I was getting kind of seasick for the ship rocked wildly in the waves.
I was escorting a tiny human boy. He was sick from the time he was born, aye. The most sick creature I've ever seen, aye, and I have seen a lot.
My mistress summoned me a week ago for some experiment in which I took part. At first she only had some kind of light excitement which soon grew into full-blown frenzy as though the mistress had discovered something really priceless.
She said I should bring the boy from here. I obeyed. Did I have a choice?
My old bones croaked with pain when she said I should not use magic in any way because the others could sense me doing it. Oh did I not tell you yet? I worship Black Arts in general and Ladonna in particular. She said her every step was watched and judged... and mumbled something incoherent about being too observable, but even that couldn't spoil her excitement.
"Find this boy," she said in a jubilant voice, "find this boy and take him here to me."
Easier said than done! The "boy" happened to live on the other side of the world, Takhisis damn it.
It would take too long to describe the journey here on a squeaking old ship ironically called the Tiny Timmy. She was anything but tiny! Designed to travel long distances she had four ballistas with which to defend itself against pirates crossing the otherwise safe waters of the Blood Sea.
Captain Morgan, an old sailor, said with proud that this girl carried only the richest, both of cargo and passengers and dared casting an ambiguous glance at my black robes which, I must admit, did require some laundry. Worry not, my brave captain. A dagger in the heart will pay you the debt, for Ladonna's secrets must stay unknown; alas I can't yet use magic in fear of being sensed.
But I thought poison would do too. The poor captain hated everybody and everything, except the gold and his ship.
...I suddenly woke from the unsteady sleep which I had cast myself into. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
Well, it all had started to get wrong fairly long ago. I never thought of it before, but what in the name of the Abyss could be of Ladonna's interest in this boy? He was nothing extraordinaire. He was as sick as Raistlin Majere in his childhood, yet he didn't possess the magical skills the Archmage has. It didn't even take me a single coin or a single spell to get him going with me; I had to lie to his so called trustee that I was an old uncle coming for his nephew. The host of the boy - what was his name? Daniel Link I suppose - was very happy to get rid of a hungry mouth, for he had almost nothing to eat already and Takhisis knows how they managed to survive all these years. I left him a handful of gold and we settled for the journey home.
Daniel Link, Daniel Link... Always quiet, sheepish but I could have sworn that I had seen a devil's sparkle in his eyes for a brief moment. He was like a sleeping kender, harmless and enjoyable until awaken.
The journey went just fine until now.
The ship rocked even more wildly and I nearly bumped my head across the ceiling. Not that I don't like flying, but sure not like a snooker ball trapped inside a rather small cage. Daniel Link awoke too and looked at me coyly. He must have had some pleasant dream, for a thin smile played on his lips.
Suddenly the rocking commenced to die down and I certainly disliked it. I reached for the door weak-legged and peered outside.
The captain looked like he would be elsewhere and preferably on the steady land.
"Is something wrong?" I shouted through the wind. sIn answer he solemnly waved his hand toward the horizon.
A quick glance had told me anything I wanted to know. Not that I wanted to know anything, of course.
The whirlpool had taken us. Silly though it seems, that old spawn of a gully dwarf, the captain, had allowed the Tiny Timmy to be caught.
"Wasn't my failure", he assured me as though there was any difference. " 'Twas something to do with the compass and the sky."
The sky? I scanned the sky intently, not that there was a single part of the sky visible at all, obscured by the clouds. With my magical senses I felt the magnetic field to have also changed. Who or what could be spoiling my trip? Par-Salian or Justarius had found out where I was going? Frowning, I again took a look at the captain.
The sea wolf that he was didn't panic for he was hastily giving out the commands.
"Don't worry, sir," he shouted in my direction, nearly deafening me. "There is a little trick I'll use to get us outta here."
What trick? Ears ringing, I returned to the ill-lit stateroom.
For the second time during our trip Daniel Link spoke up. "What happened? We are in the great whirlpool of the Blood Sea of Istar?"
He was almost painfully excited. I distantly nodded, my mind racing through the flashing thoughts and barely listening to what the young human was saying. Yet something drew my attention, the last words.
"I had a dream about us in the whirlpool just few minutes ago," he said. "I've never been to a whirlpool before."
There was something kenderish in this saying, but his next remark a kender would never say - at least, not in this worried voice.
"Are we in danger?"
"Yes," I answered coolly and added, "The captain's doing some trick to get us out."
"Oh, what if it doesn't work? What is the trick, anyway?"
I decided to check his doing and once again cast a look outside.
Captain noticed me and his face grew dull. "Not working," he simply said.
Why I wasn't the least bit surprised?
"What was it, anyway?" I inquired.
He pointed toward a used scroll he held in his hand. I recognized one of the simple, low level Control Weather scrolls that traveling magicians make profit of creating & selling.
"It should have worked fine," I said thoughtfully.
"It did not," the captain barked.
I measured the possibilities. I could carry Daniel Link and myself safely to Ladonna's office, for there set was a beacon to help me find the way, yet doing so would surely attract every watcher's attention and the Mistress was unlikely to enjoy it, hence needless to say I would fail my mission then.
I gave up the thought and went for the other idea. I quickly pulled a blank note from one of the pockets of my robe and slowly summoned to memory the Control Weather spell, tricky though it was. We were racing northwards and very likely to soon turn eastwards in the whirlpool spiral descent. So to get us out we would need a really strong wind flowing from north-east - in fact all we needed was a slight course changing and the centrifugal force would carry us out. Therefore the magical formula should be altered in this way, and also the key spine needed to be emphasized and... I pondered over the spell structure, and determined three keywords but then glanced toward the captain, judged his abilities as a magic-user and added the fourth keyword. I scribbled the keywords down in Elven, my preferred language of magic, and chained them to the main structure of the spell bound within the scroll. Now as someone reads the keywords, the spell is released and takes effect.
I handed the captain the note and saw his eyebrows rise. Of course he never suspected me a magic-user, and his glancing toward my black robes from the new angle of view had surely determined his final fate if we were to escape from the whirlpool.
It was no time for questions, the descent was becoming more steep and the captain knew that. He chanted the elven spell aloud.
The spell was taking the effect, I saw clouds moving under the strongest wind I could summon without attracting everyone's magical attention.
Yet something went very wrong. The wind abruptly ceased and died down.
In the name of the Abyss! I have lived long enough to be able to perform a simple Control Weather spell, or, at least, I thought so.
I chanted the spell myself and to the same effect.
Panic nearly took me as it already had taken the most of the ship's crew. They were trained sea wolves, mind you, they knew the tales of those who happened to escape from the whirlpool.
(Curios these are, truly. There is some magic laid upon the Blood Sea great whirlpool as well as upon the minor whirlpools. I'll need to perform a research someday. ["The Sea Elves" story tells you about the whirlpools of the Blood Sea.])
The Tiny Timmy had lost most of her crew. Roping themselves to huge barrels, the sailors escaped the ship and were indeed circling slower than the massive sailing vessel was. Captain looked at it with a distant smile upon his lips, his mind being far away.
"Wow," said Daniel Link's voice behind me, his face glowing with happiness. "Just as the tale Uncle Josh told me. The picture is just as I imagined it."
Although scarcely glad for him, I patted the boy onto the head and hurried for my chest.
It lay broken on the floor, obviously thrown adown when the Tiny Timmy steeply turned east. It didn't matter to me, though. What mattered is that it lay broken.
There was supposedly no force on Krynn capable of breaking the small chest I always carry with myself for I had bound it with the strongest chains, or, at least, I thought so. Magical, invisible chains that is. Panic nearly took me. Who was that mage not only strong enough to disrupt my spells but also supremely skilled in hiding himself? Why I couldn't even feel the influence?
"Daniel," I called in a suddenly hoarse voice. "How did it get broken?"
"Uh?" replied the boy, turning to me. Then his eyes dropped upon the remnants of the chest and his face went sad. "Oh I am sorry I didn't catch it when it fell. I thought it was fragile and it would get broken as it hit the floor... and well, it did."
Fragile? It was anything but fragile. It only looked fragile.
Absent-minded, I began picking up all the scrolls and potions I carried. In a few minutes I made my mind.
"Daniel", I called once again, distracting the boy from watching probably the brightest sight in his dull life. "You know what?"
"What?" he replied without turning to me.
"My dragon must be somewhere near by now. He'll rescue me - and you of course. Don't fear him when you see him."
"Wow!" I heard a cry of excitement and there was nothing in the world that could prevent those two brightly lit enormous eyes from staring at me like at an ancient hero. "You can command a dragon?"
I nodded as if it was the most common thing to me, although I never ever dreamed of controlling even the weakest dragon, of course. At least, not before a Dragon Orb falls into my hands.
Daniel suddenly swayed from side to side, went paler than usual and clutched his head.
"What's the matter?" I asked.
"Don't worry, I had that before. It'll wear off soon."
That was the way he survived through all these years of pain. When he sincerely believed in a thing or an event, it happened. When he was hungry he would have dreamed of something to eat and sooner or later his so-called uncle, the trustee, would find something seemingly out of nowhere.
When he saw the Blood Sea of Istar and remembered a tale told to him, he wished in the depth of his heart for it to become true. No boy would not adore an adventure.
I waited. The Timmy declined more and more. The captain stood praying to some gods of his own. Daniel Link, eyes glowing, scanned the skies for the signs of a dragon. My imaginary dragon. Why dragon, you ask? Well, I always dreamed of controlling one but my dreams never came true.
It finally showed in the distant horizon, the scaly reptile being.
"Evil dragon," the boy exclaimed in a dramatic crescendo as though his best dream came true. I shuddered. Of course to Daniel Link, a chromatic dragon would be more interesting to watch than a good, metallic one. If truth must be told, to me too.
Especially if I knew how to control it.
It moved closer and I, with my magically enhanced vision, could almost see and feel the grimace of pure incomprehension upon the reptile's perplexed muzzle.
The dragon flew closer. His eyes... pardon me, it was a she. The dragoness's eyes met my gaze. She said in an obeying voice but in apparent disbelief (so it came to be a question, not a statement): "My... Master?"
"Yes!" I said as firmly as I could. "I command you to take me with this boy."
The night blue dragoness, obviously unable to believe she was obeying to the orders of a weak human mage (truth must be told, she could destroy ten shiploads of mages far more worthy than me), caught us both gently and we landed on her warm scaly back.
"I order you to fly to the..." I hesitated a bit, choosing the best place, and Daniel Link interrupted my thoughts.
"You are not going to leave the captain behind, are you?" His voice was shaking. Of course I wasn't going to care about the captain, but I looked into the eyes of the boy and changed my mind. I ordered the dragoness to pick the captain too.
We three watched the ship foundering for a while, but only one of us was excited: Daniel Link, who else. He remarked in a hoping voice, "I wish it would snap!"
It did snap almost immediately. Although captain had probably thought it was by the water's pressure, I knew better. I also knew why Daniel went paler and suddenly blood began flowing down from his nose.
"Never had ridden a dragon before," he said in an excused voice.
Nor had I.
We arrived at the destination, a secret place. I commanded the dragoness to fly away and was rather glad she flew away without asking a question. The captain disappeared as soon as we landed; I heard of him recently, he is an innkeeper in Tarsis, his homecity, he grew an immense belly, and he loves telling the one story again and again. The story tells of the greatest mage of all times he had the honor to encounter on his ship, the one even more powerful than Raistlin Majere and Fistandantilus both, and I blush a ruby red to say this mage, was I. In captain's imagination, at least.
And right now it was the time Daniel Link and I would say good-bye to each other. I escorted him toward Ladonna's cabinet and turned to the magic-user of a higher rank, who had been escorting me as well.
"Good bye," cried Daniel happily, although his happiness was somewhat spoiled by the illness. "You are so good and so kind! Thank you! Nobody ever let me ride a dragon before!"
"Bye, Daniel," I said and let him go to Ladonna's.
And turned toward my colleague with the special knowledge in my eyes.
"So you have discovered the truth," he simply said.
"Yes," nodded I. "If I hadn't discovered it, I wouldn't ride a dragoness. What're you going to do with him?"
"Oh Ladonna's been planning this for a few years. We will get immense powers, what else. We'll make him believe in things we need."
"Do you know each wonder he unconsciously creates wanes his life force?" I asked wearily.
"Even so?" said the mage with no trace of amazement. "Well, he should last just enough to get us the most powerful spellbooks and notes and Gilean-knows-what else he believes in. Imagine, if he believes this scroll contains a spell able to destroy Krynn," he waved a blank scroll before my eyes, "it will contain such spell. The boy has just enough energy for something like that before he wears out."
"You are so good! You are so kind!" I heard Daniel Link's voice again in my memory.
I cast a spell which sent the mage unconscious, blood flowing all over, and withdrew the doorknob of the door to Ladonna's lab with force. He ought to be there, they couldn't have taken him far yet...
They didn't take him anywhere.
The door opened swiftly. There they were, the five most powerful mages of our Order, seated in the chairs, and by their pale faces and bewildered wide eyes I could tell something strange happened. They didn't even notice me.
Daniel Link lay before them, a star against a dark sky. A fading star, though. He was dead, he lay motionless and not a single droplet of blood was in his face.
Two things kept pumping in my head: "You are so good! You are kind!" and "He has just enough energy for something like destroying Krynn before he wears out".
Never thought that these two really were commensurable.