Read Online Steel and Stone by Ellen Porath - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Ellen Porath
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Sonnus! I found a jeweled sword once, which was a lucky thing because the owner showed up when I was trying to figure out who to return it to, and he was really upset that he’d lost it. I knew he was glad I’d found it, even though he was too upset to be glad, really. I guess he’d been plenty worried. I—”
“Get out of here, you wretched kender!” the dwarf shouted. “And if you steal just
one more
thing from this wagon, I’ll … I’ll sell you to the minotaurs for goat food!”
“Steal?” The little voice dripped with hurt feelings. “I wouldn’t steal, Sonnus. I can’t help it that everyone loses things and that I’m lucky enough to f—”
“Enough!” the dwarf boomed. “Out!”
Tanis heard a thump that might have been a kender hitting the side of a wagon. As the half-elf pulled Sonnus Ironmill’s shirt over his head, Kitiara’s cool voice was the next sound he heard. “How much for this dagger, dwarf?”
The dwarf named a price. Kitiara haggled him down, and they had just struck a deal as Tanis emerged from Ironmill’s hut. “I’ll take it,” he told the dwarf, admiring the fit, “if the price is right.”
“Well …” The dwarf stroked his luxuriant beard. “It seems to me that suit may well be the only one of its kind west of Que-Shu, which is where I got it, anddidn’t it cost me a pretty pile of coins.… Its rarity increases its value, I’d think.”
“Except no one west of Que-Shu but the half-elf would want it,” Kitiara said as she fingered the gathered pouch into which they’d put the coins they’d found at the will-o’-the-wisp’s lair. “You’re lucky to be getting rid of it, dwarf. Maybe we should look somewhere else, Tanis.” Tanis nodded.
Sonnus Ironmill frowned at them both. “Five steel,” he pronounced.
“Three,” Kitiara and Tanis said at the same time.
“Four.”
“Done!”
Kitiara paid Sonnus Ironmill and slipped her new dagger, with its hilt inlaid with tiger’s-eyes, into her sheath. As she and Tanis plunged back into the milling crowd, they heard the dwarven vendor greet a customer with, “Well, what do
you
want?”
Kitiara brushed past a female kender, a waist-high creature with the race’s characteristic long brown hair gathered in a topknot. “That’s the creature who tried to rob the dwarf,” the swordswoman commented to Tanis.
“Rob!” the kender exclaimed. “I never steal. I do have incredible luck finding things. Do you think some people are just born with luck? I do. My sisters and I all have it. But I …” Brown eyes doelike with innocence, she was still chattering when a trio of teen-aged boys shoved between Kitiara and the kender. The childlike creature was lost to view, her lilting voice swallowed by the cacophony of the late-morning marketplace.
Tanis and Kitiara slipped among the marketgoers. The din was practically deafening. A seller of tapestries argued with a vendor of leather footware; eachaccused the other of letting his wares spill into the other’s territory. Dozens of vendors tried to outdo each other in shouting their products’ superiority to the crowd.
An illusionist charmed the crowd. A juggler balanced a bottle on his head while twirling flaming batons. A veil-draped seeress offered to look into the future of those with money enough—and gullibility enough—to pay for the service. A gnome sold cymbals and Aeolian harps, flat boxes with strings, played, not by fingers, but by the wind. Two humans, a man and a woman, sat on a grassy hummock overlooking the market, tuning a pair of three-stringed, triangular guitars.
Sellers hawked scarves, perfumes, and fine clothing, all of which Kitiara ignored, and swords, armor, and saddlery, which she stopped to admire.
“I’d like to find something for my brothers,” Kitiara said. “A weapon for Caramon—he’s athletic, like me. And a set of silk scarves for Raistlin, I think. They’d come in handy for certain magic spells.”
“I may pick
“Get out of here, you wretched kender!” the dwarf shouted. “And if you steal just
one more
thing from this wagon, I’ll … I’ll sell you to the minotaurs for goat food!”
“Steal?” The little voice dripped with hurt feelings. “I wouldn’t steal, Sonnus. I can’t help it that everyone loses things and that I’m lucky enough to f—”
“Enough!” the dwarf boomed. “Out!”
Tanis heard a thump that might have been a kender hitting the side of a wagon. As the half-elf pulled Sonnus Ironmill’s shirt over his head, Kitiara’s cool voice was the next sound he heard. “How much for this dagger, dwarf?”
The dwarf named a price. Kitiara haggled him down, and they had just struck a deal as Tanis emerged from Ironmill’s hut. “I’ll take it,” he told the dwarf, admiring the fit, “if the price is right.”
“Well …” The dwarf stroked his luxuriant beard. “It seems to me that suit may well be the only one of its kind west of Que-Shu, which is where I got it, anddidn’t it cost me a pretty pile of coins.… Its rarity increases its value, I’d think.”
“Except no one west of Que-Shu but the half-elf would want it,” Kitiara said as she fingered the gathered pouch into which they’d put the coins they’d found at the will-o’-the-wisp’s lair. “You’re lucky to be getting rid of it, dwarf. Maybe we should look somewhere else, Tanis.” Tanis nodded.
Sonnus Ironmill frowned at them both. “Five steel,” he pronounced.
“Three,” Kitiara and Tanis said at the same time.
“Four.”
“Done!”
Kitiara paid Sonnus Ironmill and slipped her new dagger, with its hilt inlaid with tiger’s-eyes, into her sheath. As she and Tanis plunged back into the milling crowd, they heard the dwarven vendor greet a customer with, “Well, what do
you
want?”
Kitiara brushed past a female kender, a waist-high creature with the race’s characteristic long brown hair gathered in a topknot. “That’s the creature who tried to rob the dwarf,” the swordswoman commented to Tanis.
“Rob!” the kender exclaimed. “I never steal. I do have incredible luck finding things. Do you think some people are just born with luck? I do. My sisters and I all have it. But I …” Brown eyes doelike with innocence, she was still chattering when a trio of teen-aged boys shoved between Kitiara and the kender. The childlike creature was lost to view, her lilting voice swallowed by the cacophony of the late-morning marketplace.
Tanis and Kitiara slipped among the marketgoers. The din was practically deafening. A seller of tapestries argued with a vendor of leather footware; eachaccused the other of letting his wares spill into the other’s territory. Dozens of vendors tried to outdo each other in shouting their products’ superiority to the crowd.
An illusionist charmed the crowd. A juggler balanced a bottle on his head while twirling flaming batons. A veil-draped seeress offered to look into the future of those with money enough—and gullibility enough—to pay for the service. A gnome sold cymbals and Aeolian harps, flat boxes with strings, played, not by fingers, but by the wind. Two humans, a man and a woman, sat on a grassy hummock overlooking the market, tuning a pair of three-stringed, triangular guitars.
Sellers hawked scarves, perfumes, and fine clothing, all of which Kitiara ignored, and swords, armor, and saddlery, which she stopped to admire.
“I’d like to find something for my brothers,” Kitiara said. “A weapon for Caramon—he’s athletic, like me. And a set of silk scarves for Raistlin, I think. They’d come in handy for certain magic spells.”
“I may pick
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