Read an excerpt from Glacier’s Edge, R.A. Salvatore’s new Drizzt novel

Dungeons & Dragons’ most beloved drow, Drizzt Do’Urden, is back in R.A. Salvatore’s latest novel. Glacier’s EdgeThe second book in the Way of the Drow trilogy, it is the first. Starlight Enclave In 2021, they are still there. Fan-favorite characters Cattibrie and Jarlaxle as well as Artemis Entreri and Zaknafein discover a new society of drow. This exclusive extract is available from Polygon.

On Aug. 9, the novel began shipping from online retailers and independent booksellers nationwide — including signed copies available at Barnes & Noble.


They entered a wide corridor of brothels and pubs. Some were free-standing while others had been carved into stalagmites. Others contained walls of fabric that hardly protected the movement within.

Dininae knew this place from the days when he had been called Dinin, at that time the Secondboy of House Do’Urden. He had come here often to play, to gamble, to fight – anything to break the monotony of his existence as the lowest noble of Matron Malice’s court. He noticed that the Braeryn was quieter and more relaxed now. At first, he figured that due to recent events— the march to the surface, the brewing troubles, and the war with the demon hordes that had been fought here in Menzoberranzan only a few years below—but as he and Voselly continued their walk, he realized that no, that wasn’t it at all.

They had shelves filled with dirty glasses and piled them at the ends of each bar.

Which meant this wasn’t a sign of decline. The avenue seemed strangely empty at this time.

A few potential customers and patrons did he see, with some of them leaning against the bars. Others were standing alongside the prostitutes, as though trying to strike a deal. He also saw a few people pitching their bones down in an alleyway between the stalagmites, which made up a single Tavern. But they were all so unnatural at it he didn’t think them typical denizens of the Stenchstreets. He searched for insignia and noticed subtle clues on their weapons and armor that they were not Menzoberranzan’s downtrodden.

The full art, showing the title and the series to which it belongs.

Harper Voyager

But he did not find any house markings, symbols or crests.

It got worse.

“Are you at the ready?” he whispered to his companion.

“Of course. You see it, too?”

“I count six.”

“At least eight.”

“Ah yes, my favorite number, or so I was told from the moment of my birth,” Dininae replied.

“Take heart, we’ve friends about,” Voselly told him. “We need only hold our ground for a short while.”

“Unless they also have friends nearby.”

Voselly stopped, half-turning at his feet and smirking down at the man. Dininae was almost ready to speak, and she was poised to respond. But then, Voselly spun around with her trident, which was angled down, striking a sharp blade against her back. Her attacker overbalanced and fell forward just enough for Voselly to roll her shoulders and launch a devastating right cross that crunched into her attacker’s face and snapped his head back viciously.

Before hitting the ground, he had fallen unconscious completely.

Dininae had watched every movement, the sweep and the beautiful way Voselly had dropped her left shoulder back, essentially “throwing” the right hand with her left shoulder, resulting in such a long and truly devastating punch.

He silently reminded his self not to upset this woman. However, that was the only time he needed to think of anything else than the fight. This came quickly in the form either of two young men or, even more significantly, of four stabbing and waving swords.

So quick was his draw that Dininae’s swords seemed to simply appear in his hands, just as Zaknafein had taught him, drawing and stabbing in a singular movement. His opponent to the right turned and slapped a sword across to deflect, but the other one had not anticipated the sudden attack and caught Dininae’s left-hand blade right at the tip of his breastplate, where it slid up and jabbed into his throat.

Dininae might have decapitated him. But, the attacker behind him was doing a backhand swipe with his blocking knife. Dininae had to quickly fall back to allow his left hand blade to slash across and intercept.

He managed to get one of his opponents out of the fight for a while, though he was stumbling, gasping, and eventually falling to the side. But another enemy jumped into the void, pressing forward aggressively. Dininae had to return to his feet, with his two swords working tirelessly to stop the stabbing blades.

He said to himself in silence, “Work for the rhythm.”

Zaknafein’s litany.

Find the right rhythm for you, and then let the battle flow. Dininae followed his lead and was very pleased. After all of those years as a drider, he was still living up to Zaknafein’s training, and living up to the compliments Voselly had just put upon him.

When he saw something hard coming from behind, his shock stopped him from maintaining his rhythm and confidence.

In a reflexive move, he folded his legs beneath him and dropped down to his knees. He also tucked his chin and braced himself.

But the missile – which was actually another enemy drow warrior – went over him, falling over the two attackers, who tried hard not to stab their poor flailing comrade in the collision.

Dininae quickly jumped up, despite only a brief glance at the laughing Voselly. Dininae attacked the throwing drow in his kidney first. As the man was in agony, Dininae passed him and took the initiative to drive back both of the attackers. The left-hand-sided thrusts he used to push the off-balance, stumbling drow outwards were cleverly executed by Dininae.

Dininae pushed the drow forward three times, skipping to its right. Dininae rolled his blades now, as if trying to overwhelm the fellow.

But, Dininae didn’t break, and he rushed to get back to his left. That drow was charging Dininae, clearly believing that Dininae was fully engaged with him. One blade was raised, and the other was too far ahead.

Dininae got past the tip of that blade easily, and got his left arm up high, blade horizontal to steal the chop of the drow’s raised sword.

These were not houseless, rogues. These men wore high-quality armor.

But Dininae wielded Baenre swords, and with the momentum of both fighters bringing them fast together, that fine breastplate barely slowed the thrust of Dininae’s right-hand blade.

The drow stopped quickly and began to twist strangely.

Dininae stepped back, dropping his left shoulder to send his free sword cutting out hard behind him to stay the rush of the remaining fighter, while his right foot went up to the impaled drow’s chest and pushed off hard, sending Dininae out and into a roll and throwing the mortally-wounded attacker stumbling back and toppling over the first warrior Dininae had dispatched.

Dininae snapped his sword up just in time for a handcrossbow fight to avoid a flicker to the left.

He looked around and saw drow flooding onto the street. At first, he thought an army had attacked him and Voselly.

He realized that most of them were Blaspheme soldiers, his fellow ex-driders. He smiled at Voselly.

“They’ve been shadowing us?” he asked.

“I told you we had friends,” she replied.

“You didn’t say they were shadowing us.”

The warrior shook his head. “Perhaps I wanted to confirm that which was told to me, and which I hoped to be true.”

“That I can fight?”

“Yes, and perhaps you will soon find trust in me to tell me the truth about Dininae. You’re not a commoner. Martial arts are something you have to learn. You attended the Academy and were trained by a weapon master.”

The large, drow-looking woman in front of her was another member of the Blaspheme forces who spent thousands of years in the Abysss along with Lolth.

“What do you know, Aleandra?” Voselly asked.

“Your ambushers are fleeing.”

“Let them go.”

She smiled. “Yes, I gave the order already. There is another, the priestess from House Hunzrin. She wishes to retrieve these enemies who have fallen, to tend them that they will not die.”

“Why does she care? Are these murderers of House Hunzrin?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“She did not say, but my guess is House Melarn, of course.”

“So House Hunzrin is trying to play a mediation role here and avoid a war,” Voselly reasoned. As she looked at five of the fallen ambushers where one was skewered and rescued by Dininae looked in grave danger, Voselly sighed.

“Have her come and heal that one,” Voselly decided. “And do with him as she will. All the others will come back with us to House Baenre. Here, I wouldn’t overstep my boundaries. Let the Matron Mother Quenthel Baenre decide their fate.”

Aleandra ran away, and Voselly began to bark orders. Dininae was led back the same way that they came.

“It was my kill,” he said to her as they moved off. “You did not think the disposition of the fallen warrior should be my choice?”

“No,” she answered simply. “I was once weapon master of the First House of Menzoberranzan. So you claim, “You are a mere commoner.” Why would I care what you wanted?”

Dininae stopped. He let her go a couple of steps ahead, then stood there holding onto his hips and hands until she turned.

“You mean to play the same games that decided our mutual fates in times past?” he asked.

“Your words have consequences. When I can trust you, I will respect you.”

“Because I am a noble, you believe?”

“Because you will no longer be lying to me. You must not confuse me warrior. Regarding our situation in this battle, and our future, if any, I’m as worried as you. They have determined that we are the Blaspheme. We are Matron Mother Baenre’s shock soldiers, her fodder. She will throw us against her enemies, no doubt, and will shed no tears when we are torn apart.”

“Or Lolth will reveal her joke and revert us to a state of abomination,” Dininae replied, admitting his deepest fear.

“It has crossed my mind. This is the reason I will bring together all of Blaspheme at my request. Here or back in the Abyss, we stand together or we face torment – and actual death only if we are fortunate. But I like people who tell me the truth, Dininae.”

His sobriquet was almost spit on by her.

He didn’t want to cross Voselly. He really didn’t want to cross Matron Mother Baenre. And most of all, he didn’t want to become a pawn in the grand scheming of the Demon Queen of Spiders.

But in the end, he was a Do’Urden, Elderboy Dinin Do’Urden, and in this most confusing and dangerous time, he simply couldn’t discern how that truth would play.


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