I’m not in Arianus because my lord sent me. I’m not here because I want to conquer the world.
I’m here to make the world safe for that child. My child, trapped in the Labyrinth.
But that’s why Xar’s doing this, Haplo realized. He’s doing this for his children. All his children, trapped in the Labyrinth.
Comforted, feeling at last reconciled with himself and his lord, Haplo spoke the runes, watched the sigla on his blade catch fire, outshining the dwarfs glampern.
CHAPTER 13
WOMBE, DREVLIN
LOW REALM
“ACTUALLY, THIS NEED FOR A DIVERSION COULDN’T COME AT A BETTER time,” stated Limbeck, peering at Hapfo through the spectacles. “I’ve developed a new weapon and I’ve been wanting to test it.”
“Humpf!” Jarre sniffed. “Weapons,” she muttered.
Limbeck ignored her. The argument over plans for the diversion had been long and bitter and occasionally dangerous to bystanders, Haplo having narrowly missed being struck by a thrown soup pan. The dog had wisely retreated under the bed. Bane slept through the entire discussion.
And Haplo noted that, though Jarre had no compunction about hurling kitchen utensils, she was careful to keep them clear of the High Froman and august leader of WUPP. She seemed nervous and uneasy around Limbeck, watched him out of the corner of her eye with an odd mixture of frustration and anxiety.
In the early days of the revolution, she had been accustomed to smacking Limbeck on both cheeks or tugging playfully, if painfully, at his beard to bring him back to reality. Not any longer. Now she appeared reluctant to come near him. Haplo saw her hands twitch, more than once, during the argument, and guessed that she would have liked nothing better than to give her leader’s side whiskers a good tweak. But her hands always ended up twisting her own skirts instead, or mangling the forks.
“I designed this weapon myself,” said Limbeck proudly. Rummaging under a pile of speeches, he produced it, held it to the flickering light of the glampern. “I call it a flinger.”
Haplo would have called it a toy. The humans in the Mid Realms would have called it a slingshot. The Patryn said nothing disparaging about it, however, but duly admired it and asked how it worked.
Limbeck demonstrated. “When the Kicksey-winsey made new parts for itself, it used to turn out quite a lot of these things.” He held up a particularly wicked-looking, sharp chunk of metal. “We used to throw them into the helter-melter, but it occurred to me that one of these, flung at the wings of the elves’ dragonships, would tear a hole in the skin. I learned from my own experience that an object cannot travel through the air with holes in its wings.* Fill it full of enough holes, and it seems to me logical that the dragonships will not be able to fly.”
*Undoubtedly a reference to a previous adventure, when Limbeck was made to “walk the Steps of Terrel Fen”—a form of execution. Feathered wings are strapped to the arms of the accused and he is pushed off the floating isle of Drevlin into the Maelstrom. Dragon Wing, vol. I of The Death Gate Cycle.
Haplo had to admit that it seemed logical to him, too. He regarded the weapon with more respect. “This would do a fair bit of damage to someone’s skin,” he said, picking up the razor-sharp metal chunk gingerly. “Elf skin included.”
“Yes, I thought of that, too,” remarked Limbeck with satisfaction.
An ominous clanging came from behind him. Jarre was banging an iron skillet in a threatening manner against the cold stove. Limbeck turned around, stared at her through his spectacles. Jarre dropped the skillet on the floor with a bang that caused the dog to scoot as far back beneath the bed as possible. Head high, Jarre stalked toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Limbeck demanded.
“For a walk,” she said haughtily.
“You’ll need the glampern,” he advised.
“No, I won’t,” she mumbled, one hand wiping her eyes and nose.
“We need you to come with us, Jarre,” Haplo said. “You’re the only one who’s been down in the tunnels.”
“I can’t help you,” she said, her voice choked. She kept her back turned. “I didn’t do anything. I don’t know how we got down there or how we got back out. I just went where that man Alfred told me to go.”