Dragonquest - Donita K. Paul [8]
Gathered around another smaller table, four kimen women and several children sipped their tea and ate spicy hard cakes known as daggarts. Kale sniffed the air, wishing she could smell the fragrant morsels. Instead the strong odor of malty ale from the dish at her elbow assaulted her. Wrinkling her nose, she frowned as her dragons slurped the treat.
A roar of laughter from inside the Gander caught her attention. Through the window she saw a dozen men lounging around rough wooden tables in a dim room. A cold fireplace stood against one wall, and a mural covered another. Kale leaned in for a better look.
In the tavern in River Away, there had been a similar mural. Kale had thought nothing of the picture. But during her adventure, a quest to find a meech egg and deliver it to Wizard Fenworth, she had found herself in a real scene that looked very much like the picture on that tavern wall.
She squinted at the mural inside the Gander. A boat moved across dark waters. A tapered line of light from a full moon made a path across the water and illuminated the prow. Two figures sat at the front. One looked like her friend Dar. Kale moved to the open door of the Gander. She had to see who else was in the boat.
With Toopka’s thin arms snug around her neck, she slipped along the wall of the busy room. On the other side of the mural wall, the hallway passed through the center of the building. The painting covered the entire length. Gently rolling waves extended from one end to the other. White foam capped some of the waves.
Only in the center had the artist strayed from the persistent, repetitive blue-green waves. Here moonlight danced over the waters. The boat edged into its glowing beam.
She examined the people in the boat. A doneel sat in the prow with a small bundle on his knee. A kimen sat straddling the front tip of the small vessel, with his legs dangling above the water. His clothing either glowed white or reflected the moon. Behind the doneel sat a larger figure in a gray cape. This person leaned against an old man, bearded and wearing a wizard’s hat. With their heads together, they seemed to be whispering. In the widest part of the boat sat a urohm who dipped one oar into the waves. Beside him sat a marione and a young o’rant, both of whom applied their muscles to the other oar.
The light did not reach the back of the boat. Kale moved closer, trying to make out the images in the shadow behind the huge urohm. Possibly a tumanhofer with kimens around him. If so, the kimens had not illuminated their clothing. A fine lady sat beside the squat man who had to be a tumanhofer.
“Why are you looking at that?” asked Toopka.
“It’s like a painting I saw before.”
“Another boat?”
“No.”
“A lake?”
“No. It was a mountain pass.”
“This isn’t like a mountain pass.”
“No, but the people look the same.”
“Leecent Kale?”
“Yes?”
“I think we better get out of here.”
Kale became aware of the silence. She straightened and turned to view the room. The serving maids had stopped in their journeys back and forth to the kitchen. Every man sat or stood motionless. All eyes bored into Kale.
“This is the men’s side of the inn,” whispered Toopka.
Faced with more than a dozen glares, Kale swallowed hard.
Toopka’s little fist shook Kale’s collar. “I really think we better get out of here,” the doneel hissed. “Now!”
Kale gave a brisk bow to her statuelike audience. She had seen Dar do the elegant motion many times. Only when she did it, the gesture felt jerky. Sidestepping along the wall, she came to the corner of the room and had a clear shot to the back door. She hustled toward the bright rectangle of sunlight.
The closer she got to the opening, the faster her feet hit the clapboard floor. Her steps echoed as if she were crossing a wooden bridge. Her lungs ached as she reached the door, and she realized she’d been holding her breath. Gasping, she swung around the corner and out into the crisp, clean air. She also smashed headlong into a broad