Haplo glanced around swiftly; the blue glow was growing dimmer every moment.
“Get up here!” he called to Limbeck. “I’ll take care of it!”
Limbeck couldn’t hear the words, but he caught the meaning. He began to climb again. Haplo jumped lightly to the ground. The sigla on his body flared blue and red, protecting him from the cutting hailstones and—he hoped fervently— from the lightning.
Half blinded by the rain in his face, he studied the contraption in which the dwarf was trapped. Another dwarf had his hands under the bottom of the thing and was obviously, from the puffing and grunting, attempting to raise it. Haplo added his strength—enhanced by his magic—to the dwarfs. He heaved the boulder up into the air with such force that the dwarf lost his grip and fell flat on his face in a puddle.
Haplo jerked the Geg to his feet, to keep him from drowning, and caught hold of the trapped dwarf, who was staring about dazedly, awestruck by his sudden deliverance. Haplo hustled the two up the ladder, cursing the slowness of the thick-legged dwarves. Fortunately, an extremely close lightning strike impelled all of them to faster action. Thunder rumbling around them, they scaled the ladder in record time, tumbled headfirst inside the ship.
Haplo brought up the rear, shut the hatch, and sealed it, swiftly redrawing the sigla. The blue glow began to brighten. He breathed easier.
Bane, with more thoughtfulness than Haplo would have credited the boy with, arrived with blankets, which he distributed to the dripping dwarves. Out of breath from exertion and fright and amazement at seeing Haplo’s skin shining blue, none was able to talk. They wrung water from their beards, sucked in deep breaths, and stared at the Patryn in considerable astonishment. Haplo wiped water from his face, shook his head when Bane offered a blanket to him.
“Limbeck, good to see you again,” Haplo said, with a quiet, friendly smile. The warmth of the sigla was rapidly causing the rain water on his body to evaporate.
“Haplo…” said Limbeck, somewhat dubiously. His spectacles were covered with water. Taking them off, he started to dry them on his white handkerchief, only to pull a sodden mass out of his pocket. He stared at the sopping wet handkerchief in dismay.
“Here,” said Bane helpfully, offering his shirttail, which he tugged out of leather breeches.
Limbeck accepted the assistance, carefully cleaned his spectacles on Bane’s shirt. Putting them on, he took a long look at the child, then at Haplo, then at the child again.
It was odd, but Haplo could have sworn that Limbeck was seeing them both for the first time.
“Haplo,” said Limbeck gravely. He glanced again at Bane, hesitated, seemed uncertain how to address the boy who had been presented to the Geg as first a god, then a human prince, then the son of an extremely powerful human wizard.
“You remember Bane,” said Haplo easily. “Crown prince and heir to the throne of the Volkaran Isles.”
Limbeck nodded, an expression of extreme cunning and shrewdness on his face. The great machine outside may have been at a standstill, but wheels were turning inside the dwarfs head. His thoughts were so obvious on his face that Haplo could have spoken them aloud.
So this is the story, is it? and How will this affect me?
Haplo, accustomed to the vague, impractical, idealistic dwarf he’d left behind, was surprised at this change in Limbeck, wondered what it portended, didn’t particularly like it. Any type of change, even change for the good, was disruptive. Haplo saw in these first few moments of their meeting that he was going to have to deal with a completely new and different Limbeck.
“Your Highness,” said Limbeck, having apparently, by the crafty smile on his face, come to the conclusion that this situation would suit him fine.
“Limbeck is High Froman, Your Highness,” said Haplo, hoping Bane would take the hint and treat Limbeck with the respect he deserved.
“High Froman Limbeck,” said Bane, in a tone of cool politeness used by one royal ruler to an equal. “I am pleased to see you once again. And who are these other Gegs you have brought with you?”