The Staff of Naught (26 page)

“I thank you for your advice,” said Lousa, stood up, and walked towards the darkling. “Have you examined the staff to your satisfaction?”

Lilithia stood and offered the staff to Lousa who took a step back from it and darted a look to Ariana. The girl stood herself and walked over to the darkling her face an undisguised mask of hate and stuck out her hand to take it.

Lilithia pulled it back ever so slight causing the girl to miss with her grab, she smiled broadly, and then offered it again, and this time allowed Ariana to take it.

Ariana took it with a sort of sigh, then walked back to the sack, placed it inside carefully tying back the top, and then sat down on her bed directly next to it.

“I have honored my agreement,” said Lilithia with a nod of her head and a smoldering look towards Tanner.

“You have,” said Tanner with a bow. “We have also honored our agreement so if you wouldn’t mind leaving us to talk among ourselves?”

“Of course,” said the darkling as she bowed to him and shimmied out of the room her trim but well-shaped figure drawing the eyes of all the men as she went out. At the door she smiled up at Shamki and ran her hand over his chest, “Such muscles, yummy,” and then she was gone. The half-orc showed no sign that the touch affected him and his face remained passive and his eyes narrow.

“So,” said Hazlebub.

“That gained us nothing,” said Tanner. “She didn’t tell us much that we didn’t know already.”

“That’s not true,” said Hazlebub. “We learned much, the most important is that Anansi and Smyrnala both want the thing.”

“That’s true,” said Lousa, “although I don’t know how we can use that information to our advantage. We just want to destroy the thing and be done with it. I don’t like the idea of two Goddesses working against us.”

“But Seymour and Ras will want to destroy it,” said Almara as she suddenly sat up in her chair and snapped her fingers.

“Didn’t Khemer say that Seymour wanted to use the staff and that was why he was fleeing him,” said Tanner.

“He was lying!” said Almara. “I should have listened to you more carefully,” she went on. “Khemer was running from Seymour who drove his ship onto the rocks. Then Seymour wanted salvage rights to the ship but the baron wouldn’t let him have it so he had to leave.”

“Yes,” said Lousa, “That makes sense. Seymour wants to destroy the staff and that is what Khemer had to avoid if he wanted to use it to bring himself back to life.”

“We need to contact Seymour the Bright and have him come and destroy the thing. He has to know how,” said Tanner suddenly understanding.

“Seymour is all the way in Tarlton,” said Hazlebub. “That’s a long walk and not an easy journey by ship either.”

“Why can’t we send a message?” said Shalalee. “With magic I mean.”

“Lousa, can the mayor sway that kind of thing?” asked Tanner and looked to the young woman who sat back in her chair and folded her hands behind her head and gave out a long sigh. “I’m not sure he would want to do that,” she said with a grimace. “I’m not sure that I would trust him with this information in any case. There’s no reason he wouldn’t bargain with agents of other interested parties and I think we need to destroy this thing once and for all. It reappearing like this is a bad omen.”

“Darkling know where is,” said Shamki with a quick movement of his head towards the bed where Ariana sat with the satchel.

“He’s right,” said Hazlebub. “We need to get out of Hot Rock.”

“But where to?” asked Humbort and spread his hands. “We don’t know anything and now everyone is out to kill us.”

“No one is out to kill us,” said Lousa to Humbort. “Don’t make it out to be worse than it is and you’re scaring the children.”

“Sorry,” said Humbort and looked at Shalalee and Tylan.

“I’m not scared,” said Tylan and puffed out his chest and made a stern face.

“I’m not scared either,” said Unerus. “Shamki and me can take on anything that wants to fight.”

“Shamki and I,” said Lousa with a look and smile to the boy.

“I’m scared,” said Shalalee and Almara and Tanner immediately went over to her and put their arms around the girl.

“We should leave tonight,” said Almara. “Come on honey, let’s start to pack up. Tanner, you get the wagon prepped while we pack our things.”

Tanner stood up and looked deeply into his wife’s eyes for a moment and then gave her a soft kiss on the lips. “You’re right dear. We need to get out of Hot Rock as soon as possible. There’s only one road back to Doria anyway.”

“Shouldn’t we head over the mountains the other way to get close to Tarlton?” asked Lousa.

“We can make all those decisions when we get things packed up,” said Almara. “Unerus, why don’t you and Ariana start to get your things together while we pack up here?”

With that momentum seemed to shift towards Almara’s plan and the women began to gather their items through the room and the men left to prep the wagon and make their own arrangements. Any hour later they all stood outside in front of the wagons while Tanner paid off the innkeeper with silver coins. It was the matter of only a few moments to get into the wagon or on the riding horses and head off down the road. After ten minutes of travel they arrived at a fork in the road one heading east to Doria and the other west to the bugbear lands of Hakor’lum. Tanner pulled up the donkeys with a gentle tug of the reigns and stared at each path while Shamki on his horse and Unerus mounted behind sat quietly watching.

The merchant sat for a long moment and looked first this way and then that way before he suddenly seemed to make up his mind with a nod of his head, “Hiya,” he shouted and cracked his whip in the air to the right as the donkeys began to move towards the bugbear lands at their slow and steady pace.

“Tenebrous,” said the woman on the throne of bones with a quiet voice that bordered somehow on a hysterical shriek and yet remained virtually a whisper at the same time. Her hair was a dull shade of green that contrasted with her dark blue skin and orange eyes and a crown made from finger bones rested upon her head. “My step-sister, the eight legged monstrosity, is agitated.”

A shadowy creature that looked vaguely like a man seemed to both flow and walk towards her at the same time. When he got close to the woman the shadow slithered to his knees and then oozed down on the floor, “She is deceptive mistress, you must beware.”

“Do not tell me my business, shade,” said the woman and looked down at the prostrate form and ran her fingers over her lips. “She is agitated because the thing that she stole from me has reemerged among the living.”

“Yes, my mistress, great and only ruler of the Abyss, She who has Always ruled and Always shall,” and did not move from the floor.

The woman smiled, “It is good you know your place,” she said. “I was wise to allow you to return from the Deathlands to serve me. You must go to the lands of those who still breathe and befriend the people who have my staff. You must convince them that I am its rightful owner and return it to me or I shall send your broken form back to the Deathlands to see if you can somehow slither out once again.”

“Your will is my will,” said the form on the ground that showed no signs of movement as it lay before her.

“I shall have the Staff of Naught and I shall use it against my sister to take over her realm as I … to take over her realm and add it to my collection.”

“Yes, mistress Who has Always Ruled the Abyss,” said the form on the ground.

“Did I ask you to speak?” said the woman and looked down at him and a dozen skeletal forms around her clacked their jaws together in a strange semblance of laughter.

The form on the floor lay still.

“You are dismissed Tenebrous, you know your duty, now perform or I shall dispel you and your essence will feed my Death Dragons,” said the woman and turned to her ghoulish entourage and beckoned to a powerful looking man with long canines who smiled and began to take off his shirt.

“We approach the White Marble ruin,” said Seymour atop his horse and as he looked at the other three men in the party who walked beside him their own horses nearby and jostling one another playfully.

“How close my master?” said Oliver with a glance to his left at a small cloud of dust that suddenly appeared near a grove of trees some hundreds of yards ahead of them and to the left.

“Close enough that we should expect our wizard to effect the stealing of the staff so that we might finish this business once and for all,” said Seymour with a look at the Golden Worm mage who limped along trying to keep pace with the others. “Our crippled friend has managed nothing beyond hurting his leg because he couldn’t manage to stay seated upon a tame little child’s horse.”

“My inadequacies are many,” said Sutekha with a small bow towards Seymour. “My spying reveals that the Dorians are bringing the staff willingly to its destruction and my influence upon their leaders bring them towards us without theft.”

“I do not trust the Dorians,” said Seymour his faced curled up and his nose wrinkled. “I find these lands unclean.”

“We are not in the lands of the Dorians,” said Sutekha. “These lands are ruled by hobgoblins and it is called Hakor’lum in their language.”

Seymour looked down at the man and his hand flickered to his chest for a moment. “So, Worm Master, you are saying that they will hand over the staff willingly and that your presence is no longer necessary to the success of this mission?”

“That is for you to decide oh great Child of the Sun,” said Sutekha. “You need merely say the word and I shall begin the journey back to The Sands.”

Seymour chuckled for a moment and then turned to Levicus who also looked a bit ragged his hair bedraggled, his clothes ripped in several spots, and his thick leather riding boots torn at the left heel. “Horse Master, your steeds have done well so far. You will be rewarded with greater responsibility when we return to the City in the Sand.”

“Thank you Master Seymour,” said Levicus with a bow of his head. “Your generosity is a blessing beyond the powers of light. I can only pray that I continue to serve you and give you pleasure.”

“Enemies,” said Oliver quietly his eyes on the little grove of trees to which they had approached within shouting distance.

“Where?” said Seymour as he looked around.

“The trees,” said Oliver although he did not look towards them directly or point with his finger to the indicated site. “There are perhaps two dozen of them. Hobgoblins and some sort of attack beasts. They will attack when we reach the large rock to the side of the trail.”

“Excellent,” said Seymour, pulled back his cloak, and reached for the platinum chain around his neck. With a casual flick he pulled out the chain and revealed a glowing yellow ball that seemed to churn and throw off little fingers of molten fire. The brightness of the thing was blinding but a close look revealed that smaller globes, darker and of different colors slowly circled around the great fiery thing at the center.

A small smile flickered onto the face of Sutekha as he began to mumble under his breath and his hands came out of his pockets holding a small glass vial filled with apparently living worms, white and squirming.

Oliver’s expression did not change as they moved towards the stone but Levicus’s face screwed up and his hand began to twitch nervously at his side. As they finally made it to the stone there was a sudden yell from the nearby trees and a dozen forms erupted from it and three more creatures, apparently lying in the high grass rose suddenly within striking distance of the group.

Sneak and crawl, burrow and dig

Eat their brains, make them dance and jig!

Shouted Sutekha his face in a wide smile as the worms in the jar suddenly vanished and a war cry from one of the approaching hobgoblins suddenly turned into a terrible shriek as the thing began to claw at his eyes and fell to the ground. The companions on either side of him paused for a moment, then began to dig at their own clothes, and dropped their swords as they shrieked in horror.

Seymour put his right hand on the burning icon around his chest and casually flicked it at another group of the approaching creatures and there was a sudden rushing of air and a terrible fiery explosion where the creatures once stood. One war dog, near to the explosion but not in it, was lifted from its feet by the power of the blast the white hot heat burning the legs on its right side so quickly and powerfully that they seemed to simply melt away. The right side of its body became a blackened bloody mess and it lay on its side and made a strange little whimper sound for a few short seconds before it mercifully expired.

The three hobgoblins that emerged close to the group found themselves facing off against Oliver while their allies lay dead before getting to within twenty yards of the companions. One of the creatures, a massive hobgoblin standing seven feet tall and towering over Oliver smiled at the orc and cracked his knuckles. “I like to kill Orcs,” it started but Oliver lunged forward his right arm extended the sword point at the beast closed the distance between them with blinding rapidity and the tip went into the creatures mouth and came out the back of its head. Without pausing the Orc paladin withdrew the blade and closed in on the two creatures lurking behind the first with his left hand catching the wrist of the leftmost as it swung its blade and his right swinging the sword in such a tight arc that it appeared only a blur and went through the neck of the hobgoblin on the right.

Oliver then paused for a moment to look the only survivor in the eye as the hobgoblin watched his two friends collapse to the ground. A crack suddenly brought the creature’s attention back to Oliver even as the sword dropped from his hand his wrist snapped by the fierce power of the Orc.

“Araghh,” cried the creature and fell to its knees.

“Don’t kill it,” said Seymour. “We will wish to interrogate it for information about this region and the exact location of the White Marble ruin.”

Oliver bowed to Seymour and kicked the sword away from his fallen foe and with a flick of his sword cut the belt off the creature sending it to the ground along with the small knife sheathed on it.