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Servant of Shadow	By : Giovanna Category: A through F > Forgotten Realms Views: 3741 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Forgotten Realms series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Chapter 9

Chapter 9.

Artemis Entreri lay on his narrow bed and contemplated the strange turns his life had taken. On their return from Menzoberanzan Jarlaxle had been waiting for them. One look into Aramys'' leaden eyes and the drow seemed to know something unusual had happened. A glance at Entreri''s scratched face seemed to confirm his fear, and the drow had caught the assassin by the throat, at the same time enacting a paralyzing enchantment on the man, preventing his resistance and pressing him against the wall.
"Tell me now, child, Does this rivvil live or die! " the drow said through clenched teeth. The slender black hand squeezed his windpipe with amazing strength. Entreri had never seen him so angry and figured his end was upon him. He was helpless, and the girl would surely wish to be rid of him now more than ever. Instead she had come alive, pulling Jarlaxle''s hand away, crying, "NO! He did nothing, we merely had a run in with a patrol party!" Jarlaxle had looked at her closely, slowly releasing the human. As Entreri fell to the floor and fought to regain his breath, he heard the drow command Aramys to follow him to his chamber. With a quick and meaningful look into Entreri''s dark eyes, the girl left him where he lay and followed the drow down the corridor.
A week had passed since then, and Aramys had said nothing about what had passed between her and Jarlaxle after they had left. The drow was friendly again, seeming his normal charming self, even making the human assassin privy to many of the mercenary''s secret maneuverings. Entreri als also been in Aramys near-constant company. Nothing more was said about their strange encounter in the city, but an unspoken understanding seemed to have been reached a certain level of respect and trust had grown between the two. Aramys seemed to realize that in her panicked state the human could have gone ahead and forced her if he choose to, just as Entreri knew that his life had rested squarely in her hands on at least two occasions, and she had not beed hed him. It was an uneasy truce, though, for each felt the tension strongly when the other was near.

They practiced together daily, and their battles took on a passion that they refused to acknowledge otherwise. Entreri, no longer fighting out of injured p, fo, found he gave as good as he got in the mock-battles, and came to enjoy their sparring. It had been a very long time since he had enjoyed swordplay simply for the sake of it, and of course he never fought casually; there had never been anyone good enough to keep up with him anyway. Aramys accepted her role as teacher, just as Entreri now accepted is own as student. He made progress with the language, and had mastered the use of infra-vision. They went on simple errands into the city, and the human came to understand drow society and to realize just how lowly they were in drow eyes.
Alone now with his own thoughts, the man mused over what had happened between himself and the e mai maid. It had come as unexpectedly as rain in the Calim desert, and left him just as amazed. He simply couldn’t comprehend how one moment they had been having a heated argument, ready to do battle, and then the next moment….well, this was beyond his experience. He realized he had been drawn to her from the first moment he saw her. Entreri''s experience with women was limited to the harem girls of the various pashas he had worked for, and even that was surprisingly slight. He had always been business-like and cool on the rare occasions he had visited them; he saw them as a necessary evil. Despite this the women had seemed to like him well enough. At least he was handsome, and unlike many of their more brutal visitors, he was gentle with him. He had hated the times when he felt forced to go to them though, for they represented a loss of control on his part, and that was something he couldn’t bear.
He pictured Aramys now in his mind''s eye. She had none of threm rem women''s practiced seduction, none of their cosmetics and perfume, none of their gaudy and revealing cloths. He saw her pale face, her huge and haunted eyes, and her slender and graceful form. And that hair…so long, and black as sin against her white skin. He realized he could never again see that hair unbound and not want her. She was utterly beautiful to him, and such passion was new.
If any female outside of the harem had ever found him pleasing, he had been blind to it. He realized with some shock that he had never been with a woman that he considered an equal. It wasn’t that he had any particular disrespect for females, only whores, but that disrespect extended to anyone who had no control over their lives. He simply had never followed the inclination that seemed most natural to the rest of humanity: to see someone, feel drawn to them, come to know them and form a bond. In the whole of his emotionally impoverished existence, he had never seen one of his few lovers as a person. Rather, they were a means to an end, something to fill a need that he despised himself for.
Artemis Entreri realized the path his thoughts were taking with dread. The man hated introspection; it summoned demons he didn’t know how to fight, and couldn’t seem to banish. He didn’t like to acknowledge fear either, but realized now that it had ruled the greater part of his existence. No, not the cowardly fear that caused men to run from battle, for he could face down just about anything without flinching. Rather it was a devouring fear of himself.
His earliest memories, those which he felt formed the foundation of his being, had poisoned him. To be close to any other person would only serve to contaminate them as well. He thought back to his parents for the first time in Years. His mother had been the only person he could ever truly say he loved, but she had betrayed that love with her weakness, her own inability to control her destiny. His father…. Entreri''s mind flinched away from the memory even as he summoned it. The man sighed and forced it to come anyway. His father had been a drunken brutal bastard, someone with no control over his baser instincts, weak, perverted and vicious in the worst sense of the word. Next to him, the assassin felt almost kindly, for at least when he killed someone, he ended their suffering. His father had left him with a wound that would fester and gnaw his soway way as long as he lived.
The man sighed again as his thoughts came full circle and turned back to Aramys. He had seen the same pain her eyes; he felt it as clearly as he did his own. He had never felt such a clear connection to another being before, but didn’t know what he should do with it. He simply could not fit himself into the normal framework of human relations, no mater how he tried. For the first time in his life he comprehended how truly robbed he had been.
Thankfully, the man''s thoughts were interrupted at this point be a soft rap at his door. He rose and opened it, and beheld one of Bregan D''earth''s lesser soldiers on the other side. Of course, even this minor drow seemed put out to have contact with him, and delivered his message too quickly for the man to catch entirely. Entreri believed the message was to summon him to Jarlaxle''s chambers, but the purpose of the summons he couldn’t interpret. Quietly, he headed down the dim corridor to the drow''s apartments. He knocked softly, and hearing a muffled reply from within entered. The first room seemed to be some sort of sitting room, while the one beyond was an office and library combined. Entreri followed the soft glow of light through to the next and found himself in the bedroom.
He looked around and saw no sign of the drow, but there on the huge bed he saw the object of his earlier miserable musings. Aramys was lying comfortably on her stomach, a book open in front of her. She looked almost child-like with her hair loose around her and her feet waving absently in the air behind her. As she looked up questioningly, several emotions seized the man at once. The first he could hardly identify, but it was at once both pleasurable and agonizing, a rush of emotion stronger than anything he had ever known, which was followed immediately by burning anger. He had always assumed that Aramys and Jarlaxle were lovers, but her comfortable and familiar position on his bed brought it home to him all the stronger. His rage was not directed at Aramys, though, but rather at the drow whom he knew perfectly well had many others. Why couldn’t he have just left Aramys alone?
" Do I need to get my weapons?" Aramys asked, her question interrupting his thoughts.
"What?" Entreri asked, confused. The man looked disconcerted, and shoved his long fingers through his hair in a nervous gesture that she found unaccountably appealing.
"You were staring at me as though you wished me dead." She explained. The girl sat up, putting aside her book.
Entreri shook his head."Forgive me, I was seeing another."
"God help them then." tha that moment the true object of his wrath strolled casually through the door. Jarlaxle grinned mischievously at the two."Which god?" he asked cheerfully, "And whom must he prevent you from killing, master Entreri?" The drow took off his ridiculous hat and spun it towards Aramys. She caught it easily and sat it on the bed.
" Nevermind.'' The human replied. "Did you summon me here?"
Jarlaxle flopped down on the bed comfortably besides Aramys. "Did I?" he asked. "The word Summon has such an autocratic ring to it, don''t you think?"
Entreri sighed, wishing the drow would just get to the point.
"I do believe I did invite you here." He continued, fiddling with a strand of Aramys'' dark hair. The girl met Entreri''s burning eyes uncomfortably. Jarlaxle felt her tension on the bed beside him, and understood its source better than either would have guessed."Aramys ", he said softly." I think I need to speak with Master Entreri alone. Would you please excus?" s?" Gratefully, the girl rose and left the two alone.
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Servant of Shadow