Azure bonds - Kate Novak [129]
"That is a rather tenuous recommendation of my talents." "Well, then, consider the fact that you saved us all from being poisoned."
"What?"
Olive grinned slyly. "If I had to do the cooking, we all would have died from indigestion."
Akabar did not respond to her little joke, so the halfling rambled on. "Look, what I'm trying to say is that eventually you'll learn to think like an adventurer. Then you'll really be a force to be reckoned with. Who knows, you may even teach us a thing or two. Reason may make all the difference between our success or failure, and nobody else in this group has as much of it as you do."
Akabar remained silent, and Olive worried that the mead might have been too strong for him, "Anyway," she said with a shrug, "I sort of like having you around. I sort of like you."
A tiny smile played across the Turmishman's lips. He sighed deeply. "I sort of like you, too," he replied. "Do you have any more of that mead?"
While Akabar took a long pull on the flask, Olive asked, "So, what about him?" Ruskettle jerked her head in the direction of the sleeping reptiles. "Dragonbait the Cereal."
"Saurial," Akabar corrected, yet understanding how Olive felt. Guilty, no doubt. It was one thing for Alias and himself to recognize the halfling's pettiness, selfishness, and thievery, and overlook it in the interest of party unity. But it was quite another thing to have one's actions silently watched and, no doubt, judged by the likes of a paladin. Akabar himself wondered with acute embarrassment what the lizard thought of him and his constant failures.
"Saurial," Olive said, finally getting the pronunciation correct. "He's kept a couple of major secrets from us. He could be hiding a lot more."
Akabar caught the blue glimmer of the runes shining on Dragonbait's chest. Unbeknownst to Olive, she was late trying to raise Akabar's suspicions against the lizard. Since yesterday, the mage reflected, I've battled him twice, lost both times, and then discovered that he was trying to save my miserable hide. Something he's rather in the habit of doing. And though the halfling was right when she pointed out it was highly unusual for a paladin to travel with an adventuring group with their… character, the Turmishman found it impossible to believe that the saurial meant them any harm.
"After he helps us get Alias back," Olive said, ignoring Akabar's pensive look, "I think we should find a way to ditch him. Alias won't like it, but it'll be for her own good."
"No," the mage said. "If he keeps his own counsel, that's his business. If my account balances, then so does his."
In Olive's eyes Akabar saw the look of a merchant who had decided it would be in her best interest not to drive too hard a bargain. She shrugged. "You're probably right. There's nothing to worry about. You rest. We'll be moving out in the morning, and this time we'll squash Its Ooziness. I'll be tending the fire, not that difficult a job considering all the deadfall Big Mo left in its wake. Been a dry summer, too-wood catches easy."
"Ruskettle?"
"Yes, Akash?"
"Would you please hand me my books? I think I'd better start studying. Like you said, we'll need all the power we can get. Even mine."
*****
Alias woke in a dim chamber deep beneath Moander's surface. All around her, patches of slime gave off a sickly green light. The glow from her sigils was brighter and purer, and to study her prison she held her arm out as a lantern, for she was no longer bound by mossy shackles.
The chamber was round and lined mostly with moss, except where moisture ran down its surface, nourishing the patches of luminous slime. She dug into the side of the wall with her fingers, but beneath the spongy moss she discovered an impenetrable mesh of thick roots and tree branches. She tried pulling the moss away in other spots,