Promise of the Witch-King

The book was hidden well.
It’s pages promised the power of the Witch-King himself.
And now that it’s been found, even the fact that it kills anyone foolish enough to crack its cover won’t stop people from fighting over it.
Welcome to the Bloodstone Lands!
Human assassin Artemis Entreri and his dark elf companion Jarlaxle have come to the demon-haunted wastelands of the frozen north at the request of their dragon patron. It doesn’t take long for them to find themselves caught in the middle of a struggle between powerful forces that would like nothing more than to see them both dead . . . or worse.
But Entreri and Jarlaxle aren’t just any wandering sellswords, and the ancient evils and bitter blood-feuds of the wild Bloodstone Lands may have finally met their match.
From the Paperback edition.
From Publishers WeeklyJarlaxle Baenre, the drow elf, is once again on the trail to rollicking adventure in bestseller Salvatore's follow-up to Servant of the Shard (2000). At the behest of the dragon sisters Ilnezhara and Tazmikella, Jarlaxle and his assassin companion, Artemis Entreri, travel to far-off Vaasa in search of an unknown artifact belonging to the Witch-King Zhengyi. The intrepid pair infiltrate the Army of Bloodstone at the Vaasan Gate, becoming part of the elite group of seasoned fighters who defend the gate from goblins, ogres, bugbears and other monsters. Salvatore keeps the action hopping as the duo use every trick in their repertoire to achieve their goal—finding magical treasure hidden by the long-dead Witch-King. Lovers of all things elvish, especially those who like butt-kicking swordplay, dastardly intrigues and ingenious hocus-pocus, will relish this fantasy. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From BooklistJarlaxle is a drow, or dark elf, Artemis Entreri a human. Both are involved in a quest for some magical books that will give godlike powers to a monarch. Right now the monarch connected with the search is King Gareth, and his friends and foes swarm, literally up hill and down dale, over the land in which Jarlaxle and Entreri meet and become allies and even uneasy friends. Also encountered are a royal army captain who has to be rescued before she can befriend Jarlaxle and Entreri as much as she would like to, an assassin who makes one think of Han Solo had he turned bounty hunter, a gruff dwarf (are there any suave ones?), and, altogether, a cast too large for this book were it not one volume in a series. Since Salvatore is the best series writer working in the Forgotten Realms, this volume is good news for loyal Realms readers. Roland GreenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved