Tymora's Luck - Kate Novak [123]
"What is Lathander's purpose?"
"Lady Beshaba, you accomplish nothing with this petty game," Joel retorted, barely managing to keep his tone civil as his stomach churned from the motion of the wheel.
"Petty game?" Beshaba growled. She stepped forward and grabbed at her dagger, stopping the wheel's spinning. "It is not I playing petty games, but Xvim and Lathander and Finder. My power leaks from my very being. It is being sucked away. Do you know what that feels like, bard? Perhaps when you come closer to kissing death you will understand. Now, tell me what you know."
"I don't know anything," Joel declared again. "Finder isn't involved. I don't know what Xvim's or Lathander's plans are."
Beshaba snapped her fingers, and a double-pronged goad and a barb-tipped scourge appeared in her hands. "For some reason, I feel less weak now, and when I use my powers, it does not leak into the earth. What has changed? Why has some of my strength been returned to me?"
"I don't know, my lady."
Beshaba lashed out with the barbed scourge, striking Joel about the shoulders and chest and tearing his shirt and tunic. Large welts appeared on his upper arms. Joel gasped with the pain.
"Lady Beshaba, I could lie and start making up things," the bard said, "but it wouldn't help you learn what your enemies have planned."
Beshaba blew on the goad, and it glowed as if it had been heated in coals. "I would be interested in the lies you tell, bard. For in every lie, they say, is a grain of truth."
"I don't know anything," Joel whispered, closing his eyes at the sight of the heated goad.
"Beshaba!" a woman's voice shouted. "Leave the mortal be."
Joel opened his eyes with surprise. Tymora stood in a doorway that had appeared out of nowhere. The bard allowed himself a silent sigh of relief. Lady Luck held a long sword, much like the one Winnie had given to Jas. The goddess of good luck stepped forward, gracefully blocking Beshaba from the bard.
"Is it not enough that your treachery has weakened me and all my faithful on Toril? Now you must torment a priest of a new godling. To what end, Beshaba?"
"My treachery?" Beshaba shrieked, jabbing her heated goad at Tymora's face. Lady Luck parried the attack with her sword, and streaks of lightninglike energy sparked off the surface of her blade.
"It is your allies who betrayed me," Beshaba snarled. "They brought me to this place. When I reached out and sensed it was your power draining me, I did not believe it. Like a fool, I thought you to be incapable of such treachery. But you and those peacocks, Lathander and Finder, have allied with Xvim."
Beshaba lashed out with her scourge at Tymora's legs, but Tymora leapt aside gracefully.
"That's preposterous," Tymora declared, slicing at the scourge with her sword. Beshaba twisted her body and blocked the blow with her goad. More bolts of energy flashed off the tip of Tymora's blade.
"When I reached out, I sensed it was your power draining me. "I have been your prisoner here for days."
"You lie!" Beshaba snarled. "I do not even know where 'here' is."
Joel decided it was time to speak up. "While I don't really know for sure," the bard said, "if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say we were somewhere in Elysium, since that's where Lathander's realm is."
"Yes!" Beshaba declared, slashing and smashing furiously at Tymora with both weapons. "Now this slave speaks the truth."
With amazing reflexes, Tymora blocked each of Beshaba's attacks. "You have addled the mortal's brain with your tortures," Lady Luck insisted. "He does not know what he is saying."
"Speak more truth, slave," Beshaba shouted and threw her goad like a spear over Tymora's head. The goad's prongs struck Joel's right thigh, piercing and searing his flesh at the same time. Joel struggled to fight back the pain.
Tymora slammed her body into Beshaba's, knocking her farther away from Joel. Lady Luck got her foot caught in a