Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [153]
Olive wiped her eyes on her tunic sleeve and turned again to speak with the others. "Grypht'll be glad to see them, too. He can use all the help he can get.
Most of the saurials are pretty sick from being possessed. Moander's vines of possession didn't leave them time to get enough food to eat or heal any injuries."
"Morala and I have brought magic to help them," Zhara said. "take us to them, please."
Olive led the others out of the cave and down to the eastern slopes of the vale, where the saurials were recovering from their ordeal.
Elminster and Grypht's apprentices hurried forward to meet with the saurial wizard, while Morala went to Alias's side. The elderly priestess looked up at the swordswoman. "I'm sorry that you lost your friend Akabar… and Finder, too," she said.
Alias acknowledged Morala's sympathy with a nod. Tossing her head proudly, she said, "Before he died, Finder told me about Flattery."
Morala looked down at the ground, and Alias could see that the priestess's eyes were moist. After several seconds, Morala looked back up at her. "Then I am doubly sorry for your loss," the old woman whispered.
"Thank you," Alias said sincerely, though she was a little surprised to discover that Morala appeared to grieve for a man she'd once condemned. "Did you know that Finder destroyed the finder's stone to try to rescue Akabar from Moander?"
Alias asked.
The priestess nodded. "The halfling told us," she said. "She seems quite upset by his death."
Alias watched as Olive bent over an injured saurial and checked his bandages.
"Finder and Olive were a good influence on each other. Olive's in the habit of behaving herself now, but it's not the same to her without knowing it will please Finder. I'll always feel empty whenever I sing, wishing he were there to hear."
A saurial nearby chirped for water, and Alias excused herself to tend to the creature.
Once she'd picked up the basics about the saurials' physiology, Morala took charge of the work to be done. She dismissed Alias, Dragonbait, and Olive, ordering them to get some rest, and the three adventurers gratefully obeyed.
Next the white-haired priestess mustered Zhara, Breck Orcsbane, and Lord Mourngrym and set them to work making a comfortable campsite for the hundred or so saurials that remained, most of whom were too weak to care for themselves, let alone one another. By the time Alias awoke four hours later, Morala had cleaned, fed, and sheltered every saurial in sight. She and Zhara had also healed and cured diseases in as many of them as their power and potions could handle in one day.
The swordswoman joined Grypht, his three apprentices, and Elminster for a meal of bread and fruit under the shade of an old oak tree. The five mages had just finished tracking down those saurials who had escaped the cones of cold the night before. Grypht was beginning to look exhausted, but he wouldn't sleep until he had finalized arrangements for his tribe's welfare.
Grypht explained to Alias, "My people and I could return to our world today, but the land that belongs to our tribe has been poisoned by Moander's minions. It will be years before any plant or creature could live there. Our whole tribe would become homeless vagabonds at a time when they are already very weak.
Elminster thinks we should stay here in the Realms, in this vale. We can work at healing the scar Moander forced us to put on this land. What do you think?"
"I think that would be wonderful," the swordswoman replied.
"Wonderful? Why wonderful?" Grypht asked.
"Because then Dragonbait could be with his people, but I wouldn't lose him entirely," Alias explained.
"You are Champion's sister and a singer of soul songs for our tribe; we are your people as well. Will you stay with us awhile?" the wizard asked. "We could use your advice."
"Yes, of course," Alias agreed. The emptiness that the deaths of Akabar and Finder had created in her heart lifted slightly with the realization that someone else needed her, that she had a new family and new duties.
"You are certain