Dragonlance 02 - Dragons of Winter Night by Margaret Weis Page B

and they saw narrow, winding stairs leading down into more darkness.
    “The library was built below ground,” Derek explained. “Probably the only reason it survived the Cataclysm so well.”
    The companions descended the stairs rapidly and soon found themselves inside a huge room. Tanis caught his breath and even Alhana’s eyes widened in the flickering torchlight. The gigantic room was filled from ceiling to floor with tall, wooden shelves, stretching as far as the eye could see. On the shelves were books. Books of all kinds. Books with leather bindings, books bound in wood, books bound in what looked like leaves from some exotic tree. Many were not bound at all but were simply sheaves of parchment, held together with black ribbons. Several shelves had toppled over, spilling the books to the floor until it was ankle-deep in parchment.
    “There must be thousands!” Tanis said in awe. “How did you ever find one among these?”
    Derek shook his head. “It was not easy,” he said. “Long days we have spent down here, searching. When we discovered it at last, we felt more despair than triumph, for it was obvious that the book cannot be moved. Even as we touched the pages, they crumbled to dust. We feared we would spend long, weary hours copying it. But the kender—”
    “Right, the kender,” Tanis said grimly. “Where is he?”
    “Over here!” piped a shrill voice.
    Tanis peered through the dimly lit room to see a candle burning on a table. Tasslehoff, seated on a high wooden chair, was bent over a thick book. As the companions neared him, they could see a pair of small glasses perched on his nose.
    “All right, Tas,” Tanis said. “Where did you get them?”
    “Get what?” the kender asked innocently. He saw Tanis’s eyes narrow and put his hand to the small wire-rimmed glasses. “Oh, uh, these? I had them in a pouch … and, well, if you must know, I found them in the dwarven kingdom—”
    Flint groaned and put his hand over his face.
    “They were just lying on a table!” Tas protested, seeing Tanis scowl. “Honest! There was no one around. I thought perhaps someone misplaced them. I only took them for safe-keeping. Good thing, too. Some thief might have come along and stolen them, and they’re very valuable! I meant to return them, but after that we were so busy, what with fighting dark dwarves and draconians and finding the Hammer, and I—sort of—forgot I had them. When I remembered them, we were miles away from the dwarves, on our way to Tarsis, and I didn’t think you’d want me to go back, just to return them, so—”
    “What do they do?” Tanis interrupted the kender, knowing they’d be here until the day after tomorrow if he didn’t.
    “They’re wonderful,” Tas said hastily, relieved that Tanis wasn’t going to yell at him. “I left them lying on a map one day.” Tas patted his mapcase. “I looked down and what do you suppose? I could read the writing on the map through the glasses! Now, that doesn’t sound very wonderful,” Tas said hurriedly, seeing Tanis start to frown again, “but this was a map written in a language I’d never been able to understand before. So I tried them on all my maps and I could read them, Tanis! Every one! Even the real, real old ones!”
    “And you never mentioned this to us?” Sturm glared at Tas.
    “Well, the subject just never came up,” Tas said apologetically. “Now, if you had asked me directly—‘Tasslehoff, do you have a pair of magical seeing glasses?—’ I would have told you the truth straight off. But you never did, Sturm Brightblade, so don’t look at me like that. Anyway, I can read this old book. Let me tell you what I—”
    “How do you know they’re magic and not just some mechanical device of the dwarves?” Tanis asked, sensing that Tas was hiding something.
    Tas gulped. He had been hoping Tanis wouldn’t ask him
that
question.
    “Uh,” Tas stammered, “I—I guess I did sort of, happened to, uh, mention