Tymora's Luck - Kate Novak [101]
Emilo poked an arrow out a window slit. There was no invisible barrier to stop it, but when the kender tried to draw the arrow back inside, the arrow stuck in midair. "It's a one-way barrier," he noted. "We could push everything out the windows."
Jas shook her head. "The yugoloths stationed atop the wall are likely to hear the clatter. We have to find someplace- Hello. What have we here?" The winged woman held up a strange-looking device Emilo had never seen before. It looked like a short hollow wand with a wooden handle.
"What is it?" Emilo asked.
"An arquebus. It's a weapon that uses smoke powder," Jas explained. With her sword, she began prying the lid off the small barrel next to which she'd found the arquebus. "Remember that stuff I mentioned before? The stuff that causes explosions?" Jas yanked the lid off the barrel to reveal a fine silver and black powder.
"Is that smoke powder?" Emilo asked, stepping closer and sniffing. "Ew. I once knew a gnome that smelled like that."
"Stay back with that torch," Jas ordered the kender. "Gods, if only Arandes was alive to see this," she murmured as she stirred her fingers gently through the powder that filled the barrel. "He was a gif," she explained to Emilo. "Gif measure their honor in part by how much smoke powder they possess."
"Is that a lot of smoke powder?" Emilo asked.
"Oh, yes," Jas replied, pressing the lid back onto the small barrel. "I wonder if there's any more around…"
Act Three Scene 8
Joel drew out a torch from his belt and lit it from another torch burning in a sconce on the parapet. If the giant yugoloths could see in the dark, they would spot him easily. He might as well appear as if he had every right to be on the wall. He strode with purpose along the road between the two walls in the direction of the gate.
Giant yugoloths milled about everywhere atop the walls. Some stared outward from the bastion, but most leaned along the inner wall, watching their fellows drilling in the courtyard below. Bored out of their minds, Joel expected. There were none of the smaller yugoloths atop the wall at the moment. No doubt they came up here only to make periodic inspections.
The bard halted when he stood over the gate. If the gatehouse was laid out as he expected, the controls for the gate would be in a room just above the gate-directly beneath his feet. There was a trapdoor near the outer wall that must lead down to the control room. Two yugoloths stood on it.
Joel looked out over the wall to the outside of the fortress with an expression of annoyance on his face. After a moment, he whirled around and addressed the nearest yugoloth. "Tyrannar Neri is expecting a visitor. She is late in arriving. Have you spotted anyone approaching the bastion?" he demanded imperiously.
The yugoloth shrugged and shook its head.
Joel tapped his foot impatiently and glared at the yugoloth as if it might be lying. After a moment, he said, "I need to speak with the gatekeeper immediately."
Joel felt a sharp pain in one side of his head, and the yugoloth's telepathic words formed in his mind: Not standard procedure, the yugoloth informed him.
"I know it's not standard procedure," Joel snapped. "It's not standard procedure for the tyrannar to cower in the temple either, or for an angry goddess to take up residence in our lord's throne room, now, is it?"
Not our fault the gatekeeper let her in, the yugoloth insisted.
Joel rolled his eyes as if he were tired of the yugoloths excuses. "I know that," he said. "Unless you-"
An excuse not to pay us on time, the yugoloth argued.
"Since when does the tyrannar need an excuse?" Joel growled. "As I was saying, unless you want a repetition of the whole ugly affair with Beshaba, I suggest you let me speak with the gatekeeper."
Another power is coming? the yugoloth demanded. The creature chittered with its teeth in what Joel presumed was a nervous reaction.
"Beshaba has a sister, you know," Joel replied curtly.
Several of the yugoloths joined in a chorus of chittering. The yugoloth who was communicating with Joel