"Unseen," he echoed dutifully.
"Exactly." She stared into space. "Stealthily creeping out under the cover of darkness, I, alone, crawling through the enemy camp…
She went on again for quite some time, not bothering much about the truth, which was actually pretty boring and she was sure no one wanted to hear anyway.
Standback listened patiently, feeling only a little put out that she had been going on like that after making him be brief. When she finished, he said, "But why did you come?"
"What?" Mara brought herself back to being Queen of Thieves. "I came here," she began boldly, then faltered as she realized how it would sound, "to — borrow, or — get, or somehow — take — okay, STEAL some gnome weaponry for the war with the draconians." She was blushing.
Standback decided that he liked her, but he wasn't sure how sensible she was.
"Gnome technology is famous throughout Krynn," Mara added wheedlingly, with some truth. FAMOUS and INFAMOUS were fairly close. "There are legends of past great weapons. The Knights of Solamnia still speak of your poison gas — "
"Yes, well," Standback said uncomfortably, "it was supposed to make us invisible, you know. Still, not a total loss; it does wonders for pest control down here. Mostly." He glanced from side to side.
"Mostly?" Mara jumped as a loud chittering sound flew by her ear. She whirled, but saw nothing.
"We ran out of the original batch lately, so we made a new one. It doesn't seem to kill them any more." Standback ducked as a flapping sound passed near his head. "Lately it just makes them invisible."
Mara looked around nervously. The tunnel, at the bottom of the crater that formed Mount Nevermind, was rough-hewn rock scored by some huge excavating blade and riddled with drill holes and iron bolts. Ropes and cables hung every which way, with pulleys, blocks and tackles, and crane tracks running the length of the ceiling.
Though there were no torches, the tunnel was quite bright. Mara gingerly felt the walls; they were warm to the touch, but nowhere near hot enough to give off light. "How are these tunnels lit?"
Standback pointed to the glowing fungi on the wall. "We cultivated them for food. Fortunately, the ones we cultivated for light are quite tasty." He mused, "You know, we'd like to do more with biological engineering. It's the technology of the future."
"Or the end of the world," Mara muttered. She was beginning to worry, marginally, about the wisdom of stealing gnome inventions. However, if the wise and wonderful Kalend. Knight of Solamnia, believed in gnome technology… "Could you show me some of your weapons?"
"I would love to," Standback said unhesitatingly and formally. "This way, please."
They moved down the junk-strewn tunnel. "You seem awfully at ease with women, even startlingly beautiful ones," Mara told him.
Standback was silent — a rare condition for a gnome. Finally he said, "Perhaps that is because I love someone."
"Really?" Mara was fascinated. "What's she like?"
Standback Went on at length about the exquisite curve of her left little finger.
"Okay, we'll take it that she's pretty. What's her name? Her human name," Mara added hastily.
"It's very beautiful." Standback stared upward dreamily. "She's called Watch As Her Machines Move In and Out, Like a Night Watchman Blowing Out A Candle to Light a Lamp of Such Incredible — "
"The short form."
"Watchout." He sighed.
Mara nodded. "Standback and Watchout. You were made for each other."
"I think so," he said sadly, "and she thinks so. But unless things change, it can never be."
"Why?" Mara asked sympathetically.
Standback glowered and said suddenly, gnome-tognome, "Thatisabsolutelytheworstpart — "
"What?"
He took a shuddering breath and said in slower human fashion, "That is absolutely the worst part of this whole business. I have not as yet received approval for my Life Quest."
"Your what?"
"My Life Quest. My one achievement, my one goal. It is to be the sensors that go into the burglar alarms. I've already designed them and put them in place throughout Mount Nevermind."
Mara, remembering how she had slipped in without setting any off, murmured, "Still in the development stage, I guess."
"Oh, no; they're highly functional. By the way, how did you pass them?"
"I made an elaborate and clever plan to drop from the top of the crater by rope on a winch…" Mara hesitated.
Standback shook his head. "Impossible. I have every passage, every window, every cranny and cut of the outer mountain covered by a sensor. How did your plan work?" -
Mara fidgeted. "I didn't use it," she said finally. "I was standing at the steel entrance doors, trying to figure out how to climb up the mountain, while the doors were sliding shut. But the triple-lock fell off and jammed them open so I was able to slip through — "
"The doors." Standback slapped his forehead, leaving a pen mark. "Of course. I knew I'd forgotten something. Sensors on the doors. Still," he said quickly, "it was very clever, making a plan with a lot of rope and a winch. You're almost thinking like a gnome."
Mara chose to take that as a compliment. "Have you shown the committee the evidence of your research?"
"I can't." Standback looked uncomfortable. "I was cleaning them — with a perfectly fine solvent invented by a friend of mine — when they dissolved. Also, the table under them. Wonderful stain remover, though." Standback's shaggy eyebrows dropped low as he brooded. "I can't reapply until I've proven that I have a semi-working prototype." He added sadly, "If only you had been caught or killed."
Mara sighed in her turn. "If only YOU were the master of the Weapons Guild."
Standback shook his head. "If I were, Watchout and I would be married by now. And I would be far above." He looked upward wistfully, as though he could see through the ceiling. "Up where there is honor, glory, and matching funding. Where draftsmen constantly draft bigger drafting boards for bigger projects with larger cost overruns…"
Mara, disheartened, listened as he described the Schedule Rescheduling Department, the Management Oversight Overseers, and the apparently all-powerful Expanding Contractors. "Tell me," she broke in finally, "have any of these projects ever been finished?"
Standback, shocked to the depth of his stubby little being, stared at her. "Young woman, any project worthy of state funding should be perfected, never finished."
"Well, if you're not the master of the Weapons Guild, then what ARE you?" she asked.
He lowered his eyes. "I'm a lower-level inventor whose future life work must be scrounged from the debris left by the failures of others — "
"Have you invented anything?"
"I've done more varied work than most gnomes you have met."
Since Mara had met no other gnomes, she simply nodded.
"My Life Quest — " Standback stopped, looked pained, and said with careful stress, "my primary work just now is still sensor-related, since that was my Life Quest. I invent security and safety equipment for home or fort, for the detection and prevention of unwanted forcible spies, intruders, or weapons — "
"Paladine's panties," Mara said irreverently. "You make burglar alarms and traps."
Standback said happily, "That's why I was so happy when you appeared. What luck, really — a burglar, coming straight through the burglar alarms and lockouts. It will be a boon to my data."
"Not luck." Mara was having trouble understanding. "I mean, Kalend ordered that I take this dangerous mission."
Standback looked dubious. "No offense and don't take this the wrong way, but you ARE rather young and did he really order you?"
Mara nodded emphatically. "It was when I was walking with him on the ramparts, which I try to do a lot — not that he minds or anything, even though I'm younger than he is, since I'm remarkably mature, responsible, and exceptionally good-looking for my age — and we were talking about the war. He said, 'If only there were one working gnome weapon, and we had it…'" Mara stopped and chewed her lip thoughtfully. "Or maybe he said, 'If there was only one gnome weapon that worked and we had it…'