"What identity did he use in Sigil?" Joel asked.
Walinda asked the question, listened, then told Joel, "He shapeshifted to a tall human form, but used no name. The hirelings and the priest called him Boss."
"Ask him to whom he was to deliver Jasmine."
Walinda repeated the question Joel had asked, then listened.
"Tyrannar Neri," she replied.
Tyrannar, Joel knew, was the highest rank of clerics in the church of Iyachtu Xvim.
"Does the tyrannar know he's failed in his mission?" Joel asked.
Walinda shook her head. "He has no way of knowing that for sure," the priestess told Joel. "He will be forced to answer that he does not know. I will rephrase your question… Have you or has anyone you know informed the tyrannar that your mission has failed?" she asked the corpse, then waited for the answer. "The answer is no," she told Joel.
"I want to try something more complicated," Joel said. "What does he think would happen to someone else who brought Jasmine to the tyrannar to collect a bounty and also brought him news of the death of the hydroloth and Hatemaster Perr?"
Walinda put the question to the dead hydroloth, then waited. Joel could see her smile slightly. Smoke ceased streaming from the corpse's mouth and nose. The spell had ended. Walinda could ask no more questions.
The priestess stood up. "The hydroloth said that if the tyrannar is sufficiently impressed by the bounty seeker, he will accept Jas as an offering to Xvim so that the bounty seeker can join Iyachtu Xvim's faithful. He will not pay a bounty for his lord's own property. If he isn't impressed by the bounty seeker, he'll simply have him enslaved."
"Is there a big difference?" Joel asked.
"Probably not much," Walinda replied. "So will you impersonate a bounty seeker? Do you think you can impress a tyrannar?" she asked.
"I impress everyone," Joel replied matter-of-factly, winking at Holly and Emilo.
"You have always impressed me," Walinda said, running one of her sharpened fingernails none too gently down the side of the bard's throat.
"Must be my bad luck," Joel retorted as he drew away from the evil priestess's touch.
Walinda gave the bard a predatory smile.
"So, if I go to the bastion now, how long can you postpone your attack?" the bard asked.
"No more than half a day," Walinda replied. "The bulezau grow agitated if they are not killing something, and I am loath to keep Beshaba waiting. No one knows when Iyachtu Xvim might return."
"I can't say for certain what we can accomplish," the bard said, "but if possible, we will attempt to learn the strength of the guard around Beshaba and weaken it. If we discover a way to destroy any cache of weapons, we will do that as well. After you begin your attack, we'll try to open the gate. If I find Beshaba, I'll try to use the finder's stone to summon you. If you or Stentka Taran have any other suggestions, I'll take them under advisement."
Walinda said, "I will speak with her."
"Fine. I'm going to speak with my associates. I'll join you shortly," the bard replied.
Walinda nodded and walked off to her pavilion. Joel led Holly and Emilo to where Jas was waiting. The winged woman crouched behind the boulder.
Holly gasped at the winged woman's appearance. "Jas! Are you all right?" she asked
Jas shrugged. Joel knew she'd never tell Holly how hopeless she felt. As far as Jas was concerned, Holly was still an innocent to be protected. "It's just that we're so close to Xvim's realm," she told the paladin. "When we leave, I'll get better. So what's the plan for getting into Xvim's fortress?" she asked Joel.
Hastily Joel explained his plan to his three companions. His original plan called for Emilo to stay with Holly, but Holly insisted the kender would be more useful, possibly even safer, with Joel and Jas. The paladin had also noted the kender's gift for remaining unnoticed. If it worked in the Bastion of Hate as well as it worked in Walinda's camp of tanar'ri, it would make Emilo the perfect saboteur.
Jas, who hadn't realized there was something unusual about the kender, was suddenly more curious. "I've never had any problem seeing you," she said.
"I think it's because you're different from everyone else," the kender replied.
Jas accepted that explanation without asking which difference Emilo meant.
"How'd you get this gift?" Jas wanted to know.
"I got it in the magical vortex that brought me to Sigil," the kender said. "I don't know why exactly. The last century of my life has been pretty confusing. I suppose it's a destiny thing."
Holly was more concerned about Joel's plan than the origin of the kender's gift. She asked the bard, "How are you going to disguise yourself?"
"I have a scroll," Joel explained. "I thought I'd disguise myself as a tiefling. That should strengthen my story that I'm a native of Sigil, and not some clueless prime."
"Are you going to make yourself shorter?" Emilo asked with surprise.
"Tieflings aren't just another kind of halfling or kender," Holly explained. "Tiefling are what Planers and Cagers call a person who has an ancestor from the Lower Planes. Not all tieflings are short."
Joel pulled out the appropriate scroll from the bundle he'd attached to his belt. As he read the scroll, he added a description to the spell words that served to reshape his form. He made himself a uttle taller, covered his skin with black scales, and grew-long fangs. When he'd finished casting the spell, Holly drew back from him in shock.
"You look awful," the paladin said.
"Yeah, you really do," Jas agreed. "Perfect, actually. No one would ever suspect you're really a nice young man who's gotten in over his head in the affairs of the gods."
"You should put your hair up like mine," Emilo suggested. "It will make you look even taller."
Joel bound his hair into a topknot.
"It makes you look fierce," Holly said, "It looks like the horse-tail crests on the helmets of the Tuigan warriors.
Jas and Holly agreed it made him look quite fiendish.
"Now what?" the winged woman asked.
"I'm going to go get our backpack and take my leave of Walinda. Ill be back soon," Joel said.
Joel found Walinda in the pavilion with the marilith, poring over a map.
"Your tiefling features are most becoming, Poppin," the priestess commended him.
Without replying, Joel bent over and retrieved his backpack and Winnie's. Then he turned to face Walinda. "I will do everything in my power to help free your goddess, but I don't want you using Holly as if she were some tanar'ri meant to die in the Blood War," he warned the priestess. "Don't put her in a dangerous position."
"We agree completely," Walinda assured him. "Someday, when she is much more powerful, I hope to sacrifice Holly Harrowslough. Stentka Taran, on the other hand, is already plotting ways to corrupt her. So you can rest assured we will keep her safe… for now."
The bard glared at the priestess. "Any other suggestions about the sabotage?" he asked coolly.
"As I mentioned before," Walinda said, "Iyachtu Xvim's realm is guarded by mercenary yugoloths. They are exceedingly greedy creatures. Stentka knows of a case in which a great deal of chaos was sown by leaving unclaimed money lying about." The priestess handed the bard a small sack.
Joel looked inside it. It was filled with small but rare gems. "Illusions?" he asked, slipping the sack into his shirt beside the finder's stone.
"You learn quickly, Poppin," the priestess said, stroking the bard's scaly cheek with a look of fascination.
"I'll be leaving now," Joel said, stepping backward.
"Give my regards to the pigeon girl," Walinda said.
"I don't think so," Joel said. "Good luck with your attack," he wished the priestess and the marilith.
"Misfortune take our enemies," Walinda responded.