The tiny human and the kender peered between the leaves of the bush as a mounted rider in a cloak with a cowled hood rode by. He lead a large group of kobolds. A wash of evil menace hung in the air with the rider's passing.
They continued to watch, but none of the travelers gave the brush a second look as they passed. Minutes later another bolt of lightning flashed and distance muted the frightened screams of the kobolds.
Halmarain turned away from the entrance, fear and anger fighting for dominance in her expression.
'Someone wearing a black cloak went to Deepdel looking for kender,' she whispered. 'That rider fitted the description, and he's on Our trail. He has to be after you.'
'No! I told you! He couldn't be looking for us,' Trap said. 'I don't even know who he is.'
'I've never seen him, and he's not someone we'd forget,' Ripple added with a shiver. 'There was such an evil feeling about him.'
'True,' the little wizard nodded. 'You wouldn't forget him, and his isn't a purse you'd be likely to rifle.'
'We don't-' Trap started an angry denial, but Halmarain interrupted him.
'I want to know how you took that enormous step,' she demanded.
'With this ring,' he said, forgetting his anger. He opened his pouch and searched in it with his fingers until he found the little golden object. He was willing, even anxious to show it to the wizard's apprentice and get her opinion.
'I guess it fell into my pouch when we looked through a chest under Orander's bed,' he said. He told her about their exploration while she had been studying the wizard's books. He also related his first experience with it, when he had jumped around and confused the dwarves that had called him a thief.
'Wonderful! I wish I could have seen you whizzing about. I don't blame you for tricking them,' Ripple said. 'It wasn't nice of them to call you names. Even Halmarain knows we could not have taken anything from them. She had pinned our arms to our sides with a spell, though I must say I don't think that was a good thing to do at all. And anyway, we promised we wouldn't, and even then she kept us away from them.'
'Apparently I didn't take precautions soon enough,' the little wizard muttered.
'You did. We didn't touch anything of theirs. Now, I want to know about the ring,' Trap insisted, unwilling to be sidetracked.
'Orander made the ring,' Halmarain replied. 'But he put an extra spell on it.' She gave them a rare smile. 'I have to admit not all the thieves in this world are kender. Years ago he had an apprentice with sticky fingers, so he protected his belongings by limiting their powers.'
'You mean it works for a while and then quits?' Ripple asked. 'Interesting. Not too much fun, though, if it quits in the middle of a step. A person could fall in a creek, or on his face or something.'
Trap had been fingering other items in his pouch. If he remembered correctly… and he did. He pulled out a second ring.
'I have this one, too,' he said,holding it out. 'I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know what it does, except it could be the one that makes the big steps, but if it is, then I don't know what that one does,' he said. He slipped the second ring on his finger. Nothing seemed to happen so he pulled it off, handed it to Halmarain and took the first one back. When he slipped it on his finger, Halmarain jumped in surprise. Ripple gasped and whirled around.
'Trap!' she shouted.
'I'm right here,' the male kender said. He pointed to himself, but he couldn't see the finger that should have been aimed in his direction. 'At least I think I'm here. What happened to… Wow! Great! Big jiggies! I'm invisible!' He slipped off the ring and became visible again. He inspected it. 'Does it have a limiter too?' he asked.
'Probably,' Halmarain said. 'It will continue to work if you know the word that negates the limiting spell. I don't know it. Many of Orander's belongings have limiters.'
'I wonder if this is one of Orander's rings,' Ripple said, reaching in her pouch. She pulled out one that exactly resembled the two Trap was holding. 'I don't know how I came to have it but it looks like those.' She handed it to Halmarain and leaned over to look at the ones her brother held. 'I tried it on, but it didn't do anything, so maybe it came from somewhere else.'
'No, it has Orander's mark, so it does something,' the little wizard said as she gave it back. 'I'll let you keep them for now, but take care of them. I think you'd better turn out your pouches and show me what else you took.'
'Fine! I'll show you. And are you going to show us what's in your bag?' Ripple asked, her eyes flashing with anger over the insult.
The little wizard frowned, thought better of it and nodded. 'Perhaps I'd better. Then, if you find one of my possessions, you'll know it belongs to me and give it back.'
'You first,' Ripple said. She had less patience with Halmarain's accusations than her brother.
'Very well. I'll show you what's in my bag and I warn you, none of my possessions should ever-' She shook her finger in the faces of the two kender. '-
The ragged little bag Halmarain habitually wore over her shoulder was deceptive. She carefully pulled out a stack of ten spellbooks, each one as large as the bag. A small purse, two outfits of clothing, an extra pair of boots, and a cloak followed.
'How do you get all that in a bag that's so small?' Trap asked.
'Wizard's have their secrets, even apprentices,' she said as she continued to dig, her brows rose in surprise and dipped in a frown.
She upended the bag and out came a large pile of steel pieces, a wicked looking knife, and a pair of finely stitched gloves that were too large for her hands. The last item to fall out appeared to be a necklace made of thirty overlapping silver disks, each an inch and a half wide, fastened together with silver links. Each disk had been delicately engraved with pictures and dwarf runes.
She hurriedly pulled her clothing, boots, and spell-books away from the last items to fall from her bag, as if they might be contaminated by contact.
'These things aren't mine!' she insisted.
Chapter 19
Halmarain continued to deny any knowledge of the items, waving a hand to indicate the loose steel pieces, the knife, the gloves, and the necklace. She glared accusingly at the kender. They seemed so delighted with the gloves and the necklace that it soon became plain that they were seeing the items for the first time.
'You didn't put these things in my bag?'
'I'm sure I didn't,' Ripple said. 'You usually keep such a tight hold on it I don't think I could, and I've never seen these things. These gloves are beautiful. If they won't fit you, I'd really like to have them, if you gave them to me, that is.'
'Of course, one steel piece looks like any other,' Trap added, 'But I'm sure I would remember this necklace. It's interesting-all these drawings on the disks.' He picked it up before Halmarain could stop him. 'Wonder if these runes and drawings are just ornamental or if they mean something special?'
Ripple scooted across the dirt floor to join her brother and they both inspected the finely worked drawings. The little wizard worried over how it came into her possession.
'I didn't take that necklace,' she insisted. 'I don't know how it got into my bag! By the Book of Gilean, I sound just like a kender!'
'Someone dropped it into your purse by mistake. We keep telling you that people are so careless with their belongings,' Ripple answered absently, most of her attention still on the silver disks.
'They're always forgetting where they leave their stuff,' Trap agreed.
'When did it get into my bag?' Halmarain's mind was off on another track. 'It wasn't there when we left Deep-del. I repacked everything.' Her eyes widened. 'The only people we've been near since we left our rooms were the innkeeper and the dwarves. It wouldn't have belonged to the man in Deepdel. It looks as if it could have been dwarf made-
The kender were more interested in the string of disks than in the wizard's ruminations.
