Erin Montgomery was more welcoming. 'Kenda, I know that look. What have you brought for me?' the factol asked excitedly.
'There is a dark region in Lathander's realm,' Kenda answered, 'which defies all attempts to scry into it. Lathander goes in and out of it frequently.'
'Perhaps that's where they are keeping Tymora,' Bors suggested.
'Yes,' Kenda agreed, 'but why? What is it they don't want anyone to see?'
'That she is weakened?' Da'nanin suggested.
'Everyone already knows that. Her church in the Realms has more or less admitted there is a problem,' Kenda countered. 'Yet Lathander shields her from all eyes.'
'What are you implying?' Bors asked suspiciously.
'Why, simply that Lathander has something to hide,' Kenda insisted.
'Are you suggesting Lathander has something to do with this?' Bors demanded angrily. 'Holly Harrowslough serves Lathander. He is a god of goodness and light.'
'Yes, I know, Bors darling,' Kenda replied. 'I saw him hanging about Chauntea when we scried upon her. As I recall, she told him to get lost. That sort of suggestion always seems to annoy members of your sex. In my experience, men scorned in such a way either mope or try to get even.'
'Not surprising, considering the kind of men in your experience,' Bors retorted.
'Men are men,' Kenda declared. 'And Lathander is a man whose lover just suggested he entertain himself with Tymora or Beshaba.'
'That is pure coincidence,' Bors argued.
'Is it? What about the other creatures that have been in and out of the dark region of Lathander's realm?'
'What sort of creatures?' Montgomery asked.
Kenda held her hands out in a dramatic gesture. 'Gnomes,' she said.
'Gnomes?' Annali asked. 'What do gnomes have to do with this?' Da'nanin queried.
'What sort of gnomes?' Bors asked.
'Ah, paladin. You always ask the right question,' Kenda complimented Bors. 'Tinker gnomes, to be specific. The kind that originated on the world of Krynn. And all these tinker gnomes wore little red badges in the shape of a flame.'
'As in Sirrion, the Flowing Flame?' Montgomery asked.
'Quite a coincidence, wouldn't you say?' Kenda commented.
'What were the gnomes doing?' Bors asked.
'Well, talking mostly, like all tinker gnomes, too fast and all at the same time. They carried eggs into the dark region.'
'Eggs?' Annali asked with a laugh.
'Eggs,' Kenda repeated.
'And then what happened?' Montgomery asked.
'Well, later, when they came out of the dark regions, they brought out something completely different.'
'What?' Montgomery demanded.
'Omelets,' Kenda replied soberly.
OFFSTAGE
In the Prime Material Plane on the world known as Toril in Realmspace, Amber Wyvernspur decided it was time to take charge of the situation. Handing Pars to Tavan, she slipped down the stairs until she stood between the other children and the kobolds. 'We are very sorry to have trespassed,' she said, curtsying to the kobold leader. 'We'll be leaving now.' Without turning around, she ordered her cousins, 'Go back into the crypt.'
'But the orcs-' Ferrin began.
'They can't enter the crypt,' Amber snapped. 'Now, go!'
Behind her, Amber could hear the others hustling back into the crypt. Amber started to back up the stairs, then bumped into Gory, who had remained behind.
'Halt or we fire,' the kobold leader said. 'You must pay for invading our kingdom.'
'I have some silver coins,' Amber said, pulling out the velvet purse Aunt Dorath had given her for her birthday. She tossed the purse down the stairs.
One of the other kobolds snatched it up and looked inside.
'Not enough,' the kobold leader said. 'Your people owe for torture of my mother.'
'You must be mistaken,' Amber replied. 'No Wyvernspur would do such a thing.'
'He means Uncle Steele,' Gory whispered. 'Father told me about it. It happened a long time ago.'
Amber huffed with annoyance. First Uncle Steele went and lost his key to Heather, and now they had to pay for the bad behavior of his youth. She unfastened the locket about her neck. Her mother had given it to her, and she was very unhappy to have to part with it, but it was better than being dead. She held it out to the kobold. 'This locket is real gold,' she said.
'Not enough!' the kobold leader growled. 'Must give us slave!'
'Now, see here,' Gory retorted hotly, 'we are not about to give you a slave.'
'Give me the wyvern's spur,' Amber ordered Gory.
'What?' Gory asked, aghast. 'You can't be serious. We can't give the spur to a bunch of kobolds.'
'Give it to me,' Amber snarled.
Gory pulled out the spur from his shirt pocket. The family heirloom looked like an ugly chunk of moldy, dried meat. Amber snatched it from Cory's hand. Then she turned around and faced the kobold leader again.
'Don't want your magic,' the kobold insisted. 'Give slave or die.'
'You will take the locket or you will regret it,' Amber growled.
The kobold leader howled something in his own language. All the kobolds cried out something that included the name of Beshaba and fired their crossbows at Amber.
Gory screamed, expecting to see his cousin collapse dead at his feet. Instead he saw a blur in the air. Then there was a large emerald-green, serpentlike creature, with two legs and wings for arms, and it was standing where Amber had been standing a moment earlier. Amber, Cory realized suddenly, had used the family heirloom to transform into a wyvern-a small wyvern, admittedly, only ten feet long, but a wyvern nonetheless.
Cursed by Beshaba, every one of the kobolds' crossbow bolts struck Amber, but only two stuck in her scaly wyvern hide. The rest bounced away and clattered to the floor.
Amber hissed. The kobolds screamed and clambered back down the stairs. Amber turned around and nudged Cory with her scaly horned head. Cory raced up the stairs, with Amber trundling clumsily after him.
The other children, who had not witnessed Amber's transformation, cowered against the wall of the crypt when they saw the wyvern. The orcs at the other entrance to the crypt gave a shout and retreated up the stairs.
Amber changed back into her normal form and immediately sank to the floor, whimpering softly. The two crossbow bolts, which hadn't slowed her in the least when she was a wyvern, were far more painful now that they were buried in human flesh. One missile stuck from her thigh and the other protruded from her shoulder. Blood seeped out from under the bolts, but at least it didn't gush.
Pars ran to his sister and threw himself into her arms, clinging to her dress.
Cory looked at his older cousin with a mixture of jealousy and respect. Only one Wyvernspur in each generation was capable of using the spur. Naturally he had hoped it was he, but if it had to be someone else, he was glad it was Amber. He liked Amber best of all his cousins. He even liked her more than his own sister. He knelt beside Amber and pressed a clean handkerchief to the wound in her shoulder. 'You knew all along that you were the one who could use the spur, didn't you?' he asked her. Amber nodded. 'Last summer I started having the same dreams Uncle Giogi has. He brought me down here to meet the guardian and showed me how to use the spur, just in case anything ever happened to him.' 'Why didn't you say anything?' Tavan asked. 'Would you have believed me if I had?' Amber asked. 'No,' Tavan admitted.
