Margaret Weis: The War of the Lance

I swore on my topknot.

And I want to say right here and now, for Astinus and history, that I kept my oath.

I just wouldn't be me without a topknot.

I finished my story. They were all sitting in the Upper Gallery, next to poor Owen Glendower, listening to me. And they were about the best audience I'd ever had.

Tanis and Lady Crysania and Laurana and Caramon and Owen's son and Lord Gunthar all sat staring at me like they'd been frozen into statues by the white dragon's frost breath. But I'm afraid the only thing I was thinking about then was my topknot shriveling up and falling off. I was hoping it didn't, but that's a risk I figured I had to take. I just couldn't let Owen Glendower die of a fit when telling this story might help him, though I didn't see how it could.

"You mean to say," said Lord Gunthar, his moustaches starting to quiver, "that we fought that entire war and risked our very lives on dragonlances that were supposed to be magical and they were just ordinary lances?"

"You said it," I told him, hanging onto my topknot and thinking how fond I was of it. "I didn't."

"Theros of the Silver Arm knew they were ordinary," Lord Gunthar went on, and I could see him getting himself all worked up over it. "He knew the metal was plain steel. Theros should have told someone -

"

"Theros Ironfeld knew, and Theros Ironfeld split the Whitestone with the dragonlance," Lady Crysania said coolly. "The lance didn't break when he threw it."

"That's true," said Lord Gunthar, struck by the fact. He thought this over, then he looked angry again. "But, as the kender reminded us, Owen Glendower knew. And by the Measure he should have told the Knight's Council."

"What did I know?" asked a voice, and we all jumped up to our feet.

Owen Glendower was standing up in the middle of the pile of cloaks and, though he looked almost as bad as he had when he was righting the dragon, he had at least come out of his fit.

"You knew the truth, Sir!" said Lord Gunthar, scowling.

"I came to know the truth — for myself. But how could I know it for any other? That was what I told myself and what I believed until.. until…" He glanced at his son.

"Until I became a knight," said Gwynfor.

"Yes, my son." Owen sighed, and stroked his moustaches that were extremely long now, though they weren't red so much as mostly gray. "I saw you with the lance in your hand and I saw again the lance — the first lance I threw — shatter and fall to pieces in front of my foe. How could I let you go to battle the evil in this world, knowing as I did that the weapon on which your life depended was plain, ordinary? And how could I tell you? How could I destroy your faith?"

"The faith you feared to destroy in your son was not in the dragonlance, but in yourself, wasn't it, Sir Knight?" Lady Crysania asked, her sightless eyes turning to see him.

"Yes, Revered Daughter," answered Owen. "I know that now, listening to the kender's story. Which," he added, his mouth twisting, "wasn't precisely the way it all happened."

Tanis eyed me sternly.

"It was so, too!" I said, but I said it under my breath. My topknot didn't appear to be going anywhere for the time being and I intended to keep it that way.

"It was my faith that faltered the first time," Owen said. "The second, my heart and my aim held true."

"And so will mine, father," said Gwynfor Glendower. "So will mine. You have taught me well."

Gwynfor threw his arms around his father. Owen hugged his son close, which must have been hard to do with all the armor they were wearing, but they managed. Lord Gunthar thought at first he was going to keep being mad, but then, the more he thought about it, the more I guess he decided he wouldn't. He went over to Owen and they shook hands and then they put their arms around each other.

Laurana went to get Theros, who'd walked out of the room, you remember. He was awfully gruff and grim when he first came back, as if he thought everyone was going to yell at him or something. But he relaxed quite a bit when he saw that Owen was walking around and smiling, and that we were all smiling, even Lord Gunthar — as much as he ever smiles, which is mostly just a twitch around the moustaches.

They decided to go on with the ceremony of the Forging of the Lance, but it wasn't going to be a "public spectacle" as Tanis put it, when he thought Lord Gunthar wasn't listening. It was going to be a time for the knights to rededicate themselves to honor and courage and nobility and self-sacrifice. And now it would have more meaning than ever.

"Are you going to tell them the truth about the lances?" Laurana asked.

"What truth?" asked Lord Gunthar and for a moment he looked as crafty and cunning as Fizban. Then he smiled. "No, I'm not. But I am going to urge Owen Glendower to tell his story to them."

And with that he and Owen and Gwynfor left (Owen said good-bye to me very politely) and went down to Huma's Tomb, where all the other knights were getting ready to fast and pray and rededicate themselves.

"His story!" I said to Tanis, and I must admit I was a bit indignant. "Why it's my story and Fizban's story just as much as it is Owen's story."

"You're absolutely right, Tas," said Tanis seriously. One thing I do like about Tanis is that he always takes me seriously. "It is your story. You have my permission to go down into Huma's Tomb and tell your side of it. I'm certain that Lord Gunthar would understand."

"I'm certain he better," I said loftily.

I was about to go down to Huma's Tomb, because I was afraid Owen would leave out a lot of the very best parts, only about then Caramon came up to us.

"I don't understand," he said, his big face all screwed up into thought-wrinkles. "Did the lances work? Or didn't they?"

I looked at Tanis. Tanis looked at me. Then Tanis put his arm around Caramon's shoulders.

"Caramon," he said. "I think we better have a little talk. We used the lances, and we won the war because of them. And so you see…"

The two of them walked off. And I hope Caramon understands the truth about the lances now, though I think it's more likely that he just caught Tanis's cold.

I was on my own, and I started once again to go down to Huma's Tomb when the thought occurred to me.

Huma's Tomb. Again.

Now, please don't misunderstand, all you knights who read this. Huma's Tomb is a most wonderful and solemn and sorrowful and feel-sad-until-you-feel-good kind of place.

But I'd seen about all of it I wanted to see in one lifetime.

Right then I heard Tanis sneeze, and I figured he'd need his handkerchief, which he'd left behind in my pocket, so I decided I'd go take it to him instead.

And I figure that about now Owen Glendower must be looking for that little painting of his that he keeps losing. I plan to give it right back to him… when he leaves Huma's Tomb.