ale that was soothing his dust-parched throat. Antimodes's assigned duty was to

eavesdrop on any and all conversation, and so he listened idly to the conversations of the

dwarf and the barmaid, though it did not appear to him that they were discussing anything

sinister or out of the ordinary.

"Here you go,Flint," said the barmaid, plunking down a steaming bowl of beans.

"Extra portion, and the bread's included. We have to get you fattened up. I take it you'll

be leaving us soon?"

"Aye, lass. The roads are opening up. I'm behind time as it is, but I am waiting for

Tanisto return from visiting his kin in Qualinesti. He was supposed to be back a fortnight

ago, but

still no sign of his ugly face."

"I hope he's all right," the barmaid said fondly. "I don't trust them

elves, and that's a fact. I hear he doesn't get on with his kin."

"He's like a man with a bad tooth," the dwarf grumbled, though

Antimodes could detect a note of anxiety in the dwarf's gruff tone. "He

has to keep wiggling it to make sure it still hurts.Tanisgoes home

knowing that his fine elf relatives can't stand the sight of him, but he

keeps hoping maybe this time matters will be different. But no. The

blasted tooth's just as rotten as it was the first time he touched it, and

it's not going to get better till he yanks it out and has done with it."

The dwarf had worked himself up into red-faced indignation by this

time, topping off his harangue with the somewhat incongruous statement

of, "And us with customers waiting." He took a swig of ale.

"You've no call to call him ugly," said the barmaid with a simper. "Tanis

looks like a human. You can't hardly see any elf in him at all. I'll be glad

to see him again. Let him know I asked about him, will you,Flint?"

"Yes, yes. You and every other female in town," the dwarf returned, but

he muttered the words into his beard, and the barmaid, who was

heading back to the kitchen, did not hear him.

A dwarf and a half-elf who were business partners, Antimodes noted,

making deductions about what he'd heard. A half-elf who had been

banished from Qualinesti. No, that wasn't right. A banished half-elf could

not go back home. This one had done so. He'd left his elven homeland

voluntarily, then. Not surprising. The Qualinesti were more liberalminded

about racial purity than their cousins, the Silvanesti, but a halfelf

was half-human in their eyes and, as such, tainted goods.

So the half-elf had left his home, come to Solace, and joined up with a

hill dwarf, who had himself probably either left his thane and his clan or

had been cast out. Antimodes wondered how the two had met, guessed it

must be an interesting story.

It was a story he was not likely to hear. The dwarf had settled down to

shoveling beans into his mouth. Antimodes's own plate arrived, and he

gave the meal his full attention, which it well deserved.

He had just finished and was sopping up the last bit of gravy with his

last bite of bread when the door to the inn opened. Otik was there to

greet the new guest. The innkeeper appeared nonplussed to find a young

woman, the same curly-haired young

woman Antimodes had met earlier on the road.

"Kitiara!" Otik exclaimed. "Whatever are you doing here, child? Running an errand for

your mother?"