Dragons of Spring Dawning by Weis, Margaret

“How do you know who it’s from?” Laurana fixed the kender with a piercing gaze.

“I-uh-guess I-sort of-glanced at it-” Tas admitted. Then he brightened. “But it was only because I didn’t want to bother you with anything that wasn’t important.”

Flint snorted.

“Thank you,” Laurana said. Unrolling the scroll, she walked over to stand by the window where the moonlight was bright enough to read by.

“We’ll leave you alone,” Flint said gruffly, herding the protesting kender toward the door.

“No! Wait!” Laurana choked. Flint turned, staring at her in alarm.

“Are you all right?” he said, hurrying over to her as she sank down into a nearby chair. “Tas-get Silvara!”

“No, no. Don’t bring anyone. I’m… all right. Do you know what this says?” she asked in a whisper.

“I tried to tell him,” Tasslehoff said in an injured voice, “but he wouldn’t let me.”

Her hand shaking, Laurana handed the scroll to Flint.

The dwarf opened it and read aloud.

“Tanis Half-Elven received a wound in the battle of Vingaard Keep. Although at first he believed it was slight, it has worsened so that he is past even the help of the dark clerics. I ordered that he be brought to Dargaard Keep, where I could care for him. Tanis knows the gravity of his injury. He asks that he be allowed to be with you when he dies, that he may explain matters to you and so rest with an easy spirit.

“I make you this offer. You have as your captive my officer, Bakaris, who was captured near Vingaard Keep. I will exchange Tanis Half-Elven for Bakaris. The exchange will take place at dawn tomorrow in a grove of trees beyond the city walls. Bring Bakaris with you. If you are mistrustful, you may also bring Tanis’s friends, Flint Fireforge and Tasslehoff Burr-foot. But no one else! The bearer of this note waits outside the city gate. Meet him tomorrow at sunrise. If he deems all is well, he will escort you to the half-elf. If not, you will never see Tanis alive.

“I do this only because we are two women who understand each other.

“Kitiara”

There was an uneasy silence, then, “Humpf,” Flint snorted, and rolled up the scroll.

“How can you be so calm!” Laurana gasped, snatching the scroll from the dwarf’s hand. “And you”-her gaze switched angrily to Tasslehoff-“why didn’t you tell me before now? How long have you known? You read he was dying, and you’re so-so-”

Laurana put her head in her hands.

Tas stared at her, his mouth open. “Laurana,” he said after a moment, “surely you don’t think Tanis-”

Laurana’s head snapped up. Her dark, stricken eyes went to Flint, then to Tas. “You don’t believe this message is real do you?” she asked incredulously.

“Of course not!” Flint said.

“No,” scoffed Tas. “It’s a trick! A draconian gave it to me! Besides Kitiara’s a Dragon Highlord now. What would Tanis be doing with her-”

Laurana turned her face away abruptly. Tasslehoff stopped and glanced at Flint, whose own face suddenly seemed to age.

“So that’s it,” the dwarf said softly. “We saw you talking to Kitiara on the wall of the High Clerist’s Tower. You were discussing more than Sturm’s death, weren’t you?”

Laurana nodded, wordlessly, staring at her hands in her lap.

“I never told you,” she murmured in a voice barely audible, “I couldn’t… I kept hoping… Kitiara said . . . said she’d left Tanis in-some place called Flotsam … to look after things while she was gone.”

“Liar!” said Tas promptly.

“No.” Laurana shook her head. “When she says we are two women who understand each other, she’s right. She wasn’t lying. She was telling the truth, I know. And at the Tower she mentioned the dream.” Laurana lifted her head. “Do you remember the dream?”

Flint nodded uncomfortably. Tasslehoff shuffled his feet.

“Only Tanis could have told her about the dream we all shared,” Laurana continued, swallowing a choking feeling in her throat. “I saw him with her in the dream, just as I saw Sturm’s death. The dream’s coming true . . .”

“Now wait a minute,” Flint said gruffly, grabbing hold of reality as a drowning man grabs a piece of wood. “You said yourself you saw your own death in the dream, right after Sturm’s. And you didn’t die. And nothing hacked up Sturm’s body, either.”