Finder's Bane - Kate Novak [103]
"Are you one of the gods who knows why?" Joel asked.
Jedidiah chuckled and shook his head.
"He'll keep me up until dawn singing for him and four hundred of his equally invisible friends. Still, it beats waiting in line."
An old woman in orange pants and robe came across the bridge and set down a tray just outside the pavilion. She bowed low to Jedidiah, then recrossed the bridge and disappeared behind a tree.
The tray held a pot of green tea, two cups, and a plate of almond cookies.
"Shishi is also a perfect host," Jedidiah said.
They took their tea in companionable silence, but when they'd finished, Jedidiah stood up and began pacing. His head twitched once, the way it had shortly after they'd left Ilsensine's realm.
"Are you all right?" Joel asked.
Jedidiah shrugged. "I don't know. It seems to me I had an idea, a plan, but I don't remember it now. I forgot it before I took note of it, if you get my drift."
Joel nodded. "I do that all the time," he said.
"But you're not a god."
"Oh. Do you think Ilsensine stole it?" Joel asked.
Jedidiah's head twitched again. Then he shrugged. "I just don't remember. It's like a tickle in my brain." He sighed.
"Was it some way to get back the finder's stone without giving up the Hand of Bane?" Joel asked hopefully.
"There's an awful thought."
A small green ball of light zipped across the bridge and hovered before Jedidiah's face-Shishi, Joel supposed. The spirit reminded him a little of the firestars of Daggerdale.
"Chief Stellar Operator Pan Ho will take a bribe for a one-time use of the portal to Sigil," said the lion-dog spirit. "I would suggest something green. We should visit Pan Ho immediately. She's going to lunch within the hour and will be gone for a week."
Jedidiah bent over and plucked a newly blossomed gardenia from a bush. "Lead on, O wise Shishi."
Shishi went zipping back across the bridge, through the garden, and up the staircase. It waited patiently at the top of the steps for Jedidiah and Joel to catch up.
"That spirit is four hundred years my senior, and it still leaves me eating its dust," Jedidiah grumbled.
Miss Pan Ho was a grumpy dumpling of a woman who eyed Jedidiah with some distrust until he presented her with the gardenia "to brighten the efficient austerity of her office." A small but flawless emerald shimmered in the heart of the flower. Miss Pan Ho sniffed at the flower with a smile on her face. After pocketing the blossom, she rummaged through a drawer filled with keys and drew out a large one made of lead. She handed it to Jedidiah. There was a tiny slip of paper attached to the key, printed with symbols in the Kara-Tur language.
Then Miss Pan Ho locked her drawers and left the room. Throughout the entire exchange, she never said a word
The paper attached to the lead key, Jedidiah explained, instructed the holder of the key that Door Number of the Hall of Confused Dreams was to be locked when people left at noon to eat and rest. The opposite side explained that if anyone found the key it should be slid under the door of Room of the Hall of Confused Dreams.
"So we're supposed to use the key when no one's there and leave it in the room?" Joel guessed.
"Very good," Jedidiah replied. "A little practice and you could master the fine art of bribery, Kara-Tur style. I'll spend the evening with Shishi, then we'll leave for Sigil in the morning."
With Shishi riding on Jedidiah's shoulder, Joel and Jedidiah returned to where Walinda waited. If the lines had moved, it wasn't by more than three feet. Walinda glared all around her with annoyance.
Jedidiah sauntered up to the priestess. "You won't need to wait anymore. I obtained access to the portal from a friend."
"Good," Walinda replied, stepping out of the line.
Almost instantly the line moved up ten feet.
The three adventurers followed Shishi back to his garden.
The old woman who'd served them tea brought them a dinner of fish, pickled cabbage, and something Jedidiah called noodle soup.
After they'd eaten, Shishi assigned them each a tiny room overlooking his garden. Each room