long, long while."

By the time Tanis arrived late that afternoon, he was pleased but not terribly surprised to find Flint in his

workshop, firing up the forge that been cold all summer long. The dwarf still walked with a limp (when he

remembered) and still complained of pain in his back (particularly when he had to go rescue Tasslehoff from any

number of minor disasters). But he never took to his bed again.

As for the Thorbardin metalsmith, he found that the air of Solace didn't agree with him. At least that's what Tanis

said.

The summer had been a long one and a prosperous one for the people of Solace. Large numbers of travelers, the

most travelers anyone could remember, passed through the town. The roads were relatively safe. There were thieves

and footpads, certainly, but that was a fact of life on the road and not considered to be more than a nuisance. War

was the great disrupter of travel, and no wars were being fought anywhere on Ansalon at this time, nor were any

expected. Ansalon had been at peace for three hundred years, and everyone in Solace assumed complacently that the

peace would last for another three hundred.

Almost everyone, that is. Raistlin believed differently, and it was for this reason that he had decided to concentrate

his area of study in the realm of magic on war wizardry. It was not a decision based on a young boy's idealized

picture of battle as something glorious and exciting. Raistlin had never played the games of war, as had the other

children. He was not enamored of a martial life, nor was he at all excited at the thought of entering into battle. His

was a calculated decision, made after long deliberation, and it had to do with one object: money.

The overheard conversation of Kitiara and the stranger had

a great deal to do with Raistlin's planning. He could repeat the conversation verbatim, and he went over the words in

his mind almost nightly.

Up north-Sanction, presumably-a great lord with vast sums of money was interested in gaining information about

Qualinesti. He was also interested in recruiting skilled warriors; he had loyal and intelligent agents working for him.

A gully dwarf child could have taken this evidence and worked it to its logical conclusion.

Someday, somewhere, sometime soon, someone was going to need to put together an army to defend against this

lord, and they would need to put it together fast. This unknown someone would pay highly for soldiers and even more

highly for mages skilled in the art of combining sword and sorcery.

Raistlin assumed, and rightly so, that dealing death would pay him far better than mixing herbs to heal sick

babies.

Having made this decision, he pondered on the best way to act upon it. He needed to acquire magical spells that

were combative in nature, that much was certain. He would also need spells to defend himself, else his first fight

would be his last. But what would he be defending against? What did a commander expect of a warrior mage? What

would be his place in the ranks? What attack spells would be required? Raistlin knew little about soldiering, and he

realized then that he needed to know more if he was going to make an effective war wizard.

The one person who might know the answers to these questions was the one person he dared not ask: Kitiara. He

did not want to put ideas into her head. Asking Tanis Half-Elven was the same these days as asking his sister, for

Tanis would surely discuss anything Raistlin said with Kit. Neither Sturm nor Flint would be of any help; knights

and dwarves distrusted magic intensely and would never rely on a mage in a battle situation. Tasslehoff wasn't even

a consideration. Anyone who asks a question of a kender deserves the answer.

Raistlin had secretly searched Master Theobald's library and found nothing useful.

"This age on Krynn will be called the Age of Peace," Master Theobald was wont to predict. "We are a changed

people. War is an institution of unenlightened generations past. Nations have learned how to peacefully coexist.

Humans, elves, and dwarves have learned to work together."

By pointedly ignoring each other, Raistlin thought. That is not coexistence. It is blindness.

When he looked into the future, he saw it ablaze with flame, awash in blood. He couldsee the coming wars so

clearly, in fact, that he sometimes wondered if he hadn't inherited some of his mother's talent as a seer.

Convinced that his scheme was the right one, the one that would win him fame and fortune, Raistlin required only

knowledge to put it into action. Such knowledge could come from only one source: books. Books his master did not

have. How to acquire them?

The Tower of High Sorcery at Wayreth had the most extensive library of magic anywhere on Krynn. But as a novice