Tymora's Luck - Kate Novak [125]
"Thank you," the bard whispered to Tymora.
"Well, what now?" Beshaba asked. "You say you have been here for days. How might we escape this place?"
Tymora shrugged. "I was unconscious all the while. I only awoke a short time ago. I was surrounded by chaos, matter without order, which, like that from the plane of Limbo, I could shape with my mind. When I heard your voices, I imagined a hallway and a door to reach you."
"When we first arrived here," Joel said, "I heard someone order someone else to put Lady Beshaba into the fusion chamber. What's a fusion chamber?"
Tymora and Beshaba looked at one another with a puzzled expression.
"I don't know," Tymora admitted. "Nor I," Beshaba said. "I, too, was surrounded by chaos when I first awoke," Beshaba said, "but I, too, found I could arrange it about me. I expected to be in a prison. Perhaps that is why it looked like my dungeon in the Blood Tor, even down to the detail of the bones and scepter of the wizard Zorn."
The Maid of Misfortune closed her eyes for a moment. Instantly the room transformed into an underground temple dedicated to Beshaba, lit by two braziers. Joel felt a breeze from a slanted shaft near the ceiling.
Something white beside the stag's antlers on the altar caught Joel's eyes. He reached out and picked it up. "Lady Beshaba," he asked curiously, "why did you imagine an egg was here?"
"I did not imagine any such thing," Beshaba replied.
Joel examined the egg by the light of the brazier.
"What do you see?" Tymora asked.
"The shell is covered with fine lines, but it doesn't seem to be cracked," Joel said. He tapped and broke the egg on the side of the brazier and let its contents slide into the burning fire.
"How odd. There are two yolks," Tymora noted.
Act Four Scene 3
Guilt-ridden that she had endangered Joel and faced with Finder's wrath, Holly lowered her head and sobbed like a child.
The paladin's tears did not soften the god's mood. "No tears," Finder snapped. "Like a desert will your eyes and heart be until my priest is returned."
Holly looked up fearfully. Finder's curse removed the tears from her cheeks and the corners of her eyes.
"Now tell me why you summoned the phoenix," Finder ordered.
"Dawnbringer Aurora told me I was to collect whatever materials Sirrion of the Flowing Flame needed for the spell he was casting with Lord Lathander," the paladin explained.
"Sirrion?" Jas asked. "Would this be Emilo's Sirrion, the one who nearly got us killed in the fetch's lair?" "I don't know," Holly whispered. "Who's Dawnbringer Aurora?" Emilo asked. "Lathander's proxy," Finder said. "A very powerful priestess. Go on, paladin," he instructed Holly.
"Dawnbringer Aurora and Lord Sirrion said the spell would right an ancient wrong. Lord Sirrion sent me to fetch an odd assortment of things, symbols of bad luck and good, including chickens and an old coin from Myth Drannor and a rose from the Desertsmouth Mountains and a blue crystal ball that Dawnbringer Aurora kept in a locked box in the temple in Morning Glory. He set them on an altar. Then Lord Sirrion sent me to fetch Lady Beshaba. He didn't think I could do it, but Dawnbringer Aurora said Lord Lathander had every confidence in me. I didn't think I could do it either, so I asked Dawnbringer Aurora how. She gave me the holy symbol made of red glass and told me it would summon a phoenix, who would grab Lady Beshaba and bring her to Lord Sirrion. She told me not to be afraid for myself or the phoenix because Lady Beshaba would be very weak when I stepped through the gate to the Abyss."
"But when you stepped through the gate, Beshaba wasn't there," Finder said. "She'd already fled."
Holly nodded. "So I went with Joel and Jas and Emilo to find her in Gehenna, and Lord Lathander sent me a vision telling me to help Walinda so I could reach Beshaba. I didn't summon the phoenix right away because Walinda said nothing could get in or out of the Bastion of Hate except through the gate."
"But when you reached