Sturm stared at her, hurt and puzzled. Then his face hardened. ‘I was happy to be of service, Lady Alhana. But you are still in danger. Allow me to take you to your lodgings, then I will trouble you no more.’
‘That is quite impossible,’ Alhana said, gritting her teeth to keep her jaw set firmly. ‘My lodgings are not far, and my friends wait for me. We have a way out of the city. Forgive me for not taking you, but I am never certain about trusting humans.’
Sturm’s brown eyes flashed. Alhana, standing close, could feel his body tremble. Once more she nearly lost her resolve.
‘I know where you are staying,’ she said, swallowing. ‘The Red Dragon Inn. Perhaps—if I find my friends—we could offer you help—’
‘Do not concern yourself.’ Sturm’s voice echoed her coldness. ‘And do not thank me. I did nothing more than my Code required of me. Farewell,’ he said, and started to walk away.
Then, remembering, he turned back. Drawing the sparkling diamond pin from his belt, he placed it in Alhana’s hand. ‘Here,’ he said. Looking into her dark eyes, he suddenly saw the pain she tried to hide. His voice softened, though he could not understand. ‘I am pleased you trusted me with this gem,’ he said gently, ‘even for a few moments.’
The elfmaid stared at the jewel for an instant, then she began to shake. Her eyes lifted to Sturm’s eyes and she saw in them not scorn, as she expected, but compassion. Once more, she wondered at humans. Alhana dropped her head, unable to meet his gaze, and took his hand in hers. Then she laid the jewel in his palm and closed his fingers over it.
‘Keep this,’ she said softly. ‘When you look at it, think of Alhana Starbreeze and know that, somewhere, she thinks of you.’
Sudden tears flooded the knight’s eyes. He bowed his head, unable to speak. Then, kissing the gem, he placed it carefully back into his belt and he reached out his hands, but Alhana drew back into the doorway, her pale face averted.
‘Please go,’ she said. Sturm stood for a moment, irresolute, but he could not—in honor—refuse to obey her request. The knight turned and plunged back into the nightmarish street.
Alhana watched him from the doorway for a moment, a protective shell hardening around her. ‘Forgive me, Sturm,’ she whispered to herself. Then she stopped. ‘No, do not forgive me,’ she said harshly. ‘Thank me.’
Closing her eyes, she conjured up an image in her mind and sent a message speeding to the outskirts of the city where her friends waited to carry her from this world of humans. Receiving their telepathic answer in reply, Alhana sighed and began anxiously to scan the smoke-filled skies, waiting.
‘Ah,’ said Raistlin calmly as the first horn calls shattered the stillness of the afternoon, ‘I told you so.’
Riverwind cast an irritated glance at the mage, even as he tried to think what to do. It was all very well for Tanis to say protect the group from the town guards, but to protect them from armies of draconians, from dragons! Riverwind’s dark eyes went over the group. Tika rose to her feet, her hand on her sword. The young girl was brave and steady, but unskilled. The Plainsman could still see the scars on her hand where she had cut herself.
‘What is it?’ Elistan asked, looking bewildered.
‘The Dragon Highlord, attacking the city,’ Riverwind answered harshly, trying to think.
He heard a clanking sound. Caramon was getting up, the big warrior appearing calm and unperturbed. Thank goodness for that. Even though Riverwind detested Raistlin, he had to admit that the mage and his warrior brother combined steel and magic effectively. Laurana, too, he saw, appeared cool and resolute, but then she was an elf—Riverwind had never really learned to trust elves.
‘Get out of the city, if we don’t return,’ Tanis had told him. But Tanis hadn’t foreseen this! They would get out of the city only to meet the armies of the Dragon Highlords on the Plains. Riverwind now had an excellent idea who had been watching them as they traveled to this doomed place. He swore to himself in his own language, then—even as the first dragons swept down over the city—he felt Goldmoon’s arm around him. Looking down, he saw her smile—the smile of Chieftain’s Daughter—and he saw the faith in her eyes. Faith in the gods, and faith in him. He relaxed, his brief moment of panic gone.
A shock wave hit the building. They could hear the screams in the streets below, the roaring whoosh of the fires.
‘We’ve got to get off this floor, back to ground level,’ Riverwind said. ‘Caramon, bring the knight’s sword and the other weapons. If Tanis and the others are—’ He stopped. He had been about to say ‘still alive,’ then saw Laurana’s face. ‘If Tanis and the others escape, they’ll return here. We’ll wait for them.’
‘Excellent decision!’ hissed the mage caustically. ‘Especially as we have nowhere else to go!’
Riverwind ignored him. ‘Elistan, take the others downstairs. Caramon and Raistlin, stay with me a moment.’ After they were gone, he said swiftly, ‘Our best chance, the way I see it, is to stay inside, barricade ourselves in the Inn. The streets will be deadly.’
‘How long do you think we can hold out?’ Caramon asked.
Riverwind shook his head. ‘Hours, maybe,’ he said briefly.
The brothers looked at him, each of them thinking about the tortured bodies they had seen in the village of Que-shu, of what they had heard about the destruction of Solace.
‘We cannot be taken alive,’ Raistlin whispered.
Riverwind took a deep breath. ‘We’ll hold out as long as we can,’ he said, his voice shaking slightly, ‘but when we know we can last no longer—’
He stopped, unable to continue, his hand on his knife, thinking of what he must do.
‘There will be no need for that,’ Raistlin said softly. ‘I have herbs. A tiny bit in a glass of wine. Very quick, painless.’
‘Are you certain?’ Riverwind asked.
‘Trust me,’ Raistlin replied. ‘I am skilled in the art. The art of herblore,’ he amended smoothly, seeing the Plainsman shudder.
‘If I am alive,’ Riverwind said softly, ‘I will give her—them—the drink myself. If not—’
‘I understand. You may trust me,’ the mage repeated.
‘What about Laurana?’ Caramon asked. ‘You know elves. She won’t—’
‘Leave it to me,’ Raistlin repeated softly.
The Plainsman stared at the mage, feeling horror creep over him. Raistlin stood before him coolly, his arms folded in the sleeves of his robe, his hood pulled up over his head. Riverwind looked at his dagger, considering the alternative. No, he couldn’t do it. Not that way.
‘Very well,’ he said, swallowing. He paused, dreading to go downstairs and face the others. But the sounds of death in the street were growing louder. Riverwind turned abruptly and left the brothers alone.
‘I will die fighting,’ Caramon said to Raistlin, trying to speak in a matter-of-fact tone. After the first few words, though, the big warrior’s voice broke. ‘Promise me, Raist, you’ll take this stuff if I’m...not there...’
‘There will be no need,’ Raistlin said simply. ‘I have not the strength to survive a battle of this magnitude. I will die within my magic.’
Tanis and Gilthanas fought their way through the crowd, the stronger half-elf holding onto the elf as they shoved and clawed and pushed through the panicked masses. Time and again, they ducked for shelter from the dragons. Gilthanas wrenched his knee, fell into a doorway, and was forced to limp in agony, leaning on Tanis’s shoulder.
The half-elf breathed a prayer of thankfulness when he saw the Red Dragon Inn, a prayer that changed to a curse when he saw the black reptilian forms surging around the front. He dragged Gilthanas, who had been stumbling along blindly, exhausted by pain, back into a recessed doorway.