"Joel, what difference does it make?" Jas growled. "Look at me. The dark stalker is taking over again. I don't know if it's because I'm close to Xvim's realm or because I can't stop thinking about Walinda, but it doesn't matter.
It's going to get me in the end."
Joel put his hands on Jas's shoulders. "It does matter," he insisted. "Gods, if Holly can bring herself to ally with Walinda and a marilith to bring about a greater good, you can at least try. You can fight this thing."
"I'm tired of fighting it," Jas said with a sigh. "Since the fetch weakened me, it's harder to resist. I'm turning into a creature of darkness. You shouldn't trust me anymore."
"I won't accept that," the bard said. "You have to fight this. Too much depends on us, on you. If Xvim has found a way to steal Tymora's luck and Beshaba's misfortune, think what he can do with it. Think what Realmspace will be like when his priests have all the luck and his enemies are beset with misfortune."
"I can't stop that either," Jas snarled. "I can't stop anything. I'm useless."
"No, you aren't," Joel argued. He wracked his brains for something he could say that would convince Jas to at least make the attempt to hang on to her humanity. Finder would know what to say, the bard thought. Finder would give her a reason even if he had to make it up. Then an idea struck him. "We need you to make our plan work. There's no one else who can get us into the Bastion of Hate."
"What are you talking about?" Jas demanded.
"If they think you're a dark stalker, they'll let you into the bastion. I need Walinda to get us some more information from the hydroloth that was after you in Sigil."
"I thought you said he was dead," Jas argued.
"That shouldn't be a problem for Walinda," Joel said. "Will you wait here? Please?" the bard pleaded.
Jas shrugged, and her wings stiffened. Joel was afraid she was going to launch into flight. Then she nodded.
Joel turned around. The bar-lgura Walinda had assigned to escort him were standing behind him, watching curiously. Joel wondered just how much they understood, and how much they would report back to Walinda. The bard pointed to two of the apelike creatures and ordered, "Make sure no one bothers her." Then he headed back toward Walinda. The bar-lgura he'd appointed as Jas's guardians remained behind. Joel felt a secret twinge of amusement that he'd actually ordered a tanar'ri to do his bidding. He wondered what Finder would say about that. He'd probably tell his priest not to let it go to his head.
With the help of his remaining bar-lgura escort, the bard squeezed his way through the bulezau and returned to Walinda's side. Emilo stood beside the priestess, hopping from foot to foot, silently cheering for Holly.
Holly was still battling the marilith, but even Joel could see she wasn't doing well. She was slowed by having to constantly watch her footing as the marilith tried to coil her snake tail about her feet. The marilith used only one weapon, but she switched it from hand to hand to hand, keeping the paladin off-balance. Holly did manage to strike one solid blow to the tanar'ri female's tail, and she successfully warded off all the thrusts aimed at her, but in the heat and the stench of the plane, she soon tired.
The marilith ended the combat suddenly by sheathing her weapon. She must have spoken to Holly with telepathy, for the paladin replied, "Yes, I did," as she handed back the unsharpened blade the marilith had given her for the test.
The marilith bowed to the paladin and slithered off to Walinda's pavilion. The bulezau and bar-lgura cleared a wide path for her and the two toadlike hezrou warriors who followed in her wake.
Holly returned to Joel's side.
"What did she say to you?" the bard asked.
"She said I fought well for someone so young, and that I must have had an excellent teacher," the paladin replied, wiping the sweat from her brow with a handkerchief.
"Your father trained you, didn't he?" the bard asked.
Holly nodded. Her father, Joel recalled, had been a warrior from Zhakara who had settled in Daggerdale, far from his native land, after having fallen in love with Holly's mother. He'd died only a year ago, murdered by orc raiders along with his wife and in-laws. Holly still used the curved blade he'd brought with him from Zhakara.
"I must confer with Stentka," Walinda said.
"Just a minute. I have some conferring I need to do myself," the bard said. "I think Jas and I could manage to get into the fortress before your attack and perhaps sabotage a few of their defenses."
"Oh?" Walinda prompted the bard, obviously interested.
"It depends on whether or not you can speak with the dead," Joel explained.
"What dead?" Walinda asked.
Joel strode back to the edge of the pit. "Which one?" he whispered to the kender.
"The one on the right, with his right arm missing," the kender whispered back.
Joel turned back to face Walinda and motioned for her to join him. "That hydroloth," he said, pointing into the pit. "The one on the right, with the missing right arm. How did he come to be a prisoner?"
"As I mentioned before, Xvim will not allow anything to fly, teleport, or magically gate directly into his realm," the priestess explained. "His agents must teleport outside the walls of the Bastion of Hate and announce themselves at the gate to gain entry. The hydroloths teleport to the lava flows, where they delight in swimming before returning to their hired lord. The bulezau fished all three of these creatures out of the lava several hours before you arrived."
"The hydroloth I mentioned was stalking Jas in Sigil to bring her to Iyachtu Xvim. He was helped by a priest of Xvim who we defeated in combat. If I can find out more about his mission, I might get away with impersonating a mercenary hired by the priest and the hydroloth to bring Jas back," Joel explained.
Walinda nodded thoughtfully. She pointed out the hydroloth in question to the nearest bar-lgura. "Fetch that corpse from the pit," she ordered. "You… bring me a torch," she ordered a second bar-lgura.
Within a few minutes, a team of bar-lgura had hauled the dead hydroloth from the pit and laid it at Walinda's feet. The bar-lgura who'd been sent for a torch returned with a piece of tar-drenched fabric wrapped about a pike. Great clouds of smoke came from the torch, but it burned brightly enough to cast shadows in the dark canyon.
"What question shall I start with?" the priestess asked.
"Ask him what the purpose of his mission in Sigil four nights ago was," Joel suggested.
Walinda nodded. From a small pouch hanging from her armor, she drew out a stick of incense and lit it from the torch flame. She knelt beside the head of the stinking froglike corpse. Holding the incense in her left hand, she held it under the hydroloth's nose. With the fingers of her right hand, she stroked the emblem of Beshaba tattooed into her cheeks. Then she began chanting dark words that had no meaning to the bard, for which fact Joel was most grateful.
Walinda shoved the burning incense into the hydroloth's mouth. Smoke billowed from the corpse's mouth and nose.
"I command thee to answer my questions," the priestess cried out. Her voice echoed throughout the canyon. Then, in a whisper, she asked, "What was the purpose of your mission in Sigil four nights ago?"
There was no sound from the hydroloth, but Walinda seemed to be listening intently. Her eyes were closed and she nodded twice.
That's when the bard realized that the hydroloth, like the tanar'ri, was communicating by telepathy. Joel would have to rely on Walinda to give him an accurate report.
Walinda looked up from the hydroloth. "He was to oversee the capture of Jasmine by Hatemaster Perr and some hired thugs. Then he was to return with Jasmine and Hatemaster Perr to the Bastion of Hate."
Joel nodded. Besides assuring Joel that Emilo had correctly identified the hydroloth, the answer revealed the name of the priest who had deliberately killed himself struggling in the razor-vine.