"Yuk! Selana, I almost ate a bug!" he howled.
Seeing the distress on his brown and black face, Selana spoke directly to his mind again. "You're acting on instinct," she told him. "Remember, you're a bird now."
"How can I forget?" he said. The thrill of flying was better than he had ever imagined, and he had imagined it a lot in his short life. Whenever he had thought about it in the past, though, he had pictured himself in his own body, flapping his arms, or in the body of some majestic bird of prey, like an owl.
Suddenly he felt heavier, more massive. The wind had not changed, but it tossed him around much less. His wings had tremendous power, his vision was unbelievably keen. He spotted a mouse skittering among some barrels in an alley and circled, watching the succulent tidbit going about its business, unaware it was being watched.
A mental scream jarred Tasslehoff. Looking up, he saw Selana swooping near.
"Tasslehoff! Stop fooling around and keep your mind on sparrows!"
Suddenly Tas understood why he felt differently; he had become an owl. He pumped his outstretched wings twice and shot forward, then spiraled upward on a pillar of warm air. The power and grace of this body was exhilarating. "Let me stay like this, Selana, just until we reach the castle." Tas's voice pleaded in Selana's mind.
"We'll be noticed for sure," she replied sharply. "Sparrow!"
Reluctantly, Tas focused on the tinier bird form again. In a moment he felt lighter once more.
"That's better," he heard Selana say. "Look down, and you'll see that we've flown over the stream." Indeed, within seconds they were past the ramparts with their stone sentries.
"I've gotten us as far as my knowledge will take us," said Selana. "Where should we look now?"
Earlier, Tasslehoff had spotted a building with a "Gaol" sign over the door. He suspected the mage would have moved Flint and Tanis there, because it would be more secure. Still, it never hurt to look around, study the lay of the castle. "Come on," he said, waving Selana down beside him as he swooped low across the crenelated roof of a guard tower, centrally located to afford a view of comings and goings at the keep, across the courtyard.
Tas settled down next to a few other birds—mostly other sparrows with a few fat pigeons, all of which edged away, instinctively suspicious. The sun felt good warming his feathers, and Tas's eyes drooped lethargically.
"Don't get lazy and start snoozing in the sun," warned his companion in her low voice. She pecked him lightly with her beak.
"Ow!" Tasslehoff's dark, beady eyes flew open. "I wasn't! I was squinting, to see better in this bright light." He ruffled up his feathers and slid a bird's width away.
"Never mind," Selana responded. "Where do we go from here?"
"See the building with the 'Gaol' sign on it?" he asked. The building abutted the curtain wall and was joined to the keep by a cloister, an open-sided, covered walkway. "If we're lucky, they've been taken there. If not, they're still far underground, which will be much harder to get in and out of." Tas scanned the jail building for bird-sized entrances. "Let's fly to that high window near the back wall. We can get inside from there."
Seconds later they had crossed the open space and were perched on the window ledge. Tas peered into the gloom and was surprised at how quickly his eyes adjusted to the dim light. The room was obviously a cell. A heavy wooden door with a metal grate closed off the entrance. The window where they stood was too narrow for any human to squeeze through and would have been tight even for Tasslehoff, at his usual size.
"There's no one here," thought Selana. "How many more rooms like this are there, do you suppose?"
"Probably two or three," Tas replied, cocking his head to the side. A fat beetle scurried up the stones on the side of the window, heading for a small crack in the mortar. Tas peered closely at it, which obviously alarmed the beetle as it sped away to the safety of the crack.
Tas spread his wings. "We'd better keep moving."
"Wait!"
Selana's warning caught Tas halfway through his takeoff. Trying to stop himself, he wound up instead tumbling off the window ledge inside the jail. He flapped frantically but to no avail, thumping harmlessly into a pile of moldy straw on the floor.
"Hurry," cried Selana, "you must see this!"
With straw still stuck in his feathers and more than a little irritated, Tas flitted back up to the ledge. "What is it?"
Selana's voice, even though transmitted directly to Tas's mind, still shook with excitement. "Look down in the cloisters leading back to the main tower. The bald-headed man in red robes. It's the mage! And do you see what's on his wrist?"
Tas's sharpened eyes locked onto the fellow at once. He had pulled a warm vest over his robes.
"He's probably returning from taking Flint and Tanis to the dungeon," muttered Tas. The kender-bird's sight traveled down the man's arm. As it swung, the sleeve drew back, revealing a coppery band.
"You're right! It is the bracelet!" cried Tas. Even at this distance, he was certain it was the piece of jewelry Flint had crafted for the sea elf; he could see every line and stone on it. "Let's fly over and get it from him!"
"How?"
Tas thought for only a second. "We'll turn into bears and bite his hand off!"
Selana shuddered. "That's disgusting. And dangerous. Although we may look like
