“Don’t leave.” said the kender cheerfully. “This is the elflord’s sister. Look, Laurana. Gilthanas is coming around. It must be that mud stuff she stuck on his forehead. I could have sworn he’d be out for days.” Tas stood up. “Laurana, this is my friend-what did you say your name was?”
The girl, her eyes on the ground, trembled violently. Her hands picked up bits of sand, then dropped them again. She murmured something none of them could hear.
“What was it, child?” Laurana asked in such a sweet and gentle voice that the girl raised her eyes shyly.
“Silvan.” she said in a low voice.
“That means ‘silver-haired’ in the Kaganesti language, does it not?” Laurana asked. Kneeling down beside Gilthanas, she helped him sit up. Dizzily, he put his hand to his face where the girl had plastered a thick paste over his bleeding cheek.
“Don’t touch.” Silvart warned, clasping her hand over Gilthanas’s hand quickly. “It will make you well.” She spoke Common, not crudely, but clearly and concisely.
Gilthanas groaned in pain, shutting his eyes and letting his hand fall. Silvan gazed at him in deep concern. She started to stroke his face, then-glancing swiftly at Laurana -hurriedly withdrew her hand and started to rise.
“Wait,” Laurana said. “Wait, Silvan.”
The girl froze like a rabbit, staring at Laurana with such fear in her large eyes that Laurana was overcome with shame.
“Don’t be frightened. I want to thank you for caring for my brother. Tasslehoff is right. I thought his injury was grave indeed, but you have aided him. Please stay with him, if you would.”
Silvan stared at the ground. “I will stay with him, mistress, if such is your command.”
“It is not my command, Silvart,” Laurana said. “It is my wish. And my name is Laurana.”
Silvart lifted her eyes. “Then I will stay with him gladly, mis-Laurana, if that is your wish.” She lowered her head, and they could barely hear her words. “My true name, Silvara, means silver-haired. Silvart is what they call me.” She glanced at the Silvanesti warriors, then her eyes went back to Laurana. “Please, I want you to call me Silvara.”
The Silvanesti elves brought over a make-shift litter they had constructed of a blanket and tree limbs. They lifted the elflord -not ungently-onto the litter. Silvara walked beside it. Tasslehoff walked near her, still chattering, pleased to find someone who had not yet heard his stories. Laurana and Elistan walked on the other side of Gilthanas. Laurana held his hand in hers, watching over him tenderly. Behind them came Derek, his face dark and shadowed, the chest with the dragon orb on his shoulder. Behind them marched a guard of Silvanesti elves.
Day was just beginning to dawn, gray and dismal, when they reached the line of trees along the shore. Flint shivered. Twisting his head, he gazed out to sea. “What was that Derek said about a-a ship to Sancrist?”
“I am afraid so.” Sturm replied. “It is also an island.”
“And we’ve got to go there?”
“Yes.”
“To use the dragon orb? We don’t know anything about it!”
“The knights will learn.” Sturm said softly. “The future of the world rests on this.”
“Humpf!” The dwarf sneezed. Casting a terrified glance at the night-dark waters, he shook his head gloomily. “All I know is I’ve been drowned twice, stricken with a deadly disease-”
“You were seasick.”
“Stricken with a deadly disease.” Flint repeated loudly, “and sunk. Mark my words, Sturm Brightblade-boats are bad luck to us. We’ve had nothing but trouble since we set foot in that blasted boat on Crystalmir Lake. That was where the crazed magician first saw the constellations had disappeared, and our luck’s gone straight downhill from there. As long as we keep relying on boats, it’s going to go from bad to worse.”
Sturm smiled as he watched the dwarf squish through the sand. But his smile turned to a sigh. I wish it were all that simple, the knight thought.
The Speaker of the Suns. Laurana’s decision.
The Speaker of the Suns, leader of the Qualinesti elves, sat in the crude shelter of wood and mud the Kaganesti elves had built for his domicile. He considered it crude-the Kaganesti considered it a marvelously large and well-crafted dwelling, suitable for five or six families. They had, in fact, intended it as such and were shocked when the Speaker declared it barely adequate for his needs and moved in with his wife-alone.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127