Tymora's luck

OFFSTAGE

In the Prime Material Plane on the world known as Toril in Realmspace, Amber Wyvernspur decided it was time to take charge of the situation. Handing Pars to Tavan, she slipped down the stairs until she stood between the other children and the kobolds. "We are very sorry to have trespassed," she said, curtsying to the kobold leader. "We'll be leaving now." Without turning around, she ordered her cousins, "Go back into the crypt."

"But the orcs-" Ferrin began.

"They can't enter the crypt," Amber snapped. "Now, go!"

Behind her, Amber could hear the others hustling back into the crypt. Amber started to back up the stairs, then bumped into Gory, who had remained behind.

"Halt or we fire," the kobold leader said. "You must pay for invading our kingdom."

"I have some silver coins," Amber said, pulling out the velvet purse Aunt Dorath had given her for her birthday. She tossed the purse down the stairs.

One of the other kobolds snatched it up and looked inside.

"Not enough," the kobold leader said. "Your people owe for torture of my mother."

"You must be mistaken," Amber replied. "No Wyvernspur would do such a thing."

"He means Uncle Steele," Gory whispered. "Father told me about it. It happened a long time ago."

Amber huffed with annoyance. First Uncle Steele went and lost his key to Heather, and now they had to pay for the bad behavior of his youth. She unfastened the locket about her neck. Her mother had given it to her, and she was very unhappy to have to part with it, but it was better than being dead. She held it out to the kobold. "This locket is real gold," she said.

"Not enough!" the kobold leader growled. "Must give us slave!"

"Now, see here," Gory retorted hotly, "we are not about to give you a slave."

"Give me the wyvern's spur," Amber ordered Gory.

"What?" Gory asked, aghast. "You can't be serious. We can't give the spur to a bunch of kobolds."

"Give it to me," Amber snarled.

Gory pulled out the spur from his shirt pocket. The family heirloom looked like an ugly chunk of moldy, dried meat. Amber snatched it from Cory's hand. Then she turned around and faced the kobold leader again.

"Don't want your magic," the kobold insisted. "Give slave or die."

"You will take the locket or you will regret it," Amber growled.

The kobold leader howled something in his own language. All the kobolds cried out something that included the name of Beshaba and fired their crossbows at Amber.

Gory screamed, expecting to see his cousin collapse dead at his feet. Instead he saw a blur in the air. Then there was a large emerald-green, serpentlike creature, with two legs and wings for arms, and it was standing where Amber had been standing a moment earlier. Amber, Cory realized suddenly, had used the family heirloom to transform into a wyvern-a small wyvern, admittedly, only ten feet long, but a wyvern nonetheless.

Cursed by Beshaba, every one of the kobolds' crossbow bolts struck Amber, but only two stuck in her scaly wyvern hide. The rest bounced away and clattered to the floor.

Amber hissed. The kobolds screamed and clambered back down the stairs. Amber turned around and nudged Cory with her scaly horned head. Cory raced up the stairs, with Amber trundling clumsily after him.

The other children, who had not witnessed Amber's transformation, cowered against the wall of the crypt when they saw the wyvern. The orcs at the other entrance to the crypt gave a shout and retreated up the stairs.

Amber changed back into her normal form and immediately sank to the floor, whimpering softly. The two crossbow bolts, which hadn't slowed her in the least when she was a wyvern, were far more painful now that they were buried in human flesh. One missile stuck from her thigh and the other protruded from her shoulder. Blood seeped out from under the bolts, but at least it didn't gush.

Pars ran to his sister and threw himself into her arms, clinging to her dress.

Cory looked at his older cousin with a mixture of jealousy and respect. Only one Wyvernspur in each generation was capable of using the spur. Naturally he had hoped it was he, but if it had to be someone else, he was glad it was Amber. He liked Amber best of all his cousins. He even liked her more than his own sister. He knelt beside Amber and pressed a clean handkerchief to the wound in her shoulder. "You knew all along that you were the one who could use the spur, didn't you?" he asked her. Amber nodded. "Last summer I started having the same dreams Uncle Giogi has. He brought me down here to meet the guardian and showed me how to use the spur, just in case anything ever happened to him." "Why didn't you say anything?" Tavan asked. "Would you have believed me if I had?" Amber asked. "No," Tavan admitted.

"Amberlee," a sensuous, husky voice whispered through the crypt. The wyvern shadow that had destroyed the two orcs reappeared on the wall. The dark silhouette swayed back and forth above the children's heads. "Hello, guardian," Amber replied. "You have gotten yourself cornered," the guardian noted.

"But the kobolds and the orcs have fled," Cory said. "The kobolds still lurk on the stairs to the catacombs, and the orcs still wait on the stairs to the mausoleum," the guardian replied. "I can hear them. The orcs know you must come out eventually. The kobolds are praying to Beshaba to bring you ruin."

"We'll just have to wait here," Amber said. "Wait!" Toran complained. "Wait for what?" "When Uncle Giogi gets back and finds out we haven't come home for supper, he'll look for the wyvern's spur so he can turn into a wyvern to search for us. When he sees the spur is gone, he'll guess we took it and know where to look for us," Amber said. "Then he and Uncle Sam and Aunt Cat can fight off the orcs and free us."

"She's right," Cory agreed.

"I'm not sitting around here waiting all day," Tavan said. "We made a sacrifice to Tymora. If we attack the orcs, we'll be lucky and break through." He pulled out a dagger from his belt.

"No," Toran said. "We should attack the kobolds and try to find the exit from the catacombs into the woods."

"We'll flip for it," Tavan said. "I call heads."

Toran pulled out a coin and tossed it in the air, but he didn't manage to catch it. The coin hit the floor of the crypt and spun about on its side like a top. When it stopped spinning, it did not fall over. Instead, it remained balanced on edge, neither heads nor tails.

"Interesting," the guardian hissed. "I'd take that as a sign."

"We stay here," Amber growled to Tavan and Toran.

From the catacombs, the kobolds began shrieking loudly. The clamor upset the children.

Suddenly a terrible rumbling noise came from the catacombs, and the whole crypt began to shake. Pieces of stone from the arched ceiling of the crypt began to tumble to the floor.

"If we stay here, we'll be crushed!" Toran shouted.

Now not only Pars, but also Ferrin and Heather, began to cry and scream as well. Dust filled the air as more stone and dirt collapsed around them.

"Tymora," Cory called out, "we need your help!"

The other children took up the call, shouting out Lady Luck's name. Amber bent over her young brother to shield him from the falling stone. She whispered a prayer to Selune, since the goddess of the moon was the patron of shapeshifters.

The ground ceased moving as suddenly as it had started. In a few minutes, the dust cleared enough for them to survey the damage. The ceiling of the crypt had collapsed on either side of them, so that both the entrance to the catacombs and the exit to the mausoleum were both completely blocked off.

Amazingly, the ceiling over their heads remained intact. They were safe from the orcs and kobolds, but they were now sealed alive in the crypt of their ancestors.