Tymora's Luck - Kate Novak [58]
"What does Selune have to do with this?" Holly asked.
"She's helping Tymora," Joel said.
"What's wrong with Tymora?" Holly asked with confusion.
"Someone is draining her power. We think it's the mistress of this realm. Isn't that why Lathander sent you? To discover how she's doing it?"
"Beshaba has nothing to do with Tymora's troubles," the alu-fiend spat.
"I told you not to make a sound," Holly growled, pressing her sword blade against the flesh of the alu-fiend's neck.
"Hold on," Joel said, pushing Holly's hand back. He smiled sweetly at the alu-fiend. "What do you know about this?" "It is Xvim. He sent a squad of hydroloths to attack my lady's court," the alu-fiend declared. "When my lady used her power to defend us, she lost control, and the mountain quaked. Xvim must have known such a thing would happen, or he would not have risked his forces."
"How do you know the hydroloths came from Xvim?" Jas asked.
"Because my mistress cursed his name before she teleported away," the alu-fiend said haughtily.
"Hydroloth? Aren't they the froglike things that Xvim sent to Sigil to bring back Jas?" Emilo asked Joel.
Holly started, as if she hadn't noticed the kender before. Emilo smiled up at the paladin and bowed. "Emilo Haversack. Pleased to meet you at last, Holly," he said. "I've heard a good deal about you."
"Why did your mistress teleport away?" Joel demanded of the alu-fiend.
The alu-fiend tched as if Joel were a simpleton. "To save her realm and her people from destruction," she said.
"Where did she go?" Holly asked.
"She did not say, but I would guess she has gone to Gehenna, to confront that mewling godling Xvim and make him pay for his treachery," the alu-fiend said.
"When?" Jas asked.
"During the quake," the alu-fiend said.
That was yesterday," Joel said. "Why isn't she back?"
"Do you think something happened to her in Gehenna?" Jas asked Joel.
"I think," the bard said, "that we're going to have to go to Gehenna to find out."
Offstage
Somewhere in the Prime Material Plane, on the world known as Toril, in Realmspace, Daramos Lauthyr, High Lord Priest of Tymora, surveyed the wreckage of a once-secret shrine to Beshaba. Hidden in an underground chamber beneath a stable beside a respectable inn, the shrine had been a mere hundred yards from the shining spires of the Lady's House, also known as the temple of Tymora and Arabel's most resplendent cathedral. Beshaba's worshipers must have laughed at their proximity as they hid here in Lady Luck's shadow.
Now it was Lauthyr's turn to laugh. He toed one of the holy symbols of Beshaba, a crudely painted red plaque with black antlers, and allowed a tight smile to creep across his thin lips. As he looked around at the devastation, the smile grew into a full-fledged grin.
A week of heavy summer storms following hard after a season of steady spring rains had created a sinkhole over thirty feet across and twenty feet deep just beneath the stables. The secret shrine's earthen roof, insufficiently supported by wooden beams, had collapsed, as had the stable above, revealing the vipers' nest below. The worshipers had been crushed and smothered by dirt, slate rock, and lumber.
The town guard, aided by Lauthyr's priests, were now sorting through the tangle of rubble and timbers to pull free the corpses of Beshaba's unfortunate followers. Apparently the collapse had occurred during a service to the Maid of Misfortune, for there were many human corpses. A dozen had been discovered in the top layer of the ruins, along with a those of half a dozen horses that had been quartered in the stable above. So far the rescuer had found only one survivor-a stallion. Lauthyr had ordered that it be dug out, lifted from the sinkhole, and healed. It was unlikely that he would accord similar kindness to any of Beshaba's worshipers, should any of them be found alive. Lauthyr was not the sort to show mercy to an enemy.
Any other priest might have credited Chauntea for