'This looks like one Orander has tucked away in his chest,' he said, slipping it into his sheath.
'Yes, it does,' she replied. 'When he comes back through the portal, you should compare them. If his were magic, maybe yours is too. Gee, that would be interesting, having a magic knife.'
The gully dwarves had spent the day making a new 'This Place.' They found an unused chamber with one collapsed wall and laid claim to it. Their first task had been to take one of the huge stone crocks from the larder and carefully chip down both sides until it fell neatly apart in two halves. Announcing they now had beds, they scavenged for anything useful to put in their new home.
By the end of the day the kender, the gully dwarves, and the little magician had finished most of the food in the larder. Beglug, who seemed to be able to chew and digest anything but had a partiality for wood, had eaten one of the tall stools and part of a table.
That evening, Ripple made another pot of her delicious maize pudding. Halmarain came to the kitchen to join them. She was still reading as she ate, but she sounded as if she were developing a stomach ache. She sighed, moaned, and groaned.
'It couldn't be the pudding,' Ripple said, frowning at her brother.
'No, I've found the answer I was looking for,' Halmarain said. 'Not the answer I wanted-definitely not what I wanted. At least I know what we must do to get that thing back into its own world and rescue Orander… if he's still alive.'
Chapter 7
'I thought you said the markesi-'
'Merchesti,' Halmarain corrected Trap.
'I thought the mer
'If Orander is still alive and had both stones, he could open it. If he's not still alive-and I'm afraid he's not- then it could take the fiend years to learn how to reach our world. This monster would be growing up on Krynn.'- she pointed at Beglug who sat on the floor- 'The longer it stays here, the larger and more dangerous it will become. If we can't send it home before long we'll have to kill it.'
'No!' Ripple objected. The merchesti was sitting at the foot of her stool. He occasionally leaned his head against her leg as if seeking the touch of another creature for reassurance.
'Stop saying that! He's not evil! You're just mean!' Trap argued. 'He hasn't done anything but eat and sleep.'
Across the table, Grod's eyes grew wide again.
'It will show its foul nature as it grows,' the little wizard passed off the arguments as if they didn't exist. She paused and referred to the book. 'But the portal won't open here. According to Alchviem, to open and then close a portal by the use of the gate stones thickens the fabric between planes. The thickening sounds as if it's some-thing like scar tissue over a healed wound.'
'I know what that is, I have a scar,' Ripple pushed back her sleeve to show a blemish on her arm. 'One day when Soso Stepup and I were-'
'I must find a wizard powerful enough to help Orander open the portal,' Halmarain said, interrupting Ripple's story. 'Maybe we can rescue Orander if he's still alive.'
'And Beglug can go home,' Trap said. 'He doesn't seem to like wandering.' The kender shook his head. 'I'd think he would like to see new places, but he keeps moaning. Of course maybe he just has a belly ache from all that strange stuff he keeps eating…'
Ripple frowned. 'But if you have to go far to find a wizard, how do we know Beglug's mother will find him when we send him back?'
'I don't know,' Halmarain snapped. 'I don't know what else to do. Alchviem says no one can open the portal from here a second time, so we know staying here won't help.'
'Who is Alchviem?' Trap asked. Halmarain had never explained him. 'Is he a wizard? Will he do magic for us?'
'He was a wizard who lived a thousand years before the Cataclysm,' Halmarain said with a patience they had not yet experienced from her. 'He took the red robes, and devoted his life to learning about the portals. He learned more about traveling the planes than anyone has before or since. Orander found his writings and discovered how to obtain the gate stones. When I tell you anything I read in these books,'-she tapped the one she held-'you can be certain there is no better information on Krynn.'
'Information? That means learning new things. I like information,' Trap said, thinking magic facts might be both interesting and good to know.
Beglug had been wandering around the kitchen, his head down as he inspected the floor, possibly looking for more glass shards. He bumped into Halmarain's stool and jumped back, snarling, claws bristling as he eyed the little wizard.
'Get him away from me,' Halmarain cried and made shooing motions at the merchesti.
'I'll get him,' Ripple said. She jumped down and took the little fiend by the arm. He was willing enough to sit on the floor by her stool. 'He was just scared, he didn't attack you or anything.'
'Read us some out of that book,' Trap suggested.
'This isn't a story book,' the wizard said, slapping it closed with her two small hands.
'And you didn't make much of a story about Alchviem,' Ripple observed as she shifted on her stool. 'I don't like it here anymore and I want to leave.' Her lowered brows were storm warning signs, though the little wizard didn't know it.
'I don't think you understood what I said,' Halmarain frowned at the kender.
'Of course we know what you said,' Trap was quick to come to the defense of his sister. 'Opening the portal made a scar. Remember the scar on Marchon Bolo's hand, Ripple?'
'How did he get that?' Ripple asked. 'I forgot.'
'Trying to open a chest that belonged to-'
'Forget Marchon Bolo!' Halmarain ordered. 'We have a problem. We must take the little fiend to a wizard powerful enough to-'
'— Bagbus Jumpdown!' Trap triumphantly finished his sentence.
'You're not listening to me!' Halmarain shouted in anger. Her habitual irritation suddenly made Ripple angry.
'Wizard's gizzard, loud and yelling,' she snapped.
Trap grinned at his sister. He knew the game.
'Cannot listen, always telling,' he added
'Stomps and shouts and gives orders,' Ripple continued while Halmarain glared, her flush of anger deepening.
'Makes big noise too,' Grod added, inexpertly capping without a rhyme.
Both kender laughed and Grod joined in with clapping hands, then Trap gazed at Halmarain.
'We did hear you,' he said.
'You want to take Beglug to another wizard who might open a portal and send him home,' Ripple said. 'I think sending him back is a good idea if he doesn't like to wander, though I don't understand why he wouldn't like to see new places, but then I remember hearing of a kender who didn't like to wander either, still, I think Trap might be right and he might have a belly ache, but it seems to me that if you can open and read the books, you should be able to take the stone and open the portal and then-'
'Isn't a portal like a door?' Trap asked, interrupting his sister with a new idea. 'I can open doors, all sorts of doors, even when they're locked like the one out in the passage-'
'Stop all this chatter!' Halmarain demanded. 'I need the help of a master wizard. Salrandin, who lives just south of Palanthus would be the best, I think. But master wizards don't just come when summoned, so I must take the merchesti and the gate stone to him. We either do this or we kill the little fiend before he becomes large enough to be a danger.'
'You can't do that!' Ripple bristled. 'He hasn't done anything!'
