Suddenly Grypht remembered the dark shape he’d seen standing in the camp beside Coral when they’d begun their attack. Finder had returned in time for the battle after all. With his magical stone, the bard could have teleported to the Singing Cave. Could it be that he was deliberately leading Moander away from the saurials? Did he know what had happened to the others?
He had to discover what the bard was up to, the wizard decided. Perhaps Finder could help move the unconscious saurials. “Do what you can for our people, Sweetleaf,” Grypht ordered the cleric. “I’ll return as soon as I can.” The saurial wizard clutched his staff and teleported to the Singing Cave.
Finder drifted into the mouth of the Singing Cave and landed smoothly among the ferns.
“Don’t move!” Alias growled, waving Dragonbait’s sword at the bard’s chest.
Dragonbait knocked the swordswoman’s hand aside. “Alias, he’s holding Olive. You’ll skewer her,” the paladin warned. He could see the invisible halfling with his heat sight.
“What are you talking about?” the swordswoman demanded. “His arms are empty.”
“No, they’re not,” Olive piped up. She wished herself visible, and suddenly she was. She looked back up at the bard. “How come you could see me when I was invisible?” she demanded.
“When you get to be my age, Olive, no beautiful woman is invisible,” Finder said.
Olive began to smile at the bard’s flattery, but she caught sight of the flower in the bard’s hair and shuddered nervously.
Sensing her unease, Finder set the halfling down on the floor. Olive scurried toward Alias.
Grypht appeared behind the bard. He could smell the anger and the fear permeating the air around him. “What’s going on?” he demanded.
“Finder’s been possessed by Moander!” Alias declared. Her voice cracked with pain and sorrow.
“See the flower in his ear?” Olive chirped.
In the cave lit by Dragonbait’s flaming sword, the finder’s stone, and the magical blue sigils of Moander glowing on Alias’s arm and Dragonbait’s chest, Grypht had no trouble picking out the flower growing from the bard’s ear and the mossy growth on his chin.
“Champion can use his power to cure disease on him,” Grypht said.
“No!” Finder said, stepping back. “I don’t need to be cured. I know it appears as if I’ve been possessed, but I’m not. Alias, you didn’t see me do it, but I was the one who dispelled Coral’s entanglement vines earlier. I also rescued you and Dragonbait from Moander’s grasp. Would I have done all that if I was one of the god’s minions?”
“You kept me from rescuing Akabar!” Alias cried. “You let Moander swallow him!”
Grypht felt his heart sinking when he learned the mage’s fate. He had admired Akabar’s courage and been moved by his concern for the saurials, who weren’t even his own people.
“Alias, there was no way you were going to reach Akabar,” Finder said. He took a step toward her with his arms extended.
Alias again pointed Dragonbait’s sword at the bard’s chest. “Don’t move!” she ordered him again.
“Moander is heading up the mountain even as we speak,” Grypht said, “led here by the bard—”
“I was trying to lead Moander away from your people,” Finder protested.
“Olive, check to see how close it is to us,” Alias told the halfling. Olive hurried to obey.
“We could use your help, but we can’t trust you unless you let Dragonbait cure the disease within you,” Grypht said to Finder.
“I cannot cure him, High One,” Dragonbait said. “I wasted my power trying to cure Coral. I have used my shen sight on the bard, however. I still sense no evil in him.”
Although Grypht realized that Finder was the sort of man who wouldn’t bow to any master, the saurial wizard had never seen anyone resist Moander’s possession once the Darkbringer’s disease had begun to manifest itself physically. “How is this possible?” he asked the bard.
“Xaran shot a burr of possession at me in the orc lair,” Finder explained. “It exploded its spores in my face, but nothing happened. I presumed its magic had failed. I’d forgotten that two hours before it happened I had swallowed magical potions that slow and neutralize poison. I believe the potions’ magic must have affected the spores so that they grew more slowly and altered the vines so Moander can’t use them to take hold of my body or mind.”
“Moander’s just reached the mountain slope,” Olive reported from the cave’s mouth. “The incline’s slowing it down some, but it’s still coming.”
“If you aren’t possessed, what were you doing in Coral’s hut?” Alias asked, unconvinced by Finder’s story. “Olive saw you there.”
“Trying to find the seed in order to destroy it. I was hoping that Coral and Moander would believe I was possessed. I got them to tell me where the seed was. I knew Olive was outside, looking into the hut. I made sure she heard that Akabar’s blood was the seed they were looking for, and I said it in Realms common so Olive was certain to understand me.”
“Olive heard you,” Alias admitted. Finally convinced that Finder had tried to help, she lowered Dragonbait’s sword from the bard’s chest and spoke the command word to extinguish the blade’s flame. “She told Akabar and me,” the swordswoman whispered.
“Then why didn’t you get Akabar away from here?” Finder demanded.
“He refused to leave,” Alias sobbed. “He insisted on fighting Moander, whatever the risk.”
“The fool!” Finder muttered.
Grypht shook his head. “Akabar did what he felt he must. If you aren’t possessed,” the wizard asked Finder, “why were you so anxious that Dragonbait not cure you? The vines of possession will eat away at your insides.”
“But the vines won’t kill me,” Finder said. “Their magic will make me immortal.”
Grypht shook his head, appalled at the bard’s acceptance of so bizarre a life. “We need Finder’s help to teleport my tribe out of the vale. For the time being, I’m prepared to trust him.”
“Moander has reached the uncut forest!” Olive said, hurrying back into the cave. “I think it’s time we got out of here.”
“I’ll teleport us all back to my keep,” Finder said. “We’ll be safe there for the time being.”
Anxious to leave before Moander got any closer, Olive forgot her earlier fear of Finder and was prepared to accept his offer immediately. She reached up to take his hand.
“What about the saurials?” Alias asked the bard angrily.
“I can make several trips back for them,” Finder replied. “The stone’s power is endless.”
“And what then?” Alias demanded. The rage that had been boiling up inside her ever since Akabar had disappeared into the pile spewed out at the bard. “What happens when we’ve all fled and Moander starts crossing the mountains? Do we begin to evacuate the dales?” the swordswoman demanded. “And after the dales, the Elven Woods? Cormyr? Can you take the Realms to a safe place, Finder?”
Tears began to stream down Alias’s cheeks as her voice rose. “Akabar is inside that creature, and it’s your fault. If you had used the para-elemental ice in your silly stone to put the saurials into a torpor, then Akabar would never have gotten near that pile. He’d be here with us now, and all the saurials would be safe. But your stone was more important than people. You never loved anyone but yourself. Now that you have your precious immortality and your magical stone, why bother to help us? You don’t need us. We mean nothing to you.”
“Alias,” Finder whispered, “that’s not true. I love you with all my heart.”
“No, you don’t,” the swordswoman declared. “You don’t understand the first thing about love.”
Finder was silent for a moment, too ashamed to argue further. All the things Alias had said were true except one. He did love her, even enough to admit he was wrong. “I’m sorry,” he said. “You’re right. I should have used the stone before. It’s too late now, I know, but I’m sorry.”