pointed to the east — 'down the long, dangerous road! Facing hardship! Facing hunger and thirst…' He broke off. 'Not as much thirst as I thought, apparently, but some thirst. Facing the unknown! Facing a ruined world! And for what?' He looked around at the watching faces. 'I ask you, for what?'
Jarek blinked. 'For Krinneor.'
'True enough. For the golden spires, the marble towers, the excellent drains, and the fortunes that made them. Think of it!' Graym waved an arm unsteadily. 'A city with all the gold you can dream of, and nothing to drink. And us with a cart full.' He glanced to one side. 'A cart HALF full of the best ale left in the world!'
'Our fortunes are made. We can ask what we want for it, and they'll pay twice what we ask. One barrel of Sarem ale will be worth the world to them, and five barrels leaves us one apiece.'
Darll looked up, startled. 'You're counting me?'
'You did your share on the road, sir,' Graym said. 'Each of us gets profits from one barrel of ale. And, if we're all clever — ' he looked at Jarek and amended hastily, ' — or at least if we stick together, we get exclusive Sarem trade rights to Krinneor. We'll have all the food we want, and houses.'
'And a sword?' Jarek asked eagerly. 'I've always wanted a sword. My mother wouldn't let me have anything sharp.'
Graym smiled at him. 'And a sword. And maybe a quick parole for friend Darll, and a tavern for me to run — '
'And a woman for me,' Fenris said firmly.
'And me,' Fanris echoed.
Graym scratched his head, looked dubious.
'Right,' Darll said. 'I'm sure that somewhere in Krinneor there's a pair of dirty, nearsighted women with no self-respect left.'
The Wolf brothers brightened considerably.
By late night, the blanket screens were down and they'd piled wood on to make a man-high flame. The Wolf brothers were singing a duet about a bald woman who'd broken the heart of a barber, and Darll was weeping.
'You 'member,' he said, his arm around Graym, ''member when the bounty hunters attacked, and I saved us?'
'You did well, sir,' said Graym.
Darll snuffled. 'I was going to run off, but then I remembered you had the keys to the manacles.'
Graym patted his pocket. 'Still do, sir.'
Darll, tears running down both cheeks, wiped his nose. 'You know that when you free me, I'm going to kill you.'
Graym patted Darll's shoulder. 'Anybody would, sir'
Darll nodded, wept, belched, tried to say something more, and fell asleep sitting up.
Graym lay down, rolled over on his back, and stared at the stars. They were faint in the dusty air, but to Graym they shone a little clearer every night. 'I used to be afraid of them,' he said comfortably to himself. 'They used to be gods. Now they're just stars.'
When the sun came up the next morning, it rose with what Graym heard as an ear-splitting crack.
He opened one eye as little as possible, then struggled to his feet. 'Isn't life an amazing thing?' he said shakily to himself. 'If you'd told me yesterday that every hair on my head could hurt, I wouldn't have believed you.'
Fenris stared out at the dusty field nearby and quavered, 'What's that terrible noise?'
Graym looked where Fenris was pointing and found the source. 'Butterflies.'
Fenris nodded — a mistake. His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell over with a thud. Fanris, beside him, whimpered at the sound of the impact.
Graym, moving as silently as possible, crept over to Darll, shook him by the shoulder. Darll's manacles rattled.
Darll flinched and opened two remarkably red eyes. 'If I live,' he murmured fuzzily, 'I'm going to kill you.'
Graym sighed and rubbed his own head. 'I thought you already had, sir.'
By midmorning, they were back on the road and near the first rank of western hills. Graym, pulling the cart along with Darll, was almost glad they had lost so many barrels. The wagon lurched to a stop at every rock in the road… and there were many rocks.
At least the companions were feeling better. SkullSplitter's effect, though true to its name, wore off quickly. Jarek was humming to himself, trying to remember the Wolf brothers' song of the night before. Darll, after swearing at him in strained tones for some time, was now correcting him on the melody and humming along.
Fenris, perched on the cart, yelled, 'Trouble ahead!'
Fanris gazed, quivered. 'Are they dangerous?'
Darll grated his teeth. 'Kender! I hate the nasty little things. Kill 'em all. Keep 'em away. They'll rob you blind and giggle the whole time.'
Graym looked up from watching the rutted road. Before he knew what was happening, he was surrounded by kender: eager, energetic, and pawing through their belongings. The kender had a sizable bundle of their own, pulled on a travois, but the bundle changed shape ominously.
'Ho! Ha!' Darll swung two-handed at them, trying to make good on his threat to kill them all. They skipped and ducked, ignoring the length of chain that whistled murderously over their heads.
'Here now, little fellers,' Graym said, holding his pack above his head. 'Stay down! Good morning!' He smiled at them and skipped back and forth to keep his pack out of reach, and he seemed like a giant kender himself.
One of the kender, taller than the others and dressed in a brown robe with the hood clipped off, smiled back. 'Good morning. Where are we?'
'You're in Goodlund, halfway to Sarem if you started from just west of Kendermore.' Graym snatched a forked stick from the hands of the tall kender — who didn't seem to mind — and hung his pack from it, lifted it over his head.
'Where are you going?'
'Oh, around.' The tall kender took a forked stick from one of the others, who didn't seem to mind either. 'East, mostly.' He spun the stick, making a loud whistle. 'Do you know, the gods told me that the world's greatest disaster would happen in a land to the west? Only it didn't.'
'What are you talking about?' Graym looked openly astonished. 'The Catcollision?'
'Cataclysm!' Darll snarled.
'Cataclysm, thank you, sir. I keep forgetting.' Graym turned back to the kender. 'All that happened in the east, you know.'
'I know,' the kender said, and sighed. 'The gods lied to me. They did it to save our lives — we were going west to see the run — but still, a lie's a lie.' He fingered the torn collar of his cleric's robe. 'So we don't believe in the gods anymore.'
'Good enough,' Graym said, brightening. 'Smashed the world, didn't they? We're well rid of that lot.'
'But they did save our lives,' Fenris pointed out.
'From horrible deaths,' Fanris added, 'like being smashed.'
'Or squished, Fan.'
The tall kender shrugged. 'You miss a lot, worrying about things like that. Say, what's that smell?' His nose wrinkled.
'Dirt, mostly,' Jarek said.
The Wolf brothers scowled. 'It's a perfectly natural smell,' Graym said. 'Strong, but natural.' He smiled down at the kender. 'My name's Graym.'
The kender smiled back. 'Tarli Half-kender. Half man, half kender.'
Graym looked startled, then shrugged. 'Well, I'm liberal-minded.'
He offered his hand, taking care to keep his pack and pockets out of reach. But at a shout from Jarek, Graym whipped his head around.