who can neither see nor hear.”
“What I do not understand is why Lady Crysania was travel-
ing here to seek our help in sending her back’? Surely she must
have known we would refuse such a request!” the red-robed
mage stated.
“I can answer that!” Tasslehoff said, speaking before he
thought.
Now Par-Salian was paying attention to him, now all the
mages in the semi-circle were paying attention to him. Every
head turned in his direction. Tas had talked to spirits in Darken
Wood, he had spoken at the Council of White Stone but, for a
moment, he was awed at this silent, solemn audience. Espe-
cially when it occurred to him what he had to say.
“Please, Tasslehoff Burrfoot,” Par-Salian spoke with great
courtesy, “tell us what you know.” The mage smiled. “Then,
perhaps, we can bring this meeting to a close and you can have
your dinner.”
Tas blushed, wondering if Par-Salian could, perhaps, see
through his head and read his thoughts printed on his brain like
he read words printed on a sheet of parchment.
“Oh! Yes, dinner would be great. But, now, um – about Lady
Crysania.” Tas paused to collect his thoughts, then launched
into his tale. “Well, I’m not certain about this, mind you. I just
know from what little I was able to pick up here and there. To
begin at the beginning, I met Lady Crysania when I was in
Palanthas visiting my friend, Tanis Half-Elven. You know him?
And Laurana, the Golden General? I fought with them in the
War of the Lance. I helped save Laurana from the Queen of
Darkness.” The kender spoke with pride. “Have you ever heard
that story? I was in the Temple at Neraka -”
Par-Salian’s eyebrows raised ever so slightly, and Tas stut-
tered.
“Uh, w-well, I’ll tell that later. Anyway, I met Lady Crysania
at Tanis’s home and I heard their plans to travel to Solace to see
Caramon. As it happened, I-I sort of… well, found a letter
Lady Crysania had written to Elistan. I think it must have
fallen out of her pocket.”
The kender paused for breath. Par-Salian’s lips twitched, but
he refrained from smiling.
“I read it,” Tas continued, now enjoying the attention of his
audience, “just to see if it was important. After all, she might
have thrown it away. In the letter, she said she was more – uh,
how did it go – ‘firmly convinced than ever, after my talk with
Tanis, that there was good in Raistlin’ and that he could be
‘turned from his evil path. I must convince the mages of this – ‘
Anyhow, I saw that the letter was important, so I took it to her.
She was very grateful to get it back,” Tas said solemnly. “She
hadn’t realized she’d lost it.”
Par-Salian put his fingers on his lips to control them.
“I said I could tell her lots of stories about Raistlin, if she
wanted to hear them. She said she’d like that a lot, so I told her
all the stories I could think of. She was particularly interested
in the ones I told her about Bupu –
” ‘If only I could find the gully dwarf!’ she said to me one
night. ‘I’m certain I could convince Par-Salian that there is
hope, that he may be reclaimed!’ ”
At this, one of the Black Robes snorted loudly. Par-Salian
glanced sharply in that direction, the wizards hushed. But Tas
saw many of them – particularly the Black Robes – fold their
arms across their chests in anger. He could see their eyes glitter-
ing from the shadows of their hoods.
“Uh, I’m s-sure I didn’t mean to offend,” Tas stuttered. “I
know I always thought Raistlin looked much better in black –
with that golden skin of his and all. I certainly don’t believe
everyone has to be good, of course. Fizban – he’s really
Paladine – we’re great personal friends, Paladine and I – Any-
way, Fizban said that there had to be a balance in the world,
that we were fighting to restore the balance. So that means that
there has to be Black Robes as well as White, doesn’t it?”