Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [5]
"You realize," Olive retorted, "that I'll have some problems accepting the Harpers if they don't get off their high horses and forget this banishment business. In the meantime, you can't stay in this dump. I've got a horse and provisions for you hidden at the edge of town."
"Why, that's awfully thoughtful of you. Mistress Ruskettle."
"So let's go," Olive said, hopping up from the footstool and standing beside the bed, tapping her foot in mock impatience.
Nameless leaned forward, reached out a hand, and stroked her hair. Ordinarily Olive couldn't stand having humans patting her on the head, but Nameless hadn't actually patted her, and she liked him more than any other human she'd ever met, so she could forgive him a good deal. She looked up at him, puzzled that he'd even touched her at all.
"Oh, Olive," he said with a rueful smile.
"What's wrong?" she asked, not failing to note he had used her given name, something he'd never done before.
"Did you think me incapable of arranging my own escape, Olive?" Nameless asked.
"You're still here, aren't you?" Olive pointed out, growing annoyed.
"Yes, but not due to any lack of skill with locks," Nameless said, holding out his hand and presenting the halfling with the copper wire he'd just slipped from her hair. Dexterously he twirled the shining metal strand through his fingers, then made it vanish so quickly that Olive couldn't be certain if he'd flipped it away or slipped it up his sleeve.
"All right, I'm impressed. Can I have my pick-bone back?" the halfling asked.
"It's in your hair, Olive, right where you put it," replied Nameless.
Olive ran her fingers through her hair and found the wire lodged behind her ear exactly where she'd put it. "An illusion, right?" she guessed.
Nameless did not reply. Instead, his eyes twinkled with mischief.
"I hate it when you do things like that," Olive huffed.
"You love it when I do things like that," Nameless countered. "You just hate that you can't do them yet."
"All right. So you didn't need my help to escape. Why are you still here?" she demanded.
"Because I have no desire to become a hunted fugitive when I don't have to. The Harpers will come to their senses and release me."
"That's what you thought when you turned yourself over to them two hundred years ago," Olive argued. "What makes you think this trial's going to end any different from the first one?"
"Elminster is speaking in my defense this time," Nameless replied confidently.
"You put a lot of store in that old coot."
"The Harpers have grown accustomed to abiding by Elminster's counsel."
Olive sniffed. "And you expect them to forgive all, to take you back into their fold and restore you to your position as a Master Harper?
"Naturally," the bard said coolly.
"What then?" Olive snapped. "Engagements at all the royal courts? A few noble titles granted in honor of your talents? Wizards begging for your secrets?
Flocks of apprentices ready to serve under you?"
"Why should it be any different than it was before?" Nameless asked with a cocky grin.
"You're dreaming, pal!" Olive shouted, completely frustrated with his vanity and unrelenting certainty. "Wake up and smell the bacon! Not even the great Elminster is going to bring Morala around. As for the other two, the ranger might take pity on you, but that half-elf bard's got all the compassion of an iron golem. You need-" Olive halted, alarmed at the way her voice echoed through the cell and annoyed that this stupid human had made her lose her self-control.
"You need a contingency plan," the halfling whispered. "Just in case I'm right and you're wrong."
"I have too much to lose if I flee now and you're wrong," Nameless retorted heatedly.
"You have too much to lose if you don't. Security isn't going to get any more lax if they condemn you, you know. Since you've already broken out of the Citadel of White Exile, they'll have to find some place even worse-if you can imagine any place worse than that."
Nameless fought to control a tremor in his lip. For two centuries,