Tymora's Luck - Kate Novak [55]
"Why?" Jas asked. "Think about it, Joel. As long as I have the dark stalker in me, I may as well take risks. Dying is the only way I'm going to cheat Iyachtu Xvim. On the other hand, you're young. You have a lot to live for."
"Jas you're only six years older than I am. This fatalism is ridiculous," Joel declared.
"Is it? I killed that fetch. If the priests of Iyachtu Xvim were telling the truth, I've already sealed my fate. The only reason I don't look like a dark stalker is that Finder transformed me with magic."
"Do you feel like a dark stalker?" Joel asked. "Do you sense the power of your prey like they told you you would?"
"It's hard to say," Jas admitted. "With so much of my life energy drained, I can't be sure what I'm feeling."
Emilo, who was farther up trail, turned and ran back to the two humans. "The path leads to another cave," he said excitedly. "A really big one-big enough to hold a dragon, or even a couple of dragons." From overhead, there came a horrible screech. One of the vulture creatures was diving straight toward them.
Joel grabbed Jas's hand and shouted, "Run for it!"
The three pelted down the trail.
The cave loomed up ahead. Its entrance was quite large, and Joel realized there was nothing to prevent the vulture creatures from following them inside. Darkness would be their only cover.
As they dashed into the opening, Jas yanked her hand away from Joel and turned to face the creature should it decide to enter.
Up ahead, in the darkness of the cave, Joel spotted two glowing red spots moving toward him. The bard grabbed Jas about the waist and dragged her off to the side of the entrance to hide in the shadows.
The vulture creature landed at the cave entrance and stood silhouetted in the light. The giant bird was a full two feet taller than Joel. A few moments later the vulture was flanked by two more of its kind.
The glowing red spots inside the cave grew larger. The vulture creatures, apparently having spotted what Joel assumed were the eyes of some far larger monster, backed away from the cave entrance. The glowing spots flashed past Joel, and he saw in the cave entrance a hideously misshapen spider at least ten feet long. From its spinneret, the spider shot a strand of webbing at the vultures.
There was a horrible shrieking sound outside the cave, but Joel turned his attention to the kender tugging on his vest.
There's a way through the cave," Emilo whispered. "Hurry."
Joel and Jas followed the kender deeper into the cave. Great webs filled the passage, but Emilo had discovered a sinkhole four feet wide and nearly as deep that was free of webbing. Emilo scurried through the sinkhole as the humans, dragging their packs behind them, crawled on their hands and knees to avoid the webbing overhead. Joel speculated that the hole had been caused by the earth tremors they'd experienced the day before. Had it been formed less recently than that, the great spider surely would have detected it and filled it with webbing.
When they emerged from the sinkhole on the opposite side of the webbing, Joel pulled out the finder's stone once again. The stone shone down the passageway. The light seemed brighter underground, as if the stone sensed it was safer from detection in this dark place. The passageway twisted and turned and finally led them to a steep staircase that led upward.
Jas counted two hundred steps before they reached the first landing. The next flight of steps was set ninety degrees to the first flight. It was another two hundred steps to the second landing.
"Are we there yet?" Jas half joked, half whined.
"Beshaba's supposed to have her court somewhere near the pinnacle," Joel reminded Jas. "It could be a thousand, two thousand steps, maybe more."
Jas groaned and rummaged about in a backpack for the water bottle.
"Hello," Emilo murmured. He'd been tapping on the stones of the wall. "I think I've found something."
Joel turned