I Read What?!

So last time, Zak and Drizzt's bonding was interrupted by Matron Malice, and we were reminded again that Menzoberranzan is a terrible place. And I was actually, surprisingly, impressed by Salvatore's work.

It happens sometimes.



So we rejoin Drizzt and Zak as they gather on the balcony of House Do'Urden. There's a raid between minor Houses, and the Do'Urden family is in prime view to watch.

Zak takes time to explain to Drizzt, and us, that the fact that they can see the lights from the battle may mean that the attackers fucked up. The defenders were ready for them, and the attackers couldn't call their concealing globes of darkness.

Poor Drizzt is having trouble wrapping his brain around drow fighting drow and his family's callousness. But really, given that he was a family page for six years or so before this should have given him the opportunity to witness this shit before now. (Honestly, it would have made far more sense to have Drizzt go straight from Vierna's care to Zak's. It would have made for less trauma, I suppose, but it also would make a lot of Drizzt's surprising naivety and carelessness make more sense.)

Anyway, Zak explains that the attacking house can't leave witnesses. But they're witnesses, Drizzt protests. No, they're onlookers. They don't have any stake in things, nor do they have standing to pursue accusations against the attackers, only surviving nobles of the defending House do.

I rather like this part though:

At that moment, Drizzt wasn’t sure if he liked this new revelation. However he might have felt, he found that he could not tear his gaze from the continuing spectacle of drow battle. All the Do’Urden compound was astir now, soldiers and slaves running about in search of a better vantage point and shouting out descriptions of the action and rumors of the perpetrators.

This was drow society in all its macabre play, and while it seemed ultimately wrong in the heart of the youngest member of House Do’Urden, Drizzt could not deny the excitement of the night. Nor could Drizzt deny the expressions of obvious pleasure stamped upon the faces of the three who shared the balcony with him.

Because this is the only culture Drizzt knows. And it makes sense that he still reacts to the excitement of everything even if it feels wrong.

--

We switch scenes to poor hapless Alton deVir. He's meeting with Matron SiNafay Hun'ett, Masoj's mother and the head of the Fifth House. That is a truly terrible name, I must say.

Yet again, we have an example of an extremely tiny drow woman:

SiNafay was smaller than Alton had imagined, diminutive even by the standards of the drow. She stood barely more than four feet high and weighed, by Alton’s estimation, no more than fifty pounds. She was a matron mother, though, and Alton reminded himself that she could strike him dead with a single spell.

On one hand, I like the visual of the tiny evil woman, but if you recall, drow women are supposed to be larger than drow men. Salvatore seems to have no interest in that at all. Which I guess is fine, but really, if you're writing in a universe, shouldn't you keep to the rules of that universe?

Anyway, SiNafay greets Alton with great familiarity, as "Gelroos". And she notes that his chambers at the House remain empty. They'd last talked twenty-five years ago. Which means that she is well acquainted with the REAL faceless dude. And she knows she's meeting an imposter.

Fortunately, she's more curious than angry (though she does threaten with her whip when he hesitates to answer.) She's intrigued to hear about Alton's identity, but angry to think of Gelroos's death. Fortunately, Masoj comes forward to claim blame/credit for Gelroos's death.

And we learn a bit more about Masoj's motivations, and SiNafay's stake in all this:

“Gelroos was your brother,” Matron SiNafay reminded Masoj.

“Damn his bones!” Masoj spat. “For four miserable years I served him—served him as if he were a matron mother! He would have kept me from Sorcere, would have forced me into the Melee-Magthere instead.”

The matron looked from Masoj to Alton and back to her son. “And you let this one live,” she reasoned, a smile again on her lips. “You killed your enemy and forged an alliance with a new master in a single move.”

“As I was taught,” Masoj said through clenched teeth, not knowing whether punishment or praise would follow.

“You were just a child,” SiNafay remarked, suddenly realizing the timetable involved.

Masoj accepted the compliment silently.

The drow are fun.

I do enjoy how she goes from anger at the death of her son to pride in her surviving son. It's a nice little balance.

Anyway, poor Alton wants to know if his life is forfeit. But fortunately for him, SiNafay sees the use in having an agent in the Academy to watch over son and enemies. Alton definitely sees the pros in allying with one of the most powerful houses in the city. AND even better:

His adopted matron mother recognized his excitement. “Speak your thoughts,” she commanded.

“You are a high priestess of Lolth,” Alton said boldly, that one notion overpowering all caution. “It is within your power to grant me my fondest desire.”

“You dare to ask a favor?” Matron SiNafay balked, though she saw the torment on Alton’s face and was intrigued by the apparent importance of this mystery. “Very well”

“What house destroyed my family?” Alton growled. “Ask the nether world, I beg, Matron SiNafay.”

SiNafay already knows the answer but she starts to keep him dangling. Alton is desperate enough to insist, telling her she can kill him if she will, but he must know.

She tells him. But also reminds him that he is a son of Hun'ett now. He will take no action against them and she'll forgive him his insolence. She figures if he's clever enough to carry out his deception for almost two decades, he'll be smart enough to obey.

Eh...

And honestly, Masoj says as much when he and SiNafay leave Alton to his thoughts. He thinks Alton is a buffoon. But SiNafay is impressed by his will to survive. (I think Masoj gets more credit for that.) And he's a master of the Academy, and one with a rightful witness claim against House Do'Urden. And we get more fun politics:

“You mean to use Alton DeVir’s charge to rally the great houses into punishing House Do’Urden?” Masoj asked.

“The great houses would hardly be willing to strike out for an incident that occurred almost twenty years ago,” SiNafay replied. “House Do’Urden executed House DeVir’s destruction nearly to perfection—a clean kill. To so much as speak an open charge against the Do’Urdens now would be to invite the wrath of the great houses on ourselves.”

“What good then is Alton DeVir?” Masoj asked. “His claim is useless to us.”

The matron replied, “You are only a male and cannot understand the complexities of the ruling hierarchy. With Alton DeVir’s charge whispered into the proper ears, the ruling council might look the other way if a single house took revenge on Alton’s behalf.”

Masoj wonders why they should risk losses to destroy a lesser House. But SiNafay points out that they must be as concerned with Lower Houses as Higher Ones. "Daermon N'a'shezbaernon" (the long name of Do'Urden) has "both a master and a mistress serving in the Academy and three high priestesses, with a fourth nearing the goal."

Four high priestesses is actually a pretty big deal. So is Zak, whose martial prowess is talked about even in Sorcere.

Which leads to SiNafay giving Masoj a mission.

“Another Do’Urden is soon to begin there,” SiNafay explained. “Not a master, but a student. By the words of those few who have seen this boy, Drizzt, at training, he will be as fine a fighter as Zaknafein. We should not allow this.”

“You want me to kill the boy?” Masoj asked eagerly.

“No,” SiNafay replied, “not yet. I want you to learn of him, to understand the motivations of his every move. If the time to strike does come, you must be ready.”

...oh villains. It'd make much more sense to kill him now. But okay. Fine. Masoj is on board, but he asks about Alton: what if he goes too far. There's an easy answer for that, SiNafay tells us: they expose him as an imposter and then he'll be hunted down as a rogue.

Masoj is happy, but SiNafay herself is aware of the risks she's taking. It's fine for a house to covertly destroy another, but failure has big consequences. And the ruling council makes an example of unsuccessful attackers. They're obliterated, their names not even allowed to be remembered. Eek.

--

So now we rejoin Zak and Drizzt the next morning. They're going outside! Drizzt has never been, and Zak is cryptic about it.

Actually, they're meeting up with the rest of the House:

The matron mother herself, floating atop a blue-glowing disk—for matron mothers rarely walked through the city—led the procession out of House Do’Urden’s grand gate. Briza walked at her mother’s side, with Maya and Rizzen in the second rank and Drizzt and Zak taking up the rear. Vierna and Dinin, attending to the duties of their positions in the Academy, had gone to the ruling council’s summons with a different group.

They're off to watch a show.

As they go, a duergar caravan ends up blocking their way. Malice allows them to live, but they have to bring half their goods to Do'Urden. The duergar know better than to argue, and Malice even offers "appropriate compensation" (though they know it won't really be enough. It's an expected risk of dealing in Menzoberranzan.)

--

So here we go!

The House that attacked and lost was House Teken'duis. They're barracaded inside their own House, since they know what's coming. ALL the nobles of the city, over a thousand drow, are gathered outside. The entirety of ALL three schools of the Academy are surrounding the compound as well.

The accusation starts, and it's very ritualized:

“House Teken’duis has angered the Spider Queen!” Matron Baenre proclaimed in a voice amplified by magical spells.

“Only because they failed,” Zak whispered to Drizzt.

Briza cast both males an angry glare.

Matron Baenre bade three young drow, two females and a male, to her side. “These are all that remain of House Freth,” she explained. “Can you tell us, orphans of House Freth,” she asked of them, “who it was that attacked your home?”

“House Teken’duis!” they shouted together.

“Rehearsed,” Zak commented.

Briza turned around again. “Silence!” she whispered harshly.

Zak slapped Drizzt on the back of the head. “Yes,” he agreed. “Do be quiet!”

Drizzt started to protest, but Briza had already turned away and Zak’s smile was too wide to argue against.

“Then it is the will of the ruling council,” Matron Baenre was saying, “that House Teken’duis suffer the consequences of their actions!”

The orphans of Freth are taken into House Baenre's protection, which causes some disgruntlement. Apparently the three orphans, two female, would be a prize for any House. Briza assumes Baenre will also claim the surviving soldiers of the House, but Malice isn't sure: Baenre is skirting an edge. If they get TOO powerful, Lolth might take exception just for the Hell of it. Instead, she thinks the soldiers will be auctioned. Malice will watch for her chance to bid.

So now for the consequences!

Matron Baenre addressed the guilty house. “House Teken’duis!” she called. “You have broken our laws and have been rightfully caught. Fight if you will, but know that you have brought this doom upon yourself!” With a wave of her hand, she set the Academy, the dispatcher of justice, into motion.

Great braziers had been placed in eight positions around House Teken’duis, attended by mistresses of Arach-Tinilith and the highest-ranking clerical students. Flames roared to life and shot into the air as the high priestesses opened gates to the lower planes. Drizzt watched closely, mesmerized and hoping to catch a glimpse of either Dinin or Vierna.

Denizens of the lower planes, huge, many-armed monsters, slime covered and spitting fire, stepped through the flames. Even the nearest high priestesses backed away from the grotesque horde. The creatures gladly accepted such servitude. When the signal from Matron Baenre came, they eagerly descended upon House Teken’duis.

Glyphs and wards exploded at every corner of the house’s feeble gate, but these were mere inconveniences to the summoned creatures.

The wizards and students of Sorcere then went into action, slamming at the top of House Teken’duis with conjured lightning bolts, balls of acid, and fireballs.

Students and masters of Melee-Magthere, the school of fighters, rushed about with heavy crossbows, firing into windows where the doomed family might try to escape.

The horde of monsters bashed through the doors. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed.

Zak looked at Drizzt, and a frown replaced the master’s smile. Caught up in the excitement—and it certainly was exciting—Drizzt bore an expression of awe.

Actually, Drizzt's awe doesn't last long. Not when they start hearing the screams. And one guy has the discourtesy to try to flee a monster out into open air: he's killed by twelve bolts and three lightning blasts. Then the monster grabs his corpse and pulls it away to devour it.

Drizzt isn't having fun anymore.

“Drow justice,” Zak said coldly. He didn’t offer Drizzt any consolation; he wanted the brutality of this moment to stick in the young drow’s mind for the rest of his life.

By the end of the siege, House Teken'duis is "no more than a glowing lump of lifeless, molten stone" And the chapter ends with Drizzt and his uncomprehending horror.