“You come to us a deserter, Sir Knight,” he said. “It has been reported you joined with this Mina and served her, did her bidding. You worshiped the One God and performed miracles in the name of the One God, a god we now learn is our ancient foe, Queen Takhisis. Are you here because you have recanted? Do you claim to have discarded your faith in the god you once served? Why should we believe you? Why should we think that you are anything more than a spy?”
Gerard started to speak up in her defense. Odila rested her hand on his arm, and he fell silent. Nothing he could say would do any good, he realized, and it might do much harm. Odila bent down on one knee before the lords. Although she knelt before them, she did not bow her head. She looked at all of them directly.
“If you expect shame or contrition from me, my lords, you will be disappointed. I am a deserter. That I do not deny. Death is the punishment for desertion, and I accept that punishment as my due. I offer only in my defense that I went in search of what we all are seeking. I went in search of a power greater than my own, a power to guide me and comfort me and give me the knowledge that I was not alone in this vast universe. I found such a power, my lords. Queen Takhisis, our god, has returned to us. I say ‘our’ god, because she is that. We cannot deny it.
“Yet I say to you that you must go forth and fight her, my lords. You must fight to halt the spread of darkness that is fast overtaking our world. But in order to fight her, you must arm yourselves with your faith. Reverence her, even as you oppose her. Those who follow the light must also acknowledge the darkness, or else there is no light.”
Lord Tasgall gazed at her, his expression troubled. Lord Siegfried and Lord Ulrich spoke softly together, their eyes on Odila.
“Had you made a show of contrition, Lady, I would not have believed you,” said Lord Tasgall at last. “As it is, I must consider what you say and think about it. Rise, Odila. As to your punishment, that will be determined by the council. In the meantime, I am afraid that you must be confined—”
“Do not lock her away, my lord,” urged Gerard. “If we are going to attack Sanction, we are going to need all the experienced warriors we can muster. Release her into my care. I guarantee that I will bring her safely to trial, as she did me when I was on trial before you in Solanthus.”
“Will this suit you, Odila?” asked the Lord of the Rose.
“Yes, my lord.” She smiled at Gerard, whispered to him in an undertone. “It seems our destiny to be shackled together.”
“My lords, if you’re going to attack Sanction, you could probably use the help of some gold and silver dragons,” Tasslehoff stated, jumping to his feet. “Now that Malys is dead, all the red dragons and the blue dragons and the black and the green will come to Sanction’s defense—”
“I think you had better remove the kender, Sir Gerard,” said the Lord of the Rose.
“Because the gold and silver dragons would come,” Tasslehoff shouted over his shoulder, squirming in Gerard’s grasp. “Now that the totem is destroyed, you see. I’d be glad to go fetch them myself. I have this magical device—”
“Tas, be quiet!” said Gerard, his face flushed with the exertion of trying to retain a grip on the slippery kender.
“Wait!” the blind man called out, the first words he’d spoken. He had been standing so quietly that everyone in the hall had forgotten his presence.
Mirror walked toward the sound of the kender’s voice, his staff impatiently striking and knocking aside anything that got in his way. “Don’t remove him. Let me talk to him.” The Lord of the Rose frowned at this interruption, but the man was blind, and the Measure was strict in its admonition that the blind, the lame, the deaf, and the dumb were to be treated with the utmost respect and courtesy.
“You may speak to this person, of course, sir. Seeing that you are sadly afflicted and lack sight, I think it only right to tell you, however, that he is naught but a kender.” “I am well aware that he is a kender, my lord,” said Mirror, smiling, “That makes me all the more eager to speak to him. In my opinion, kender are the wisest people on Krynn,”
Lord Ulrich laughed heartily at this odd statement, to receive another reproving glance from Lord Tasgall. The blind man reached out a groping hand.
“I’m here, sir,” said Tas, catching hold of Mirror’s hand and shaking it. “I’m Tasslehoff Burrfoot. The Tasslehoff Burrfoot. I tell you that because there’s a lot of me going around these days, but I’m the only real one. That is, the others are real, they’re just not really me. They’re themselves, if you take my meaning, and I’m myself.”
“I understand,” said blind man solemnly. “I am called Mirror and I am, in reality, a silver dragon.”
Lord Tasgall’s eyebrows shot up to his receding hairline. Lord Ulrich sputtered in his wine. Lord Siegfried snorted. Odila smiled reassuringly at Gerard and nodded complacently.
“You say that you know where the silver and gold dragons are being held prisoner?” Mirror asked, ignoring the Knights.
“Yes, I know,” Tasslehoff began, then he halted. Having been termed one of “the wisest people on Krynn,” he felt called upon to tell the truth. “That is, the device knows.” He patted his pouch where the Device of Time Journeying was secreted. “I could take you there, if you wanted,” he offered, without much hope.
“I would like to go with you very much,” said Mirror.
“You would?” Tasslehoff was astonished, then excited. “You would! That’s wonderful. Let’s go! Right now!” He fumbled about in his pouch. “Could I ride on your back? I love flying on dragons. I knew this dragon once. His name was Khirsah, I think, or something like that. He took Flint and I riding, and we fought a battle, and it was glorious.”
Tas halted his fumbling, lost in reminiscences. “I’ll tell you the whole story. It was during the War of the Lance—”
“Some other time,” Mirror interrupted politely. “Speed is imperative. As you say, the elves are in danger.”
“Oh, yes.” Tas brightened. “I’d forgotten about that.” He began once again to fumble in his pouch. Retrieving the device, Tas took hold of Mirror by the hand. The kender held the device up over his head and began to recite the spell.
Waving to the astonished Knights, Tas cried, “See you in Sanction!” He and Mirror began to shimmer, as if they were oil portraits that someone had left out in the rain. At the last moment, before he had disappeared completely, Mirror reached out, seized hold of Odila, who reached out to take hold of Gerard.
In an eyeblink, all four of them vanished.
“Good grief!” exclaimed the Lord of the Rose.
“Good riddance,” sniffed Lord Siegfried.
25
Into the Valley
The elven army marched north, made good time. The warriors rose early and slept late, speeding their march with songs and tales of the old days that lightened their burdens and gladdened their hearts.
Many of the Silvanesti songs and stories were new to Gilthas, and he delighted in them. In turn, the stories and songs of the Qualinesti were new to their cousins, who did not take so much delight in them, since most were concerned with the Qualinesti’s dealing with lesser races such as humans and dwarves. The Silvanesti listened politely and praised the singer if they could not praise the song. The one song the Silvanesti did not sing was the song of Lorac and the dream. When the Lioness traveled among them, she sang the songs of the Wilder elves, and these, with their stories of floating the dead down rivers and living wild and half-naked in the treetops, succeeded in shocking the sensibilities of both Qualinesti and Silvanesti, much to the amusement of the Wilder elves. The Lioness and her people were rarely among them, however. She and her Wilder elves acted as outriders, guarding the army’s flanks from surprise attacks, and riding in advance of the main body to scout out the best routes.