Reaching out, Palin took hold of the staff with a shaking hand. At his touch, the crystal on the top flared into light, blazing with a cool, clear radiance, filling the dark room with a bright, silvery light.
“A gift from the true Master of the Tower. With it,” the specter added in its chill tones, “goes his blessing.”
The white eyes lowered in reverence, then they were gone.
Holding the staff in his hand, Palin looked wonderingly at his father.
Blinking rapidly, Caramon smiled through his tears. “Let’s go home,"
he said quietly, putting his arm around his son.
Book 3: Wanna Bet
Foreword
(Or Afterword, As the case May Be)
“A fine mage you are,” muttered Tanin, standing on the dock, watching the ship sail away. “You should have known all along there was something strange about that dwarf!”
“Me?” Palin retorted. "You were the one that got us mixed up in the whole thing to begin with! 'Adventures always start in such places as this. “
the young magic-user said, mimicking his older brother’s voice.
“Hey, guys,” began Sturm in mollifying tones.
“Oh, shut up!” Both brothers turned to face him. “It was you who took that stupid bet!”
The three brothers stood glaring at each other, the salt breeze blowing the red curling hair of the two eldest into their eyes and whipping the white robes of the youngest about his thin legs.
A ringing shout, sounding over the dancing waters, interrupted them.
“Farewell, lads! Farewell! It was a nice try. Perhaps we’ll do it again someday!”
“Over my dead body!” All three brothers muttered fervently, raising their hands and waving halfheartedly, sickly grins on their faces.
“That’s one thing we can all agree on,” said Sturm, beginning to chuckle.
“And I know another.” The brothers turned thankfully away from the sight of the sailing vessel lumbering through the waters.
“And that is ... ?”
“That we never tell another living soul about this, as long as we live!"
Sturm’s voice was low. The other two brothers glanced about at the spectators standing on the docks. They were looking at the ship, laughing.
Several, glancing at the brothers, pointed at them with stifled giggles.
Grinning ruefully, Tanin held his right hand out in front of him. Sturm placed his right hand on his brother’s, and Palin put his right hand over the other two.
“Agreed,” each said solemnly.
Chapter One
“Adventures always start in such places as this,” said Tanin, regarding the inn with a satisfied air.
“You can’t be serious!” Palin said, horrified. “I wouldn’t stable my horse in this filthy place, let alone stay here myself!”
“Actually,” reported Sturm, rounding the corner of the building after an inspection tour, “the stables are clean compared to the inn, and they smell a damn sight better. I say we sleep there and send the horses inside.”
The inn, located on the docks of the seaside town of Sancrist, was every bit as mean and ill-favored in appearance as those few patrons the young men saw slouching into it. The windows facing the docks were small, as though staring out to sea too long had given them a perpetual squint. Light from inside could barely filter through the dirt. The building itself was weather- and sand-blasted and crouched in the shadows at the end of the alley like a cutpurse waiting for his next victim. Even the name, The Spliced Jib, had an ominous sound.
“I expected Little Brother to complain,” Tanin remarked sourly, dismounting and glaring at Sturm over the pommel of his saddle. “He misses his white linen sheets and Mama tucking him in at night. But I expected better of you, Sturm Majere.”
“Oh, I’ve no objection,” Sturm said easily, sliding off his horse and beginning to untie his pack. “I was just making an observation. We don’t have much choice anyway,” he added, withdrawing a small leather pouch and shaking it. Where there should have been the ring of steel coins, there was only a dismal clunk. “No linen sheets tonight, Palin,” he said, grinning at his younger brother, who remained seated disconsolately upon his horse. “Think of tomorrow night, though—staying at Castle Uth Wistan, the guests of Lord Gunthar. Not only white linen but probably rose petals strewn about the bed as well.”
“I don’t expect white linen,” Palin returned, nettled. “In fact, bed sheets at all would be a pleasant change! And I’d prefer sleeping in a bed where the mattress wasn’t alive!” Irritably, he scratched himself under the white robes.
“A warrior must get used to such things,” Tanin said in his worldly-wise Elder Brother voice, which made Palin long to toss him in the horse trough.
“If you are attacked by nothing worse than bedbugs on your first quest, you may count yourself lucky.”
“Quest?” Palin muttered bitterly, sliding down off his horse.
“Accompanying you and Sturm to Castle Uth Wistan so that you can join the knighthood. This isn’t a quest! It’s been like a kender outing, and both you and Father knew it would be when you decided I could go! Why, the most danger we’ve been in since we left home was from that serving wench who tried to cut off Sturm’s ears with a butcher knife!”
“It was a mistake anyone could make,” Sturm muttered, flushing. “I keep telling you!—I intended to grab her mugs. She was what you might call a buxom girl and when she leaned over me holding the tray, I wasn’t exactly paying attention to what I was doing—”
“Oh, you were paying attention, all right!” Palin said grimly. “Even when she came at you with a knife, we had to drag you out of there! And your eyes were the size of your shield.”
“Well, at least I’m interested in such things,” Sturm said irritably. “Not like some people I could mention, who seem to think themselves too good—”