when Owen said he was going to turn me upside down
and maybe inside out if I didn’t give it back to him that
Fizban happened to find the painting inside my shirt
pocket.
“See there,” I said, handing it back to Owen, “I kept it
from getting wet.”
He wasn’t the least appreciative. For a minute I
thought he was going to throw me out off the side of the
mountain and for a minute he thought he was going to,
too. But after a while he calmed down, especially when I
told him that the lady inside the painting was one of the
prettiest ladies I’d ever seen, next to Tika and Laurana and
a certain kender maid I know whose name is engraved
forever on my heart. (If I could remember it, I’d tell you,
but I guess that it isn’t important right now.)
Owen sighed and said he was sorry he shouted at me
and he wasn’t really going to slit my pockets or maybe my
gut, whichever came first. It was only that he missed his
wife and son so much and was so very worried about
them because he was here in the snow with us and the
dragonlances, and his wife and son were back in their
house alone without him.
Well, I understood that, even if I didn’t have a wife or
a son or a house anymore. We made an agreement then
and there. If I found the painting I was to give it right
back to him immediately.
And it was amazing to me that he lost that painting as
often as he did, considering how much it meant to him.
But I didn’t mention this to him, because I didn’t want to
hurt his feelings. As I said, I was beginning to like Owen
Glendower.
“Life hasn’t been easy for my lady wife,” he told us
one other night while we were thawing out after having
spent the day trekking about lost in the snow. “From what
you’ve told me about your friend Brightblade, you know
how the knights have been persecuted and reviled. My
family was driven from our ancestral home years ago, but
it was a point of honor among us that someday we would
return to claim it. Our holdings have passed from one bad
owner to the next. The people in the village have suffered
under their tyrannies and though they were the ones who
drove us out, they have more than paid for that now.
“I worked as a mercenary, to keep body and soul
alive, and to earn the money to buy back lawfully what
had been stolen from us. For I would be honorable, though
the thieves that took it were not.
“At last, I was able to save the necessary sum. I am
ashamed to say that I was forced to keep my identity as a
knight secret, lest the owners refuse to sell to me.”
He touched his moustaches as he said this. They were
coming out fairly well, now, and were dark red as his hair.
“As it was, the thieves made a good bargain, for the
manor was crumbling around their ears. We have repaired
it ourselves, for I could not afford to hire the work done.
The villagers helped. They were glad to see a knight
return, especially in these dangerous times.
“My wife and son toiled beside me, both doing far
more than their share. My wife’s hands are rough and
cracked from breaking stone and mixing mortar, but to me
their touch is as soft as if she wrapped them in kid gloves
every night of her life. Now she stands guard while I am
gone, she and my boy. I did not like to leave them, with
evil abroad in the land, but my duty lay with the knights,
as she herself reminded me. I pray Paladine watches over
them and keeps them safe.”
“He does,” said Fizban, only he said it very, very
softly, so softly that I almost didn’t hear him. And I might
not have if I hadn’t felt a snuffle coming on and so was
searching in his pouch for a handkerchief.