and for any inconvenience, of course.'
'Indeed,' the bariaur replied, as if there was nothing very unusual in the man's request. 'Why?'
'It's a long story,' Joel said.
The bariaur's eyes lit up. 'Long stories are my specialty.'
Surprisingly, they came to an agreement rather quickly after that. Bits consented to the excavation, provided they paid him a sizable sum of gold and related to him the story behind why they were digging in his basement.
'Why does he need to know the story?' Walinda asked suspiciously. 'What difference does it make to him?'
'He's a bookseller,' Holly said with a sigh of exasperation. 'He probably writes books, too. A good hero's tale is worth a lot of money in Sigil. The populace eats them up, so to speak.'
The bariaur led the group down an iron staircase. Jedidiah pulled out a light stone to reveal an empty, windowless basement with walls of fitted stone and a dirt floor. The finder's stone beacon pointed toward the base of the back wall. Just above the beacon was a black granite archway sealed with mortared red brick.
'I don't come down here often,' Bits declared. 'It's too damp to store books. Tried renting it to some Anarchists, but they said it was haunted and moved out. Never saw a ghost myself, though I sat here for a few nights waiting for one. Very disappointing.'
'We'll need some tools to break through this wall,' Jedidiah said.
'I can arrange that,' Holly said.
'I will go with you,' Walinda added.
'That's all right. I don't need any help,' the paladin replied.
'But I need to be sure you are not mustering your hedonist friends to attack us and steal the Hand of Bane for yourself,' Walinda retorted.
'Fine,' Jedidiah said. 'Go. Joel, you can start paying this man by telling him our story.'
'What will you be doing?' Joel asked.
'Thinking,' the older man replied.
Holly, Walinda, Joel, and Dits climbed back up to the ground-floor level. After Walinda and Holly left the shop, the bariaur led Joel into a back room. The shopkeeper settled himself in a nest of pillows in front of a low writing desk, lifted a quill pen, and poised it over a huge roll of parchment. 'Whenever you're ready,' he said.
Joel began his tale in Berdusk, explaining how he'd met and become friends with Jedidiah, how he'd become a priest of Finder, and how he'd started out on his pilgrimage to the Lost Vale. He ended with his arrival in Sigil, his reunion with Holly, and their tracking of the Hand of Bane to Dits's basement.
Dits recorded Joel's story word for word, with an amazingly quick hand and in a fluid script. When he'd caught up with Joel's last words, he stopped and sat back. 'There's something missing,' Dits said. 'Something you're not telling me. I can sense these things.'
Joel started. He had, of course, deliberately left out the secret of Jedidiah's true identity and how the half of the finder's stone he now held possessed all the god's remaining powers.
'There are things I can't talk about,' the young bard admitted.
'But the story isn't true without them,' Dits objected in an annoyed tone. 'And it's not finished, either.'
'Not yet,' Joel agreed.
The bariaur set down his quill and removed his eyeglasses. He bit down on the wire rims encircling the lenses. 'I must have all the facts, including the ending,' he insisted. 'You'll have to come back and tell me what happens to you in the astral plane. You must also tell me what's missing.'
Joel thought for a moment. Once they'd taken care of their business with the banelich, Finder's identity would no longer be at risk. The god would once again possess all his powers. 'When I get back from the astral plane, I'll tell you what I've left out,' he promised Dits.
'Ah. Time-sensitive material. I understand,' the bariaur said. 'Don't die on me,' he said as he blotted the ink on his scroll dry. The parchment he rolled into two halves, the part that held Joel's story and the part that would hold the story's ending and Jedidiah's secret. 'Please try to come back alive. I hate it when I have to change narrative voice in the middle of a manuscript. It's very disruptive.'
Joel shuddered. It was certainly possible that he might die, he realized. They would have to contend with the banelich in the astral plane. And the banelich wasn't his only worry. Some other fearsome monster must protect the Hand of Bane. Jedidiah might die, too. The bard tried to mentally shake the notion from his head.
The sharp slam of the shop's front door brought Joel and Dits to their feet. Walinda was shouting his name. Her voice sounded terrified.
Jedidiah came running up the steps as Joel and Dits arrived in the front room. Walinda stood at the counter, bent over, gasping for air. She dropped a huge sledgehammer on the floor.
'What's wrong?' Joel asked.
'We were attacked,' the priestess said without looking up.
'Who attacked you?' Jedidiah demanded.
Walinda shook her head. 'I don't know,' she gasped. 'It happened in a dark street. Something fell on me from above and clawed at my throat. Holly hit it with her pickax, and it turned on her. I ran here.'
'You left Holly behind in the street?' Joel said angrily.
'There was nothing I could do,' Walinda protested. 'I have no spells.'
'You could have hit whatever it was with this sledgehammer,' Joel growled, kicking at the tool she'd dropped at her feet.
'It's too heavy to wield accurately. Whatever attacked us was fast and huge. There may have been more than one. It was too dark to tell. I ran all the way here for help,' Walinda shouted back.
'Show us where,' Jedidiah said grimly. 'We'll be back,' he told Bits.
The priestess led them to a dark spot in a narrow lane several blocks from the bookshop.
There was no one around. Jedidiah bent over and retrieved a large pickax that lay in the street, the only indication that Holly had ever been there.
'It's taken her!' Joel exclaimed.
'Use the stone,' Jedidiah said calmly.
Joel nodded. He pulled out the finder's stone and thought of the paladin. The beacon shone in the direction of the ward where the Sensate safe house was located.
'She's still alive,' Jedidiah declared.
They followed the beacon. It led them right to the Sensate safe house.
Joel dashed inside, shouting the paladin's name.
Holly lay on the white carpet, staining the wool red with her blood. Bors knelt beside her, sewing closed a great gash in the girl's stomach. He used a glowing golden needle that, although unthreaded, left a trace of golden stitches in Holly's flesh. It was a magic Joel had never seen before. Some sort of magic from Sigil, or perhaps from Bors's homeworld, Joel guessed.
The three waited anxiously for the Sensate paladin to finish. When he looked up, Jedidiah asked, 'What happened?
'I heard Holly scream,' Bors said. 'I saw this one run off' He pointed at Walinda. 'Then I found Holly in the street, left for dead.'
'You were following us,' Walinda declared in an accusatory tone.
'Lucky I was,' Bors replied coldly.
'Did you see what attacked them?' Joel asked.
Bors shook his head.
Joel gave the priestess of Bane a suspicious glare.
Sensing what the bard must be thinking, Walinda went on the defensive. 'It was not I,' she declared. 'Look.' She showed them claw marks streaking her throat and arms. 'Besides, if I had attacked her, I would not have left the job half finished. Use your power to heal her and she will tell you so herself. Perhaps she got a better look at whatever it was.'
'We can't heal her,' Jedidiah explained. 'Finder's power doesn't appear to extend to this place.'
Walinda sniffed haughtily. 'I told you he was a petty god,' she said to Joel.
'At least he's not a dead god,' Joel barked back.
