well) onto the back of the saddle. Suddenly the pack
bounced loose and came off in my hand. I would have said
something to him then, but he was talking again and it
wouldn’t have been polite to interrupt. So I took the pack
and stepped back behind the tree and looked inside it to
see if it was really his and not someone else’s by mistake.
“But the knights won’t do anything except wallow in
the past,” Tanis was saying. “Mark my words. Have you
heard that latest song they’ve made up about Sturm? Some
minstrel sang it for us the other night, before we left. I
laughed out loud.”
“You deeply offended him,” said Laurana. “He
wouldn’t even stay the night. And there was no need to
follow him out to the gate, yelling at him.”
“I told him to sing the truth next time. Sturm
Brightblade wasn’t a paragon of virtue and courage. He
was a man and he had the same fears and faults as the rest
of us. Sing about that!”
Tanis sneezed again. “Blast this damp! The cold eats
into the bone. And we’ll be spending the night on our
knees in a mouldy old tomb. Where the blazes did I put
my handker – ”
Well, of course, it was in his pack.
“Is this it, Tanis? You dropped it,” I said, coming out
of the fog.
Once they were over being amazed, they were all very
happy to see me. Laurana hugged me (she is so beautiful!)
and they asked me where I was going and I told them and
then they didn’t look so happy.
“You were supposed to invite him to come,” said
Laurana.
(She either said that or “You WEREN’T supposed to
invite him to come.” I wasn’t certain. She was talking so
softly I had to strain my ears to hear.)
“I didn’t,” said Tanis, and he glared at Caramon.
“Not me!” said the big man emphatically.
“Oh, don’t worry,” I said, not wanting them to feel bad
that they’d each forgotten to invite me. “I have my own
invitation. It found me, so to speak.” And I held it up.
They all stared at it and looked so amazed and
astonished that I thought I better not say who had sent it to
me. Like I said, Tanis always groans whenever I mention
Fizban.
Tanis said something in a low voice to Caramon that
sounded like, “It will only make things worse if we try to
get rid of him . . . follow us … this way, keep an eye on
him.”
I wondered who it was they were talking about.
“Who are you talking about?” I asked. “Who’d follow
you? Keep an eye on who?”
“I’ll give you three guesses,” Tanis growled, holding
out his hand to me and pulling me up to ride behind him.
Well, I spent the rest of the trip to the Silver Dragon
Mountain guessing, but Tanis said I never got it right.
CHAPTER TWO
“I asked you not to bring the kender,” said Lord
Gunthar.
He thought he was talking in a low voice, but I heard
him. I looked around, wondering where this other kender
was that they were talking about.
I knew it couldn’t be me, because I’m one of the
Heroes of the Lance.
We were standing in the Upper Gallery that is inside
the Silver Dragon Mountain. It is a large room with
dragonlances all around one end and it is meant for formal
celebrations like this one. We were all of us dressed in our
very best clothes because, as Tanis said, this was a
reverent and solemn occasion. (I was wearing my new
purple leggings with the red fringe that Tika sewed for me
and my buckskin shirt with the yellow and orange and
green bead work that was a gift from Goldmoon.)
There were lots of knights in their shining armor and
Caramon (Tika was home with the babies) and Laurana
were there and some other people I didn’t know. Lady
Crysania was expected any minute. It was very exciting,
and I wasn’t the least bored, or I wouldn’t have been if I