri has a long alliance with that particular guild.'
'You presume that Bodeau even knows of this,' Giunta explained. 'I have seen this one before. Dog Perry, he is called, though he fancies himself 'the Heart. '
That nickname rang a chime of recognition in Kadran. 'For his practice of cutting a still-beating heart from the chest of his victims,' the man remarked. 'A brash young killer,' he added, nodding, for now it made sense.
'Not unlike one I know,' Giunta said slyly, turning his gaze over Kadran.
Kadran smiled in reply. Indeed, Dog Perry was not so unlike a younger Kadran, brash and skilled. The years had taught Kadran some measure of humility, however, though many of those who knew him well thought he was still a bit deficient in that regard. He looked more closely at Dog Perry now, the man moving silently and carefully along the rim of a rooftop. Yes, there seemed a resemblance to the young thug Kadran used to be. Less polished and less wise, obviously, for even in his cocky youth Kadran doubted that he would have gone after the likes of Artemis Entreri so soon after the man's return to Calimport and obviously without too much preparation.
'He must have allies in the region,' Kadran remarked to Giunta. 'Seek out the other rooftops. Surely the young thug would not be foolish enough to hunt Entreri alone.'
Giunta widened his scan. He found Entreri moving easily along the main boulevard and recognized many other characters in the area, regulars who held no known connection to Bodeau's guild or to Dog Perry.
'Him,' the wizard explained, pointing to another figure weaving in and out of the shadows, following the same route as Entreri, but far, far behind. 'Another of Bodeau's men, I believe.'
'He does not seem overly intent on joining the fight,' Kadran noted, for the man seemed to hesitate with every step. He was so far behind Entreri and losing ground with each passing second that he could have jumped out and run full speed at the man down the middle of the street without being noticed by the pursued assassin.
'Perhaps he is merely observing,' Giunta remarked as he
moved the focus of the crystal ball back to the two assassins, their paths beginning to intersect, 'following his ally at the request of Bodeau to see how Dog Perry fares. There are many possibilities, but if he does mean to get into the fight beside Dog Perry, then he should run fast. Entreri is not one to drag out a battle, and it seems-'
He stopped abruptly as Dog Perry moved to the edge of a roof and crouched low, muscles tensing. The young assassin had found his spot of ambush, and Entreri turned into the ally, seemingly playing into the man's hand.
'We could warn him,' Kadran said, licking his lips nervously.
'Entreri is already on his guard,' the wizard explained. 'Surely he has sensed my scrying. A man of his talents could not be magically looked at without his knowledge.' the wizard gave a little chuckle. 'Farewell, Dog Perry,' he said.
Even as the words came out of his mouth, the would-be assassin leaped down from the roof, hitting the ground in a rush barely three strides behind Entreri, closing so fast that almost any man would have been skewered before he even registered the noise behind him.
Almost any man.
Entreri spun as Dog Perry rushed in, Perry's slender sword leading. A brush of the spinning assassin's left hand, holding the ample folds of his cloak as further protection, deflected the blow wide. Ahead went Entreri, a sudden step, pushing up with his left hand, lifting Dog Perry's arm as he went. He moved right under the now off- balance would-be killer, stabbing up into the armpit with his jeweled dagger as he passed. Then, so quickly that Dog Perry never had a chance to compensate, so quickly that Kadran and Giunta hardly noticed the subtle turn, he pivoted back, turning to face Dog Perry's back. Entreri tore the dagger free and flipped it to his descending left hand, snapped his right hand around to the chin of the would-be killer, and kicked the man in the back of the knees, buckling his legs and forcing him back and down. The older assassin's left hand stabbed up, driving the dagger under the back of Dog Perry's skull and deep into his brain.
Entreri retracted the dagger immediately and let the dead man fall to the ground, blood pooling under him, so quickly and so efficiently that Entreri didn't even have a drop of blood on him.
Giunta, laughing, pointed to the end of the ally, back on the street, where the stunned companion of Dog Perry took one look at the victorious Entreri, turned on his heel, and ran away.
'Yes, indeed,' Giunta remarked. 'Let the word go out on the streets that Artemis Entreri has returned.'
Kadran Gordeon spent a long while staring at the dead man. He struck his customary pensive pose, pursing his lips so that his long and curvy mustache tilted on his dark face. He had entertained the idea of going after Entreri himself, and now was quite plainly shocked by the sheer skill of the man. It was Gordeon's first true experience with Entreri, and suddenly he understood that the man had come by his reputation honestly.
But Kadran Gordeon was not Dog Perry, was far more skilled than that young humbler. Perhaps he would indeed pay a visit to this former king of assassins.
'Exquisite,' came Sharlotta's voice behind the two. They turned to see the woman staring past them into the image in Giunta's large crystal ball. 'Pasha Basadoni told me I would be impressed. How well he moves!'
'Shall I repay the Bodeau guild for breaking the kelp-enwalling order?' Kadran asked.
'Forget them,' Sharlotta retorted, moving closer, her eyes twinkling with admiration. 'Concentrate our attention upon that one alone. Find him and enlist him. Let us find a job for Artemis Entreri.'
Drizzt found Catti-brie sitting on the back lip of the wagon. Regis sat next to her, holding a cloth to her face. Bruenor, axe swinging dangerously at his side, pacing back and forth, grumbled a stream of curses. The drow knew at once what had happened, the simple truth of it anyway, and when he considered it, he was not so surprised that Wulfgar had struck out.
'He did not mean to do it,' Catti-brie said to Bruenor, trying to calm the volatile dwarf. She, too, was obviously angry, but she, like Drizzt, understood better the truth of Wulfgar's emotional turmoil. 'I'm thinking he wasn't seein' me,' the woman went on, speaking more to Drizzt. 'Looking back at Errtu's torments, by me guess.'
Drizzt nodded. 'As it was at the beginning of the fight with the giants,' he said.
'And so ye're to let it go?' Bruenor roared in reply. 'Ye're thinkin' that ye can't hold the boy responsible?
Bah! I'll give him a beating that'll make his years with Errtu seem easy! Go and get him, elf. Bring him back that he can tell me girl he's sorry. Then he can tell me. Then he can find me fist in his mouth and take a good long sleep to think about it!' With a growl, Bruenor drove his axe deep into the ground. 'I heared too much o' this Errtu,' he declared. 'Ye can't be livin' in what's already done!'
Drizzt had little doubt that if Wulfgar walked back into camp at that moment, it would take him, Catti-brie, Regis, Camlaine, and all his companions just to pull Bruenor off the man. And in looking at Catti-brie, one eye swollen, her bloody nose bright red, the ranger wasn't sure he would be too quick to hold the dwarf back.
Without another word Drizzt turned and walked away, out of the camp and into the darkness. Wulfgar couldn't have gone far, he knew, though the night was not so dark with the big moon shining bright across the tundra. Just outside the campsite he took out his figurine. Guenhwyvar led the way, rushing into the darkness and growling back to guide the running ranger.
