Walinda tilted her head thoughtfully. Then she shrugged and said, "Beshaba has been so weakened that she is now unconscious. I need to reach her to restore her strength. She is indeed a prisoner inside Iyachtu Xvim's realm, which is guarded by Xvim's yugoloth mercenaries. Fortunately Xvim himself is not present. He hasn't been since Beshaba arrived. I await but one more ally and we will attack the Bastion of Hate. You may join the attack if you so choose."
"Against yugoloths?" Holly exclaimed. "Your troops will be slaughtered!"
"They are tanar'ri," Walinda said dismissively. "They live only to die in the Blood War. What difference does it make if they die instead to help Beshaba? At any rate, the bulezau are anxious to engage the enemy. They care little who that enemy is. Their lord loaned me their services so they would not grow bored waiting for their next encounter with the baatezu."
"And the bar-lgura?" Holly challenged.
"The bar-lgura are less eager," Walinda admitted. "The other tanar'ri consider them little more than animals. A balor lord has sold them to me to punish them for failing to obey orders during a recent battle. I promised I would free any survivors."
An easy promise to make if they all die, Joel thought.
"How far off is the Bastion of Hate?" Holly asked.
Walinda pointed to the outer canyon. "If you climb up on that ridge and look down to your left, you will see Iyachtu's fortress. Xvim has set a powerful enchantment about the Bastion of Hate so that no one can gate or teleport into the fortress."
"I want to see it," Holly said.
"Very well," Walinda said.
"We can take the carpet," Joel said.
Walinda unrolled the carpet a few feet with a nudge of her boot. "Nice workmanship," she commented. "It will serve as payment of your commission in Beshaba's army. You can walk up there. You'll forgive me if I cannot join you. As I explained before, I am awaiting the arrival of an ally." She turned to the bar-lgura. "Escort them to the ridge. They are to go no farther."
Holly and Joel trudged behind an honor guard of six bar-lgura. As they scrambled up the ridge, Joel noticed Emilo was missing. Joel wished fervently that he knew what the kender was up to.
From the top of the ridge, they could see a great lava flow below, wider than any river. Chunks of unmelted rock were carried along in the fiery flow, like ice in a thawing stream. Across the river of magma, perched on a ledge cut out of the mountain, was Iyachtu Xvim's fortress, the Bastion of Hate.
On one side, the fortress was shielded by a cliff wall, on the other, by a crescent-shaped wall fortified with six towers.
"If Iyachtu Xvim isn't in there, where is he?" Joel wondered aloud.
Holly's brow furrowed with puzzlement. "Visiting a friend?" she volunteered facetiously.
Joel snorted in amusement. The god of hatred and tyranny was said to have no allies at all. "How do you think they're planning on getting across that lava?" the bard asked.
"All the tanar'ri, even the least, can teleport," Holly said.
"But according to Walinda, Xvim has enchanted his realm so no one can teleport into the fortress. They'll have to climb over those walls," Joel said.
"Not necessarily," Holly countered. "They need only distract the yugoloth so Walinda can sneak in and reach Beshaba without being killed or captured."
"How is Walinda going to restore Beshaba's strength?"
"You saw that dark aura around her," Holly said. "Beshaba has imbued her with power."
"Like Finder pouring his energy into the finder's stone," Joel said, feeling the warmth of the crystal against his chest.
"Sort of," Holly replied. "But by putting some of her power into Walinda, Beshaba has made Walinda a part of her. When Walinda said she was the goddess's proxy, she meant it in a very special way. Beshaba's desires are now her own. She has no choice any longer but to serve Beshaba as Beshaba would wish her to." Holly spun around suddenly and looked back down into the canyon. Joel turned as well.
Directly in front of the tent stood three new arrivals. Flanked by two seven-foot-tall toadlike creatures was a very tall six-armed creature that appeared to be half-snake, half-woman. Walinda seemed to be greeting the snake-woman. Holly must have sensed them with her ability to detect evil.
"Are those toad things hydroloths?" the bard asked, remembering Emilo's description of the creatures in Sigil that had been sent to fetch Jas.
Holly shook her head from side to side. "Hydroloths are much taller. Those things are hezrou, one of the true tanar'ri species. They have human arms. The snake-woman is-"
"A marilith… yes, I know," Joel said. "The strategists and tacticians of the Blood War."
Holly looked at the bard with surprise. "How is it you didn't know about barghests, bar-lgura, or bulezau, but you know what a marilith is?" the paladin asked.
"For the same reason he knew all about alu-fiends and probably knows all about succubi, yochlol, and lamia," Jas said from just behind them.
The winged woman hovered just beyond the ridge, out of reach of the bar-lgura guards, who growled at her and tilted their heads in puzzlement. No doubt they were confused by the appearance of a human woman with slasrath wings and were trying to determine if she was a denizen of the plane or not.
"Relax," Jas said to the tanar'ri. "I'm a friend of theirs." She fluttered to the ridge and landed beside the bard and the paladin. "So how is Walinda?" she asked Joel. "On her deathbed, I hope."
"She's Beshaba's proxy," Holly explained.
"Yes, I heard you talking," Jas replied. "I've been hovering overhead since you came up here. Forgive me for flying off, but if I see Walinda again, I'm likely to lose my self-control and wring her scrawny little neck until her forked tongue pops out of her vicious mouth."
"She knows you're here," Joel pointed out.
"Good. I hope she loses sleep over it," Jas retorted.
"Jas, you mustn't try to attack her now," Holly warned. "She isn't the priestess of a dead god anymore. She can cast priest spells again, ones that could kill you in an instant. With Beshaba's power inside her, she's far stronger than ever before."
"Not that I ever succeeded in killing her when she was a mere mortal, unable to cast any magic at all," Jas said bitterly.
With no comforting reply to offer her friend, Holly changed the subject. "What did you mean about Joel knowing about mariliths for the same reason he knew about alu-fiends and succubi?" she asked.
"Well, I'm assuming there are all sorts of books describing monsters and fiends in the library of that fancy barding college Joel attended as a boy," Jas said. She draped a friendly arm around the bard's shoulder. "Am I right, matey?" she asked Joel.
"Yes, of course," Holly said. "We had such a tome at the church where I learned to read and write," the paladin said. "But why don't you remember all the creatures?" she asked the bard.
Joel could feel a blush rising to his face. "It's not important," he insisted.
"Assuming boys haven't changed that much since I was a girl," Jas said, "I'll bet that book in your church and the book in the barding college both open naturally to certain pages, usually pages with pictures of fiends and monsters who mimic the looks of very attractive women."
"It's important to arm oneself with knowledge of an enemy to which one might be particularly susceptible," Joel pointed out self-defensively. Holly laughed.
"Too bad Walinda wasn't in that book," Jas said, giving the bard's shoulders a sisterly squeeze.
Joel had to nod in agreement. If he'd known when he'd first met Walinda what he knew now, he'd have never made any sort of alliance with her. Yet here he was, forced to do so again. Holly looked back down at the Bastion of Hate. "This isn't good," the paladin said grimly.