understanding. Words came at him from things misshapen and lifeless, yet her voice seemed to speak the words, calling to him, calling…
Then Garet Jax was holding him, arms wrapped tightly about his body, his voice a whisper of life in a dark place. Jair floated, the waters buoying him, and his face turned skyward into the clouded night. Gasping, he sought to talk and could not manage. He was awake again, come back from where he had slipped away, yet not fully conscious of what had befallen him or what he was about. He drifted in and out of darkness, reaching back each time he began to slide too far so that he might be grasped anew by the sound and color and feeling that meant life.
Then there were hands grasping him as well, pulling him up from the waters and the blackness, easing him down onto solid ground once more. Rough voices muttered vaguely, the fragmented words slipping through his mind like stray leaves blown by the wind. His eyes flickered, and Garet Jax was bending over him, lean brown face damp and drawn with the chill, fair hair plastered back against his head.
«Valeman, can you hear me? It’s all right. You’re all right now.»
Other faces pushed into view — blocky Dwarf faces, resolute and grave as they studied his. He swallowed, choked and mumbled something incoherent.
«Don’t try to talk,” one said gruffly. «Just rest.»
He nodded. Hands wrapped him in blankets, then lifted him up and began to carry him away.
«Sure has been a night for strays.» Another voice chuckled.
Jair tried to look back to where the voice had come from, but he could not seem to focus his sense of direction. He let himself sink downward into the warmth of the blankets, eased by the gentle rocking of the hands that bore him. A moment later, he was asleep.
Chapter Ninteen
It was midday of the next day when Jair awoke again. He might not have come awake even then were it not for the hands that shook him none too gently from his slumber and the rough voice that whispered in his ear, «Wake up, boy! You’ve slept long enough! Come on, wake up!»
Grudgingly, he stirred within the blankets that covered him, rolled onto his back and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Gray sunlight filtered through a narrow window next to his head, causing him to squint against its brightness.
«Come on, the day’s almost gone! Been shut away the whole of it, thanks to you!»
Jail’s eyes shifted to find the speaker, a stoutly familiar figure positioned at the side of his bed. «Slanter?» he whispered in disbelief.
«Now who else would it be?» the other snapped.
Jail blinked. «Slanter?»
Abruptly the events of the previous night recalled themselves to his mind in a flood of images: the flight from the Gnomes in the mountains about Capaal; the separation of the company; the long drop into the Cillidellan with Garet Jax; and their subsequent rescue from its waters by the Dwarves. You’re all right now, the Weapons Master had whispered to him. He blinked again. But Slanter and the others…
«Slanter!» he exclaimed, now fully awake. Hastily, he pushed himself upright. «Slanter, you’re alive!»
«Of course I’m alive! What does it look like?»
«But how did… ?» Jair left the question hanging and grasped the Gnome’s arm anxiously. «What about the others? What’s happened to them? Are they all right?»
«Slow down, will you?» The Gnome freed his arm irritably. «They’re all fine and they’re all here, so stop worrying. The Elf took a dart in the shoulder, but he’ll live. Only one who’s in danger at the moment is me. And that’s because I’m shut up in this room with you, dying of boredom! Now will you climb out of that bed so we can get out of here?»
Jair didn’t hear all of what the Gnome was saying. Everyone’s all right, he was repeating to himself. Everyone made it. No one was lost, even though it had seemed certain that some of them must be. He breathed deeply in relief. Something the King of the Silver River had said recalled itself suddenly to his mind. A touch of magic for each who journey with you, the old man had told him. Strength for the body, given to others. Perhaps that strength, that touch of the magic, had seen each of them safely through last night.
«Get up, get up, get up!» Slanter was practically hopping up and down with impatience. «What are you doing just sitting there?»
Jair swung his legs out of the bed and glanced about the room in which he found himself. It was a small; stone block chamber, sparsely furnished with bed, sitting table, and chairs, its walls bare save for a broad heraldic tapestry hung from the far supports of its sloped ceiling. A second window opened out at the other end of the wall against which Jair’s bed rested, and a single wooden door stood closed, opposite where he sat. In one corner, a small fireplace cradled an iron gate and a stack of burning logs.
He glanced at Slanter. «Where are we?»
Slanter looked at him as if he were a complete idiot. «Now where do you think we are? We’re inside the Dwarf fortress!»
Where else? Jair thought ruefully. Slowly he stood up, still testing his strength as he stretched and peered curiously our of the window in back of him. Through its narrow, barred slot he could see the murky gray expanse of the Cillidellan stretching away into a day thick with mist and low–hanging clouds. Far distant, through this shifting haze, he could discern the flicker of watchfires burning along the shores of the lake.
Gnome watchfires.
Then he noticed how quiet it was. He was within the fortress of Capaal, the Dwarf citadel that stood watch over the locks and dams that regulated the flow of the Silver River westward, the citadel that one day earlier had been under assault by Gnome armies. Where were those armies now? Why wasn’t Capaal under attack?
«Slanter, what’s happened to the siege?» he asked quickly. «Why is it so still?»
«How should I know?» the other snapped. «No one tells me anything!»
«Well, what’s happening out there? What have you seen?»
Slanter jerked upright. «Haven’t heard a word I’ve said, have you? What’s the problem — ears not working or something? I’ve been right here in this room with you ever since they dragged you out of the lake! Shut away like a common thief! Saved that confounded Borderman’s skin out there and what do I get for my trouble? Shut in here with you!»
«Well, I…»
«A Gnome’s a Gnome, they think! Don’t trust any of us! So here I sit, mother hen to you while you slumber on like you don’t have a care in the world. Waited all day for you to decide to wake up! You’d be sleeping still, I suppose, if I hadn’t lost patience entirely!»
Jair drew back. «You could have woken me sooner…»
«How could I do that!» the other exploded. «How was I to know what was wrong with you? Could have been anything! Had to let you rest just to be sure! Couldn’t be taking chances, could I? That black devil Weapons Master would have had me flayed!»
Jair grinned in spite of himself. «Calm down, will you?»
The Gnome clenched his teeth. «I’ll calm down when you get yourself out of that bed and into your clothes! There’s a guard on the other side of that door keeping me shut up in here! But with you awake, maybe we can talk him into letting the two of us out! Then you can be amused on your own time! Now, dress!»
Shrugging, Jair slipped off the night clothes that had been provided him and began pulling on his Vale clothes. He was surprised, though pleased, to find Slanter so vocal again, even if his discourse was, for the moment at least, limited to a tirade against the Valeman. Slanter seemed more his normal self again, more that voluble fellow he had been that first night after making Jair his prisoner in the highlands — that fellow Jair had come to like. He wasn’t sure why the Gnome had chosen now to come out of his shell, but he was delighted to have the old Slanter back as company once more.
«Sorry you had to be locked in here with me,” he ventured after a moment.
«You ought to be,” the other grumbled. «They put me in here to look after you, you know. Must think I make
