Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [125]
"Well, Champion," Coral said, "you wanted me to give up my goddess for another.
What do you think of my choice?"
Dragonbait was too shocked to reply. He could only manage to mumble, "But I cured you!"
Coral laughed. "You fool! Your feeble power can have no influence on the Mouth of Moander. The root of the Darkbringer was planted in me months ago. It grows strong in every limb, down my tail, and even in my brain. You are getting careless, paladin. There was a time when you never met anyone-friend or stranger-without using your shen sight. You were always keeping watch over our souls, judging us constantly. Yet how eagerly you came to me today, even after I warned you. I knew you'd never believe my warning"
"I loved you," Dragonbait said. "Coral, I'm sorry this happened to you."
The priestess scowled. "You should be, paladin, for now I am your doom. While you were busy digging for Lily's egg- which, by the way, went into the pile with my sister's corpse-I traced a glyph of warding around this hut. You cannot escape. Moander's root could never grow in anything as pure as you, but you will serve Moander in another way. Where you are, the servant can't be far off. She will come to rescue you, and we will capture her. Then we will sacrifice you to bind the servant's will to Moander's."
"You can't bind Alias to Moander as long as Moander isn't in the Realms,"
Dragonbait protested.
"Moander will take possession of its new body before the moon sets tonight,"
Coral announced.
Dragonbait shivered. The minions must have recovered the seed somehow. He couldn't believe how badly things were going, nor could he believe he'd been fooled so easily. "I don't understand. Coral, you were so different on the mountain. Why were you weeping?"
Coral sneered. "To attract your attention, of course," she replied. "One of our fliers spotted you from the air. I teleported to a spot nearby and feigned tears until you came to me. You were incredibly easy to fool."
"I smelled your grief, your hope, your love. What I smelled was true,"
Dragonbait said.
"You have deceived yourself. I felt none of those things," Coral snapped. "The only truth I told was that I was glad you had returned to us. Now I can slay you in the name of the Darkbringer. Yours will be the first blood Moander tastes in its new body."
17
Finder's Secret
As Olive approached the cave, she could hear Alias singing. Though she couldn't quite make out the swordswoman's words, the halfling recognized the melody.
Alias was singing "The Tears of Selune," one of Finder's most haunting love songs. Something didn't sound quite right, however. Olive halted to listen more carefully. It took her a moment to realize what was wrong-Alias was singing the song in the wrong key.
Olive heard a shout, and the singing stopped suddenly in the middle of a verse.
She could imagine what had happened. Finder had ordered Alias to stop. Why the swordswoman had sung the song in the wrong key, Olive couldn't imagine. Alias knew how Finder hated anyone altering his tunes, and it wasn't like her to goad the bard. Olive crept to the mouth of the cave and peered in.
Alias sat on the floor of the cave, her head hanging like an embarrassed child.
Finder sat nearby, glowering at the woman. Akabar and Grypht sat opposite the bard and swords-woman. Both spell-casters stared at Alias anxiously.
Olive could hear Alias whispering, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be a fool, Finder," Akabar said. "She was just expressing what the saurials are feeling by turning your song into a soul song."
"Why didn't you tell me you were changing my songs to sing these saurial things?" Finder demanded of Alias.
"I thought it might upset you," Alias said softly.
"If you'd let her finish," Akabar said, "we might learn something."
"She was singing gibberish," Finder protested.
Grypht must have begun speaking to the bard in saurial, for Finder turned his attention to the wizard for a moment. The bard answered Grypht in Realms common.
"We've learned enough