"Remember what I told you," Jedidiah said. "She can understand you just fine even if she can't speak our language."

Joel nodded as he began striding down the path. It curved around the mountain, leading downward.

The peaks of the surrounding mountains were still snow-covered, but the air grew warmer as he descended the peak. The boulders and low-growing junipers gave way to pine and spruce trees. Still farther down, stands of birch and aspen broke the solid line of evergreens. Below him, the path left the mountain slope and traveled along a saddle to the next slope. Rhododendrons bloomed in such profusion along the saddle that the land seemed to be covered by a purple haze.

Once he'd reached the saddle, Joel discovered side trails that branched off from the main path. He was nearing inhabited land. Far above him, something cried out, causing him to jump. Among the pine trees, Joel had seen and heard innumerable blue jays, but this cry was like none he'd ever heard. He looked up. Something circled high overhead, like a hawk, but its silhouette looked more like a giant bat than any bird.

When he had crossed the saddle, the path began winding around the next mountain, but now it began to climb the slope. On the southeastern face of the mountain, Joel got his first glimpse of the Lost Vale.

On the northern face of a mountain, across the vale, stood a stone tower. Innumerable small cottages, surrounded by gardens and fields, dotted the floor of the vale. Tiny figures moved about among the buildings; others headed into the mountains and hills.

A magnificent staircase climbed from the vale straight up the southern slope of the mountain on which the bard stood. Joel's path led through a rose garden to a landing midway up the staircase. The bard hurried forward until he stepped onto the landing. There he paused to take in the view.

The staircase was wide enough for eight men to wall abreast. On either side, amazing gardens clung to the slopes. The flowers and shrubbery and trees and vines sometimes grew over the stairs. Many of the plants were so exotic Joel could not even put a name to them. A stream trickled through the gardens, cascading over rocks. In one place, it flowed over the staircase, forcing the climber to use little stepping stones. Pieces of statuary, great and small, decorated the gardens. Some pieces represented wild creatures-frogs, birds, turtles, cats. Other carvings were more abstract in nature. Lanterns of stone, wood, metal, even glass, hung from trees or rested on boulders. After every sixteen steps, there was a landing. Each landing was decorated with huge banners hanging from tall posts. The banners were woven, embroidered, or painted with a design, some intricate, others simple and bold. A hundred chimes sounded with every breeze.

There could be no doubt in the mind of anyone climbing the staircase that it led to someplace special. Joel looked upward. Far above, he could just make out a black hole in the mountainside… the entrance to the Singing Cave. Above the entrance, Finder's symbol had been carved into the mountain. To either side, huge banners of gray silk bearing the same harp symbol fluttered in the wind.

A figure stepped out of the gardens onto the landing just above Joel. The bard put his hand to the hilt of his sword, then, feeling rather foolish, he withdrew it. The figure had to be a saurial. A female, Joel assumed, because she carried a basket of flowers. She wore along white robe, but everything else about her was inhuman.

Though she walked on her hind legs, she leaned forward at her hips, balanced by the massive tail that swayed behind her. She was covered with tiny, pebbly scales in copper and green that made her hide look like very expensive beadwork. She had a long snout and sharp teeth, but no lips. Her eyes were yellow like a snake's. A shark-like fin rose from her brow and traversed the ridge of her head. She was much shorter than the bard.

Joel considered stepping off the stairs to hide, in order to savor his solitude a bit longer, but it was too late. The saurial had spotted him. She made a series of clicks with her tongue.

"Good day," Joel said, bowing low.

The saurial bowed back.

"I've come to see the temple," Joel said, feeling rather foolish, since his intent was obvious.

A vanilla scent rose from the creature. Jedidiah had once explained that saurials emitted a variety of odors that indicated their emotions. Joel wished he had thought to ask Jedidiah more about which emotions were indicated by which scents. The creature began trilling. At first Joel shifted nervously, since he couldn't understand her, but then he recognized she was singing the tune that had opened the magic gate to the ethereal borderland. Joel realized she was trying to ascertain how he'd gotten there.

Joel began singing along with her, his tenor voice blending well with her alto trilling. The music attracted other saurials. A mottled green and brown saurial a foot taller than Joel, with razorlike plates running down its back and spikes on its tail, stepped out of the garden, and two little flyers, no bigger than halflings, with black, batlike wings, landed beside him. All three stood on the stairs to listen. Joel began to elaborate on the tune, finishing with a flourish.

The small audience applauded.

"Yes, I came by the gate," Joel said, answering what he presumed had been his fellow performer's question. "I'm Joel. Jedidiah of Finder sent me here on a pilgrimage."

The creature held her basket of flowers at arm's length, revealing Finder's symbol embroidered on her robe.

"You must be Copperbloom," he said.

The saurial nodded. She shooed the spectators away and motioned for the bard to accompany her up the stairs.

Joel climbed beside the priestess of Finder's temple. Since she did not speak, he remained silent at first. Then she tapped his arm and motioned to her ear. She wanted him to speak. Even if she couldn't question him, she could understand anything he had to say.

"Jedidiah's in the shelter at the end of the gate with two friends. He'll be coming later," Joel explained. "We've had some trouble getting here, but he'd better tell you about that."

Copperbloom motioned for Joel to talk about himself. The bard began telling about where he came from and his training at barding college, then related the details of his first meeting with Jedidiah.

By the time they'd reached the top of the staircase, Joel was out of breath, and his throat was parched from speaking. He felt foolish for having babbled so long about himself. Copperbloom led him into the Singing Cave. Just inside the cave entrance was a carpet of moss and ferns. Condensation made the walls sparkle. Little red and yellow skinks skittered about the floor, walls, and ceiling. Swallows shot in and out, hinging insects to their young in nests built in the cave's nooks and crannies.

'This is just the way it was when Finder arrived here with the party of adventurers that fought Meander, isn't it?" Joel asked.

Copperbloom made a circling motion indicating the cave entrance and nodded in response to Joel's question. Then she pointed to a passage leading deeper into the mountains and shook her head from side to side.

This is a new section?" Joel asked.

The saurial nodded and motioned for Joel to investigate. The passage was lit with light stones. Tapestries hung on the walls. One showed the enslavement of the saurials by the evil god Moander, another showed the battle that destroyed Moander's Realmsian body, and still another showed how Finder finally slew the abomination forever by killing it in its home plane, the Abyss.

The passage opened into a room full of musical instruments, some common to the Realms, others that Joel had never seen or heard of before. Two saurials similar to Copperbloom sat in this room, one playing a harp and the other a drum.