A daring notion began to form in her head. 'Have you considered what you will do once you reach Krynn?' she asked. 'Your books are old. You could use a guide.'
'Do you have anyone in mind, my dear?'
'Few know Ansalon as I do,' Kitiara replied.'My travels have taken me far. Together we could tour the world and reap what benefits would come to us.' She looked the dragon in the eye. 'As partners.'
Cupelix wheezed and whistled like a boiling teapot. He clapped his forearms against his sides. He really was quite good at parodying human gestures.
'Oh, my dear woman! You wound me with mirth! I am killed!' he exclaimed.
Kitiara frowned. 'Why do you laugh?'
'You speak of partnership with a dragon as casually as I speak of my servants, the Micones. Do you imagine that you and I are equals? That is a rich jest indeed!' Cupelix rocked so hard with merriment that he banged his head sharply on the wall behind him. That calmed him, but Kiti ara was already offended. She sprang to her feet.
'I wish to leave!' she exclaimed. 'I see no reason to sit here and be laughed at!'
'Sit down,' Cupelix said genially. When she struck a defi ant pose, the dragon swept his tail in behind her, and down she went to the marble floor.
'Let us be clear about one thing, my dear girl: On the scale of life, I sit far higher than you. And I will have good manners from my guests, yes?' Kitiara rubbed her bruised posterior and said nothing. 'Face-to-face with one of the greatest creatures that ever existed, you are insolent. What makes you so proud?
'I am what I have made myself,' Kitiara said tersely. 'In a world where most are ignorant peasants, I made myself a warrior. I take what I can and give when I like. I don't need you, dragon. I don't need anyone!'
'Not even Tanis?' Kitiara's face darkened dramatically.
'Be at ease. Even your mortal friend Sturm could have heard your heart cry out his name just then. Who is this man, and why do you love him?'
'He's half-elf, not human, if you must know.' Kitiara took a deep breath. 'And I don't love him!'
'Indeed? Can my sense for such things be so wrong? I would hear the tale of Tanis,' Cupelix said. He curled back his lips in a waggish imitation of a human smile. 'Please?'
'You only want to hear so you can mock me.'
'No, no! Human relationships fascinate me. I need to understand.'
Kitiara slipped back onto the overturned cauldron. She gazed into space, marshaling images of her past. 'I'd like to understand Tanis myself,' she said. 'Being a woman in a man's game — war — throws you in with all sorts of men.
Most of them are a scurvy lot of bullies and cutthroats. In my younger days, I must have fought a hundred duels with men who tried to push me around, take advantage of me, until I became as hard and cold as the blade I carried.' Kiti ara fingered the hilt of her sword. 'Then came Tanis.
'I was on my way back to Solace one autumn a few years back. The summer campaigning season was done, and I'd been paid off by my most recent commander. With a pocket full of silver, I rode south. In the forest, I was ambushed by a pack of goblins. An arrow took out my horse, and I was thrown down. The goblins came out of the brush with axes and clubs to finish me off, but I lay in wait for them. When they got close, I was on them before they could blink. I killed two right away and settled down to toy with the last pair. Goblins are startlingly bad thieves and even worse in stand-up combat. One of them tripped and managed to impale itself on its own weapon. I carved my mark on the last one, and it screamed its bloody head off. I was ready to finish the pest, when out of the bushes bounded this beauti ful fellow with a bow. He scared me for a second. I thought he was with the goblins. Before I could move, he'd put a gray-goose shaft into the last goblin. It was then I realized he thought he was rescuing me.'
She paused, and the ghost of a smile played about her lips. 'It's funny, but at the time I was mad. That goblin was mine to kill, you see, and Tanis had taken that away from me. I went after him, but he stood me off long enough for the blood-anger to leave me. How we laughed after that! He made me feel good, Tanis did. No one had done that for a long, long time. Sure, we were lovers soon enough, but we were more than that. We rode and hunted and played pranks together. We lived, you understand? We lived.'
'Why did this love not continue?' asked Cupelix quietly.
'He wanted me to stay in Solace. I couldn't do that. I tried to get him to go on the road with me, but he wouldn't fight for pay. He's half-elf, as I said; some rogue mercenary molested his elf mother to conceive him, and he's ever had a cold place in his heart for soldiers.' Kitiara made a fist. 'If
Tanis had fought by my side, I would never have left him till the last drop of blood spilled from my body.'
She slapped her knee. 'Tanis was great fun, and in that he was far better as a companion than Sturm, who's always serious, but the time came when I had to choose between his way of living and mine. I chose, and here I am.'
'I'm glad,' said Cupelix. 'Will you help liberate me?'
'Back to that, are we? What is it worth to you?'
Cupelix raised his ears, making the veined webbing behind them stand up. 'Don't you worry about your own safety?' he asked in a rumbling voice.
'Don't bluff me, dragon. If you were going to use threats, you'd have threatened Stutts, Birdcall, and Flash before we got here. You can't force us to help. You're not the sort of dragon to do it.'
The dragon's threatening posture collapsed, and the the atrical menace left his voice. 'True, true,' Cupelix said. 'You are a razor, Kit. You cut deep with little effort.'
Kitiara flipped a hand in salute, mockingly. 'I'm not new to the game of threat and bluff,' she said, standing. A slim band of new light fell across her shoulder from a slit window in the obelisk wall. 'Consider what I said about partnership, dragon. It needn't be for life, just a year or two. Do that for me, and I'll speak for you.'
Sunlight brightened the room. The magic globe at the ceiling's apex dimmed and went out. By the natural light,
Kitiara could see that the dragon's books and scrolls were more decayed than she thought. The tapestries were rotten, too. In the midst of this decay, the dragon's predicament was more obvious. Someday, Cupelix would have nothing to read or study but a heap of mildewed pulp.
'How many more centuries will you live?' Kitiara asked.
The dragon's eyes narrowed. 'A great many.'
'Well, maybe someone else will show up and help you escape. But think how lonely it will be. Soon no more books, no tapestries, no company.'
'Partnership… one year?' said Cupelix.
'Two years,' Kitiara said firmly. 'A very short span in the life of a dragon.'
'True, true.' Cupelix gave his word that he would travel with Kitiara for two years upon their return to Krynn.
She stretched, smiling expansively. Kitiara felt good. She would come out of this crazy voyage to the red moon with more than increased muscle power. A dragon, a living dragon, as her companion for two whole years!
'It'll be a great adventure,' she said to him.
Cupelix snapped his jaws. 'Indubitably.'
Kitiara went to the window to take in the fresh air. Light ning crackled from the obelisk peak as the magic essence dis charged into the red moon's sky. When the flashes ended,
Kitiara looked down at the valley below.
'The Lunitarians are moving!' she exclaimed.
'Of course; it's day, their time to move,' said Cupelix.
'But they're forming ranks! I think they're going to attack!'
The Micones showed no signs of moving, so Sturm announced that they'd best proceed on foot. The gnomes were already untied and sliding off the backs of their mounts. Sturm got down and patted the Micone on the head, a habit he'd always had since owning his first horse.
The giant ant cocked its wedge-shaped head and clacked its mandibles together. A response of pleasure?
