Tales of Uncle Trapspringer ll-3 Page 14

  He heard dwarven oaths behind him and turned around. The dwarves were still sitting on their ponies, surrounding an empty space.

  "Wow, that was interesting," he said.

  The nearest dwarf heard the kender, twisted in his saddle, and stared at the Trap, who smiled back.

  "Wonder how I did that?"

  "There he is!" the dwarf shouted. "He's using some filthy wizard's spell."

  "I did not!" Trap objected, and then changed his mind, though he decided not to mention it to the dwarves.

  The nearest dwarf turned his mount and galloped toward the kender. Trap was still willing to turn out his pouches and prove he had nothing of theirs, but thinking the dwarf might run him down in his haste, Trap took a step to the side. He found himself another fifty feet away, this time to the north.

  "A person should wear a hat when he uses this ring," he said, more to himself than the dwarves. The wind, whistling in his ears, was enough to give him an earache.

  The first dwarf was still galloping toward where the kender had been before he took his last step. A second charged Trap's new position.

  "What a wonderful game," he said and took another two steps, completely bypassing the four still on the slope. He stopped twenty feet away. Tolem, the leader, started toward him.

  "Can't catch me," Trap caroled as he leaped into the air, spinning around. Definitely a mistake, he decided. He continued to spin four feet above the ground as he whipped through the brush. He seemed to be flung in several directions at once.

  The dwarves charged in all directions, trying to catch him. He saw their faces, red with rage, and their glaring eyes as he sailed by them.

  For a moment Trap seemed to hang in the air right above Tolem who reached up to grab him. Then by some perversity of the ring, he whipped around and dropped to sit on the croup of Tolem's pony, facing backward.

  The startled animal reared. Tolem lost the reins as he grabbed at the saddle to keep from falling. Trap slid off the croup, stumbled twice, and found himself more than a hundred feet away, standing at the bottom of the hill.

  He lost his balance and sat on the ground, his head still spinning. The dwarves had not spotted him, so he stayed where he was, letting his equilibrium settle while they raced around looking for him. Four of the six had pulled out their axes and were shouting threats and imprecations.

  "Find that thief!" Tolem shouted to the other dwarves.

  "There they go again, calling me a thief," Trap muttered. He was growing irritated with all the distrust.

  "I know! I'll show them!" he announced, speaking at large to the nearest bushes. Ten magic steps took him around the hill and to his tethered pony. He retrieved his hoopak. Then, careful to measure his steps, he came to a stop in the exact middle of the group of angry dwarves.

  He appeared so suddenly that the dwarves' surprise slowed their reactions, but Trap was ready. Using the pointed steel end of his hoopak he poked one rider in the rear. The dwarf gave a yell, jumped up in the saddle, and fell off his mount.

  The rest waved their axes and charged him.

  Confident he could elude his pursuers, he took two long steps and moved six feet.

  "Oops," he muttered and ducked behind a bush as the dwarves charged, so intent on him they nearly struck each other with their weapons.

  "Excuse me!" he said, ducking down into the under-brush. Keeping his head down, he scampered from bush to bush, narrowly escaping the dwarves. He dashed into a thick, high clump of bushes. Momentarily out of sight, he picked up a stone. Using the sling of his hoopak, he sent it skittering along the ground to the north.

  The dwarves charged the sound of clattering rock. Trap crept south and then back toward the small copse of woods, the direction the dwarves would not expect him to go.

  Still, they might think of it, and it would be best for them to think he was seeking the safety of the trees. He found a spring with a muddy bank and was careful to leave footprints heading west until he was on firm ground again. Then he turned south and hid under a large, thick bush.

  Safe for the moment, he gazed down at the ring, took it off and inspected it closely. He shook it and held it up to his ear. Then he decided magic wouldn't slosh like water in a jug. He put the ring back on his finger and took another cautious step. No magic widened his kender pace. Disappointed, he took the ring off and slipped it back into his pouch.

  He hated to think he had used up all the magic. Taking giant steps had been fun. Even spinning around in the air had been interesting. And he had accomplished some-thing important. He had kept the dwarves, now milling about trying to find him, from following Ripple and Halmarain.

  But the sun was down, it would soon be dark, and how was he to find his sister and the little wizard?

  Trap sat on the ground inside a clump of bushes and thought about the dwarves as well as his friends. The dwarves were still beating the bushes when one found the footprints by the spring.

  After a short conference they dashed off toward the woods. The little wizard, Ripple, and the animals they led had been out of sight when the dwarves appeared. Trap had hidden his mount, the dwarves seemed to think that their quarry had returned to the copse and the road.

  The kender worked his way through the underbrush until he reached his mount and set out in search of the rest of his party.

  "The way they brandished those axes, they certainly weren't friendly anymore," Trap told his pony. "And I'm tired of being called a thief. I didn't take anything from them. Not one even came close enough to me to drop anything in my pouches."

  To make certain, he opened them one at a time, fingering and identifying various items. Except for a pretty little stone he had found in the creek, he could not find a single item he had not possessed before he met the dwarves.

  He pulled it out and held it close to his face since the sun had set and he could barely see it. He considered it as the pony picked its way through the brush. It was only a rock, smoothed by the stream. He had picked it up before the dwarves arrived. In putting it back into his pouch he found another one. He pulled it out too. By that time the twilight had deepened until he could not see the second stone, but by touch he remembered it. It was not stone at all, but the little gray-green disk of glass he had found on the floor of the wizard Orander's workroom after the attack of the merchesti.

  "And I had this one long before I met the dwarves," he said as he put it back in his pouch. Since he could not see the trail in front of the pony, he dismounted and led the animal as he went in search of his sister and his friends.

  He wandered for hours trying to find the others. Unable to see their trail, he had decided to stop for the night and continue his search at dawn. He was looking for a likely place to stop for the night when he stumbled on their camp. He startled them as he walked out of the darkness.

  "Trap!" Ripple cried out and jumped up from the fire.

  "Him dead, make a good tale…" Grod said. At the approach of the pony he had jumped up and waved his dead squirrel in an attempt to ward off anything unfriendly. Umpth stood holding the wagon wheel.

  "I'm not so dead!" Trap replied with heat as he led his pony into the shallow cave which was hardly more than a depression in the stony hillside.

  Ripple filled her cup with hot tea and cut him a generous slice of ham. She tucked it into a bun of day old bread and he was munching away when Halmarain looked up from the study of her spellbooks.

  "You were able to keep the dwarves from following us," she said. She made a statement as if she expected no less from the kender.

  "Of course I did!" He accepted the credit as if he had planned the outcome of his adventure "They were certainly mad and I don't understand it at all," Trap said. "They kept calling me a thief, but you know we don't have anything of theirs."

  "Of course I do," Halmarain mocked Traps tone.

  "Then you might reward him by doing some nice magic," Ripple said, a martial light in her eye.

  "Then Trap tell story," Grod said with a gr
in.

  Chapter 17

  So no part of history would be lost, Astinus recorded…

  Draaddis Vulter gave out with a string of curses that turned two confused mice into cats. They dashed into a strange orange cloud that suddenly filled the center of his work room.

  Once the kender tucked the rune-trimmed viewing disk into his pouch, Draaddis and Takhisis were blind to their whereabouts. Draaddis decided the little thief had even forgotten he carried it. Still, the black-robed wizard thought it fortunate that the kender had it with him. Sooner or later his desire to handle and inspect his possessions would lead him to pull it out of his pouch. If it had been left on the floor of Orander's laboratory, they would have no way of ever telling where the kender might wander.

  It was just bad luck that when the little thief finally pulled it out, darkness had prevented the wizard from getting a clear idea of the location of the kender.

  He stood wondering what he should do. Did he dare tell his queen he had finally seen the kender again but could tell her nothing about them? He would not. He could not. Despite knowing Takhisis could only torment him through his own mind, he still lived in terror of the illusions she could plant in his head.

  "There was more to see than you supposed," Takhisis spoke from the orb.

  The wizard whirled around, dizzy as fear drained the blood from his head. He saw the humorous glitter in the eye of the goddess as she watched from the black orb. Obviously she knew he had been considering whether or not to tell her he had seen the kender again. Since she did not mention his omission, he would not be the one to bring it up.

  "It is my good fortune that you, my queen, have better eyes than mine," the wizard replied.

  "The kender was traveling east, toward the mountains," the Queen of Darkness informed him. "They are not far north of where they crossed at the southern end of the Vingaard Mountains when they were traveling west."

  "First they go west, across the highlands, then north for a short distance, now east, back into the mountains again?" Draaddis pulled at his ear while he considered the confusing route of the kender. He shrugged away the inconsistency.

  "At least we can put Kaldre on their trail again," he told his mistress.

  "Yes, send your messenger," Takhisis smiled in anticipation.

  "We must have that stone if we are to bring the merchesti into this world," Draaddis agreed.

  "It will come, and more," Takhisis smiled wickedly. "Once we have both stones we will open the portal wider and bring more of its kind. They will rampage across the lands and the world of Ansalon will be in a turmoil as great as the time of the Cataclysm."

  Takhisis drew back from the orb, her entire face became visible and glowed with an unholy light as she seemed to savor the idea of what was to come. Then her beautiful features sharpened.

  "But your death knight must get the gate stone from the kender."

  "He will, my queen, he has been given life to serve you. He is ambitious and you have offered to make his dreams a reality-"

  "But they will only be a reality if he hurries," Takhisis snarled. The vision of the beautiful woman shimmered and her true self-the five headed dragon-writhed in the globe. The eyes, flat and merciless, glared at the trembling wizard. Then, just as quickly, the image of a human female appeared again.

  "Have I not told you, Draaddis, that the infant will grow? The rate of its increase is still slow, but any day now it could reach the stage when its development is rapid and it will turn ravenous, chewing up everything within sight. In their voracious appetites when they grow they have even been known to devour their parents. It looks to the kender! When that hunger begins, the kender will be its first targets. If the little female thief still has the gate stone it will be endangered."

  "How-how long will it be before the stage of rapid growth begins?"

  "I don't know. Not even the gods know much about the Plane of Vasmarg, and the creature as been removed from its own world, which means it could develop more slowly or even more rapidly."

  "I will urge speed upon Jaerume Kaldre," Draaddis replied.

  "See that you do. Time does not favor us in any way, Draaddis. Daily the lands of Krynn become more peaceful. The distrust after the wars following the Cataclysm is waning. I do not want to face a unified world when I return to your plane."

  Takhisis wore a slightly dissatisfied expression as her face retreated from the globe and reverted to the shape of the five headed dragon.

  The last the wizard saw of her was one head, the nostrils smoking, and those flat, implacable, merciless eyes glaring at him before the orb clouded.

  At least she had not tortured him, he thought, thankful for small blessings. Still, he would not escape her wrath for long if Jaerume Kaldre did not succeed.

  Chapter 18

  The next morning my Uncle Trapspringer was glad his sister asked a question that was on his mind as well…

  "So now where?" Ripple had asked Halmarain. They were saddling the ponies. The little wizard was trying to pull her pony's head down to put the bridle on it. The animal was restive and kept raising its head.

  "Why do you keep trying?" Ripple asked, forgetting her earlier question.

  "I'm not helpless, just… vertically challenged," the little wizard snapped as she tried to reach the pony's head again.

  When they finished saddling their mounts they would be ready to continue their journey. They had made their camp the previous evening in the high foothills. As they began the day's ride, Ripple asked her question again.

  "We should try to reach the road again," Halmarain said and then shook her head. "No not the road, we'll ride north through the foothills. We must reach Palanthus."

  Ripple sighed and her brother understood. They wouldn't have any opportunity to make any new friends. Ripple's dejected expression soon gave way to limitless kender optimism.

  "But maybe we'll see some new creatures," she said. "Trap, remember Studder Rangewide's stories about ogres, nagas, griffons and-"

  "— And satyrs, hulderfolk and bakali," Trap added to the list, skipping about with excitement. "If we stay close enough to the mountains, maybe we'll meet some really interesting people!"

  "You're scaring me to death!" Halmarain shuddered. "And you'll probably set out to find monsters the minute my back is turned. I'd say let's use the road, but we're being chased by dwarves, and remember, there is still the cloaked man on your trail. He's after you, even though you won't admit it. If Orander is still alive, every day we lose lessens his chances of returning to Ansalon. Every day increases the danger of Beglug's parent breaking through to Krynn." She glanced around at the young fiend who crouched and poked a stick into a ground squirrel's hole. "And he's becoming meaner every day."

  Trap sighed. Halmarain insisted on distrusting the little merchesti. As if to prove his prowess, the little fiend froze, his eyes on something in the undergrowth. He slowly drew back the stick he had been using to torment the ground squirrels. With a flick of his wrist he sent the stout little staff sailing and it thunked down on the head of an unwary rabbit.

  Chuckling evilly, he scuttled across the camp and came back holding the small stunned animal by one of its hind legs.

  Trap had picked up Umpth's saddle when he heard the scream of the rabbit and looked back to see Beglug tormenting it. The merchesti tugged at the rabbit's forelegs, as if he intended to tear them off while the rabbit still lived.

  "Stop that!" Trap grabbed his hoopak and dashed across the camp. A sound crack on the little fiend's arm convinced Beglug to drop his captive. The rabbit dashed away into the underbrush, its front legs gave way and it rolled as much as it ran. Beglug bared his teeth at Trap and snarled, but the kender refused to be intimidated.

  "You can kill to eat, but you don't hurt things for fun," the kender told the little merchesti.

  "You'll never teach him mercy or kindness," Halmarain said.

  Beglug rubbed his arm and whined, gazing up at Trap and the little wizard with a pathetic
expression.

  "And don't let that sad look fool you," Halmarain warned. "He's an evil fiend and will never be anything else."

  "He'll learn not to hurt things for fun," Trap said, determined to civilize the little merchesti.

  Trap didn't like her distrust of the little merchesti, but even worse, she was scaring Grod. The smaller gully dwarf's eyes widened every time she mentioned evil, and he was beginning to watch Beglug as if he expected the little fiend to bite the arm off one of his friends.

  When they began their day's journey, Trap led. He angled north through the foothills. At dawn the sun had risen, promising a bright day, but the clouds began rolling in before they had been traveling for an hour.

  Half an hour later, a bolt of lightning struck the side of the mountain. Beglug roared in delight and waved his arms. The little wizard gave a startled scream that set the ponies to sidling.

  "We should find a shelter before the ponies bolt," Halmarain suggested.

  Trap agreed. He wouldn't mind walking through the mountains, but like all kender he loved riding and would hate to lose his mount. He hurried ahead searching for any type of overhang that would protect them from the approaching storm.

  He didn't go far. Traveling along the easiest path, he discovered a shallow cave with a low, narrow entrance. The rest of the party reached shelter just minutes before the storm broke.

  The entrance was so low they had to dismount and pull the heads of their mounts down as they entered.

  "Another delay," Halmarain muttered as she followed her mount into the dimness.

  Further back in the cave, Grod gave Beglug a few sticks for a snack while Umpth freed the wagon wheel from its makeshift travois.

  "Many feet come," Umpth called out, tugging his dark beard in distress.

  The two kender and the little wizard turned to see him standing with his ear against the metal rim of the wheel.

  "That gully dwarf-" Halmarain started to complain but Trap interrupted.