and they'd not taken even a single one of his maps. The sorry quartet barely had enough coinage left between them to purchase one serving of bubble and squeak, and none of them liked that bland cabbage-and-potato dish anyway.
'Well?'
Startled, Tanis popped one eye open. 'Well, what?'
'Shouldn't someone go ask if this Delbridge person is in there?'
Tanis laughed. 'It's not an alehouse, Selana,' he said. 'It's the home of the most influential person in this village, to which we are strangers. Perhaps our thief is his guest. You can't just march up and say 'hand over the chubby cheat in the green jacket.' '
'Why not?' asked Tas.
Only half-asleep and listening, Flint laughed himself awake.
'I'm not some little fool from the sea, Tanis Half-Elven,' said Selana, glaring the dwarf into uncomfortable silence. 'I'll simply tell them the truth, that I've come a long way to find a thief who stole a valuable bracelet of mine, and that I believe he is somewhere in the keep. Curston is a Knight of Solamnia, surely an honorable man. He'll listen with an open mind.'
Tanis nodded, surprised to find that he agreed.
Tas jumped to his feet. 'I'll come with you, Selana,' he offered, having grown bored with winning 'Exes and Ohs.' Flint yanked him back to the ground.
'I don't like sending her to the door alone,' he said, shaking his shaggy salt-and-pepper head, 'but knowing the knighthood's distrust of anything not human, she'll have trouble enough without a kender, dwarf, or half-elf at her side. Cinch up your scarf, at least,' he advised Selana, giving her hand a fatherly pat.
The sea elf frowned at the necessity, but nonetheless artfully rewrapped her dirty silk scarf about her head. She rehearsed a few lines as she passed through the arched portico and stepped up to the carved door. Taking the brass knocker ring firmly in hand, she slammed it again and again into the metal plate on the stout door.
Suddenly a wrinkled old face popped around the edge of the door, sporting an odd combination of ratty gray and corn-yellow hair. His eyes, slightly milked over with
early cataracts, were red-rimmed. Momentarily startled by the sea elf's unexpected countenance, he wedged himself between the massive door and the jam. Selana could see a black band around the thin biceps of his right arm.
'Excuse me, sir,' she began as sweetly as she could manage. 'My name is Selana, and I'm looking for a human named Delbridge Fid-'
'Never heard of him. Go away.' The stoop-shouldered old servant moved to unwedge himself.
'Wait!' Selana cried. 'It's very important that I find him, and I have good reason to believe he's in the keep. Perhaps I could speak with Lord Curston?' She batted her eyelids sweetly.
'Don't try that stuff on me, young lady,' the old man said gruffly. 'His Lordship isn't seeing anyone. Now, go away.'
Selana placed her hand through the door and held onto the jam. 'Perhaps he would make one small exception.'
The man shook his head sadly, the bite seemingly knocked from him. 'Not for Takhisis herself, I'm afraid. Young Rostrevor is missing, kidnapped two nights ago from his bedchamber, right under his father's nose. The keep is in a state, and I have strict orders not to disturb Lord Curston.'
The servant looked newly agitated. 'I'm a sad old man who's revealed more than he should. Leave us to our grief.'
Selana shook her head mutely. 'I'm-sorry, I didn't know,' she managed to mumble at last, stumbling backward down the steps. Meeting her companions' questioning glances, the sea elf quickly relayed the news.
'A bit of bad luck and timing on our part,' said Tanis.
'Is it?' Flint cut in quickly, scratching his beard in thought. 'An opportunistic swindler arrives in town, the knight's son is kidnapped, and now there's no trace of either of them, but the bracelet is somewhere inside the keep. Coincidence?'
'Are you saying that you think the bumbling bard Gaesil described to us kidnapped the knight's son for some strange reason, then, for some equally unfathomable cause, left the bracelet behind?' Tanis asked, incredulous.
The dwarf ignored his friend's skepticism, tapping his whiskered chin. 'I'm saying I have a hunch that unusual events traveling in pairs may be related, that's all.'
Tanis frowned in dismay; the dwarf's hunches were often on the mark. If the bracelet was somehow tied up in the young man's disappearance, this whole escapade was going to be a lot more complicated than just finding Delbridge and shaking him down for the stolen jewelry.
'Well,' said Selana, 'we aren't going to find the bracelet out here in the courtyard.'
'There's another sure thing,' pointed out Tas, looking at the closed wooden door. 'We aren't going to be invited in to look for it.'
'If you're thinking about sneaking in,' said Flint, 'we'll have to wait for cover of darkness.'
'That's what everyone thinks,' began Tasslehoff, shaking his finger, 'but I've had different experiences. I know you won't believe this, but several times during my travels I've looked up and found myself someplace other than where I'd thought I was. I'm thinking mostly about this magical ring that teleported me to the lair of some giants, but those were special circumstances.
'Anyway,' he continued, dismissing the ring story with a wave of his fine-boned hand, 'the funny thing is, if you look like you belong somewhere, people tend to think you do.
'You're suggesting we just boldly stroll in the front door?' squealed Flint in disbelief.
Tas shrugged, twirling his topknot nonchalantly. 'If you prefer, we could find a side entrance. I still have my tools, so these locks would be a snap-' he snapped his fingers '-to open.'
'Pick, you mean,' sighed Tanis, running a hand wearily through his thick hair. 'I hate to think we've sunk to breaking in-it puts us at Delbridge's level of thievery.'
'What's this talk about thievery?' scoffed Tas. 'Just because we let ourselves in?'
'It does not lower us!' agreed Selana, her nose wrinkling. 'He stole something that did not belong to him. We're simply retrieving what is rightfully ours.'
Tanis held up his hands in mock defense, then waved everyone ahead of him. 'Lead the way, Tas.'
Tasslehoff stepped brightly out of the pump house's shade, then paused with his hands on his hips, studying the keep. Flint fidgeted next to him, nervously clutching the head of his axe and glancing over his shoulder. Selana and Tanis stood nearby. Within seconds, Tas spotted what he wanted and was hiking briskly toward the keep with his friends bustling behind.
At the spot Tas had chosen, a smaller building abutted the keep. Where the two structures met, a deeply recessed doorway led into the tower. The kender strode straight into it and nearly disappeared in its shadows. The door was set back six or seven feet from the keep's outer wall, so all four travelers could easily crowd into its space.
Selana watched in fascination as Tas pulled an oilcloth bundle from his pouch. He extracted a bent wire and a handleless knife blade with deep notches filed into it. Within moments, a solid 'thunk' told everyone that the lock was open.
'After you,' said Tas, pushing the door open and stepping aside. The three others filed past into a narrow corridor temporarily lit by sunlight, then Tas gently closed the door.
After several moments of waiting for his eyes to adjust, Tas spoke up. 'I can't see a blasted thing in here.'
'We dare not strike a light,' whispered Tanis, and Selana and Flint mumbled soft agreement.
'Sure, you dwarves and elves can see in the dark. What about me? It's pitch black in here.'
'You'll just have to do the best you can,' said Tanis. 'Just hang on to the person ahead of you. I'll lead, then Selana, Tas, and Flint in the rear. What do you make of this place, Flint?'
The dwarf was peering ahead into the darkness, tuning his innate ability to see outlines in the dark. 'I don't have much of an answer, Tanis. It looks like a blind passage: no doors or connecting hallways in sight, though what's farther ahead than about twenty feet I can't say. The whole thing seems to curve to the left, and it's mighty
