The Maelstroms Eye Read Online Free

side-wheeler came right out of the sky and crashed, just smashed itself into little —”
    “No,” said Teldin, slowing abruptly and staring at Gaye with the beginnings of astonishment and horror. The childlike face. The endless talking. The nonstop traveling. The unremitting curiosity. The lack of fear. Great Paladine.
    “What?” Startled, Gaye looked up at him and slowed down, too. “What’s wrong?"
    "You’re a kender,” he said.
    Gaye’s dark eyes widened to enormous size. Her mouth fell open, mocking Teldin’s expression. “Reorx’s Hammer, do you really think so?” she said, stopping. “Is that where I got these?” She reached up and pulled off her kerchief.
    Gaye’s ears were pointed on the tops, just like the ears of all elves – and the ears of all kender. She saw his expression and grinned like a devil.
    I’ve been traveling with a kender, Teldin thought with dismay. She’s probably robbed me blind. His hands strayed to his belt purse, which was still strapped shut. That meant nothing, he knew; she could have gotten into it a dozen times by now. Krynnish kender were born thieves, magically descended from humans despite their superficial elven looks. Gaye’s height had fooled him; most kender were willowy and only three and a half feet tall. Gaye was almost four foot six with the build of a human teenager, more muscular than he would have expected of a human girl. She could be almost any adult age. Kender lived longer than humans – and they made life hell for everyone around them, every day of their lives.
    He had to ditch her before he saw the elves; they’d never let him near them if they knew anything at all about kender. She could keep the money she’d stolen from him, too. It would teach him to look before he leaped.
    “Listen,” he said abruptly. “I have to do some very important things, and I have to go alone, I’ve had a great time, and I appreciate your showing me around the Rock, but I do have to go.”
    “You have to go?” repeated Gaye, her grin fading somewhat. “Well, when you get back, we can —”
    “I’m going to be a long time. I’m sorry. I probably won’t see you again.” He hated to be cruel about it, but this was best stopped now. He’d been a fool long enough.
    Teldin looked up the street. The tops of some broadleaf trees in a densely forested region were now visible above the pavilions and booths at the end of the festival grounds’ boulevard. It had to be the elves’ forest. He turned back to Gaye and stuck out his hand. “Thanks again.”
    Gaye looked blankly down at his hand. She then took it in her own small hands, gently and carefully, and simply held it. Her touch was very soft and warm.
    “Maybe we’ll meet again anyway,” she said hopefully, a trace of a smile coming back.
    “Maybe,” he said, and pulled away. In a million years, if I’m lucky, he added to himself.
    Without a backward glance, Teldin set off for the forest. It was only with great difficulty that he could push the image of the wildspace eyes out of his mind.
     
     

Chapter Two
    The first screams began at sunrise, only slightly muted as they entered through the frosted windowpanes of the old elven citadel. General Kobas Hamarka Vorr flipped a page as he finished reading another report at his oversized stone desk. He was in early today, hoping to plow through the mound of paperwork before him. The only interruption so far had been from his goblin aide, who had shuffled in bearing a wooden tray with an assortment of spiced meats, rice, fruit, and water for breakfast. The rest of the day, excluding meals, would be the usual ritual of reading, noting, signing, and moving on.
    The only entertainment would be that provided by the elven prisoners, taken when their homeworld had been conquered by a humanoid naval fleet and the general’s scro and ogre marines. Every hour, after the abrupt cessation of one elf’s cries, a new voice would ring out its agony. This timing had