"What of Yeblidod?" begged Mertwig. "Do you also know how she will fare?"

"She will be fine," the half-elf said, deciding there was no reason to say otherwise. "You need not worry about her."

Mertwig and Reehsha finally appeared at a loss for words. For the first time in long moments, silence fell on the fisherman's ramshackle quarters. Reehsha's face still showed suspicion, Mertwig's face, only relief. Brandella had dried her tears and watched the half-elf intently.

"Who are you?" the dark-eyed weaver finally asked, quietly and kindly. Her voice was steady. "You are a stranger to Ankatavaka, yet you claim to know my Kishpa. You call him friend and declare yourself my protector. Why is this? And by what magic do you possess such a sword7"

"All good questions, Brandella." Tanis dared to gaze into her eyes. Her tears had made her appear that much more pallid, yet the half-elf realized there was a cord of steel beneath the soft demeanor that was as strong as the broadsword he now sheathed.

"You know my name?" she asked.

"I know it well."

"Then use it well and tell me both what I wish to know and what I need to know."

"My name is Tanis," he began slowly, trying to decide how much he should tell her. The candle sputtered. Mertwig resumed his vigil by his wife's side, and the fisherman slumped onto a wooden bench by the door.

Tanis's problem, he knew, was that at some point he would have to escape the elder Kishpa's memory. He had been told that Kishpa would help him. But how? And when? Without that knowledge, he was reluctant to tell Brandella too much of the truth for fear that she would laugh at him. And he didn't know yet whether she would confide immediately in her lover-the man who would try to prevent her from leaving this time and place.

"I come from somewhere far away," he began, not quite sure of what he was going to say. "And I possess no magic except for what has been given to me by Kishpa. It is he who brought me here. And it is he who enchanted my sword. You see, I was on the south wall of the village when your mage cast his spell.

Brandella heard nothing else that he said. She simply stared at Tanis, remembering how he had looked from afar on the battlement. Yes, she thought, it was him… the man from the dream.

Scowann stood on a heavy wooden table, surrounded by a sea of happy, hero-worshiping elven faces. He had them just where he wanted them: listening… The funny man's patter was coming fast and sure tonight. He ran one hand through his short hair-the elves seemed to find the cut of his hair especially amusing- and launched into a new joke. "I once asked an elderly elf, To what do you attribute your old age7' His answer? The fact that I was born a long time ago!' " He widened his amber eyes and nodded significantly at the crowd. The elves roared with laughter. Scowarr glanced down modestly, taking the opportunity to steal a glimpse of the elves' gift to him; they'd provided the slender human with a new set of clothes, the forest-green slacks and jerkins that Ankatavakan men preferred, to replace the filthy rags he'd worn while fighting the human soldiers.

After a day of carnage and death, Scowarr's jokes were a welcome release, a way to forget and to ignore what would come on the fast-approaching morn.

"And talk about the weather," he rambled on, "the only good thing about rain is that you don't have to shovel it."

In the back row, a middle-aged elven woman, one of several women who'd chosen to stay and fight beside brothers and husbands, yelped and poked her mate; again the crowd erupted with guffaws and applause.

Scowarr had been at it for more than two hours. He'd dredged up just about every joke he knew and more than a few that he'd made up on the spot.

'It's a miracle," he murmured, adding mentally, Or maybe it's magic. In the back of his mind, he wondered if that young mage, Kishpa, had cast a spell making him genuinely funny or had conjured up a village full of laughing elves. The very fact that the elves were giggling at his jokes seemed even more amazing to him than their hailing him as a great warrior. Elves did not have the greatest sense of humor on Krynn-at least from a human point of view, he thought charitably. Elven folks tended to be rather sober and serious.

But they were anything but serious tonight. Scowarr drank in their laughter until he reeled with it.

It might have gone on like that until dawn, had not a village elder rushed into the hall, calling out, 'To the streets! Everyone! We must find Kishpa!"

Scowarr frowned; his audience was distracted. "What is it?" he asked the intruder. "Is there trouble?"

"Magic-users!" cried the elder, blue eyes flashing under a shock of white-blond hair. "One of our spies has come back from the human encampment. He says they have wizards to aid them tomorrow. We must find Kishpa!"

Unwilling to yield his place of honor, Scowarr boldly shouted, "If the mage must be found, then I will help you find him!" Then he knelt and softly asked, "Does anybody know where he could be? Any idea at all?"

"Some say he used his magic to turn into a field of shimmerweeds," a young, wide-eyed villager said.

Scowarr hated to show his ignorance, but he asked the question anyway. "Why would he do that?"

Another villager laughed. "Is this another joke7"

"No. Really," Scowarr protested, keeping his voice low. The elves closest to the table were beginning to exchange amazed glances, and the comedian was loath to tarnish the newfound shine on his reputation.

"You don't know what a shimmerweed is?" the same villager asked, surprised. When Scowarr shook his head, the elf went on. "It blooms only at night, getting the only light it needs from the moonlight. But when the petals catch the light just so, the shimmerweed blinds anyone nearby and causes him great confusion."

"Oh," said Scowarr, sagely nodding his head. "That shimmerweed. I knew that. So Kishpa is surrounding the human encampment, keeping them from attacking us during the night? Is that what you're trying to say?"

"That's what I heard."

Another villager interjected, 'That's not what I heard." He edged in front of the first speaker and said, "My uncle told me that someone saw Kishpa become invisible so that he could walk among the humans, undetected, and learn their plans of war." Other elves murmured and added their conjectures.

"We're wasting time," complained the village elder who had sounded the warning. He forced his way toward the center of the room where Scowarr held sway. "These are just rumors, idle talk, foolish gossip. It isn't like Kishpa to disappear without a trace. Even his human lover, Brandella, has vanished. But Kishpa must be found and told of this new threat. Without his help, the humans will drive us into the Straits of Algoni." "Brandella didn't vanish," piped up an elf from the back of the room. "I saw her just a short while ago, hurrying down toward the fishing boats." "She was alone?" asked the elder. "No, she was with the dwarf, Mertwig, but it was odd. They seemed to be hiding in the shadows." "To the fishing boats!" ordered Scowarr, relishing the ring of his commanding baritone. Even more pleasing to him was the reaction of the elves. They did as he said!***** "Do you hear something?" Mertwig asked from his perch near his wife's bed. "Someone's out there," Tanis agreed from the back of the room, hearing the faint sound of a voice on the wind. He turned to Reehsha, who had moved from the bench to the window and pulled aside the fishnets that served as curtains. "Can you see anything?" "It's a mob!" the old fisherman replied, visibly startled. "I can't tell how big, but there look to be at least fifty torches lighting the far side of the pier, where the fishing boats are moored." "What are they doing?" Brandella asked in a whisper. Tanis went to the window to see for himself. He grimaced. "They seem to have a purpose. It looks like they're looking for something-" "Or someone," Brandella interrupted, staring down at Kishpa, who lay unaware beside her. One hand continued to stroke the wizard's brow. 'Trouble!" Reehsha suddenly blurted. "What is it?" Mertwig and Brandella asked together. 'They're coming this way," said Tanis, trying not to alarm the woman who cared so deeply for her mage. Her hand went to her throat. "They must not know!" she protested. 'They'll lose hope. Don't let them inside!" "We may not have a choice," said Tanis. Brandella rose and lunged across the room toward the half-elf. She took his hands in hers and squeezed them. Her closeness nearly unnerved him. Kit was a beauty, and Laurana the epitome of young, elven loveliness, but Brandella's very essence was heart-shattering. At her touch, he felt himself go as red as his glowing sword.