Brothers Majere by Weis, Margaret

“What?” the proprietor yelled.

“Shh!” Caramon insisted, feeling that they must be nearing the important part .

“I went to your room, and Raistlin’s staff had come back by itself! Which is truly remarkable, except that I did go to a lot of trouble and it might have had more consideration. Then I couldn’t remember my room number, so I went to sleep under the table and when I woke up, that woman was sitting down right on top of me and I saw that this part of her clothing was sliding down her

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leg. And if this”—the kender pointed at the garter—”had slid down and wrapped around her ankle, she would Have tripped and maybe hurt herself so I just took it off her. I guess you heard her scream, huh? After that she fainted. Then all these people jumped on me. For no reason!” Earwig added indignantly.

His face burning, still holding the garter, Caramon glanced around uncertainly, wondering what to do.

“I’ll take :t, sir,” offered one of the female servants.

“Yeah! Thanks!” Caramon handed it over in relief. “He didn’t really mean to cause any trouble, Master Innkeeper. He just sort of found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, I’ll keep an eye on him after this. It won’t happen again.”

“I surely hope not,” said the proprietor, somewhat mollified.

“Please give our apologies to the young lady,” Caramon added, marching Earwig up the stairs.

“I thought maybe I’d get another kiss, Caramon,” said the kender cheerfully. “Boy! That was fun!”

Raistlin stood at the window, staring down into the street below. There were hardly any more people out by day than by night. Those who were moving about on some business of their own walked with heads down, casting furtive looks this way and that. Raistlin had seen cities in the grip of plague. He could smell fear in the air. Now, he thought he could detect the same odor.

And there, shining against the white stone pavement, was the line.

Caramon walked into the room just behind Earwig, pushing the kender forward so that there would be no chance for him to escape. Raistlin slowly turned around from the window,

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“How are you feeling?” Caramon asked.

“How do I ever feel?” Raistlin snapped. Seeing Cara-mon’s hurt look, the mage shook his head. “I’m sorry, my brother. I feel as if a crushing weight were on me. As if I’d been sent here to do something important, yet I haven’t any idea what! And we don’t have much time to do it!”

“What do you mean? We’ve got all the time in the world,” said Caramon practically. “I’ve ordered breakfast. It’ll be up in a moment.”

“Time!” Raistlin turned back to the window, staring down at the white line. “‘. . . To find the gate, to be there when the time arrives.’ We have no time, my brother. We have only until the Festival of the Eye. Three days.”

“Huh?” Caramon frowned.

“That’s the poem you quoted, isn’t it, Raistlin?” Earwig piped up. “I remember it, you see. ‘Darkness sends its agents, stealthy and black, to find the gate, to be there when the time arrives.’ I love stories, and that’s as good as a story. Did I ever tell you the one about Dizzy Longtongue and the minotaur—?”

“I think you dropped something,” said Caramon, jostling one of the kender’s pouches and spilling its contents on the floor.

Glass and ivory game pieces rolled across the wood, one of the pieces coming to rest at Raistlin’s feet. Reaching down, he picked it up. It was a small, yellowing statue carved into the likeness of a beautiful woman-beautiful, regal, evil, domineering. The mage held it up to his eyes, inspecting it, observing every tiny detail cut into the bone. Turning it over to look at the pedestal on which the woman stood, he saw an “X” on the bottom, a sign designating the piece as the Dark Queen in one of the mage’s favorite games. Wizards and Warriors.

“It can’t be coincidence,” he murmured. “The ‘cats de-

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cide the fate,’ and they are vanishing. The time of the Great Eye comes once again, when untold power awaits those who can use it. If I were the Dark Queen and I wanted to choose a time to come back into the world . . .” Raistlin’s voice died.

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