comfortable spot on the wall, and leaned back and closed his eyes, letting the sunlight fall on his eyelids. With a start, Flint realized that despite the slightly pointed ears and the faint slant to his eyes, Tanis looked very much like a human child at the moment. It made the dwarf think of Solace again, and a twinge of homesickness gripped him.
'I didn't feel like a game, not today,' Tanis resumed. 'Besides, Gilthanas was with her, and I don't think he wanted me to join in.' He opened his eyes.
'Bah,' Flint said, tossing his apple core over his shoulder and wiping his hands on his beard. 'I'm sure Laurana's brother doesn't feel that way.'
Tanis said seriously, turning toward the dwarf, 'He doesn't want to have anything to do with me anymore. I always thought he was like my own brother, but now all he seems to want to do is follow Porthios around like a puppy. And Porthios certainly never acted like my brother.'
A shadow passed over the half-elf's rugged features. Flint sighed and laid one of his strong, calloused hands on Tanis's shoulder. 'Now, lad,' he said softly, if gruffly, 'there's no telling why folk do what they do sometimes. But don't hold it against him. I'm sure it will all work out.'
'I've got a pretty good idea why he's been acting that way,' Tanis said, but didn't elaborate. And Flint, sensing that there were areas in the half-elf's life in which he needed his privacy, said nothing. Of course, Flint had wormed the tale of the Porthios-Tanis match out of Laurana-only the gods knew where she'd found it out-but the dwarf had forgone mentioning his knowledge to his new friend.
They basked in the sun for a time, and eventually Tanis asked Flint to tell him more about the outside world and of Solace. It was a common theme. The boy couldn't seem to get enough of such tales.
'But then what did you do after the four highwaymen had knocked out the guards?' Tanis asked him. Flint was relating the tale of the day a band of brigands had stirred up trouble in the Inn of the Last Home.
'Well, I'll tell you, lad, it was looking dark. So I hefted my hammer in my hand-' He grabbed a stray stick firmly for emphasis-'and then I… er… and then I…' Flint was suddenly conscious of Tanis's shining eyes gazing at him.
'And then you what, Flint?' Tanis asked excitedly. 'You did battle with all four at once?'
'Well, er, not exactly,' Flint said. Somehow this all sounded better when he told it after a few tankards of ale. 'You see, there was this stray mug on the floor, and, well, it being dark, and, mind you, I wasn't watching my feet…'
'You tripped,' Tanis said, a smile lighting his face.
'I most certainly did not trip!' Flint fairly roared. 'I feinted, and my hammer caught the leader of the brigands square in the forehead, just like that.' He smacked a half-rotted apple with the stick. The apple exploded in a juicy spray, and Tanis got the rather graphic point.
'That's wonderful!' Tanis said, and Flint snorted as if it were nothing.
'Sometimes I wish I had been born in Solace,' Tanis said softly then, looking off into the distance, to the north, where he knew Solace lay. He tossed the apple core away, and bid Flint farewell for the day.
True to the hopeful words the Speaker had uttered when the dwarf had first arrived in Qualinost, Flint and the Speaker had become unlikely friends during the course of the past months. Half a year ago, had anyone told Flint he would find himself companion to the elven lord of Qualinesti, he would have bought the fellow a tankard for telling such an uproarious joke. Although there seemed a world of difference between the tall, regal elf lord and the short, uncomplicated dwarf, each had an openness in his point of view that made bridging the gap a simple step.
And so Flint had found himself walking through the palace gardens side by side with the Speaker, talking of distant lands and ages, or sitting at the Speaker's right at a courtly dinner. There were grumbles from some of the courtiers, of course, but Flint discovered from whom Porthios and Laurana had inherited their stubbornness.
In recent weeks, especially, Flint had grown as close to Solostaran as he had to Tanis. The Speaker's ceremonial guards, each wearing a breastplate decorated with the emblem of the Sun and the Tree wrought in silver filigree, didn't bother to stop him at the Speaker's anteroom at the Tower anymore. Rather, they greeted Flint with a grin and ushered him forward to knock on the door to the Speaker's glass-walled anteroom. And the Speaker's private servants had strict orders to keep the silver bowl on the Speaker's desk filled with the dried fruits and glazed nuts that the dwarf favored. Today, the autumn sun streamed through the glass onto the new green rushes that had been strewn upon the floor, and the light in the room had a soft, heavy quality, like the light in a forest clearing.
The Speaker said he hoped Tanis wasn't becoming a pest by following Flint so closely.
'Bah,' Flint said with a snort. 'I can't imagine hanging about a smoky forge with an ill-tempered dwarf like me can be all that much of a joy. But don't you worry over Tanis. He's a good lad.'
The Speaker smiled and nodded. 'Yes, I think he is.' He stood up then and moved back toward the window, gazing out into the distance as if pausing to consider something. Then he turned around and regarded the dwarf with his clear eyes. 'Tanis means a great deal to me, Flint, and I think he is your friend as well.
'I know you've heard the circumstances of his birth, how my brother, Kethrenan, was slain by a band of rogue humans and how his wife, Elansa, was attacked.' He sighed. 'But I don't think you understand how dark a time that truly was. Those months Elansa carried the child within her, it seemed as if she had died already herself. She appeared lost. And when he was born, she passed on. But Tanis was son of my brother's wife. I could not turn my back on him.'
It seemed almost as if the Speaker were arguing with someone who opposed him, rather than telling a tale to a friend. 'And so I brought him with me here, to raise as my own child.'
He sighed and then returned to sit facing the dwarf. Flint fidgeted with the end of his beard. It was a hard tale. 'There were those who did not care for my decision,' the Speaker said softly, and Flint looked up. 'Not all seemed able to forgive the child the circumstances of his birth. A child, Flint- a tiny child! What fault of his was it that my brother was dead? What fault of his that Elansa had gone as well?' A trace of remembered anguish flickered across the Speaker's face.
'And those who didn't accept him…?' Flint asked softly.
'They remain, and as is the way of my people, little have they changed. I am still unsure just how much of it Tanis has noticed-though I suspect there is much the lad does not tell me. I can only hope his will be a strong enough heart to bear it. I suppose it was little enough favor I did, bringing him here. But do you see why it had to be so, Flint?'
The Speaker regarded the dwarf intently, his dark blond hair glinting in the strong light. 'Despite the peace we have wrought for ourselves here, these last centuries since the Cataclysm have been dark ones, times of sorrow and upheaval. Tanis is a child of that sorrow. And if I can't bring joy to his life, then how can the sorrow be healed for any of us? For the elves or for Qualinesti?' The Speaker shook his head, and then smiled faintly. 'I'm afraid I am rambling.' He stood, and Flint followed suit. 'I'm sorry to have taken so much of your time. I simply wanted to tell you I am glad that you've been a friend for Tanis. I fear you are probably his first, aside from his cousins.'
Flint nodded and clomped to the door, but before he left, he turned around and gazed at his elven friend, his blue eyes thoughtful. 'Thank you,' Flint said gruffly. 'He's one of my two first as well.' And the dwarf left, shutting the door behind him.
The dwarf's first stay in Qualinesti ended at last. He and Tanis and the others stood at the edge of the city, by the bridge that crossed the confluence of the two rivers, the one of Tears and the other of Hope. The morning was gray and cool, and there was a sharpness to the air that smelled like snow.
'So you really have to go,' Tanis said softly, gazing across the ravine.
'Aye, I think it's time I did,' Flint answered. 'If I'm lucky, I'll beat the first snowfall home.'
Tanis only nodded. 'I'll miss you,' he said finally.
'Humph!' Flint said gruffly. 'You'll most likely forget me inside of ten minutes, I wouldn't wonder.' But weathered skin crinkled around the dwarf's eyes, and Tanis smiled.
