Alake gave Haplo an apologetic glance. “Sabia and Grundle fear that you have been sent by the dragon-snakes to spy on us. I have no idea why, since we are their captives and we go to meet our doom willingly—”
“Wait! Slow down.” Haplo raised a hand to halt the flood. He eyed the young women. “I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. But, before you explain, let me tell you that the person who sent me is my liege lord. He is a man, not a dragon. And from what I’ve seen of dragons in my world, I wouldn’t do a damn thing for one except kill it.”
Haplo spoke quietly, his tone and manner convincing. And, in this, he spoke the truth. Dragons in the Labyrinth are highly intelligent, fearsome beings. He’d seen other dragons during his travels. Some were evil, others purportedly good, but he’d found nothing in any of the creatures he trusted.
“Now,” continued Haplo, seeing the dwarf opening her mouth, “suppose you tell me what you three are doing on board this ship all alone.”
“Who says we’re alone?” Grundle struck in, but her protest was faint and halfhearted.
It wasn’t so much that the three girls believed him, Haplo realized, but that they wanted to believe him. After Haplo’d heard their story, he understood why.
He listened with outward composure to Alake tell their tale. Inwardly, he was fuming. If he had believed in a Higher Power controlling his destiny, which he most assuredly did not, despite Alfred’s tricks to convince him otherwise, then he would have thought the Higher Power was laughing heartily. Weakened in his own magic, weaker than he’d ever been in his life, Haplo’d managed to get himself rescued by three sacrificial lambs trotting meekly to their deaths! “You can’t be serious!”
“We are,” said Alake. “It is for the sake of our people.” “You chose to do this? You haven’t tried to escape? To get away?”
“No, and we won’t, either,” said Grundle resolutely. “This was our decision. Our parents didn’t even know we were leaving. They would have tried to stop us.”
“And they would have been right!” Haplo glared at the three. Trotting along to their deaths . . . and taking him with them!
Alake’s voice sank to a whisper. “You think we’re fools, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Haplo answered bluntly. “These dragon-snakes, from what you’ve told me, have tortured and murdered people. And you think they’re going to keep their word, accept three sacrifices, then meekly slither away?”
Grundle cleared her throat loudly, drummed her heels on the deck. “Then why make the bargain at all? What do the dragon-snakes get out of it? Why not just murder us and be done with it?”
“What do the dragon-snakes get out of it? I’ll tell you what they get. Fear. Anguish. Chaos. In my land, we have creatures that live off fear, thrive off it. Think about it. These dragon-snakes, if they’re as powerful as you say, could have come in the night and attacked your seamoons. But, no. What do they do? They come by day. They wreak havoc on small numbers of your people. They give messages, demand sacrifices. And look at the results!
“Your people are far more terrified now than they would have been if they’d had to beat off a sudden attack. And the three of you running off like this has only made things worse for your people, not better.”
Alake wilted beneath Haplo’s glowering gaze. Even the stubborn Grundle appeared to lose her defiant attitude, and began to tug uneasily at her side whiskers. Only Sabia, the elf maid, remained cool and calm. She sat on her stool, straight-backed, upright, looking distant and aloof, as if she alone were content with her decision. Nothing he said had made a difference to her.
Odd. But then the elf maid was odd. Haplo couldn’t figure out why. There was something about her . . .
Her.
Haplo noticed, suddenly, the way Sabia was sitting. When she’d first sat down, she kept her knees close together, ankles demurely crossed beneath the long skirt. But during Alake’s long retelling of their woeful tale, the elf maid had relaxed, forgotten herself. Now she was sitting spraddle-legged on the short stool, her knees akimbo, her hands resting on her knees, her feet tucked behind.