fighters, and they will not harm you while we hold their friends.' He swung his face down to meet mine, his fishy breath fanning my face. 'Do you question my judgment?'
My cheeks drained of color as I struggled to force words from my throat. 'No-no. It's just that-' Could I tell him of my fears?
'Spit it out, man,' Harald roared impatiently. 'Men freeze while you sputter!'
I forced down the lump in my throat. 'The human, Elistan-he wears the symbol of the true god, Pala-dine! He is a charlatan!'
Harald's features relaxed from anger to a look of confusion. 'But, Raggart, surely you and every member of your line have pledged your life to meet one such as this!' he said. 'This is your chance!'
The simple logic of Harald's words turned my fear to dogged stubborness. 'That is why I am suspicious!' I whispered. 'Would such an important person just appear on the glacier one day?'
My eyes narrowed. 'What is this dragon orb, anyway? And if it's so valuable, who would keep it in a frozen, abandoned castle at the farthest edge of the glacier? Someone with something to hide, that's who!'
Harald shook his head firmly. 'I cannot say. The gods move in mysterious ways.' He shook me slightly. 'But whether he is a true cleric or an enemy scout sent to determine our strength, we need our best guide to watch them. That someone is you.'
I, Raggart Knug, cleric of the Ice Folk, looked into my chieftain's icy blue eyes and knew that only death would save me from guiding the strangers to Icewall Castle.
We were just preparing to depart when the kender, who had been standing next to Laurana, shifting impatiently from one foot to the other, said cheerfully, 'Well, who wants me?'
'They do!' both sides cried, pointing to the other. It seemed tempers were going to flare again, Derek refusing to take Tasslehoff and the dwarf insisting that the kender be packed off to Icewall Castle without delay. In the end, it was Harald who decided Tasslehoffs fate.
'The kender goes!' he said firmly.
I thought even Laurana appeared a bit downcast at this decision.
The ice bear also proved difficult. He refused, quite violently I might add, to leave Laurana until she spoke with him at length. I wonder how much he understood; I think her tone convinced him. The bear accompanied Harald, and I noticed that our leader kept his distance from the sulking bear as he led the search party back to the ice boat.
Finally my party and I started off in search of this dragon orb
or whatever they were after. Using my staff to propel my old bones along, my body slowly adjusted to the rigors of exploring the glacier. Though time and the elements had changed thelandscape, I still knew what to look for, how to avoid snow covered crevasses. Despite the nature of the trek across the glacier, I enjoyed the feeling of the cold, icy wind across my leathery cheeks, the sight of swirling eddies of snow. I had been cooped inside my hut forging frostreavers for too long.
Remembering my situation, I looked back at my wards and was grateful that Harald had insisted we take peat for nighttime fires on the open glacier and that we dress in the Ice Folk pelts of bear and otter. The strangers' borrowed furs made them much less conspicuous than their colorful robes against the snowy backdrop.
I did not mind the danger. Everyday life at our camp held dangers. Besides, I had lived a full life and did not particularly fear the possibility of death. Still, I did not want my life to end accompanying a band of tricksters in the name of the true god! The irony of the situation nearly made me chuckle; fate had a wry sense of humor.
Unfortunately, Derek did not. Nothing I did pleased him. I walked too slow. I walked too fast. It was too cold. The furs made him hot. I had no love for the knight, but I knew that answering his complaints would only provoke him further. I remained silent, my head bent against the swirling snow as I picked our path across the glacier toward Icewall Castle.
Krynn's sun rose and set on three cold days as we crossed the snowy wastelands. Each day, five travelers from warmer lands struggled behind me through bitter winds and man-swallowing drifts.
The kender proved as much a handful as any ten children from the village. More than once did I catch sight of him in the corner of my eye as he wandered off the path I had chosen. Once I collared him just as the snow beneath his little feet slid away, revealing a crevasse.
'Wow, would you look at that?' he marveled. 'I wonder what's down there? Perhaps I'll make a map of this-maybe it's a shortcut to the other side of Krynn!' Tasslehoff reached into a pouch for some paper.
'Don't be any sillier than you can help,' Derek grumbled, trudging through snow that reached his knees. 'I'd be the first to fall down it if it led to someplace warmer!'
Tasslehoffs face fell only slightly. 'I suppose,' he mumbled.
Though I vowed to keep to myself and merely guide them as ordered, I could not help but wonder about the others. I had a lot of time to observe them, after all.
My first impressions of Sturm Brightblade never changed; he was a man alone. For some reason, the older knight, Derek, seemed determined to break the younger knight's will, but Sturm never wavered in his loyalty to Laurana. And though provoked enough for ten men, he never raised his voice to the older knight. Some dark secret rode Sturm's shoulder like a black beast, but I never discovered what it was.
Though Elistan was silent most of the time and never complained-or maybe because of those things-I still did not trust him. Every now and then he smiled serenely to himself for no obvious reason as his eyes scanned the bleak horizon. He couldn't be enjoying the trip, I reasoned. Was he laughing at me, at tricking a gullible old cleric who waited for the return of the true faith? The thought made my legs move faster, to hasten the moment when I would leave him behind.
But I must confess that, much as I tried, I could not look forward to the time when I would leave Laurana. When we'd first met, I'd thought it strange that a slight young woman would lead eight men, four of whom were knights. Then I'd believed, as Derek did, that her power over the group came from the bear.
'My quest is to retrieve that orb,' the knight growled one night after he'd lost another debate to Laurana. 'That bear is no longer here to fight your battles!'
Derek's threat struck me as foolishly hollow, marking in my mind the moment when I first knew Laurana had enchanted me, though not in a romantic way. Each night when we stopped and lit a small fire to warm ourselves and eat our meager rations, Elistan sat whispering to Laurana, advising her, giving her the moral strength to go on. The sight filled me with jealousy. I wanted to be the one whose advice she sought, to receive her grateful smile. Beyond her physical beauty was an inner strength that made me want to follow her even without the bear.
We were all grateful when, on the morning of the fourth day, the sun rose behind the distant silhouette of Icewall Castle, shining upon the jagged promontory of Icewall. Before the Cataclysm, the castle, made of stone, stood upon a rocky island in the seas south of Tarsis. But the Cataclysm turned those seas to ice and snow, as well as the island below the castle, creating Icewall. Wordlessly, our pace quickened, each of us heartened by the sight. Soon I would be free of the strangers…
Within a few hours we stood at the base of Icewall. Forty or so paces to our right, icy remnants of a stairway snaked up the cliff face as far as the eye could see. Perched on the top of Icewall was our goal, Icewall Castle.
'That's it-the mighty Icewall Castle?' the kender's high-pitched voice screeched loudly in the chill air. Terrified, I tried to clap a hand to his mouth, but I was too late. 'Why, it's nothing but a big block of ice, not nearly as attractive as other castles I've seen!' he shouted.
As I had feared, a slow groaning sound shook Ice-wall, sending a snowy avalanche thundering down toward us.
'Run!' I shrieked. Pumping as fast as my legs and deep snow would allow, I could only hope that the others followed my lead. When Icewall finally quieted down, only the kender, to his own delight, had been swallowed by snow up to his neck.
'Oh, my, did I cause that?' he asked innocently as Sturm plucked him out by the armpits. 'Look!' he gasped abruptly. 'The avalanche opened up a cave or something!' He pointed skyward to a dark, shadowy spot halfway up the face of Icewall. 'It must be a shortcut into the castle-I'm sure of it! And I found it,' he added proudly.
Derek's face twisted into a grim smile. 'That's precisely why we should avoid it. To say nothing of the fact that it's foolish to climb toward a dark spot that may or may not be a cave opening-which may or may not lead into the castle.' His eyes narrowed as he leaned menacingly toward the kender. 'And suppose it is an opening-who do you suppose made it?'
'I'm sure I don't know,' said the kender, shrugging. His eyes lit up. 'But it would be interesting to find
