“Akender?Why?”
“How should I know? Go deal with him!”
“Maybe he wants to give you information for the Conclave meeting.”
“Foolish boy! The Conclave doesn’t inform outsiders of its meetings. Least of all, kender.” He waved a bony finger at his apprentice. “Don’t you fill the kender’s head with any ideas. If you so much as mention the Tower of High Sorcery, we’ll never be rid of him!”
“Of course, sir,” Cedwick bowed. “What if he has some important information, though?”
“No kender in the history of Krynn has ever had important information.” After a moment, Laudus added, “Unless, of course, he stole it.”
From beyond the window, the kender began to sing a bawdy drinking song in an off-key tenor voice.
“Go get rid of him!”
“Yes, Master!”
Quite suddenly the kender changed keys, becoming considerably more shrill and, amazingly enough, more off-key. The old man felt a headache coming on.
“I’ve come to speak to Master Laudus about the Conclave meeting,” the kender said brightly.
A little voice inside Cedwick’s head told him he had heard incorrectly. The kender couldn’t have said, “I’ve come to speak to Master Laudus about the Conclave meeting.”
“Excuse me?” the young man asked.
“I’ve come to speak to Master Laudus about the Conclave meeting,” the kender repeated.
Cedwick stood there dumbly. It still sounded like “the Conclave meeting.”
“You’ve come to speak to Master Laudus about the Conclave meeting?”
“Yes!”
“No, you haven’t.”
The kender nodded. “I have! I heard the Conclave was holding a very important meeting about the disappearance of magic, and I have information on the subject.”
“Well, then, why are you here at my master’s tower? Why didn’t you go to the Tower of High Sorcery?”
Cedwick suddenly remembered he wasn’t supposed to mention the Tower of High Sorcery. This could mean trouble.
The kender, however, seemed unsurprised.
“Because!” he said. “Everyone knows the great Master Laudus is attending the Conclave meeting, and I thought he could best relay my information, being a higher wizard than me.”
“You are a wizard?” the apprentice asked.
In truth, the kender did look like a wizard-or perhaps a satire of one. He wore a voluminous gray robe. Silvery symbols covered every available inch of the cloth. Clutched in one hand, the little man held an intricately carved staff. From its look, it had probably been a hoopak at some stage of its life, but the sling had been replaced by a beautiful shard of blue crystal. The kender’s other hand could not be seen, for it lay buried beneath a mass of rings, bracelets, and assorted bangles. No less numerous were the necklaces and pendants about the kender’s neck. Earrings dangled from his pointed ears. The apprentice wondered how this fellow managed to stand with the weight of that jewelry.
“Well, I’m not exactly a wizard,” the kender admitted.
“Not exactly?”
“I’m more of a wizard slayer.”
“A wizard slayer?”
“Why do you repeat everything I say?”
“Why do I-” Cedwick began before thinking better of it. He stared at the kender incredulously. “What do you mean you are a wizard slayer?”
“That’s my name! Halivar Wizardslayer. What’s your name?”
“Cedwick,” the apprentice mage said hastily. “So you don’t actually kill wizards?”
“Of course I do! I wouldn’t be deserving of my name if I didn’t, now would I?”
“Have you killed many of them?”
“Every one I have ever met,” said Halivar. “That makes-” he glanced at the sky, thinking noisily, “Eight- well, seven. The eighth was an alchemist, not a wizard, but he had a magic ring and-
“Why do you kill wizards?”
“Oh, it’s not that I mean to kill them or anything! I really have nothing against them at all! It’s just that when I come into contact with a wizard, sooner or later, he dies.”
“Are you telling me I’m about to die?”
“No, no! You’re standing in the protective circle. You’re completely safe.”
Cedwick looked down. To his surprise, he found himself standing in a crudely drawn circle in the dirt.
“You did this?” he asked the kender.
“Before you arrived,” Halivar said, nodding. “Just coincidental that you stood in it. Lucky for you!”
“Now, look,” Cedwick said, stepping forward.
“No, please! Don’t leave the circle! It would be just awful if I killed you!”
The young man shook his head. “I don’t believe you have a curse.”
“Oh, yes, I do! I’m sure of it. That’s why I’ve been studying magic! I want to end the curse.”
Cedwick glanced at the kender sharply, “You say you’ve been studying magic? How?”
“I have these books!” the kender said, smiling. From beneath the folds of his robes he drew forth a set of four mismatched tomes tied together with a length of cord.
Cedwick’s eyes grew wide. “Please let me see those!”
Halivar thought for a moment before he said, “Okay, but don’t step outside the confines of the protective circle!” The kender set the books down along the edge of the circle and stepped back a dozen feet.
Cedwick knelt and carefully picked up the books. Even without a close inspection he could tell they were genuine spell books. Furthermore, they appeared to be spell books of four different mages. The spines of all but one book bore sigils of protection. He guessed that a little of their original magic remained, just as certain artifacts within Master Laudus’s tower held some of their powers.
“Where did you get these?”
“I found them!”
“Found them?”
“Well,” Halivar said, “it seemed to me that the wizards would not be needing them anymore, being dead and all. So I thought I could use them to help understand what was happening.”
Cedwick rose to his feet. “You understand that studying magic without the approval of the High Council is a serious offense?”
“Is it really?” the kender said inquisitively. “I’ve never committed a serious offense before. Not on purpose at least!” His eyes hardened, his brow furrowed, and he stood straight and resolute. “What is the penalty for such a crime?”
The young man couldn’t help but chuckle at the kender’s sudden resolve. “This is your punishment. You must go home. Leave these books and any other items you have acquired from mages here with me, and don’t try to learn magic again.”
Halivar hesitated. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have very important information for the Conclave! I must deliver it to Master Laudus.”
“Oh, yes, I forgot. Well, you’re in luck! I am in charge of deciding who will see Master Laudus.”
“Really?”
“Of course,” Cedwick lied. “Why do you think he sent me out to greet you?”
“Well, may I see the him now?”
“Not yet. First, I must hear your story.”
“Oh, of course.” The kender bowed, but he stood there a long moment without saying anything.
“Go on! Speak up!”
The kender looked as if he were having a difficult time of it. Finally he looked levelly at Cedwick and stood straight as an arrow, as if he were a man facing his death without fear.
“Master Cedwick, I have destroyed magic. .”
“. . And so as I was picking up the broken bits of mandolin and offering an apology to the minstrel, the alchemist’s carriage collided with the vendor’s cart, and the sausage flew into the magic circle,” Halivar finished.
“So the sausage disrupted the spell?” Cedwick yawned.
“No, the sausage attracted the stray dogs.”
“So the dogs disrupted the spell?”
“No, no, no! It was the crate of apples the dwarf was carrying! Haven’t you been listening?”
Cedwick thought he had been listening. Of course, he thought he’d been listening the first two times the kender told the story as well.