Finder's bane

Seven

Joel had no notion how far they traveled, but by the time Jas began to descend, the sky was beginning to lighten. Below them was a meadow adjacent to the Border Forest. Upon Jas's instructions, Joel released his hold on the winged woman's bootstrap when they were still a good twenty feet above the ground. Jas landed, dropped Holly, and sank to the ground. Between carrying Holly's weight and towing me, she has to be exhausted, the bard realized. He was worn out merely from hanging on and being buffeted by the wind.

He drifted downward. The instant his feet touched the earth, the magical wings on his back dissolved, leaving only aching shoulder muscles as a reminder of their previous existence. From here on, he and Holly would have to walk. What Jas would do was up to her.

The bard strode up to the winged woman. "Look," he said, looming over her, "I'm grateful for the help you've given us, but you shouldn't have done that."

"Done what?" Jas asked, not even looking up at him. "Pushed me out of the Temple in the Sky," Joel retorted

Jas looked up at the bard as if he were a fool. She yawned.

"Well?" Joel prompted, expecting a reply.

"If you're expecting an apology," Jas said with a laugh, "you're going to be disappointed."

"You abandoned Walinda," Joel growled. "You left her there to die."

"What makes you think I didn't run her through before I left?" Jas asked.

Joel's eyes widened in shock.

"We didn't harm her, Joel," Holly reassured the bard. "We just shoved her aside and flew off without her."

"And somehow that's supposed to be better?" Joel argued.

"Depends how much the cultists make her suffer," Jas said with a smirk. "A quick death would be too good for her."

"We had a pact," Joel snapped angrily.

Jas rose to her feet and stood no more than a foot from the bard. She was no taller than Walinda, but her body was tough and muscular. She'd seen some hard times- there were scars on her shoulders, her throat, her jaw. She was Joel's senior by a few years, at least, and the annoyance on her face made her appear even older.

Everything about her-her strength, her toughness, her age-intimidated Joel. He thought of the priestess of Bane, who appeared so young and delicate and vulnerable, although he knew she was none of those things. "I promised Walinda my protection," he added.

"I don't give a damn what you promised," Jas replied slowly and coolly. "She tortured and murdered the members of my crew one by one. She made me watch. There was nothing I could do or say to stop her. Then she began torturing me. If she thought it would please her god, she'd do the same to you. Your paladin friend saved my life. I owed her a rescue, and I pay my debts. If not for that, I might have stayed behind and risked being recaptured just for the chance to finish off your precious Walinda." Joel hesitated, considering Jas's words.

"Look, kid," the winged woman added, "it was a stupid promise. You're lucky I made it impossible for you to keep it. You're welcome."

Joel bristled at the woman's patronizing tone. "She helped me find a way out of there, helped me find Holly," he said. "I owed her a debt, too."

"We would have found you without her," Jas argued,

"A promise is a promise," Joel insisted. He looked over at the paladin, who had remained silent the whole time. "Holly, surely you see my point. You're a paladin. Your word is your honor."

Holly spoke softly. "I went along with you, but I did not give my word as you did. I could not. She was a priestess of Bane, Joel, a sworn enemy to my lord, Lathander. Besides, you could have been enchanted. I think you must have been. I can see no reason otherwise for you to make so foolish a vow. And a vow that is made under the duress of magic is not valid."

Joel remembered the urge he'd felt to accept Walinda's first offer. He was certain he had overcome whatever power the priestess had used. "I was not enchanted!" he insisted.

"Maybe not magically," Jas said with a smirk. "You could have been seduced in the usual way. The bitch Las more than her share of curves under that armor, even if she's rotten at the core. I saw her bat her eyes at you and cling to your sleeve, Poppin."

"You're mad," Joel said.

"No. Just realistic," Jas retorted.

"I made a vow in the name of my god to aid her until we escaped," Joel said.

Jas huffed with exasperation. "Fine," she cried, and she pointed back toward the northeast. "Go back and rescue her. I won't stop you. The cultists have probably already chopped her up for dinner, but maybe you'll get lucky and find a piece or two."

Joel blanched with anger. Then he remembered the flying ship. He sighed. He was wasting his time arguing about his honor. Neither Jas nor Holly would concede. Still, for the insult Jas had given him, the bard couldn't resist the temptation to tell the winged woman what he'd seen. At the very least, it would wipe the smug look off her face.

"That won't be necessary," he explained. "I saw her flying ship approaching the Temple in the Sky. Whoever summoned it up there has probably already rescued her."

It was Jasmine's turn to go pale. "Bloody hell," she whispered, "Now I may never get it back."

"Get what back?" Joel demanded.

"The flying ship," Holly explained. "It was Jas's. It can fly-urn-all sorts of places."

"Whoever or whatever is at the helm is learning how to use it faster than I thought," Jas said. "If they figure out how to go beyond the sphere, I'll be stranded here, and they'll have the run of space."

"Well, there's not much you can do about it now," Joel said. He tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. "We should all get some rest for a few hours before we press on."

Jas yawned, too. "That's the first sensible thing you've said since we've met," the winged woman noted. Wrapping her tattered cloak around herself, she lay down on the ground.

Joel looked over at Holly.

"You rest first," the paladin said. "I'll keep watch."

The bard's chivalry collapsed beneath the weight of his fatigue. He nodded in agreement. He unloaded all the weaponry he'd taken from the cultists' armory before he lay down. He fell asleep without another thought.

The sun had risen and climbed a good two hours into the sky when Holly woke Joel to take watch. Jas was still sleeping. The paladin had shot a couple of rabbits with the crossbow and skinned and cleaned them with Joel's dagger. She left them by a tiny fire for Joel to cook.

While he worked, the bard's mind reviewed all that had happened the night before, pondering if there was anything he should have done or could have done differently. By the time the rabbits were finished roasting, Jas woke up. The two shared the first rabbit in an uncomfortable silence.

Finally Joel said, "I'm sorry for the loss of your crew. I understand how you feel about Walinda."

Jas nodded an acceptance of his condolence. "You didn't know her like I did," she said.

"Well, I knew enough," Joel admitted. "But I wasn't charmed, like you thought-magically or otherwise. There was something else that made me trust her. She risked everything to do her god's bidding. She was completely faithful to him. When she swore an oath in his name, I knew she would keep her word. And she did. She helped me find Holly, and she didn't betray us."

"She got herself caught. She didn't deserve your help," Jas countered. "She would never have made a deal with you if she didn't think she had more to gain from it than you did. That's how priests of Bane think Everything is a power play to them. Especially the faithful ones. People don't call them evil because they wear black. It's because they hurt people and think it's all right because they do it in their god's name."

"Suppose Bane really did tell her to do those things. What choice would she have?"

"She could find herself a new god," Jas said, his voice rising in exasperation.

"Would you do that? Leave your deity?" Joel asked.

"I have as little to do with any deity as possible," Jas declared. "In my experience, gods are nothing but trouble, and believe me, I've had some experience in that line. Don't get me wrong. I respect them. All of them. But I try to avoid getting anywhere near their business. I'd advise you to do the same, but since you're already a priest, I realize it's too late."

Joel grinned. "You're not the first to give me that advice," he replied. "But like you said, it's already too late. What are you going to do now?"

"Well, I need to warn someone about my ship being captured by Bane's folk. Someone nearby and powerful, who can shoot it out of the sky if he can't help me get it back. Elminster used to live near here. Is he still around?"

Joel nodded.

"I thought I'd accompany Holly safely back to her home in Daggerdale first. If I recall my geography correctly, it's on the way."

"If you're using the road," Joel said. "As the crow flies, you're better off flying due south. I can see Holly back to Daggerdale if you're in a hurry."

"Actually, I don't usually fly overland very far. For one thing, it's exhausting. For another, I like to stick to the beaten track. I'm too much of a city rat to survive in the wilderness."

"Me, too," Joel said.

"You, too, what?" Holly asked from behind them. The paladin had awakened and joined them beside the fire. She still looked tired, but the cheerful smile had returned to her face.

"Jas and I were discussing how we were going to see you safely back home," Joel explained. "But we need you to hunt rabbits and start fires for us."

"City folk," Holly teased.

"Just get us to Dagger Falls, and we'll be in our element," Joel said.

Holly shook her head. "The Zhents have a puppet constable in Dagger Falls… Guthbert Golthammer," the paladin explained. "He's an idiot, but his second-in-command, a half-orc called Toren, knows his job. When you were unconscious, we passed through with the Xvim priest. We'll be recognized as escaped prisoners. And Jas would be sure to attract attention. With those wings, she'd be dragged in on suspicion of spying."

"So what do you recommend, O most wise native guide?" Joel asked.

"We skirt around the town," Holly suggested, picking up a piece of roasted rabbit. "This far north, the farmers will be too afraid of Zhent reprisals to give us much aid, but they won't turn us in. I can at least convince them to part with some waterskins and food. Jas can help us cross the River Tesh. Then we head for the foothills of the Desertsmouth Mountains. The Zhents don't patrol that far west. Then we head south until Joel finds his trail to the Lost Vale. After that, Jas and I continue on to Anathar's Dell."

"Sounds like a plan," Joel said.

Holly finished the remaining rabbit while Jas took to the air to scout out the lay of the land. When she returned, she reported they were still northeast of Dagger Falls. They needed to continue due west for several miles before they could cross the river out of sight of the town. They drank their fill from a stream before they began their trek in earnest.

The day was fair and warm, and the terrain was not difficult. About noon, Holly risked knocking on a farmhouse door. As she'd predicted, the farmer's wife looked frightened and didn't offer any hospitality, but she did send her away with two waterskins full of milk and a big loaf of bread-things she could claim had been stolen.

The three adventurers hurried away to put some distance between them and their benefactor. In the shade of some woods, they feasted on the handouts and rested about an hour. Then they headed southwest toward the river. They reached the water by nightfall and camped. Holly caught some fish for dinner.

Jas took first watch and woke Joel after midnight. Other than a raccoon family raiding their camp for the discarded fish heads left from their meal, Joel's watch was quiet. Holly, on the last watch, woke the other two before the birds began to twitter. "There's something out there," the paladin said. "Something is howling. It's been getting closer."

Joel and Jas listened for a while. The howl came from the northeast. "Just a wolf," Joel suggested.

Holly shook her head. "Wolves travel in packs. When one howls, the others answer. This is something traveling alone."

"A werewolf?" Jas asked.

Joel held up his finger and listened to the howl again. Holly was wrong. There was an answer, a much more disturbing noise. The bard could just barely hear it.

There's a horn. A hunting horn," the bard told them. "Coming from behind us."

"What could anyone be hunting at this hour?" Jas asked.

"Us," Holly whispered.

"Don't they have better things to do with their time?" the winged woman groaned.

"We need to throw their hound off the scent," Joel said.

"So we cross the river," Jas said.

"Not just yet," Holly answered. "We need to lay a false trail."

They gathered up their weaponry and the waterskins and proceeded west down the river path. With only a tiny sliver of light from the setting moon to show the way, it was slow going. They splashed through two creeks that emptied into the river. At the third creek, Jas picked up Holly and flew across the river.

While Joel waited for the winged woman to return, he planned the magic he might need for the day and prayed to Finder to grant him the spells. The howling grew so close that the bard became edgy and impatient. The birds had begun chirping, and the sky was beginning to lighten. Joel was just considering trying to swim the river when Jas finally returned.

"What kept you?" he demanded.

"Holly insisted I land far past the riverbank so they won't be able to pick up our scent by following the water's edge," Jas explained. "Let's go."

Joel wrapped his arms around Jas's neck as Holly had. It felt awkward to have a strange woman wrapping her arms about his chest. Jas didn't seem to be bothered by it. Joel was reminded of Walinda wrapping her cloak around him to hide from the beholder, but while the priestess had smelled of roses, Jas smelled of leather and sweat. Then they took off, and Joel could think only of returning to earth. Without wings of his own, Joel was terrified by the sensation of nothing beneath his feet.

Jas landed in a meadow beyond an untended apple orchard. Holly was digging in the dirt with a sword around a scraggly plant with white flowers.

"Are we going to hide in a tunnel?" Jas teased.

Holly held up a small red potato. Joel and Jas joined the paladin on their knees. When they'd amassed several handfuls of the vegetable, they continued on their trek, following a deer trail.

Shortly after dawn, duly warned by Holly to stay out of range of any spellcasting, Jas took to the sky to check out their pursuers. The paladin and the bard kept moving.

By the time the sun had climbed over the Dagger Hills, coloring the Desertsmouth Mountains a brilliant red, Jas returned.

"Well, there's good news and bad news," the winged woman reported. "There's about a dozen of them on horseback. Didn't spot any griffons, though. I'm pretty sure one of the riders is a priest and one's a mage. They seemed to have figured out we crossed the river. They've turned back downstream."

Holly nodded. "The river is way too deep and fast for horses to swim. The only ford is below Dagger Falls."

"What's the bad news?" Joel asked.

"The hound we heard. It's like nothing I've ever seen," Jas said. "It walks on its hind legs like a man, and it's as hairy as a werewolf and as black as soot. It's also huge… bigger than a man. The river didn't scare it. It jumped right in and started swimming across. The current carried it quite a ways downstream, but it came out on the opposite bank. That's when I turned around and came back."

"We better keep moving," Joel said.

They made for the mountains, and the peaks seemed to grow reassuringly closer. They hadn't heard the Zhent beast's howl since they'd crossed the river, but the creature was on all their minds. Joel kept estimating in his head how long it would take for something to sniff them out, but the farther they traveled, the less worried he became.

Holly traveled with the crossbow loaded, keeping an eye out for game. For lunch, they had two more rabbits with their potatoes. Since their fire couldn't be the only one in the dale, they didn't worry too much about anyone spotting the smoke. They rested for an hour in the shade of a line of trees bordering a stream. Joel had nearly dozed off when he thought he heard a voice say, "Listen."

The bard jerked awake. A howl reached his ear. He called out to Jas and Holly. The howl came again. Without any discussion, the three gathered their meager belongings and moved on.

In the late afternoon, they nearly stumbled upon a skunk chomping on the rancid corpse of a deer. Holly and Jas pulled back, but Joel stood watching the creature for a moment, then began singing softly.

"What is he doing?" Jas whispered to Holly, gesturing at the young priest.

Holly shrugged and didn't reply, afraid that any noise might alarm the animal. She wondered if perhaps Joel, a city boy, might not know what it was he faced.

Joel finished his song. The skunk looked up at him expectantly. Joel began another song. Then he addressed the skunk in its own animal tongue.

When Jedidiah had taught the bard to charm and speak to animals, they had practiced on a cat. "You should charm the animal first before speaking with it," Jedidiah had explained, "because charming it gets the animal's attention. Especially cats. They're notoriously bad listeners." With a skunk, Joel figured, charm was essential, since it kept the animal calm. The conversation with the skunk was similar to the one Joel had with the cat. Simple. Very simple.

"This is my food," the skunk said.

"It's your food," Joel agreed.

"Do you want some?" the skunk asked. It was, after all, enchanted by the bard.

"No thank you," Joel replied. "I'm just passing through."

"Too bad. There's plenty of food here."

"Unless some bad creature comes and takes it away," Joel agreed.

"What bad creature?" the skunk asked. "Some big, hairy howling thing following me and my mates," Joel explained. "Maybe after we pass, you should spray our trail. That will keep him away. Then he won't steal your food."

"Good idea," the skunk said.

"I'm leaving now, with my mates. There is no need to be alarmed when we pass," Joel said.

'"Bye," the skunk said, and returned to chewing on the deer carcass.

Joel motioned for Jas and Holly to keep behind him as he passed the skunk. Both women crept past, holding their breath, keeping Joel between them and the skunk.

"Don't forget to spray our trail," Joel called.

"I won't," the skunk answered.

When they'd put several hundred yards between them and the skunk, Jas burst out, "What were you doing?"

"You spoke with it, didn't you?" Holly guessed. Joel nodded. "You can never have too many friends in low places," he replied with a grin.

"Why did you speak to it?" Jas demanded. "It's a skunk, for gods' sake."

"I had to warn it about the big, hairy howling thing," Joel explained. "It's going to spray the trail behind us."

Holly laughed aloud. Even Jas grinned.

The creature howled again, and their smiles faded. The adventurers continued on. They turned and twisted down several different animal paths and trudged along some streambeds, yet the howling didn't seem to fade in the distance. After another hour of hiking with tired feet and the sound of the beast behind them, their nerves were beginning to fray.

"Shut up already," Jas growled back down the trail, as if the beast might hear her.

"I wonder why it hasn't caught up with us yet," Joel muttered.

"If it's really some sort of hunting hound," Holly said, "it knows better. It's job is to harry us until its master gets here."

"But the riders had to detour to cross the river," Joel remembered. "So it's deliberately hanging back."

Time to go on the offensive," Jas declared.

"I think so," Holly agreed.

Jas did a quick air foray to locate the beast. She returned in a very short while.

"It's rolling in the grass about a mile back, as if it were trying to rub something off," the winged woman reported. "I think your little black and white friend got it but good."

"But not enough to put it off our scent," Holly noted. "How interesting."

Quickly they planned their attack. Jas flew off with Holly, and Joel hurried back down the trail at a loping gait toward the beast. When he'd reached the hedgerow bordering the field where Jas had said he'd find the beast, he stopped and ducked down.

Taking a deep breath, he began to sing Cassana's lament from the opera Wizards in Love. He sang the sorceress's part in falsetto, then shifted to the tenor range to sing the part of the whiny lich Zrie Prakis. As the bard went into the song's finale, he knew the beast had taken the bait. He could smell the creature's approach. Jas had guessed correctly. The skunk had gotten him.

The smell made breathing difficult, but Joel kept singing, as if he were oblivious to the beast creeping up on him. The bard fervently hoped Jas's timing would not be off.

Something on the other side of the hedgerow growled.

Joel sprang to his feet and spun around with his sword raised.

A great black beast sprang over the hedgerow, lunging for the bard's throat. In that moment, Jas, still holding Holly, dropped on the creature, delivering it a resounding kick in the head with plenty of weight behind it. The beast shook its head as if stunned, but it didn't fall. The winged woman and the paladin separated the moment they came to the ground. Holly rolled to her feet in an instant and launched a crossbow bolt into the beast's chest.

The creature turned to face the paladin. Holly gasped. Jas slashed at the beast's arm and managed to draw blood. Joel finished intoning his spell song and pointed at the creature. The hedgerow behind the beast grew and began to snake outward. In five heartbeats, it had entangled the beast's feet, legs, waist, and finally its hairy chest and arms. It was an exceptionally thick hedgerow, and the beast's furious struggles were in vain.

"Bear?" Holly whispered.

"No, it's not a bear," Jas said. "It looks almost human, except for that snout… a really hairy human. It's got fingers but no tail. Maybe it's some sort of half-ogre."

Joel drew closer, despite the stench of skunk that covered the creature. "Bear!" the bard gasped, just barely able to recognize the huge man's features, despite the distortion of his face into a wolflike snout.

"Why is it wearing a steel eye patch?" Jas asked.

"Because it was once a man with one eye," Holly said. "It is you, isn't it, Bear?" the paladin asked.

The creature snarled at the paladin. Then, in a gravelly voice, it's mouth twisting horribly, it replied, "You will… die, paladin. This is all your… f-fault, bitch." The words came out slowly and not very clearly, as if Bear was having trouble pronouncing them.

"What?" Holly asked, confused by the accusation. "How did you get this way, Bear?"

"I offered you and the… priest of Finder… to Iyachtu Xvim. If you are not both sacri-f-f-sacrificed with the new moon, my life is… forfeit," the beast-man said. "The priest I serve gave me the power to track you down so that I might live."

"Can they change you back?" Holly asked.

"Who cares?" Jas asked. "Just slay him and let's get going."

"The spell that transformed me took away the light of my humanity… f-forever," Bear growled. "I am all darkness now. Pure. F-F-Favored of Iyachtu Xvim."

"You see now why I avoid gods," Jas muttered to Joel.

Bear's one good eye gleamed with madness. "You will all… die in pain and humiliation. I can taste your souls and… feel your power wherever your f-feet have touched the earth," the enchanted man boasted. "I might have lost your trail when you flew across the river… but for the power of the fourth one. I can sense the fourth one… from miles away."

"The fourth one?" Jas asked. "Who's he talking about?"

Holly's eyes scanned the meadow carefully.

"Do you mean Walinda of Bane?" Joel asked, wondering if the priestess were following them to exact some sort of revenge.

Bear gave a braying laugh. "No. The fourth one who travels beside you… is more powerful than any godless priestess. The fourth one's power… is far greater even than our high priest, the Ruinlord. When I bring the fourth one to sacrifice… my god will elevate me above even the Ruinlord."

Jas shifted nervously. "He's crazy. There is no fourth one," she declared. "Is there?"

Bear writhed in the enchanted hedgerow, struggling to free himself. When he found he could not, he gave an ear-piercing howl.

"Stop that!" Jas ordered, leveling the point of her sword at Bear's throat.

From far off came the sound of a hunting horn.

Bear howled again, louder and longer.

"Shut up!" Jas shouted.

Bear's howls became frantic.

Jas shoved her sword into the beast-man's neck and sliced his windpipe. The howling stopped. Bear's shoulders slumped forward. Only the hedgerow held him up.

Joel looked at Jas, horrified at how quickly she had taken the beast-man's life.

"You didn't have to do that!" Holly objected, whirling angrily on the winged woman.

"Don't be a fool," Jas snapped. "His only reason for being was to bring us to our death. Now we can all sleep at night."

The hunting horn sounded again.

"Come on, Holly," Joel said softly, laying his hand on the paladin's back. "We have to get going."

"Damned right," Jas said. She strode off back down the path they'd come.

Joel and Holly followed behind her.

"Joel, suppose Bear wasn't crazy? Suppose there is a fourth one? Who could it be?" the girl asked.

"Holly, I haven't a clue," the bard admitted. "Let's keep moving."

By nightfall, they'd reached the foothills of the Desertsmouth Mountains. They were considering where they should make camp for the night when they spotted something glowing softly somewhere to the south. The light was an unnatural violet color.

"It's Giant's Craw," Holly said excitedly.

"Is that good or bad?" Jas asked.

"It's a rock," the paladin explained, "with faerie fire cast on it. It marks the entrance to a valley. Giants used to live there, waylaying caravans, until Lord Randal drove them out. It's supposed to be a lovely valley, teeming with game."

"Sounds like a good place to find breakfast," Joel said.

They made their way deeper into the foothills until they'd reached the magical stone. It was a great hexagonal pillar of ebony basalt, as tall as a giant, polished to a smooth finish.

Holly put her back against the west side of the rock and slid down to the ground with a blissful smile. "This is where I'm sleeping," she said.

Jas eyed the stone warily. She settled down a few yards away.

Joel took first watch. He sat with his back against the east side of the stone and watched the waning moon rise in the east. It was like a dying ember, and Selune's Tears, the tiny lights that trailed after it, were like sparks. Tomorrow, or perhaps the next night, would mark the new moon, when the Xvimists would have sacrificed Holly, Jas, and him. He wondered if Bear's death would be enough to placate the bloodthirsty god of the priest of Xvim and his Zhent followers, and if they would abandon the hunt now. Joel doubted it, but with their hound dead, the Xvimists and Zhents could be outwitted. At least Joel hoped so.

The bard's thoughts returned uneasily to Bear's claim that he sensed a fourth person traveling with them. Joel puzzled over who it could be. Someone with power. Absolutely no one came to mind. Joel shook his head. Perhaps Jas was right. Bear had been maddened by his transformation and sensed someone who wasn't there.

After turning the watch over to Jas, Joel slept soundly. Holly woke him in the morning by pressing a raspberry to his lips. She and Jas had found a berry patch. The berries were big, sweet, juicy, and full of flavor. In no time at all, the three of them were covered with briar scratches, their fingers and lips stained purple.

"That's what the stone marker means," Holly joked "Purple berries here."

"It must mark something," Joel said. "It's not like any other rock near here, and its magic is permanent. We could go exploring," he suggested.

"It's not on our agenda," Jas said tersely. "You're supposed to be making a pilgrimage to the Lost Vale, aren't you?"

"We have to hunt anyway," Joel pointed out. "It might as well be here."

"I suppose a tiny side trip couldn't hurt," Jas said with a sigh.

They looked down into the valley. Even by the light of day, it had an eerie look to it. Deposits of loose shale covered much of the mountain slopes on either side. Scrub pines grew out of the shale, but many of them were naked of needles and covered with morning glory vines. Where the shale didn't cover the slopes, wildflowers bloomed, carpeting the hills with gold.

They made their way downward, walking among the flowers, sliding on the shale. Birds chirped everywhere, and Holly spotted deer droppings. Jas took to the air to scout for game. Joel followed the paladin as she crept along the valley floor, alert for every sound. A mile into the valley, she shot two large pheasants and scavenged their nest for the eggs. She began to teach Joel how to pluck feathers. Soon the bard was covered with them and Holly was laughing at him.

Somewhere off in the distance, something howled. Quickly a horn answered.

"Beshaba's filthy luck!" Joel cursed. An icy hand seemed to grip his heart.

"Where's Jas?" Holly asked with alarm.

Joel looked up at the sky. The winged woman was making her way toward them at top speed. She landed just in front of them, her face pale with anger. "Did you hear that?" she demanded.

Joel nodded.

"They're at the stone," the winged woman reported. "You're trapped in this valley."

"What's at the other end of the valley?" Joel asked.

That," Jas said, pointing to a high-peaked mountain. "Its lower slopes are either cliff faces or covered with loose shale."

"They won't be able to charge their horses up the shale slope," Joel noted.

Jas nodded. "There's a ledge on the upper slope, blocked by a rock with a narrow opening, like a needle," she said. "Unless they can fly, too, they can only come at you one at a time through the rock.

"Get Holly up there first," Joel ordered. "I'll see if I can find a way to hold them off."

"Ill be back," Jas promised as she took off with the paladin.

Joel considered carefully what spells he should call on Finder for. When he was finished praying, he dragged a deadfall branch along the valley floor until it lay between two boulders. Unless they were prepared to go up a steep shale slope, the Xvimists would have to ride their horses between the boulders over the branch. Quietly Joel began singing a spell over the branch. Jas arrived before he finished. She paced impatiently until he finished.

"Trip spell?" she asked, pointing to the branch.

Joel nodded as he wrapped his arms around her neck.

Jas took off, flying low, until she reached the end of the valley. She struggled to gain altitude until a thermal of air caught her and practically dumped her and her passenger on the mountain slope.

The needle was an excellent defensive position. It was a thin cleft in a wall of rock situated on a smaller peak just in front of the major peak. Except for a stretch of steeply sloped shale, the other sides of the lesser peak were cliffs. The base of the major peak and the saddle that led to it were all cliff faces. The valley below was a gorge, and the only way up out of the gorge was through the needle on the minor peak.

Holly stood just behind the rock needle, her crossbow loaded, her sword drawn.

Joel looked at the ground just behind the needle. It was worn smooth and flat, like a trail cut into the rock. It went down along the saddle to the major peak before it disappeared beneath another shale slide.

"This led somewhere once," Holly said. "Did you see any sign of a cave from the air? My people used to use them as crypts."

Jas shook her head. She began gathering up large rocks in her cloak. "You don't have to stay, you know,' Joel pointed out.

Jas stood up and looked at Joel. "Like that old joke about two guys running from a bear."

Joel grinned.

"What joke?" Holly asked.

"Two guys are running from a bear," Joel explained. "One says to the other, "We'll never outrun this bear.' The other guy says, 'I don't have to outrun the bear'-'

" 'I only have to outrun you,' " Jas finished.

"That's terrible," Holly said.

"That's life," Jas said. She looked at Joel with a grim expression. "I'll stay until I have no reason to stay," she said.

Joel nodded. She expected to be the last standing, or flying. When he and Holly had fallen, she would be free to fly away.

It seemed to take forever for the Xvimists to reach the base of the mountain. Joel squinted into the sun. Leading the hunt was the loping figure of a man-beast If it wasn't Bear, it was his twin brother.

"How did he survive?" Holly wondered aloud.

"Maybe he wasn't quite dead and the priest of Xvim healed him when they found him," Joel suggested. "Or maybe there was some sort of regeneration spell woven into his transformation,"

"I've got to remember to start cremating the things I kill," Jas muttered.

Below them, Bear howled, even though his master, the priest of Xvim, rode right behind him.

"He's doing that just to annoy me," Jas snarled.

They counted fourteen others behind Bear and the priest. One wore robes like a mage, but the rest were dressed as Zhentilar. Nine of the soldiers were on foot. The trip trap Joel had left behind must have injured their mounts.

The horses balked at the shale slope. The riders dismounted and eyed the slope warily.

Holly turned to Jas and whispered, "If you find Anathar's Dell, tell Lord Randal everything that happened. Tell him I thank him for the trust he had in me. Tell him I died fighting the Zhentilar and the servants of Xvim in Lathander's name."

"I'll never remember all that," Jas said, giving the girl a gentle squeeze on the shoulder. "You'll have to live through this and tell him yourself."

Listening to the paladin's pious words, Joel thought again of his own god. Nothing personal, Joel thought, but I'm not really fighting this one for you. He intended to sing a blessing for strength just before the soldiers reached the needle, but in the interim, he wondered if there was anything else he should try praying for. Finder had helped him escape once, but there really wasn't a lot of time for a fresh vision of Jedidiah. He could pray for a quick death so Bear didn't have the opportunity to gloat over Joel's torture. He could pray for courage. His stomach was feeling queasy, and the sword in his hand felt heavy and strange. Mostly he felt regret that he'd never become comfortable in the role of a priest, never lived up to what he thought Jedidiah or Finder needed from him. "Sorry if I was a disappointment, Finder," he whispered.

It wasn't a battle cry, but the words left his spirit feeling a little lighter.

The priest of Xvim finally goaded the soldiers into moving up the shale slope. For all their faintheartedness, the soldiers looked grim and strong, and their weapons sharp and deadly.

At the base of the shale, Bear howled and capered back and forth before the priest of Xvim. Joel could hear him panting. The beastlike sound made Joel's flesh crawl. Bear disgusted him. He didn't want to be near the man-beast again. Suddenly he was gripped by the desire to keep the beast away from Holly. That, at least, could be accomplished.

"Jas," he whispered, "take Holly and get away from here. If you catch one of those thermals, you should be able to get over the first line of peaks. Bear will never be able to follow you over them. He said he can only sense where your feet have touched the earth. He can't track you as long as you're flying."

"No," Holly whispered. "I'm not leaving you."

Jas exchanged a look with Joel, but before the two adults could come to an agreement, there was a sudden flash of light to Joel's left, followed quickly by the boom of thunder. Joel looked up in the sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight. As if of one mind, the remaining horses of the foe neighed in panic and galloped off back down the valley.

From the major peak came a great roar. Joel squinted, fully expecting to see a dragon. The roar increased until it sounded like a hundred dragons. Suddenly Joel felt as if he were bouncing on a galloping horse. The very ground beneath his feet was shaking. The shale on the major peak began sliding down the cliff like a great black waterfall. The loose rock parted around the minor peak where they stood, like a stream about a rock. Then the shale continued to spill down the side of the cliff until it nearly filled the gorge below, burying the Zhentilar and the priest of Xvim and the capering Bear.

It was over in less than a minute, although it took much longer for the dust to settle. The noise had so startled all the wildlife that the valley had become deadly silent.

Then Joel heard what sounded like applause. It came from the direction of the high peak on the opposite side of the saddle. Joel peered through the settling dust. A figure stepped out from behind a boulder and began crossing the saddle toward them. It was a man with white hair and a white beard. He wasn't actually applauding, Joel realized, but clapping the dust off his black trousers and red tunic. He smiled up at Joel, and his face crinkled in wrinkles.

"I don't believe it!" Joel muttered, recognizing the man at once.

Holly and Jas half raised their weapons, but they were too astonished to actually attack. With a wave of his hand, Joel indicated that they could relax. He stepped out onto the saddle, spat some dust from his throat, and called out, "Jedidiah! Well met!"

The elder priest of Finder raised his brass glaur over his head in a little victory salute. Jedidiah had once claimed that the valved horn had magical properties that could "bring down the house." Joel realized that he had just witnessed a demonstration of the instrument's power.

"Well met, Rebel Bard," Jedidiah answered his pupil. "You've come a long way."