"Could you use a good right arm?" offered Kitiara. Her offer caught everyone by surprise.
"I wouldn't want you to go out of your way," said Sturm, noncommittally.
"North is north. I've been east and south and west."
"Very well then. I'd be honored to have you with me." Sturm turned from Kitiara to Tanis. "What about you, Tan?"
Tanis pushed a hunk of bread through the remains of his dinner. "I've been thinking of doing some travel myself. Nothing specific, just a trek to see some places I haven't seen. I don't think my journey will take me north." He looked at Kitiara, but her gaze was directed at Sturm.
"That's the idea," Tasslehoff said briskly. His right hand dipped into his fur vest and came out with a flat copper disk. He rolled the disk over the back of his knuckles. It was an exercise he sometimes did to keep his fingers nimble. Not that he needed practice. "Let's go east, Tanis, you and me."
"No." The flat turn-down froze the copper disk midway across the back of the kender's small hand. "No," said Tanis again, more gently. "This is a trip I must make alone."
The table was silent again. Then Caramon let out a single great hiccup, and the laughter returned.
"Pardon me!" said Caramon, reaching for Kitiara's tankard. She was not fooled. As his hand closed around the pewter stem, she rapped his wrist with her spoon. Caramon snatched his hand back. "Ouch!" he protested.
"You'll get worse if you try it again," said Kitiara. Caramon grinned and made a fist.
"Save your energy, brother," Raistlin said. "You'll need it."
"How so, Raist?"
"Since everyone has decided to undertake journeys, this seems like a good time to announce one of my own."
Flint snorted. "You wouldn't last two days on the road."
"Perhaps not." Raistlin folded his long, tapering fingers. "Unless my brother goes with me."
"Where and when?" asked Caramon, pleased to be going anywhere.
"I cannot say where just now," Raistlin said. His pale blue eyes stared fixedly at his nearly untouched plate of food. "It may be a long and perilous voyage."
Caramon jumped up. "I'm ready."
"Siddown," Kitiara said, dragging on her brother's vest tail. Caramon plumped down on his stool.
Flint sighed a great, gusty sigh. "You're all leaving me," he said. "I'll not go a-tinkering this season, and all my friends are going their own way He sighed again, so heavily that the rack of candles flickered.
"You old bear," Kitiara said. "You're feeling sorry for yourself. There's no law that says you have to stay in Solace by yourself. Don't you have any relatives that you can impose on?"
"Yes," Tasslehoff added, "you can visit your graybearded, I mean gray-haired, old mother.
The dwarf bellowed his outrage. Those sitting closest to Flint — Caramon and Sturm — slid quickly away from the furious dwarf. Flint banged his tankard on the tabletop, sending a splash of ale at Tasslehoff. Rivulets of sticky golden ale ran off the kender's nose and soaked into his topknot of wild brown hair. He rubbed the brew from his eyes.
"Nobody makes sport of my mother!" Flint declared.
"Not more than once, anyway," Tanis observed sagely.
Tas wiped his face on his sleeve. He picked up his own scaled-down tankard (it was empty) and tucked it under his arm like an absurd helm. Assuming an air of injured dignity, he declaimed, "Now we must fight a duel!"
Kitiara said gleefully. "I'll be your second, Tas."
"I'll stand for Flint!" Caramon cried.
"Who has choice of weapons?" asked Tanis.
"Flint's challenged; it is his choice," Sturm said, smiling.
"What'll it be, old bear? Apple cores at ten paces? Ladles and pot lids?" asked Kitiara.
"Anything but ale mugs," Tas quipped, his pose of haughty dignity replaced by his usual grin. The laughter didn't stop until Tika returned.
"Shh! Shh, it's late! Will you people be quiet!" she hissed.
"Go on, before someone spanks you," Caramon said, without turning to look at her. Tika slipped in behind his stool and made horrid faces at him. The others laughed at her. Caramon was puzzled.
"What's so funny?" he demanded.
Tika deftly lifted the dagger from Caramon's belt sheath. She raised it over her head with a terrifying grimace, as though to stab Caramon in the back. Tears ran down Kitiara's face, and Tas fell off his chair. "What?" shouted Caramon. Then he snapped his head around and spied Tika in midgrimace. "Aha!" He started after her. The girl darted around the nearby empty tables. Caramon blundered after her, upsetting chairs and stumbling against stools.
Otik appeared from the kitchen with a lamp in his hand. His nightshirt was askew and his sparse white hair was standing up in comic tufts. "What's this row? Can't a man get some sleep around here? Tika, where are you, girl?" The red-haired girl peeked over the rim of a table. "You were supposed to hush them, not join in the party."
"That man was chasing me." She pointed at Caramon, who was busy studying the candle-lit rafters. "Go to your room." Tika went regretfully. She cast a last grin back at Caramon and stuck out her tongue. When he started toward her, she flipped his dagger at him. It struck the floor quivering, inches from his feet. Tika vanished through the kitchen's swinging doors.
Otik planted his fists on his hips. "Flint Fireforge! I expected better of you. You're old enough to know better. And you, Master Sturm; a well-bred fellow like you ought to know better than to be roistering this late at night." Flint looked properly abashed. Sturm smoothed his long mustache with his right forefinger and said nothing.
"Don't be an old sop," said Kitiara. "Tika was very amusing. Besides, this is a going-away party."
"Everything is amusing to people who've got four kegs of ale in their bellies," growled Otik. "Who's going away?"
"Well, everybody."
Otik turned back to the kitchen. He said, "Well, for pity's sake, go quietly!" and left.
Caramon returned to the table. Through a gaping yawn he said, "That Tika's the ugliest girl in Solace. Old Otik'll have to put up a big dowry to get her married off!"
"You never know," said Raistlin with a glance at the kitchen. "People change."
It was time to part. There was no reason to delay any longer. Sensing this, Tanis stood with folded hands and said, "Though we friends will separate, our good wishes cannot be diminished by time or distance. But to keep the circle in our hearts, we must come together again, each year on this day, here in the inn."
"And if we cannot!" asked Sturm.
"Then five years from today, everyone here tonight shall return to the Inn of the Last Home. No matter what. Let's make this a sacred vow. Who will take it with me?"
Kitiara pushed back her stool and put her right hand in the center of the table. "I'll take that vow," she said. Her eyes fixed Tanis in a powerful hold. "Five years."
Tanis lowered his hand on hers. "Five years."
"Upon my honor, and in the name of the house of Brightblade," Sturm said solemnly, "I vow to return in five years." He placed his sword hand on Tanis's.
"Me, too," said Caramon. His broad palm hid even Sturm's hand from sight.
"If I am living, I will be here," said Raistlin, with a strange lilt in his voice. He added his gracile touch to his brother's.
"And me! I'll be here waiting for all of you!" So saying, Tasslehoff stepped up on the tabletop. His tiny hand rested next to Raistlin's, both lost on Caramon's wide hand.
"Lot of confounded nonsense," Flint grumbled. "How do I know what I'll be doing five years from now'? Could be a lot more important than sitting in an inn, waiting for a pack of errant rascals."