Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [133]
The adventurers stopped at the edge of the clearing. They watched as each saurial scrambled to the top of the pile and added his or her burden to the growing mountain. Saurial spell-casters in white robes stood waiting at the top of the pile to take the nets brought by the flying saurial workers and butcher the captured wildlife over the pile, tossing the corpses in with the fresh trees and splashing water over it all, chanting spells all the while.
As the sun sank beneath the horizon, the saurial workers climbing down from the pile headed to the huts that surrounded the pile. Each saurial slid into a separate hut and did not come out again. Some time later, by the light of the moon, the spell-casters climbed down from the pile and slipped into the huts nearest the pile.
"When exactly are they going to resurrect Moander?" Akabar whispered.
"I'm not certain," Alias answered. "Before moonset. They must be resting before the ceremony. Remember," she whispered to Olive, "it's the inner ring of huts.
Dragonbait's hut has a rainbow-striped curtain on the door and Coral's has a golden one with the high priest of Moander's symbol-"
"-an eye in a fanged mouth. I know," Olive said.
Aside from knowing what huts to look for, Alias's soul song rapport with Dragonbait and Coral had warned the swordswoman that Coral had set an alarm to sound if Grypht, Akabar, or she entered the camp. The priestess either hadn't known about the halfling or hadn't considered her a threat and had neglected to mention Olive in her spell, so Olive was to be their advance scout.
As the halfling slid away, the saurial and the two humans became visible again.
They crouched down in the shadows of the trees that hadn't yet been sacrificed to the god Moander's new body.
Olive crept through the camp, threading her way among the huts of the possessed saurials. She set up trip wires in front of the entrances to the huts of the spell-casters in the inner circle, bypassing only the gold-curtained hut of the Mouth of Moander and the rainbow-curtained one that imprisoned Dragonbait. When she finished, she moved to the rainbow-curtained hut and whistled the first four notes of "The Tears of Selune."
The curtain drew back immediately. Dragonbait stood in the doorway, looking out warily.
"It's me, Olive," the halfling whispered. She pulled a light stone out of her pocket, keeping its light carefully covered with a rag, since her circle of invisibility could not hide a light. She pushed the stone down in the dirt and covered all but a small portion of it, so that a narrow beam of light shone up into the darkening sky. The light stone had been Akabar's idea; it was to serve as a beacon for Grypht so the wizard could locate Dra-gonbait's hut. When Grypht dispelled the light, it would signal the others that they should begin their assigned tasks.
"In a hundred breaths, Grypht's going to cast a dispel magic spell," Olive whispered. "It will knock out this light and the ward around you. That's sure to set off all sorts of alarms, so the plan is for you to run straight toward the trees to meet the others. Alias says if you don't come straightaway, if you stop for any heroic deeds, she's going to make herself a new armor shirt out of your scaly hide. Got all that?"
Dragonbait nodded soundlessly.
Olive slipped away from Dragonbait's hut and returned to the golden-curtained hut of the Mouth of Moander. It was eight huts away from Dragonbait's, but if Coral stood in the hut's doorway, she had a clear view of Dragonbait's hut-undoubtedly so she could direct a spell at the hut should Alias or any of the others try to sneak into the camp to rescue the paladin.
Grypht had warned the halfling that Coral was powerful enough that she might detect Olive despite her invisibility, so Olive wasn't taking any chances. She wasn't going to attempt to sneak into Coral's hut. Instead, she crept up to the back of it and pressed her eye against a gap in the pine boughs.
Mingled with the scent of the pine boughs was the scent of roses. Moander's high priestess wasn't