The Collected Stories, The Legend of Drizzt

under the low-pulled hood of his forest green cloak.

“A toad is my preference,” Addadearber replied. “And ’tis true that toads can swim. How far is another matter, particularly given the size of the knuckleheads we’ve been pulling in for two days. I would take bets that the poor little laddie wouldn’t paddle ten good kicks before a ten-pounder got him. What’s your guess then, Roundie?”

The cloaked man just chuckled softly in reply, both from Addadearber’s teasing description and from the use of his nickname. He was known about Ten-Towns as Roundabout, because he always seemed to be exactly that. “Roundabout and never here,” was the phrase often spoken regarding the ranger, whose real name few knew, and which he never seemed willing to share. He was of medium height and muscular, but slender, with long, straight black hair and piercing eyes, one brown, one blue-a trick, it was rumored, of his mixed heritage. His ears were quite long, and poked through his hair. He didn’t try to hide the fact that his veins coursed with elf blood.

Spragan turned his alarmed expression to Lathan, but the older boy just shook his head and brushed the blond locks from in front of his blue eyes.

Addadearber began to whisper something then, something that resembled the incantation of a spell, and both young fishermen turned to regard him with great alarm, which of course turned the corners of the old wizard’s lips up in a satisfied grin.

“Enough o’ that,” Ashelia said to him. “Them boys’re scared enough.” She turned a severe look upon the two of them as she continued, “I’d have thought they’d been out on the waters enough now to know that a little leak isn’t sending Boneyard to the grave, especially me sister’s own Lathan there, sailor blood and all-not that ye’d know he’s got any blood in him in looking at his face just now!”

“We’ve never been this far-” Spragan started to protest, but Ashelia cut him short.

“And enough from yerself!” she scolded. “Four generations o’ Rubriks been sailing Dinneshere, and ye’ve a grandda, an aunt, and two uncles who call the Lac their eternal resting place. I took ye on to train ye, for the wishes o’ yer ma-both of ye! Ye think they’d have trusted me with the lot o’ ye if I didn’t know the waters? And ye think I’d take ye out as full crew if I didn’t think ye ready for it? So don’t ye prove me wrong here. Lathan, ye stay up front and get yer sounding rope ready as we near the eastern shore, and yerself, Spragan, grab a pail and get to the hold.”

“There’s too much-”

“And don’t ye make me tell ye again, or I’m knowing a way to drop a hundred and fifty pounds from our weight real quick.”

With a last look to Lathan, Spragan scurried away. They heard him stumble down the aft ladder then splash about in the watery hold. A trapdoor near the taffrail popped open, and after more splashing, Spragan flung a bucketful of water up and out, to splash into Boneyard’s wake.

“Should I go and help the lad?” Roundabout asked.

Ashelia waved the notion away. “We’ve picked up the eastern current already and we’re not so far. Ye paid me too well for yer transport to the eastern shore for me to make ye work yer way across. Now regarding the old spell-thrower …”

“Bah, but you employ me to find fish, not throw water,” Addadearber replied. “I suffer your pittance of coin that I might glimpse your beauty, but there are limits to even your considerable charms.”

Ashelia’s forced grin and subdued chuckle revealed that the woman knew sarcasm when she heard it-yet another reason the old wizard was so fond of her.

Ashelia’s confidence in Boneyard was not misplaced. The seasoned sailor knew the condition of the boat from the feel of the tiller and the tug of the sails, and though she had to work hard to keep Boneyard moving along her desired course, they made the secret inlet and the quiet lagoon quite comfortably-and would have, even if Ashelia had not kept poor Spragan and Lathan bailing all the way.

Not many people knew about that place-just a few of Caer-Dineval’s fishermen, and Roundabout, of course, who knew the wilderness around the three lakes better than anyone in Ten-Towns. A solitary dock stuck out from the lagoon beach, with a single-roomed cottage behind it, and that in front of a small but thick forest. That alone was a remarkable thing, for most of Lac Dinneshere was bordered by rocky bluffs and barren tundra. But the bluffs both north and south were a bit higher than usual, shielding the wood. The forest, second in size in Icewind Dale only to Lonelywood on the banks of Maer Dualdon far to the west, like the dock and cabin, was a well-kept secret.

Larson’s Boneyard glided in easily under Ashelia’s skilled hand, with Lathan and Spragan stumbling around to secure the ropes.

“Water’s not deep,” Ashelia explained.

“I can see the bottom!” Spragan confirmed.

“Even if she fills, she’s not for sinking here, so we can patch her and bail her, and get back out in short order,” said Ashelia. “Tools, tar, and planks in the cabin.”

“A resourceful lot, you fisherfolk,” Addadearber congratulated her.

“Not all,” Ashelia replied. “But them that ain’t are dead, or soon to be. Lac Dinneshere’s not forgivin’ to fools.”

With Addadearber’s magical assistance heating some tar and blowing aside water in the hold so that Ashelia could set the patch plank in place, it didn’t take long to make the minor repair, but since the sun was low in the west, they decided to stay the rest of the day and that night ashore.

“Pick some good ones for our supper,” the captain told her young crewmembers. “Then bail her down below the patch so we can see if she’s holding and go out and get us firewood for the night.”

She left the two young men to their tasks and moved to the dock and the shore, to find the wizard and the ranger staring into the forest, perplexed.

“What do ye know, then?” she asked.

“It’s a good season,” Roundabout replied, indicating the forest. As she followed his gaze, Ashelia understood what he meant. The wood looked thicker and more vibrant than she remembered, and the air was full of the scent of flowering plants and the sounds of forest life.

Ashelia wore the most puzzled look of all. “Was here in the autumn,” she explained. “Something’s different. It’s bigger.”

“A trick of the Spellplague?” Addadearber posited. “Some magic gone awry, perhaps.”

“Everything is about magic with you, wizard,” Roundabout said, drawing an arc of one of Addadearber’s bushy eyebrows. “It was a good winter, full of snow, and the melt has been consistent,” the ranger added. “Even here in the dale, life finds a way to flourish.”

“Because we’re a resourceful lot,” Ashelia added and started for the cabin, the other two moving in her wake.

And none of them were convinced by Roundabout’s argument that nothing unusual was going on, the ranger least of all. They could feel it, like a heartbeat in the ground beneath their feet. They could smell it and could hear it, a vibrancy in the air.

They did a bit of cleaning-the ranger scooped out the fire pit-and organized the cabin’s small table and chairs, and claimed a piece of the floor for their respective beds. Lathan and Spragan joined them shortly, arms laden with fish, knucklehead trout mostly, but with an assortment of blues and spotted bass for variety.

“Seems to be holding,” Lathan reported.

Roundabout tossed him an axe he had found leaning against one wall.

“Enough for cooking and for keeping us warm through the night,” Ashelia instructed, and the two young sailors set out.

“I should get me a couple of those,” Addadearber remarked as they left.

“They can be helpful,” Ashelia agreed.

“More trouble than they’re worth,” the ranger said, and when the other two gave him amused looks, he added, “And no, I am not letting them ruin my meal with their no doubt impressive cooking skills.” He scooped up the largest of the fish, pulled a knife from his belt, and went outside to clean the thing.

With a waggle of his fingers, Addadearber animated a second fish and danced it out the door behind the ranger.

“Ye’re holding faith in yer magic, then,” said Ashelia. “Not many others’re doing the same.”