“If you want to carry water in a bucket with us on our journey, brother, then do so, by all means,” Raistlin said coldly. “Most people find a water skin to be more convenient.”
“What journey?” Caramon asked.
“The one we are undertaking in the morning,” Raistlin returned. He thrust the water skin at Caramon. “Here, take this!”
“Where are we going?” Caramon kept his hands at his sides.
“Oh, come, now, Caramon! Even you can’t be that stupid!” Raistlin flung the water skin at his brother’s feet. “Do as I say. We will make an early start, and I want to study my spells before I sleep. We’ll need food, too.”
Raistlin sat down in the only chair in the cave. He picked up his spellbook and opened it. After a moment, however, he shut that book and, reaching deep into his pouch, drew out another—the spellbook with the night-blue binding. He did not open it but held it in his hand.
“We’re going to Skullcap, aren’t we?” said Caramon.
Raistlin didn’t answer. He kept his hand on the closed book.
“You don’t even know where it is!” Caramon said.
Raistlin looked up at his brother. His golden eyes gleamed strangely in the staff’s magical light.
“That’s just it, Caramon,” he said softly. “I do know where it is. I know the location and I know how to reach it. I don’t know why…” His voice trailed off.
“Why what?” Caramon demanded, bewildered.
“Why I know… or how I know. It’s strange, as if I’ve been there before.” Caramon was unhappy. “Put that book away, Raist, and forget about this. The trip will be too hard for you. We can’t climb the mountain—”
“We don’t have to,” said Raistlin.
“Even if the snow ends,” Caramon continued, “the trip will be cold, wet, and dangerous. What if that Verminaard comes again and catches us out in open?”
“He won’t, because we won’t be in the open.” Raistlin glared at his twin. “Quit arguing and go fill the water skin!”
Caramon shook his head. “No,” he said. “I won’t.”
Raistlin drew in a seething breath, then, suddenly, he let it out.
“My brother,” said Raistlin gently, “if we do not make this journey, Tanis and Flint will not find the gate, much less make their way inside the mountain.”
Caramon looked into his twin’s face. “Are you sure about that?”
“As sure as the death that awaits them, that awaits us all if they fail,” said Raistlin, his gaze unwavering.
Caramon heaved a deep sigh. Reaching down, he picked up the water skin and went back out into the snow-filled night.
Raistlin relaxed in his chair. He put aside the night-blue spellbook and opened up his own.
“What a simple soul you are, my brother,” he remarked in scathing tones.
As he left the cave, Caramon caught a glimpse of Sturm standing nearby. Caramon knew perfectly well why Sturm was here. He had seen the knight watching them. Sturm would never stoop to spying on his friends or his enemies, for that matter. Such a dishonorable act went against the Code and the Measure, the rigid guidelines by which a Solamnic knight lived his life. The Oath and the Measure said nothing about friendly persuasion, however. Sturm was here to waylay Caramon and “persuade” the truth out of him.
Caramon was hopeless at keeping secrets and worse still at lying. If he told Sturm that Raistlin was planning to go to Skullcap, Sturm would tell Tanis, and the gods alone knew what would come of it—a bitter argument at the least, a fatal breach between long-time friends at the worst. Caramon wished Sturm would just let the matter go.
A furious flurry of snow allowed him to conceal his movements, and he went the long way down the slope to the stream. The flurry ceased. The clouds parted, and the stars came out. Glancing back, he could see Sturm silhouetted in Solinari’s silver light, still roaming about outside the twins’ cave.
He’ll give up after awhile, Caramon reasoned, and go to bed.
Caramon didn’t like Raistlin’s plan to go to this haunted Skullcap place, but he trusted his twin and believed Raistlin’s argument that the journey was necessary to save lives. Caramon knew he was alone in his trust for his twin. Well, not quite. Tanis often turned to Raistlin for advice, and it was this knowledge more than his twin’s reasoning that had induced Caramon to finally go along with his twin’s scheme.
“Tanis would sanction our going, if he had time to think about it,” Caramon reasoned to himself.
“Everything’s happened so fast, that’s all, and Tanis has too much to worry about as it is.” As for how Raistlin knew where to find Skullcap and how he planned to get there, Caramon knew better than to ask, figuring he wouldn’t understand anyway. He had never understood his twin, not when they were little children and certainly not now. The terrible Test in the Tower of High Sorcery had forever changed his brother in ways that Caramon could not fathom. The Test had forever changed their relationship as well. The one secret Caramon kept was the secret he’d learned about his twin in the Tower. That secret was dark and appalling, and Caramon kept it mainly because he never let himself think about it.
Having safely avoided Sturm, Caramon lifted his head and breathed in the cool, crisp air. He felt better out in the open, away from all the voices. Here he could think. Caramon was not stupid, as some believed. Caramon liked to consider a problem from all angles, ruminate, mull it over, and this often gave him the appearance of being slow. He rarely shared his thoughts with others, fearing their mockery. No one had been more surprised than Caramon when his friends had lauded his idea of having Raistlin use his magic to create an avalanche to block the pass. Caramon felt so much better out here by himself that, when another flurry struck, he stuck out his tongue to catch the snowflakes, as he’d done when a child. Snow always made him feel like a kid again. If the snow fall had been deeper, he would have been tempted to lie down on his back, flap his arms and legs, and make a snowbird. The snow wasn’t deep enough yet, though, and didn’t look as if it would be. Stars glittered beneath the clouds.
Negotiating his way around an outcropping of rock, trying to keep his footing, Caramon nearly ran headlong into Tika.
“Caramon!” she said, pleased.
“Tika!” exclaimed Caramon, alarmed.
He felt like the warrior in the adage who had avoided the kobolds only to fall victim to goblins. He’d managed to evade Sturm’s questioning, but if there was one person in this world who could wrap him around her red curls and wheedle whatever she wanted out of him, it was Tika Waylan.
“What are you doing out in the night?” she asked.
Caramon held up the water skin. “Fetching water.”
He shuffled his big feet a moment then said abruptly, “I’ve got to go now!” and started to walk off.
“I’m going to the stream myself,” said Tika, catching up with him. “I’m afraid of getting lost in the snow.” She slid her hand through his arm. “I’m not afraid when I’m with you, though.” Caramon quivered from head to toe. He had once thought Tika Waylan the ugliest little girl he’d ever seen and the greatest nuisance ever born. He’d gone away for five years, doing mercenary work with his twin, and come back to find Tika the most attractive, wonderful woman he’d ever known, and he’d known quite a few.
Big, handsome, and brawny, with a cheerful smile and good-hearted nature, Caramon had never lacked female companionship. Girls liked him and he liked them. He’d indulged in numerous dalliances with countless women, spent more time snuggling in barn lofts and behind hay mounds than he could count. No woman had ever touched his heart, however. Not until Tika. And she hadn’t really touched his heart—his heart had jumped out of his chest to land plop at her feet.
He wanted to be a better person for her. He wanted to be smarter, braver, yet every time he was with her, he went all addled and befuddled, especially when she pressed her body up close against his, like she was now. Caramon recalled a talk he’d had with Goldmoon. The older woman had warned him that although Tika talked and acted like a worldly woman, she was, in truth, young and innocent. Caramon must not take advantage of her or he would hurt her deeply. Caramon was determined to keep himself under strict control, but this was very hard when Tika looked at him as she was looking at him now, with snow sparkling on her red curls and her cheeks rosy with the cold and her green eyes shining.