“Gentlemen, please.” I stepped between them. “Apologies, Mr. Smorp, but this is an emergency, and Morton told us your emporium might be able to help.”
Herbert scowled up at me. From my sorry, dirty, bandaged state, it was clear that I wasn’t a man of wealth. “Who are you? One of Morton’s wizard friends?”
“Watch your tone, Herbert. That’s Ozwald Carnavon of Fogo you’re speaking to. As the acting manager of the academy while the master wizard is away, he is a very important man.”
“You’re not even in a real academy,” Herbert sputtered. “It would be one thing if you’d abandoned the family to go to school in the Collegium. We pay those wizards for their services all the time, so having an inside gnome there would be good for business. But your academy is in the Slumps! Who in their right mind would pay for spells from an Under Slump dreg?”
“How dare you?”
Morton’s response was so loud and high-pitched that some of the other sales gnomes and customers looked our way, and the dogs began to bark. “Look, I know there’s some issues between you brothers?—”
“All fifteen of us are very cross with Morton for what he’s done,” Herbert said.
“Fifteen? By Naanwalla, my congratulations to the virility of father Smorp, and respect to your sainted mother,” Azarin said. “But we really do need to move past this family squabble quickly. Gnomes are renowned for their business sense, so surely you can put aside your brotherly animosity long enough to help a potential customer. Morton said you’d have some flying mounts to choose from.”
“We’re sold out of most of them.”
“I promised them we always have several flying animals in stock. That is terrible inventory management,” Morton declared. “How unprofessional.”
Herbert looked even more offended by that, so he coldly announced, “However, we did just restock on a new creature this week.”
“Wonderful. Let’s see it.”
Herbert looked Azarin over carefully, and since she wore the light and billowy clothing common to air-realmers, that suggested she might know how to ride. “Before we do, and I say this with all due respect, I must warn you this creature is particularly volatile, and you might not be able to handle it.”
That was the wrong thing to say to someone from Stormwolk. “I’m a Haatari storm chaser. I’m young, but I’ve been riding eagles since before I could walk, and I’ve herded griffons too. Are you trying to insult my honor?”
“That’sLadyGarzade you’re talking to, idiot,” Morton warned. “She comes from a very prominent family.”
I didn’t know if Azarin counted as nobility or not, as her people had odd customs. Then again, her father was a general of some kind, so surely that meant something.
“Oh! I meant no offense, my lady. Your air-realm heritage is highly respected here. Smorp Brothers gets all our eagles from the finest breeders in Stormwolk, but I’m afraid we’re fresh out of them right now. In fact, we have no air-realm beasts at all.”
“Shameful,” Morton muttered as he shook his head.
“In our defense, the Taagma Varagon put in an unexpectedly large order this month. You would know that if you ever came to family dinner, Morton… Ahem. As I was saying, the only flying creatures we have were recently captured from one of the more savage parts of the Elemental Plane of Life, and they’re barely trained at all. I don’t think they’re quite ready for sale yet.”
“We’re in a hurry. Show me what you’ve got.”
“Very well. Right this way.” Herbert led us toward the back. “Smorp Brothers backs up all our animals, but because this is the first of this species we’ve worked with, I must warn you thatthere will be no refund should these particular beasts go on a murderous rampage.”
We passed more pens and cages full of strange animals before entering an even more fortified enclosure. The walls were concrete and there were magical wards placed over the gates.
“Oh, you found a use for the old wyvern den,” Morton said. “That’s nice.”
“Indeed,” Herbert agreed. “After the last incident, the Council decreed that no more species of the dragon family were to be imported to the Core, even the smallest among them. No drakes, no dragonets, nor hydras, and especially no wyverns.”
There was a blunderbuss in a glass case, which from the dust accumulated on it, had not been used for quite some time. It had a sign next to it which read:In case of escape attempt, break glass, point at wyvern, and pull trigger.Imagining one of the diminutive Smorps trying to use that enchanted cannon made me smile.
“Recently, our buyer in the Elemental Plane of Life was touring the primordial jungles far to the south of Hutan Gunang and found these marvelous creatures. He told me the warriors of that distant kingdom tame and ride these things into battle.”
This cage was huge and made of steel bars. The thing inside was massive and colorful, covered in feathers that were purple, blue, or green. Except this was not like any of the birds I’d seen so far. It was currently on all four legs, but they were very uneven legs, with the front two being long and having some giant folding structure around them, while the back two legs were much shorter and thick with muscle.
When the thing saw us coming, it lifted its long head on a really long neck, which just kept getting longer, and longer, until it was looking down from far above us with two piercing orange eyes. It had an extremely long beak that ended in a point sharp enough to spear a man all the way through his torso. Except itprobably wouldn’t need to, as its skull was so long, it could no doubt swallow one of us whole. The gnomes would easily fit in one bite.
Its neck and elongated head were awkwardly disproportionate for its body. Then it bobbed that dangerous-looking head to the side, in a curious fashion that wasn’t too different from our neighbors’ chickens, only a few thousand times bigger.
“It’s a third the size of a dragon!” Azarin exclaimed. “What is this gorgeous creature?”
