on the way. 'All the way.'
'All the way?'
'All the way to the top.'
'The top of the Falls?' Keli's mouth went suddenly drier than it had been all day. 'I don't — I'm not sure — »
'Don't worry!' Tas's eyes were bright with expectation. 'Really, Keli, you worry more than anyone I've ever met. Except Flint. Now, there's a worrier. How old are you, anyway?'
'Twelve.'
'Twelve! Far too young to be worrying as much as you do.'
Keli closed his eyes against the sight of the roaring falls. 'Tas, I'm sorry you got caught by those two…'
'I got caught?!' Tas was indignant. 'Why, it's more like they got caught by me! After all, they didn't even know where I was taking them! Ha! Of course, as it turns out, I didn't know either, but that's a small point. By the way, can you swim?'
'Yes,' Keli said warily.
'Good! That's the last problem solved.'
'The last? But — »
'What are they doing, can you see?'
Again Keli looked over his shoulder. 'They're still at the lake. I can see Tigo, but not Staag. I hear him, though.'
'Good enough. Now, look.'
Tas twisted a little so that his back was to Keli. Clutched in the kender's bound hands was a small dagger.
'Tas! Where did you get that?'
Tas shrugged. 'Oh, well, you know, sometimes people are a bit careless about where they put things and I… just..
find them. This,' he said, grinning again, 'I found in
Staag's belt this morning. He'll miss it sooner or later. But by then I think we'll be too far away to give it back. Now, turn around and stand very still. I don't want to nick you.'
He cut Keli's thongs blind, his back to the boy. The patience to unknot the most tangled puzzle and nimble, firm hands were a kender's gifts. Keli was free before he could worry that Tas would sever a wrist rather than a thong.
'There. Now do mine.'
Keli worked carefully, his fingers still numb, his hands aching with the sudden rush of blood in veins. Soon the kender, too, was free.
'Now,' Tas whispered, 'follow me!'
With one glance backward, swift and silent as a hare on the run, Keli followed the kender. They made distance, angled sharply north and then abruptly west to the stony shore of the lake. When Tas skidded to a halt on the rocks, Keli nearly toppled into him.
'Tas! I don't think — ' Keli swallowed his doubt. Tigo had discovered his captives' escape and his cry echoed along the shore. In an instant, the goblin and the thief were in furious pursuit.
'Keli, make straight for the falls, then cut to the north when you begin to feel the force of the cascade. Slip in behind the wall of water. I'll be waiting for you.'
Tas's dive was a whirl of arms and legs. He hit the water hard and whipped his hair out of his eyes. 'Come on!'
The inside of Keli's mouth was like sand. He shot a terrified glance over his shoulder and another at the lake and its thundering falls. He knew with certainty that if Tigo caught him now he'd rip the heart out of him with that grapnel hand. There would be no false ransom note to his father, nothing but bloody revenge for a wrong never committed.
There was no reasoning with insanity.
The drop to the lake from the rocky ledge was as deep as a tall man's height. Keli drew in all the air he could and dove, feet first, into water as cold as a newly melted glacier.
'Go!' Tas yelled to the boy. 'Go!'
Keli struck out hard and fast, and Tas overtook him a moment later, cutting the lake as smoothly as any sleek otter.
They'd not covered even a quarter of the distance to the falls when two splashes behind them told them they had not lost their pursuers.
'Where are your friends?' Keli wailed.
'I don't know!' Tas shouted back. 'They're usually better trackers than this!'
The waning sun twined ribbons of golden fire through the cascading water and ran along the sheer sides of the far cliff face as though etching veins of gold and rubies. The narrow part of the lake was at the western shore. On the eastern side, the chum of the thundering falls turned the lake white and deadly.
For a long moment, squinting through the light and the mist, Tanis forgot to breathe. His breathing was not stilled by the beauty of the place. That he hardly saw at all. It was stilled by horror.
Far out across the lake, small as abandoned nestlings, two swimmers surfaced at the roil's edge. There was something about the dive and play of one to tell him right off that he was Tas. The other, clutching at air and shimmer, looked like a boy.
Behind the two, closing fast even as Tanis watched,were two other swimmers. One, huge-armed and grayskinned, was clearly a goblin. The other, lean and one handed, coursed ahead, angling as though he meant to cut in behind the boy.
Flint's groan could have risen straight from the depths of Tanis's own fear. Moving quickly, the half-elf tossed aside his bow and quiver and pulled off his boots. Raistlin's light hand caught his wrist.* 'Wait! Tanis, let my brother go, and Sturm. You're the bowman and the longest-sighted of us all. Defend them while they swim.'
Though reluctantly, Tanis agreed.
They were fast, the two young men, out of most of their clothes and into the water on smooth, long arcs almost before Tanis could reclaim his bow and quiver. But there was more than half the lake to cover and the goblin was closing fast, his lean companion already cutting in behind the boy.
'They'll never reach them in time,' Flint whispered.
Tanis nocked an arrow to his bow's string, drew and sighted. Released, the arrow cut through the sun- jeweled mist and shied its mark, the goblin's neck, by the width of its shaft. It was enough, however, to send the surprised creature diving beneath the water for cover.
Tanis drew again, searched for a target, and found none. The lake was suddenly empty of all but Caramon and Sturm swimming strongly for the falls. Caramon faltered, rose high, shaking his hair out of his eyes.
Both his quarry and their victims were gone.
The water was liquid ice, his limbs as heavy as lead. Keli twisted hard, kicked back once, and then again. He was free of the pull of Tigo's hook-hand! Off to his right, blurred figures wrestled: Staag and Tas. Ahead, close enough to suck at his legs, to draw him farther down, was the roil of the falls.
Thunder roared all around him. The black-watered lake was white as diamonds here. Tigo surged forward and up, wielded his hook and snagged it again on the back of the boy's belt.
Keli rolled and jack-knifed, his lungs afire and screaming for air. He reached down, grabbed Tigo's ears, and pulled as though he would tear them from the man's head. When Tigo opened his mouth to scream, he took in what Keli thought must be a gallon of icy water.
Again the boy kicked, and once more he was free. He surfaced, sucking air in huge, greedy gulps and saw Tas break into the light at the same moment. Behind the kender, rising like a sea drake from the water, Staag roared and then flung himself aside and out of the path of a green-fletched arrow.
'Tas!' Keli waved and pointed back toward shore. 'Down! Duck!'
Tas rose, whooping with glee. 'It's all right! That's Tanis! Our rescuers! Look!'
Two young men, one broad-chested and brawny, the other slimmer and faster, cut through the water with strong, distance-eating strokes.
