Streams of Silver - Chapter Twenty-Two

[kalinara]

So last time, Drizzt and Entreri teamed up and had more chemistry than Drizzt has had with anyone else so far. Also, I don't think I shared this, but this was how last chapter ended:

They were closer now, though neither of them knew which one had moved, as if unseen forces were acting upon them. Weapons twitched in anticipation, each waiting for the other to show his hand.

Each wanting the other to be the first to yield to their common desire, the ultimate challenge of the tenets of their existence.

The stamp of booted feet broke the spell.

Yeah.



So this chapter takes us to a cavern in the lower levels of Mithril Hall, where we find the present ruler: "perched upon a solid pedestal of the purest mithril that rose from a high and wide mound of coins and jewelry, goblets and weapons, and countless other items pounded from the rough blocks of mithril by the skilled hands of dwarven craftsmen."

I do like Salvatore's descriptions sometimes.

This is the unfortunately named Shimmergloom, a black dragon who is actually from the Plane of Shadows. It had been old and powerful there, but then "the foolish and greedy dwarves that once inhabited these mines had delved into deep holes of sufficient darkness to open a gate to its plane", what the fuck does that mean?

Are you saying all this could have been avoided if some asshole remembered to bring a fucking torch?

So anyway, Shimmergloom knows that there are invaders in Mithril Hall, and is holding a grudge for the fact that it hadn't quite been as victorious in the last battle as it would have liked (the western corridors had been too tight to allow him access.) Now it plans to have its enemies herded toward Garumn's Gorge, the only entrance big enough for it.

Seems like a decent plan.

We rejoin the Bruenor and company. Wulfgar is having a tough time because the tunnels are now dwarf sized and he is seven feet tall. Ouch, poor guy. Bruenor on the otherhand is happy, they've reached the promised hidden chamber which is admittedly pretty amazing and full of runes and sculpted reliefs. Everyone is suitably impressed.

Four sets of eyes looked through the gate in wonder. If the journey through Mithril Hall had been a disappointment to them, for they had not yet seen the grander sights Bruenor had often told them of, the sight before them now made up for it. They had reached Garumn's Gorge, though it seemed more a full-sized canyon than a gorge, spanning hundreds of feet across and stretching beyond the limits of their sight. They were above the floor of the chamber, with a stairway running down to the right on the other site of the portcullis.

You know, it seems kind of a dick move to be disappointed in Mithril Hall. It's not Bruenor's fault it was invaded, you know.

So anyway, Bruenor's got quick eyes and he notices that the bridge across the cavern is rigged to fall. Fortunately, he knows another way across. Even if the bridge weren't rigged, their path is blocked by a portcullus. (The ledge is hours across one way, the crank for the portcullus is a half day's walk another way. This apparently makes sense to Bruenor, but I still wonder how the fuck people are supposed to live here.)

Catti-brie urges them to try to find another way, and they hed back through the treasure room, which is serving to rekindle Bruenor's wonder and enthusiasm. Maybe he WILL return with his army. But he acknowledges that he has to get the group out and to safety first.

While Bruenor is lost in sentiment, Catti-brie's more practical. She thinks there's half a dozen to ten enemies outside. There's some concern about the sentries, which I admit I didn't quite follow, but it's an excuse for Catti-brie to show off her archery skills with her new bow.

Salvatore seems to have realized he forgot to develop the Wulfgar/Catti-brie romance, so he decides to have Wulfgar suddenly be very concerned that she'll be blocked from returning to them. Bruenor has faith in "Cat" and I wonder why Salvatore didn't just NAME her Cat, as opposed to the cumbersome Catti-brie.

There's also a weird segue where we're suddenly with Sydney and Bok, sensing someone just ahead. I THINK the implication was that she missed Catti-brie going to her station.

Wulfgar, for his part, is now measuring odds. He and Bruenor will be outnumbered, but there's no other option. They attack, but we're told that rather than hearing the clang of the hammer or Wulfgar's customary war cry, we hear the battle song of Bruenor Battlehammer instead. It's his home and fight after all, and there's a bit that genuinely makes me grin:

"This one's for me father!" he cried, splitting the shining helm of the closest Duergar with a single stroke. "This one's for me father's father!" he yelled, felling the second. "And this one's for me father's father's father!"

Bruenor's ancestral line was long indeed. The gray dwarves never had a chance.

Wulfgar joins in, and on the other side of the gorge, we're told that the sentries hear the battle but are confused and hesitate a moment. Catti-brie doesn't, and takes them both out. One to the chest and one to the eye. Nice.

Now more of the enemy dwarves are coming, and Catti-brie positions herself so that she can "launch[] a barrage of death at the assembling host that put them into chaos and sent many of them scrambling for cover."

I have a lot of issues with this book, but I'm really glad that Catti-brie got her growth arc and now gets to be the badass that she didn't get to be in Crystal Shard.

Regis holds back, knowing he'd get in the way, but he's not useless. He checks the fallen opponents to make sure that they're dead, and to loot them. I feel like we're supposed to judge him for this, but this entire adventure has involved looting the dead. They're all wearing armor looted off of Bruenor's dead family. It also puts Regis in position to see Bok's entrance.

Credit where it's due, I also really like this bit:

Two at a time fell before the sweeps of Wulfgar's warhammer. Spurred by the snatches that he caught of the enraged dwarf's battle cries, " . . . for me father's father's father's father's father's father's . . . " Wulfgar wore a grim smile as he moved through the Duergar's disorganized ranks. Arrows burned lines of silver right beside him as they sought their victims, but he trusted enough in Catti-brie not to fear a stray shot. His muscles flexed in another crushing blow, even the Duergar's shining armor offering no protection against his brute strength.

It's chaotic, funny, and sweet. I may not yet buy into the Wulfgar/Catti-brie romance, but I definitely believe in their friendship and their trust.

Then Bok grabs Wulfgar. The duergar survivors flee from it (Catti-brie shoots them all down, yay!), while Sydney enters. Regis tries to get close enough to use the ruby pendant, but she's ready for him, getting him with a web spell, that keeps him bound.

Bruenor is torn out of his berserker mode and sees Wulfgar lifted high by Bok. Catti-brie is equally horrified. Both are forced to watch as Bok starts squeezing him tight. Wulfgar tries to fight him off, slamming his hammer in its face, but it isn't working. He drops his hammer.

Bruenor tries to attack Bok, but he's knocked to the ground by Sydney's wand. Catti-brie recognizes it immediately and starts running back down the passageway.

Bruenor manages to deflect a second blast, but his shield won't last long. Wulfgar starts basically trying to twist Bok's neck with his bare hands. Regis comes through though:

Regis at last managed to get his hand and the pendant out from under leis jacket. "Wait, mage!" he cried at Sydney, not expecting her to listen, but only hoping to divert her attention long enough for her to glimpse the gemstone, and praying that Entreri had not informed her of its hypnotizing powers.

Again the mistrust and secrecy of the evil party worked against them. Oblivious to the dangers of the halfling's ruby, Sydney glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, more to ensure that her web still held him tightly than to listen to any words he might have to say.

A little heavy handed, but a good moral, only slightly undercut by the fact that Sydney and Entreri actually did seem to trust each other. But Entreri is closed mouthed enough that I can buy that he didn't tell her.

So Wulfgar is in a battle of endurance with Bok, basically suffocating and disoriented. He hears a snap of bone but doesn't know whether or not it's his spine or Bok's neck. Eventually, barely conscious, he manages to get Bok's head clear off his body. Bok doesn't seem to notice.

Sydney shakes off the ruby, but Catti-brie is fast enough to stab her.

Sydney's gaze locked into a stunned, wide-eyed stare of confused protest. All of her dreams and future plans fell before her in that one instant. She tried to scream out a denial, certain that the gods of fate had a more important role planned for her in their scheme of the universe, convinced that they would not allow the shining star of her budding power to be extinguished before it ever came to its potential.

But a thin, wooden wand is of little use in parrying a metal blade.

Catti-brie saw nothing but her target, felt nothing in that instant but the, necessity of her duty. Her sword snapped through the feeble wand and plunged home.

By all rights, Catti-brie should get the triumph of killing Artemis Entreri, after everything he's done to her. But Entreri is set as Drizzt's counterpart, so he'll be around for a long time. This isn't quite as satisfying, but it's still pretty fucking good. Go Catti-brie.

Poor Sydney, you made for a much better wizardly adversary than Akar Kessell, that's for damn sure. It's probably a good thing for the world that you never got the shard. You might have been competent enough to do something with it.

So Catti-brie watches the life fade from Sydney's eyes with "helpless horror" and I'm reminded of one of the reasons I'm really happy that Wizards of the Coast is moving away from the "always chaotic evil races" idea. This is not the first person that Catti-brie has watched die. This is not the first person that Catti-brie has killed. She's killed a lot of people in this scene alone. But it's Sydney's death, a human's death, that she finds traumatizing.

Bruenor finally severs one of Bok's arms, freeing Wulfgar. He taunts the confused, headless construct until he's backed up along the ledge. Then Bruenor drops as Wulfgar throws his hammer, knocking Bok into the gorge.

And back to Catti-brie:

Lines of tears wetted Catti-brie's face. She had felled goblinoids and gray dwarves, once an ogre and a tundra yeti, but never before had she killed a human. Never before had she looked into eyes akin to her own and watched the light leave them. Never before had she understood the complexity of her victim, or even that the life she had taken existed outside the present field of battle.

I had no idea you were a racist, Catti-brie. But wow.

Wulfgar embraces her, while Bruenor muses that he'd trained Catti-brie to fight, and "had reveled in her victories against the orc and the like, foul beasts that deserved death by all accounts. He had always hoped, though, that his beloved Catti-brie would be spared this experience."

See? Wow.

I mean, this probably wouldn't have stood out as much if we weren't reading a book series about the ONLY GOOD DROW. (Or at least the first, we do meet more later.)

Anyway, Catti-brie pulls herself together saying that the pursuit is not ended and it's past time they leave. We are told that she "left a part of herself, the pedestal of her innocence, behind."

Yep, it's sitting among all the duergar you shot.