I Read What?!

So last time, our heroes were waylaid by pirates! They kicked the customary amount of ass, but in the process, Drizzt lost the magic mask (that he mugged a sentient creature for), which means it's not clear what will happen now.



So we rejoin Bruenor and Cattibrie, when the former finds the latter treading water. Bruenor's got a rowboat (and a captured pirate) so all is fine. They have some banter that leads to Catti-brie realizing that Bruenor had Drizzt's blade. I thought she knew that, but okay. Bruenor thinks that Drizzt should name the scimitar.

Meanwhile, Pinochet the pirate is bitching that the rowboat won't fit three. Really dude? How do you think this will end? Bruenor indeed tells him to swim, which pisses Pinochet off, and when Pinochet tries to attack, he's pushed in the water anyway. I'm shocked by this.

Bruenor earns some rare decency points though by tossing the pirate the end of a rope, so he can be towed along. He also tells Catti-brie that if the guy won't keep up, she should kill him. And indeed, she aims her bow (though we're told she has no intention of actually murdering a helpless man). The bluff works, and the pirate swims.

-

Back on the Sea Sprite, things are getting hectic. One dude is very adamant about a drow not being welcome on the ship. He gets a headslap for his trouble, as Deudermont takes charge. And when one sailor asks what Deudermont will do, the captain merely tells them to rescue their crewmates in the water.

From this point on, Deudermont in my head is played by Jethro Gibbs from NCIS. I feel like it works. Anyway, he calmly invites Drizzt in Wulfgar into his interrogation room cabin to talk.

As they're about to go, folks announce that they've spotted Bruenor's rowboat.

"Then a friend of ours, he is indeed!" the captain replied.

"And of ours," Drizzt added, turning all eyes back upon him. Even Wulfgar looked curiously at his companion. He had heard the cry to Moradin, but had not dared to hope that it was indeed Bruenor Battlehammer rushing to their aid.

"A red-bearded dwarf, if my guess is correct," Drizzt continued. "And with him, a young woman."

Wulfgar's jaw dropped open. "Bruenor?" he managed to whisper. "Catti-brie?"

Drizzt shrugged. "That is my guess."

...because of course Wulfgar has to be the one to doubt his ears and gape at Drizzt's serene certainty. I know that this is a consistent character beat for both characters but goddamn if it's not annoying. So anyway, the crew rescue Bruenor and Catti-brie while Deudermont and his guests talk.

Deudermont, Gibbs style, gives Wulfgar enough time to start an indignant protest/defense, to cut him off and say that he wished he had mighty sailors like them on every voyage south. (I know this book predates the show, but the characterizations track so well. Why is my shameful guilty pleasure tv show everywhere?)

Drizzt explains that he didn't mean any harm by hiding his appearance, and asserts that his appearance is the only thing that he lied about. And I do get why the mask was necessary, but this is exactly why it probably wasn't a good idea: a lot of people would react even worse to knowing a member of a genocidal race was hiding among them.

And in fact that're interrupted by a sailor peeking in. He says that while they'll follow the Captain at every step, the crew want their opinion of the situation known:

"Go on," he prompted, stubbornly holding his trust in his men.

"Well, we know he's a drow," the sailor began, "and we know what that means." He paused, weighing his next words carefully. Drizzt held his breath in anticipation; he had been down this route before.

"But them two, they pulled us through a bad jam there," the sailor blurted all of a sudden.

"We wouldn't a gotten through without 'em!"

"So you want them to remain aboard?" Deudermont asked, a smile growing across his face. His crew had come through once again.

"Aye!" the sailor replied heartily. "To a man! And we're proud to have 'em!"

Awww.

The dude who freaked out about Drizzt before even pokes his head in to make a special apology, explaining that he'd just been scared. Drizzt is overwhelmed by this, understandably.

And while I do have issues with the series' attempt to equate Drizzt's situation with real world racism, something you've heard ad nauseum, I know, I have to admit that this is a very uplifting scene. As I said back in Crystal Shard, I think Salvatore is at his strongest when it comes to moments like these: ordinary people who step up and shine in these human moments of courage or compassion.

The sailors leave and Deudermont asserts his own opinion:

"I judge a man - elf - by his character, not his appearance," Deudermont declared. "And on that subject, keep the mask off, Drizzt Do'Urden. You are a far handsomer sort without it!"

...I could 'ship it. Pun partially intended.

Deudermont puts both to work: Wulfgar helping at the prow and Drizzt keeping the prisoners in line. Drizzt admits there are times when "the color of his skin" is an advantage.

It occurs to me that I think part of what makes this offputting is the emphasis on "color of his skin". THAT's what makes this all feel like an inappropriate racism metaphor. And, leaving aside the likely unconscious racism involved in making drow darker to begin with, it's not the only difference between the surface people and the drow.

Deudermont's human. The pirates are, unless established otherwise, probably human. Drow are elves, with different height, muscle mass, and general physiology. They have pointy ears. They have red eyes. (...Drizzt doesn't, but lavender eyes are pretty uncommon too.) They have magic in their blood and racial powers.

So it's not just the color of Drizzt's skin that stands out here. I think if he'd just said "there are advantages to being my race", or "there are advantages to a drow's reputation", or something like that, it would have the same substance but aggravate me far less.

Now of course, there's the reunion between Drizzt and Bruenor. Which starts off with Bruenor tossing the scimitar at Drizzt and telling him to name it. ("Good for a cook at a pig roastin'!"). Drizzt sheathes it, thinking it a "fitting companion to Twinkle".

Can you ship non-sentient swords?

Anyway, the reunion gets more emotional:

Bruenor walked up to his drow friend and clasped his wrist firmly. "When I saw yer eyes lookin' out at me from the gorge," the dwarf began softly, fighting back a choke that threatened to break his voice apart, "suren then I knew that me other friends would be safe."

"But they are not," Drizzt replied. "Regis is in dire peril."

Bruenor winked. "We'll get him back, elf! No stinkin' assassin's going to put an end to Rumblebelly!" He clenched the drow's arm tightly one final time and turned to Wulfgar, the lad he had ushered into manhood.

Wulfgar wanted to speak but could find no path for the words beyond the lump in his throat. Unlike Drizzt, the barbarian had no idea that Bruenor might still be alive, and seeing his dear mentor, the dwarf who had become as a father to him, back from the grave and standing before him was simply too much for him to digest. He grabbed Bruenor by the shoulders just as the dwarf was about to say something, and hoisted him up, locking him in a great bear hug.

Catti-brie is also here. And for the first time in the entire trilogy, she actually gets to say something to Drizzt Do'Urden:

Her eyes first found the gaze of Drizzt, locking the drow in a silent moment of emotion that went deeper than simple friendship. "Well met," she whispered. "Good it is to look upon Drizzt Do'Urden again. Me heart's been with ye all along."

It's still utterly absurd that both Streams of Silver and Halfling's Gem touted this deep closeness and history between the two characters without Salvatore once bothering to let them interact. Drizzt's response?

Drizzt cast her a casual smile and turned his lavender eyes away. "Somehow I knew that you would join our quest before it was through," he said. "Well met, then, and welcome along."

I am moved by this deep connection.

But then again, Catti-brie/Wulfgar is nearly as bad:

Catti-brie's gaze drifted past the drow to Wulfgar. Twice she had been separated from the man, and both times when they again had met, Catti-brie was reminded how much she had come to love him.

Wulfgar saw her, too. Droplets of seawater sparkled on her face, but they paled next to the shine of her smile. The barbarian, his stare never leaving Catti-brie, eased Bruenor back to the floor.

Only the embarrassment of youthful love kept them apart at that moment, with Drizzt and Bruenor looking on.

Salvatore does a lot of things well: the aforementioned thing about no name NPC types, his ability to create fairly vivid minor characters like Cassius and Deudermont. He writes action scenes comprehensibly, and gives his characters consistent and vivid personalities.

He kind of sucks at romance.

Anyway, Bruenor presents Pinochet as a gift to pay for his and Catti-brie's passage:

"Do you know who I am?" the pirate said in a huff, thinking that he now had a more reasonable person to deal with than the surly dwarf.

"You are a pirate," Deudermont replied calmly.

Pinochet cocked his head to study the captain. A sly smile crossed his face. "You have perhaps heard of Pinochet?"

Deudermont had thought, and feared, that he had recognized the man when Pinochet had first entered the cabin. The captain of the Sea Sprite had indeed heard of Pinochet - every merchant along the Sword Coast had heard of Pinochet.

I love these hints of a deeper pirate/merchant culture, because indeed, Pinochet demands his release, and Deudermont is going to let him go. The others are shocked.

Well. Not Drizzt of course:

Drizzt, whose own people commonly bent the tenets of justice to fit rules of, station, understood the captain's dilemma at once. "Let him go," he said. Both of his magical scimitars came out in his hands, Twinkle glowing dangerously. "Let him go and give him a blade. Neither am I forgiving."

...I'm both annoyed at Drizzt's immediate understanding of the Captain's situation and amused at his solution. Especially when Bruenor and Wulfgar, and even Catti-brie join in with similar threats.

Deudermont cheerfully tells Pinochet that he's welcome to go when he chooses, or he and his crew can stay under Deudermont's personal protection until reaching port. There's a bit more pissing contest involved, but Pinochet decides to go along to the hold.

That dealt with, our newly reunited gang goes off to Drizzt and Wulfgar's cabin to share stories of what they've been up to, and think wistfully of how Regis always came up with an even better tall tale. Bruenor is in the middle of his story when Deudermont comes in to confer.

He explains that Pinochet is a very prominent dude, and this ambush doesn't make sense. He was clearly after something ("Us" says Drizzt, but I won't complain about that one as it's pretty fucking obvious). Deudermont apologizes, but he can't press Pinochet too hard for info. Our heroes understand, figuring the light show at Baldur's Gate was probably a signal.

Actually this bit is annoying:

"The man we seek knew that we would come into Baldur's Gate," said Drizzt. "He even left a message for us. It would not have been difficult for the likes of Artemis Entreri to arrange a signal detailing how and when we left"

"Or to arrange the ambush," Wulfgar said grimly.

"So it would seem," said Deudermont.

Drizzt kept quiet, but suspected differently. Why would Entreri lead them all this way, only to have them killed by pirates? Someone else had entered the picture, Drizzt knew, and he could only guess that that person was Pasha Pook himself.

...Salvatore. How did Drizzt "keep quiet" when HE suggested Entreri to begin with. And I still dislike that Drizzt miraculously knows so much about Calimport that he knows Pook is at fault. He's right about Entreri, but he just met the guy.

I think it'd be stronger, if Drizzt had said something like "Why would Entreri lead them all this way, only to have them killed by pirates? It didn't match what Drizzt knew of the man, and he wondered if someone else had entered the picture. Perhaps this 'Pasha Pook' that the Captain and Regis had mentioned?"

It's the same gist, of course. Drizzt still gets to be right about Entreri. He can even blame Pasha Pook, but it sounds a lot less like a player metagaming with OOC knowledge.

Anyway, they're on their way to Memnon, in the kingdom of Calimshan, to dock and repair. It may be a week. And then another week to get to Calimport proper. That's not great at all. But Deudermont has another option for them: The trip from Memnon to Calimport is a lot longer by sea than by land. They could make it through the desert in a manner of days. Deudermont points out that they could easily hire out as Caravan guards and they're entitled to a reward from Deudermont himself.

He's also fine with them staying on the Sea Sprite, of course. And Drizzt amuses me:

"How long to Memnon?" Drizzt asked.

"It depends on how much wind our sails can hold," replied Deudermont. "Five days; perhaps a week."

I realize this is probably a mistake with editing because two paragraphs ago, Deudermont said it'd take a week to get to Memnon. But I prefer the thought that Drizzt had zoned out for a moment and missed that line. It's humanizing. So to speak. (Elfenizing?)

They ask what the desert is like, and the chapter ends on a pretty great note, I have to admit.

"Tell us of this Calim Desert," said Wulfgar. "What is a desert?"

"A barren land," replied Deudermont grimly, not wanting to understate the challenge that would be before them if they chose that course. "An empty wasteland of blowing, stinging sands and hot winds. Where monsters rule over men, and many an unfortunate traveler has crawled to his death to be picked clean by vultures."

The four friends shrugged away the captain's grim description. Except for the temperature difference, it sounded like home.

That's a badass chapter ending line, Salvatore. Well done!