The Rose and the Skull

4

"What kind?" Liam shouted, rising to his feet. "What color?"

"Blue dragons, milord," the Knight answered.

"The Knights of Takhisis have broken the peace!" Liam roared. "I knew they would."

"Send for the silver dragons! Break out the dragonlances. To arms! To arms!" Sir Quintayne shouted as he leaped atop a table, sending plates and bowls crashing to the floor.

Gully dwarves, momentarily distracted by the horns and the sudden commotion, forgot their fears and rushed in to clean up the mess. Soon they were growling and snarling as though nothing had happened, happily licking spilled soup from the flagstones.

"Wait a moment!" Gunthar shouted into the din as the gathered Knights rushed to prepare for battle. Adding to all the noise, the hounds began to bark excitedly. Gunthar fought his way through the throng, trying to reach the door before anyone could get out.

"Wait!" he shouted. "Sir Ellinghad, hold the door!" The young Knight of the Sword was the first to reach the door and was about to tear from the room when he heard Gunthar call his name. He stopped and did as he was told, preventing anyone else from leaving.

"There is no cause for alarm. I invited them!"

The room grew suddenly quiet at these words. Liam slowly turned to face Lord Gunthar. Through clenched teeth, he growled to the messenger, "How many blue dragons have been spotted?"

"Twelve, sir," the Knight answered. "Four flights of three each."

"Has the shore watch spotted any ships?"

"None so far."

Liam's mustaches began to quiver, and his dark eyes smoldered beneath his brow. "Lord Gunthar," he said with obvious restraint, "How do you know this isn't the precursor of a larger attack?"

"I know, as I said, because I invited them," Gunthar said, then tripped over Uhoh, who had not left his side and was, in fact, still clinging to his legs. Sir Quintayne caught and steadied the elderly Grand Master. "Uhoh, my boy, you'll have to let me go so I can go greet our guests," Gunthar said.

"No, Papa. No go, Papa," the gully dwarf whimpered.

Angry at the interruption, Liam said loudly, "You should have warned us, milord."

"And what would you have said, had I told you I sent overtures to the leadership of the Knights of Takhisis, inviting a discussion of the merger of our two great orders?" Gunthar asked as he pried the gully dwarf's fingers loose from his thigh. A gasp escaped the gathered Knights. The tension between the Grand Master of the order, and his protege and handpicked successor, electrified the air.

"You didn't!" Liam whispered.

"I did. And what would you have said if I had told you that they accepted, enthusiastically? That we both agreed that if any Knighthood at all is to survive upon Krynn, it must be a united Knighthood."

"Lord Gunthar, how could you have done this on your own, without consulting us?" Lady Meredith asked. She stepped before Liam Ehrling, breaking the tension between the two powerful Knights. Continuing, she said, "It goes against everything we stand for. It is a direct violation of the procedures called for in the Measure."

"I know that, Meredith. Aren't I rewriting and revising that very Measure?" Gunthar said as he finally freed himself from the grasp of the gully dwarf. "Houndmaster Uhoh, take the hounds to their quarters and see that they have water," he ordered. Reluctantly, Uhoh stepped back and nodded.

Satisfied, Gunthar turned to the door. For a moment, he and Liam faced each other in silence. Liam, a head taller than the elderly Knight, seemed on the verge of challenging his master or preventing him from leaving the room. Gunthar, seeming to sense this, straightened his back and stepped toward the door. Liam's eyes dropped, and he stepped aside.

"Open the door, Ellinghad, and attend me," he said.

The young Knight obeyed, swinging wide the door and falling in beside the Grand Master as he passed. The other Knights filed out of the room behind them.

Liam Ehrling gave one last look around the wrecked banquet hall, its floor still crowded with dogs and gully dwarves, the tables littered with food and dripping with spilled wine. His eyes lighted on Gunthar's houndmaster. Strangely, the little creature snapped to attention and saluted in perfect imitation of a Knight. Liam snorted, turned, and stalked out.

Gunthar led the way from the banquet hall to the courtyard. All along the way, servants and men at arms rushed about, frantically making ready for the unexpected visitors. Some seemed preparing for war, while others acted as though a visiting dignitary had arrived unannounced. As he walked calmly through the chaos, Gunthar explained his actions.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. There often comes a moment when one man, or one woman for that matter, must make a decision and take upon his shoulders, or her shoulders, the responsibility of that decision. If I had brought this before a Grand Chapter, you would have argued for centuries before making a decision, and by then it would be too late." He turned a corner and descended a wide staircase, Knights trooping behind him.

"When Pyrothraxus discovers how weak we really are, he won't long remain content to enslave the gnomes of Mount Nevermind. He has already learned that he can attack with impunity the shipping around this island. A few months ago, he sank an Ergothian privateer and the ship the Knights of Takhisis sent to capture her. They then sent an expedition to find their lost ship, and that expedition vanished without a trace."

Gunthar paused in an archway at the foot of the stairs and turned to the Knights above him. "It won't be long before Pyrothraxus tests our northern defenses and finds them nonexistent. Our castles there are virtually empty, the lands around them lying fallow, growing wild. We need Knights to man the towers and the walls and dragons to defend them. I'm no magician, able to conjure up armies from the rocks and stones, just like that," he said with a snap of his fingers. He turned and continued down a corridor lined with torches in silver sconces.

"We need experienced fighting men," Gunthar said. Someone behind him cleared her throat. "And women," he amended over his shoulder.

"But Lord Gunthar, surely we can find Knights somewhere else," Sir Quintayne said.

"Where, Quintayne? Recruiting hasn't been this low since the days following the Cataclysm," Gunthar said.

"I've always thought we should open the order to dwarves and elves," Lady Meredith said. "There are examples from the past-the dwarf Kharas and the elven princess Laurana."

"They were only honorary members," Quintayne said.

"You forget, we were led to victory by Laurana during the War of the Lance," Meredith snapped.

"And Tanis Half-Elven, more recently," young Ellinghad added. Quintayne scowled at the interruption. "Nevertheless-" he said, but never got to finish his thought.

As they approached the door to the courtyard, guards poured out of barracks rooms lining the corridor before them, hastily strapping on armor as they rushed outside.

Gunthar stopped at the door and hushed their arguments, saying to Lady Meredith, "The elves and dwarves have their own problems. How do I look?" He nervously smoothed his mustaches.

Lady Meredith stepped up to him and adjusted the hang of his sword, her cobalt blue eyes twinkling. She took the moment to whisper to him, "Milord, are you absolutely certain this is the right thing?"

"No," he returned with a smile.

"Lord Gunthar, before you proceed," Liam Ehrling said from the back. "I wish it known that I am utterly opposed to this. The Knights of Takhisis cannot be trusted."

"I am sure, Sir Liam," Gunthar returned, "that they feel the same way about us."

The captain of the guards of Castle uth Wistan stepped in from the courtyard and bowed to Lord Gunthar. "Milord, we are ready."