And when I opened my eyes, there we were.
Inside Huma's Tomb.
CHAPTER FOUR
'Fizban!' I said and this time I was stern AND firm. 'Did you mean to do that?'
'Yes,' he said, twisting the dish towel in his hands and sneaking peeks around the room. 'Got us right where I wanted. Uh, do you happen to know where that might be? Just testing you,' he added quickly.
I'm afraid I shouted. 'We're in Huma's Tomb!'
'Oh, dear,' he said.
Well, by this time I'd had enough. 'I hate to hurt your feelings, Fizban, but I don't think you're much of a wizard and — '
I didn't finish that because Fizban's eyebrows (HE still had eyebrows) came together and got real bristly and stuck out over his nose and he looked suddenly very fierce and angry. I was afraid he was angry at me, but as it turned out, he wasn't.
'Enchantment!' he cried.
'What?' I didn't know what we were talking about.
'Enchantment!' he said again. 'We're under an enchantment! We're cursed!'
'How marvelou — I m-mean, how awful,' I stammered, seeing his fierce look grow even fiercer. 'Who… who would put us under an enchantment?' I asked in very polite tones.
'Who else? The Dark Queen.' He glared at me and stomped around the tomb. 'She knows I'm after the dragon orb and she's trying to thwart me. I'll fix her. I'll… (mumble, mumble, mumble).'
I put the mumbles in because I really couldn't make out what Fizban said he was going to do to the Dark Queen if he ever got his hands on her. Or if I did at the time I can't remember now.
'Well,' I said briskly, hopping up. 'Now that we know we're cursed and under an enchantment, let's leave and get on with our journey.'
Fizban bristled at me. 'That's just it, you see. We can't leave.'
'Can't leave?!' My heart sank down to the hole in my sock. 'You mean… we're…'
Trapped,' said Fizban gloomily. 'Doomed forever to wander in the fog and always come back here, where we started. Huma's Tomb.'
'Forever!'
My heart oozed right out of the hole in my sock and ended up in my shoe. A snuffle rose up in my throat and choked me. 'I'm very glad you're not dead anymore, Fizban, and I'm truly quite fond of you, but I don't want to be trapped in a cursed enchantment in a tomb with you forever! Why, what would Flint do without me? And Tanis? I'm his advisor, you know. You have to get us out of here!'
I'm afraid I went a bit wild, just because I was so tired of being in this Tomb and of the fog and everything. I grabbed hold of Fizban's robes and the snuffle turned into a whimper, then into a wail, and I lost control of myself for a fairly good stretch of time.
Fizban patted my topknot and let me cry into his robes, then he slapped me on the back and said to brace myself and keep a stiff upper torso. He was going to offer me his handkerchief to wipe my nose only he couldn't find it. Fortunately, I found it and so I used it and felt some better. Funny, the way getting those snuffles and wails out of your insides makes you feel better.
And I was so much better that I had an Idea.
'Fizban,' I said, after giving the matter thought, 'if the Dark Queen has put us under an enchantment, it must mean she's watching us — right?'
'You betcha!' he said, and he looked around quite fierce again.
It occurred to me then that maybe I shouldn't talk so loud because if she was watching us she might be listening to us, too. So I crept over to Fizban and, once I found his ear under all that hair, I whispered into it, 'If she's watching the front door, why don't we sneak out the back?'
He looked sort of stunned, then he blinked and said, 'By George! I have an idea. If the Dark Queen's watching the front door, why don't we sneak out the back?!'
'That was my idea,' I pointed out.
'Don't be a ninny!' he said, miffed. 'Are you a great and powerful wizard?'
'No,' I was forced to admit.
'Then it was my idea,' he said. 'Hang on.'
He grabbed hold of my topknot and I grabbed hold of his robes and he spoke some more of those spider-leg words. The Tomb got blurry and wind rushed around me and I was dizzy and turned every which way. All in all quite a delightful sensation. And then everything settled down and I heard Fizban say 'oops' in a kind of way that I didn't like much, having said it myself a time or two on occasion and knowing what it meant.
I opened my eyes kind of cautiously, thinking that if I saw Huma's Tomb again I'd be upset. But I didn't. See Huma's Tomb, that is. I opened my eyes wide and my mouth opened at the same time to ask where we were, when suddenly a hand clapped over my mouth.
'Shush!' said Fizban.
His whiskers tickled my cheek, and, before I knew what was happening, he'd lifted me clean off my feet and was dragging me backward into a really dark part of wherever it was we were.
'Mish, muckgup, whursh blimp,' I said. What I meant to say was, 'But, Fizban, that's Flint!' only it sounded like the other since he had his hand over my mouth.
'Quiet! We're not supposed to be here!' he hissed back at me, and he looked incredibly angry and not at all pleased with either me or himself and probably the Dark Queen, too. So I kept quiet.
Though of course what I really wanted to do was to shout, 'Hey, Flint! It's me, Tas!' 'cause I knew the dwarf'd be really glad to see me.
He always is, though he pretends he isn't, because that's the way dwarves are. And Theros Ironfeld was with Flint, too, and I knew Theros would be glad to see me because just a while back up in Huma's Tomb he'd saved me from falling into a hole and ending up on the other side of the world.
With Fizban's hand clapped tight over my mouth and his whiskers tickling me I didn't have much else to do except look. So I looked. We were in what appeared to be a blacksmith's shop, only it was the largest and finest blacksmith's shop I'd ever seen in my entire life. And I guessed then that this blacksmith's shop must be making Theros happy because he is the finest blacksmith I'd ever known in my life. He and this shop just seemed to go together.
There was an anvil bigger than me and a forge with a bellows and a lake of cold water that you put the hot metal in to hear it hiss and see steam rise up and when the metal comes out it's not hot anymore.
But the most wonderful thing was a huge pool of what looked like molten silver that gave off a most beautiful light. It reminded me of Silvara's hair in the light of Solinari, the silver moon. That silver light was the only light in the forge and it seemed to coat everything with silver, even Flints beard. Theros's black skin shone like he'd been standing out in the moonlight. And his silver arm gleamed and glistened and it was so lovely and wonderful that I felt a snuffle come up on me again.
'Shhhh!' Fizban whispered.
I couldn't have talked now anyhow, what with the snuffle, and he knew that, I guess, because he let loose of me. We stood quietly in the shadows and watched. All the time Fizban was muttering that we shouldn't be here.
While Fizban muttered to himself — trying to remember his spell, I suppose — I fought the snuffle and listened to Flint and Theros talk. For awhile I was too busy with the snuffle to pay much attention to what they were saying, but then it occurred to me that neither of them looked very happy, which was odd, considering that they were down here with this wonderful pool of silver. I listened to find out why.
'This is what I'm to use to forge the dragonlances?' asked Theros, and he stared into the pool with a very a grim expression.
'Yes, lad,' said Flint, and he sighed.
