by Kate Novak
Joel repeated the refrain alone, adding a little dance step, which never failed to amuse Jedidiah. Holly applauded.
Jas looked expectantly at the wall, but nothing happened. “Well?” she asked. “What’s the problem? Were you off-key or something?”
Jedidiah snorted. “You may no longer be a groundling, my dear, but you are a barbarian. Off-key indeed!” And with that, the bard walked straight into the cliff face, disappearing into the rock like water into sand. He poked his head back out. “Don’t dawdle. The door won’t last forever.”
Jas, Holly, and Joel plunged through the stone. When they emerged from the rock, they found themselves surrounded by fog. Jedidiah’s light stone lit only a tiny area around them. Holly, off to one side of the others, stumbled and nearly fell in the thick fog. Jedidiah pulled her back toward the light. “Stick to the path,” he said, indicating the trail marked by lines of glowing yellow stones. “No telling what might happen if you wander off.”
Joel started off down the path, eager now to reach his destination. Behind him, Jas muttered a dark curse. Joel turned around. Jas’s wings had transformed. In place of the pink-feathered, eaglelike appendages were four planes of clear membranes like a dragonfly’s wings. They glowed softly.
“Jas, your wings … they’ve—”
“—changed. Yeah, big deal,” Jas muttered. She glared at Jedidiah. “We aren’t underground at all, are we? You didn’t tell me this would take us into another plane,” she complained.
“We’re in another plane?” Holly asked, awestruck.
“The borderland of the ethereal plane,” Jedidiah explained. “One of the saurials, a wizard named Grypht, created the gates and the path. Do your wings transform every time you travel to a different plane?” the old priest asked Jas curiously.
“Yeah. Now can we get on with it?” Jas insisted.
The way was smooth, but the lack of scenery made the walk tiresome. After a while, Joel and Jedidiah began singing to break the monotony. Holly joined in occasionally. Jas remained silent, occupied with her own thoughts.
Joel asked Jedidiah if Alias knew the song to open the ethereal path.
“Oh, yes,” the old priest said. “She has quite a remarkable voice.”
“Is she a priestess of Finder?” Joel asked.
Jedidiah laughed and shook his head. “She’s more like Jas. Avoids the gods if she can help it.”
They lost all track of time during their trek in the murky grayness. They walked until they were exhausted, then rested. When they awoke, they ate another meal created by Jedidiah, then walked some more. Some time after their third rest, the path ended at another gate—a glittering yellow monolith of amber, engraved with Finder’s symbol beneath the carving of an archway.
Joel repeated the marching song. This time he was the first to step through the gate.
He stood on another mountainside, just above the timberline, his back to another cliff engraved with Finder’s symbol. The world below was already in twilight, the wooded slopes shadowed by the mountains to the west. Just down the path was a small open-sided shelter built of wood, shingled with slate to match the hillside.
When Jas popped out of the mountainside, her wings were once again pink feathers. Holly and Jedidiah came out a moment later.
“It’s not far from here now,” Jedidiah said, “but the trail is narrow and steep. We should wait until light to continue.”
They walked down to the shelter. It was engraved with symbols of Finder, Tyr, Tymora, Chauntea, and others that Joel did not recognize. An assortment of wind chimes hung under the shelter’s eaves—deep-toned tubes of copper, tinkling tinny silver bells, clacking reeds. Herbs and dried flowers hung from the ceiling. Benches surrounded a small round table. The high mountain air was chill, but the shelter was comfortably warmed by some enchantment. The party sat and ate one final meal of Jedidiah’s magically created bread.
“Nothing personal, but I’ll be glad to eat real food again,” Jas said.
“So will I,” Jedidiah agreed.
Assured by Jedidiah that there was no need to keep a watch as long as they slept in the safety of the shelter, they were all soon asleep on the wooden floor. The wind chimes in the eaves played a lullaby for the weary adventurers.
Joel woke before sunrise, when the birds were just beginning to stir. He lay awake, unable to fall back to sleep. Soon he would be in the Lost Vale, in the Singing Cave, the only temple to Finder. He would meet the temple’s priestess, Copperbloom. Jedidiah had told Joel that if he made the pilgrimage to the Lost Vale he would understand more about Finder and his church. He wanted to believe Jedidiah with all his heart, yet Walinda’s threat had poisoned that belief. What if he got there and still didn’t understand his purpose, still felt useless? The uncertainty was unbearable.
The Rebel Bard sat up. Holly and Jas lay sleeping in a corner, but Jedidiah stood outside the shelter, motionless. Joel rose and joined him. Jedidiah smiled and whispered good morning.
“Trouble sleeping?” Joel asked.
“Just troubled period,” Jedidiah replied. “Are you anxious to get there?” he asked.
Joel nodded with a sheepish grin. “It’s kind of like the morning before Highharvestide. I’m too excited to sleep.”
Jedidiah nodded with an understanding smile. “The sky’s lightening,” he noted. “Why don’t you start down the path? I’ll wait here until the ladies wake, then we’ll follow you.”
Joel looked down the trail eagerly, but then he turned back to Jedidiah and asked uncertainly, “Do you want me to go alone?”
“I only came north to be sure you escaped the priests of Xvim,” Jedidiah explained.
“I wouldn’t have made it here without you,” Joel said, realizing that without Jedidiah’s help, he would never have completed his pilgrimage.
Jedidiah shook his head. He put his hands on the young man’s shoulders. “Joel, journeying to the Lost Vale isn’t some silly test of your survival skills. It’s a measure of your desire to be part of Finder’s church. It’s a demonstration that you want to understand more about your god.”
“And will I?” Joel asked in a whisper.
Jedidiah lowered his head, then raised it again. He wore a wry grin. “Maybe more than you were meant to,” he replied. “This is going to be a trying time for our church and for our god.”
“Because we lost the finder’s stone?” Joel asked.
“No. Because I lost the finder’s stone,” Jedidiah corrected. He pointed down the path with one hand and slapped Joel on the back with the other hand. “Go,” he ordered jovially. “Tell Copperbloom I’ll be along later.”
“I will,” Joel said.
“Remember what I told you,” Jedidiah said. “She can understand you just fine even if she can’t speak our language.”
Joel nodded as he began striding down the path. It curved around the mountain, leading downward.
The peaks of the surrounding mountains were still snow-covered, but the air grew warmer as he descended the peak. The boulders and low-growing junipers gave way to pine and spruce trees. Still farther down, stands of birch and aspen broke the solid line of evergreens. Below him, the path left the mountain slope and traveled along a saddle to the next slope. Rhododendrons bloomed in such profusion along the saddle that the land seemed to be covered by a purple haze.
Once he’d reached the saddle, Joel discovered side trails that branched off from the main path. He was nearing inhabited land. Far above him, something cried out, causing him to jump. Among the pine trees, Joel had seen and heard innumerable blue jays, but this cry was like none he’d ever heard. He looked up. Something circled high overhead, like a hawk, but its silhouette looked more like a giant bat than any bird.
When he had crossed the saddle, the path began winding around the next mountain, but now it began to climb the slope. On the southeastern face of the mountain, Joel got his first glimpse of the Lost Vale.
On the northern face of a mountain, across the val
e, stood a stone tower. Innumerable small cottages, surrounded by gardens and fields, dotted the floor of the vale. Tiny figures moved about among the buildings; others headed into the mountains and hills.
A magnificent staircase climbed from the vale straight up the southern slope of the mountain on which the bard stood. Joel’s path led through a rose garden to a landing midway up the staircase. The bard hurried forward until he stepped onto the landing. There he paused to take in the view.
The staircase was wide enough for eight men to walk abreast. On either side, amazing gardens clung to the slopes. The flowers and shrubbery and trees and vines sometimes grew over the stairs. Many of the plants were so exotic Joel could not even put a name to them. A stream trickled through the gardens, cascading over rocks. In one place, it flowed over the staircase, forcing the climber to use little stepping stones. Pieces of statuary, great and small, decorated the gardens. Some pieces represented wild creatures—frogs, birds, turtles, cats. Other carvings were more abstract in nature. Lanterns of stone, wood, metal, even glass, hung from trees or rested on boulders. After every sixteen steps, there was a landing. Each landing was decorated with huge banners hanging from tall posts. The banners were woven, embroidered, or painted with a design, some intricate, others simple and bold. A hundred chimes sounded with every breeze.
There could be no doubt in the mind of anyone climbing the staircase that it led to someplace special. Joel looked upward. Far above, he could just make out a black hole in the mountainside … the entrance to the Singing Cave. Above the entrance, Finder’s symbol had been carved into the mountain. To either side, huge banners of gray silk bearing the same harp symbol fluttered in the wind.
A figure stepped out of the gardens onto the landing just above Joel. The bard put his hand to the hilt of his sword, then, feeling rather foolish, he withdrew it. The figure had to be a saurial. A female, Joel assumed, because she carried a basket of flowers. She wore a long white robe, but everything else about her was inhuman. Though she walked on her hind legs, she leaned forward at her hips, balanced by the massive tail that swayed behind her. She was covered with tiny, pebbly scales in copper and green that made her hide look like very expensive beadwork. She had a long snout and sharp teeth, but no lips. Her eyes were yellow like a snake’s. A shark-like fin rose from her brow and traversed the ridge of her head. She was much shorter than the bard.
Joel considered stepping off the stairs to hide, in order to savor his solitude a bit longer, but it was too late. The saurial had spotted him. She made a series of clicks with her tongue.
“Good day,” Joel said, bowing low.
The saurial bowed back.
“I’ve come to see the temple,” Joel said, feeling rather foolish, since his intent was obvious.
A vanilla scent rose from the creature. Jedidiah had once explained that saurials emitted a variety of odors that indicated their emotions. Joel wished he had thought to ask Jedidiah more about which emotions were indicated by which scents. The creature began trilling. At first Joel shifted nervously, since he couldn’t understand her, but then he recognized she was singing the tune that had opened the magic gate to the ethereal borderland. Joel realized she was trying to ascertain how he’d gotten there.
Joel began singing along with her, his tenor voice blending well with her alto trilling. The music attracted other saurials. A mottled green and brown saurial a foot taller than Joel, with razorlike plates running down its back and spikes on its tail, stepped out of the garden, and two little flyers, no bigger than halflings, with black, batlike wings, landed beside him. All three stood on the stairs to listen. Joel began to elaborate on the tune, finishing with a flourish.
The small audience applauded.
“Yes, I came by the gate,” Joel said, answering what he presumed had been his fellow performer’s question. “I’m Joel. Jedidiah of Finder sent me here on a pilgrimage.”
The creature held her basket of flowers at arm’s length, revealing Finder’s symbol embroidered on her robe.
“You must be Copperbloom,” he said.
The saurial nodded. She shooed the spectators away and motioned for the bard to accompany her up the stairs.
Joel climbed beside the priestess of Finder’s temple. Since she did not speak, he remained silent at first. Then she tapped his arm and motioned to her ear. She wanted him to speak. Even if she couldn’t question him, she could understand anything he had to say.
“Jedidiah’s in the shelter at the end of the gate with two friends. He’ll be coming later,” Joel explained. “We’ve had some trouble getting here, but he’d better tell you about that.”
Copperbloom motioned for Joel to talk about himself. The bard began telling about where he came from and his training at barding college, then related the details of his first meeting with Jedidiah.
By the time they’d reached the top of the staircase, Joel was out of breath, and his throat was parched from speaking. He felt foolish for having babbled so long about himself. Copperbloom led him into the Singing Cave. Just inside the cave entrance was a carpet of moss and ferns. Condensation made the walls sparkle. Little red and yellow skinks skittered about the floor, walls, and ceiling. Swallows shot in and out, bringing insects to their young in nests built in the cave’s nooks and crannies.
“This is just the way it was when Finder arrived here with the party of adventurers that fought Moander, isn’t it?” Joel asked.
Copperbloom made a circling motion indicating the cave entrance and nodded in response to Joel’s question. Then she pointed to a passage leading deeper into the mountains and shook her head from side to side.
“This is a new section?” Joel asked.
The saurial nodded and motioned for Joel to investigate. The passage was lit with light stones. Tapestries hung on the walls. One showed the enslavement of the saurials by the evil god Moander, another showed the battle that destroyed Moander’s Realmsian body, and still another showed how Finder finally slew the abomination forever by killing it in its home plane, the Abyss.
The passage opened into a room full of musical instruments, some common to the Realms, others that Joel had never seen or heard of before. Two saurials similar to Copperbloom sat in this room, one playing a harp and the other a drum.
In the next room were several small saurials. Some stood very still, while others motioned broadly. Since he could not hear their speech, the scene looked very odd to Joel. At first he thought they might be practicing some sort of dance, but when one of them threw a bucket of confetti on another, he realized they were acting out a play. He laughed at the confetti, and the little saurials all turned and bowed.
There was a vast cavern beyond the children’s theater. It was full of painted canvases, pottery, and sculpture too delicate for the outdoors.
Before Joel could explore it all or see what lay beyond, Copperbloom motioned for Joel to turn back. At the entrance of the cave, someone had laid out a breakfast of berries, milk, eggs, and ham. Copperbloom motioned for him to dine. Then she disappeared back down the passageway.
Joel felt like an overindulgent halfling when he finished the repast. When Copperbloom returned, she pointed to the birdpipes hanging from his belt and motioned for him to play.
Joel brought the instrument to his lips and began whistling out a tune. Copperbloom picked it up with her own trilling. They had just finished repeating the piece when more applause came from the cave entrance.
Jedidiah stood there, smiling at the pair of them.
“I see you two are learning to communicate,” the old priest said. “How are you, Copperbloom?”
The priestess rose and bowed very low. A series of clicks issued from the back of her throat, and Joel could smell the scent of woodsmoke issuing from her body.
Jedidiah motioned for the priestess to be seated again. He sat before the two of them.
“Where are Holly and Jas?” the Rebel Bard asked.
“Holly’s in the garden. Grypht met us on the stairs,”
the old priest said. “She’s bending his ear about the advantages to the saurials of an alliance with Randal Morn and the Daggerfolk. Grypht is a powerful wizard,” Jedidiah explained for Joel’s benefit. He’s sort of the unofficial leader here. Jas is soaring with the flying saurials.”
“Is that safe?” Joel asked. “Isn’t there a chance she’ll be spotted by Walinda?”
“I warned her to stay lower than the mountain peaks. The illusion that protects the vale reaches to the top of the mountains,” Jedidiah replied. “Jas is a human woman with wings,” he explained to Copperbloom.
Although Joel heard nothing, Copperbloom must have spoken, for Jedidiah sat listening to her, then shrugged. “No, she wouldn’t tell me how she came to have wings,” he answered the saurial priestess.
“How can you hear Copperbloom?” Joel asked.
“I can hear and understand the saurials and all the priests of Finder,” Jedidiah explained. “It’s a gift from Finder.”
Copperbloom rose and went to the cave entrance. She looked down the staircase, then turned back to face her two human guests. Joel winced at the sound of a high-pitched noise, then he realized he was hearing, just barely, some of Copperbloom’s speech.
Joel and Jedidiah joined Copperbloom at the entrance to the cave. Holly was just outside the entrance, speaking in hushed tones to a giant green saurial, nearly ten feet tall and wearing a fur robe. From the staff the creature carried and the arcane magical symbols etched in the bony frill behind its head, Joel guessed the saurial to be Grypht, the powerful wizard and leader of the saurials.
“Joel, it’s beautiful here,” the paladin said. “I can see why you wanted to come.”
“I am Grypht. Pleased to meet you, Joel of Finder,” the saurial wizard said in perfectly recognizable common speech. Since the sounds he made didn’t match the movement of his mouth, Joel guessed that the wizard had used magic to speak with him. Grypht turned to Copperbloom. “I bring a message from Sapphire the Finback. She asks if you will please come to bless her new egg before the end of day.”
