"David Eddings - The Legacy Of The Drow II - Starless Night" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

powerful item might have aided Drizzt and, thus, aided his friends, but he had not the strength to wear it, to
even touch it. Doubts floated all about the drow, hovered in the air before his eyes, mocking him. Drizzt
sighed and rubbed the ruby between his slender black hands. For all his prowess with the blade, for all his
dedication to principles, for all his ranger stoicism, Drizzt DoтАЩUrden needed his friends. He glanced back
toward Mithril Hall and wondered, for his own sake, if he had chosen rightly in undertaking this quest
privately and secretly. More weakness, stubborn Drizzt decided. He let go of the ruby, mentally slapped
away the lingering doubts, and slid his hand inside his forest green traveling cloak. From one of its pockets
he produced a parchment, a map of the lands between the Spine of the World Mountains and the Great
Desert of Anauroch. In the lower right hand corner Drizzt had marked a spot, the location of a cave from
which he had once emerged, a cave that would take him home.

Part 1
DUTY BOUND

No race in all the Realms better understands the word vengeance than the drow. Vengeance is their dessert
at their daily table, the sweetness they taste upon their smirking lips as though it was the ultimate delicious
pleasure. And so hungering did the drow come for me. I cannot escape the anger and the guilt I feel for the
loss of Wulfgar, for the pains the enemies of my dark past have brought to the friends I hold so dear.
Whenever I look into Catti-brieтАЩs fair face, I see a profound and everlasting sadness that should not be there,
a burden that has no place in the sparkling eyes of a child.
Similarly wounded, I have no words to comfort her and doubt that there are any words that might bring
solace. It is my course, then, that I must continue to protect my friends. I have come to realize that I must
look beyond my own sense of loss for Wulfgar, beyond the immediate sadness that has taken hold of the
dwarves of Mithril Hall and the hardy men of Settlestone. By Catti-brieтАЩs account of that fateful fight, the
creature Wulfgar battled was a yochlol, a handmaiden of Lloth. With that grim information, I must look
beyond the immediate sorrow and consider that the sadness I fear is still to come. I do not understand all the
chaotic games of the Spider Queen, I doubt that even the evil high priestesses know the foul creatureтАЩs true
designs, but there lies in a yochlolтАЩs presence a significance that even I, the worst of the drow religious
students, cannot miss. The handmaidenтАЩs appearance revealed that the hunt was sanctified by the Spider
Queen. And the fact that the yochlol intervened in the fighting does not bode well for the future of Mithril Hall.
It is all supposition, of course. I know not that my sister Vierna acted in concert with any of
MenzoberranzanтАЩs other dark powers, or that, with ViernaтАЩs death, the death of my last relative, my link to
the city of drow would ever again be explored. When I look into Catti-brieтАЩs eyes, when I look upon BruenorтАЩs
horrid scars, IтАЩm reminded that hopeful supposition is a feeble and dangerous thing. My evil kin have taken
one friend from me.
They will take no more.
I can find no answers in Mithril Hall, will never know for certain if the dark elves hunger still for vengeance,
unless another force from Menzoberranzan comes to the surface to claim the bounty on my head. With this
truth bending low my shoulders, how could I ever travel to Silverymoon, or to any other nearby town,
resuming my normal life style? How could I sleep in peace while holding within my heart the very real fear
that the dark elves might soon return and once more imperil my friends? The apparent serenity of Mithril
Hall, the brooding quiet, will show me nothing of the future designs of the drow. Yet, for the sake of my
friends, I must know those dark intentions. I fear that there remains only one place for me to look.
Wulfgar gave his life so that his friends might live. In good conscience, could my own sacrifice be any less?

-Drizzt DoтАЩUrden

Chapter 1
THE AMBITIOUS ONE