Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [111]
“Ahem!” Wizard Fenworth cleared his throat. “Mustn’t keep your mother waiting, Wit.”
Bumbocore looked startled. “Is Gloritemdomer expecting you? I just saw your father today at noonmeal, and he didn’t say a thing.”
“Now isn’t that the way of a quest?” Fenworth tapped his walking stick vigorously against the stone flooring. “Risto knows we’re coming. That Burner Stox woman knows we’re coming. Probably that no-good husband of hers, Crim Copper, knows we’re coming. Even sent out a three-headed monster to greet us, but do our people know we’re coming?” He started muttering and shaking his head, pulling his beard with one hand, knocking newly sprouting leaves to the floor as he did so.
Bumbocore paled. “R-risto? Burner St-stox? Monster?”
Fenworth patted the short man on his back. “Been bothering you, too? Tut-tut. We’ll have to do something about that. Good calcification spell works if you remember to move briskly afterward.”
He cleared his throat and gestured to his librarian. “Nice talking to old friends, but we must be going. Gloritemdomer makes a good supper, and we don’t want to be late. Rude, you know.”
Librettowit led the way through the wide streets of the stone city. Lightrocks shone in a variety of colors along the way. Kale wondered why they were spaced so far apart. The cheery colors brightened dark passages but were not grouped together to illuminate the entire area. After a while, she grew used to the effect of the subdued lighting and thought it was a pretty way to brighten the constant gray of the granite.
“Now you see,” said Librettowit, doffing his hat to those he passed as he went on instructing his traveling companions, “tumanhofers don’t take granite from the mountain, chip it into blocks, haul it across the country, and stack it into buildings. Such an inefficient way to build a city. Our homes are carved out of the rock. Our streets are not paved, because they are rock to begin with. Therefore we can spend our time on more worthwhile things.”
Leetu?
“Yes?”
What do tumanhofers think are worthwhile things to do?
“Digging.”
Digging? As in dirt?
“Sometimes, if you count their extensive agricultural research programs. But more into the way things work. Librettowit digs into books and finds interesting facts. Some tumanhofers dig into different ways of doing things. There are more inventors, scientists, and scholars among the tumanhofers than any other race. In Dael alone, there are six universities.”
Does anybody need that much learning?
“The tumanhofers do. It keeps them happy.”
Kale unbuttoned her cape, and the two dragons scrambled out to sit on her shoulders. They chittered excitedly. Kale caught the gist of what they said by listening with her mind.
She grinned as she realized they were saying things she wanted to exclaim herself. Metta and Gymn were uttering, “Look at that. Did you ever see…? What is that used for? Ooo, that’s pretty,” over and over in different variations of the same, awed thoughts.
The questing party walked a long, long way before the house fronts began to look like homes instead of stores and inns. Their tumanhofer guide quit talking as he rounded a corner and quickened his pace. Down the street a door flew open, and a stout woman rushed out. She trotted to meet them and embraced Librettowit.
“Mama!” he exclaimed and enveloped her in a big hug. A man appeared and joined the hug, adding slaps on Librettowit’s back and exclaiming, “Well, well, welcome, son.”
Neighbors poured out of the nearby homes and gathered in the street. Kale stood back and watched. This was unlike anything she had ever seen. Mariones did not display their affections. These tumanhofers spent twenty minutes greeting each other and making introductions. They laughed and hugged. Librettowit’s father, Grundtrieg, took over the introductions once his son had led him around and made known the names of each of his companions. Grundtrieg introduced Kale to a young tumanhofer girl named Estellabrist.