maintain his fast pace. He continued at a fast trot. On the eastern side of the spur he could make better time. He was pleased with his speed. Faster than his feet, his mind ran all sorts of possibilities for daring rescues.
'I'll put on my magic ring of invisibility and…'
He had forgotten the magic rings.
He should find the one that allowed him giant steps and he'd catch up with the kobolds in minutes. He slipped his hand in one of his pouches, as usual found the wrong ring and had to try again. His fingers scrambled blindly in the purse, the ring slipped on his thumb.
'Now,' he said, racing along with fifty foot steps. The trail led directly east, right over the top of the hill. He had taken no more than twelve giant steps before he realized the fallacy of his plan. He had been moving too fast to keep an eye on the kobolds' trail.
'They must have angled off in another direction,' he said to himself and took two steps toward the top of the ridge that ran along the spur of the hill. The second step took him over a precipice.
Chapter 22
…
'I'll tear his head from his shoulders!' Takhisis raged. 'I'll boil the flesh from his body!'
The Dark Queen continued with her threats and even Draaddis trembled at the horrors. He could only catch part of them. Takhisis was so angry she had reverted to her dragon shape and all five heads were raging at one time. The sphere was filled, first with one fire breathing head and then another would take its place, but out of sight of the wizard the continued imprecations and threats interrupted and roared over each other.
'Loosing the kender was bad enough,' the Dark Queen shouted. 'To lose the kobolds as well? He will pay for his incompetence.'
Draaddis stood quietly, not daring to interrupt. He let her rage herself out. Hours passed before she was calm again.
'Where is he? What does your winged rat tell you?' she asked after her tirade was over.
'Jaerume Kaldre is still in the mountains, my queen. The freezing spell the goblin used was powerful. He is still in the foothills, frozen by the spell, but he will soon be on the trail of the kobolds. Bad luck-as well as the goblins-has been his adversary, but he did instill in the little humanoids the need to bring the kender and the merchesti to us.'
'Yes, but will they remember their purpose?' Takhisis demanded.
'My messenger tells me the kobolds are traveling east as fast as their strength will allow. Apparently Kaldre convinced them they would suffer not only my wrath, but yours if they did not succeed.'
'That is so now. Will they continue until they have reached Pey?' Takhisis was still not convinced.
'Kaldre warned them I have a messenger watching them. Several times the messenger has reported they search the sky looking for him. If they believe he watches, they will continue.'
'You said they have the kender girl. That means they must have the gate stone. They did not take the male kender?'
'No, my lady. On that part I am unclear. The messenger gave me a picture of the male kender dashing off to chase a pony just as the others reached the ambush point.'
'Does he follow? Will the rest of the party catch up with the kobolds and attempt a rescue? Is there any way to warn the kobolds?'
'I have no way of warning them, my lady, but what can one kender and a small dwarf do? The other two of the party are Aghar, and they will not fight. In the meantime, Kaldre is now out from under the goblin's spell and he is on their trail.'
'I would like your news better if you were not so hesitant in your delivery,' the Dark Queen replied. 'What news are you withholding?'
'Only the trouble with the merchesti, great one. Every time they approach a stream they have trouble with the creature. Apparently it does not like water.'
'The kender had no trouble with it.'
'No, but it was riding on a pony and did not have to put its feet in the streams. It has already killed two kobolds and injured two others. I fear that if Kaldre does not catch up soon, the merchesti will destroy our minions.'
Takhisis flew into another rage. The five dragon heads appeared again. Within the wizard's workroom the air clouded with thick, sulfurous fumes. Draaddis knew he was suffering from an illusion, but so strong was her power to make him believe that he felt himself choking.
Two hundred feet above, the wolf woke from a nap. He sneezed and choked until he staggered out of his lair and into the surrounding woods. Would he have to find a new home? He wondered as his nostrils cleared and he began his night's hunt.
Dinner that night consisted of a wounded goblin. The wolf ate an arm and a leg and buried the rest of the body so it would season.
He returned to his lair in the ruins, dreading what he would smell. Still, the safe haven drew him back. He approached cautiously, but picked up no hint of the terrible odor that had driven him out.
He curled up on his bed, dozed, sniffed, dozed, sniffed, and repeated the exercise several times before he decided it was safe to sleep again.
Trap stepped over the precipice, but he had not fallen far before a clump of bushes broke his fall and he rolled down a steep slope.
A few scratches from the bushes and a few bruises from rolling down the hill made him uncomfortable, but he was not injured. Since he still wore the ring, he confidently bent his knees and jumped. His feet rose a foot off the ground. He tried again, using all his strength, and jumped two feet.
'I must remember to talk to Orander about this ring,' he muttered. 'Have I said that before?' He decided he had probably used those very words.
Unable to jump out of the gorge, he put the ring back in his pouch and tried climbing. In the growing darkness he could not see his way and lost his footing. After sliding down the steep slope three times he gave up and found a dry place to sleep. He'd be able to see to climb out in the morning.
'Maybe Orander made a lot of little magic jars, filled them with power and put them all in the ring and I can only use one jarful at a time,' he muttered sleepily before he dozed off.
The next morning he stood up, twisted to ease his sore muscles, found the ring again, and jumped. The magic worked! He sailed to the top of the gorge, landed on a rock that tilted with him and he went sprawling again.
'So much for you,' he told the ring, taking it off again. 'You can wait until I get out of these mountains.'
He still had the problem of finding the kobolds' trail, so he trotted along the mountainside, his face to the sun. They had been traveling east when he had lost their tracks.
After traversing a rocky slope he came to another area of thickly clustered high brush. He was trotting through it when he heard a shout.
'Wheel! Come back!'
'Umpth? Oomph!' Trap's second cry sounded like an echo, a combination of being startled and having the wind knocked out of him. The wagon wheel had hurtled out of the bushes, caught the kender's right arm and flipped him head over heels. He hit the ground with a thud, one arm and one leg through the spokes of the wheel. In seconds Umpth and then Grod appeared from behind a large clump of brush.
'Jiggy biggies! Wheel find kender!' Umpth triumphantly shouted.
'I don't believe it!' Halmarain's voice, saturated with irritation, reached Trap as he struggled to extricate himself from his strange captor.
Before he was on his feet the little wizard arrived on the trail of the gully dwarves. Her face was red with
