Jas whimpered, despite her tough manner, and her eyes welled with tears. Quickly Holly whispered a prayer to Lathander. The rosy dawn-colored light about her hands buried themselves in the pink feathers, and the cracked bones knit together in a perfectly straight line. With great pleasure, Holly watched pinfeathers grow at a magical rate, filling in the spaces left by the plucked primary and secondary feathers. Without pause, the paladin proceeded to work on the left wing.

The crushed bones were harder to manipulate into place. Jas grunted. Her teeth were clenched so tightly together the muscles in her jawline were twitching from the strain. As soon as she'd healed this set of bones with a second prayer to her god, Holly twisted the wing, gave it a sharp tug, and pushed it back into the socket in Jas's back. A final prayer healed the swelling about the joint.

The winged woman gave a sigh of relief and lay bad down on the straw. She was drenched in sweat, but her suffering was greatly alleviated. She turned her head to look up at the paladin.

"Thanks," she said.

"You're welcome," Holly said with a weak grin. Worry over the woman's agony, combined with her own aches and pains, had nearly exhausted the girl. She leaned back against the cell wall and mopped her dark brow with her sleeve.

Jas sat up again, then stood. Gingerly she began spreading her wings. When no pain manifested itself, the woman flared the wings out to their full span. The pinion feathers grazed the sides of the cell. A breeze ran across the floor and sent straw swirling about the room.

Holly watched with delight. She thought the wings were beautiful. It wasn't until Jas lowered them that the girl focused on the woman herself.

Jas was smaller than Holly and quite slender, but beneath her torn black leather leggings and jerkin, her muscles were as firm as a warrior's. Her short, dark hair framed a pale pink face. A longer strand of bangs curled between her milky brown eyes.

Despite their soft color, there was something hard about Jas's eyes. They reminded Holly of the cold, impassive expressions she'd seen on the faces of the Daggerdale warriors who were tired of fighting but unwilling 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.