'What did you do to him?' Joel demanded. He fled from my attack with his magic, the marilith answered telepathically.
Walinda leaned forward on the magic carpet. 'Is that you, Poppin?' she asked with astonishment.
'Of course it's Joel,' Holly snapped. 'He's the only person here not radiating evil.'
'I am impressed, priest of Finder,' the priestess said. 'I had no idea you would prove such a talented saboteur. You have ensured our victory.'
'And you may have just thrown it away,' Joel retorted sharply. 'You still have to win your way to Beshaba. We might have reached her with stealth, but now that you've attacked one of the guards, we may not be able to avoid a fight.'
Even as the bard spoke, the giant yugoloths in the courtyard surged toward the intruders.
'So there will be a fight,' Walinda said. 'That is what we have armies for.'
The yugoloths stopped about a hundred feet away from the wall, and it soon became clear that they were blocked by invisible bar-lgura. The larger yugoloths apparently had no trouble seeing the shorter apelike tanar'ri, invisible or not, and engaged them in combat. As the bar-lgura began to fight back, they broke the spell of invisibility that surrounded them. Then Joel was able to see what had so alarmed the yugoloth who'd tried to warn him. Hordes of tanar'ri surrounded Walinda.
The marilith raised a horn to her lips and sounded a call to battle. Moments later the minotaurlike bulezau, in all their horrifying visibility, began streaming through the gates, flanking outward along the wall, territory which the bar-lgura had claimed for them. Several of the bulezau carried magic killers. As the iron latticework spheres passed near the invisible bar-lgura, they became visible again.
Joel looked toward the temple, but so far there was no sign that the priests of Xvim had chosen to leave their refuge to investigate either the explosion or the sounds of battle that they surely must have heard.
'Beshaba is on the first floor of that tower,' Joel told the others. 'If we hurry, we might still make it to the roof and down the stairs before it occurs to the yugoloths to block our access to your goddess.'
Suddenly a shower of spears hailed down upon them from the bastion wall. Several struck the bulezau and the bar-lgura near the wall. One spear bounced off Holly's shoulder plate. Another struck Joel in the leg, just above his knee.
The bard cried out and fell forward.
'Get him on the carpet,' Walinda ordered.
Invisible bar-lgura hands lifted the bard into the air and laid him on the magic carpet beside the evil priestess.
Joel ignored the fiery pain and called out to Holly to get on the carpet, too.
At that moment, a column of fire shot down from the sky and struck the paladin.
'Carpet, up fifty feet,' Walinda commanded.
'No!' Joel shouted as the carpet began rising above the battle, leaving Holly on the ground. 'Carpet, go down,' he ordered.
'Silence him!' Walinda snapped.
Large, hairy arms belonging to an invisible bar-lgura grabbed the bard from behind and covered his mouth. As Joel struggled, the bar-lgura's invisibility dispelled, but the bard was unable to break from the apelike fiend's grasp.
'Carpet, go up another fifty feet,' Walinda ordered. 'Don't be foolish, Poppin,' she said to Joel. 'The paladin's holiness makes her a natural target. We cannot afford to keep her beside us.'
Then Joel spotted Jas swooping down toward Holly, and he ceased his struggles. He turned to glare at the priestess as she directed the flying carpet up to the roof of the tower.
The marilith and her two hezrou lieutenants had used their power to teleport to the roof. By the time Joel and Walinda arrived, they already stood beside the parapet surrounding the roof. The toadlike hezrou were sniffing at the air as the snake-woman looked with a critical eye at the ground far below. Walinda settled the carpet just behind where the marilith stood. At a signal from the priestess, the bar-lgura released Joel. The apelike tanar'ri rolled off the carpet and began sniffing the air as well.
Walinda pulled the spear from Joel's leg, laid her hands on the bard's wound, and began a healing chant. Unlike the warmth of Holly's healing touch, Walinda's spell sent icy fire shooting through Joel's flesh. It stanched the blood and eased the pain, but it left the bard shivering and feeling numb with cold.
The priestess and the bard stood and joined the marilith at the parapet. Joel searched without success for any sign of Jas and Holly, although he did spot one of the giant frog hydroloths teleporting into the air and gliding down toward the bulezau who held the gate.
The marilith pointed toward several yugoloths who were massing at the front door of the tower nearly a hundred feet below. The yugoloths were pointing upward. They had spotted the carpet and were undoubtedly debating whether or not they should enter the tower from below to keep the adventurers from reaching the prisoner inside.
The marilith hissed and spat. A great, billowing yellowish green cloud appeared just beneath the top of the tower, blocking their view of the ground below. From the stench, Joel realized the vapor must be poisonous. The cloud slid down along the wall of the tower like a slithering creature. It sank to the ground, covering the hordes of yugoloths at the tower's front door.
Suddenly the bar-lgura standing beside them gave a horrible cry and fell to the ground. Four spears were buried in the creature's back.
Walinda, Joel, and the marilith spun about. One small lobsterlike yugoloth and six giant cricket companions stood on the roof between them and the trapdoor leading into the tower. More yugoloths of varying sizes quickly joined them.
The marilith drew out six ornate swords and engaged in battle with the front line of yugoloths, her tail lashing at those her arms couldn't reach. The hezrou, armed with spears, took up the fight on their mistress's flanks.
Jas landed on the roof, carrying Holly. The paladin's armor was scorched, and there was a coating of ash on her skin and hair. Despite the column of flame that had struck her, she was not only conscious but able to stand, much to Joel's relief.
'Are you all right?' the bard asked.
'Just fine,' Holly growled through clenched teeth. She drew her sword and proceeded to engage the yugoloths in combat.
Then the bard remembered that Holly, too, had a ring of fire resistance.
Jas drew her weapon and took up a stance next to Holly.
The marilith struck at a yugoloth, and the giant cricket creature disappeared. At almost the same instant, Holly hit one of the giant cricket fiends, and it, too, vanished. Both had been illusions. The marilith and the hezrou struck two more yugoloths, but these yugoloths were real and did not disappear.
'They've mirror-imaged themselves,' Walinda noted with annoyance. 'They can continue to do so over and over again.'
'And in the meantime, more can teleport up here,' Joel pointed out. 'But remember, you didn't mind a fight, as long as it was between your pawns and Xvim's pawns,' he accused the priestess.
Walinda smiled coldly. 'This is a minor problem, Pop-pin,' she said. 'Carpet, up twelve feet,' she said.
Joel rolled from the carpet before the priestess was able to drag him away from his friends a second time.
Walinda hovered over the combat and called out,' Yugoloths, hear me!' The priestess's voice was deep and booming. 'I will offer one hundred gold pieces to each warrior who serves me for the next hour.'
All the yugoloths looked up at the priestess. The yugoloths in the front line stepped away from Holly, Jas, and the marilith.
One of the shorter yugoloths stepped forward and looked up at Walinda. The creature must have addressed the priestess telepathically, for Walinda nodded and said, 'Done.'
With a gesture from the priestess, a brass chest appeared at the small yugoloth's feet. The yugoloth opened the chest. It was filled to the brim with gold coins. 'You will allow us to enter the tower, then you will guard the door behind us and keep any others from following us for one hour,' Walinda said.
The yugoloth drew back from the trapdoor.
