“Harold, can you remember anything?”
“Well, something,” I said slowly.
“Stop muttering! What do you remember, thief?” Alistan was still furious.
“Dreams. Thousands of dreams.”
“What dreams?”
“It’s all your key’s fault, you should have made it yourself, instead of sending a prince to the dwarves!” I said in a reproachful voice.
“How do you know that a prince commissioned the key?” Miralissa’s eyes widened in surprise.
“From a dream, I suppose . . . ,” I said after a moment’s thought. “I even remember the elf’s name— Elodssa.”
“Elodssa the Destroyer of Laws,” Ell said, nodding to confirm that I wasn’t lying. “There was a head of the House of the Black Flame with that name. Long ago, more than a thousand years. But I did not know that he commissioned the key.”
“He didn’t commission it,” I said, defying Miralissa’s prohibition and sitting up on the bed. “His father did. Not even his father, all the elves. Dark and the light. And Elodssa went to the dwarves. That was how it all happened.”
“What happened?”
“Pay no attention. It was only one of many dreams.”
“Dreams have the quality of showing the past. Or the future. It is quite possible that without even knowing it, you saw a page from that book.”
So I had to explain.
“If we can rely on my dream,” I concluded, “then something bad was done to the key and now it doesn’t work the way it should.”
“But before it worked just fine!” Alistan objected.
“We didn’t know anything about the Master before,” Ell retorted. “Something in the key could have awoken, and it almost drew Harold in.”
“Enough!” said Miralissa, clicking her fingers in annoyance. “We shall carry on with what we have been doing. In any case, the artifact has remembered Harold.”
“And I think I’ll be going. If none of you have any objections, that is.” I got up off the bed and walked toward the door.
“Don’t forget the key,” Alistan said.
“No, let it stay with me for a while,” said Miralissa, unexpectedly supporting me. “I shall check it again. We have to be sure that it is absolutely safe.”
Marvelous! I left the thoughtful elves and the disgruntled Count Rat.
On the way to my room Tomcat called me. He looked somber.
“Have you seen Alistan?” he asked without stopping.
“He’s with Miralissa.”
Tomcat nodded and set off toward the elfess’s room.
“Where have you been gadding about?” That was how the jester greeted me when I appeared in the doorway.
Lamplighter wasn’t there yet, and Kli-Kli was making up a bed for himself on the floor, between the two beds with cracked wooden frames.
“Are you fond of sleeping on a hard surface?” I asked, ignoring the goblin’s question.
“I’d advise you to do the same, it’s good for the health,” said Kli-Kli, plumping up his cushion.
“Thank you, I think I’ll pass on that.” I took a plug of cotton wool out of my pocket—one of several that I had taken care to request from the innkeeper’s helpful wife—and put it in my ear.
“What’s that for?” my green friend asked, screwing up his eyes suspiciously.
“I can’t get to sleep without them,” I said with a crooked grin, and the goblin let it go at that.
After several nights spent under the open stars, the bed seemed like a gift from the gods, and I slept like a baby. . . .
As was only to be expected, the next morning Kli-Kli was morose and taciturn. He was out of sorts with the entire world, especially with Lamplighter, and also, for some reason or other, with me.
Neither Miralissa nor Alistan said a word about the key that morning. They merely hurried us along, eager to set out as soon as possible. We left early, before the dawn arrived. While Milord Rat was pushing the entire group along, I finished sleeping on Little Bee’s back, since the horse was not dashing along at a gallop. Marmot, riding beside me, merely sniffed, understanding the state I was in, and began keeping an unobtrusive eye on Little Bee to make sure that I didn’t tumble out of the saddle.
An hour later the horses moved up into a fast trot and there I was, wide awake, sitting upright in my saddle in dashing style. That’s what regular practice can do for you. And only then did I notice that certain changes had taken place in our small expeditionary force.
