Dragonlance: Crossroads, Book 04 - The Dragon Isles by Stephen D. Sullivan

Author:Stephen D. Sullivan [Sullivan, Stephen D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7869-2827-9
Publisher: Fanversion Publishing
Published: 2015-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

A Kender’s Visit to Jaentarth

Trip didn’t mind being locked in a small room—to a kender, it seemed like quite a large room. He didn’t even mind being tied up. The ropes weren’t too itchy, and it gave him something to work on during the voyage. What he did mind was that the room had no window, and he really wanted to see where Lord Kell’s galley was taking him. He hoped—if they were going to Jaentarth—that he might even see some pirates.

The brass warriors were more careful with knots than most humans. It took Trip the better part of two hours to work his way out, and then about ten minutes more to rig the ropes so that he could slip in and out without anyone knowing.

Occasionally, someone poked their head in and gave him some food. The food was never very well prepared, but Trip enjoyed it nonetheless. Hardtack, jerky, and water were better than some of the sea elf fare he’d had recently. He would have given a lot for a good tuna steak, though.

After fixing the ropes properly, he went to work on the cabin’s door. This proved somewhat easier, since he had both his hands free, and because he had pieces of wire in his pockets, with which to pick the lock.

While digging out the hidden wire he was reminded of his other major annoyance: before throwing him in this small, windowless room, Kell’s crew had searched him thoroughly—searched him like a gully dwarf, as his uncle might have said. He’d lost quite a few interesting trinkets in the process: some sharks’ teeth, a tiny sand dollar, a bit of string that his cousin had given him, and a polished brass button that he’d taken from a prison guard in Khur. That was an interesting adventure!

Sadly, they’d also discovered and confiscated the remnants of his magical seaweed, his lucky kender treasure finder—a real blow, that!—and (he sighed just to think of it) the black diamond artifact. He hadn’t hidden the artifact very well, assuming that Kell’s people wouldn’t be so rude as to search him, once Mik and the others had left. In fact, before they grabbed him, ransacked his things, tied him up, and thrust him into this dark closet, he had actually been looking forward to his forced voyage to Perch, on the island of Alarl.

Kell’s crew hadn’t bothered to expropriate the worthless-seeming tiny wires that served Trip as lockpicks, though. As he sprang the rusty lock on the door of the cabin, and stepped out, many of the crew were asleep. Still, the galley was a crowded place, and the kender had to use all his considerable stealth to creep along without being seen. Voices from the ship’s stem attracted Trip’s attention. He sneaked past several rows of sleeping oarsmen to get there, but the challenge of doing so only made him more eager to hear what was going on.

Two spartan cabins occupied the rear of the ship, one, Trip assumed, for Lord Kell, and one for Lady Kell.

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