A wave of light, noise, heat, and the familiar smell of Otik's spicy potatoes hit them full in the face. It engulfed them and washed over them soothingly. Otik, standing behind the bar as they always remembered him, hadn't changed, except maybe to grow stouter. The Inn didn't appear to have changed either, except to grow more comfortable.
Tasslehoff, his quick kender eyes sweeping the crowd, gave a yell and pointed across the room. Something else hadn't changed either-the firelight gleaming on a brightly polished, winged dragon helm.
'Who is it?' asked Flint, straining to see.
'Caramon,' Tanis replied.
'Then Raistlin'll be here, too,' Flint said without a great deal of warmth in his voice.
Tasslehoff was already sliding through the muttering knots of people, his small, lithe body barely noticed by those he passed. Tanis hoped fervently the kender wasn't «acquiring» any objects from the Inn's customers. Not that he stole things- Tasslehoff would have been deeply hurt if anyone had accused him of theft. But the kender had an insatiable curiosity, and various interesting items belonging to other people had a way of falling into Tas's possession. The last thing Tanis wanted tonight was trouble. He made a mental note to have a private word with the kender.
The half-elf and the dwarf made their way through the crowd with less ease than their little friend. Nearly every chair was taken, every table filled. Those who could not find room to sit down were standing, talking in low voices. People looked at Tanis and Flint darkly, suspiciously, or curiously. No one greeted Flint, although there were several who had been long-standing customers of the dwarven metalsmith. The people of Solace had their own problems, and it was apparent that Tanis and Flint were now considered outsiders.
A roar sounded from across the room, from the table where the dragon helm lay reflecting light from the firepit. Tanis's grim face relaxed into a smile as he saw the giant Caramon lift little Tas off the floor in a bear hug.
Flint, wading through a sea of belt buckles, could only imagine the sight as he listened to Caramon's booming voice answering Tasslehoff's piping greeting. 'Caramon better look to his purse,' Flint grumbled. 'Or count his teeth.'
The dwarf and the half-elf finally broke through the press of people in front of the long bar. The table where Caramon sat was shoved back against the tree trunk. In fact, it was sitting in an odd position. Tanis wondered why Otik had moved it when everything else remained exactly the same. But the thought was crushed out of him, for it was his turn to receive the big warrior's affectionate greeting. Tanis hastily removed the longbow and quiver of arrows from his back before Caramon hugged them into kindling.
'My friend!' Caramon's eyes were wet. He seemed about to say more but was overcome by emotion. Tanis was also momentarily unable to talk, but this was because he'd had his breath sqeezed out of him by Caramon's muscular arms.
'Where's Raistlin?' he asked when he could talk. The twins were never far apart.
'There.' Caramon nodded toward the end of the table. Then he frowned. 'He's changed,' the warrior warned Tanis.
The half-elf looked into a corner formed by an irregularity of the vallenwood tree. The corner was shrouded in shadow, and for a moment he couldn't see anything after the glare of the fire-light. Then he saw a slight figure sitting huddled in red robes, even in the heat of the nearby fire. The figure had a hood cast over its face.
Tanis felt a sudden reluctance to speak to the young mage alone, but Tasslehoff had flitted away to find the barmaid and Flint was being lifted off his feet by Caramon. Tanis moved to the end of the table.
'Raistlin?' he said, feeling a strange sense of foreboding.
The robed figure looked up. 'Tanis?' the man whispered as he slowly pulled the hood off his head.
The half-elf sucked in his breath and fell back a pace. He stared in horror.
The face that turned toward him from the shadows was a face out of a nightmare. Changed, Caramon had said! Tanis shuddered. «Change» wasn't the word! The mage's white skin had turned a golden color. It glistened in the firelight with a faintly metallic quality, looking like a gruesome mask. The flesh had melted from the face, leaving the cheekbones outlined in dreadful shadows. The lips were pulled tight in a dark straight line. But it was the man's eyes that arrested Tanis and held him pinned in their terrible gaze. For the eyes were no longer the eyes of any living human Tanis had ever seen. The black pupils were now the shape of hourglasses! The pale blue irises Tanis remembered now glittered gold!
'I see my appearance startles you,' Raistlin whispered. There was a faint suggestion of a smile on his thin lips.
Sitting down across from the young man, Tanis swallowed.
'In the name of the true gods, Raistlin-'
Flint plopped into a seat next to Tanis. 'I've been hoisted into the air more times today than-.Reorx' Flint's eyes widened.
'What evil's at work here? Are you cursed?' The dwarf gasped, staring at Raistlin.
Caramon took a seat next to his brother. He picked up his mug of ale and glanced at Raistlin. 'Will you tell them, Raist?' he said in a low voice.
'Yes,' Raistlin said, drawing the word out into a hiss that made Tanis shiver. The young man spoke in a soft, wheezing voice, barely above a whisper, as if it were all he could do to force the words out of his body His long, nervous hands, which were the same golden color as his face, toyed absently with uneaten food on a plate before him.
'Do you remember when we parted five years ago?' Raistlin began. 'My brother and I planned a journey so secret I could not even tell you, my dear friends, where we were going.'
There was a faint note of sarcasm in the gentle voice. Tanis bit his lip. Raistlin had never-in his entire life- had any 'dear friends.'
'I had been selected by Par-Salian, the head of my order, to take the Test,' Raistlin continued.
'The Test!' Tanis repeated, stunned. 'But you were too young. What-twenty? The Test is given only to mages who have studied years and years-'
'You can imagine my pride,' Raistlin said coldly, irritated at the interruption. 'My brother and I traveled to the secret place-the fabled Towers of High Sorcery. And there I passed the Test.' The mage's voice sank. 'And there I nearly died!'
Caramon choked, obviously in the grip of some strong emotion. 'It was awful,' the big man began, his voice shaking. 'I found him in that horrible place, blood flowing from his mouth, dying! I picked him up and-'
'Enough, brother!' Raistlin's soft voice flicked like a whip. Caramon flinched. Tanis saw the young mage's golden eyes narrow, the thin hands clench. Caramon fell silent and gulped down his ale, glancing nervously at his brother. There was clearly a new strain, a tension between the twins.
Raistlin drew a deep breath and continued. 'When I awoke,' the mage said, 'my skin had turned this color-a mark of my suffering. My body and my health are irretrievably shattered. And my eyes! I see through hourglass pupils and therefore I see time-as it affects all things. Even as I look at you now, Tanis,' the mage whispered, 'I see you dying, slowly, by inches. And so I see every living thing.'
Raistlin's thin, clawlike hand gripped Tanis's arm. The half-elf shivered at the cold touch and started to pull away, but the golden eyes and the cold hand held him fast.
The mage leaned forward, his eyes glowing feverishly. 'But I have power now!' he whispered. 'Par-Salian told me the day would come when my strength would shape the world! I have power and'-he gestured-'the Staff of Magius.'
Tanis looked to see a staff leaning against the vallenwood trunk within easy reach of Raistlin's hand. It was a plain wooden staff. A ball of bright crystal, clutched in a disembodied golden claw carved to resemble the talon of a dragon, gleamed at the top.
'Was it worth it?' Tanis asked quietly.
Raistlin stared at him, then his lips parted in a caricature of a grin. He withdrew his hand from Tanis's arm and folded his arms in the sleeves of his robe. 'Of course!' the mage hissed.
'Power is what I have long sought-and still seek.' He leaned back and his thin figure melted into the dark shadow until all Tanis could see were the golden eyes, glittering in the firelight.
'Ale,' said Flint, clearing his throat and licking his lips as if he would wash a bad taste out of his mouth. 'Where is that kender? I suppose he stole the barmaid-'
