Into the Void

scrupulously clean and uncluttered and showed no signs of the spontaneous 'modifications' that the gnomes seemed to make as a matter of course.

One of the hammership's crew-the thin youth Aelfred had called Lon-tried to brush past him, but Teldin stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. 'Where are… where's my crew?' he asked, trying to inject into his voice the confidence that he had heard in Aelfred's.

The boy gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. 'Guest cabin,' he said.

Teldin frowned. That wasn't much help. 'Well, where-' he started.

'Port side, by the mainmast,' Lort cut in impatiently. The youth shook off Teldin's hand and hurried on.

Teldin sighed. He didn't seem to have made the impression on the boy that he'd hoped.

Once he was heading in the right direction, it wasn't difficult to find the gnomes. Even from a distance he could hear Dana's sharp voice railing about something or other, and all he had to do was follow the sound.

The 'guest cabin' was small and cramped-maybe ten feet long by half that wide-and obviously intended to house only one guest. It was made even more claustrophobic by the fact that two hammocks had been slung from brackets on the walls. His four shipmates were there. Miggins and Saliman lay in the hammocks-both conscious and apparently out of danger, he was glad to see-while Horvath sat comfortably on a folded sail. Dana, fists on her hips, paced the width of the compartment.

'Now it would be much better all around if you were to just calm down, Danajustiantorala,' Horvath was saying at breakneck speed. 'You know very well there's nothing we can do at the moment, and…' He broke off as he saw Teldin enter. 'Well, well,' he said, jumping to his feet. 'Don't just stand there in the doorway. Come in and join us.'

Teldin grasped his friend's offered hand and squeezed it warmly. Even though he'd tentatively decided that he didn't have anything to fear among the hammership's crew, he felt much more comfortable in the presence of the gnomes. He reached out and patted Miggins on the shoulder. 'How are you feeling?'

'Much better,' the young gnome replied with a grin. 'They gave me some kind of potion, listed like… well, like something pretty awful if you want to know the truth, but it did the job.' He moved his wounded shoulder experimentally. 'It's still stiff, but it doesn't hurt much anymore.'

Teldin nodded. 'And Saliman?'

The gnomish cleric lay motionless on his hammock, an unfocused gaze on the ceiling. 'Saliman?' Horvath prompted.

'Head hurts,' Saliman said, with a totally ungnomish abruptness that indicated just how much pain he must be in.

'He'll be all right,' Horvath finished. 'They've treated us well.' Dana snorted, but Horvath paid no attention. 'Do you know the ship's destination?'

Teldin seated himself on a stack of folded blankets. The gnomes-even Saliman-were looking at him, waiting for his answer. 'The Probe is going to Realmspace,' he told them. 'Horvath, what about the Unquenchable?'

The gnome sighed. 'We were talking about that,' he said. 'There were still two pirate ships left and no guarantee that the Unquenchable will even survive.'

'It'll survive,' Dana muttered fiercely under her breath.

Horvath fixed her with a hard, steady gaze, and the younger gnome seemed almost to wilt under it. 'No, Dana,' he said flatly, 'now is the time for realism, not false bravado. I say there's no guarantee the Unquenchable will survive, and you know that to be true as well as I. Even if the ship wins through, what do we do? Can we get back aboard her?' The diminutive figure shoved his fists deep into his pockets. Teldin could feel the pain this was bringing him, but the gnome kept his voice steady. 'We could wait on the longboat and hope the Unquenchable comes back to find us before the air runs out. Or we could search for the Unquenchable, or for her wreckage, but Krynnspace is big. And that's if our fellows even stay within this sphere.

'Or we could go back down to the surface-' he smiled grimly '-but I don't think Teldin would be alone in his opposition to that. What say you to that?' There was no answer. Horvath continued, 'Or we can stay aboard the… the Probe, you called it? Aye, the Probe. And we can travel to Toril aboard a solid ship. Not to say that it couldn't do with a few improvements, of course,' he added with a grin. 'What say you?'

Teldin spoke up. 'Estriss-he's the captain-says we'd be welcome as crew members.'

'Estriss,' Dana snorted. 'You're getting very chummy with that brain-eating monster, aren't you, now?'

Horvath turned to Teldin, pointedly ignoring Dana's comment. 'That big fellow, Aelfred something. Now, he made us the same offer. I know, I'm like the rest of you-' he fixed each of the other gnomes with his gaze '-I'm wanting to get back aboard the Unquenchable with my own kind. But I don't see any way we can do that. Teldin, do you trust these big folk?'

Teldin was silent a moment. He remembered his brief conversation with Aelfred Silverhorn aboard the gnomish longboat. He'd felt some kind of kinship there, a strength tempered by a sense of balance. 'Yes,' he said.

'And the captain, the mind flayer? Do you trust it?'

The pause was longer this time. Teldin felt the responsibility, a tightness across his shoulders and the back of his neck. If he was wrong, he could be dooming the four gnomes as well as himself. But still, he knew what his answer would have to be. Monsters don't discuss philosophy.

'I trust Estriss,' he answered.

Horvath nodded. 'And I trust Teldin.' He squared his shoulders. 'I will sail to Realmspace with the Probe. How say you all? Saliman?'

'Aye.'

'I'll stay,' volunteered Miggins.

'Dana?' Horvath fixed her with his sharp gaze.

The woman dropped her eyes. 'That mate,' she grumbled, 'he wants us to take up duties.'

Teldin's patience had worn thin from Dana's surly manner. 'What's wrong with that?' he snapped. 'By the gods, they saved us, remember that. The wasp ship wasn't their fight. If, in return, we have to work like any other member of the crew, that's the least we can do.' He saw the surprise in Dana's eyes and turned away.

Horvath laid a calming hand on his shoulder. 'I'm with Teldin,' he said quietly. 'What he says only makes sense. Am I right?' Saliman and Miggins nodded. 'Danajustiantorala, am I right?'

Dana didn't meet his gaze. 'Aye,' she grumbled.

'Very well, then.' Horvath clapped his hands and rubbed them together. 'Teldin, maybe you wish to tell the captain that his new crew members are ready to take up their duties- when you see fit, of course.'

Teldin climbed to his feet. Something had changed in his relationship with the gnomes. He'd started to feel it in the last minutes aboard the longboat, but now it was even more pronounced. There was a change in Horvath's tone when the gnome talked to him, a change to the look in Miggins's eyes. Teldin hadn't sought this development, but it was definitely there. 'I'll talk to Aelfred,' he said.

'Teldin.'

He turned. It was Saliman who'd spoken, the first time he'd actually addressed Teldin. 'Yes, Saliman?'

'I…' The cleric hesitated. 'Teldin, I need a quiet time each day for my devotions,' he said quietly. 'Could you, maybe, ask if… Well, could my duties be… ?'

'I'll talk to Aelfred.' With that, Teldin felt the mantle of leadership for the small group-subtly but nonetheless surely-transferred to his own shoulders.

*****

Aelfred Silverhorn was on the hammership's sterncastle, seated comfortably on the box that contained the shot for the Probe's aft catapult. The larger man watched as Teldin climbed the starboard ladder, and he greeted him with a lopsided smile. 'And how is your, er, your crew?' he asked with a touch of irony.

'Well,' Teldin replied. He settled himself against the stem rail. 'I'd like to thank you,' he went on. 'The two wounded men, you treated them kindly.'

Aelfred waved the thanks away with a scarred hand. 'What would you have us do?' he asked. 'Ignore them? And have the young one bleed himself white all over the deck? We're not enemies-' a chuckle rumbled deep in his