Tymora's Luck - Kate Novak [16]
Jas's body shook, then relaxed.
The frog creature shimmered and shrank, then transformed itself into the shape of a man in a great cloak. In human form, it made its way down the steps, ducked through the door, and disappeared into the thugs' hideout.
Emilo grabbed Jas's hand and tugged her to her feet. They ran past the door, down the alley, turned, and dashed down the street, around another corner, and down another street. They didn't stop running until they bumped into a Hardhead with a light wand who ordered them to halt.
"I haven't done anything," Jas insisted. "I'm running from a creature who tried to abduct me."
"I know, miss," the Hardhead said. He blew a shrill whistle. A few moments later, Joel and two more Hardheads appeared out of the mist. Joel's tunic was torn and stained with blood, and his flesh beneath was scarred but not bleeding. He looked sick with worry.
"Jas!" Joel cried out. "Thank goodness you're all right."
"Thank Emilo," Jas corrected. "He helped me escape. If it hadn't been for him, I'd be a prisoner in Gehenna right now."
Joel looked surprised, but he was relieved to learn his suspicions about the kender had been incorrect. He broke into a smile and clapped a hand on the kender's shoulder. "Thank you," he said heartily.
"Show us where you left the thugs that captured you," one of the Hardheads ordered.
"I don't want to go back there!" Jas declared, her voice rising in pitch. "There's a monster back there who wants to take me to Iyachtu Xvim."
"Iyachtu Xvim?" the Hardhead asked, puzzled. The other two Hardheads rejoined the group in the street.
"Xvim's an evil god of one of the Prime worlds," Joel explained.
"The monster was an evil creature from the Lower Planes," Emilo added with obvious relish. "It was a giant green and yellow frog, ten feet tall. It shape-changed into a man in a cloak."
Joel bit his lower lip, wishing the kender were less extravagant with his description. No one is going to believe such an exaggeration, he thought.
But the Hardheads seemed to take the description in stride. "Hydroloth," one said.
"Undoubtedly," the leader replied.
"It's in a basement room in the alley beside the alchemist's guildhall," Emilo offered helpfully.
The Hardhead leader nodded. "Got it. You three can wait here," he told Jas, Joel, and Emilo. "Follow me, men."
The Hardheads followed their leader into the dark mists of Sigil, intent on apprehending the amphibian culprit.
"Let's go," Jas whispered.
"They told us to wait here," Joel replied.
Jas rolled her eyes and sighed. "They said we could wait here. They didn't say we had to. If you think I'm waiting around so I can testify against a hydroloth in a Sigilian court of law, you're nuts. I've had it up to here with this whole dark-stalker problem. I'm ready to do whatever it takes to keep from getting delivered to Iyachtu Xvim, even if it means asking for help from another god. Now, are you going to take me to Finder or not?"
"All right," Joel agreed before the winged woman had a chance to change her mind. "Let's go. This way," he said, heading down the street in the direction of the Civic Festhall. Jas followed.
Emilo trotted along beside Jas. "This scholar friend of Joel's that we're going to see-is that Finder?" the kender asked.
Jas nodded.
"Is he really a god?" Emilo asked excitedly.
Jas shrugged. "He and Joel seem to think so." Joel turned and shot Jas an annoyed look.
Jas grinned. "But neither of them claim that he's a real important god," she explained.
"But he lives in a place called Arborea?" Emilo asked.
Joel nodded.
"Is that in the stars?"
Joel shook his head. "It's one of the Outer Planes. That's where our gods live… most of them anyway."
"Is that different from the Lower Planes, where the frog creature came from?" the kender asked.
The evil gods dwell in the Lower Planes, one of which is