The Staff of Naught (25 page)

“Do not bother me with your excuses,” said Seymour quickly and moved so that he stood directly over Sutekha. “Tell one of them to steal the staff and bring it to me.”

“I can only make suggestions master, not directly influence behavior,” said Sutekha a sweat breaking out on is brown. “Maintaining the contact is not easy either, my Master.”

“Then suggest it you fool, it’s not like she can steal it now and bring it to us. We are still at too great a distance. Put an image of the White Marble ruin in her mind.”

“I have not seen this White Marble Ruin, master,” said Sutekha his voice rasped and his body began to tremble.

“Excuses! You have seen White Marble before, you are a Golden Worm, and your power is based upon what you learned in the hidden chambers of the Old Empire buried in the desert. Do not lie to me. Show her the White Marble, show her my face, and show her Hazhallahad’s Staff! Obey me!”

“I obey,” said the mage and then suddenly the crystal faded in color and the shadows disappeared. Sutekha collapsed backwards his chest rose and fell rapidly and his face looked ashen white.

“Get me when he recovers,” said Seymour with a dismissive wave at the prone man. “We shall continue our journey.”

Oliver looked at Levicus who shrugged his shoulders and went over to the stricken wizard. “Are you all right Sutekha?” he asked and bent over the prostrate form.

A small smile came to the lips of the fallen wizard and he nodded his head. “I shall survive.”

“So, we are agreed,” said Lorim back at his office with Lousa, Tanner, and Hazlebub in the chairs in front of his massive desk. The simple Humbort was absent this time by agreement of all parties. “I will tell you what you want to know about the staff and in exchange you will allow my party to fully examine it for as long as she desires.”

“Under supervision and for a reasonable amount of time,” said Tanner.

“Of course, of course, no one is trying to find a way to enforce the contract in an unfair way. This being the case,” continued Lorim who wore a magnificent purple cloak over a frilly pink and green shirt, threw back the edge of the cloak, and motioned to a side door, “Lilithia my dear, they have agreed to your demands.”

At that the slim darkling girl emerged from behind the door. Her silver hair was curled at the edges and wavy throughout and she wore a skin tight silken gown of some kind that hugged her upper body and then splashed into a skirt that did not even come down to her knees. She walked over to Lousa’s whose own loose fitting shirt exposed her ample bosom and put forward a delicate hand. “I am Lilithia, and you must be Lousa, as lovely as Lorim suggested,” she said with a little bow of her head.

“Lousa,” said Lousa, “and this is Tanner and Hazlebub. We can take you back to our rooms at the Camel Sway and you can examine the staff.”

“Of course,” smiled the woman, who put her arm under Lousa’s and leaned against her. “Lousa is such an odd name for someone with so much elf blood in her veins,” she continued as the two walked out of the room followed by the witch and the merchant. At the outer door Lousa almost forgot her helmet but the darkling girl purred gently in her ear, “Don’t forget your helmet dear, I’d hate to lose someone I think will become a dear friend so quickly.”

Lousa seemed to flush slightly, grabbed the iron helmet, put it on her head, disengaged her arm, and walked into the village streets.

Lilithia watched her go with a smile and then took Tanner’s arm and followed. “You’re a strapping fellow,” she said and looked up at him and batted her eyelashes.

“I … I suppose so,” he stammered.

“Doesn’t the light hurt your eyes,” said Hazlebub as she stepped up and crooked the woman’s opposite arm in her own. “I’ve heard you underground dwellers don’t like it so bright.”

“I have taken precautions,” said the woman although Hazlebub noticed her glance down at a black stone that rested on her chest at the end of a golden chain.

“That’s good to know,” said the witch with a smile. “We’re just around the corner here.”

Within a few minutes they stood in the room reserved for the ladies of the party where Ariana, Unerus, Shalalee, Humbort, Almara, and Shamki waited for them.

“We’ve met before,” she said to him with a slight bow. “You killed some of my pets, but have no fear; I don’t hold it against you. I probably made some threats when it first happened but I’ve gotten over it.”

“Children,” said Almara. “Why don’t you go wait in the other room?”

“No way!” said Unerus with a big grin. “I’m the one who stole it from her in the first place so I get to stay.”

“And I carried it so I get to stay,” said Ariana and folded her arms over her chest.

“If Ara and Uney get to stay so do I,” said Shalalee.

“If she gets to stay,” said Tylan with a hard glance at his sister. “Then I’m not leaving either.”

“What well-disciplined children you surface dwellers raise,” said Lilithia with a little curl of her lips and Almara, who looked ready to jump in with something caustic to say immediately turned to the dark skinned woman and smiled pleasantly.

“I’ll raise my children in whatever manner I see fit,” she said to Lilithia. “I’m sure you will do the same when the time comes.”

Lilithia nodded her head and looked expectantly around the room. “The staff?”

“Ariana,” said Lousa to the young girl frowned immediately but trudged over to her bed and dug out the satchel. She looked inside for a moment and cocked her head to one side but there was no voice and eventually she had to reach inside, take a hold of the staff, and pull it out.

“Ah,” said Lilithia, “so it appears I was not deceived after all. Bring it to me child.”

Ariana looked at Lousa and held her position but the elf blooded girl nodded her head. “It’s okay Ariana, we’re all here. She’s not going to steal it again.”

Shamki moved over to the door and closed it while Tanner bolted the windows which were already closed and stood by the nearest to the darkling.

“Yes, yes, little girl,” said Lilithia, “I won’t try to steal it again although it does belong to my people and we will have it in the end.”

Ariana frowned deeply but eventually took one hesitant step after the next and stood in front of Lilithia with the staff although did not offer it up. Lilithia looked down at the girl with a raised eyebrow, “Come along my stubborn little princess,” she said. “Hand it over,” and suddenly her purple eyes hardened into little marbles of black, “now.”

The hair on Ariana’s arm stood on end, she felt her heart race in her chest, and she found her arm moved forward as if of its own volition.

“Thank you,” said Lilithia sweetly taking the staff from the girls limp hand. “Now be a good girl and go sit in the corner.”

Ariana wanted to spit at the woman, to yell at her, to stab her in the knee but she found her legs take her over to the chair in the corner and she sat down with a bump her eyes glared at the woman but apparently unable to do anything else.

“Now,” said Lousa. “You have the staff. Examine it as you will but tells us what you know about it.”

Lilithia turned the thing over in her hand and examined the clawed hand at the end the smooth wooden handle shaped like the forearm of a man. “The staff is very old,” she started turning it over and over in her hand.

“We knew that,” said Ariana suddenly finding her voice.

“Well, if I’m going to be interrupted by rude little girls at every turn then I suppose the telling of the story will take much more time,” said Lilithia with a smile to Ariana.

“Ariana,” said Lousa going over to sit next to the girl and put an arm around her shoulder, “it’s going to be fine. Let Lilithia tell her story and then we’ll get the staff back to do with as we please.”

“As I was saying,” said Lilithia as she continued to look carefully at the staff. “Look at the handle here and here,” she went on pointing to the place where a person would normally grip it. “This is made of fine wood, Black Hawthorne to be precise but …”

“Ha,” said Hazlebub. “Black Hawthorne is a shrub. You’d never find a piece big enough to fashion such a staff.”

Lilithia looked at the older woman whose crooked teeth displayed in a wide smile, “Have you heard of Talltomhallhelmhaw?”

Hazlebub shook her head and the smile vanished from her face.

“Perhaps you have heard of the Tree Shepherds who ruled the earth after the Elementals finished their ages of creation,” said Lilithia and turned her head and gave Hazlebub a little smirk.

The witched turned her back on the woman and went to sit down in a chair near Ariana and Lousa.

“I see,” said Lilithia. “Perhaps I might continue my story unless of course you just want to turn over the staff to someone who is well versed in its nature and perfectly capable of taking care of it.”

“Go on,” said Lousa through tightly closed lips.

“I shall continue,” said the darkling as she once again turned the staff over in her hands. “It is made from Black Hawthorne which is normally found only in small shrubs and the like. But there was once a powerful Tree Shepherd named Talltomhallhelmhaw and he fell in love with the great elemental of ice, Tsi-Noo. He went with her to far northern realms and they lived together for centuries. From their union came a Black Hawthorne of astonishing size that still exists in the far north its deep roots sucking life from the rich soil buried far below the ice. It was this tree that the necromancer Hazhallahad went to in the hopes of finding material strong enough for him to fashion a great focus for his power.”

“Who is this Hazhallahad?” asked Tanner. “That sounds like a Tarltonite name, from the desert warriors. Why would a Tarltonite have been that far north?”

“He was a Tarltonite although from back in days of the Old Empire,” said Lilithia with a nod of her head to Tanner. The woman stood up and walked over to him and held the staff towards him. “See how the handle is not worn down by the passage of time. Any staff held so many times over the ages would normally show signs of wear but the wood here is merely smoothed a bit, hardly worn at all.”

Tanner looked at the handle for a moment but did not dare reach forward to touch it. “It does look to be in good shape. Ariana, you’ve held it. Is it worn?”

The girl shrugged her shoulders, “It’s okay,” and then glared at Lilithia some more as the woman put her hand on Tanner’s shoulder and smiled down at him.

 “He was in the court of the Emperor, a necromantic mage of some power and he caught the eye of the goddess Anansi who was also visiting the royal house at that time.”

“There are no gods,” said Ariana and everyone swiveled their heads towards her except Unerus and Shalalee. The girl rolled her eyes and Unerus muttered, “Here we go.”

Lilithia’s eyes narrowed and her lips curled into a snarl her hand suddenly clenched and unclenched at her side. “Blaspheme,” she said and took a step towards the girl.

Shamki moved away from the door his hand on his sword hilt but the darkling saw the movement out of the corner of her eye and backed up a step. “The nonsense of a child,” she said and turned her back on the girl.

“What do you mean Ara?” said Lousa and looked at the girl closely and put her hand on her chin, which forced her to look up.

“I meant it, there are no gods,” said the girl and stomped her foot.

“Where do priests get their spells?” said Humbort as he scratched his head.

Tanner looked at the girl as well, “Ara, that just isn’t true. The Gods are in our lives every day. They grant power to priests and wizards, everyone believes in them.”

“Not me,” said the girl with a glare.

“This staff in my hand is evidence of the power of the Gods!” said Lilithia and held up the staff. “It has the power of divinity within it. Anansi, the Spider Queen, herself instructed Hazhallahad on the way to craft it and with it in his hands he become the most feared necromancer in the court of the Emperor. What do you say to that little girl?”

Ariana glared back her mouth did not move and her lips slammed together.

“I thought as much,” said Lilithia.

“What happened after Hazhallahad carved the staff from the Black Hawthorne,” said Shalalee as she spoke for the first time.

“He was the most powerful necromancer in the Emperor’s Court for many years the power of the staff has power over death and can keep the owner out of the realm of … her realm.”

“Smyrnala?” said Humbort his hand began to shake uncontrollably.

“The … ruler of the Abyss has always been jealous of Hazhallahad’s Staff and wanted it for her own. That is why Anansi instructed me to get it. If you continue to hold on to it she will eventually come for it and you will not be able to resist her deathly power. In a sense, I was doing you a favor by taking it.”

“Then why do you allow us to keep it now,” said Lousa and looked at the woman with narrowed eyes.

“My mother speaks directly with the Goddess Anansi and her ways are not clear to us but we obey,” said Lilithia a faraway look in her eyes as she continued to hold the staff with gentle hands. “We have been instructed to attempt to get the staff through reason but not to use violence. You would be wise to hand it over to me rather than face the wrath of the Goddess of Death.”

“What we really want to know is how to destroy the thing,” blurted out Almara unable to contain herself any longer.

“That you cannot do,” said Lilithia with a smirk. “It was forged at the instructions of the gods and only they can destroy it.”

“There are no gods,” muttered Ariana to herself and Lilithia gave her a quick look but did not bother to address the statement.

“I don’t understand,” said Tanner. “Why would Anansi create an item with the power of death when that is not her realm of power?”

“The Spider Queen’s plans are like webs with strands reaching in many directions,” said Lilithia. “It is beyond the ken of mere mortals to understand them. I suggest you hand over the staff and move on with your lives as best you can. The staff will bring you nothing but trouble and death. The Spider Queen is not merciful or kind but she is a far better ally than the Goddess of Death who rewards those who serve her with eternal damnation in the Abyss.”