5

The Sorceress.

Mistress Jenna Is Surprised.

he smell of hot soup woke Usha from her nap. She felt better after her brief rest. Propped against the stone wall, she drank chicken broth from a chipped crockery bowl and wondered what was going to happen to her next. At least she’d solved the problem of where she was going to sleep.

It was now nighttime. The cell was dark, lit only by the light of a few sputtering torches on the wall of the prison’s entrance.

The kender, Tas, drank his soup, then offered Usha his hunk of brown bread. “Here, you still look hungry.”

Usha had finished her bread in about three bites. She hesitated. “Are you sure you don’t want it?”

Tas shook his head. “No, that’s all right. If I get hungry, I’ve likely got something in my pouches to eat.” He indicated various bulging bags that were draped about his slender frame.

Usha frowned. “Why do you get to keep your things? They took mine.”

“Oh, that’s the way it always is.” Tas shrugged. “I’m not sure why, but they never take anything from us kender. Maybe it’s because they don’t have room to store them. We tend to collect things in our travels. Or perhaps it’s because it would be too difficult to sort out who belongs to what in the morning. Not that it would matter to us, particularly. We” - he gestured at the other members of his race, who were now pelting each other with bread - “share everything.”

“So do my people,” said Usha, before she thought.

“Your people. Who are your people? Where do you come from? You certainly don’t come from around here, that’s for sure.” Tas nodded so emphatically that his topknot flipped over his head and smacked him in the nose.

“How can you tell?” Usha asked, ignoring the question.

“Well ...” Tas stared at her, paused to consider. “You’re dressed differently, that’s one. You talk differently. Same words, but you say them in a peculiar way. And you’re about one hundred times prettier than any woman I’ve ever seen, with the exception of Laurana - that’s Tanis’s wife, but you probably don’t know him, do you? I didn’t think so. Oh, and Tika. She married Caramon. Do you know him? He had a twin brother named Raistlin.”

Tas looked at Usha oddly as he asked this question. She recalled hearing the name Raistlin before she drifted off to sleep, but she couldn’t remember what the kender had said about it. Not that it mattered. She’d never heard of either of them, and she said as much.

“As for my being pretty, I know you mean well, but you don’t have to lie to me. I know what I am.” Usha sighed.

“I’m not lying!” Tas protested. “Kender never lie. And if you don’t believe me, ask those men over in that corner there. They were talking about you. Well, maybe you better not speak to them after all. They’re a bad lot. They’re thieves!” he added, in a shocked whisper.

Usha was moderately confused. “You’re not a thief?”

“Great Paladine’s beard, no!” Tas’s eyes were round and wide in indignation.

“Then why are you in prison?”

“A mistake,” Tas said cheerfully. “It always happens to us kender-on a daily basis, if you can believe that! Of course, they know it’s a mistake.” He nodded at the guardsman. “They never charge us, and they always let us go in the morning. Then they spend the day rounding us up and bringing us all back here at night. Gives us all something to do, you see.”

Usha didn’t understand, tried to think of how to get information without rousing the kender’s suspicions.

“Maybe you can explain something to me, Tas. Where I come from, my people live a lot like you do. We share everything. But here, everyone seems so-well-greedy. I took some man’s apples. I was hungry. The apples were spoiled. He would have had to throw them out anyway. Why did he get so mad? And that woman. Her bread would have been stale by morning.”

“I know what you mean. It all has to do with things,” Tas explained. “Humans are very keen on things. They like to own things, and when they get tired of owning their things they don’t give them away, they demand other things in exchange. Remember that, and you’ll get on fine. Where do you come from, by the way, Usha?”

It was a casual question. The kender was probably just curious, but Usha remembered Profs warning not to reveal that she’d been living among the Irda.

“I’m from all over, really,” she answered, watching the kender from beneath lowered eyelids, to see his reaction. “I wander here and there, never stay in one place long.”

“You know, Usha,” said Tas admiringly, “you’d make a great kender. You’ve never been to Solace, you said?”

“Oh, I might have. One place is a lot like another. Who can remember names?”

“I can! I make maps. But the reason I asked about Solace is that you look just like- “

Keys clanked in the cell door. The jailer entered. This time he carried a staff, which he used to fend off the kender. He peered around the shadowy cell. “Where’s that newest prisoner?” He spotted Usha. “You there. Someone wants to talk to you.”

“Me?” Usha thought he must be mistaken.

“You. Get moving. Mistress Jenna ain’t got all night.”

Usha looked at Tas for information.

“Mistress Jenna’s a Red Robe mage,” he offered. “She runs a mage-ware shop in town. A truly wonderful place!”

“What’s she want with me?”

“The jailer always calls her to come inspect anything he confiscates that he thinks might be magic. Did you have anything with you that might be magic?”

“Maybe,” Usha said, biting her lip.

“You! Apple thief!” The jailer was prodding at the giggling kender with his staff. “Get over here now!”

“Come on, Usha.” Tas stood up, held out his hand. “Don’t be afraid. Mistress Jenna’s real nice. She and I are old acquaintances. I’ve been thrown out of her shop on numerous occasions.”

Usha stood. She did not accept the kender’s hand. Arranging her face to show careless indifference, she walked on her own over to the iron-barred door.

The jailer let her out and grabbed hold of Tasslehoff just as the kender was sidling past, hiding in Usha’s shadow. “Here now? Where are you going, Master Burrfoot?”

“To say hello to Mistress Jenna, of course. I wouldn’t want to be impolite.”

“You wouldn’t, would you? Well, now, you just be good and polite and hustle your way back into that cell.”

The jailer gave Tas a shove and slammed the door shut in the kender’s face. Tas clung to the bars, peering out, trying to see.

“Hullo, Mistress Jenna!” he yelled, waving his small arms. “It’s me! Tasslehoff Burrfoot, one of the Heroes of the Lance!”

A woman wearing a red velvet hooded cloak stood beside the jailer’s desk. She turned her head in the direction of the kender’s shout, smiled a cool smile, and briefly nodded. Then she went back to what she had been doing - sorting through Usha’s possessions, which were now lined neatly on the desk.

“Here she is, Mistress Jenna, the one who was asking about the Master of the Tower.”

The woman drew aside the hood of her cloak to get a better view. She was human, her face lovely but cold, as if it were carved from the same stone as the white marble buildings. Dark eyes gazed intently at and through Usha.

Usha’s stomach clenched. Her legs trembled. Her mouth went dry. She realized in an instant that this woman knew everything. What would happen to her now? Prot had warned her. Humans consider the Irda no better - maybe worse - than ogres. And humans slew ogres without mercy.

“Come closer, child,” the woman said, beckoning with a shapely, delicate hand. “Into the light.”

The woman was probably not much older than Usha herself, but the aura of mystery, power, and magic that surrounded the Red Robe wizardess added immeasurably to her years.

Usha walked brashly forward, determined not to let this sorceress see that she was intimidated. She stepped into the light.

Jenna’s eyes widened. She took a step forward, sucked in a swift breath. “Lunitari bless us!” she whispered.

With a swift motion, she drew her hood back up over her head and turned to the jailer. “You will release this prisoner into my custody. I’ll take her and her belongings.”

The woman gathered up the gifts of the Irda, handling each carefully, with respect, and replaced them safely inside Usha’s pouch. The jailer regarded them with deep suspicion.

“I was right, then, wasn’t I, Mistress Jenna. They are magic.”

“You were quite right to summon me. And I’m glad to see, Torg, that you’ve learned your lesson about handling strange objects. That spell you accidentally cast on yourself was not an easy one to reverse.”

“I won’t be doing that again, I promise you, Mistress Jenna!” The jailer shuddered. “You can have her and good riddance. But you’ve got to sign for her. She’s your responsibility. She robs another fruit stand and - “

“She won’t be robbing any more fruit stands,” Jenna said crisply, picking up Usha’s pouches. “Come along, child. What is your name, by the way?”

“Usha. And I want my things,” she said loudly, far more loudly than she’d intended.

Jenna raised feathery eyebrows.

Usha flushed, chewed on her lip. “They are mine,” she said sullenly. “I didn’t steal them.”

“I am aware of that,” Jenna replied. “Such valuable, arcane objects do not permit themselves to be stolen. A curse on anyone foolish enough to try.” She cast a glance at the jailer, who blushed, ducked his head, and wrote furiously in his book. Jenna handed over the pouches.

Usha took them, followed Jenna to the prison entrance.

“Thank you for getting me out of there, Mistress. If there’s ever anything I can do for you, just let me know. Where’s your shop? Perhaps I’ll stop by it sometime.”

Jenna was smiling again.

“Yes, indeed you will. Right now. Don’t worry, Usha. I plan to take you exactly where you want to go.”

“Where’s that?” Usha asked in heart-sinking bewilderment.

“To see Dalamar, of course. The Master of the Tower will be quite interested in meeting you, Usha.”

“You bet he will!” piped a shrill voice from behind. “Tell Dalamar that Tasslehoff Burrfoot said hullo. And say, Mistress Jenna, don’t you think that Usha looks an awful lot like Raistlin?”

The sorceress halted. For as long as it might take someone to count to ten, she stood perfectly still and quiet. Then, slowly, she turned around, retraced her steps.

Usha remained at the entrance, wondering if she should try to run for it. She had the feeling she wouldn’t get very far; her legs were the consistency of jelly. And where would she run to anyway? She leaned wearily against the door.

Jenna approached the jailer. “Release the kender into my custody as well.”

Torg scowled. “You sure, Mistress? He’s a dang nuisance- “

“I’m sure,” Jenna said, an edge in her voice as sharp and cold as steel. “Release him now.”

Torg drew out his keys, hastened to the cell door, unlocked it.

Tasslehoff-topknot swinging, pouches jouncing-marched out. He offered a polite hand to Jenna.

“How do you do? I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced. I’m Tasslehoff- “

“I know who you are,” she said. “I believe Dalamar would like to have a word with you.”

“How wonderful! I haven’t seen Dalamar in years. Is it true that he’s your lover? Well, you needn’t look at me like that.

Caramon told me. He said you two- “

“Start walking,” Jenna said somewhat grimly, steering the kender out of the jail and into the street. “Five paces in front of me, and keep your hands where I can see them. Usha, stay with me.”

“I get to lead the way?” Tas was excited.

“If you want to think of it as that,” Jenna returned. “No, not that direction. We’re going outside the city wall, back to my dwelling place.”

“But I thought we were visiting the Tower of High Sorcery!” Tas wailed. “I wanted to go through the Shoikan Grove! I saw it once, from a distance. It was truly evil and horrible and deadly. It almost killed Caramon, you know. Please, couldn’t we take that route?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jenna snapped. “No person in his right mind-though I realize that this description precludes kender!- would want to walk the Shoikan Grove, especially at night. I do not walk the Shoikan Grove, and I have been a student at the Tower. I will transport us there by a more sedate route, if you don’t mind. That is why we are returning to my shop.”

Tas was downcast for a moment, then he shrugged. “Oh, well,” he said, cheering up. “At least we get to go to the Tower. This will be fun!” he added, looking back at Usha as he skipped along ahead of her. For an elder, he certainly had a lot of energy. “The Tower of High Sorcery is a fascinating place! I haven’t been there in years, mind you. It’s filled with all sorts of magic-most of it evil and all of it very, very powerful. Dalamar’s a black-robed wizard, but then I guess you know that, if you want to see him. He’s a dark elf and now he’s the most powerful wizard in all of Ansalon- “

Usha stopped, stared at the kender.

“A Black Robe? A dark elf? But... that can’t be right! The Protector wouldn’t have sent me to see one of them. Surely ... maybe there’s another Dalamar?”

She heard laughter, like the chiming of silver bells, ring out in the darkness.

“Keep walking,” said Jenna, stifling her amusement. “And rest assured, child-there is only one Dalamar.”