to make it seem as if she, and not Obould, was truly the puppet-master.
"The winged horse was more trouble than it was worth," Gerti said to a nearby giantess who flashed her one of those suspicious and curious looks.
"It was beautiful," the giantess replied.
"And its beauty would bring an unending string of elves to Shining White, seeking to free it."
More curious looks came at her, for when had Gerti ever been afraid of the lesser races entering Shining White?
"Do you really wish to have the elves with their stinging bows sneaking into our home? Or the cunning dwarves digging new tunnels to connect to our lesser-used ways, insinuating themselves among us, popping up by surprise and smashing their ugly little hammers into our kneecaps?"
She saw a few nods among the giants as she explained, and Gerti weighed the various looks carefully. She had to play it just right, to make her maneuvering seem clever without reminding them all that her initial blunder had brought all of the risk and trouble to them in the first place. It was all about the message, Gerti Orelsdottr had learned well from her wise old father, and that was a message she meant to tightly control over the next few tendays, until the pain of losses faded.
If Drizzt Do'Urden managed to kill Obould, that message would be easier to shape to her advantage.
* * * * *
The same storm that had dumped heavy snows on the mountains near Shining White swirled to the southeast, bringing high winds and driving, cold rain, and whipping the waters of the Surbrin so forcefully that the Felbarran dwarves tied the ferry up on the eastern bank and retreated into sheltering caves. As anxious as they were to be on their way to Silverymoon, the human refugees did not dare to try their luck in the terrible weather, and so they, too, put up in those caves.
Cottie Cooperson made herself as inconspicuous as possible, staying in the back and at the very edges of the firelight, with Colson fully wrapped in a blanket. The others soon learned of the child, of course, and questioned Cottie.
"What'd ye do to its mother?" one man asked, and he bent low and forced Cottie to look at him squarely, demanding an honest answer.
"I seen Delly handing the child to Cottie of her own accord," another woman answered for the poor and lost Cooperson lass. "Right at the dock, and she run off."
"Run off? Or just missed the ferry?" the suspicious man demanded.
"Run off," the woman insisted. "Of her own choosing."
"She wanted the child out of Mithral Hall while they're fighting," Cottie lied.
"Then the dwarves should know they've got an adopted granddaughter of King Bruenor among their passengers," the man reasoned.
"No!" shouted Cottie.
"No," added the supportive woman. "Delly's not wanting that stubborn fool Wulfgar to know of it, as he'd be wanting the child back."
It made no sense, of course, and the man stood and turned his glare over the other woman.
"Bah! What business is it o' yer own, anyway?" she asked.
"None," another man answered. "And no one's a better mother than Cottie Cooperson."
Others seconded that remark.
"Then it's our own secret, and no business to them grumpy dwarves," the woman declared.
"Ye think Wulfgar's to be seeing it that way?" the doubting man argued. "Ye want the likes o' that one and his fierce father chasing us across all the lands?"
"Chasing us to what end?" the woman beside Cottie replied. "To get his child back? Well then we'll give him the little girl back, and no one's to argue."
"He'll come with rage in his eyes," the man argued.
"And it'll be rage he'll have to put on his wife, from where I'm sitting," said another man. "She give the child to Cottie to care for, and so Cottie's to care for the girl. Wulfgar and Bruenor got no right to anything but appreciation in that!"
"Aye!" several others loudly agreed.
The doubting man stared at Cottie's allies long and hard, then turned back to Cottie herself, who was hugging Colson as warmly as any mother ever could hold her own child.
He could not deny that the sight of Cottie with the child warmed his heart. Cottie, who had been through so very much pain, seemed content for perhaps the first time in all their trials. Even with his fears for the vengeance of Wulfgar, the man could not argue against that simple truth. He gave an accepting smile and a nod.