Bidding good-bye to his new friends, Tas went off to try his luck. The number-two location worked extraordinarily well (we have been asked not to reveal it) and after only an hour’s work, Tasslehoff entered the city of Solanthus. He was hot and sweaty, grimy and torn, but all his pouches were intact and that, of course, was of paramount importance. Fascinated by the immensity of the city, as well as by the large numbers of people, he wandered the streets until his feet were sore and the apples he’d had for lunch were just a distant memory. He saw lots of Knights, but none who resembled Gerard. Tas might have stopped to question a few, but he was afraid that they might treat him in the friendly fashion the other two kender had described, and while he would have liked to have been shown the sights of the city by armed guards and nothing would have made him happier than to be tossed bodily out the front gate, he was forced to put aside such pleasures in the more serious pursuit of his quest.
It was about sunset when Tas began to grow seriously annoyed with Gerard. Having decided that the Knight should be in Solanthus, the fact that he was not where he was supposed to be was highly provoking. Tired of tramping up and down the streets in search of him, weary of dodging city guards (fun at the beginning but old after awhile), Tas decided grumpily that he would sit down and let Gerard find him for a change. Tas planted himself in the shadows of a large statue near a fountain close to the main entrance on the main street, figuring that he would watch everyone coming in and out and that Gerard would be bound to find him eventually.
He was sitting with his chin in hand, trying to decide which inn he was going favor with his presence for dinner when he saw someone he knew enter the front gate. It wasn’t Gerard, but someone even better. Tasslehoff jumped to his feet with a glad cry.
“Goldmoon!” he shouted, waving.
Respectful of Goldmoon’s white robes that marked her a Mystic of the Citadel of Light, one of the city guards was providing her a personal escort into the city. He pointed in a certain direction. She nodded and thanked him. He touched his forehead to her, then returned to his duties. A small and dust-covered figure trotted along at Goldmoon’s heels, hard-pressed to keep up with her long strides. Tas didn’t pay much attention to this other person. He was so glad and so thankful to see Goldmoon that he didn’t notice anyone else, and he forgot all about Gerard. If anyone could save him from Dalamar and Palin, it was Goldmoon.
Tas raced across the crowded highway. Bumping into people, and nimbly avoiding the long arm and grasping hands of the law, Tasslehoff was about to greet Goldmoon with his usual hug when he stopped short. She was Goldmoon, but she wasn’t. She was still in the youthful body that had been so detestable to her. She was still beautiful, with her shining silver-gold hair and her lovely eyes, but the hair was straggly and uncombed, and the eyes had a vague and distant look about them, as if she wasn’t seeing anything close to her but was staring at something very far away. Her white robes were mud-stained, the hem frayed. She seemed tired to the point of falling, but she walked on determinedly, using a wooden staff to aid her steps. The small, dusty person kept up with her.
“Goldmoon?” Tasslehoff said, uncertain.
She did not pause, but she did glance down at him. “Hello, Tas,” she said in a sort of distracted way and continued on.
Just that. Hello, Tas. Not, My gosh, I’m glad to see you, where have you been all this time, Tas? Just, Hello, Tas.
The small and dusty person was surprised to see him, however. Also very pleased.
“Burrfoot!”
“Conundrum!” Tas cried, at last recognizing the gnome through the dust.
The two shook hands.
“What are you doing here?” Tas asked. “The last time I saw you, you were mapping the Hedge Maze at the Citadel of Light. By the way, the last time I saw the Hedge Maze it was on fire.”
Tasslehoff realized too late that he shouldn’t have sprung such terrible news on the gnome in so sudden a manner.
“Fire!” Conundrum gasped. “My life quest! On fire!”
Stricken to the heart, he collapsed against the side of a building, clutching his breast and gulping for breath. Tas paused to fan the gasping gnome with his hat, still keeping one eye on Goldmoon. Not noticing the gnome’s distress, she kept on walking. When Conundrum showed signs of recovering, Tas grasped his arm and pulled him along down the street after her.
“Just think,” Tas said soothingly, aiding the gnome’s staggering steps,
“when they start to rebuild, they’ll come to you because you’ve got the only map.”
“That’s right!” Conundrum exclaimed on thinking this over. He perked up considerably. “You’re absolutely right.” He would have halted on the spot to drag the map out of his knapsack, but Tas said hurriedly that they didn’t have time, they had to keep up with Goldmoon.
“How do you two come to be here in Solanthus, anyway?” Tasslehoff asked, to distract the gnome from thoughts of the blazing Hedge Maze. Conundrum regaled Tas with the doleful tale of the wreck of the Indestructible, how he and Goldmoon had been cast up on strange shores, and how they had been walking ever since.
“You will not believe this,” Conundrum said, lowering his voice to a fearful whisper, “but she is following ghosts!”
“Really?” said Tasslehoff. “I just left a forest filled with ghosts.”
“Not you, too!” The gnome regarded Tas in disgust.
“I’m quite experienced around the undead,” Tas said with a careless air.
“Skeletal warriors, disembodied hands, chain-rattling ghouls . . . Never a problem for the experienced traveler. I have the Kender Spoon of Turning given to me by my Uncle Trap-springer. If you’d like to see it—”
He began to rummage in his pouch but stopped abruptly when he came across the bits and pieces of the Device of Time Journeying.
“Personally, I think the woman’s mad, unhinged, loony, deranged, bricks missing, spilt marbles, that sort of thing,” Conundrum was saying in low and solemn tones.
“Yes, I suspect you’re right,” said Tas, glancing at Goldmoon, sighing.
“She certainly doesn’t act like the Goldmoon I once knew. That Goldmoon was pleased to see a kender. That Goldmoon wouldn’t have let evil wizards send a kender off to be squashed by a giant.” Tas patted Conundrum’s arm. “It’s awfully good of you to stick with her, look out for her.”
“I have to be honest with you,” said Conundrum, “I wouldn’t do it except for the money. Look at this, will you?”
Glancing around to make certain no pickpockets were lurking about, the gnome pulled from the very bottom of his knapsack a large purse that was bulging with coins. Tasslehoff expressed his admiration and reach out to take a look at the pouch. Conundrum cracked the kender’s hand across the knuckles and stuffed the purse back in his sack.
“And don’t you touch it!” the gnome warned with a scowl.
“I don’t think much of money,” Tas said, rubbing his bruised knuckles.
“It’s heavy to carry around, and what’s the good of it? I have all these apples with me. Now, no one’s going to clonk me over the head for these apples, but if I had a coin to buy the apples, they’d hit me over the head to steal the coin, and so it’s much better to have the apples. Don’t you agree?”
“Why are you talking about apples?” Conundrum shouted, waving his hands in the air. “What have apples got to do with anything? Or spoons for that matter?”
“You started it,” Tas advised him. Knowing gnomes and how excitable they were, he decided it would be polite to change the subject. “How did you come by all that money anyway?”
“People give it to her,” Conundrum replied, shifting the hand-waving in Goldmoon’s general direction. “Wherever we go, people give her money or a bed for the night or food or wine. They’re extremely kind to her. They’re kind to me, too. No one’s ever been kind to me before,” the gnome added wistfully. “People always say nasty, stupid things to me like, ‘Is it supposed to smoke like that?’ and ‘Who’s going to pay for all the damage?’ but when I’m with Goldmoon, people say kind things to me. They give me food and cold ale and a bed for the night and money. She doesn’t want the money. She gives it to me. I’m keeping it, too.”