Night masks by R. A. Salvatore

Author:R. A. Salvatore [Salvatore, R. A.]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science fiction, Fantasy, General, Fiction, Fantasy - General, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Magic, Juvenile Fiction, Fiction - Fantasy, Fantasy & Magic, American, Fantasy fiction, Forgotten realms (Imaginary place), American Science Fiction And Fantasy, Wizards, Cadderly (Fictitious character)
ISBN: 9781560763284
Publisher: TSR
Published: 2010-01-21T15:40:54+00:00

The Stooge’s Stooge

Kierkan Rufo eyed the stocked shelves with open contempt. Shopping! For more than a dozen years, he had labored in the Edificant Library, had meticulously attended to his duties, and now Headmaster Avery had sent him shopping!

This entire trip to Carradoon had been one humiliation after another for poor Rufo. He knew his actions in Shilmista had angered Avery (though he had convinced himself by this time that none of it had really been his fault), but he never would have believed that the headmaster would degrade him so. Through all the many meetings, with the priests of Ihnater, with several of the other religious sects in the city, and with the city officials, Rufo had been ordered to stand behind Avery and remain silent. These meetings were vital to the defense of the region, vital to the survival of the Edificant Library, yet Rufo was, for all purposes, left out of them. Not only was his input not wanted by Avery, the headmaster had outright forbidden it!

And now he was shopping. Rufo stood before the shelves for many moments, fantasizing that the other side had won in Shilmista Forest, thinking that he would have been better off if Dorigen’s forces had slaughtered the elves and had taken him into their ranks as the imp had promised. Perhaps the world would be a better place for Kierkan Rufo if Cadderly had fallen in the sylvan shadows.

Cadderly! The word screamed out in Rufo’s mind like the most damning of curses. Cadderly had apparently forsaken the library and the Order of Deneir, had virtually slapped Headmaster Avery and all the other priests in the face with his desertion—there could be no other word for the young priest’s actions. Cadderly had never been a good priest— not by Rufo’s estimation—had never attended to the many duties given the lesser clerics with any kind of dedication. And yet, in Avery’s eyes at least, Cadderly ranked far above Rufo, far above any except the ruling order in the library.

Rufo grabbed a sack of flour and pulled it to him so forcefully that a small white puff burst up at him, covering his face.

“Someone’s not seeming a bit too happy,” came a gruff, gravelly voice beside him.

“Uh-uh,” agreed a voice on the other side.

The angular priest did not have to look sidelong or down to know that the Bouldershoulder brothers had flanked him, and that fact did little to improve his sour mood. He had known that the dwarves were coining to Carradoon, but he had hoped that he and Avery would be well on their way back to the library before these two ever arrived.

He turned toward Ivan and started to push past the dwarf, through the narrow aisle of the cramped store. Ivan did little to aid the angular man, and with the dwarfs considerable girth, Rufo had nowhere to go.

“Ye’re in a hurry,” Ivan remarked. “I thinked ye’d be glad to see me and me brother.”

“Get out of my way, dwarf,” Rufo said grimly.

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