Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [144]
Tears began to stream down Alias's cheeks as her voice rose. "Akabar is inside that creature, and it's your fault. If you had used the para-elemental ice in your silly stone to put the saurials into a torpor, then Akabar would never have gotten near that pile. He'd be here with us now, and all the saurials would be safe. But your stone was more important than people. You never loved anyone but yourself. Now that you have your precious immortality and your magical stone, why bother to help us? You don't need us. We mean nothing to you."
"Alias," Finder whispered, "that's not true. I love you with all my heart."
"No, you don't," the swordswoman declared. "You don't understand the first thing about love."
Finder was silent for a moment, too ashamed to argue further. All the things Alias had said were true except one. He did love her, even enough to admit he was wrong. "I'm sorry," he said. "You're right. I should have used the stone before. It's too late now, I know, but I'm sorry."
"Prove it! Release the ice from the stone!" Alias replied vehemently. "Use it to stab Moander through the heart and freeze it to death! Then we can rescue Akabar!"
"I'm… not sure that will work," Finder said hesitantly.
"It just might," Grypht interjected hurriedly, "if we can attach the para-elemental ice to something that can withstand that much cold… a magical weapon or staff, perhaps."
Dragonbait took his sword from Alias and offered it to the wizard, hilt first.
"Para-elemental ice on a magically flaming sword?" Grypht said dubiously. "I wouldn't recommend it."
Finder looked at Alias's tear-stained face. Now he had some idea how she had felt when he had scolded her for the heresy of changing his songs. The bard struggled against an uncontrollable desire to make her smile again. In the end, he lost the struggle. He drew out his dagger. "This belonged to my grandfather," he said. "It has certain power against evil creatures."
"That should do nicely," Grypht said. "Now, do we break the stone to get at the ice?" he asked.
"Can you levitate the stone?" the bard asked, holding out the finder's stone.
Grypht nodded and pulled out a tiny golden wire from the pocket of his robe. As he concentrated on summoning the magical power to him, the smell of fresh-mown hay began to fill the cave. "Rise," he said, shaping the wire into a scoop and lifting it into the air. The wire glittered and vanished as Finder's magical stone drifted out of the bard's hands.
From outside came the sound of splintering wood as Moander made its way through the forest below the cave, ingesting the trees into its body.
Finder tapped on his magical stone with the tip of his dagger until he had positioned it so that the long axis was perpendicular to the floor. "Olive," the bard said calmly, "I need your steady halfling hands and your sweet halfling voice. Are you still wearing that ring I gave you?"
"Yes," Olive said. "Do you want it back?"
"No. I want you to be wearing it for protection. Take this one, too, to keep the chill off." The bard slid a second ring from one of his fingers and slipped it on Olive's finger beside the one he'd given her earlier.
He looked up at Alias. "I need you to sing a high C," he said, "on cue. Hold it until I motion for you to stop."
Alias nodded.
"Olive, a high G for you, and hold it." Finder motioned for the two women to begin. As their voices blended in a chord, the bard began singing a series of random atonal notes. Then he motioned for the women to stop. He tapped his dagger on the side of the Finder's stone, and a tiny crack appeared at the center of the stone along the facet lines.
From outside, the sound of the toppling trees and the rumbling of the