scott casper

"His friend Ehlissa undoubtedly hasn't," Keoghtom said.

"I have just the one," Heward said. "A good, rousing tale, but fit
for mixed company."

"Very important," Keoghtom interjected, to which Murlynd nodded his
approva
l.

"Humm…umm…" Heward began, "how did it begin now? Oh yes! It was your
idea, Murlynd, to see how the Green Dragon Inn acquired such exotic
potables."

"No, it was Keoghtom's!" Murlynd shot back, but was laughing as he did
so.

"No, it was definitely you who suggested it," Keoghtom said. "I only
suggested we create a diversion to keep people from the tap room."

"Fine, fine, but that comes later anyway," Heward said, slightly
irritated. "We were sitting in the Green Dragon Inn and I had just
had drank sasparilla for the first time and I ask these two, 'What is
this stuff? Have you ever heard of it before?' And they say no, and
I'd never heard of it before."

"No one had heard of it before!" Murlynd interjected. "It didn't
exist!"

"And yet they had it there, right?" Heward asked.

"Sing them the drinking song you made up about sasparilla," Keoghtom
joked.

"No! Now, stop interrupting," Heward said, somewhat crossly. "Now, I
had happened to have a spell handy for detecting magic at the time…"

Ehlissa listened attentively as Heward continued to start and stop his
tale, with the others alternating between helping and hindering the
telling. The trouble was, Ehlissa could barely understand the story
and missed laughing along with the others, including Tenser, at most
of the parts they thought were funny. More importantly, not a bit of
it sounded particularly adventurous to her, or at least not how she
had always envisioned a life of adventure.

That night, back home, Ehlissa wanted to talk to Johydee about her
disappointment, but when she came into Johydee's room, her sister was
singing gaily to herself while she brushed her hair in front of the
mirror.

"Isn't life wonderful?" Johydee asked in mid-song.

Ehlissa did not think so and glumly denied it was so.

Johydee whirled around on her stool and scolded Ehlissa with a shake
of her hairbrush. "Now don't you talk like that!" she said with mock
seriousness. "It was for you that I saw Welmer in the first place. I
just had no idea how wonderful he could be.

malachias invictus

Scott, p.32 did not come through on my server. Please repost. Keep up the
good work!

--
^v^v^Malachias Invictus^v^v^

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the Master of my fate:
I am the Captain of my soul.

from _Invictus_, by William Ernest Henley

weberm

You should be able to see it via Google.
Message-ID: <5e57b79d0804291301v5875262cwa9ce38be090783dc@mail .gmail.com>

--
It is simply breathtaking to watch the glee and abandon with which
the liberal media and the Angry Left have been attempting to turn
our military victory in Iraq into a second Vietnam quagmire. Too bad
for them, it's failing.

malachias invictus

Tenser stared at the boardinghouse. "No, I don't think so," he
decided. "Come on."

They took a flight of stairs on the side of the building to a private
entrance on the second floor. Tenser knocked on the door before
entering a small hallway, urged Ehlissa to follow, and then knocked on
a second door to the left.

"Why did you knock on the outside door?" Ehlissa asked.

"It deactivates a glyph of warding. This may be an ordinary
boardinghouse, but that doesn't mean the people here have no
security."

The second door was quickly answered by a man with long brown hair, a
sharp nose, and a clean-shaven, round chin, wearing very fine clothes.
"Tenser, come in!" the man said. "Who's your friend?"

Ehlissa looked around a comfortably-furnished sitting room with a ring
of fabric-covered chairs circling a black bearskin rug on the floor.
The walls were decorated with a tall mirror mounted on one wall and a
wide decorative plaster frieze that took up over half of the opposite
wall. Besides the man who had opened the door for them, there were
two other men present. The second closest, a rosy-cheeked, balding
man with a short beard and fine moustache, was leaning back in his
chair and holding a glass cup. The man furthest from the door was
sitting by a table with some bottles of beer or ale and more glass
cups. This man was ruggedly handsome, with features as weathered as
the old leather jerkin he wore over much finer clothes.

Muddy boots were sitting in pairs inside the door. Tenser and Ehlissa
cast off theirs while Tenser made introductions. "Everyone, this is
Ehlissa. Ehlissa, this is Keoghtom, Heward, and my tutor, Murlynd."

Ehlissa was invited inside and offered a chair and a drink. It had a
smoky flavor and Ehlissa was unfamiliar with it. She was told it was
whiskey.

"Best not have too much if you are unfamiliar with it," Murlynd
suggested. He never offered her a refill and only one to Tenser,
while he was constantly refilling Keoghtom's and Heward's glasses.
Except for this possible slight, Murlynd was a cordial host and
everyone else was exceptionally polite to Ehlissa except for Tenser,
who largely ignored her. He sat there, following every word that came
from the other three men like a puppy dog watching its owners.

"Why don't you tell us of an adventure?" Tenser suggested at last
during a pause in the small talk.

Murlynd looked around to Keoghtom and Heward. "Is there any story we
have Tenser has not already heard?" he asked them.