deeply. The gnomes watched this process solemnly. When
Kitiara at last lowered the water bottle, Wingover said,
'Lady, we are unanimous in our resolve to be gone from here as quickly as possible. We think the king is dangerous; also, the trail of the Micones grows colder as we wait.'
Kitiara surveyed the serious little faces. She'd never seen the gnomes so united and intent. 'Very well, let's see if we can hunt down Sturm,' she said.
Rapaldo was in his audience hall, flanked by twenty tall tree-men when Kitiara and the gnomes arrived. He was wearing Sturm's horned helmet, padded out with rags so that it wouldn't fall over his eyes. The axe lay nestled in his arms.
He regarded them idly. 'I didn't send for you. Go away.'
'Cut the lip wagging,' Kitiara snapped. She recognized the helmet. 'Where's Sturm?'
'Do all of the women of Abanasinia have such bad man ners? That's what comes of letting them carry swords — '
She drew both weapons, sword and dagger, and took one step toward Rapaldo. The Lunitarians promptly raised their glass swords and spear.s and closed ranks around their divine, though mad, king.
'You'll never reach me,' Rapaldo said, giggling. 'It might be fun to see you try.'
'Your Majesty,' said Sighter diplomatically, 'what has become of our friend Sturm?'
Rapaldo leaned forward and waggled a bony finger at the gnome. 'See? Now that's the proper way to ask a question.'
He slumped back in his high chair and pronounced, 'He is resting. Shortly he will be the new king of Lunitari.'
'New king? What's going to happen to the old one?' asked Kitiara with barely concealed fury.
'I'm abdicating. Ten years is long enough to rule, don't you think? I'm going back to Krynn and live among my own kind as an honored and respected shipwright.' He licked his fingers to smooth back his lank gray hair. 'After my sub jects take back the aerial ship, you all shall remain here, except for whatever gnomes are needed to fly it.' He cocked his head toward Kitiara. 'I was going to take you with me, but I see now that you are completely unsuited. Heh, heh.
Completely.'
'We won't fly you anywhere,' said Wingover defiantly.
'I think you will — if I order my faithful subjects to kill you off, one by one. I think you'll fall in with my plan.'
'Never!' said Kitiara. The rage was rising in her.
Rapaldo looked up at the nearest tree-man and said, 'Kill one of the gnomes. Start with the littlest one.' The gnomes closed in a tight circle around Fitter.
The Lunitarian came at them straight on. Kitiara cried,
'Run!' and moved to meet the tree-man. She parried his strong but clumsy cuts. Chips of glass flew each time her steel blade met the glass one, but the haft of the tree-man's weapon was so thick that she didn't think it would snap without a direct crosswise blow. The gibbering gnomes retreated in a body to the door. None of the other Lunitar ians deigned to bother them.
She had managed to pin the tree-man's point to the floor and now she raised her foot and smashed the glass sword in two. The Lunitarian stepped back out of her reach.
Rapaldo applauded. 'Ta-ra!' he crowed. 'What a show!'
There were too many of them. Though she hated to do it,
Kitiara backed out of the room with her blood boiling.
Rapaldo laughed and whistled loudly.
Out in the passage, Kitiara halted, her face burning furi ously with shame. To be whistled out of a room — what an insult! As if she were some juggler or painted fool!
'We're going back in there,' she said tensely. 'I'm going to get that lunatic woodcutter if I have to — '
'I have an idea,' said Sighter, tugging vainly at her trouser leg.
'Suffering gods, we've got to find Sturm! We don't have time for a silly gnomish idea!'
The gnomes drew back with expressions of hurt. Kitiara hastily apologized, and Sighter went on. 'As this place has no roof, why don't we climb the walls? We could walk along the top of the walls and peer down into every room.'
Kitiara blinked. 'Sighter, you — you're a genius.'
He polished his nails on his vest and said, 'Well, I am extremely intelligent.'
She turned to the wall and ran a hand over the dry plaster.
'I don't know if we can get enough purchase to climb up,' she said.
'I can do it,' said Roperig. He pressed his hands on the wall and muttered, 'Strong grip. Strong grip.' To everyone's delight, his palms stuck, and he proceeded to climb right up the wall like a spider. The gnomes cheered; Kitiara hushed them.
'It's all right,' Roperig said from atop the wall. 'It's just wide enough for me to walk on. Boost Fitter up, will you?'
Kitiara hoisted Fitter up with one hand. Roperig caught his upstretched hands and pulled his apprentice up beside him.
Cutwood and Wingover were next.
'That's enough,' said Sighter. 'We'll stay with the lady and divert the king's attention. You find Sturm.'
The four gnomes on the wall set off. Kitiara went back to the entry of the audience hall, banging sword and dagger together for attention. Bellcrank and Sighter stood close behind her, filling the doorway.
'You're back. Happy, happy to see you!' exclaimed
Rapaldo, who was still hooting from his roost.
'We want to negotiate,' Kitiara said. It was galling, even if it was a lie.
'You touched me with your sword,' Rapaldo said petu lantly. 'That's treason, impious blasphemy and treason.
Throw your sword into the hall where I can see it.'
'I won't give up my sword, not while I still live.'
'Really? The king will see about that!' Rapaldo hooted some words in the Lunitarians' language. The guards in the room took up the message and repeated it again and again, louder and louder. Soon thousands outside were hooting the words.
Roperig and the others could hear the tree-men take up
Rapaldo's chant as they fairly flew over the narrow wall tops, peeking into every room in the keep'. Cutwood, of course, stopped to make notes of the contents of every room and passage, while Wingover kept probing the distant vistas instead of searching the nearer rooms below. Only Fitter
' took his task to heart. The little gnome raced along at blind ing speed, running, leaping, searching. He doubled back to his panting boss.
'Where did you learn to run so fast?' Roperig gasped.
'I don't know. Haven't I always run this way?'
'No indeed!'
'Oh! The magic has gotten to me at last!' Fitter flashed along the wall, sidestepping Cutwood, who was in the midst of compiling his umpteenth catalog. Cutwood, startled by the speedy Fitter, lost his balance and fell.
'Oof!' said Sturm as the forty-pound gnome landed in his lap. 'Cutwood! Where did you come from?'
'Sancrist.' He called out to Roperig, and the other three gnomes quickly found them.
'My hands are bound,' Sturm explained. He was sitting in an old chair, and his feet were tied to the chair legs.
'Rapaldo took my knife.'
'The lady has the dagger,' said Roperig.
'I'll get it!' said Fitter, and in an instant he was gone.
Sturm blinked. 'I know I've got the grandfather of all headaches, but our friend Fitter seems to me to have gotten awfully fast since last I saw him.'
'Here it is!' called Fitter. He dropped the dagger, point first. Cutwood picked it up and started sawing away
