Tymora's luck

ACT THREE SCENE 4

In the empty stone chamber in the gate wall where Hatemaster Morr had instructed him to wait, Joel paced restlessly from wall to wall. The bard couldn't get out of his head Jas's screeches as she was dragged away. His only comfort was knowing that Emilo had followed Jas. The kender would find a way to calm her down.

Ordinarily the bard would have used the time to sing or compose something on his birdpipes. He was certain he was being observed, however, and a practiced musician was not the image he wanted to project. He tried to guess what sort of thing a tiefling bounty hunter would do while he waited. He thought of practicing drills with his sword, but that might give away just how meager his skill with a weapon was. So he paced… and worried.

After what seemed an eternity, Hatemaster Morr returned. "Follow me," he ordered.

Joel shouldered both Winnie's backpack and his own and fell into step beside the priest of Xvim. The hate-master escorted the bard past several yugoloth guards, beyond the bastion's inner wall, into the courtyard of Xvim's fortress.

The courtyard was illuminated with lines of torches. To the right, a rectangular temple of black marble squatted atop a low hill. A great staircase, littered with human bones and skulls, climbed up to the temple.

Yugoloths surrounded the temple, rank upon rank of the giant horned crickets. Drilling these cricket yugoloths in marching in formation were several shorter yugoloths who resembled red lobsters with chicken feet. Joel did not spot any of the yellow froglike hydroloths.

Across the courtyard from the temple stood a great tower, which rose several stories taller than the fortress walls. It was guarded by more hordes of the cricket creatures.

At first Joel presumed the torches were lit for the benefit of Xvim's human followers until he spied some of the small lobsterlike yugoloths carrying torches. Then Joel realized that at least some of the yugoloths were not gifted, as were the tanar'ri hi Walinda's camp, with the ability to see in the dark.

Hatemaster Morr led Joel through the courtyard toward the temple. Joel followed the priest up the staircase and into the great marble building. There were no yugoloths within the temple. A few human priests scurried from rooms on one side of the hall to rooms on the other.

Joel and the hatemaster walked the length of the great hall; at the other end, they passed into an audience chamber. There were no yugoloths in here either, only humans. Some twenty of these, armored in plate mail and armed with morningstars, served as guards. Over their armor they wore green stoles embroidered with Xvim's symbol, green eyes set in the palm of a black hand. From the relative plainness of their stoles, Joel guessed they were low-ranking priests. Six other priests in robes of gray silk trimmed with green, serving as scribes and advisers, attended the tyrannar. Only two of the priests were women; both were serving as guards.

The tyrannar was seated in a chair upholstered with human flesh. He was an ancient spider of a man, covered with liver spots, wearing robes made from an elaborate black and green brocade. From the tattoos on his cheeks, Joel could tell that he had once been a priest of Bane, the father of Iyachtu Xvim.

"So," the tyrannar croaked, "you've brought me the elusive Jasmine the Dark Stalker."

"Yeah," Joel said, being deliberately brief in an attempt to imitate the toughs he'd encountered in Sigil.

"Tell me how you knew we were searching for her," said the tyrannar.

"A priest called Perr hired me and my mates to bring her down," Joel replied with a fairly passable Sigilian accent.

"And what happened to Hatemaster Perr?" the tyrannar demanded.

"Got himself caught up in a razorvine. Sliced himself up on it deliberately before the Hardheads could use their magic to get him to turn stag on us and the Boss," Joel replied.

"What happened to the Boss?" the tyrannar asked.

"When the Hardheads come beating down the door, he turned hisself into a big frog and attacked 'em," Joel explained. "But the Hardheads took him down. That's when I pinched the bird girl and give 'em the laugh. I remembered the Boss saying she was supposed to be delivered here to you, so I brought her myself. No need to thank me. Jink will do nicely."

The tyrannar glared long and hard at Joel, but the bard never lowered his eyes.

At last the tyrannar spoke again. "You should know, Marin the Red, that we do not pay for our own property. Which is not to say we will not offer you a reward."

"What sort of reward?" Joel asked, allowing a suspicious tone to creep into his voice.

"If you join the church of Iyachtu Xvim, I am prepared to offer you a position of honor, which, should you prove yourself, will be followed by a position of power."

"I'm not much of a joiner," Joel replied. "I don't like most other people."

The tyrannar chuckled. "As Iyachtu Xvim is the god of hatred and tyranny, that is considered a requirement of the faith."

"Yeah?" Joel asked, his tone hinting that he might be prepared to nibble on the tyrannar's offer.

"We need a new captain of the guard for Lord Xvim's throne room," the tyrannar explained.

"What happened to the old captain?" Joel asked suspiciously.

"He met with an unfortunate accident, along with several of his immediate underlings. Only one of his deputies survived, and none of the remaining guards are really leadership material. So, you see, we need to recruit someone to fill the position. It is important that the position not be left empty for any considerable period of time. Aside from the security concerns, it would be a serious breach of tradition."

"What about all these yugoloths you've got around here?" the bard demanded.

"The job requires certain skill beyond the yugoloths' capabilities. Traditionally it is held by a human, and we are loath to break with tradition," the tyrannar explained.

"Don't trust the big bugs, do you?" Joel asked with a vulgar wink. "So what's the garnish on this job?"

"Garnish? Oh, you mean pay. We're willing to pay a hundred gold pieces a week."

Joel bit down on his lip. The offer was quite generous, which, considering its source, had to make him even more suspicious. It didn't seem reasonable that they were prepared to recruit a complete unknown to serve as a guard in Xvim's throne room, so there had to be a catch. If he were to turn down the offer, however, he had a sneaking suspicion he'd become a slave or a sacrifice. He wasn't exactly in a position to bargain, but he didn't want to appear as if he knew that. "Make it three hundred," the bard offered, "and you have yourself a deal."

"As I said, we can only offer such a position of honor to a follower of our Lord Xvim," the tyrannar replied.

"Well, then, sign me up," Joel replied, wondering if he would be compelled to join if he refused.

"You must make an offering to Xvim," the tyrannar explained.

"Well, you can have the bird girl, then. I offer her to Xvim," Joel said blithely. He couldn't help but recall that Walinda had done the exact same thing to Jas not long ago.

"Welcome to the ranks of the Xvimlar," the tyrannar said. "Kneel before me, Marin the Red."

Joel set the backpacks aside and knelt before the ancient priest. He wondered if Finder was finding this performance amusing. Possibly not. The situation was too serious.

Tyrannar Neri laid his hand, twisted and emaciated with age, on Joel's head. "Know that you are part of the New Darkness that will spread throughout the multiverse. By your faith will Lord Xvim rule as the greatest tyrant in history, and his hatred will fill the void."

Joel felt a sudden revulsion seize him. His stomach heaved, but fortunately it was empty. The tyrannar's touch seemed to sting like a wasp. Under the pretense of prostrating himself lower, the bard slipped out from under the tyrannar's hand.

"Rise, Xvimlar Marin," Hatemaster Morr pronounced.

Joel stood up. The tyrannar's eyes glittered with hatred and the corners of his lips curled upward with some unknown amusement. He obviously thought he'd fooled Joel somehow.

As he grabbed up his backpacks, Joel wondered just how much the old man knew.

The tyrannar waved his hand, and Hatemaster Morr said, "Follow me, Xvimlar Marin."

Joel turned from the tyrannar and followed the hate-master from the audience chamber. He felt a horrible chill come over his whole body. He touched his hand to his chest to feel the warmth of the finder's stone, then remembered he'd given it to Emilo.

Although Joel was sure Finder would know his offer to Xvim was only a lie, the bard had a strong sense that evil had embraced him. In this place of hatred, he worried that his spoken words might have been more powerful than what was in his heart.

Hatemaster Morr led Joel out of the temple. As they stood atop the great staircase, the hatemaster pointed imperially across the courtyard.

"Within that tower," the priest of Xvim said, "is the throne room of Lord Xvim. That is your new post. Lord Xvim is not present at the moment, but he requires that there be a captain of the guard or his deputy on duty at all times. The yugoloths are not permitted in the temple or the tower."

"Where do the yugoloths live?" Joel asked curiously.

Hatemaster Morr pointed to the cliff that formed the bastion's rear wall. 'The mount is honeycombed with caverns. As the yugoloths are not threatened by fire, the eruptions that occasionally occur within are no more than inconveniences for the creatures."

"So the deputy and the rest of the guards are in the tower?" Joel asked.

"Yes," the hatemaster said, signalling to one of the lobsterlike yugoloths.

The short red yugoloth tramped up the stairs with an honor guard of six of the giant cricket yugoloths.

"This is the new captain/of the guard of Lord Xvim's throne room," the hatemaster informed the yugoloth. "Escort him to his post." He motioned for Joel to follow the yugoloths.

The bard followed his honor guard down the stairs of the temple and across the courtyard. As he passed by the units of giant marching yugoloths, he began to understand Holly's fears. Walinda's army was going to be slaughtered by the yugoloths; the priestess would reach her goddess only by walking on the tanar'ri's corpses.

Then Joel thought of Jas, and the problems of the tanar'ri and the yugoloths no longer concerned him. He worried instead about Jas, who deserved it. If Emilo didn't find him soon, Joel determined, he'd have to slip out of the throne room somehow and go looking for his friends.

The door to the tower was barred on the outside with the thighbone of some gargantuan beast. What, Joel wondered, were they keeping inside? Then it occurred to him: Beshaba was locked within. According to Walinda, however, the goddess was unconscious and thus didn't need to be locked up. Didn't the Xvimlar know that? Surely they didn't imagine that the doors would hold if Beshaba were conscious and desired to leave.

Perhaps, Joel thought, there's something else in the tower-something the tyrannar had assigned to guard the goddess, something even the yugoloth feared enough to want to lock it up.

The short yugoloth gave the order for the door to be opened. Two of the giant yugoloths lifted the bar, and a third pulled open the door. Darkness and a suffocating heat came from the doorway.

Suddenly one of the giant yugoloths gave Joel a shove that sent the bard sprawling through the door and across the floor of the tower. Then the yugoloths slammed the door shut, leaving the bard in total darkness. Joel could hear them set the bar in place.

Joel rose carefully to his feet.

"Finally," a voice whispered. The whisper echoed throughout the chamber, making it hard for Joel to judge the speaker's direction.

"Finally," the voice repeated, then added, "another sacrifice."