“We can’t let that happen,” said Lillith firmly. “We must bring the others here to the library. If the city is attacked, this is the one place they might be safe. Marcus—go outside, see if the library is being watched.”
Marcus nodded and raced up the stairs.
Lillith turned back to Brian. Resting her hand on his arm, she looked up into his face.
“You must try to save the knight and his friends. The draconians won’t take them to prison. They’ll take them to their deaths.”
Brian put his arm around her and drew her close.
“I will do anything you ask of me, Lillith, but first, answer me this. Do you believe in love at first sight?”
“I didn’t,” Lillith said softly, smiling up at him, “until now.”
They held each other close for a long, sweet moment, then Lillith sighed deeply and said, “You’d better go. I’ll stay here to keep on eye on the kender.”
“I’ll stay in the library with you, help you defend it. Derek and Aran can go on this dragon orb mission without me—”
Lillith shook her head. “No, that wouldn’t be right. You have your duty, and I have mine.” She smiled. Her dimple flashed. “When this is over, we will share war stories. You’d better hurry,” she added.
Knowing it was hopeless, Brian gave up trying to persuade her. He shouted for Derek and Aran, and they made their way through the stacks of books. Tasslehoff accompanied them, despite Derek’s repeated orders for the kender to return to his reading.
“My friends are in trouble, aren’t they?” Tas heaved a deep sigh. “I suppose I’ll have to go save them—again. Did I tell you about the time I rescued Caramon from a vicious man-eating Stalig Mite? We were in this wonderful haunted fortress known as Skullcap—”
“You are not going, kender,” said Derek.
“Yes, I am, human,” said Tas.
“We can’t chain him to the stool. He’ll only run off if you leave him,” Lillith pointed out. “You might as well take him with you. That way, at least you’ll know where he is.”
Eventually Derek was persuaded, though he wasn’t happy. “Once we return, Burrfoot,” Derek said, “you will continue searching for information on dragon orbs.”
“Oh, I found that already,” said Tas nonchalantly.
“You did?” Derek exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you didn’t ask me,” said Tas with grave dignity.
“I’m asking now,” said Derek, glowering.
“Not very nicely,” Tas admonished.
Lillith leaned down to whisper something in his ear.
“Oh, all right, I’ll tell you. Dragon orbs are made of crystal and magic and they have something inside them… I forget…” He thought a moment. “Essence… that’s it. Essence of chromatic dragons.”
Tasslehoff enjoyed the way these words rolled off his tongue, and he repeated them several times with relish until Derek ordered him sharply to get on with it.
“I don’t know what the essence of a chromatic dragon is,” Tas said, gleefully taking advantage of the chance to say it all one more time, “but that’s what’s in them. If you can gain control over one of these dragon orbs, you can use it to order dragons to do your bidding, or summon them, or something.”
“How does it work?” Derek asked.
“The book didn’t give instructions,” Tas replied, irritated at being asked all these questions when his friends were in danger. Seeing Derek frown, he added, “I have a friend who probably knows all about them. He’s a wizard. His name is Raistlin and we can ask him—”
“No,” said Derek, “we can’t. Did the book say where to find these dragon orbs?”
“It says one was taken to a place called Icereach—” Tas began.
“You should really hurry,” Lillith interrupted urgently. She had been fidgeting near the door the entire time, glancing nervously up the stairs. “We can talk about this when you come back. Your friend the knight has been arrested and it’s likely he’s going be killed.”
“He’s not a knight,” insisted Derek. “But,” he added in a more subdued tone, “he is a fellow Solamnic. Brian, you’re in charge of the kend—Master Burrfoot.” He and Aran started up the stairs. Tasslehoff hung about at the bottom, waiting for Brian.
“One more kiss,” Brian said to Lillith, smiling. “For luck?”
“For luck!” she said and kissed him, then she added wistfully, “Have you ever found something you’ve searched for all your life, only to know that you’re bound to lose it and maybe you’ll never find it again?”
“That happens to me all the time,” exclaimed Tasslehoff, crowding close to the two of them. “I once found this extremely interesting ring that belonged to an evil wizard. It kept jumping me all over the place—first here, then there, then back to here again. I was quite fond of it, only I seem to have misplaced it—”
Tasslehoff stopped talking. His story about the ring and the evil wizard was extremely exciting, very interesting and mostly true, but he’d lost his audience. Neither Lillith nor Brian were listening.
Derek called his name impatiently. Brian gave Lillith one last kiss then got a firm grip on Tasslehoff, and the two ran up the stairs.
Lillith sighed and went back to her dusty books.
6
The rescue. Sturm settles an argument
The knights and the kender emerged from the library’s secret entrance to find themselves in a snow storm, a startling change in the weather, for the day had been sunny when they went underground.
Large, heavy snowflakes were plummeting down from the sky, obscuring their vision and making walking on the stone streets slippery and treacherous. Though Marcus had been gone only a few moments, his footprints were already being covered up by the fast-falling snow. As Tas said, the snow was so thick they could barely see their noses in front of their faces, and they were startled when a figure suddenly loomed out of the white curtain.
“It’s me, Marcus,” he said, raising his hands as he heard the rattle of steel. “It occurred to me you’ll need a guide to the Hall of Justice.”
Derek muttered his thanks as he sheathed his sword, and they hurried on through the storm, blinking the snow out of their eyes and slipping on the icy pavement. Though the rest of the world had gone still and silent beneath a snowy blanket, their little part of it was quite lively, for the kender talked incessantly.
“Have you ever noticed how snow makes everything look different? I guess that’s why it’s really easy to get lost in a blizzard. Are we lost? I don’t remember seeing that tree before—the one that’s all humped over. I think we’ve taken a wrong turn—”
Eventually they came to a street corner and a building the kender did recognize, though this didn’t stop his flow of talk.
“Look at all the gargoyles! Hey, I saw one of them move! Brian, did you see that very fierce-looking gargoyle move? Wouldn’t it be exciting if it flew off its perch on that building and swooped down on us and gouged out our eyes with its sharp talons? Not that I want to have my eyes gouged out, mind you. I like my eyes. I couldn’t see much without them. Say, Marcus, I think we’re lost again. I don’t remember going past that butcher—oh, wait, yes, I do—”
“Can’t you keep him quiet?” Derek grumbled.
“Not without cutting out his tongue,” Aran returned.
Derek seemed to be considering this as a viable option. By this time, however—fortunately for Tas—they had arrived at the Hall of Justice, a large, ugly brick structure. Despite the storm, a crowd had gathered out front, some of them shouting for the detested Solamnic to quit skulking about behind the lord’s skirts and show himself.
“These people truly hate us,” said Derek.
“You can’t really blame them,” said Marcus.
“They were the ones who turned on us,” returned Derek. “Many Solamnics died in this city after the Cataclysm at the hands of the mobs.”
“That was a tragedy,” Marcus admitted. “And after the riot was over, some of the people here were genuinely ashamed of themselves. The Tarsians sent a delegation to Solamnia to try to make peace. Did you know that?”