Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [110]
The halfling stared up into the blue eyes and green snout of Dragonbait's saurial friend. "Grypht!" Olive cried. "It's good to see you!"
Between the two of them. Alias and Finder quickly dispatched the three orcs who had been holding Alias. Alias reached down to retrieve her sword from the orc that had taken it from her, then turned her attention to the beholder.
"Let Grypht handle it," Finder said, holding her back by her cloak. "It's good to see you," he said with a grin. "How have you been?"
Alias looked at the bard in astonishment at his nonchalance. "How have I been!
I've been worried sick about you! What are you doing in this awful place?" she demanded, surveying the surroundings.
While Finder paused to consider his words before answering the angry swordswoman, Grypht bent over to set the halfling down gently and pat her on the head. Then the saurial wizard stood back up straight and turned his attention to Moander's minion. Olive could smell the scent of fresh-mown hay, and Alias and Finder could hear him as he called out in saurial, "Firefingers!"
A fan of flame buret out of Grypht's fingertips and ignited Olive's cloak, which still hung over the beholder.
Xaran shrieked and rolled over, so that Olive's burning cloak fell to the floor, but the beholder was already charred horribly and sinking downward.
Olive ran forward and snatched up her dagger. She pounced on Xaran as the creature reached the ground and stabbed the beholder with her dagger, twisting her weapon viciously before yanking it out.
The beholder lay still on the ground.
Just then Breck came crawling through the hole in the rubble, screaming a battle cry as he ran down the pile of rubble with his sword drawn. He stopped short just in front of the dead beholder and stared wordlessly at the slimy tendrils oozing out of the creature's wounded eye.
A moment later, Dragonbait, Akabar, and Zhara came crawling through the rubble to join the others in the cul-de-sac.
"You missed all the excitement," Olive said cheerfully. "I just finished off the beholder."
15
The Reunion
While Akabar was convincing Breck to hold still so that Zhara could use her clerical powers to heal his injuries, Dragonbait hurried to Alias's side.
Through the soul link he shared with her, he could sense the pain the swordswoman felt from the wound Xaran had given her. The paladin laid his hands on Alias's shoulders and began a prayer.
Although Dragonbait had once explained to Alias that he prayed when he healed, she had never actually heard the words of his prayer before. A sense of embarrassment came over her as she listened to the paladin's pious request to his gods for the power to relieve her pain. Dragonbait, she realized, was as devout as all the clergy members she had joked about for as long as she had known him.
When the wound on Alias's chest had ceased bleeding and the skin had knit together, Dragonbait ran a teasing finger down the brand on her arm so that it tingled pleasantly, as if to remind her that he still cared for her even if she was an impious barbarian.
"The beholder injured Nameless's hand, too," Alias reminded him.
Dragonbait turned wordlessly and, taking the bard's hand in his own, repeated his prayer. The gash in Finder's hand stopped bleeding and closed, though the bard was left with a long scar.
As Olive watched Dragonbait heal Alias and Finder, she caught sight of a familiar yellow gem tucked in the paladin's belt. "Finder! Dragonbait's found your stone!" the halfling cried.
Dragonbait pulled out the gleaming magical stone. "I found it in the passage through the rubble," he said in saurial, handing the stone to the swordswoman.
"I dropped it when the orcs grabbed me," Alias recalled, taking the stone. She glanced at Olive, then looked at the bard with surprise. "What did Olive just call you?" she asked.
"Finder,"