In the next room were several small saurials. Some stood very still, while others motioned broadly. Since he could not hear their speech, the scene looked very odd to Joel. At first he thought they might be practicing some sort of dance, but when one of them threw a bucket of confetti on another, he realized they were acting out a play. He laughed at the confetti, and the little saurials all turned and bowed.

There was a vast cavern beyond the children's theater. It was full of painted canvases, pottery, and sculpture too delicate for the outdoors.

Before Joel could explore it all or see what lay beyond, Copperbloom motioned for Joel to turn back. At the entrance of the cave, someone had laid out a breakfast of berries, milk, eggs, and ham. Copperbloom motioned for him to dine. Then she disappeared back down the passageway.

Joel felt like an overindulgent halfling when he finished the repast. When Copperbloom returned, she pointed to the birdpipes hanging from his belt and motioned for him to play.

Joel brought the instrument to his lips and began whistling out a tune. Copperbloom picked it up with her own trilling. They had just finished repeating the piece when more applause came from the cave entrance. Jedidiah stood there, smiling at the pair of them.

"I see you two are learning to communicate," the old priest said. "How are you, Copperbloom?"

The priestess rose and bowed very low. A series of clicks issued from the back of her throat, and Joel could smell the scent of woodsmoke issuing from her body.

Jedidiah motioned for the priestess to be seated again. He sat before the two of them.

"Where are Holly and Jas?" the Rebel Bard asked.

"Holly's in the garden. Grypht met us on the stairs,' the old priest said. "She's bending his ear about the advantages to the saurials of an alliance with Randal Morn and the Daggerfolk. Grypht is a powerful wizard," Jedidiah explained for Joel's benefit. He's sort of the unofficial leader here. Jas is soaring with the flying saurials."

"Is that safe?" Joel asked. "Isn't there a chance she'll be spotted by Walinda?"

"I warned her to stay lower than the mountain peak The illusion that protects the vale reaches to the top of the mountains," Jedidiah replied. "Jas is a human woman with wings," he explained to Copperbloom.

Although Joel heard nothing, Copperbloom must have spoken, for Jedidiah sat listening to her, then shrugged. "No, she wouldn't tell me how she came to have wings," he answered the saurial priestess.

"How can you hear Copperbloom?" Joel asked.

"I can hear and understand the saurials and all the priests of Finder," Jedidiah explained. "It's a gift from Finder."

Copperbloom rose and went to the cave entrance. She looked down the staircase, then turned back to face her two human guests. Joel winced at the sound of a high-pitched noise, then he realized he was hearing, just barely, some of Copperbloom's speech.

Joel and Jedidiah joined Copperbloom at the entrance to the cave. Holly was just outside the entrance, speaking in hushed tones to a giant saurial, nearly ten feet tall and wearing a fur robe. From the staff the creature carried and the arcane magical symbols etched in the bony frill behind its head, Joel guessed the saurial to be Grypht, the powerful wizard and leader of the saurials.

"Joel, it's beautiful here," the paladin said. "I can see why you wanted to come."

"I am Grypht. Pleased to meet you, Joel of Finder," the saurial wizard said in perfectly recognizable common speech. Since the sounds he made didn't match the movement of his mouth, Joel guessed that the wizard had used magic to speak with him. Grypht turned to Copperbloom. "I bring a message from Sapphire the Finback. She asks if you will please come to bless her new egg before the end of day."

Copperbloom nodded.

"Meander destroyed so many of our young that every egg is precious to us," Grypht explained to Joel. "Each one is blessed by every priest and priestess we have."

The young saurials who had been rehearsing the play burst out from the temple, the flyers taking to the air, the others heading for the staircase. Copperbloom snagged one of the finheads by the shirt and pulled him toward her.

"This," Jedidiah said, "is Handful, Copperbloom's oldest hatchling. Well met, Handful," he addressed the young saurial.

The priestess made a clicking noise, and Handful bowed quickly to the group, then fidgeted in his mother's grip.

"He grows more like his father every day," Jedidiah noted.

Handful narrowed his eyes and looked up at the old priest. If the young saurial made a reply, Joel couldn't hear it.

"Yes, he does seem to share his father's immunity to your charms," Grypht said to Jedidiah.

Jedidiah winked at Handful. Copperbloom released her son. The boy made another, much more formal, bow, which Joel sensed was more saucy than reverent. Then the young saurial dashed into the gardens and was soon lost from sight.

"I was wondering if you would show Holly down to the village," Jedidiah asked Grypht. "I have some church business to discuss with Joel and Copperbloom."

Holly descended the stairs with the saurial wizard, and Jedidiah motioned for Joel and Copperbloom to follow him back into the Singing Cave.

The three priests sat on the moss and ferns, and Jedidiah instructed Joel to describe his adventures since arriving in Daggerdale. Joel related his encounters with the Zhentilar, Holly, Randal Morn, Bear, the Xvimists, Walinda, and Jas. He told how he, Holly, and Jas were hunted across Daggerdale and how Jedidiah had rescued them in Giant's Craw Valley.

Then Jedidiah explained why he had put some of his power into his half of the finder's stone. Copperbloom chirped, and a scent like baked ham rose from her body.

"Yes, I know I could have just left them, but I wanted to stay with Joel," Jedidiah replied to the saurial priestess.

Copperbloom chirped something else.

"Of course he can take care of himself," Jedidiah retorted. "I just-I wanted-" Jedidiah hesitated then sighed. "I wanted the chance to go adventuring again," he admitted.

Copperbloom looked up at the ceiling, shaking her head slowly back and forth.

"That's not the worst part," Jedidiah said.

Copperbloom leaned forward with her eyes fixed rigidly on the older priest. Jedidiah reported quickly and matter-of-factly how Walinda had stolen the finder's stone. Copperbloom gestured wildly with her hands, making a series of whistling noises, which Jedidiah listened to with a grim look. Then Jedidiah told her of the banelich and the old priest's agreement to find the

Hand of Bane in exchange for the finder's stone. Copperbloom put her head in her hands and moaned.

"I was stupid and reckless, I know," Jedidiah said to the priestess. "But there's nothing to be done about it. I have no choice. I have to find the Hand of Bane so I have something to bargain with. It's somewhere in Sigil."

Copperbloom trilled something, and the smell of baked bread rose from her body.

"Yes, that's exactly what I want," Jedidiah said. "Would you please bring it to me?"

Copperbloom huffed. She rose to her feet and retreated down the hallway toward the other caverns, shaking her head and making disturbed clicking noises.

"She doesn't look pleased," Joel noted. "She reminds me of how my mom used to act when I did something dumb."

"Ever since she became a mother she treats me like a child," Jedidiah said. "Actually, come to think of it, most of the women in my life treat me like a child. I suppose I deserve it."

Copperbloom returned a few minutes later with a large blue-glazed porcelain bowl decorated with a harp, a glaur, and a songhorn, all entwined in green vines laden with yellow blossoms. She set the bowl down before Jedidiah and bowed low.