Amber and Blood - Margaret Weis [2]
“I can hear voices in the thunder,” the kender said, “but I can’t understand what the voices are saying or make out who is talking. Can you?”
Rhys shook his head. He petted Atta, trying to calm the dog.
“Rhys,” said Nightshade after a moment, “I think those must be gods up there. Chemosh is a god, after all, and maybe he’s throwing a party for his fellow gods. Though I have to say he didn’t strike me as the type to go dancing, what with him being the God of Death and all. Still, maybe he has a fun side.”
Rhys watched the dazzling light flash outside the grotto and listened to the voices and thought of the old saying, “When the gods rage, man trembles.”
“So many things are happening—so many strange things,” Nightshade emphasized, “that I’m feeling sort of muddled. I’d like to talk it over, just to make sure that you think happened what I think happened. And, to be honest, talking makes the howling wind and lightning seem not so bad. You don’t mind if I talk, do you?”
Rhys did not mind.
“I guess I’ll start with us being chained up in the cave,” said Nightshade. “No, wait. I have to say how we got chained up in the cave, so we should start with the minotaur. Except the minotaur didn’t come along until after you fought with your dead brother the Beloved and the little boy killed him—”
“Start with the minotaur,” Rhys suggested. “Unless you want to go all the way back to the time I met you in the graveyard.”
Nightshade thought that over. “No, I don’t think my voice will last long enough for going back that far. I’ll start with the minotaur. We were walking down the street, and you were really, really angry at Majere and said you were going to quit serving him or any god, when suddenly all these minotaurs came out of nowhere and took us prisoner.
“I cast a spell on one,” Nightshade added proudly. “I made him fall down and flop around on the street like a fish. The minotaur captain said I was a ‘kender with horns’. Do you remember that, Rhys?”
“I do,” Rhys returned. “The captain was right. You were very brave.”
“Then the minotaur picked me up and put me in a sack and took us both on board his ship, only it wasn’t an ordinary ship. It was a ship that belonged to the Sea Goddess, and it sailed through the air, not the water, and I told you then that you couldn’t quit a god …”
“And you were right,” said Rhys.
Thirty years old, he had been a monk dedicated to Majere for what seemed most of his life. And though not long ago he had lost faith in Majere, the god had refused to lose faith in him. This knowledge humbled Rhys and filled him with thankfulness and joy. He had stumbled and groped through the darkness, taken many wrong turns, ended up in a few blind alleys, but he had found his way back to his god, and Majere had welcomed him with loving arms.
“The minotaur ship brought us here to the other side of the continent where Chemosh built his castle. And the minotaur chained us up in the cave—see, I came to that part.”
Rhys nodded again, continuing to pet Atta, who seemed calmer, listening to the kender talk.
“Then we had lots of visitors—a lot more than you’d expect for people chained up in a cave. First Mina came.” Nightshade shivered. “That was truly awful. She walked up to you and asked you to tell her who she was. She claimed that the first time she saw you, you recognized her—”
Except I didn’t, Rhys thought, troubled. He still did not understand that part of the story.
“—and when you couldn’t tell her who she was, Mina got angry. She thought you were lying, and she said if you didn’t tell she was going to come back to the cave and kill me and Atta. We would die in torment,” Nightshade finished with relish.
“After Mina left, Zeboim popped by. You see what I mean, Rhys? We never had so much company when we were staying in Solace as we did chained up in that cave. Zeboim said for you to tell her who Mina was because all the gods were in an uproar over it, and you said you couldn’t, and then she got mad and said she