Кейт Новак - Song of the Saurials

“Yes,” Grypht agreed. “That’s true.”

Olive breathed a sigh of relief as Alias returned Finder’s stone to him. The bard studied the gem thoughtfully.

“Well, if we can’t find the seed,” Breck said, “we’re back to the first plan. We’ve got to destroy Moander’s new body before the minions manage to find the seed and resurrect the god. Are you ready to take us to this Singing Cave?” he asked Finder.

“Just as soon as I take Alias somewhere safe,” the bard said.

“What?” Alias exclaimed.

“Moander tried to use you once. It will try again,” Finder said. “I don’t want you anywhere near it.”

“Finder, why did you bother to make me a swordswoman if it wasn’t to fight?” Alias snapped.

“So you could defend yourself if you were in trouble,” Finder said. “I didn’t expect you to go looking for fights. And I most certainly never dreamed you’d run around trying to destroy evil gods.”

“Be reasonable, bard,” Breck said. “This is no time to be overly paternal. Alias is a good fighter. We need her.”

Grypht added, “Her presence can protect us from the scrying of Moander’s minions.”

“So can Zhara’s,” Finder countered.

“But Alias might sing another soul song that could help us defeat the Darkbringer,” Grypht persisted.

Finder glared at the wizard. “I won’t have you using her to sing soul songs.”

“Only you can use her to sing your songs, is that it, Finder?” Akabar asked.

“Stop it, all of you!” Alias shouted. “No one uses me! I choose to do things or not on my own.” She turned to Finder and addressed him with her hands on her hips. “Dragonbait is my brother. His tribe is my tribe. You would do well to remember that, Father. I’m going to help the saurials, and you are not going to stop me. Grypht has scried the vale; he can teleport me there if you won’t.”

“An hour ago the thought of Moander filled you with terror,” Dragonbait reminded her.

“It doesn’t matter,” Alias said stubbornly. “I’m not staying behind.”

“Fine,” Finder said coldly.

Alias looked as if the bard had slapped her in the face.

Olive knew exactly what the swordswoman was feeling and thinking. Alias was on the verge of considering some compromise, just as the halfling had found herself doing so often with Finder. I can’t let that happen, Olive decided. She hurried to Finder’s side and pushed the bard’s hand into Alias’s, saying, “Now that that’s settled, let’s get going.”

Finder shot an annoyed look at Olive, but to his own surprise, he realized he’d grown too superstitious about the halfling’s instinctive actions to defy them. He tightened his grip on Alias’s hand and stole a glance at her.

Alias smiled at him shyly.

“I just don’t want you to be hurt,” he said.

“I know,” Alias answered.

The others hastily formed a chain with their hands. Finder sang a series of notes, and the stone’s glow of teleportation surrounded all of them.

The Mouth of Moander looked up suddenly from Moander’s new body. With Moander controlling her, she shouted, “Gather the fliers. Cast a spell of invisibility on them. They must patrol the vale.”

Several lesser minions hurried to obey the god’s high priestess. They began to climb down from the immense mount of vegetation that Moander would soon inhabit.

Coral felt her heart sink. When her scrying on Xaran and the Nameless Bard had failed, she had been certain the swordswoman Alias had rescued the bard.

No, my priestess , Moander whispered in her head. I can sense the power of the seed. The bard has brought it to the vale. I told you he was possessed .

“Then why hasn’t he brought the seed directly to you?” Coral asked defiantly. “Why do you need the fliers to search for him?”

Moander ignored her goading. No doubt the bard will have my servant Alias with him , the god informed Coral. And where Alias is, the paladin will be, too. They must be reeled in carefully. You will have that honor, Coral. Champion will be pleased to see you again … at first .

Coral looked down at the ground, far below the top of the god’s new body. If I can make it close enough to the edge to jump, she thought, I could end this torment.

Curiously, Moander didn’t seem to notice her thought or take control of her limbs. Whispering her former goddess’s name, Coral dashed to the edge of the vast pile of greenery and flung herself away from it. She began to drift down as gently as a feather. On the ground beneath her, she could see a possessed magic-user staring up at her. Moander had used the mage’s body to cast a feather fall spell on her. She had gained nothing by her suicide attempt.

But I have learned much , Moander’s voice came to her. Now I know just how far you will go. I must keep you on a tighter leash, mustn’t I? It is hopeless to defy me. You, and you alone, will be the one to sacrifice Champion, and no other—just as soon as you have planted the seed to resurrect me in the Realms .

Coral’s tears splashed to the ground like rain. Some time later she landed beside them. Under Moander’s control, she rose to her feet and strode off to make preparations to capture Dragonbait and Alias.

Finder’s stone teleported the eight adventurers into the Singing Cave at the edge of the Lost Vale. They stood about twenty feet from the cave’s mouth. Sunlight poured in on the green carpet of moss and ferns just inside the cave’s entrance. Condensation sparkled on the stone walls. Little red and yellow skinks skittered over the floor, walls, and ceiling, and orange swallows shot in and out of the cave carrying insects for their young, which twittered in nests in nooks and crannies at the back of the cave.

Olive pulled her hands away from Alias and Dragonbait. For the first time, the teleportation hadn’t exhausted her. I must be getting used to it, she thought as she walked to the mouth of the cave, which faced a steep mountainslope to the south. Olive stared down the mountainside and her eyes widened. “What a mess!” she muttered.

The others came up beside the halfling to look out. Far below them, a vale nearly five miles wide stretched from the mountains to the east down into the foothills bordering on the Anauroch Desert to the west. The steeper slopes of the vale were covered with meadows, which sparkled with wild flowers, and woods carpeted with ferns and teeming with a great variety of trees. Many of the trees were laden with fruit and flowering vines. Crystal blue streams ran from the mountains through the meadows and woods.

The greenery on the gentler slopes and in the lowlands, though, had been devastated. Nearly a quarter of the vale’s plants had been hacked to the ground and uprooted. Some larger trees still lay dying where they’d been cut down, but most of the vegetation had been hauled off, leaving the reddish brown earth bare. As the streams flowed lower into the vale, they, too, took on the color of the earth.

Breck Orcsbane whistled softly. “I’ve seen a flight of dragons cause less damage,” he said. The ranger pointed to a great green butte nearly a thousand feet in diameter that rose several hundred feet straight up from the bottom of the vale. “Those specks moving around that hill must be the possessed saurials,” the ranger speculated. “With all that activity around one spot, I’ll bet Moander’s new body is hidden in a cave somewhere in that hill.”

Alias, Dragonbait, Akabar, and Olive exchanged nervous glances with one another.

“Who wants to tell him?” Olive asked.

Akabar put one hand on the ranger’s shoulder. “That hill,” the mage said slowly, “ is Moander’s new body.”