Holly sighed. There was no sense following them. Jedidiah had been right. She'd never keep up with the spelljammer. She was almost ready to wish she hadn't remained silent about Jas and the holy water. 'If only there was another way to follow them,' she muttered.
'Well, actually, there is,' a melodious voice called out from behind her.
Holly jumped and wheeled about. Perched on the top of the dune was a large bird. As she watched, the bird spread its tail feathers in a magnificent display of yellow, crimson, and magenta. It was a ruby peacock, Lathander's bird.
Holly felt a great blast of hot wind, just as she had in her last two visions. She dropped to one knee and bowed her head.
'I bring word for you from Lathander,' the bird chirped. 'He is most pleased with your actions in his name. You've done as well as can be expected for someone with your limitations. Lathander has chosen to reward your efforts with a chance to serve him further.'
'I live to serve,' Holly whispered modestly.
'The Hand of Bane is in Sigil. You must go there and find it.'
'I don't know the way,' Holly said.
The peacock's tail began to glow brightly and grew as hot as the sun. The tail flared and became an arched doorway. A red light, like the setting sun, glowed in the archway.
'Take this door to Sigil,' the peacock's voice commanded.
Holly looked back at the tarp shelter where Jas rested. 'But my friend is wounded. I have to wait for help so she'll be safe,' the paladin explained.
'Come now, Holly Harrowslough,' the bird said softly. 'Your god needs your services. Do you deny your god?'
'I need to make sure my friend is all right,' the paladin said.
'I will watch over her,' the bird's voice offered, 'even though she does not follow our master. I will make sure she awakes safely.'
'Thank you,' Holly said. She climbed to the top of the dune, took a deep breath, and plunged into the crimson portal.
The doorway flashed gold, then transformed back into a ruby peacock. The large bird shrank until it was the size and shape of a cardinal, then hopped up to the edge of the tarp to watch over Jas's inert form.
Shortly after dark, the winged woman stirred, called out Holly's name, and sat up. She blinked in the darkness, then lay back down to sleep again.
Having fulfilled the letter of its promise, the bird flew off toward the east. It passed over a group of human riders, dressed in black armor, whose leader wore the green and black of Iyachtu Xvim. The riders were heading west toward Cat's Gate. At the speed they traveled, they would reach the gate before dawn.
Thirteen
As the spelljammer passed through the gate into the lands beyond, Joel felt a jolt to his equilibrium. The ship's bow pitched upward, as if it had encountered a wave at sea. As the ship shot up into the sky, Joel fell backward and slid back into the cabin. Jedidiah, who had managed to grab the ship's rail, cried out, 'Level her out!'
The ship's bow came down, pitched forward slightly, then leveled off again. Joel pulled himself shakily to his feet and made his way back to Jedidiah's side, clinging to the rail like a seasick novice. The tusk throne in which Walinda sat must have been fastened to the deck, for it remained upright. The priestess clung to the chair's armrests, looking startled. 'What was that?' Joel asked. Jedidiah pointed back toward the magical gate. While it had been perfectly perpendicular to the ground back in the desert, here it had tilted backward forty-five degrees, so they had entered the Outlands at a steep angle in relation to the earth.
'That explains the sand,' Jedidiah muttered.
'What?' Joel asked.
'The sand burying the gate back in the desert,' the older priest explained. 'It should have spilled out onto this side of the gate, blocking our entrance into this plane, but the way the gate is tilted on this side, any sand that passes through it falls right back to the other side.'
'How did the gate get tipped like that?' Joel wondered.
'Judging from the land about us,' Jedidiah replied, 'I'd say it's the natural state of things.'
Joel surveyed the world he'd just entered. 'The natural state of things' seemed to be quite unnatural. It was as if some god had strewn the geographical features about at random. Tall, spindly mountains rose from perfectly level plains without a hint of a foothill about them. A stone ledge, wider than the base of the peak it surrounded, jutted out like a shelf mushroom on a tree. Several peaks bent over and downward, like trees growing on a windy slope. Rivers originating from nowhere meandered about and ended without outlet; one stream even circled back on itself. Lakes dotted mountain plateaus. A swamp grew out of a hillside. Fields had been tilled in serpentine squiggles. Trees were planted to spell out entire lines of unknown script.
The colors of the land were unusual as well-pale and indistinct. When Joel focused on any one feature of the landscape, its color seemed to blur with the background.
'Painted by a mad and myopic god with a muddy palette,' Jedidiah joked. 'Or maybe it's just faded from a thousand too many launderings, eh?'
Walinda, who had joined the priests at the railing, soon turned away, looking disturbed. 'It's horrible,' she said.
'It's not that bad,' Joel replied.
'There is no order, no reason,' Walinda insisted.
'But it's so interesting, so… wild,' Joel argued.
'Forget it, Joel,' Jedidiah said. 'You'll never get a Banite to appreciate the beauty of chaos.'
'It's a beautiful sky,' Joel pointed out to the priestess. 'Bright and blue.'
'There's no sun,' Walinda said. 'It's broad daylight, yet there is no sun.'
Joel searched the sky and the horizon carefully. Far off in the distance, a great brown spire rose from the horizon, reaching so far into the sky that clouds obscured its summit. But Walinda was right. There was no sun.
'Well, the air is good,' Joel said. Indeed the air felt fresh, as if it had just been created and never breathed before by any other living creature. It made his skin tingle. At first he thought he was just noting the different between the hot, dry air of the desert and the cool, moist air of the Outlands, but the sensation persisted. There was a vitality to this plane he could sense.
Walinda shrugged, indifferent to the air. 'My lord Bane said there are gods who make their homes here. Why would they choose such a place?' she asked.
'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' Jedidiah said. winking at Joel. 'In this case, the beholder would be Gzemnid, god of the eye tyrants. He makes his home in this plane. Judging from the chaotic landscape, I'd guess we're not too far from his realm. Other parts of this plane are very different. All the outer planes have at least one gate leading to the Outlands. The area surrounding each gate takes on characteristics of the plane to which it leads. For instance, in the far-off city of Rigus, there's a gate to Acheron, where your lord Bane made his home before he became a corpse floating in the astral plane. Everyone in Rigus has a rank: slave soldier, citizen, private, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, general. You'd feel right at home.'
The ship drifted downward, settling in a rocky field where the ground was ridged and uneven, like a frozen, choppy sea.
The banelich came out of the cabin and walked toward the bow. It stopped at the railing and flung one skeletal arm in the direction of the great spire that rose beyond the horizon. 'Lo!' it bellowed.
'Hello, yourself,' Jedidiah replied with a grin.
The banelich ignored the taunt. 'There,' the creature announced, 'is our goal. Upon that peak rests the city
