and some fell magic extinguished the light from their guide's wand, leaving them in total darkness.
'Hey!' the light boy cried out. 'What's the big idear?'
Joel's first thought was to get the boy out of the way of whatever was undoubtedly preparing to attack. He dashed forward to push the boy to one side, but it wasn't necessary. Joel could hear the urchin's boots slapping on the cobblestones, veering off to the right. The bard crouched low to the ground on the chance that their attacker would aim high.
Jas screamed, then shouted, 'Let go of me!'
Joel heard a sound like a sheet beating in the wind and felt a luff of air. Jas had spread her wings.
Joel drew his sword and murmured a prayer to Finder. His blade flared like a torch. It wasn't as bright as the light boy's wand had been, but it was enough to see what was going on.
They were being attacked by five men. Four were common street thugs, undoubtedly hired just for the purpose of abducting Jas, but the fifth one wore the white and green robes of a priest of the evil god Iyachtu Xvim, Xvim's priests were determined to recapture Jas and enslave her as their dark-stalker slave. One of the thugs, an especially large man, weighted with chains, had grabbed Jas about the middle, making it impossible for her to take to the air. The three remaining thugs, scrawnier than their companion, were dragging forward a large weighted net to throw over the winged woman.
Jas began screaming at the top of her lungs. Wise to the ways of the city, she wasn't crying for help but screaming, 'Fire!' over and over again.
If the priest were brought down, Joel realized, the others might abandon the attack. With his sword raised, the bard moved toward the servant of Xvim.
The priest held his hands out as if to ward off a blow. A dark shadow seeped from the priest's palms; then two whirling black blades of mystic force shot out from his hands. The blades spun toward Joel.
The bard was able to ward off one of the blades with his sword. It sparked against the naked steel and then spun off into the darkness. The second spinning blade sliced Joel's chest and left shoulder, then it, too, spun away. A horrible searing pain gripped Joel's whole left side, but he didn't let it deter him from his attack.
The evil priest raised his hands again, and Joel's sword smashed into the bracer protecting the priest's left wrist.
Joel dropped the tip of his blade and lunged. His sword sliced through the fabric of the priest's robe and stabbed into the priest's inner thigh. Blood gushed from the priest's leg, and he screamed in pain. Before the bard could press his attack, two blades buried themselves in his flesh, one in his back, the other in his right arm, causing the bard to drop his sword.
Joel looked down at the weapon that had struck his arm. It was the same ebony blade that had whirled off into the night. As he watched wide-eyed, it dissolved like the mist. Blood seeped from Joel's arm, staining his sleeve red. At least, Joel thought thankfully, there's no sign of the other blade.
The priest of Xvim unslung a mace from his belt and whirled it over his head, charging toward Joel.
The bard leapt to one side and rolled away.
The priest of Xvim spun about. Keeping his back to a garden wall, his eyes searched for his foe.
Crouching in the shadow of a wall buttress across the street, Joel cast a hasty healing spell to stanch the bleeding from the wounds he'd received from the magical blades. Then he eyed his sword with irritation. It lay in the middle of the street, glowing from the spell he'd cast on its blade. Should he try to retrieve it, the weapon would only serve as a beacon, and he was by no means certain that he would be able to use it to any effect with the injury to his arm. Suddenly he was aware that Jas had stopped screaming. Joel scanned the street for any sign of his friend, but in the darkness, he could spot neither Jas nor her attackers. They'd disappeared into the mist. Emilo was nowhere to be seen. In fact, Joel couldn't remember seeing Emilo at any time during the attack. Was the kender involved in the ambush? he wondered uneasily.
The question was moot at the moment. The priest of Xvim was still a problem. Joel considered casting a spell to heat the metal the priest carried, but he wasn't certain if the foe wore any armor beyond the bracers about his wrists, and the handle of the priest's mace was wooden, Then Joel's eyes fell on the answer.
A thick clump of razorvine climbed up the wall behind the priest of Xvim; its tiny dark leaves glittered in the light cast by Joel's sword. Not only could the bard use it to immobilize his enemy, but also if his enemy fought against it, its razor-sharp stems would do grave injury to any flesh they touched. Joel began whispering a prayer, motioning toward the vine with his fingers.
The vines twisted and writhed, then fell forward, wrapping themselves about the evil priest's throat, his raised mace and arm, and his waist. The priest cried out in surprise and tried to pull away from the wall. Then he began to scream in pain from the lacerations inflicted by the vine's stems.
Joel dashed out from his hiding place and scooped up his sword. In the next moment, he stood before his attacker with his sword pointed at the priest's chest, ordering him, 'Don't move, or the vine will cut through your flesh to your bone. It's called razorvine. You must be new to Sigil, or you would have known not to get anywhere near it. The citizens here grow it to keep thieves out.'
The priest of Xvim glared at Joel. 'You are too late, priest of Finder,' he gloated. 'We have captured the winged woman. My master's servant will come to claim her, and she will be our dark stalker again.'
'Jas!' Joel shouted down the street in the direction he suspected the thugs had dragged his friend. 'Emilo!' His voice echoed back in the fog, but there was no reply from the winged woman or the kender. 'You're going to tell me where they're taking her,' Joel insisted, pressing the point of his sword ever so slightly against the priest's belly.
'Never,' the priest replied.
'What's going on here?' a voice bellowed.
Joel lowered his sword and turned around slowly. Five Hardheads, the city watch, stood behind him. One carried a wand enchanted with a light as bright as the sunshine,
'Officers, this man attacked me,' Joel declared, indicating the blood and scars from the freshly healed wounds on his arm and shoulder. 'His henchmen have just abducted my friend, a woman named Jas. It's imperative that I find her before they smuggle her out of the city, but he refuses to tell me where they have taken her.'
The highest-ranking Hardhead stepped forward. 'Is that right?' he asked the priest of Iyachtu Xvim.
'The woman indentured herself as our servant,' the priest said. 'We are only reclaiming our own.'
That's a lie. She's a free woman,' Joel snapped. 'You have no claim on her.'
'We'll have to sort this out back at headquarters,' the Hardhead leader said. 'Tell us where the woman is,' he ordered the priest, 'so we can determine the truth of your stories.'
'I have no idea,' the priest said.
'He's lying,' Joel growled.
'Mitchel, convince the witness to cooperate,' the Hardhead leader barked.
One of the other Hardheads stepped forward. The priest of Xvim glared disdainfully at the man. The Hardhead began a chant.
The Hardheads, Joel recalled, had special magical ways to make witnesses talk.
'You will never force me to speak!' the priest shouted. 'I will die first!' With the fanaticism of the mad, he lunged forward until the razorvine about his neck sliced through his throat. Blood gushed down his robes, and he collapsed to his knees. He hung against the wall, still trapped by the razorvine.
Joel blanched in horror. Even the Hardheads looked shaken. The one casting the spell stuttered and grew silent. One of the younger Hardheads whispered an oath.
'You'll have to come in with us, sir, and file a statement,' the Hardhead leader said.
'Please,' Joel asked, 'couldn't I search for my friend while the trail's still fresh? I don't think they could have taken her far. They have her wrapped in a net, so they'd have to go to ground nearby or risk being spotted by your patrols.'
The Hardhead leader considered Joel's words briefly, then gave a sharp nod. 'We'll help you. Describe your friend and the men who abducted her,' he ordered.
'She's got short, dark hair, brown eyes, and she stands about this high.' Joel held a hand up to his chin.
'Human, sir?' the Hardhead leader asked.
'Yes,' Joel said, 'but she's been cursed by the priests of this man's god,' he explained, pointing to the priest
