'Are you all right?' Joel asked.
Jedidiah shrugged. 'I don't know. It seems to me I had an idea, a plan, but I don't remember it now. I forgot it before I took note of it, if you get my drift.'
Joel nodded. 'I do that all the time,' he said.
'But you're not a god.'
'Oh. Do you think Ilsensine stole it?' Joel asked.
Jedidiah's head twitched again. Then he shrugged. 'I just don't remember. It's like a tickle in my brain.' He sighed.
'Was it some way to get back the finder's stone without giving up the Hand of Bane?' Joel asked hopefully.
'There's an awful thought.'
A small green ball of light zipped across the bridge and hovered before Jedidiah's face-Shishi, Joel supposed. The spirit reminded him a little of the firestars of Daggerdale.
'Chief Stellar Operator Pan Ho will take a bribe for a one-time use of the portal to Sigil,' said the lion-dog spirit. 'I would suggest something green. We should visit Pan Ho immediately. She's going to lunch within the hour and will be gone for a week.'
Jedidiah bent over and plucked a newly blossomed gardenia from a bush. 'Lead on, O wise Shishi.'
Shishi went zipping back across the bridge, through the garden, and up the staircase. It waited patiently at the top of the steps for Jedidiah and Joel to catch up.
'That spirit is four hundred years my senior, and it still leaves me eating its dust,' Jedidiah grumbled.
Miss Pan Ho was a grumpy dumpling of a woman who eyed Jedidiah with some distrust until he presented her with the gardenia 'to brighten the efficient austerity of her office.' A small but flawless emerald shimmered in the heart of the flower. Miss Pan Ho sniffed at the flower with a smile on her face. After pocketing the blossom, she rummaged through a drawer filled with keys and drew out a large one made of lead. She handed it to Jedidiah. There was a tiny slip of paper attached to the key, printed with symbols in the Kara-Tur language.
Then Miss Pan Ho locked her drawers and left the room. Throughout the entire exchange, she never said a word
The paper attached to the lead key, Jedidiah explained, instructed the holder of the key that Door Number of the Hall of Confused Dreams was to be locked when people left at noon to eat and rest. The opposite side explained that if anyone found the key it should be slid under the door of Room of the Hall of Confused Dreams.
'So we're supposed to use the key when no one's there and leave it in the room?' Joel guessed.
'Very good,' Jedidiah replied. 'A little practice and you could master the fine art of bribery, Kara-Tur style. I'll spend the evening with Shishi, then we'll leave for Sigil in the morning.'
With Shishi riding on Jedidiah's shoulder, Joel and Jedidiah returned to where Walinda waited. If the lines had moved, it wasn't by more than three feet. Walinda glared all around her with annoyance.
Jedidiah sauntered up to the priestess. 'You won't need to wait anymore. I obtained access to the portal from a friend.'
'Good,' Walinda replied, stepping out of the line.
Almost instantly the line moved up ten feet.
The three adventurers followed Shishi back to his garden.
The old woman who'd served them tea brought them a dinner of fish, pickled cabbage, and something Jedidiah called noodle soup.
After they'd eaten, Shishi assigned them each a tiny room overlooking his garden. Each room held a woven straw mat with blankets, a wooden pillow, a silk robe, and a low writing table.
Jedidiah announced that he was going off with Shishi to 'sing for their supper.' Joel offered to accompany him, but Jedidiah suggested quietly that the young bard remain behind in case Walinda needed company.
Joel thought that highly unlikely, since the priestess had remained completely silent throughout the meal, but the young bard nodded in agreement. Immediately after Jedidiah and Shishi left, Walinda retired to her room to rest.
Joel enjoyed the solitude of the garden. With the banelich in another plane, all his worries seemed far away. He tried to compose something on his birdpipes that expressed the harmony he felt in this place of the dead, but jarring notes continued to block the melody. In his head, he knew that this was just the calm before the storm. Sooner than he wished, he and Jedidiah would be confronted with the dilemma of the Hand of Bane. He continued to worry about what choice Jedidiah would make.
When darkness fell upon the garden, the bard retired to his room. He left the door open to the perfumed night air and sat down on his mat. He pulled off his tunic and began unbuttoning his shirt. He wasn't yet tired enough to sleep, but there was nothing else for him to do. He felt suddenly very lonely.
Someone rapped lightly on the wooden frame of his open door. Joel looked up. Walinda stood there, looking as aimless as he felt. She wore nothing but the red silk robe she'd found in her room. She had shed her haughty expression with her armor, and only her facial tattoos and the gem in her forehead served as a reminder of her tyrannical beliefs.
'Do you wish to be alone?' she asked.
'Not really,' Joel said with a smile, although the priestess wouldn't have been his first choice of company. 'Come on in.'
The priestess of Bane slid gracefully into the room. She carried a pottery flask with two small china cups. She set them down on the table and then sat down beside Joel on the mat. She settled to the floor with a little less grace, almost a fall. Joel pulled away a few inches. 'What's this?' he asked, nodding at the flask.
'Something to drink,' Walinda explained. 'It's quite good. Try some.'
Joel leaned over and poured a little of the beverage into one of the cups. The liquid was clear and very warm. He brought it up to his lips and sniffed. There was a strong odor of alcohol. He sipped the drink. It was strong and a little acrid.
'Where'd you get this?' the young bard asked.
'The old slave brought it for me,' Walinda said. She leaned over and poured herself a full cup.
Joel wondered if Walinda had somehow asked for the drink, or if the servant woman had brought it of her own volition. Of course, there was also the possibility that Jedidiah had recommended to Shishi that it be provided to the priestess.
Walinda held up her cup. 'What shall we drink to?' she asked.
Joel thought for a moment. They still didn't have much in common. 'To Shishi's hospitality,' he suggested.
Walinda nodded and took a drink from her cup. She closed her eyes and exhaled.
Joel took another cautious sip. The beverage was far stronger than anything he was used to drinking.
'What song were you playing in the garden?' Walinda asked.
'I was just trying to compose something. The melody wouldn't come out right.'
'Tour god is not with you tonight,' Walinda said with a knowing nod, leaving her head hanging down so that she stared into her cup.
'You might say that,' Joel replied, trying to hide his grin.
The priestess was oblivious to the bard's amusement. 'It is worse for me. I have been with Bane, and now his absence is like a rent in my heart.'
'I didn't know you could miss abuse,' Joel said caustically.
'Bane is the embodiment of power, of strength. For him to allow any to question his authority would be a demonstration of weakness. The feel of his power is like this drink, sharp and strong. When he shared his power with me, I was happy. Now that he is in another plane, cannot call on him for power.'
'You can't cast any spells unless he's near?' Joel asked.
'He is strong, but he is only the essence of the god,' Walinda explained. 'He cannot send his power across the astral void.'
'He doesn't know half of what Jedidiah knows about anything. He's just a banelich using you for his own mad schemes.'
Walinda set her hand down on Joel's knee and leaned in closer to the young bard. 'My lord Bane said you
