Dragons of Spring Dawning - Margaret Weis [34]
Tasslehoff gulped, turned, and ran.
At the sight of the kender running back toward him, Flint knew it was All Over. Something Awful was going to crash out of that grove of trees. The dwarf whirled so rapidly he tripped over his feet and fell sprawling to the pavement. Running up to him, Tas grabbed Flint’s belt and pulled him up. Then the two dashed madly down the street, the dwarf running for his very life. He could almost hear gigantic footsteps thudding along behind him. He did not dare turn around. Visions of a slobbering monster drove him on until his heart seemed about to burst from his body. Finally they reached the end of the street.
It was warm. The sun shone.
They could hear the voices of real live people drifting from the crowded streets beyond. Flint stopped, exhausted, gasping for breath. Glancing fearfully back down the street, he was surprised to see it was still empty.
“What was it?” he managed to ask when he could speak past the thudding of his heart.
The kender’s face was pale as death. “A-a t-tower …” Tas gulped, puffing.
Flint’s eyes opened wide. “A tower?” the dwarf repeated. “I ran all that way, nearly killing myself, and I was running from a tower! I don’t suppose”—Flint’s bushy eyebrows came together alarmingly—“that the tower was chasing you?”
“N-no,” Tas admitted. “It, it just stood there. But it was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” the kender avowed solemnly, shuddering.
“That would be the Tower of High Sorcery,” the Lord of Palanthas told Laurana that evening as they entered the map room of the beautiful palace on the hill overlooking the city. “No wonder your little friend was terrified. I’m surprised he got as far as the Shoikan Oak Grove.”
“He’s a kender,” Laurana replied, smiling.
“Ah, yes. Well, that explains it. Now that’s something I hadn’t considered, you know. Hiring kender to do the work around the Tower. We have to pay the most outrageous prices to get men to go into those buildings once a year and keep them in good repair. But then”—the Lord appeared down-cast—“I don’t suppose the townspeople would be at all pleased to see a sizeable number of kender in the city.”
Amothus, Lord of Palanthas, padded across the polished marble floor of the map room, his hands clasped behind his robes of state. Laurana walked next to him, trying to keep from tripping over the hem of the long, flowing gown the Palanthians had insisted she wear. They had been quite charming about the dress, offering it as a gift. But she knew they were horrified to see a Princess of the Qualinesti parading around in blood-stained, battle-scarred armor. Laurana had no choice but to accept it; she could not afford to offend the Palanthians whom she was counting on for help. But she felt naked and fragile and defenseless without her sword at her side and the steel around her body.
And she knew that the generals of the Palanthian army, the temporary commanders of the Solamnic Knights, and the other nobles, advisors from the City Senate, were the ones making her feel fragile and defenseless. All of them reminded her with every look that she was, to them, a woman playing at being a soldier. All right, she had done well. She had fought her little war and she had won. Now, back to the kitchen.…
“What is the Tower of High Sorcery?” Laurana asked abruptly. She had learned after a week of negotiating with the Lord of Palanthas that, although an intelligent man, his thoughts tended to wander into unexplored regions and he needed constant guidance to keep to the central topic.
“Oh, yes. Well, you can see it from the window here, if you really want to …” The Lord seemed reluctant.
“I would like to see it,” Laurana said coolly.
Shrugging, Lord Amothus veered from his course and led Laurana to a window she had already noticed because it was covered with thick curtains. The curtains over the other windows of the room were open, revealing a breathtaking view of the city in whatever direction one looked.
“Yes, this is the reason I keep these shut,” the Lord said with a sigh in answer to Laurana