"It's Iyachtu Xvim's realm," Jas retorted. "It's not supposed to be good."
"Not that," Holly said. "This whole situation. It's going to be a bloodbath."
"Of a bunch of evil, lawless creatures," Jas pointed out.
"It's still not right," Holly said, shaking her head, "whatever kind of creatures they are."
"You're too softhearted," Jas declared.
"So only the just deserve justice? Only the good deserve goodness? Is that what you think?" Holly asked sadly.
"That's right," Jas replied. There wasn't a shred of doubt in her tone, but her voice cracked, and Joel knew she was thinking of Walinda's torture and murder of her friends.
"Holly, there's nothing we can do about it," Joel said. "Walinda is going to use those creatures, and they're letting themselves be used."
"So what now?" Jas asked.
"I presume the marilith is advising Walinda on how best to attack. When they've come to a decision, we attack."
"We should be there to hear their plans. Maybe we can influence them," Holly said, taking a step in the direction of the canyon floor.
"Not me," Jas said. "I'm not going to be involved in any plan of Walinda's. If she knows what's good for her, she won't trust me in any event. I'll make my own plans for this fight. When you're ready to begin, you let me know. Send out a ray of light from the finder's stone in my direction and I'll join you. Just make sure you're not with Walinda when you summon me."
The winged woman took off from the ridge and disappeared into the darkness.
Holly began sliding back down into the canyon. Joel followed behind more slowly, distracted by a new worry. Holly hadn't been looking at Jas before she'd flown off, so the paladin hadn't noticed what Joel had seen. Jas's eyes had glowed like an owl's-the way they did when the dark stalker was taking control of her. The bard said nothing to the paladin, because he wasn't certain he hadn't imagined it; it might have been a trick of the malignant red light that pervaded the atmosphere.
Even if I'm right, he thought, there isn't a thing I can do about it.
ACT THREE SCENE 3
When Holly and Joel went to look at the Bastion of Hate, Emilo remained behind to keep an eye on Walinda. No one in the party had bothered to explain to the kender why they all seemed to dislike the priestess so, but upon listening to her, the kender had a pretty good idea. Walinda was not nice at all. Furthermore, Emilo hadn't cared for the way she had appropriated their flying carpet.
Walinda stepped into the pavilion and ordered one of the bar-lgura to bring her the carpet. Emilo followed the hulking tanar'ri inside. When the tanar'ri left, the kender settled himself in a dark corner and watched.
He had no fear of being detected. The gift he'd been given, by a mysterious old man at the end of the magical vortex by which he had arrived in this world, seemed to be holding up well. As long as Emilo kept quiet, wasn't introduced by a companion, and didn't attack anyone, he went completely unnoticed. The hardest part was keeping quiet. The gift had served him well in Sigil until he'd run into Jas.
The mysterious old man had warned him that anyone from Krynn would be able to notice him. Jas had surprised him. Emilo had never seen any winged women on his home world of Krynn, but Jas had indeed noticed him, even though she claimed she came from Joel's world. It was possible she was confused about that. Whatever the case, her knowledge of his presence had turned out all right.
Finder was another exception, which Emilo had to think about for a while. In the end, he decided that since Finder was aware of everything that happened around Joel, and since Emilo had talked to Joel, that explained things. When Emilo had left Joel's side to eavesdrop on Finder and Tymora and Winnie, neither the gods nor the halfling had seemed to take notice of him. Selune had been the ultimate test. When Emilo had surprised the elder goddess with his presence, then he was certain the gift was still working. The way Holly had started when he had finally greeted her in the Abyss had been one more confirmation.
Since the bar-lgura had captured Joel and Holly but ignored the kender, Joel and Holly seemed to have figured out Emilo's secret. They had been careful to keep their eyes away from Emilo and had not introduced him to Walinda. So now Emilo was free to spy on the priestess.
The old man had not explained why he'd granted Emilo such an unusual gift, but the kender assumed it was so he could spy on people. In Walinda's case, the thought didn't give the kender much pleasure. The priestess gave him the shivers. Still, someone had to keep an eye on her.
Walinda unrolled the flying carpet, settled herself in the center, and ran her hand over the heavy wool with a look of pleasure. Then, assuming she was alone in the pavilion, she began poking through the party's gear.
First she dumped out the contents of Holly's backpack. With a disdainful look, she pawed through the paladin's brightly colored clothing. A glittering glass sculpture caught her eye, and she picked it up.
The priestess let out a cry and tossed the sculpture aside as if it had burned her. It landed right at Emilo's feet. As the priestess sucked on her fingers, Emilo scooped up the piece of glass and examined it. It was a piece of red glass, shaped like the sun, with a beaming smile on its face. It was every bit as lovely as Jas's star-filled paperweight and Joel's finder's stone. Emilo slipped it into a pocket of his vest, certain that Holly would not want it left behind.
Walinda stuffed Holly's things back into her pack. Next she looked through Joel's pack and the one Winnie had given them, but she found nothing of particular interest. Joel had kept the finder's stone and the scrolls with him,
Emilo remembered. Since the potions were missing, Emilo figured Joel must have taken them as well. The gold had been in the other backpack, the one Jas had filled with rocks to attack the barghest. Jas had scooped the gold into her own pack-the same pack she'd flown off with when the bar-lgura attacked.
Walinda was just stuffing the last of the party's gear back into Winnie's pack when the awaited ally arrived. Walinda left the pavilion to greet her. The priestess escorted a snake-woman with six arms into the pavilion. The snake-woman never spoke aloud, but Walinda kept saying "yes" and "no" as if she were answering questions. After a while the kender realized that the snake-woman must be speaking directly to Walinda's mind.
"This," Walinda said spreading out a map on the table, "is our objective." She pointed to a spot on the map. "These are our forces." The priestess stepped back while the snake-woman examined the map in silence. Emilo could see Walinda nod occasionally, so he knew she and the snake-woman were still having a telepathic conversation. He was mildly annoyed. What good was it to be able to spy on someone this close up and not hear half the conversation?
From outside the tent, Emilo heard what sounded like a brawl. Walinda and the snake-woman were so intent on studying the map that they failed to take note of it. Curious, Emilo slipped outside the pavilion to investigate the noise.
About fifty yards from the pavilion, a crowd of the minotaur-like bulezau stood in a tight circle, shouting and cheering. Emilo had to squeeze between the legs of one of the smelly creatures to see what they were watching.
The bulezau stood around a great circular pit some fifty feet across and twenty feet deep. Torches flared and sputtered near the top of the pit wall. At the bottom of the pit, three hydroloths fought against three bulezau. They fought without weapons, using their claws and teeth. The froglike hydroloths also spat yellow poison, and the bulezau smashed into their opponents with their horns and slashed at them with their spiky tails. When one hydroloth managed to bring down a bulezau, another leapt into the pit to take its fellow's place. Between the poison, the blood, and the ichor, the stench from the pit was unbearable. When one of the hydroloths lost an arm, Emilo turned to squeeze his way through of the crowd. After a few deep breaths of air, the kender was able to continue.