Fistandantilus Reborn - Douglas Niles [54]
He nodded dumbly.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I guessed that this horse came from there. Is there anyone else…?”
She let the question hang in the air, and this time his mute response was a shake of the head.
“Well, here,” she said, offering him the end of the halter. “I think you should have him.”
Reflexively Danyal took the rope, though he was vaguely surprised that Nightmare didn’t immediately take off running. “Th-thanks,” he said, also by reflex.
“I wouldn’t try to ride him just yet,” she said. “He got kind of burned on the shoulder there. I was thinking that maybe a mud poultice would help it heal.”
“You’re right!” The youth was suddenly infused with enthusiasm, with the thought that there was something he could do to help. “I’ll be right back.”
He skidded down the slope, into a silty patch of the streambed, and quickly scooped a double handful of the smooth, gooey stuff. Scrambling back up the bank, he struggled to keep his balance without using his hands. At the horse’s flank, he reached up to gently place the poultice over the hairless, seared patch of flesh. Nightmare shivered, his pelt rippling along his flank, but he didn’t shy away from the ministrations.
“That was a good idea,” he said, speaking softly to the kendermaid, who had been standing on the other side of the animal. Questions suddenly occurred to him, and he blurted them out: “Who are you? What’s your name? Do you live somewhere around here, in the valley?”
When he got no response, he dipped his head, looking under Nightmare’s neck. He felt a chilling sense of surprise, wondering if, for a moment, he had imagined the kendermaid’s presence. She was nowhere to be seen.
CHAPTER 19
Autobiography To His Excellency Astinus, Lorekeeper of Krynn Inscribed this year of Krynn, 353 AC As Your Excellency can well imagine, I am moved and flattered by your request that I provide a summation of my own life story. Of course, it has always been my belief that the proper historian should be a reporter, a chronicler of great deeds, and not a participant. Whether the fortune be good or ill, however, it has been my luck to have been thrust into the role of participant in some of these occurrences. Overcoming my reluctance, suppressing my discipline and training, I have forced myself, as it were, to stir the river’s waters with a paddle of my own.
Naturally my humble role is dwarfed, virtually to insignificance, by the deeds of the great actors on the historical stage. Indeed, it seems presumptuous of me even to take up quill and ink for the discussion of such abjectly inconsequential deeds of my own, though admittedly those trivial occurrences did involve a certain level of risk to me. My blood still chills at the knowledge of the perilous circumstances that I repeatedly encountered. With nothing more then the steadiness of my spirit, the keenness of my observer’s eye, and the sly wit of my tongue, I went into contest with villains of monstrous capability, fiends who would have flayed me alive as soon as looked at me.
And with all humility, I have overcome my modesty enough to describe how my encounters in these adventures were indeed met with some measure of success, however small and unportentous it may have been.
But, of course, I digress, forgetting that you have requested a history of the time preceding those sublime accomplishments. As ever, I shall strive my best to be the equal of Your Excellency’s requirements.
To wit: My studies commenced during the autumn of 366 AC, when I was accepted into the Temple of Gilean in Palanthas as a novice. I was commended upon my literacy, though (as Your Excellency is no doubt aware) several of the elders held certain misgivings as to my suitability for the priesthood.
My studies progressed in two directions. In areas of research, of scribing, recording, and of accurate description, I was universally praised.
However, in matters representative of faith in our god of neutrality, I confess that I displayed a rather extreme impairment. A typical novice, of