Tymora's Luck - Kate Novak [88]
Walinda nodded and walked off to her pavilion. Joel led Holly and Emilo to where Jas was waiting. The winged woman crouched behind the boulder.
Holly gasped at the winged woman's appearance. "Jas! Are you all right?" she asked
Jas shrugged. Joel knew she'd never tell Holly how hopeless she felt. As far as Jas was concerned, Holly was still an innocent to be protected. "It's just that we're so close to Xvim's realm," she told the paladin. "When we leave, I'll get better. So what's the plan for getting into Xvim's fortress?" she asked Joel.
Hastily Joel explained his plan to his three companions. His original plan called for Emilo to stay with Holly, but Holly insisted the kender would be more useful, possibly even safer, with Joel and Jas. The paladin had also noted the kender's gift for remaining unnoticed. If it worked in the Bastion of Hate as well as it worked in Walinda's camp of tanar'ri, it would make Emilo the perfect saboteur.
Jas, who hadn't realized there was something unusual about the kender, was suddenly more curious. "I've never had any problem seeing you," she said.
"I think it's because you're different from everyone else," the kender replied.
Jas accepted that explanation without asking which difference Emilo meant.
"How'd you get this gift?" Jas wanted to know.
"I got it in the magical vortex that brought me to Sigil," the kender said. "I don't know why exactly. The last century of my life has been pretty confusing. I suppose it's a destiny thing."
Holly was more concerned about Joel's plan than the origin of the kender's gift. She asked the bard, "How are you going to disguise yourself?"
"I have a scroll," Joel explained. "I thought I'd disguise myself as a tiefling. That should strengthen my story that I'm a native of Sigil, and not some clueless prime."
"Are you going to make yourself shorter?" Emilo asked with surprise.
"Tieflings aren't just another kind of halfling or kender," Holly explained. "Tiefling are what Planers and Cagers call a person who has an ancestor from the Lower Planes. Not all tieflings are short."
Joel pulled out the appropriate scroll from the bundle he'd attached to his belt. As he read the scroll, he added a description to the spell words that served to reshape his form. He made himself a uttle taller, covered his skin with black scales, and grew-long fangs. When he'd finished casting the spell, Holly drew back from him in shock.
"You look awful," the paladin said.
"Yeah, you really do," Jas agreed. "Perfect, actually. No one would ever suspect you're really a nice young man who's gotten in over his head in the affairs of the gods."
"You should put your hair up like mine," Emilo suggested. "It will make you look even taller."
Joel bound his hair into a topknot.
"It makes you look fierce," Holly said, "It looks like the horse-tail crests on the helmets of the Tuigan warriors.
Jas and Holly agreed it made him look quite fiendish.
"Now what?" the winged woman asked.
"I'm going to go get our backpack and take my leave of Walinda. Ill be back soon," Joel said.
Joel found Walinda in the pavilion with the marilith, poring over a map.
"Your tiefling features are most becoming, Poppin," the priestess commended him.
Without replying, Joel bent over and retrieved his backpack and Winnie's. Then he turned to face Walinda. "I will do everything in my power to help free your goddess, but I don't want you using Holly as if she were some tanar'ri meant to die in the Blood War," he warned the priestess. "Don't put her in a dangerous position."
"We agree completely," Walinda assured him. "Someday, when she is much more powerful, I hope to sacrifice Holly Harrowslough. Stentka Taran, on the other hand, is already plotting ways to corrupt her. So you can rest assured we will keep her safe… for now."
The bard glared at the priestess. "Any other suggestions about the sabotage?" he asked coolly.
"As I mentioned before," Walinda said, "Iyachtu Xvim's realm is guarded by mercenary yugoloths. They are exceedingly greedy creatures. Stentka