The Staff of Naught (14 page)

“What’s iron ore?” asked Ariana.

“I can see this is going to be a long conversation,” said Lousa with a laugh. “But, that’s ok. It’s going to be at least a week before we arrive at the mountains and then who knows how long from there. The terrain is very rough and I think there is only one road into the mountain. It is guarded by monks of Thilnog so I think you’ll get to meet some of them pretty soon.”

“Really, do you think Thilnog will be there?”

Lousa looked at the girl close for a moment in deep thought, “I’m afraid Thilnog is dead.”

“Oh,” said Ariana. “What happened?”

“I think he just got old but I’m not exactly sure. The monks are pretty secretive up there. No one even knows how they mine the iron from the mountain. There is a little town up there but only traders from the outside are allowed in and they are blindfolded so they don’t know how to get there.”

“Couldn’t the queen just send griffin riders,” asked Ariana. “Then they’d see from above.”

“The monks have huge catapults all over the mountain and if anything flies near they shoot it out of the sky.”

The girls eyes opened hugely, “Are you lying to me?”

Lousa laughed again. “No, I’m not lying but it sure does sound like one, doesn’t it. Maybe it’s not true. I’ve never seen one of the catapults myself but I can’t think of another reason why the queen doesn’t do that. Even then, at night they could fly past real fast and figure it out eventually you would think.”

“I guess,” said Ariana with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Don’t let me discourage you from asking questions, darling,” said Lousa. “I hadn’t really thought about the catapults, I just believed what I was told many years ago. It’s always good to question things because sometimes even when people think they are telling the truth they are saying things that are false. Sometimes it’s easy to believe what you want to believe if the truth is painful,” she went on suddenly in a lower tone of voice. “Sometimes what is true is much harder than what you want to be true.”

“I know what you mean,” said Ariana. “A lot of times Uney was hurt and bloody, and didn’t have so much food for us but he always said it was nothing. He was trying to protect me I guess.”

“Your brother is a good boy,” said Lousa. “He did his best to take care of you and he always will.”

“I know,” said Ariana. “But he is just a boy.”

“He’ll be a man in a few years,” she said and pointed to the subject of their conversation who made swift motions with his hands as he pretended to attack Shamki. The big half-orc had dismounted and the two were engaged in some sort of phantom struggle. “Shamki was a boy once too you know,” finished the woman looking at the bulging arm muscles the warrior displayed.

“Really, just like Uney?”

“Well, half-orcs are bigger than humans usually but pretty much the same. Maybe he has a sister just like you that we don’t know about.”

“How long have you known Shamki?” asked Ariana with a look up at the older woman as she in turn watched the half-orc.

“I moved to Iv’s Folly about five years ago,” said the woman and I met up with Mayor Shumba right away. Shamki and Humbort did odd jobs for the mayor even back then, so that is when I met him.”

“Why are they friends, Shamki is big and strong and Humbort is kind of a fraidy cat?”

“They work well together,” said Lousa, “but I’m not sure how they first met. I bet if you asked Humbort he might tell you.”

“He’s kinda dumb, isn’t he?”

“Some people are born that way, some people are born with no hands, or deformed feet, or their brains not right. It’s all the same and no one really knows why it happens.”

“People are born without hands?” asked Ariana. “I’ve never seen anyone like that.”

“Usually if a baby is born like that the mother will take it out into the wilds and leave it to die,” said Lousa.

“No!” shouted Ariana. “That’s not true.”

Lousa didn’t say anything as the two continued to walk along for many long minutes. Eventually the wagon stopped for lunch and even then Ariana didn’t ask any more questions but contented herself to walk along with Lousa. It wasn’t until late that night that the girl finally said something, “You are right,” she said as they lay down on the soft throws that Tanner provided, “Sometimes what you want to be right isn’t what is really right.”

“You can always try and make things the way you want them Ariana,” said Lousa.

“When I get older it’ll be easier I guess,” said the girl and rolled over onto her side and fell almost instantly to sleep.

“Not really,” said Lousa, mainly to herself.

Inside a strange little house built on stilts that were themselves resting on large coils of heavy wire a man who wore a thick brown wool shirt put down a cup of steaming liquid just as the tremors that shook the building began to subside. Even then the cup went into a perfectly shaped indentation in the table clearly meant for just this purpose. Steel bolts anchored the table to the floor and virtually everything in the house was made of that metal or iron. He was apparently a mix of human and some other races for he was extremely short for the species, or tall for gnome or halfling, had a long nose, and tremendous ears that stretched nearly to the top of his head. Next to the man stood a squat dwarf his skin mostly black but patches of pale white shone through when he lifted his arm so that his underarm appeared.

“The Black Fire runs hot,” said Edorin Firefist as he looked down at the strange little fellow.

“The Black Fire always runs hot,” said Lorim. “That is why kings and queens purchase our goods and leave us to our own devices Edos. Does it run particularly hot today or have you come to make more demands for you share of the ore?”

“I will tell you when I want more ore and you will then deliver it,” said the dwarf his face a mask of impenetrable cragginess. “I tell you the Black Fire is running hot because the Black Fire is running hot.”

“Thank you for your report Edos. Does this mean that we can expect higher quality weapons out of the forge for the next month?”

“Higher quality, lower volume,” said the dwarf his face still impassive.

“If there is nothing else Edos, then I have other matters to which to attend,” said Lorim and once again picked up his cup of coffee and took a small sip. There was another minor quake outside and the paintings on the wall shook briefly but apparently without harm. The dwarf nodded his head; the short beard black with soot briefly touched his shirt front, and then left the building. A moment later a woman came out from a door on the other side of the room. She was dark skinned naturally, not an effect of the soot, and had purple eyes and silver hair. “The dwarf is a fool,” she said.

“He is a Firefist,” said Lorim, “and even the darklings must recognize the power in that.”

“Craggen Steep is a legend,” she snorted, “for children and weak minded humans. He may take the name Firefist but anyone of that family has long since passed the barriers of the living if there ever were rulers of that mythical realm.”

“He is a master smith, an Edos as the dwarves say, and his appearance in our little township has provided the monks with great wealth to go with their fighting spirit. If he were to leave then much would change and not for the better.”

“You are a fool then Lorim,” said the woman with a sneer as she held her head tilted upwards at a sharp angle. “The dwarf is using you in the same way you use the monks. He is in this for his own reasons and when the darkness enshrouds them no more you will regret ever trusting him.”

“I’ve heard all this many times before Lilithia,” said Lorim and took another sip from the piping hot metal cup. “You have not come up from below in many months. To what do I owe this little trip?”

“You are to have visitors soon,” she said. “Important visitors with important things.”

“Elaborate, woman,” said Lorim and sat back and gazed at her with narrowed eyes. The metal chair scraped against the metal floor giving out a prolonged squeal, the woman winced, turned her head down and right and her hands flew to her ears.

“You do that intentionally,” she said. “And someday the great spider will have her way with your essence.”

“Yes, yes, Lilithia,” said Lorim moving his torso and the chair squeaked yet again. “Yet your purchases of our swords diminish not in volume. Your wars with the denizens of the Deep Below do not abate?”

“Our political concerns are not for your consumption Lorim,” said the woman and her hand went to a spider brooch that appeared to creep up her collar. She took the thing and looked at with soft eyes before she placed it further down her silken shirt. “There is a girl coming, a little girl, a human little girl,” said the woman her purple eyes now gleamed with excitement. She licked her lips and smiled. “This girl is carrying something that we want.”

“A girl, traveling alone?”

“Must you interrupt? You surface dwellers with your puny life spans are always in such a hurry. Be patient and I will tell you everything and I will tell you the price we will pay for this item.”

“Go on Lilithia,” said Lorim and put down his cup and leaned back in his seat.

“The girl is working for an ally of ours although she does not know it. She travels in a merchant wagon led by a man I’m told you deal with, his name is Tanner.”

The man’s long ears twitched at this. “Yes, we know Tanner well. He is a good merchant who treats us fairly with both price and goods. I would hate to alienate such an ally unless the reward was quite high, quite high indeed.”

“Merchants are as common as the black gnolls,” sniffed the woman. “Where you squash one ten more arise. You need not worry that this endeavor will not be profitable to you Lorim. You need not even kill the merchant and his family. Simply let them pass into the hills without incident. We will take care of the rest.”

“Not as easily done as you might imagine my dear Lilithia,” said the strange little man. “The Thilnog Monks do not take orders from me when it comes to who passes unmolested into their territories nor do they take kindly to interference on the mountain from any source, be it human, hobgoblin, or darkling.”

“Are you not the Trade Captain of the Maw?” She said pulling back her head with a motion of contempt. “Have you not the right to authorize which merchants are allowed onto the mountain and do you not supply the monks with the fruits of your labor? Surely they will allow one little wagon full of people to enter the territories unmolested, unsearched, if you request it.”

“I’m certain that if I worded the request properly the monks might well honor it,” said Lorim and leaned back in his chair. “But, if the wagon ended up being the cause of any trouble the monks would come looking for me. I would need some sort of compensation should this train of events come to pass.”

The slim darkling smiled and pulled out a satchel from her belt, “I knew we could come to some sort of an accommodation Lorim,” she said and spilled out a palm full of red, green, and white gemstones that glittered on the table like so many stars in the sky. “That is for you. If the plan comes off as anticipated and we are able to acquire the item there will be more for you to give to the monks for any suffering the incident might cause them.”

“Pretty baubles no doubt,” said Lorim but this time his tongue, overly long like his ears, came out and licked a wide swath over his lips. “But, I was thinking of a more … carnal … incentive for my trouble. If the monks kill me for this I’d like to go to great Svorag with at least one fond memory.”

The darkling woman looked at the snarled features of the little man and stood a little bit taller and threw back her shoulders subtly. “You are truly a disgusting example of your species. I find it excites me.” And with that began to pull off the silken shirt she wore.

The narrow trail the wagon traveled was cut through huge boulders many times the size of the vehicle itself and they lay strewn around the side of a hill as if a group of giants finished a sloppily played game of catch just a few hours before. Tanner was at the reigns as the donkeys that carefully picked their way over the debris of the road which looked to have suffered a landslide in the not too distant past. Beside him sat Lousa while the others were either in the wagon or trailing behind on their mounts. The road was not wide enough to accommodate both the wagon and riders to the side. In fact, the wagon teetered precariously as they rounded a narrow bend that led further up the mountainside. A jet of yellow gas erupted a few dozen yards to the right of the wagon with a sibilant hiss and the odor immediately overwhelmed them.

“Did you fart again,” shrieked Shalalee to her brother as they rocked from side to side in the back of the wagon.

“Gross,” said Ariana as she wrinkled her nose.

“It wasn’t me,” said Tylan and pointed his finger at Humbort who held his nose and tried to breathe through his mouth.

“It wasn’t me,” said the man in a nasally voice.

“I did it,” shouted Unerus and stood up to wave his rear at the party but just then a jolt from the wagon sent him sprawling into the arms of Shalalee who caught him and the two rolled to the wagon floor unable to gain their balance for a long moment. When they finally separated the boy’s face was bright red and he moved quickly to sit down on the bench.

“What’s wrong with you,” asked Ariana but Amara interrupted quickly. “Children, it’s going to be a rough ride from here on out so you better brace yourselves.”

Back in the front of the wagon Lousa looked to Tanner and said in a low voice, “That was easy.”

“Too easy,” said Tanner who looked ahead and not at the woman. “I’ve made this trip a dozen times and the monks are usually extremely thorough in making certain I’m not bringing spies or contraband onto the mountain.”

“Why would they let us past so easily then?”

Tanner shook his head. “It has to be because they know were carrying something, something that someone wants.”

“There is only one way they could know,” said Lousa and looked around for the telltale blue glow. They sent the ghost off a few hours before they approached the border with orders to rejoin them further up the trail. The creature went with little protest and had yet to reappear.