"You're most welcome. It is the least I could do for the service you have rendered me," he said.

"What service?" Holly asked.

"Looking after my student here," the old priest said, patting Joel on the back. "Thank you both," he said, nodding to Jas.

"You'll get my bill later," Jas muttered. "Can we leave now?" she asked Joel.

Joel looked at Jedidiah. The old priest smiled but said nothing.

"I guess we should be off, then," the young bard answered.

They left the valley riding the Zhents' horses. The horses without a rider they tied together and led along behind them. Holly looked back on the valley and noted to her satisfaction that the exposed crypt entrance couldn't be seen from the magical stone.

As they rode south through the foothills, Jedidiah entertained Holly and Joel with song after song. The old priest's repertoire seemed infinite. Joel sang along with a few he knew. When Holly asked shyly to be taught some of the songs, Jedidiah undertook the task with pleasure. Joel had always admired Jedidiah's eagerness to teach others, even those without much talent. What the paladin lacked in tone, she made up for with enthusiasm. Jedidiah picked out cheerful songs well suited to the girl's nature. Jas scowled and, declaring she was going to keep a lookout, took to the air.

Toward late afternoon they stopped to rest beside a stream. As Holly splashed in the icy water farther downstream, Joel and Jedidiah filled the waterskins.

"She's quite charming," Jedidiah noted, nodding in the direction of the paladin. "She sings with her whole heart."

Joel nodded in agreement. He looked up, hoping to spot Jas, but the winged woman was nowhere in sight. "I guess Jas doesn't care much for music," he said.

Jedidiah shook his head. "From what you've told me, HI wager she's hoping to spot her ship. A spelljamming helm is too rare to let slip away. Once you've got the wanderlust for the spheres, you don't return happily to being a groundling."

"What kind of helm?" Joel asked.

"Spelljamming," Jedidiah said. "It's what makes her ship fly. Any priest or mage can make it move, using the power of spellcasting. I don't know how she thinks she's going to get it away from your Banite priestess, though."

"She was planning to ask for Elminster's help," Joel explained.

"A priestess of Bane traveling around with a spelljammer… that just might interest the old sage," Jedidiah remarked. "It certainly piques my curiosity."

"So you think we could help her?" Joel asked. "Jas, I mean."

"I think you should finish your pilgrimage to the Lost Vale first, as you promised Finder you would," Jedidiah said. "Jas can wait."

"She's afraid the Banites will figure out how to take it outside the sphere, whatever that means," Joel said, "and strand her here."

"I can't imagine why they'd want to do that. They'd end up little fish in a very big pond. Still, if she's worried about that, why is she still with you? Why doesn't she take off and search for it?"

"She feels she owes Holly for saving her life, so she wants to be sure the paladin gets home safely. Do you think Walinda really does hear Bane's voice?" Joel asked.

"I hope not," Jedidiah replied.

Joel felt a breeze, and Jas landed beside the stream. She had glided down on them as silently as an owl.

"See anything?" Joel asked, half hoping that she hadn't.

Jas shook her head. "I was hoping that once the Bane witch got what she wanted from the Temple in the Sky, she'd head back to the Spiderhaunt Woods-to the village she came from-and I'd be able to spot my ship and find some way to get it away from her. I don't know why I bothered. Now that she's sacrificed most of her village's population, there's no point in her returning there. She could be anywhere by now."

The winged woman rode with the rest of the party until they stopped for the night.

They set up camp in the foothills on a bluff from which they could survey Daggerdale for miles to the north, south, and west. Jas left the horses to graze in a meadow below the bluff while Joel and Jedidiah collected firewood and Holly finished cleaning the pheasants she'd shot that morning. They had just finished their meal of pheasant, berries, and hard black bread from the Zhentilars' saddlebags when a howling rose from the dale to their north.

"Nine hells!" Jas cursed with fury. "We forgot to make sure he was dead this time," she growled at Joel.

"Well, we could hardly dig him out from beneath the rubble just to burn him," Joel argued.

"We don't know it's Bear," Holly said.

"It's him," Jas said. "I'd know that howl anywhere."

"Bear. That's the man the Xvimists transformed into a creature to track you, right?" Jedidiah asked.

"He said he could feel our power wherever our feet touched the earth," Holly explained.

"He also said he would have lost us but for the power of the fourth one traveling with us," Jas added. She glowered angrily at Jedidiah. "That was you, wasn't it? You've been following us."

Joel looked questioningly at the old priest.

Jedidiah looked up sheepishly at the young bard. "It's true. I have been following you since you escaped from the Temple in the Sky," he admitted. "Finder asked me to look after you in case you needed any help."

"Instead of helping us, you've been acting as a beacon," Jas complained.

"I'm sorry," Jedidiah apologized. "I had no idea."

Joel's mind was racing with questions. Why was Finder so protective of him, to the point of troubling the older priest with his safety? Didn't Finder or Jedidiah trust his ability to reach the Lost Vale? Had the pilgrimage to the Lost Vale been a test? Was that why Jedidiah hadn't revealed himself until they'd been pinned in the valley?

"I suppose," Jedidiah said, "it would be best if I left you and led this creature away."

"No!" Joel said suddenly. "You can't risk going off in this wilderness alone."

"In case you hadn't noticed," Jas countered, "he got here alone. According to Bear, he's got a lot of power. He can take care of himself."

"No," Holly said. "If it is Bear, he may easily have found reinforcements. There are plenty of Zhentilar units patrolling the countryside, some commanded by priests of Xvim. It's folly to travel with that sort offeree tracking you without someone to watch your back, no matter how powerful you are. We should stick together. And if you try to sneak off," she added, waving a finger in Jedidiah's face, "we'll have to come after you. So don't even think about it."

Jedidiah smiled sheepishly at the paladin's reprimand. He looked at Joel.

"She's right," the younger bard agreed. He gave Jas a warning glare not to contradict him.

"Well," Jedidiah said, stretching and yawning, "if we're going to be outrunning this dark stalker and Zhent patrols, we'd better get some rest. I'll take that rock over there for a pillow if no one else has claimed it."

Exhausted from flying, Jas begged off from the first watch. Joel and Holly sat together on the bluff, watching the new moon rise.

"Somewhere around here," Holly said, "maybe on this very bluff, Lord Randal's great-great-great-grandfather and his entourage died trying to destroy a tribe of vampires that plagued his people. They killed every last vampire, only to be torn apart by wolves."

"Are there any happy tales in Daggerdale's history?" Joel asked teasingly.

"One day soon there will be," Holly said, but Joel could not get her to say more.

Firestars like those around Anathar's Dell settled around their cookfire, magically absorbing its energy, eventually extinguishing it, but the night was too warm to worry about it. The breeze wafting up from the dale was laden with the perfume of night-blooming flowers. Unfortunately, it also carried the howling up the bluff. The noise was growing closer, but there was no sign of any Zhentilar patrols.