Tymora's Luck - Kate Novak [56]
"Shall we have a look?" the kender asked.
"It would be a nice break from all the stairs," Jas said, taking a gulp of water.
Joel stared uncertainly at the door. "We're more likely to discover what we need to know at the top of the stairs," he said.
"But perhaps we can learn something useful here," Emilo argued. "Maybe Beshaba keeps her secrets down here instead of up there," the kender suggested.
"Just a quick look," Joel agreed with a sigh.
They slipped through the door. The finder's stone light stubbornly shone back toward the stairs.
From his pack, the kender pulled out a torch and tinderbox. By the light of the torch, they proceeded down the narrow corridor.
The corridor opened into a larger hallway. To his left, Joel could hear the murmur of low, indistinct voices.
The bard led his companions in the direction of the voices. The hallway emptied into a great room with rows of benches facing an altar covered with a red cloth and a rack of horns-an underground temple to Beshaba. The benches were packed with people praying, some silently and others mumbling their prayers with considerable fervor. Occasionally a worshiper approached one of the braziers that surrounded the altar and set fire to an offering.
A pretty young woman dressed in black from head to toe came up from behind them. "Beshaba provides," she whispered. "Bad things always happen. Only offerings and prayer to Lady Doom can save us."
"Mmmm," Joel responded noncommittally.
"Our goals are meaningless. Lady Doom can undermine them with but a thought," the woman insisted.
"Oh, yeah?" Jas replied with irritation. She didn't doubt Beshaba's power, but the other woman's fear of the goddess annoyed her.
The woman clutched Jas's arm. "Appease her so her wrath turns elsewhere-" the woman's eye's lit up-"perhaps even on your enemies," she concluded. Then she turned away from them to approach the altar.
"I feel a sudden urge to climb another few thousand stairs," Jas muttered to Joel.
"Me, too," Emilo agreed.
"Let's go," Joel said.
They hurried down the hallway, scurried down the narrow corridor, squeezed back through the secret door, and pushed it closed behind them. The finder's stone shone upward.
In unison, the adventurers sighed, then resumed their ascent. Every two hundred steps there was a landing, a secret door, which they ignored, and another flight of steps that turned ninety degrees.
On step 3, Joel slipped on the stairs, slid down twenty steps, and twisted his ankle. He had already used his healing spell on the wounds Jas suffered at the hand of the fetch. In order to continue the climb, the bard was forced to cast a healing spell from one of Winnie's scrolls. They rested at the next landing, ate some more food, and finished off the water.
"We don't really have to go any farther," Joel said. "We could just sit here while Finder and Selune sense what's going on above."
"I don't want to just sit here in the dark while Finder and Selune are the only ones who get to see what's going on," Jas argued. "What do you think, Emilo?"
"It would be a shame to come all this way and not see what's at the top," the kender said.
"Two to one. You're outvoted, Joel," Jas announced.
"So much for trying to break away from my image as a reckless fool," the bard muttered.
After Joel cast a spell to fill their empty water flasks, the adventurers continued on their way.
The landing at step 0 appeared to be a dead end, but Emilo had no trouble detecting the stone to push to open the landing's secret door.
They blinked in the sudden light that assaulted their eyes. In actuality, it wasn't particularly bright, but it was far brighter than they were used to. The light, coming from lanterns hanging from the ceiling, revealed a vast chamber or gathering hall. The floor was littered with human bodies, some moaning, some lying deathly still. A portion of the chamber's ceiling appeared to have