Jas reeled backward. The wound wasn't too serious, but it opened the mystical pathway by which the fetch could drain her life energy.
Joel charged at the creature and stabbed his sword deep into its back. Emilo hit the creature's leg with his sword.
The fetch turned again on Joel, but Jas blocked the creature's blade with her own. The fetch struck Jas across her ribs, slicing through her leather tunic, shirt, and skin. Jas's sword cut halfway through the fetch's neck.
The fetch fell to the ground, and Jas collapsed beside it.
"Make sure it's dead," the winged woman gasped to Emilo. "Make damn sure."
The kender stabbed at the fetch's throat with his sword, but it did not stir. The monster was dead.
Joel shuddered at the sight. The creature remained in the bard's form, though its skin was as pale as a corpse. That's how I'll look when I'm dead, the bard thought. He knelt beside Jas and hummed a prayer to heal her wounds. The skin at her wrist and ribs knit easily, but she remained leaning against Joel.
"Gods, I feel weak," the winged woman murmured.
"I can't restore your life energy," Joel said. "It may take years before you recover what's been drained from you. You didn't have to make yourself its only target."
"Better me than you," Jas said. "If it hit you, you wouldn't be able to cast the spells we might need."
Emilo, who had been looking about the cave, said, "I don't understand. This is a dead end. Why would Sirrion send us to a dead end?"
Joel sighed. "Perhaps he wanted us to kill the fetch. I think we'd better keep moving," he added.
Outside the cave, the finder's stone sent out a weak beam of light pointed back up the slope. "This way," Joel said with a nod of his head.
"But Sirrion said the finder's stone would lead us into danger," Emilo objected.
"Emilo, you can't still believe it was Sirrion you spoke with," Jas growled. "Someone impersonated Sirrion to lead us into a trap."
Emilo shook his head. "I just can't believe it. I was so sure," he murmured. Uncharacteristically, he remained silent for some time after that, lost in private musing.
The three heroes resumed the long trek upward. Farther up the slope, they spied the first sign of a true path, which had been cleared of all loose stones. The path weaved its way back and forth up the mountainside.
It was while they were taking their second rest that Emilo spotted three winged creatures circling overhead. They looked like giant vultures, but they had human arms and hands in which they carried spears. The three adventurers huddled behind a large boulder beside the trail and waited until the creatures flew off.
Unfortunately the light from the finder's stone indicated that they needed to proceed in the same direction as the vulture creatures. They proceeded along the trail more cautiously, with one eye to the sky at all times.
Jas seemed to linger behind, watching for the creatures. Joel was struck with an uneasy suspicion.
"You aren't planning on making yourself a target again just to keep me and Emilo safe, are you?" he murmured to the winged woman. "Because if you are, forget it."
"Why?" Jas asked. "Think about it, Joel. As long as I have the dark stalker in me, I may as well take risks. Dying is the only way I'm going to cheat Iyachtu Xvim. On the other hand, you're young. You have a lot to live for."
"Jas you're only six years older than I am. This fatalism is ridiculous," Joel declared.
"Is it? I killed that fetch. If the priests of Iyachtu Xvim were telling the truth, I've already sealed my fate. The only reason I don't look like a dark stalker is that Finder transformed me with magic."
"Do you feel like a dark stalker?" Joel asked. "Do you sense the power of your prey like they told you you would?"
"It's hard to say," Jas admitted. "With so much of my life energy drained, I can't be sure what I'm feeling."
Emilo, who was farther up trail, turned and ran back to the two humans. "The path leads to another cave," he said excitedly. "A really big one-big enough to hold a dragon, or even a couple of dragons." From overhead, there came a horrible screech. One of the vulture creatures was diving straight toward them.
Joel grabbed Jas's hand and shouted, "Run for it!"
The three pelted down the trail.
The cave loomed up ahead. Its entrance was quite large, and Joel realized there was nothing to prevent the vulture creatures from following them inside. Darkness would be their only cover.
As they dashed into the opening, Jas yanked her hand away from Joel and turned to face the creature should it decide to enter.
Up ahead, in the darkness of the cave, Joel spotted two glowing red spots moving toward him. The bard grabbed Jas about the waist and dragged her off to the side of the entrance to hide in the shadows.
The vulture creature landed at the cave entrance and stood silhouetted in the light. The giant bird was a full two feet taller than Joel. A few moments later the vulture was flanked by two more of its kind.
The glowing red spots inside the cave grew larger. The vulture creatures, apparently having spotted what Joel assumed were the eyes of some far larger monster, backed away from the cave entrance. The glowing spots flashed past Joel, and he saw in the cave entrance a hideously misshapen spider at least ten feet long. From its spinneret, the spider shot a strand of webbing at the vultures.
There was a horrible shrieking sound outside the cave, but Joel turned his attention to the kender tugging on his vest.
There's a way through the cave," Emilo whispered. "Hurry."
Joel and Jas followed the kender deeper into the cave. Great webs filled the passage, but Emilo had discovered a sinkhole four feet wide and nearly as deep that was free of webbing. Emilo scurried through the sinkhole as the humans, dragging their packs behind them, crawled on their hands and knees to avoid the webbing overhead. Joel speculated that the hole had been caused by the earth tremors they'd experienced the day before. Had it been formed less recently than that, the great spider surely would have detected it and filled it with webbing.
When they emerged from the sinkhole on the opposite side of the webbing, Joel pulled out the finder's stone once again. The stone shone down the passageway. The light seemed brighter underground, as if the stone sensed it was safer from detection in this dark place. The passageway twisted and turned and finally led them to a steep staircase that led upward.
Jas counted two hundred steps before they reached the first landing. The next flight of steps was set ninety degrees to the first flight. It was another two hundred steps to the second landing.
"Are we there yet?" Jas half joked, half whined.
"Beshaba's supposed to have her court somewhere near the pinnacle," Joel reminded Jas. "It could be a thousand, two thousand steps, maybe more."
Jas groaned and rummaged about in a backpack for the water bottle.
"Hello," Emilo murmured. He'd been tapping on the stones of the wall. "I think I've found something."
Joel turned to see what the kender had discovered. Emilo was pushing at a stone on the wall of the landing. A hidden doorway, some five feet high and two feet wide, popped open a crack.
"Shall we have a look?" the kender asked.
"It would be a nice break from all the stairs," Jas said, taking a gulp of water.
Joel stared uncertainly at the door. "We're more likely to discover what we need to know at the top of the stairs," he said.
"But perhaps we can learn something useful here," Emilo argued. "Maybe Beshaba keeps her secrets down here instead of up there," the kender suggested.
"Just a quick look," Joel agreed with a sigh.
They slipped through the door. The finder's stone light stubbornly shone back toward the stairs.
From his pack, the kender pulled out a torch and tinderbox. By the light of the torch, they proceeded down the narrow corridor.