Song of the Saurials - Kate Novak [25]
His sword drawn, Mourngrym took the lead with Alias. Akabar, Thurbal, and the two guards brought up the rear. A shadow fell across them, framing the doorway at the end of the corridor. Mourngrym and Alias halted and raised their weapons, poised to charge into combat.
A slender half-elven woman appeared in the doorway. She wore a silky yellow tunic and fine elven boots; a sword in a scabbard hung from the black belt at her hips, and a bright red orchid hung in her long, dark hair. The half-elf stepped into the corridor.
"Kyre!" Mourngrym gasped. "Are you all right?"
The half-elf looked up at Mourngrym. "You broke through the wall of ice?" she asked. There was a hint of confusion in her voice.
"What happened?" Mourngrym demanded, ignoring her question. "Kyre, where is Grypht? Where is Nameless?"
Kyre lowered her head. "I'm afraid I've tailed, your lordship. I could not stop Grypht from reaching the Nameless Bard. Grypht grabbed Nameless and teleported away with him."
*****
For what seemed an eternity, Olive felt as if she were trapped in a golden web.
When the light from the magical stone finally dimmed, she and Finder stood looking out over a grassy meadow on a sloping hillside.
Olive quickly sank to the ground, exhausted by the magical teleportation.
"Admit it, Finder," she murmured, "whatever spell Elminster used to keep you inside that cell, it was almost a match for your rock, artifact or no."
Finder cursed angrily under his breath. The halfling looked up at the bard. His face was drenched with sweat, and his complexion was pale. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Are you all right?"
"Kyre snatched the finder's stone away from me just before we teleported,"
Finder growled with rage. "That bitch has my stone!"
"Oh," Olive said uncertainly. "Well, at least we escaped."
"But she has my stone!" Finder snarled irritably.
"She could have you, like she got Grypht," Olive snapped back. If you hadn't been so stubborn about waiting for the Harpers' blessing, you would have escaped before she arrived, Grypht wouldn't have been captured, and you'd still have your precious rock."
"She said she was a Harper," Finder said incredulously. "She couldn't be a Harper."
"She is," Olive said. "I told you-she's one of the tribunal judges."
"I can't believe she tried to kill me," Finder said. "She never would have gotten away with it."
"She didn't care," Olive said. "You said something to her about Grypht being a foe of the Darkbringer. That's Moander, the Darkbringer god, right?"
"Yes. Grypht said he was looking for Dragonbait because Moander was threatening their tribe."
"Oh, great!" Olive muttered, slapping her hand against her forehead.
Finder looked at her blankly. "I don't see the connection," he said.
"Don't you get it? Kyre's one of Moander's servants."
"That's impossible. No Harper would aid the Darkbringer."
Olive huffed in frustration. "I recognized those slimy tendrils Kyre used to grab the finder's stone. They're just like the ones Moander had all over its body. Moander was probably controlling her mind, the same way it controlled Akabar's mind last year."
"Akabar," Finder mused. The bard recalled the southern mage, Akabar bel Akash, who had befriended Alias the previous year, and how he had been captured by the Darkbringer when he had tried to free Alias from the god's clutches. "But Akabar destroyed the body Moander used in the Realms," Finder argued. "There's no way Moander could have possessed Kyre"
"Suppose Kyre visited a world outside the Realms?" Olive asked.
Finder considered the halfling's suggestion and frowned darkly. "It's possible," he admitted.
"We have to get back to Shadowdale and tell Dragonbait so he can rescue Grypht,"
Olive said. "Where are we, anyway?" she asked, tossing a pebble at a thistle.
"Home," Finder said.
"Home? It doesn't look like Immersea," Olive replied.
"It's not. Were you under the impression I lived at Redstone