Spotting Joel and Holly making their way back toward the pavilion, Emilo ran to intercept them.
Joel felt a tug at his sleeve. Out of the blue, there was Emilo. The kender motioned for him to follow. Joel took Holly's arm and led her toward the crowd of bulezau around the pit.
As their bar-lgura escort approached the crowd, the giant bulezau parted for the smaller apelike creatures and their human charges. Joel was the first to see into the pit, and he tried to keep Holly back, but the paladin would not be deterred.
At the bottom of the pit, a dozen or so bulezau and two giant frog creatures lay dead or too injured to move. One giant frog, over ten feet tall, and a single bulezau still fought. The gore caused an awful stench.
Holly's eyes narrowed to angry slits.
"Are those frog creatures hydroloths?" Joel asked.
"Yes," the paladin answered coldly.
"Entertaining, isn't it?" Walinda asked from behind them. "Prisoners should always be made useful."
Joel spun about. The priestess and the marilith stood beside one another. The marilith was an exceedingly comely female, with bright blue eyes and shining blonde hair that streamed down to her waist in a mass of curls. A flimsy veil covered her upper torso. About her hips she wore several scabbards. She rose from the coils of her green tail, hovering at least a foot above Joel.
"This is Stentka Taran," Walinda introduced the tanar'ri.
The bard bowed courteously. Since the marilith said nothing, neither did he.
"We have just finished mapping out our plan of attack,' Walinda said.
"I hope it didn't rely on the twelve dead warriors in the pit," Holly growled. "Your foolish entertainment is a shameful waste of lives." "But it was an effective demonstration for the others," Walinda replied. "Magic has been dispelled in the pit, so the hydroloths were partially handicapped. They were quite effective nonetheless. Now the bulezau are aware of the physical strength of the opponents they will face."
"What difference will that make?" Holly argued. "You won't be fighting your battle in a pit."
"But we can, in a manner of speaking," Walinda said. She pointed to an iron pole, some six feet high, which was firmly planted in the center of the pit. Tied to the top of pole was an iron latticework sphere about as large as a man's head. A dark blue light seemed to glow within the sphere. "In the war between the tanar'ri and the baatezu, the sphere you see is called a magic killer. It negates all magic within thirty feet of it. If you were paying closer attention to the combat, you might have noticed that the hydroloths attempted to reach the sphere to destroy it, while the bulezau tried to prevent them from doing so."
As Walinda spoke, the remaining hydroloth slashed completely through the head of the bulezau it was fighting. Another bulezau leapt into the pit, but not before the hydroloth whipped its tongue across the pit and scooped into its mouth the magic killer with the iron pole still attached.
Walinda frowned. The hydroloth bit down on the magic killer. There was a flash of blue-white light, and a blast of energy tore through the pit. Bits and pieces of the hydroloth and the bulezau showered the audience at the rim of the pit,
"So much for your magic killer," Holly said.
"Oh, rest assured, paladin," the priestess replied. "We have more." She looked suddenly at the marilith and nodded. "Stentka Taran wishes to know if you will submit to a test," Walinda said.
Holly's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What sort of test?" she asked.
"Merely a test of your skill in combat," Walinda said.
"I didn't come here to entertain you as a gladiator," the paladin replied.
"Stentka needs to assess your skill to decide where you will best fit in our assault plans." Walinda gave Holly a chill smile. "Unless you wish to rescind your offer to aid in our attack," she said.
Joel could see the paladin was struggling to control her anger at the implication she might go back on her word. Her nostrils flared and her shoulders shook. The marilith watched the paladin, too, and Joel had the sudden impression that Walinda's insult had been a test as well.
Holly took a deep breath. The true extent of her abilities was more knowledge than anyone in her right mind would wish to share with the evil priestess. In the end, however, the paladin's desire to obey Lathander superseded her heartfelt desire to deny Walinda her request. "Whom shall I fight?" Holly asked.
"Stentka will test you herself," Walinda explained. "You will use edgeless weapons."
The marilith slithered toward the paladin. From one of the many scabbards she wore about her hips, the tanar'ri drew out a long sword. Holding it by the unsharpened blade, she offered the hilt to the paladin.
Holly took the sword. The marilith drew out a second sword.
The bulezau and the bar-lgura drew back a respectful distance from the combatants. Walinda stepped back to stand beside Joel as Holly and the marilith began circling each other warily.
The marilith began with a broad, sweeping stroke, which Holly parried easily. The tanar'ri's second strike was quicker and closer to the paladin's heart, but Holly knocked it aside. Although the combat was only a test, the bulezau and Walinda were mesmerized by the dance of weapons. The bulezau cheered and shouted encouragement each time steel struck steel.
Once more Emilo tugged on the bard's sleeve. Joel stepped back away from Walinda. Without taking his eyes from the combatants, he squatted on his heels so the kender could whisper in his ear.
"I was trying to show you one of the hydroloths in the pit," Emilo whispered. "He's the one who came to Sigil to take Jas away."
"How can you tell? He looked just like the other two," the bard insisted, without bothering to look back down into the stinking pit.
"Before the bulezau cut him to pieces, his markings were very distinctive," Emilo said softly. "I know that's him."
"Well, he won't be bothering Jas anymore," Joel noted.
"Suppose he was here looking for Jas. Suppose the others were, too. Suppose," Emilo hissed urgently, "there are more of them out there looking for her."
Joel looked up into the dark sky. Unsurprisingly, he could see no sign of the winged woman. "Keep an eye on Holly," he whispered. Then he stood back up and pushed his way through the crowd of tanar'ri watching the combat. Walinda was too engrossed in the combat to notice the bard's departure. Only the bar-lgura honor guard followed him. He slipped behind a boulder. Facing the rock and using his body as a shield from any curious eyes, he pulled out the finder's stone and thought of Jas.
The beacon of light shot out toward the outer edge of the canyon. Joel waited several anxious moments before Jas came shooting out of the darkness and landed beside him. Her eyes were glowing like an owl's, and there was a tuft of feathers sticking out behind her ears and over her eyebrows.
"What's going on?" the winged woman asked, jerking her head toward the crowd of tanar'ri.
"Holly's fighting a marilith," Joel said. He grabbed Jas's arm before she could race to the paladin's aid. "It's Holly's choice. It's some sort of test. I brought you here in case-" Joel hesitated, not wanting to suggest Jas couldn't look out for herself.
"In case what?" Jas asked.
"Emilo spotted the hydroloth who was sent to bring you back to Xvim. The hydroloth's dead now, but there could be others around. I want you to stay in camp until the attack. You won't have to see or speak to Walinda. You can stay right here. If Xvim's minions know you're here, it won't be safe for you to be alone out there."