Tanis’s face grew grim. This was not the homecoming he had dreamed about. Never in the fifty years he had lived in Solace had he felt such tension. The rumors he had heard about the malignant corruption of the Seekers must be true.
Five years ago, the men calling themselves “seekers” (“we seek the new gods”) had been a loose-knit organization of clerics practicing their new religion in the towns of Haven, Solace, and Gateway. These clerics had been misguided, Tanis believed, but at least they had been honest and sincere. In the intervening years, however, the clerics had gained more and more status as their religion flourished. Soon they became concerned not so much with glory in the afterlife as with power on Krynn. They took over the governing of the towns with the people’s blessing.
A touch on Tanis’s arm interrupted his thoughts. He turned and saw Flint silently pointing below. Looking down, Tanis saw guards marching past, walking in parties of four. Armed to the teeth, they strutted with an air of self-importance.
“At least they’re human-not goblin,” Tas said.
“That goblin sneered when I mentioned the High Theocrat,” Tanis mused. “As if they were working for someone else. I wonder what’s going on.”
“Maybe our friends will know,” Flint said.
“If they’re here,” Tasslehoff added. “A lot could have happened in five years.”
“They’ll be here-if they’re alive,” Flint added in an undertone. “It was a sacred oath we took-to meet again after five years had passed and report what we had found out about the evil spreading in the world. To think we should come home and find evil on our very doorsteps!”
“Hush! Shss!” Several passersby looked so alarmed at the dwarfs words that Tanis shook his head.
“Better not talk about it here,” the half-elf advised.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Tas flung the door open wide.
A wave of light, noise, heat, and the familiar smell of Otik’s spicy potatoes hit them full in the face. It engulfed them and washed over them soothingly. Otik, standing behind the bar as they always remembered him, hadn’t changed, except maybe to grow stouter. The Inn didn’t appear to have changed either, except to grow more comfortable.
Tasslehoff, his quick kender eyes sweeping the crowd, gave a yell and pointed across the room. Something else hadn’t changed either-the firelight gleaming on a brightly polished, winged dragon helm.
“Who is it?” asked Flint, straining to see.
“Caramon,” Tanis replied.
“Then Raistlin’ll be here, too,” Flint said without a great deal of warmth in his voice.
Tasslehoff was already sliding through the muttering knots of people, his small, lithe body barely noticed by those he passed. Tanis hoped fervently the kender wasn’t “acquiring” any objects from the Inn’s customers. Not that he stole things- Tasslehoff would have been deeply hurt if anyone had accused him of theft. But the kender had an insatiable curiosity, and various interesting items belonging to other people had a way of falling into Tas’s possession. The last thing Tanis wanted tonight was trouble. He made a mental note to have a private word with the kender.
The half-elf and the dwarf made their way through the crowd with less ease than their little friend. Nearly every chair was taken, every table filled. Those who could not find room to sit down were standing, talking in low voices. People looked at Tanis and Flint darkly, suspiciously, or curiously. No one greeted Flint, although there were several who had been long-standing customers of the dwarven metalsmith. The people of Solace had their own problems, and it was apparent that Tanis and Flint were now considered outsiders.
A roar sounded from across the room, from the table where the dragon helm lay reflecting light from the firepit. Tanis’s grim face relaxed into a smile as he saw the giant Caramon lift little Tas off the floor in a bear hug.
Flint, wading through a sea of belt buckles, could only imagine the sight as he listened to Caramon’s booming voice answering Tasslehoff’s piping greeting. “Caramon better look to his purse,” Flint grumbled. “Or count his teeth.”
The dwarf and the half-elf finally broke through the press of people in front of the long bar. The table where Caramon sat was shoved back against the tree trunk. In fact, it was sitting in an odd position. Tanis wondered why Otik had moved it when everything else remained exactly the same. But the thought was crushed out of him, for it was his turn to receive the big warrior’s affectionate greeting. Tanis hastily removed the longbow and quiver of arrows from his back before Caramon hugged them into kindling.