Finder's Bane - Kate Novak [48]
"Bear?" Holly whispered.
"No, it's not a bear," Jas said. "It looks almost human, except for that snout… a really hairy human. It's got fingers but no tail. Maybe it's some sort of half-ogre."
Joel drew closer, despite the stench of skunk that covered the creature. "Bear!" the bard gasped, just barely able to recognize the huge man's features, despite the distortion of his face into a wolflike snout.
"Why is it wearing a steel eye patch?" Jas asked.
"Because it was once a man with one eye," Holly said. "It is you, isn't it, Bear?" the paladin asked.
The creature snarled at the paladin. Then, in a gravelly voice, it's mouth twisting horribly, it replied, "You will… die, paladin. This is all your… f-fault, bitch." The words came out slowly and not very clearly, as if Bear was having trouble pronouncing them.
"What?" Holly asked, confused by the accusation. "How did you get this way, Bear?"
"I offered you and the… priest of Finder… to Iyachtu Xvim. If you are not both sacri-f-f-sacrificed with the new moon, my life is… forfeit," the beast-man said. "The priest I serve gave me the power to track you down so that I might live."
"Can they change you back?" Holly asked.
"Who cares?" Jas asked. "Just slay him and let's get going."
"The spell that transformed me took away the light of my humanity… f-forever," Bear growled. "I am all darkness now. Pure. F-F-Favored of Iyachtu Xvim."
"You see now why I avoid gods," Jas muttered to Joel.
Bear's one good eye gleamed with madness. "You will all… die in pain and humiliation. I can taste your souls and… feel your power wherever your f-feet have touched the earth," the enchanted man boasted. "I might have lost your trail when you flew across the river… but for the power of the fourth one. I can sense the fourth one… from miles away."
"The fourth one?" Jas asked. "Who's he talking about?"
Holly's eyes scanned the meadow carefully.
"Do you mean Walinda of Bane?" Joel asked, wondering if the priestess were following them to exact some sort of revenge.
Bear gave a braying laugh. "No. The fourth one who travels beside you… is more powerful than any godless priestess. The fourth one's power… is far greater even than our high priest, the Ruinlord. When I bring the fourth one to sacrifice… my god will elevate me above even the Ruinlord."
Jas shifted nervously. "He's crazy. There is no fourth one," she declared. "Is there?"
Bear writhed in the enchanted hedgerow, struggling to free himself. When he found he could not, he gave an ear-piercing howl.
"Stop that!" Jas ordered, leveling the point of her sword at Bear's throat.
From far off came the sound of a hunting horn.
Bear howled again, louder and longer.
"Shut up!" Jas shouted.
Bear's howls became frantic.
Jas shoved her sword into the beast-man's neck and sliced his windpipe. The howling stopped. Bear's shoulders slumped forward. Only the hedgerow held him up.
Joel looked at Jas, horrified at how quickly she had taken the beast-man's life.
"You didn't have to do that!" Holly objected, whirling angrily on the winged woman.
"Don't be a fool," Jas snapped. "His only reason for being was to bring us to our death. Now we can all sleep at night."
The hunting horn sounded again.
"Come on, Holly," Joel said softly, laying his hand on the paladin's back. "We have to get going."
"Damned right," Jas said. She strode off back down the path they'd come.
Joel and Holly followed behind her.
"Joel, suppose Bear wasn't crazy? Suppose there is a fourth one? Who could it be?" the girl asked.
"Holly, I haven't a clue," the bard admitted. "Let's keep moving."
By nightfall, they'd reached the foothills of the Desertsmouth Mountains. They were considering where they should make camp for the night when they spotted