'Who's your friend with the quick compliments?' Serellia asked.
'You two haven't met?' Baylee asked, surprised. Sometimes it seemed that Aymric knew everyone, and everyone knew him.
'No,' Aymric answered. 'I've never had the… pleasure.'
'No,' Serellia said, 'you haven't. Otherwise you'd know not to try to mire me in such an approach.'
Baylee managed the introductions. 'Aymric, I'd like to introduce Serellia Oparyan, an explorer like myself.'
'For profit or play?' Aymric asked.
'For knowledge,' Serellia replied without rancor. 'And a chance to see all of Toril.'
'Ambitious,' Aymric said.
'Very,' Serellia agreed.
'And this is Aymric Tailpuller,' Baylee said. 'A falconer without equal.'
'I've heard of you,' Serellia said. 'Your birds are among the best in all of the Heartlands.'
A shadow of a smile returned to Aymric's face. 'Then I am to assume that you've not traveled much further than there. Otherwise, you would have learned that the birds I have trained are the best in other lands as well.'
Baylee noted the disapproving looks they gathered from nearby people who were listening to Vaggit's tale of Myth Drannor's fall. He ushered his two friends out of the group and toward a campfire that had been all but abandoned. A small knot of men surrounded one of the tables, trading goods scattered across folded cloths as they bartered.
'I'll go get some wine,' Baylee offered as Aymric and Serellia took up seats at the table. He guessed that would take the edge off for the elf, and Serellia liked wine as well.
Maybe it would be in your interest to try to spend more time with Serellia, Xuxa said.
At the closest wine cask, Baylee took up three clay cups and filled them. No.
She could fill those nights when you're lonely for companionship.
There is some concern about the past that is between us. Baylee took his cups back to his friends, finding them deeply engaged in a conversation regarding the care and handling of doves aboard sailing ships.
'They took doves aboard ships because they were far more trainable,' Aymric was saying.
'Not according to Dakilinan,' Serellia objected.
'And, pray tell, who was this Dakilinan?'
Serellia sipped her wine. 'You've heard of Lantan?'
'Dear lady,' Aymric stated, 'I have lived there.'
Serellia looked at Baylee, who only shrugged. Lantan lay a thousand miles south of the Moonshaes and was renowned for the maroon-sailed trading ships that plied the waters in the southern seas.
'It's true.' Aymric acted as if he took offense at the doubt and the lack of support. 'And during that time, I've not heard of Dakilinan.'
'He lived there as well,' Serellia announced.
'Nowhere near me,' Aymric stated.
'About a thousand years ago,' the beautiful ranger went on. 'He was an historian of some repute.'
'There are some who don't think highly of his work,' Baylee supplied.
'Did he ever write of precious metals or gems?' Aymric asked.
'Only in passing,' Serellia said. 'He was more concerned with peoples and countries. Particularly the sea- faring traders.'
'All this has a point, I'm sure,' Aymric said, 'that has something to do with doves.'
'Dakilinan suggested that doves were taken aboard ships only because they were far easier to spot against the emerald expanse of the Trackless Sea and the blue sky. Trainability came in as a secondary reason. Domesticated doves were kept aboard ship and freed during different parts of the day. Wind directions were charted, as were ocean currents, anything that could offer a clue about an unexplored patch of sea.'
'Your historian cites the people of Lantan as a race of explorers?' Aymric inquired.
Serellia smiled and shook her head. 'Never for a moment. They were a race of traders, always looking for a new trade route, new countries with which to trade. Profit has always spurred every new discovery made in our world. Ask any explorer worth her salt if that isn't so. The first thing she'll tell you about is the difficulty in securing funds for an expedition. You have to meet with such small-minded people, and the things they're willing to search for are extremely limited.'
So true, Xuxa added, and chirped woefully.
'That's why,' Aymric said with a sarcastic grin, 'so many explorers have gone to the trouble in the past to create a treasure map that no one has ever found before.'
'Not all explorers are that way,' Serellia replied. 'Only enough to give the rest of us a bad name. I've never created such a map, nor has Baylee, or Fannt Golsway to name others.'
'But treasure maps make such a pretty story,' Aymric said.
'There are some out there,' the woman answered. 'Particularly among people whose treasures are ill- gotten. And many of them are merely bait to bring the avaricious and curious to their doom. I've been on more than a few such expeditions myself. This is a very dangerous business. Make a mistake in one of the crypts and dungeons where all too often these treasures are kept, and you're dead.'
'Or undead, as the case may be,' Baylee pointed out.
'Remember our trip to the Lonely Moor two years ago?'
'Three years ago.' Serellia smiled at the memory. 'Even Golsway didn't think we were going to make it out of that one without becoming undead ourselves.'
Aymric raised his eyebrows. 'Really? Now this sounds like a tale to spend over a wine cup or five. You've not mentioned this before, Baylee.'
'That's because I'm generally listening to your stories,' the ranger replied.
Aymric placed a hand over his heart. 'You've lanced me ignobly.'
'It is a good story,' Serellia agreed. 'Perhaps before the concourse is over, I could tell it.'
'I'd be enchanted, dear lady.' The elf nodded his head graciously.
'And if you try to touch me, I'll break your arms.'
Baylee laughed, knowing that Serellia meant what she said, and seeing that Aymric was realizing that as well.
Baylee… Xuxa began..
No.
'Getting back to the doves,' Aymric said. 'I understand why the sailors used them. Loosing them as they did, the doves circled in all directions, but returned at some point in the day when they grew tired, to be with their mates.'
'Exactly,' Serellia nodded. 'The sailors used them as scouts. When a bird returned well fed and rested hours after it had taken off, they knew they were close to land. But Dakilinan also suggests this is why the early races view doves as a symbol of peace.'
'How so?' Aymric asked.
'The early explorers only went to trade,' Serellia said. The conquerors arrived later, after the way had been thoroughly mapped. The traders brought the doves, and they brought goods to trade. The would-be conquerors who went to rape and pillage didn't.'
'And this is what Dakilinan bases his theory on?' Aymric asked.
'It is as good as any other reason for why doves are so revered among so many cultures.'
Aymric shifted his gaze between Baylee and Serellia. 'How is it you two know each other? Through your various adventuring?'
Baylee tried to signal to the elven ranger to stop his question, but Aymric either missed it or paid it no heed.
Serellia sat back in her chair, her demeanor losing some of the cheer she'd possessed. 'I was a student of Golsway's before Baylee.'
That's why it could never work, Baylee chided Xuxa. In truth, Serellia had been Golsway's first chosen, the best and the brightest of the pupils he sometimes apprenticed in order to ferret out a new associate for his
