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.”“I have a reputation to uphold,” Regis answered, and handed Drizzt back the purse he’d just lifted from the drow’s belt.“Very good,” Drizzt congratulated.“You almost had it off my belt before I felt your hand.” As he took the purse, he handed Regis back the unicorn-headed mace he’d deftly slid from the halfling’s belt as the rogue was lifting his purse.Regis shrugged innocently.“If we steal one-for-one, I will end up with the more valuable items of magic.”Drizzt looked across the halfling and out to the north, leading Regis’s gaze to a huge black panther moving their way.Drizzt had summoned Guenhwyvar from her Astral home that afternoon and let her go to run a perimeter around them.He hadn’t brought the panther forth much of late, not needing her in the halls of King Bruenor and not wanting to spark some tragic incident with any of the orcs in Obould’s kingdom, who might react to such a sight as Guenhwyvar with a volley of spears and arrows.“It’s good to be on the road again,” Regis declared as Guenhwyvar loped up beside him, opposite Drizzt.He ruffled the fur on the back of the great cat’s neck and Guenhwyvar tilted her head and her eyes narrowed to contented slits of approval.“And you are complicated, as I said,” Drizzt remarked, viewing this rarely seen side of his comfort-loving friend.“I believe I was the one to say that,” Regis corrected.“You just applied it to me.And it’s not that I’m a complicated sort.It’s just that I ever keep my enemies confused.”“And your friends.”“I use you for practice,” said the halfling, and as he gave a rather vigorous rub of Guenhwyvar’s neck, the panther let out a low growl of approval that resonated across the dales and widened the eyes of every deer within range.The fields of tall grass and wild flowers gave way to cultivated land as the sun neared the horizon before them.In the waning twilight, with farmhouses and barns dotting both sides, the path had become a road.The companions spotted a familiar hill in the distance, one sporting the zigzagging silhouette of a house magnificent and curious, with many towers tall and thin, and many more short and squat.Lights burned in every window.“Ah, but what mysteries might the Harpells have in store for us this visit?” Drizzt asked.“Mysteries for themselves as well, no doubt,” said Regis.“If they haven’t all killed each other by accident by now.”As lighthearted as the quip was meant to be, it held an undeniable ring of truth for them both.They’d known the eccentric family of wizards for many years, and never had visited, or been visited by, any of the clan, particularly one Harkle Harpell, without witnessing some strange occurrence.But the Harpells were good friends of Mithral Hall.They had come to the call of Bruenor when the drow of Menzoberranzan assaulted his kingdom, and had fought valiantly among the dwarven ranks.Their magic lacked predictability, to be sure, but there was no shortage of power behind it.“We should go straight to the Ivy Mansion,” Drizzt said as darkness closed in on the small town of Longsaddle.Even as he finished speaking, almost in response, it seemed, a shout of anger erupted in the stillness, followed by an answering bellow and a cry of pain.Without hesitation, the drow and halfling turned and headed that way, Guenhwyvar trotting beside them.Drizzt’s hands stayed near his sheathed scimitars, but he didn’t draw them.Another shout, words too distant to be decipherable, followed by a cheer, followed by a cacophony of shouted protests…Drizzt sprinted out ahead of Regis.He scrambled down a long embankment, picking a careful route over fallen branches and between the tightly-packed trees.He broke out of the copse and skidded to a stop, surprised.“What is it?” Regis asked, stumbling down past him, and the halfling would have gone headlong into a small pond had Drizzt not caught him by the shoulder and held him back.“I don’t remember this pond,” Drizzt said, and glanced back in the general direction of the Ivy Mansion to try to get his bearings.“I don’t believe it was here the last time I came through, though it was only a couple of years back.”“A couple of years is an eternity where the Harpells are concerned,” Regis reminded him.“Had we come here and found a deep hole where the town had once stood, would you have been surprised? Truly?”Drizzt was only half listening.He moved to a clear, flat space and noted the dark outline of a forested island and the light of a larger fire showing through breaks in the thick foliage.Another ruckus of arguing sounded from the island.Cheers came from the right bank, the protests from the left, both groups hidden from Drizzt’s view by thick foliage, with only a few campfire lights twinkling through the leaves.“What?” the perplexed Regis asked, a simple question that accurately reflected Drizzt’s confusion as well.The halfling poked Drizzt’s arm and pointed back to the left, to the outline of a boat dock with several craft bobbing nearby.“Be gone, Guenhwyvar,” Drizzt commanded his panther companion.“But be ready to return to me
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