While Ripple and Halmarain worked on Beglug's beard, the two gully dwarves helped Trap dress the young fiend. He had been born to a hot plane he had spent much of his time shivering when he was away from the hearth so he liked the warmth his clothing provided. He liked his hauberk too, and was attempting to take a bite out of it when Trap slapped his hand.
'No, Beglug.'
'No Beglug,' the young fiend said, smoothing the intricate steel links. One problem solved, they soon discovered they had another. How were they going to keep the fiend's small, hoofed feet in the dwarf boots?
'Could nail board on hooves,' Umpth suggested.
'Could nail boots on hooves.' Grod was for cutting out the extra work.
'We won't nail anything,' Trap announced, but his eyes lit up. 'It might be worth trying just to see his reaction-what do you think he'd do if we-'
'I don't think so,' Halmarain replied quickly. 'We want it to trust us enough to stay with us…'
'Maybe he'd like you a lot better if you'd stop calling him 'it,' ' Ripple snapped.
Halmarain glared and the kender girl, then shrugged and sighed.
'We want it-
They spent a long afternoon seeking a satisfactory method of fitting dwarf boots to Beglug. He seem to enjoy the attention and was fascinated by the footwear. He lost interest when he learned the boots were 'No, Beglug' too.
When the gully dwarves and Trap had taught Beglug to walk in his new footwear, Halmarain approached with a jar and handed it to Trap. He seemed to be the most acceptable to the young merchesti.
'Rub this on his face and hands,' the wizard said.
Trap covered the merchesti's face with a flesh colored paste and then attached the beard and mustache the females had made. When Beglug was wearing his helmet, they decided he would pass as the ugliest dwarf on Krynn.
As if he knew something interesting was afoot, Beglug became curious about the preparations, so curious he approached Halmarain several times. He had stayed well away from the little wizard, but apparently he was beginning to lose his fear of her.
Since everyone was ready they shouldered their packs, picked up their weapons, and Halmarain extinguished the torches as they left the caverns.
She stopped by the scullery and spoke a word of command as she waved her staff around the room. The pots, trenchers and tabletops were instantly clean, the floor swept itself, and the stools flung themselves back into their places.
On their way through Lytburg they bought food for their journey. When they left the shops, every pack bulged with supplies. They carried bedrolls and ground sheets strapped to the top of their backpacks and reached the city gate in time to mingle with the local farmers and residents of the surrounding countryside who would be leaving the city, trying to reach home before dark.
Trouble developed when they reached the east gate. A group of farmers were arguing with one of the guards and the disagreement digressed into a pushing and shoving match before an officer arrived. He ordered the guards back to their posts and told the farmers to get on their way.
The entire gate was blocked by the fracas, and a queue had developed, waiting to leave the city. The officer watched the exiting flow for a few minutes. Ripple kept a close eye on Umpth and Grod. The Aghar were hard pressed to keep their wagon wheel rolling in the press, but all three passed through the gate while the officer watched the crowd and the guards.
When their superior left, the soldiers chose to take out their bad temper on what they took for two dwarves, one too young for a beard. Trap, just to the side, went unnoticed.
'Who are you and what business did you have in Lytburg?' one of the guards demanded of Beglug.
'Just dwarves seeking to buy precious stones,' Halmarain answered for him, but the guard was not satisfied. When the little fiend didn't answer, the guard shoved the point of his spear at Beglug's face.
Beglug leaned forward, bit the steel spearhead off the shaft, and noisily chewed.
Chapter 9
The guard stared at his ruined spear. Trap also goggled at the splintered end of the wooden shaft and at Beglug, who happily chewed the metal point. The kender's sense of survival kicked in quicker than the guard's outrage.
Trap grabbed the little merchesti's arm and pulled him forward into the surge of humans pushing through the gate. Behind him, the kender heard the guard bawling to his companions. Trap, Halmarain, and Beglug melted into the crowd that crossed the bridge.
'I hope we don't have too much of that,' Halmarain said between gasping breaths as she trotted after the kender.
'Gosh, did you see? He bit the spear in two.' Trap said, skipping along to keep pace with the taller humans that surrounded them. 'Traveling with Beglug will be really interesting. I wish we could have stayed to hear the guard explain what happened to his spear.'
'I don't,' the little mage replied. 'Let's get ourselves lost-fast,'
They slowed their pace when the crowd thinned out on the other side of the bridge. Trap pushed Halmarain and Beglug into a line of farmer's carts. They walked carefully at the rear of an apple cart, trying hard to stay out from under the hooves of the mules that followed.
'You're going to get us trampled,' Halmarain said, ducking her head as the right lead mule nudged the top of her dwarven helmet.
'You said you didn't want the guards at the gate to catch sight of us,' Trap said. 'Besides, mules are friendly.' He reached in his pouch and pulled out an apple that had somehow fallen into it while they were shopping. He fed it to the left leader, which caused it's teammate to nudge more urgently at the little wizard, nearly knocking her off her feet.
The merchesti allowed himself to be bustled along without complaint. He was still happily chewing on the spear point, which had been a large one.
'You know, Beglug's digestive system must be a lava pit,' Trap said. 'He eats the strangest things. We should try him on rocks.'
'He's nightmarish,' the small wizard snapped. 'And by all the gods, look at his boots. The left had turned side-ways, toe out, and the right was completely backward.
'Maybe no one will notice,' the kender said hopefully. By skipping and kicking at Beglug's boots as the fiend raised his feet, Trap turned the toes forward again. Half a mile further on, they found Ripple and the gully dwarves. Grod sat on a rock while Ripple attempted to knock mud off the back of Umpth's hauberk with a handful of branches. She looked as if she were beating him, but by his expression, Umpth was unconcerned with the switches.
'He got tired and sat down in a mud puddle,' she explained.
'We won't go much further on the road,' Halmarain said, using the magic in her staff to clean the gully dwarf's clothing. 'If we stay south of those mountains, we'll be able to cross the foothills.'
Their destination was Palanthus, one hundred and seventy-five miles to the north, according to one of Trap's maps. A new map had mysteriously appeared among his belongings after their last shopping trip.
The kender had left the decisions on the route to the wizard's apprentice, since they had no preference as to direction. The gully dwarves had no objections to traveling anywhere if there was plenty of food.
Halmarain led the way east along the road for another half mile, where three large barns, each with a big corral, stood just off the road. A faded sign announced:
'I don't intend to walk all the way to Palanthus, especially since we have Orander's magic purse,' the little wizard announced as she led the way into the yard. 'And keep those gully dwarves from sitting in the dirt,' she
