Finder's Bane

by Kate Novak

  The old priest put his hand on the younger man’s shoulder and gave him a reassuring squeeze. “Finder has a reason for everything,” Jedidiah said, sitting down on a rock. While the last few days had worn Joel ragged, the older priest looked as rested and relaxed as he had when Joel had last seen him in Berdusk.

  “Tell me about your journey so far,” Jedidiah said.

  Joel sat beside his friend and described his trip from Berdusk. While his journey to the Dragon Coast and his travels through Cormyr had taken over a month, it was the events of the past six days that took the longest to relate. He found himself explaining in great detail his meeting with Walinda, their subsequent agreement, and Holly’s and Jas’s reactions to it. “Do you think I was wrong to bargain with Walinda?” he asked finally.

  Jedidiah stroked his beard thoughtfully. At last he shrugged. “Well, considering Bane died before Finder even became a god, we’re not exactly sworn enemies with his priests,” the older man noted. “Among the gods, Moander was Finder’s only foe, and Finder slew him. This woman Jas has a point, though. As a rule, priests of Bane can’t be trusted. If they offer you something, it’s a sure bet they’ll be getting more out of the bargain than you will. Still, it turned out all right. This Walinda didn’t betray you, and you kept your vow as best as you were humanly able. You got away safely. Someone very well might have rescued her in the flying ship. No harm done.”

  “No harm done,” Joel repeated, “but what would Finder think about my making a bargain with someone like Walinda?”

  Jedidiah chuckled. “Finder made bargains with worse sorts when he was a mortal. Much worse, believe me. Oh, before I forget, I found this in a resale shop in Dagger Falls.” From inside his tunic, the old man pulled out a set of birdpipes and held it out.

  “My birdpipes!” Joel said excitedly, taking the instrument from the older man. He blew a tentative scale. The instrument was completely unharmed. Feeling like a complete fool, the Rebel Bard brushed a tear from his eye. “I thought for sure Bear must have smashed this to pieces after he captured me.”

  “Well, he may have been no music lover, but he knew its value,” Jedidiah replied. “You crafted it well.” From the folds of his cloak, the old priest drew out a curved blade.

  “It’s Holly’s cutlass!” Joel said in astonishment.

  “Is it?” Jedidiah asked. “The owner of the shop where I found your birdpipes said the man who sold him your birdpipes sold this weapon to him as well. I knew it wasn’t your sword, but I bought it anyway, in case it belonged to a companion of yours.”

  “Joel! Joel, look up there!” Holly shouted from below. She was climbing up from the valley floor in such an excited state that she was having trouble keeping her footing on the slate landslide. She pointed at a spot on the mountain peak behind them.

  Joel and Jedidiah looked around at the mountain peak. The landslide had uncovered not only a cave, but something much more exciting. Just above the shale, a chipped granite staircase led to a large platform. On the platform, two huge statues flanked a gigantic metal door, which reflected the sun’s light as brightly as a mirror.

  Jas landed beside the two priests of Finder just as Holly managed to make her way to the top of the shale slope.

  Jedidiah presented the paladin with her cutlass, explaining how he had found it in his attempt to track Joel through Daggerdale. Holly smiled with joy at the return of the weapon that had belonged to her father. She thanked Jedidiah profusely. The old priest bowed graciously.

  “It’s more luck than I’d hoped for,” Holly said, staring in wonder at her cutlass. “You gave me my weapon just in time for us to go explore the cave up there.”

  “We agreed we weren’t going to waste a lot of time here,” Jas said. “We should press on to the south before the day gets any later.”

  “We should at least find out what’s inside,” Holly insisted. “It could be important. Lord Randal will want to know.”

  “It’s Shraevyn’s tomb,” Jedidiah said.

  “Really?” Holly asked excitedly. “Are you sure?”

  “Who’s Shraevyn?” Joel asked.

  “Who cares?” Jas sighed.

  “He was a mage who created magical weapons for the warriors of the dales a long time ago,” Holly said. “How do you know for sure it’s Shraevyn’s?” she asked Jedidiah.

  Jedidiah looked up at the sky. As if he saw words written there, he recited,

  “A stone cast with faerie fire

  marked the mage’s final resting place.

  His apprentices laid Shraevyn in a casket

  in the mountain cave at the west end of the valley.

  The wizardess and the warrior stood watch

  while the worthies of the world paid homage to the weaponsmith.

  Beside him rested the Sword of the Dales,

  waiting to shatter the bonds of tyrants.”

  Holly’s eyes widened. “You were there?” she asked.

  Jedidiah laughed. “My dear, that was over three and a half centuries ago. Just how old do you think I am? No, better not answer that. I was quoting from The Lay of Shraevyn,’ translated, of course, from the elvish.”

  “The Sword of the Dales,” Holly whispered. “Is that a great weapon?”

  “It must have been,” Jedidiah answered. “Shraevyn crafted it.”

  “I can’t just leave here without finding out more,” Holly insisted.

  “We haven’t got enough manpower to go looting a crypt,” Jas insisted. “Besides, they’re always loaded with traps and tricks.”

  “It might be better to let Lord Randal investigate with several stout men of his own choosing,” Jedidiah suggested.

  “But that could take days,” Holly argued. “We can’t risk the Zhents discovering what’s in there first.”

  “We will lead the Zhents away from this place when we leave,” Jedidiah said. “As for the time, that I may be able to shorten.” He whistled and cupped his hands together. When he opened his hands again, a golden warbler hopped from his palm to his finger—the same sort of bird Joel had seen in his vision. The bird tilted its head to look up at the old priest with one eye. It peeped expectantly. “Speak a message to Lord Randal,” Jedidiah told the paladin. “Keep it short,” he added.

  “Lord Randal,” Holly began tentatively. Her voice wavered, but she grew more confident as she spoke. “Shraevyn’s tomb has been found,” she reported. “Uncovered. At the end of Giant Craw Valley. If you hurry, you may reach it before the Zhentarim learn of it. I travel south now. Your faithful servant, Holly.” She looked up at Jedidiah. “Is that all right?”

  “Perfect,” the priest said. He whistled at the bird and raised his hand. The golden warbler circled to gain altitude, then took off to the southeast.

  Holly smiled with pleasure. “Thank you,” she said to Jedidiah.

  “You’re most welcome. It is the least I could do for the service you have rendered me,” he said.

  “What service?” Holly asked.

  “Looking after my student here,” the old priest said, patting Joel on the back. “Thank you both,” he said, nodding to Jas.

  “You’ll get my bill later,” Jas muttered. “Can we leave now?” she asked Joel.

  Joel looked at Jedidiah. The old priest smiled but said nothing.

  “I guess we should be off, then,” the young bard answered.

  They left the valley riding the Zhents’ horses. The horses without a rider they tied together and led along behind them. Holly looked back on the valley and noted to her satisfaction that the exposed crypt entrance couldn’t be seen from the magical stone.

  As they rode south through the foothills, Jedidiah entertained Holly and Joel with song after song. The old priest’s repertoire seemed infinite. Joel sang along with a few he knew. When Holly asked shyly to be taught some of the songs, Jedidiah undertook the task with pleasure. Joel had always admired Jedidiah’s eagerness to teach others, even those without much talent. What the paladin lacked in tone, she m
ade up for with enthusiasm. Jedidiah picked out cheerful songs well suited to the girl’s nature. Jas scowled and, declaring she was going to keep a lookout, took to the air.

  Toward late afternoon they stopped to rest beside a stream. As Holly splashed in the icy water farther downstream, Joel and Jedidiah filled the waterskins.

  “She’s quite charming,” Jedidiah noted, nodding in the direction of the paladin. “She sings with her whole heart.”

  Joel nodded in agreement. He looked up, hoping to spot Jas, but the winged woman was nowhere in sight. “I guess Jas doesn’t care much for music,” he said.

  Jedidiah shook his head. “From what you’ve told me, I’ll wager she’s hoping to spot her ship. A spelljamming helm is too rare to let slip away. Once you’ve got the wanderlust for the spheres, you don’t return happily to being a groundling.”

  “What kind of helm?” Joel asked.

  “Spelljamming,” Jedidiah said. “It’s what makes her ship fly. Any priest or mage can make it move, using the power of spellcasting. I don’t know how she thinks she’s going to get it away from your Banite priestess, though.”

  “She was planning to ask for Elminster’s help,” Joel explained.

  “A priestess of Bane traveling around with a spelljammer … that just might interest the old sage,” Jedidiah remarked. “It certainly piques my curiosity.”

  “So you think we could help her?” Joel asked. “Jas, I mean.”

  “I think you should finish your pilgrimage to the Lost Vale first, as you promised Finder you would,” Jedidiah said. “Jas can wait.”

  “She’s afraid the Banites will figure out how to take it outside the sphere, whatever that means,” Joel said, “and strand her here.”

  “I can’t imagine why they’d want to do that. They’d end up little fish in a very big pond. Still, if she’s worried about that, why is she still with you? Why doesn’t she take off and search for it?”

  “She feels she owes Holly for saving her life, so she wants to be sure the paladin gets home safely. Do you think Walinda really does hear Bane’s voice?” Joel asked.

  “I hope not,” Jedidiah replied.

  Joel felt a breeze, and Jas landed beside the stream. She had glided down on them as silently as an owl.

  “See anything?” Joel asked, half hoping that she hadn’t.

  Jas shook her head. “I was hoping that once the Bane witch got what she wanted from the Temple in the Sky, she’d head back to the Spiderhaunt Woods—to the village she came from—and I’d be able to spot my ship and find some way to get it away from her. I don’t know why I bothered. Now that she’s sacrificed most of her village’s population, there’s no point in her returning there. She could be anywhere by now.”

  The winged woman rode with the rest of the party until they stopped for the night.

  They set up camp in the foothills on a bluff from which they could survey Daggerdale for miles to the north, south, and west. Jas left the horses to graze in a meadow below the bluff while Joel and Jedidiah collected firewood and Holly finished cleaning the pheasants she’d shot that morning. They had just finished their meal of pheasant, berries, and hard black bread from the Zhentilars’ saddlebags when a howling rose from the dale to their north.

  “Nine hells!” Jas cursed with fury. “We forgot to make sure he was dead this time,” she growled at Joel.

  “Well, we could hardly dig him out from beneath the rubble just to burn him,” Joel argued.

  “We don’t know it’s Bear,” Holly said.

  “It’s him,” Jas said. “I’d know that howl anywhere.”

  “Bear. That’s the man the Xvimists transformed into a creature to track you, right?” Jedidiah asked.

  “He said he could feel our power wherever our feet touched the earth,” Holly explained.

  “He also said he would have lost us but for the power of the fourth one traveling with us,” Jas added. She glowered angrily at Jedidiah. “That was you, wasn’t it? You’ve been following us.”

  Joel looked questioningly at the old priest.

  Jedidiah looked up sheepishly at the young bard. “It’s true. I have been following you since you escaped from the Temple in the Sky,” he admitted. “Finder asked me to look after you in case you needed any help.”

  “Instead of helping us, you’ve been acting as a beacon,” Jas complained.

  “I’m sorry,” Jedidiah apologized. “I had no idea.”

  Joel’s mind was racing with questions. Why was Finder so protective of him, to the point of troubling the older priest with his safety? Didn’t Finder or Jedidiah trust his ability to reach the Lost Vale? Had the pilgrimage to the Lost Vale been a test? Was that why Jedidiah hadn’t revealed himself until they’d been pinned in the valley?

  “I suppose,” Jedidiah said, “it would be best if I left you and led this creature away.”

  “No!” Joel said suddenly. “You can’t risk going off in this wilderness alone.”

  “In case you hadn’t noticed,” Jas countered, “he got here alone. According to Bear, he’s got a lot of power. He can take care of himself.”

  “No,” Holly said. “If it is Bear, he may easily have found reinforcements. There are plenty of Zhentilar units patrolling the countryside, some commanded by priests of Xvim. It’s folly to travel with that sort of force tracking you without someone to watch your back, no matter how powerful you are. We should stick together. And if you try to sneak off,” she added, waving a finger in Jedidiah’s face, “we’ll have to come after you. So don’t even think about it.”

  Jedidiah smiled sheepishly at the paladin’s reprimand. He looked at Joel.

  “She’s right,” the younger bard agreed. He gave Jas a warning glare not to contradict him.

  “Well,” Jedidiah said, stretching and yawning, “if we’re going to be outrunning this dark stalker and Zhent patrols, we’d better get some rest. I’ll take that rock over there for a pillow if no one else has claimed it.”

  Exhausted from flying, Jas begged off from the first watch. Joel and Holly sat together on the bluff, watching the new moon rise.

  “Somewhere around here,” Holly said, “maybe on this very bluff, Lord Randal’s great-great-great-grandfather and his entourage died trying to destroy a tribe of vampires that plagued his people. They killed every last vampire, only to be torn apart by wolves.”

  “Are there any happy tales in Daggerdale’s history?” Joel asked teasingly.

  “One day soon there will be,” Holly said, but Joel could not get her to say more.

  Firestars like those around Anathar’s Dell settled around their cookfire, magically absorbing its energy, eventually extinguishing it, but the night was too warm to worry about it. The breeze wafting up from the dale was laden with the perfume of night-blooming flowers. Unfortunately, it also carried the howling up the bluff. The noise was growing closer, but there was no sign of any Zhentilar patrols.

  Holly woke Jas for the second watch. Joel was considering taking Jedidiah’s watch so the old man could sleep, but the elderly priest woke on his own, looking far more fresh and alert than Joel. The young bard settled down near Holly. Despite the howling, Joel felt completely safe with Jedidiah on watch. He wondered if his trust in the old man wasn’t a little childish, but then he remembered how Bear had claimed to sense so much power in “the fourth one.” The young bard fell asleep within minutes.

  Joel dreamed it was dawn. The sky grew as red as blood, and the sun crested the horizon, burning with white flame. The sun rushed toward him, then passed him, knocking him to his knees with a blast of hot wind. When he looked up again, Holly’s form was a black silhouette against the brilliant, white-hot sun. Although Joel heard nothing, he knew the sun was speaking to the girl.

  “Joel, wake up!” Holly cried out, shaking him by the shoulders.

  Joel’s eyes snapped open, and he sat bolt upright, expecting to see the unnatural dawn. It was still night. The air was cool. Joel was bathed in sweat, however, as if he
’d slept too close to the fire, but the fire was out. Holly appeared to be damp, too.

  “What’s wrong?” the bard croaked, his throat parched.

  Holly mopped her brow with her sleeve. “I had a dream, but I think it was more than that. The sunrise came to me to warn me that something bad is going to happen. I think—I think it was a vision from Lathander,” the girl whispered.

  Joel shuddered. Having a vision from Finder hadn’t seemed too alarming, but having Holly’s vision from the god she served—that was disturbing.

  “Did the vision give you any more details?” the bard asked, trying to keep calm by analyzing the vision.

  “There’s evil approaching,” the paladin warned. “Great evil.”

  “Bear?”

  Holly shook her head.

  “The Zhents? More priests of Xvim?”

  “No,” the girl replied with more headshakes. “Something evil is coming. Something as cold as death and as dark as a crypt, smelling of dust, so evil it hurt to sense its presence.”

  Joel sighed. Finder’s vision had been slightly cryptic, but Lathander’s was maddeningly obtuse.

  “There was one other thing,” Holly said.

  “What?” Joel asked eagerly.

  “You weren’t there. There was death all around, but you were gone.”

  Joel looked around for Jedidiah, hoping perhaps the old priest would have some insight into what Holly had sensed.

  Jas stood lookout near the edge of the bluff, but of Jedidiah there was no sign.

  “Jas,” Joel called out, “where’s Jedidiah?” His question echoed through the hills, a chorus of Joels inquiring about the old priest.

  Jas turned from the bluff and strode back to the campsite.

  “You want to shout your question again?” the winged woman growled softly, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I don’t think they heard you back at the Flaming Tower.”