Dragonlance 15 - Dragons Of A Fallen Sun (20 page)

Lord Warren argued.

"He must also know of his father's death. If you will grant me

leave, my lord, I will undertake to escort the kender and this

device to Qualinesti, there to put both of them in the hands of

Palin Majere and also to impart the sad news about his father. I

will relate to Palin his father's dying request and ask him to judge

whether or not it may undertaken. I have little doubt but that he

will absolve me of it."

Lord Warren's troubled expression eased. "You are right. We

should put the matter into the hands of the son. If he declares his

father's last request impossible to fulfill, you may, with honor,

decline it. I wish you didn't have to go to Qualinesti, however.

Wouldn't it be more prudent to wait until the wizard returns?"

"There is no telling when that will be, my lord. Especially now

that Beryl has closed the roads. I believe this matter to be of the

utmost urgency. Also" -Gerard lowered his voice- "we would

have difficulty keeping the kender here indefinitely."

"Fizban told me to come right back to my own time," Tas in-

formed them. "I'm not to go gallivanting. But I would like to see

Palin and ask him why the funeral was all wrong. Do you think

that could be considered' gallivanting'?"

"Qualinesti lies deep in Beryl's territory," Lord Warren was

saying. "The land is ruled by the Knights of Neraka, who would

be only too pleased to lay their hands on one of our order. And if

the Knights of Neraka don't seize you and execute you as a spy,

the elves will. An army of our Knights could not enter that realm

and survive."

"I do not ask for an army, my lord. I do not ask for any escort,"

Gerard said firmly. "1 would prefer to travel on my own. Much

prefer it," he added with emphasis. "I ask you for leave from my

duties for a time, my lord."

"Granted, certainly." Lord Warren shook his head. "Though I

don't know what your father will say."

"He will say that he is proud of his son, for you will tell him

that I am undertaking a mission of the utmost importance, that I

do it to fulfill the last request of a dying man."

"You are putting yourself in danger," said Lord Warren. "He

would not like that at all. Arid as for your mother-" He frowned

ominously.

Gerard stood straight and tall. "I have been ten years a

Knight, my lord, and all I have to show for it is the dust of a tomb

on my boots. I have earned this, my lord."

Lord Warren rose to his feet. "Here is my ruling. The Measure

holds the final wishes of the dying to be sacred. We are bound in

honor to fulfill them if it be mortally possible. You will go to Qua-

linesti and consult with the sorcerer Palin. I have found him to be

a man of good judgment and common sense-for a mage, that is.

One must not expect too much. Still, I believe that you can rely on

him to help you determine what is right. Or, at the very least, to

take the kender and this stolen magical artifact off our hands."

"Thank you, my lord." Gerard looked extremely happy.

Of course he's happy, Tasslehoff thought. He gets to travel to

a land ruled by a dragon who's closed all the roads, and maybe

he'll be captured by Dark Knights who'll think he's a spy, and if

that doesn't work out he gets to go to the elven kingdom and see

Palin and Laurana and Gilthas.

The pleasant tingle so well known to kender, a tingle to which

they are seriously addicted, began in the vicinity of Tasslehoff's

spine. The tingle burned its way right down to his feet, which

started to itch, shot through his arms into his fingers, which

started to wriggle, and up into his head. He could feel his hair be-

ginning to curl from the excitement.

The tingle wound up in Tasslehoff's ears and, due to the

rushing of the blood in his head, he noticed that Fizban's ad-

monition to return soon was starting to get lost amidst thoughts

of Dark Knights and spies and, most important of all, The

Road.

Besides, Tas realized suddenly, Sir Gerard is counting on me

to go with him! I can't let a Knight down. And then there's Cara-

mono I can't let him down either, even if he did hit his head one

too many times on the stairs on the way down.

"I'll go with you, Sir Gerard," Tas announced magnani-

mously. "I've thought it over quite seriously, and it doesn't seem

to me to be gallivanting. It seems to me to be a quest. And I'm

sure Fizban won't mind if I went on a little quest."

"I will think of something to tell your father to placate him,"

Lord Warren was saying. "Is there any thing I can provide you for

this mission? How will you travel? You know that according to

the Measure you may not disguise your true identity."

"I will travel as a Knight, my lord," Gerard replied with a

slight quirk of his eyebrow. "I give you my word on that."

Lord Warren eyed him speculatively. "You're up to some-

thing. No, don't tell me. The less I know about this the better." He

glanced down at the device, glittering on the table, and heaved a

sigh. "Magic and kender. It seems to me to be a fatal combination.

My blessing go with you."

Gerard wrapped the device carefully in the bundle. Lord

Warren left his desk to accompany Gerard to the door of the

office, collecting Tasslehoff on the way. Gerard removed several

of the smaller maps that had just happened to find their way

down the front of the kender's shirt.

"I was taking them to be fixed," said Tas, looking at Lord

Warren accusingly. "You really hire very poor mapmakers.

They've made several serious mistakes. The Dark Knights aren't

in Palanthas any more. We drove them out two years after the

Chaos War. And why's that funny little circle like a bubble drawn

around Silvanesti?"

The Knights were deep in a private discussion of their own, a

discussion that had something to do with Gerard's mission, and

they paid no attention. Tas pulled out another map that he had

managed somehow to stuff itself down his trousers and that was

at the moment pinching a sensitive portion of his anatomy. He

transferred the map from his pants to his pouch and, while doing

so, his knuckles brushed across something hard and sharp and

egg-shaped.

The Device of Time Journeying. The device that would take

him back to his own time. The device had come back to him, as it

was bound to do. It was once more in his possession. Fizban's

stem command seemed to ring loudly in his ears.

Tas looked at the device, thought about Fizban, and consid-

ered the promise he'd made to the old wizard. There was obvi-

ously only one thing to be done.

Taking firm hold of the device, careful not to accidentally ac-

tivate it, Tasslehoff crept up behind Gerard, who was engrossed

in his conversation with Lord Warren, and by dint of working

loose a comer of the bundle, working nimbly and quietly as only

a kender can work, Tasslehoff slipped the device back inside.

" And stay there!" he told it firmly.

CHAPTER SEVEN

BECKARD'S CUT

Located on the shore of New Sea, Sanction was the major

port city for the northeastern part of Ansalon.

The city was an ancient one, established long before the

Cataclysm. Nothing much is known for certain about its history

except that prior to the Cataclysm, Sanction had been a pleasant

place to live.

Many have wondered how it came by its odd name. Legend

has it that there was once in the small village a human woman of

advanced years whose opinions were well-known and respected

far and wide. Disputes and disagreements over everything from

ownership of boats to marriage contracts were brought before the

old woman. She listened to all parties and then rendered her ver-

dict, verdicts noted for being fair and impartial, wise and judi-

cious. "The old 'un sanctioned it," was the response to her

judgments, and thus the small village in which she resided

became known as a place of authority and law.

When the gods in their wrath hurled the fiery mountain at the

world, the mountain struck the continent of Ansalon and broke it

asunder. The water of the Sirrion Ocean poured into the newly

formed cracks and crevices creating a new sea, aptly named, by

the pragmatic, New Sea. The volcanoes of the Doom Range flared

into furious life, sending rivers of lava flowing into Sanction.

Mankind being ever resilient, quick to turn disaster to advan-

tage, those who had once tilled the soil harvesting crops of beans

and barley turned from the plow to the net, harvested the fruit of

the sea. Sm~ fishing villages sprang up along the coast of New Sea.

The people of Sanction moved to the beaches, where the off-

shore breeze blew away the fumes of the volcanoes. The town

prospered, but it did not grow significantly until the tall ships ar-

rived. Adventurous sailors out of Palanthas took their ships into

New Sea, hoping to find quick and easy passage to the other side

of the continent, avoiding the long and treacherous journey

through the Sirrion Sea to the north. The explorers' hopes were

dashed. No such passage existed. What they did discover, how-

ever, was a natural port in Sanction, an overland passage that was

not too difficult, and markets waiting for their goods on the other

side of the Khalkhist Mountains.

The town began to thrive, to expand, and, like any growing

child, to dream. Sanction saw itself another Palanthas: famous,

staid, stolid, and wealthy. Those dreams did not materialize,

however. Solamnic Knights watched over Palanthas, guarded the

city, ruled it with the Oath and the Measure. Sanction belonged to

whoever had the might and the power to hold onto it. The city

grew up headstrong and spoiled, with no codes, no laws, and

plenty of money.

Sanction was not choosy about its companions. The city wel-

comed the greedy, the rapacious, the unscrupulous. Thieves and

brigands, con men and whores, sell-swords and assassins called

Sanction home.

The time came when Takhisis, Queen of Darkness, tried to

return to the world. She raised up armies to conquer Ansalon in

her name. Ariakas, general of these armies, recognized the strate-

gic value of Sanction to the Queen's holy city of Neraka and the

military outpost of Khur. Lord Ariakas marched his troops into

Sanction, conquered the city, which put up little resistance. He

built temples to his Queen in Sanction and made his headquarters

there.

The Lords of Doom, the volcanoes that ringed Sanction, felt

the heat of the Queen's ambition stirring beneath them and came

again to life. Streams of lava flowed from the volcanoes, lighting

Sanction with a lurid glow by night. The ground shook and shiv-

ered from tremors. The inns of Sanction lost a fortune in broken

crockery and began to serve food on tin plates and drink in

wooden mugs. The air was poisonous, thick with sulphurous

fumes. Black-robed wizards worked constantly to keep the city fit

for habitation.

Takhisis set out to conquer the world, but in the end she could

not overcome herself. Her generals quarreled, turned on each

other. Love and self-sacrifice, loyalty and honor won the day. The

stones of Neraka lay blasted and cursed in the shadowed valley

leading to Sanction.

The Solamnic Knights marched on Sanction. They seized the

city after a pitched battle with its inhabitants. Recognizing Sanc-

tion's strategic as well as financial importance to this part of

Ansalon, the Knights established a strong garrison in the city.

They tore down the temples of evil, set fire to the slave markets,

razed the brothels. The Conclave of Wizards sent mages to con-

tinue to cleanse the poisonous air.

When the Knights of Takhisis began to accumulate power,

some twenty years later, Sanction was high on the list of priori-

ties. The Knights might well have captured it. Years of peace had

made the Solamnic Knights sleepy and bored. They dozed at their

posts. But before the Dark Knights could attack Sanction, the

Chaos War diverted the attention of the Dark Knights and woke

up the Solamnics.

The Chaos War ended. The gods departed. The residents of

Sanction came to realize that the gods were gone. Magic-as

they had known it-was gone. The people who had survived

the war now faced death by asphyxiation from the noxious

fumes. They fled the city, ran to the beaches to breathe the clean

sea air. And so for a time, Sanction returned to where it had

begun.

A strange and mysterious wizard named Hogan Bight not

only restored Sanction to its former glory but helped the city sur-

pass itself. He did what no other wizard had been able to do: He

not only cleansed the air, he diverted the lava away from the city.

Water, cool and pure, flowed from the snowy mountain tops. A

person could actually step outside and take a deep breath and not

double over coughing and choking.

Older and wiser, Sanction became prosperous, wealthy, and