Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [116]
Finder's special attention to them made him seem to them less selfish and reckless than he really was. The paladin doubted he'd ever convince either woman of Finder's true nature.
Then Olive surprised him by whispering, "Someone has to keep an eye on him in case he tries to do something especially stupid."
I thought you liked him, Dragonbait signed.
"I love him," Olive snapped, "but I'm not an idiot, you know."
I know now, the saurial signed in reply.
*****
In the ruins of the manor house atop the hill, Finder handed Grypht his magical stone. "Think of the same saurial you thought of before," he instructed the wizard.
As the others watched, a beacon of light sprang out from the finder's stone, heading northwest.
"We're right here," Finder said, pointing out on Brock's map the position of his keep, "and the beam cuts to the right of that mountain-the one that looks like it's been sliced in half."
Breck nodded. "That's Wizards' Folly. It used to be a whole mountain thirty years ago, before two wizards decided to use it for a battlefield." The ranger drew a second line on his map. The two lines intersected at precisely the spot Finder had claimed to be the Lost Vale. "It seems you've won your wager," Breck said.
Olive and Dragonbait rejoined the others just as the ranger pulled a gold coin from a pouch on his belt and tossed it to the bard.
Finder twirled the gold piece around his fingers and seemed to make it disappear into thin air. Only Olive caught sight of the glimmering coin as it slid down the sleeve of the bard's shirt.
"So, can your magical stone take us to the Lost Vale?" Breck asked Finder.
"To the Singing Cave at the northern edge of the vale," the bard replied. "From the cave's mouth, you can see the whole vale."
"First we should find out about the seed," Grypht said. "You didn't say in your tale, but are you sure the beholder didn't mention a seed to you?" the wizard asked Finder.
"I'm sure," Finder replied. "What is this seed?"
"Let me explain," Alias said, shooting a warning glance at the others. She didn't want Finder to know that she'd changed any of his songs. It would only anger him, so she decided to leave that part out of her explanation. "Because my soul is linked to Dragonbait's, it seems I have a strange ability," the swords-woman explained carefully. "It makes me go into a trance and sing about things related to Dragonbait's people. Since the saurials are minions of Moander, they know about this seed, and somehow I sang a song about it."
"Sing the song for me now," Finder ordered.
Alias repeated both verses of the saurial soul song for the bard. Now that she was sure that Finder was safe from Moander, she was better able to concentrate on the first verse. She felt as if some stranger had whispered Moander's secrets to her in her dreams, and she only had to remember the dream and how it had made her feel to understand it. With a jolt of alarm, she realized that she knew the purpose of the seed as clearly as she had known that Moander had meant to possess Finder. "The minions have already completed Moander's new body!" she declared. "That's why they need the seed."
"What?" Grypht and Akabar asked in unison.
"The seed in the song is a seed of possession," Alias explained.
"Like the one Xaran used to try to possess Finder?" Olive asked.
Alias shook her head. "Not exactly," she said. "When Moander was in the Realms last year, it stored most of the power it acquired in the Realms in this seed, so this seed is much more powerful. Larger, too, I think." Alias looked confused for a moment. "The saurials have never seen the seed, so I can't picture it.
Moander needs the seed, though, to possess its new body, Without it, the god can't return to the Realms."
"Good," Breck said. "Then all we have to do is find the seed and destroy it."
"If Moander can't find it," Akabar asked, "how are we supposed to discover it?"
"Use the finder's stone," Breck said excitedly.
Finder shook his head and explained.