may even have been behind the failure of your last mission. Just because the other tyrannars call him Neri the Nitwit doesn't mean that Neri isn't a cunning man. My offer depends on your hatred of this man whom you should call your enemy. Is your hate great enough to spur you to action? Are you prepared to seize the power that should rightfully be yours?'
Perr's lips were set in a sneer, and his blue eyes glittered in the torchlight like a fiend ready to do battle in the Blood War. Despite his hatred, Perr was no one's fool. I presume you have a plan to do away with Tyrannar Neri that will put me at great risk,' he stated bluntly.
Joel smiled coldly. 'It will only put you at risk if it fails,' he said. 'Naturally the plan does not depend on you, though it will be easier if you help us. The risk you take will serve as proof you are worthy of the power with which you will be rewarded. Of course, you are free to turn down my offer should you prefer to serve out the rest of eternity as a slave.'
'I am a petitioner. I will soon merge with Lord Xvim,' Perr countered.
Merging with one's god was the ultimate goal for a petitioner, Finder had explained to Joel. When the petitioner's spirit was sufficiently like his god's, the two became as one. Of course, the spiritual growth necessary for a merger would be far different for petitioners of Xvim than the petitioners of any other god.
'Perhaps you have confused Lord Xvim with a god of obedient sheep,' Joel retorted haughtily. 'Slaves do not merge with the New Darkness. A petitioner must become as Lord Xvim himself is, consumed by hatred and a tyrant over all, before there can be a merger. We have never had to replace a gatekeeper because one merged with Lord Xvim.'
Perr glared at Joel, but he did not deny the wisdom of the false hatemaster's words. 'So what is your plan, and how will I be rewarded?' he asked.
'First,' Joel said, 'tell me, when someone calls at the gate, who decides to let him in?'
Perr shrugged. 'I don't know exactly. I drop a note out that window,' he said, pointing to the window looking out over the courtyard, 'and a yugoloth carries it to the temple. I wait at the window until Hatemaster Morr arrives and signals me to open the gate. If he does not give me the signal to open the gate or does not come, I do not open the gate.'
Which was why, Joel realized, Hatemaster Morr had been the one to greet 'Marin the Red' at the gate. 'And would you ever question Hatemaster Morr's signal?' Joel asked.
'Of course not,' Perr insisted. 'Tyrannar Neri ordered me to obey his commands.'
'Suppose there were an army of tanar'ri sitting at the gate, commanded by a priestess of Beshaba?'
'Why would Hatemaster Morr signal me to open the gate to such an army?' Perr asked with surprise.
'Would that make a difference as to whether or not you would obey him?' Joel asked.
Perr looked confused. 'Such at thing would be a betrayal of Lord Xvim,' he said.
'Only if Lord Xvim gave a damn,' Joel said. 'Suppose Lord Xvim enticed Beshaba here as a test of his tyrannars-a test that I believe they have all failed. They cower in the temple waiting for Lord Xvim to return and save them all. Not one is filled with enough hatred to seize the opportunity offered them. Beshaba-the goddess herself, not merely one of her avatars-lies unconscious in Lord Xvim's throne room, no doubt from some magic set there by the lord himself. Yet not one of the tyrannar acts to destroy Lord Xvim's enemy.'
'You can't kill a goddess,' Perr insisted. Then, less certainly, he asked, 'Can you?'
'A mortal, no. But another goddess could.'
'What goddess?' Perr asked with obvious fascination.
'Tymora,' Joel said. 'She and her sister, Beshaba, have always hated one another. Of course, this works to the glory of Lord Xvim. He feeds on their hatred, for the hatred and tyranny of the gods can be far more powerful than that of mere mortals. I have lured Tymora here with the information that Xvim has abducted one of Tymora's favorites, the bird woman Jasmine, and plans to give her to Beshaba. Tymora is so enraged that she fully intends to destroy Beshaba. I think Lord Xvim would be most pleased if the death were to take place in his holy tower.'
Perr's jaw dropped, and he remained speechless for several moments. Joel did not spoil the mood by breaking the silence. He waited patiently for Perr to react. Finally the petitioner said, 'It is dangerous… but so brilliant.' There was admiration in the look he gave Joel.
'I haven't much more time to waste,' the bard said. 'It doesn't really matter whether you open the gate or not, because Tymora can tear it in half as easily as Beshaba did. I am telling you this only to test your loyalties. Tymora will come disguised as a priestess of Beshaba, because she believes Beshaba is in league with Xvim and that we will admit a priestess to attend her mistress. If we fail to admit her, she will admit herself, and her army of tanar'ri will attack the yugoloths until she reaches Beshaba. The tyrannars know nothing of my plan.' 'But Hatemaster Morr does?' Perr asked.
'Hatemaster Morr is dead,' Joel replied, 'though his body has not yet been discovered.'
'Is that why you go shaven and pierced as Hatemaster Morr does-did? To imitate him?' Perr asked.
'It is satisfying to learn that death has not dulled your keen mind,' Joel replied. 'I have noticed that the yugoloths have nearly as much trouble distinguishing one human from another as we do telling the yugoloths apart. They recognize Hatemaster Morr's naked head and lip ring rather than his features.'
'So you will give me the signal to open the gate. If I do, how will I be rewarded?' Perr asked, obviously excited. He was breathing more quickly now.
'That will depend on how Lord Xvim rewards me. Though I wear the robes of a hatemaster to imitate Hate-master Morr, I am actually a ruinlord. I believe Lord Xvim will raise me to the rank of a tyrannar. I will then ask that you not only be restored to the rank and power of a hate-master, but to the rank and power you should have attained had Tyrannar Neri not foiled your last mission. I will ask Lord Xvim to make you a ruinlord. Although you are a petitioner, he can grant you such power. That is, of course, assuming you have not yet by then merged with Lord Xvim. This scheme might be the chance you await. What greater tyranny can a mortal attain than to aid in the destruction of a god? What greater hatred can he show than betraying commanders who are actually his inferiors?'
Perr flicked his right hand backward at the wrist. 'That is the signal Hatemaster Morr gives to open the gate,' he said.
Joel imitated the signal. 'Darkness falls,' he intoned solemnly, imitating the greetings he had heard exchanged by other priests of Xvim.
'And darkness rises again,' Perr responded.
Once Joel had crawled out of the gatekeeper's suffocating quarters, he began to shiver despite the warmth of the Gehennan air. He had the uncomfortable feeling he had been transformed into a priest of the god Cyric, Prince of Lies. He pressed his hand against the finders stone inside his shirt and was comforted by its warmth. Finder was still with him.
The yugoloth he'd spoken to earlier was staring at him. He stared back, debating whether or not to try to convince these creatures not to defend the fortress when the tanar'ri attack came. In the end, he decided not to try. It would be far more complicated than it had been to convince Perr to open the gate. The yugoloths would take their orders from a higher-ranking yugoloth, and Joel had no way of knowing which one that would be. Without actually lying, he had already suggested to them that Tymora was coming. Considering what had happened to their fellows when Beshaba had arrived, that deception might keep them from attacking Walinda, providing this yugoloth spread the rumor that Tymora was expected.
Joel knew better than to repeat the lie, though. It would look manipulative. Either the yugoloths gossiped or they didn't.
He strode off down the wall until he turned a corner. There were more yugoloth guards up ahead. He noticed another trapdoor at his feet. He opened it without a trace of furtiveness. The ladder leading down into the darkness below was scaled for a large yugoloth, but Joel managed to make his way down it without breaking his neck.
Joel pulled out the finder's stone. By its light, he could see that he was in a room with a window looking out over the courtyard. The room was empty save for him, a table and a chair, and a dead yugoloth, one of the short, lobster-like ones. It lay on its back, its carapace sliced down the center from its head to the bottom of its tail. Its entrails had been pulled out and stomped on.
From somewhere in the walls, Joel caught the muffled sounds of a battle with swords. He stood at the window and thought of Jas. The finder's stone sent a beacon of light up to another part of the wall. Joel hoped Jas
