I Read What?!

So last time, our heroes got accosted by bandits and Wulfgar punched a camel. Poor camel.

Regis brought his hand above his head and closed his eyes, trying to keep his visage blank enough to carry out the dupe. He swung his arm down, meaning to follow through on Pook's suggestion.

At the last moment, his hand swerved away and banged harmlessly on the table.

...what exactly did that accomplish? I don't blame Regis for being reluctant, but Pook grabs Regis's hand and shoves it on the spike anyway AND he knows that Regis isn't spellbound.

Pook thinks it's a pity, since if the pendant had brought Regis under control, he might have accepted him back. Regis had been the finest thief in Calimport once. Regis does get a pretty great line though:

"Then no pity for the failure of the gem," Regis dared to retort, guessing the teasing game that Pook was playing, "for no pain outweighs the disgust I would feel at playing lackey to Pasha Pook!"

He gets punched for his trouble. Pook muses about how the pendant only failed for him once before, with Artemis Entreri. (And hoo boy, he's lucky Entreri didn't figure out he tried that!). He now has to find some new tortures.

--

Now we rejoin our heroes, who have decided to pay a visit to racist caricature and treacherous merchant, Sali Dalib. They arrived with Wulfgar wearing a bandit's robe, so Sali Dalib hadn't expected anything. They corner him:

Sali Dalib's exclamation of shock came out as so much gibberish, and the wily merchant spun away to flee . . . only to find a neat hole sliced into the back of his tent and Drizzt Do'Urden standing within it, leaning on one scimitar while the other rested easily on his shoulder. Just to heighten the merchant's terror, Drizzt had again taken off the magical mask.

You know, for a guy who constantly laments his treatment on account of his race, Drizzt really does seem to enjoy terrorizing people.

Sali Dalib manages an escape with some multi colored light. But of course, "[o]nly Drizzt, ever alert, had not bee caught unawares". He knocks out the goblin henchman, pulls on the mask, and chases after Sali Dalib. The others follow suit. The chase is made easier when Drizzt uses "faerie fire", a drow racial ability that lines someone in purple flames.

Sali Dalib ends up running into a public bathhouse, guarded by huge eunuchs. Drizzt has no issue getting past. However, we're told, naked bodies cross his path at every step and he has to be careful where he places his hands.

Amusingly, the eunuchs stop Bruenor and start to insist 'No clothes'. But Bruenor stamps on one's foot. That seems mean. We slide into some slapstick:

The barbarian, leaning forward to gain speed, had no chance to stop or turn on the slippery, floor, and as Bruenor turned to make his way along the perimeter of the bath, Wulfgar slammed into him, knocking them both to the floor and into a slide they could not brake.

They bounced over the rim of the bath and plunged into the water, Wulfgar coming up, waist deep, between two voluptuous and naked, giggling women.

Wulfgar manages to stammer an apology, and Catti-brie whacks him on the back of the head, reminding him that he's looking for a merchant. Really, Catti-brie? I'm definitely not that fond of this side of her.

Drizzt manages to get out the other side of the bathhouse. Sali Dalib thinks he's gotten away, and the purple flames eve die down, but Drizzt stops him and brings him back to the merchant's tent where he's tied back to back with his goblin henchman. They basically terrorize him into taking them straight into Calimport.

As they travel, it starts getting really fucking hot. Our friends, being from the Icewind Dale, are not dealing well. Except Drizzt, of course, who had lived in the very bowels of the world. I...don't remember reading that Menzoberranzan was very hot. But that might explain some of the costumes. At night, Catti-brie and Drizzt share a moment when she offers to spell his his watch, so he can rest. He plans to rest within his cloak when the sun is high. She asks to join him then.

Drizzt smiled and turned his gaze back to the heavens, to the allure of the evening sky with a mystical longing in his heart as profound as any surface elf had ever experienced.

Catti-brie slipped her slender fingers around his and stood quietly by his side, not wanting to disturb his enchantment further, sharing more than mere words with her dearest of friends.

...I really would buy this "dearest of friends" thing a little more if this weren't the second conversation they've ever had with each other. We get a bit more about their journey, as they worry about Regis, but the chapter basically ends here.

There's an "epilogue" though. Since this is basically the second "book" within the novel.

Here, we rejoin Artemis Entreri, who is watching Pasha Pook with some scorn. He makes a narrative wisecrack about Pook never being late to the dinner bell.

Then he goes to see the wizard LaValle, who is quite happy to see him. They discuss Rassiter the were-rat briefly. LaValle is not a fan. Then Entreri asks LaValle to summon an image of Pinochet. And indeed, they see him captured and shackled.

LaValle makes contact with Pinochet, and gets his version of events. LaValle agrees to have Pook send word to Memnon to get Pinochet released. Entreri is very happy to hear that, of course, and he tells LaValle not to tell Pook.

LaValle is reluctant: this is a matter that endangers the guild. Entreri offers a bribe though: a gift LaValle can give Pook and claim as his own creation. Guenhwyvar. LaValle is thrilled and agrees not to tell Pook. (Guen, by the way, is waiting patiently in the astral plane. Poor kitty.) The epilogue ends here.