Before The Mask by Michael Williams

     vision the gesture, the soundless chant, the draining....
    He looked again at Aglaca in horror.
    It's you! he thought.
    But instead of visions and deceptive magic, the boy held forth a knife, hilt first,
     offering it to Verminaard. He took the jeweled hilt and examined the blade.
    “It's yours,” Aglaca declared. “As a sign of my trust.”
    “It's ... it's wonderful!” Verminaard exclaimed. His eyes narrowed. “And what do you want?”
    “It's yours,” Aglaca declared. “I want nothing for it.”
    Verminaard danced gleefully across the floor of the chamber, waving the dagger like a
     sword, lunging at imagined enemies.
    “It's not just a dagger, Verminaard!” the Solamnic boy protested. “It's a rune rister's
     knife. My father gave it to me. His mage said it would protect the wielder against all
     evil.”
    Verminaard lunged at the fireplace, whipped the blade through the chilly air. He wasn't
     listening.
    “I know it isn't Huma's lance,” Aglaca objected. “It's a small thing, and its magic is
     small as well. But it isn't a toy. It's ... it's ...”
    “It's a fine knife,” Verminaard said. He glanced at Aglaca cautiously. “Thank you,” he
     said abruptly.
    Aglaca smiled. “Now come over and look out the window. If you lean just a little and peer
     as far as you can down toward the west... what's that pass called?”
    “Eira Goch. It means 'red snow' in the old tongue.”
    “Really?” Aglaca asked, extending his hand once more. “Well, if you look down to the mouth
     of that pass, you can see my father's campfires. Let me give you a hand up to the top
     bunk.”
    Verminaard regarded the other boy warily. It was the first time he remembered anyone
     except Abelaard reaching out to him. But, despite strong misgiving, he took the offered
     grasp. For a moment, before he hoisted himself onto the bunk, risking a fall and his
     dignity to the questionable intentions of this hostage, he tested the boy's strength,
     pulling Aglaca toward the edge of the bed.
    Aglaca gritted his teeth and braced himself, recovering only when he dangled dangerously
     above the larger lad, who pushed him back onto the bed.
    Good, Verminaard thought. I am stronger.
    Then, with a deep breath, he climbed onto the top bunk, boosted by his new companion.
     Together they stared out the window into the uninterrupted darkness and saw the faraway
     gleam of torchlight. Verminaard did most of the talking, explaining to Aglaca the
     landmarks visible from the heights of Castle Nidus.
    Fifty feet below and across the castle yard, in the shadows of the eastern battlements,
     the dark mage Cerestes leaned toward the ancient walls and placed his
    ear against the stones. There the words of the boys innocent words, but words they
     believed to be
    unnoticed and unheardtunneled through mortar, through rock, and by a devious magic, into
     the dark chambers of Cerestes' mind.

Dragonlance - Villains 1 - Before the Mask
    Chapter 4
    It would be the first hunt of a cold, difficult spring, and the first centi-core hunt for
     either lad. Ancient custom had ordained, since both Verminaard and Aglaca had turned
     twenty in the snows of the previous winter, they must both hunt this spring. Yoked
     together by age, education, and rivalry, the two had passed from boyhood to the edge of
     manhood to the time of testing in the wilds.
    Since Aglaca's arrival at Castle Nidus, Verminaard felt he had come to know him well.
     Their eight years together had bound them, though the bonds were neither warm nor
     comfortable. Neither lad thought now of friendship: They had realized that possibility had
     come and gone even before they met. After all, Verminaard was too cautious and suspicious
     for friendship, especially with
    someone whose presence reminded him constantly of his absent brother Abelaard. And Aglaca
     was a hostage, all but imprisoned, quartered in Castle Nidus against his wishes. But the
     lads had become well