Кейт Новак - Finder's Bane

Joel winced, realizing now that Jedidiah had taught him the same chant in Berdusk. It was a common ritual to protect against the undead, to return them to their graves and eternal sleep. The chant was actually quite basic, Joel remembered, and the results were effective. It wasn’t the first time he’d forgotten he possessed priestly skills just when they would have been the most useful.

The Rebel Bard hung his head. “I just started swinging my sword without thinking,” he replied.

Jedidiah looked grim. “You are still uncomfortable using the gifts Finder has given you, “he noted. “It’s early yet. You’ll get used to it. You’ll see.”

The old man gave the breast pocket of his vest a pat. He patted the pocket again, then reached into it with his hand, an alarmed expression on his face. Jedidiah began patting his other pockets. His brow furrowed, then his expression grew angry.

“What have you lost?” Joel asked.

“That gemstone I had,” Jedidiah snapped impatiently. “I had it a moment ago, just before I came up the hill.”

Holly moved up beside Joel, her face stricken with worry. “Joel?” she began.

Joel held his hand up, signaling Holly to wait. “You never told me exactly what it was,” he said to Jedidiah.

“It’s a relic, an artifact,” Jedidiah explained hastily, “a tool created by Finder when he was mortal. It’s half of the finder’s stone. Finder took half with him to the Abyss when he destroyed Moander and left the other half with the saurials in the Lost Vale. It’s a faultless locator, and it holds power, as you saw.”

“Joel?” Holly tried interrupting again.

“We’ll find it,” Joel assured Jedidiah, his eyes combing the ground around the fire circle. “We’ll start here and work our way back. Maybe one of the undead knocked it loose from your pocket.”

“None of them got near me,” Jedidiah insisted with irritation. “I had to have dropped it on the way up the hill.”

“Joel!” Holly snapped.

The Rebel Bard looked back at the paladin. Her eyes were wide with terror.

“What is it, Holly?” Joel snapped.

“It’s—it’s coming,” the girl whispered. “The evil in my vision. There’s something familiar about it … something horrible.”

Jedidiah swung about with a feral growl.

A red light issued from beneath the edge of the bluff, just like the light in Holly’s vision.

Slowly, majestically, bathed in red like the sun, a great wooden vessel rose above the bluff. It was Jas’s ship, stolen from the illithids, now a floating shrine to Bane.

Joel suddenly realized what, or rather who, had made the undead restless enough to rise from their graves.

Walinda stood at the ship’s prow, a pair of lit iron braziers on either side of her. She still wore her shoulder protectors and bracers, but she had removed the rest of her armor. She was dressed now in a long, low-cut black velvet gown that seemed to shimmer red in the reflected fire from the braziers. Her hair hung loose about her shoulders like a maiden’s.

“Well met, Poppin,” she greeted Joel, giving him a warm smile. Then she turned to face Jedidiah, holding out her hand. In it sat Jedidiah’s half of the finder’s stone, glowing with brilliant gold light. With a cruel smile, she asked, “Are you looking for this, old man?”

Joel could have easily predicted what happened next, but he just wasn’t quick enough to prevent it. Jas leapt high into the air. Then, with her sword in front of her, she dived toward the priestess of Bane.

Walinda, as cool as ice, raised her hand and commanded, “Fall!”

The winged woman’s body jackknifed in midair, and she plummeted downward. She landed hard, all in a heap, on the deck of her former ship.

Holly cried out and made a move to rush forward, but Jedidiah had the presence of mind to grab the paladin and hold her back.

“Let me go,” Holly cried. “She’s hurt!”

“She’ll keep,” the older priest said brusquely. “You can’t help her if you’re hurt, too,” he warned. To Joel, he said, “I take it this is the infamous Walinda of Bane.”

The younger priest nodded. “She cast a command spell. Do you think it was some trick?” he asked in a whisper.

Jedidiah motioned uncertainty with his hands. “Introduce us,” he said calmly.

Joel looked surprised for a moment, then nodded. If there was one thing Jedidiah knew, it was how to set the tone.

“Jedidiah,” the young man said, “allow me to present to you Walinda of Bane. Walinda, this is Jedidiah of Finder.”

Walinda bowed before the old priest. It hadn’t been lost on her that Joel had presented her first, implying Jedidiah’s rank was higher than hers. On the deck beside Walinda, Jas was recovering from her fall. She’d managed to sit up, but it was clear from the unnatural angle of her right leg that she wouldn’t be able to stand.

Jedidiah bowed back at the priestess, even lower and more gracefully. “A very smooth extraction,” he complimented Walinda, indicating with a nod of his head the stolen finder’s stone in the priestess’s hand. “I don’t think I’ve encountered a lighter touch since the halfling Olive Ruskettle picked my pipe from my pocket. Done a lot of training with a thief’s guild, have you?”

Walinda glared at the old priest. “You are very glib for a man who’s just lost a holy relic of his god,” she noted.

“Well, glibness is a thing we priests of Finder are especially good at,” Jedidiah retorted. “Like priests of Bane excelling in sarcasm. You didn’t steal my stone and then make this appearance just to impress us with your flair for drama. What do you want, Walinda of Bane?”

“I have a deal for you, priest of Finder. Won’t you come aboard so we might discuss it more comfortably? I promise you and your party safe passage—providing,” she added with a glance at the winged woman who lay on the deck, moaning, “you can keep your pets in line.”

“I need a moment, please, to discuss your offer with my colleagues,” Jedidiah replied politely, smiling up at the priestess.

Walinda nodded graciously.

Jedidiah turned about and pulled Joel and Holly close.

“You can’t go aboard that vessel,” Holly insisted.

“Young lady, I have no choice,” Jedidiah answered. “I must have the finder’s stone back.”

“It’s some sort of trick,” Holly said. “There’s something else aboard that ship, something profoundly evil. The worst evil I have ever felt in my life. It’s so strong it’s painful to sense it.”

“Is there, now?” Jedidiah asked. “How interesting. It doesn’t change anything, however. The finder’s stone is a relic of my god.”

“Is it worth your life?” Holly argued. “Your soul?”

Jedidiah sighed. “Just before we were attacked, I put a large share of my own power into the finder’s stone so that the Xvimists’ dark stalker could no longer sense me from a distance. Finder needs my powers. I cannot just let Walinda fly off with the stone without trying to barter for it.”

“When you barter with evil, evil grows stronger,” Holly said through clenched teeth. “If that’s not enough, you must know that you cannot trust her.”

Jedidiah looked to Joel for support.

The young bard could sympathize completely with the old priest. Arguing with the paladin was an uphill battle. Remembering how weakened the old priest had been when he finished siphoning his power into the stone, Joel had no qualms about helping him to regain it. He attacked Holly’s arguments with an appeal to her emotions that he knew she could not reject.

“Holly, Walinda has Jas,” Joel pointed out quietly but firmly. “If we tell Walinda to leave without bartering, what do you think she’ll do with Jas—hand her back to us unharmed, or keep her to torture her some more?”