Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [155]
Olive asked.
"There is a principle involved here, Mistress Ruskettle," Morala said.
"We understand that it won't make up for his loss. Alias," the Lord of Shadowdale said. "But the truth will be told about him, and everyone will know he died a hero."
"Thank you, Mourngrym," Alias replied. "I appreciate it. Finder would appreciate it, too."
"Finder would rather be alive," Olive muttered. Olive felt something tug at one of her curls, and she heard Finder's voice whisper in her head, Don't sulk, little Lady Luck. It doesn't become you.
The halfling looked around suddenly, her eyes wide.
"What's wrong. Olive?" Alias asked.
"Did you hear something?" Olive asked. "A voice?"
Alias shook her head.
"And since Finder is no longer a Harper in disgrace," Breck Orcsbane said, "we must welcome his choice of candidates to our ranks."
Olive, struggling to understand why she had suddenly heard Finder's voice so clearly when no one else had, was oblivious to the fact that everyone's eyes were on her.
Dragonbait signed subtly to the halfling in the thieves' hand cant. They mean you, rogue.
"Me?" the halfling said. "What about me?"
"I told them," Alias explained, "that Finder gave you his Harper's pin."
"Pin?" Olive asked slyly, suddenly aware that if she didn't watch her step, she could end up an official snooty, goody-goody Harper, complete with responsibilities to live up to and rules to follow. "I haven't got any pin," she insisted. It was true, since she'd fastened Finder's Harper's pin to his cloak before he'd gone off to fight Moander. She tossed her hair defiantly.
Something slid down her hair and landed on the ground directly in front of her.
There was no mistaking the glittering silver harp-and-crescent-moon pattern of the pin, which had seemed to dislodge itself from behind her ear.
Elminster reached over and held up the pin. "Yes… this is Finder's pin," the sage said. "1 saw him give it to the halfling last year after she freed him from Cassana's dungeon, then helped him rescue Akabar, Alias, and Dragonbait."
"Actually, we've been looking for someone just like you for a special project,"
Breck Orcsbane said, "so we're lucky you came along."
Olive sighed. She didn't know how he'd done it, but she suspected that Finder had once more gotten her mixed up in some crazy adventure.
*****
The bard chuckled and leaned back against the frozen corpse of Moander-the Darkbringer's true body. He was very tired- nearly exhausted, in fact. Scrying on and sending a message to Olive and teleporting his silver Harper's pin to the Realms had expended more energy than he could really afford. Still, it had been worth it, just to see the look on the halfling's face when she discovered herself inducted into the ranks of the Harpers.
Alias would be fine with Dragonbait, but since the bard wasn't sure when or if he'd ever find the power to return to the Realms, he had decided that the Harpers would have to look after Olive for him.
In the meantime, he'd have to find a realm of his own somewhere else in the outer planes. Just because he'd managed to wrestle the Darkbringer's powers away didn't mean he had to dwell in the former god's abysmal abode. The bard rose to his feet and began humming a new song as he flew down to the banks of the Styx to catch a ride to his new home… wherever he decided to make it.
This file was created with BookDesigner program
bookdesigner@the-ebook.org
1/21/2009
LRS to LRF parser v.0.9; Mikhail Sharonov, 2006; msh-tools.com/ebook/
Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21