Galen Beknighted

Like a gully dwarf he ate, or how she had imagined a gully dwarf would eat. In the first months of Galen's stay at the castle, before he looked around him and began to catch on to the etiquette, Da

Indeed, befriending was one of Galen Pathwarden's greatest skills. Marigold, Da

For months, Da

And yet that dalliance, too, had gradually stopped, like the sport with the dogs and gristles. Nonetheless, Da

She had continued to dream of that knighthood, through the stumbling in battle and the uncertain command, through the misguided visions in the opals and the disasters that seemed to follow when the boy was guided by stone and brooch and omen.

It had been a world of the possible, even when faced with monsters and the dark Que-Tana. That was why it could not end the way it was preparing to end.

In Shardos's stories, the promise of a boy was always realfeed, the magical sword was eventually unsheathed and its power displayed, and the talking bird had something magnificent and important to say. The lost book was found, the wandering ship came home, and the third son prospered despite his unlikely inheritance.

Da

The trail turned sharply upward, and the three of them, dog and juggler and lady of the court, embarked on the last half-mile or so that would bring them to the surface and to as much safety as they could expect here at the borders of imperiled Solamnia.

Da

"We are nearing the surface, my dear," Shardos said. "Can you smell it?"

Da

It was midnight there in the upper mountains, but even the light of the moon seemed unbearably brilliant. Da

Shardos took the girl's hand once more and whispered to her kindly.

"Rest, my dear. But only a while. Though the odds seem longer than the distances, I'll wager you have a part to play before the story has ended. But you'll not do it alone, that's for certain. Rest awhile, and aid will come to you."

Her head still covered, her eyes still closed against the moonlight, Da

"Shardos!" she cried turning around to follow him. He was already at the mouth of the cavern, once again half-hidden by shadow.

"Did you think I would walk you home, m'lady?" he asked, pausing at the edge of the entrance. 'Though the prospect is charming, more charming by far than returning to Firebrand and his pasty underlings, it is nonetheless a walk I ca

She took one step toward him, but with a broad wave of his hand, he motioned her back.

"Be of good heart!" he urged. "The time is fast approaching when all of us are called upon to do the hard things. You have a breathing space, Da

Da

Longwalker found Da

Dreaming girls, he realized, are not the most durable of riders. And the road to Castle di Caela was a long, rough one for a cavalryman, not to mention a sheltered girl used to the attentions of servants and finaglings of courtiers.

But then, he told himself, he must trust on all counts to the most unlikely of heroes: a blind juggler, a bedazzled cleric, and a long-nosed dog. An unlikely trio, who trust their safety to even more unlikely Solamnic Knights: a four-hundred-pound epicure more bent on sirloin and sherry than sword and shield, and the leader, who seemed anything but skilled and experienced and resourceful.

Trust in the likes of these, Longwalker thought, is the begi

Sargo

Below tenebral and Que-Tana and vespertile he waited.

Below Firebrand, and below the depths of the opals.

Below darkness itself, below vision and imagining and somewhere even below belief.

And the tu

Let Firebrand gather his stones, the dark god thought. Let there be ten, eleven, twelve, but let there be thirteen finally.

Firebrand is fodder, is kindling. But his one eye is my light upon history.

He is like all mortals, all of them caught in their cravings for power or vengeance, or love or recognition or simple respect or something-anything-to lull the pain of their serious wounds.

It does not matter what they want, for it all amounts to the same thing.

Sargo

Their desires change from day to day, Sargo

Why, now Firebrand imagines that godhood lies in the heart of a simple stone. He even believes there is space in the heavens for his stars.

Sargo

Out of a whirlpool of blackness, Sargo