was already covered with sketches of wooden frames, toothed and worm gears, and interlocking systems of pulleys. One design started on his belly and moved through conduits and guy ropes all down his left sleeve.
The gnome looked up and saw Mara staring at him. 'Well, I can't always find a sheet of paper when a thought strikes,' he said with some asperity.
'Is each shirt a different project?'
'Of course not. In fact, some designs are on five or six different shirts. I keep hoping,' he said wistfully, 'that some day I'll be able to cross-index them, but every time I even get close, I need to do laundry. And here you are.' He peered at her. 'Speaking of you, are you someone I should know?'
'Everyone should,' Mara said proudly, standing very straight.
'Everyone doesn't,' the gnome said thoughtfully, 'because I don't. Who are you?'
'I am known,' she said with a bow and flourish, 'as Mara the Wild.' She did a standing flip. 'Also Mara the Clever.' She tapped the gnome's pockets significantly. 'Also,' she said in a loud whisper, 'Mara the Queen of Thieves.'
The gnome blinked. 'Goodness,' he said disapprovingly, 'have you stolen much?'
'Not — much,' the Queen of Thieves admitted. She scuffed her toe on the tunnel floor. 'Not anything, in fact.' This was why, after announcing her current planned heist to her family, she was also known as Mara the Dangerously Stupid.
She looked defiantly at the gnome. 'But I'm sure that I could steal something if it was really important. I am also,' she said demurely, 'a woman of dazzling beauty, whom all men worship and crave.' She coyly brushed at her short-cropped dark hair.
The gnome only looked at her.
'Okay,' Mara said grudgingly, 'so I won't be a woman of dazzling beauty for a couple of years. It's going to happen, I promise.'
'I hope,' he said seriously, 'that you can accept all that worship and craving without becoming overly vain.'
Mara smiled and, in the absence of a mirror, admired her slender shadow against the rock wall. 'I'm sure I'll manage perfectly. Anyway, what's your name?'
The gnome immediately went on at some length, pausing for breath in what were clearly accustomed places.
'I only asked your name,' Mara broke in finally.
The gnome looked disconcerted. 'I'm not even halfway through it.'
'Maybe I asked the wrong question. What does your name mean to humans?'
He nodded. 'It's very descriptive, even for my people, and surprisingly apropos. I'm known among humans as He Who Will Not Stand Upon Accepted Science, But Will Research Back Into Dangerous and Even Unworkable Ideas, Nor Will He Stand on Conventional Testing, But Will Fall Back on Hazardous and Injurious Techniques, and Will Stand up for Belief in Technology, Which, Back Before the Great Cataclysm — '
'What,' Mara said desperately, 'do humans call you for short?'
The gnome said simply, 'Standback.'
Mara leaped back.
'No, no,' said the gnome. 'That's my name. Standback.'
'Are you an inventor? Where's your workshop? Do you do all your work down here? You're not going to tell anyone you've seen me, are you?'
Poor Standback had no idea how to answer four questions thoroughly without taking a month off. 'Would it upset you terribly if I answered in brief?' he said diffidently.
Mara, realizing with a shudder how narrowly she had avoided dying of old age during a participial phrase, put a hand on the gnome's arm. 'Please, take as little of your research time as possible.'
Standback was flattered and grateful. He concentrated. 'Yes, I'm an inventor. These tunnels are my work area; I know they don't look like much, but they're roomy. I do all my work here. And no, I won't tell anyone I've seen you,' he finished with slight melancholy, 'because there's no one else to tell. I'm the only one — down here. It's nice to talk to somebody. Where are you from?'
Mara assumed an heroic stance, arms folded across her thin chest. 'I am from Arnisson, a village under siege, desperate to keep itself free from the cruel talons of the draconian army. We are under the command of a lone Knight of Solamnia, a former townsman named Kalend. He's a friend of my older brother's,' she sighed and her voice softened. 'Kalend's nice, and he thinks I'M wonderful, but that's really not that surprising, because I'm ravishingly beautiful.' She sighed again, this time in dejection. 'Though I do wish he'd stop calling me 'little girl' all the time. Anyway, when I met him on the rampart walls a few nights ago, I asked him if we were likely to survive, and he said not really, but if the draconians attacked too early or while they thought we were unprepared, we still might win. And he said that if he had even one working gnome weapon, we'd stand a chance. And I think he meant it,' she added sincerely.
She went on and on — some about the draconians, some about how dire the situation was, but mostly about Kalend, who grew taller and better looking as her story progressed. Standback nodded frequently.
'And so,' she said, resuming the heroic stance, 'I left Arnisson that very night. I left unseen,' she added, pausing and staring at Standback earnestly.
'Unseen,' he echoed dutifully.
'Exactly.' She stared into space. 'Stealthily creeping out under the cover of darkness, I, alone, crawling through the enemy camp…
She went on again for quite some time, not bothering much about the truth, which was actually pretty boring and she was sure no one wanted to hear anyway.
Standback listened patiently, feeling only a little put out that she had been going on like that after making him be brief. When she finished, he said, 'But why did you come?'
'What?' Mara brought herself back to being Queen of Thieves. 'I came here,' she began boldly, then faltered as she realized how it would sound, 'to — borrow, or — get, or somehow — take — okay, STEAL some gnome weaponry for the war with the draconians.' She was blushing.
Standback decided that he liked her, but he wasn't sure how sensible she was.
'Gnome technology is famous throughout Krynn,' Mara added wheedlingly, with some truth. FAMOUS and INFAMOUS were fairly close. 'There are legends of past great weapons. The Knights of Solamnia still speak of your poison gas — '
'Yes, well,' Standback said uncomfortably, 'it was supposed to make us invisible, you know. Still, not a total loss; it does wonders for pest control down here. Mostly.' He glanced from side to side.
'Mostly?' Mara jumped as a loud chittering sound flew by her ear. She whirled, but saw nothing.
'We ran out of the original batch lately, so we made a new one. It doesn't seem to kill them any more.' Standback ducked as a flapping sound passed near his head. 'Lately it just makes them invisible.'
Mara looked around nervously. The tunnel, at the bottom of the crater that formed Mount Nevermind, was rough-hewn rock scored by some huge excavating blade and riddled with drill holes and iron bolts. Ropes and cables hung every which way, with pulleys, blocks and tackles, and crane tracks running the length of the ceiling.
Though there were no torches, the tunnel was quite bright. Mara gingerly felt the walls; they were warm to the touch, but nowhere near hot enough to give off light. 'How are these tunnels lit?'
Standback pointed to the glowing fungi on the wall. 'We cultivated them for food. Fortunately, the ones we cultivated for light are quite tasty.' He mused, 'You know, we'd like to do more with biological engineering. It's the technology of the future.'
'Or the end of the world,' Mara muttered. She was beginning to worry, marginally, about the wisdom of stealing gnome inventions. However, if the wise and wonderful Kalend. Knight of Solamnia, believed in gnome technology… 'Could you show me some of your weapons?'
'I would love to,' Standback said unhesitatingly and formally. 'This way, please.'
They moved down the junk-strewn tunnel. 'You seem awfully at ease with women, even startlingly beautiful ones,' Mara told him.
Standback was silent — a rare condition for a gnome. Finally he said, 'Perhaps that is because I love someone.'
'Really?' Mara was fascinated. 'What's she like?'
