to do anything else. It was a look that made Holly sad.
Jas held out her hand. 'Pleased to meet you, Holly. You from around these parts?'
Holly grasped the woman's wrist in the fashion of dalesfolk, noting the sinewy, tough muscles in her right arm. The winged woman's arm twitched slightly in surprise, but then she responded by grasping Holly's wrist.
'I'm from Daggerdale,' the paladin replied. 'That's just south of here. Joel's from Berdusk.'
'Joel?' Jas asked with a raised eyebrow.
'We were abducted together. He's a priest of Finder.'
'Finder? That's one I've never heard of,' Jas said.
'He's a new god. He was a bard who destroyed Moander and took the Darkbringer's power. His people are supposed to be renewing art, encouraging it to grow and change.'
'Dandy,' Jas said as she examined the cell door. 'Drawbolt and crossbar. Simple and effective,' she muttered. She gave the bars of the door an angry shake. “I guess a pickable lock would be too much to expect from groundlings. So who's this Cynic guy the Banites talked about?' she asked Holly.
'Cyric,' Holly corrected. 'He took Bane's position when Torm killed Bane. Then Cyric went mad. That's when Bane's son Iyachtu Xvim seized Bane's power. That's who they're going to sacrifice us to-Iyachtu Xvim.'
Jas began sweeping her hands over the rough walls of the cell, giving experimental shoves every few feet. 'I leave for a few years and the whole pantheon changes,' she muttered. 'Are you sure Bane's dead? That priestess witch seemed pretty sure of herself. I know she was casting spells. It took plenty of magic to bring down my crew.' Her eyes burned with anger at the memory.
'It must have been some trick,' Holly insisted 'Everyone knows Bane is dead. What happened to your crew?'
'They're all dead. After that Bane bitch stole my ship, she tortured them to death. Johenri, Thordis, Gildstar, and my first mate, Arandes. Arandes lasted for six days. He was a tough old giff. They stripped off his skin and used him for a figurehead until his heart finally let go.” Jas stopped her exploration and leaned her forehead against the wall. Holly could tell from the way her back shook that the winged woman was stifling her sobs.
'We found your friend's body,' Holly said softly. 'The dalesfolk gave him a proper burial.'
Jas didn't reply, but she returned to examining the walls, only now her shoves on the stone were more forceful.
'So that floating ship was yours?' Holly asked.
'Floating ship? You mean the nautiloid. It doesn't just float. It can fly. It can sail the phlogiston between the spheres, something, fortunately, that the groundling thieves who stole it can't comprehend. Yes, the nautiloid's mine. I took it from the illithids.'
'Illithids?' Holly asked.
'I believe you groundlings call them mind flayers,' Jas said.
'The creatures that devour people's brains?' Holly asked.
Jas nodded. 'The illithids destroyed the hull of my dragonfly ship, so my crew and I took one of the illithids' miniature nautiloid hulls as payment. The illithids weren't keen on making reparations, though, so they fired on us as we were leaving. That's why the ship's hull is so busted up. It's still spaceworthy, though. We landed here to take on supplies.' Having finished examining the walls to no effect, Jas dusted off her hands.
'We were headed for Shadowdale,' Jas continued, 'but just over the Spiderhaunt Woods, something attacked Gildstar while he was at the helm. The ship came crashing down in the trees. That's when we got into a fight with the Banites. Like I said, that priestess used magic to bring us down. There was also something else with her-something powerful and evil that kept to the shadows.'
Holly was reminded of the evil she'd sensed in Daggerdale when the nautiloid ship had floated past her.
'Well, I can't find a way out of this cell,' Jas announced. 'I hope you've got some ideas. Otherwise we're going to be food for this baby god of Bane's.'
'Iyachtu Xvim.' Holly supplied the name.
'Sounds like the noise Arandes made when he was clearing his throat,' Jas commented scornfully, without a trace of humor. 'So do you have some way out of here with your dawn-god powers?'
'I have a plan,' Holly explained, 'but if it works, I still have to search for Joel.'
'All right,' Jas said, 'but if it takes too long, I'm blowing this mud ball without you.'
'Fine,' Holly agreed. Jas, she suspected, would not run from a fight, but she was the sort to get antsy if the search lasted the whole night.
It took Holly five minutes of shrieking and frantic shaking of the bars before one of the cultists came to the cell door.
'She's not moving,' Holly cried hysterically, waving at the cloak-covered figure lying in the straw. 'She puked up all this black stuff, and now she's not moving.'
The cultist, obviously roused from a solid sleep, stared wordlessly into the cell. The paladin spent another three minutes of desperate weeping and terror-filled shouting before the guard turned and left the cell door. Holly screamed after him until he returned with two more cultists. All three were armed with drawn swords.
Holly gave an inward sigh of relief. It was unfortunate that the cultist was cautious enough to go for reinforcements, but at least he wasn't about to risk the displeasure of the Xvimist by letting their chosen sacrifice die unattended.
Motioning with his sword, one cultist ordered Holly, 'Stay back.'
The paladin backed into the rear left corner of the cell, trying to appear as unthreatening as possible. The cultists unlocked and opened the barred door. One of them stood in the doorway, yawning, while the other two stepped into the cell. One stepped up to Holly with his sword pointed at her chest. The other approached the pile of straw and poked at the caped figure with his sword When there was no response, he kicked at the figure.
'What the-' he growled, reaching down and yanking Jas's cloak from the straw. 'There's nobody here!' he shouted.
The cultist guarding Holly turned his head, and in that moment, Holly lunged forward. With both hands, she grabbed at his wrist, forcing his blade out and downward, then slammed her right foot into the inside of his right knee. With a howl, the cultist crashed to the ground.
The cultist at the door moved into the cell with his sword aimed at Holly, not realizing the threat to him came from above. Jas dropped down from the gargoyle-like perch on the ledge above the door and rammed into his head with both feet, sending him reeling into the opposite wall.
The cultist beside the straw wheeled about just in time for Jas to smack him in the head with the water bucket. Before he could recover, the winged woman had closed in, jammed the bucket on his head and kneed him hard in the groin. He didn't put up a struggle as she wrenched the sword from his hand. Jas thrust the blade into his throat, then yanked the weapon back out.
Holly stomped on the wrist of the cultist lying sprawled out before her and began prying his fingers from his sword's hilt. With an animal snarl, the man rolled toward the paladin, grabbed her wrist, and sunk his teeth into her arm.
Holly screamed, but she couldn't kick at him without losing her balance. Jas whirled about. She slid her blade under his neck and sliced upward. The man released his grip on Holly's arm to grab at his throat and gasped for air. Holly yanked her arm back and clutched it to her chest.
Holly eyed the third cultist, who lay unconscious by the wall. As a paladin, she believed that vanquished foes should be spared. As an escaping prisoner, she realized he was an alarm waiting to go off and an evil foe who would have handed her to back to Xvim's people for sacrifice. She watched uneasily as Jas slit his throat, but said nothing.
Jas wiped her blade off on a cultist's leather tunic.
Holly retrieved a weapon for herself, though she had to use it in her left hand. Her right arm was already bruised and swollen around the mark left by the cultist's teeth. One tooth had broken the skin, which might have alarmed Holly, but she knew her god would preserve her from any disease the cultist carried.
After grabbing up her cloak, Jas snapped, 'Let's go!'
Jas took the lead, but since she'd been unconscious when the cultists had brought her to the cell, she had to take directions from Holly. As they moved down the corridor, they were assailed by the sickly sweet stench of decaying flesh. Holly remembered it came from a large room through which her captives had dragged her on the
