"What kind do you think it is?"
"Well, if it's a dragon egg, then I guess the picture repre sents the world in balance between humans and dragons – as long as the dragons are just eggs."
Cupelix said, "That's very good. It's also the most obvi ous interpretation. There are many others."
"Who made the hangings?"
"I don't know. The gods, perhaps. They were here before
I was." The dragon went to the largest pile of books and lay back against them, drawing his tail around in front. Kitiara cast about for a convenient place to sit. She upended a black iron cauldron inlaid with silver runes and sat on that.
"So here I am," she said. "Why did you want to talk with me especially?"
"Because you are different from the others. The man
Sturm, I enjoy debating, but one can talk to him for five minutes and know his entire mind. He is very plain-spoken and single-minded, isn't he?"
She shrugged. "He's a good fellow when he doesn't inflict his narrow values on others. It's hard to like him sometimes."
"And love?" asked the dragon slyly.
"Hardly! Oh, he's not bad looking, well made and all, but it'll take a different sort of woman from me to capture
Sturm Brightblade's heart."
Cupelix cocked his head to one side. "In what way?"
"Innocent. Unworldly. Someone who fits his knightly version of purity."
"Ah," said the dragon. "A female untainted by lust"
Kitiara smiled crookedly. "Well, not completely."
"Ha!" Cupelix gave a hoot of laughter, thumping a six foot stack of tomes. Dust puffed from between the yellowed vellum pages. "That's what I like about you, my dear; you're so frank, yet unpredictable. I've not yet been able to read your mind."
"But you've tried?"
"Oh, yes. It's important to know what dangerous mortals are thinking."
Kitiara laughed. "Am I dangerous?"
"Very. As I explained, Master Brightblade is an open book to me, and the gnomes' thoughts fly about like mad butter flies, but you – you, my dear Kitiara, bear much watching."
"The time has come for you to answer some questions frankly, dragon," she said, planting her hands on her knees.
"What is it you want from us? From me?"
"I told you," said Cupelix, twisting his neck from side to side. "I want to leave this tower and go to Krynn. I'm sick of being cooped up in here, with no one to talk to and nothing to eat but the leavings the Micones can scrounge for me."
'You feed us quite well," Kitiara objected.
"You do not understand the essential formula of magic. A' small amount of matter can be changed by a large amount of energy – that is how it is done. What you consider a large meal would not be a snack for me."
'You're big and strong," she said. "Why don't you claw your way out?"
"And bring the stones down upon my head?" Cupelix preened his purplish cheeks. "That would hardly accom plish my purpose. Besides," his eyes narrowed vertically,
"there is geas, a magical prohibition against my damaging the structure. I have tried many times, using many formu lae, to convince the Micones to demolish the tower, but they would not. There is a higher power at work here, which requires the attention of a third force to overcome. Your ingenious little friends are that third force, my dear. Their fertile little brains can conceive a hundred schemes for every one you or I may devise."
"And none of them practical."
"Really? You surprise me again, dear mortal girl. Did these same gnomes not get you to Lunitari in the first place?"
She objected that that had been an accident.
"Accidents are only unexpected probabilities," said the dragon. "They can be encouraged."
When Cupelix said that, Kitiara looked over her left shoulder and saw the Dark Queen glaring down haughtily from her tapestry. "What," she began before taking her eyes off the mesmerizing visage, "will you do if we can get you out of here?"
"Fly to Krynn and take up residence there, of course. I am very keen to sample the mortal world with all its gaudy and vigorous life." She gave a derisive snort. "Why do you do that?" asked Cupelix.
"You think life on Krynn is strange! What do you call the creatures who dwell around you?" she said.
"To me, they are normal. They are all I have known, you see, and they bore me. Have you ever tried to talk philoso phy with a tree-man? One might as well talk to a stone. Did you know that the vegetable life that grows on Lunitari is so feeble and transient it has no magical aura of its own? It is only because of the pervasive force of my egg-bound com patriots that there is life here at all." Cupelix mustered a massive sigh. "I want to see oceans and forests and moun tains. I want to converse with wise mortals of every race, and so increase my knowledge beyond the boundaries set by these ancient books."
Now she understood. "You want power," said Kitiara.
Cupelix clenched his foreclaw into a fist. "If knowledge is power, then the answer is yes. I ache to be free of this perfect prison. When my Micone scouts discovered the gnomes' fly ing ship, for the first time I hoped that I might escape."
Kitiara was silent for a moment. Choosing her words care fully, she said, "Do you fear retribution, should you escape?"
The dragon's head pulled back in surprise, "Retribution from whom?"
"Those who made the obelisk. If a prison stands, then there likely is a warden somewhere."
"The gods sleep. Gilean the Gray Voyager, Sirrion, and
Reorx have laid down the reins of destiny. The way is clear for action. The very fact of your voyage to Lunitari bears this out. In the days of Huma, such a thing would not have been tolerated," Cupelix said.
The gods sleep, Kitiara mused. The way is clear for action! These thoughts stirred deep within her. It must be true; a dragon would know.
"Tell me your thoughts," Cupelix said. "I grow uneasy when you are so quiet."
A daring notion began to form in her head. "Have you considered what you will do once you reach Krynn?" she asked. "Your books are old. You could use a guide."
"Do you have anyone in mind, my dear?"
"Few know Ansalon as I do," Kitiara replied."My travels have taken me far. Together we could tour the world and reap what benefits would come to us." She looked the dragon in the eye. "As partners."
Cupelix wheezed and whistled like a boiling teapot. He clapped his forearms against his sides. He really was quite good at parodying human gestures.
"Oh, my dear woman! You wound me with mirth! I am killed!" he exclaimed.
Kitiara frowned. "Why do you laugh?"
"You speak of partnership with a dragon as casually as I speak of my servants, the Micones. Do you imagine that you and I are equals? That is a rich jest indeed!" Cupelix rocked so hard with merriment that he banged his head sharply on the wall behind him. That calmed him, but Kiti ara was already offended. She sprang to her feet.
"I wish to leave!" she exclaimed. "I see no reason to sit here and be laughed at!"
"Sit down," Cupelix said genially. When she struck a defi ant pose, the dragon swept his tail in behind her, and down she went to the marble floor.
"Let us be clear about one thing, my dear girclass="underline" On the scale of life, I sit far higher than you. And I will have good manners from my guests, yes?" Kitiara rubbed her bruised posterior and said nothing. "Face-to-face with one of the greatest creatures that ever existed, you are insolent. What makes you so proud?
"I am what I have made myself," Kitiara said tersely. "In a world where most are ignorant peasants, I made myself a warrior. I take what I can and give when I like. I don't need you, dragon. I don't need anyone!"
"Not even Tanis?" Kitiara's face darkened dramatically.
"Be at ease. Even your mortal friend Sturm could have heard your heart cry out his name just then. Who is this man, and why do you love him?"
"He's half-elf, not human, if you must know." Kitiara took a deep breath. "And I don't love him!"
"Indeed? Can my sense for such things be so wrong? I would hear the tale of Tanis," Cupelix said. He curled back his lips in a waggish imitation of a human smile. "Please?"
"You only want to hear so you can mock me."
"No, no! Human relationships fascinate me. I need to understand."
Kitiara slipped back onto the overturned cauldron. She gazed into space, marshaling images of her past. "I'd like to understand Tanis myself," she said. "Being a woman in a man's game – war – throws you in with all sorts of men.