The Staff of Naught

by Tom Liberman

  “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.

  Chapter 25

  “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.

  Chapter 26

  “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. “T
hese 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.

  “Sutekha,” said Seymour with a glance at the hobgoblin that lay on the trembling on the ground and refused to look up. “We will need spells so that we might understand the speech of the heathens.”

  “Your will is my command oh Great Master of the Icon of Ras,” said Sutekha an eye on the glowing ball that that sat on Seymour’s chest roiling in fiery chaos.

  Chapter 27

  The campfire had burned down to searing embers and the great bulk that was the half-orc Shamki leaned against a tree while the small form of Unerus stood next to him as they watched over those who slept nearby. The warm evening brought everyone out of the wagon with Tanner and his wife on one blanket at the far side of the fire while Humbort slept under the wagon curled up like a child. The children lay together near the merchant and his wife while Lousa and Hazlebub slumbered close to the duo watching them.

  “It’s good you can talk to the hobgoblins,” said Unerus and looked up at Shamki, “or I don’t think we would have gotten past that patrol alive.”

  “Traders leave alone,” said Shamki as he looked into the darkness. There was almost no moon and a thick cloud cover prevented even the stars from shining down on the camp. “Ambush night, dark,” he continued in what for him was almost a freewheeling conversation.

  Unerus started to yawn but quickly brought his hand up to cover his mouth. Shamki didn’t say anything but the boy knew that he should go to bed and leave the watch over to the half-orc. Humbort would get up soon to watch with Lousa and Hazlebub after that. Tanner usually took the morning turn at guard. “I wish we knew where we were going,” said Unerus not really expecting a reply from the half-orc. “It just seems like we’re wandering around with no purpose.”

  Suddenly Shamki’s body tensed and he glanced to his left beyond a small tree that was barely visible ten feet away.

  “What is it,” whispered Unerus.

  Shamki didn’t say anything and his eyes darted back and forth in the darkness. Unerus knew that orcs saw well in the dark and his friend was half-blooded so perhaps his vision was keen as well. The boy looked in all directions carefully not turning his head too much, simply looked with his eyes, but could see nothing. After a few seconds more Shamki took in a breath of air with a short sniff and then repeated the maneuver several more times with a slow turn of his head each time. A small gust of wind came to them and then Unerus could smell it, an old musty odor, an odor of death and decay but so faint as to be unable to trace.

  Shamki immediately pulled his sword, took a step backwards, and pulled Unerus behind him with a heavy hand.

  “You have nothing to fear from me tonight,” said the whisper quiet voice from somewhere ahead in the darkness. “I am Tenebrous and My Mistress sends me to aid you.”

  “Show,” said Shamki his sword moved in little circles and his body slowly moved to the right circling the sound although his hand continued to push Unerus so that the boy stood behind him.

  “Do not strike,” said the voice and a strange, dark shape seemed to appear in the night but then was gone
again with a whisper.

  The dark creature suddenly reappeared, a vague shadowy presence, a few feet from where they first spotted it. “You will not strike?” said the form as it hovered a few feet away from Shamki who stayed his sword hand but did not reply.

  Unerus sidled over to the sleeping form of Lousa and reached down to give her a nudge. A moment later she sat up and looked around in the darkness unable to see much of anything. “What is it?”

  “I’m … I’m not sure,” said the young boy and pointed to where his darkness adjusted eyes could barely make out the form of Shamki although he could not see the other thing at all. “It’s Shamki and something. It said its name is Tenebrous and it means us no harm,” he continued.

  Lousa quickly got to her feet and threw off the woolen blanket that covered her. She wore a loose fitting cotton gown and when she got up the neckline bulged forward to give Unerus a glimpse of her ample figure and he immediately looked away and blushed. The woman threw a leather jerkin over her head and slid into a pair of denim pants and did not notice his flush. “Come along,” she said a moment later to the boy whose face was still bright red although concealed by the darkness of the night.

  The commotion stirred several of the people around them including Tanner and Almara who sat up from their shared blanket and tried to focus their eyes in the gloom. “What’s going on?” said the chubby woman and put her hand on her husband’s chest.

  “I’m not sure,” said Tanner, got to his feet, and pulled on his trousers with a quick motion. He fiddled around for a moment and tried to unsheathe the knife at his belt but then followed after Unerus and Lousa who headed towards the small tree where Shamki awaited. Hazlebub continued to snore loudly apparently oblivious to the evening’s excitement.