The Staff of Naught (34 page)

“Look!” shouted Shalalee as a shadow form appeared at the mouth of the stairwell that led down into the strange crypt. The shadow became a head and then a filthy face and the girl staggered back, “Daddy!”

The thing rose up a hand and waved, “It’s us,” and tried to wipe some of the sticky black ichor from its face, only partially succeeded, but revealed the gaped tooth grin of Ariana.

Lousa ran forward, “Ara!” and started to put her arms around the girl but the sudden stench that emanated from her forced the elf-blooded woman to stagger back with a shake of her head and a sudden urge to vomit almost overwhelmed her. “Oh,” she said and covered her mouth with her hand. “What happened to you?”

“Gross,” said Unerus, looked at his little sister, and laughed but he stopped immediately when the others began to pile out as well. Humbort came out next and held up Shamki whose arm was thrown over the shoulder of the gangly man. Next up was Hazlebub and Sutekha as they half carried the paladin Oliver whose feet shuffled along over the ground. Last came Seymour, his fine robes drenched in the vile stuff, he had somehow managed to clean some of his hair although the expression of disgust on his face was more than obvious.

“Oh my darling,” said Almara and rushed towards Ariana but also staggered a step backwards when she got close enough to smell the girl. “What happened? Shalalee,” she said and turned to her daughter and son, “Tylan, get buckets and bring back water from the creek.”

The two children stared at the bedraggled Ariana for a moment and Unerus laughed out loud, “It’s going to take more than a bucket!”

“The boy might have a point,” said Lousa and held her nose. “Why don’t you take Ariana and Hazle down to the creek?”

“I might like to accompany them,” said Sutekha and held up the bottom half of his jerkin. “I’m afraid I was a secondary casualty. If you wouldn’t mind my company?”

Hazle smiled at the man and, after they gently set Oliver on the ground, hooked her arm under his and the two followed Ariana and the children to the promised creek.

Seymour started to speak as he watched them walk off, the little girl still clutched the Staff of Naught, but a quick glance at Tanner and Lousa seemed to give him second thoughts and he shut his mouth without a word.

“Humbort,” said Lousa and walked over to where he and Shamki sat on the grass. “What on earth happened down there? How did you get the staff back? Shamki, are you all right,” the last was said as she put her hand on his cheek, “You look terrible. Here, lie down, I’ll get some wet cloth.”

“Ara found the staff and then we had a big fight!” said Humbort a large smile on his face.

“Shamki?” questioned Lousa with a look at the big half-orc whose eyes seemed slightly glazed and whose breath was somewhat labored.

“About right,” said Shamki with a nod to his friend.

Lousa looked at Seymour who sat on the ground and looked at his bedraggled robe with a disgusted expression on his face. “Why don’t you join the others down at the creek and get cleaned up?”

Seymour looked at the woman with a sneer and again seemed ready to say something but then slowly stood up and began to walk in the same direction as the others.

Almara emerged from the back of the wagon carrying a huge armful of rags, a washboard, several bars of soap, and immediately walked briskly towards the creek.

Tanner looked at Lousa and shook his head. “You were saying that you shouldn’t have stayed behind but should have gone with them?”

“I may have to rethink that,” said the woman her green eyes the shade of emeralds again as she gently stroked Shamki’s dark hair and smiled down at him. “Humbort, is it possible you could go into more detail about what happened?”

“But don’t elaborate too much,” said Tanner.

“What’s elaborate?” said Humbort and the merchant rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“I don’t think we’re doing to get the full story until the others come back. And, to judge by their condition, that might well take some time. I’ve been the subject to a scrub or two from Almara and I don’t envy any of them, particularly poor little Ara.”

“She’s a good scrubber is she,” asked Lousa and smiled at the merchant in a mischievous way.

“It depends on how you define good,” he replied and smiled right back while Humbort looked at them both with a confused expression.

“What happened to Shamki and Oliver?” said Tanner going over to the orc paladin who lay on the ground by himself.

“Ghouls scratched him,” said Humbort and pointed to the long mark on Shamki’s arm where a clear substance of some sort coated the wounds.

“By the Gods,” said Tanner as he approached Oliver and saw the much more significant wounds along his left side. The paladin’s his heavy chain shirt was badly ripped and the jerkin below it torn away to reveal the terrible wounds in his flesh. There were two long claw marks in his arms but the puncture holes in his left side looked very deep and oozed blood despite some apparent attempts to staunch the flow that must have occurred while they were still underground.

Lousa’s eyes widened at the severity of the wounds that still bled and immediately got up and ran to the wagon. “I think I know where Hazlebub keeps some of her healing poultices,” she shouted over her shoulder.”

Tanner knelt down next to Oliver who made a little grunt, “mmgh,” but this did not dissuade the merchant from rolling him over. “Now, listen here. I imagine you’re quite an expert with that sword of yours but we need to get this armor off of you and let Lousa clean these wounds. You’re a fighter by trade and you know infected wounds can kill a man long after they are dealt.”

Oliver looked at Tanner for a moment but then his resistance stopped and he allowed the man to roll him on his back. The chain shirt, hitched at the shoulders and cinched around the waist and neither Tanner nor Lousa had much experience in taking off armor but they managed to strip the paladin after a few minutes.

“By the Gods, these bite wounds are deep,” said Lousa and carefully wiped at the oozing holes with a rag soaked in some of Hazlebub’s potions. “The thing’s fangs must have been three or four inches long.”

“It was ten feet tall,” said Humbort still next to Shamki and now he helped the half-orc take off his own shirt.

“Really?” said Tanner, looked at the terrible fang wounds on Oliver, and shook his head.

Shamki shook his head when Lousa gave him a glance but did not contradict his friend.

Down at the creek Ariana was completely naked and swimming in a small pool where the water was deep while Hazlebub sat in the shallows letting the water pour over her clothes. Sutekha, his skin extremely pale, stood naked in the middle of the creek the water just above his knees and splashed himself while Shalalee pretended to look in the other direction.

“Here, Shalalee,” said Almara who was downstream a ways with a pile of clothes, the washboard, and the soap, “come help me wash these things, you too Tylan and Unerus. Let Hazle and the others wash in piece.

The children rolled their eyes at one another and stalled for a few moments but a stern look from Almara eventually brought them over and they began to wring out each piece of clothing in the water while they tried to hold their noses.

“Hazle,” said Almara looking at the woman whose scrubbed face and clean clothes seemed to take twenty years off her age, “you need to strip down. Go around the corner with Seymour if you’re shy about it you but I’m not going to let you back in the wagon if those clothes don’t get a thorough scrub.

The witch leaned back in the water letting it flow over her body for a few more seconds but then began to strip off her rags.

“Here, Shalalee,” said Almara. “You get those clothes from Hazle and if any of them aren’t already rags bring them back.”

“Everything she wears is rags,” said the girl. “She’s a witch.”

“That’s true,” admitted Almara. “I’ll tell you what. After you get her clothes go throw them away where she won’t find them and then go back to the wagon and get some of my old things. She’s not much taller than you are so some of your things might fit her as well. Now scoot!”

Shalalee smiled and moved towards the woman in the creek and began to gather up her discarded clothes.

Almara next looked at Ariana who still swam in the deeper part of the creek, “Young lady,” she yelled and the girl looked up her face split by a huge gap toothed grin but the Staff of Naught still clutched in her hand. “You come over here so I can give you a scrubbing. You can’t give it to yourself while you’re holding that thing and I don’t suppose I can convince you to let it go?”

The girl shook her head and dove into the water emerging a few yards away and kicked her way over to the group.

“When did you learn to swim?” Unerus asked of his sister a puzzled expression on his face.

“I don’t know,” said the girl with a smile. “It’s easy.”

With that Almara grabbed a heavy, wood handle brush with the stiff horse hair bristles, dipped it in the creek water, rubbed it briskly over a bar of soap, grabbed Ariana by the arm, and then began to apply it to the girls head.

Ariana’s eyes suddenly opened completely and a scream tore out of her mouth, which caused everyone else to stop what they were doing and turn to the girl who was frantically trying to get out of the iron grip of the woman. “No you don’t,” said Almara and began to scrub with even great vigor.

“It’s okay, Ara,” said Tylan. “Just sit down, close your eyes, and remember that eventually she’ll be done.” Ariana tried one last time to escape the vice like hold upon her arm but then gave up and sat down in the rocky bank and gave out another cry as her backside found an overly pointed rock. It took her a few moments to shift her position to one of relative comfort but by then her head was a mass of foam and Almara loaded the brush up with another slather of soap.

“You,” said the woman turning to her son. “Take this other brush over to those two,” she said with a point of her chin to where Sutekha and Hazlebub were, “and this soap too, and tell them they won’t get any dinner tonight unless they pass the smell test.”

“Yes, mom,” said the boy and looked at the bedraggled Ariana whose naked body was not yet showing any of the signs of womanliness. “It’ll be okay, Ara, I promise. Mom used to do the same to me when I got into the mud puddles.”

The girl looked up at the barely turned teen boy whose face showed the signs of some acne in a few pimples and started to smile only to howl again as the bristle brush found a tender spot on her backside.

Tylan turned away to prevent the girl from seeing him laugh and walked out into the creek with the soap and brush to where Hazlebub and Sutekha relaxed as they let the cool water flow over their naked bodies. “Mom says you have to scrub up good and if she can smell you when you get back you won’t get any dinner,” he continued and tossed the brush to the wizard who let it bounce off his hands and fall into the water where it began to float downstream.

Sutekha took a stab at it but missed, lost his footing, and fell face first in the water with a great splash. Hazlebub shook her head as she looked at him. “You wizards are all the same, misspent youth practicing spells and not playing with balls,” as she took a quick and powerful pair of strokes and grabbed the brush at about the same time Sutekha came up and spat out a mouth full of water. “Get your pale, skinny ass over here,” she said with a wicked leer as she soaped up the brush. “Tylan, you might not want to see this!” she said with a glance at the boy who smiled broadly and turned to leave.

“No,” shouted Sutekha but with a happy smile on his pale face. “Don’t leave me alone with her!”

“You’re on your own,” said the boy a wide grin on his face although this turned into a frown as he spotted Seymour, his robes still wet but cleaned of the black bile, his hair hung down from his face, and the terrible, and yet beautiful golden globe on his chests its fiery center burned with untold intensity and power.

Seymour came up from around the corner of the bend and gave one, barely disguised look of disgust towards the naked Sutekha and Hazlebub, another glance towards the shoreline where the scrubbing of Ariana continued apace, then turned back towards the wagon without saying a word, and began to walk in that direction.

“He’s a jolly sort,” said Hazlebub and watched the figure depart as she settled into the creek and began to scrub at the hair of the wizard.

“You don’t know the half of it,” said Sutekha and looked around to make sure the Priest of Ras was well out of earshot. “He believes he is the Chosen Servant of Ras sent out to cleanse the world of darkness.”

“That ain’t half bad,” said Hazlebub with a more gentle touch on the wizard than Almara employed on Ariana, at least if the occasional yelps of the girl were indicative.

“He is fanatical, ouch!” said Sutekha and suddenly flinched as the brush worked over his ear. “I was a wizard of my people, the Golden Worm Nomads of the Sands. The Tarltonites captured me while I took part in a raid against them. Seymour found out I was a prisoner and had me transferred to his estate. He promised to allow me to live if I would accompany him on this mission.”

“So, you didn’t know him before?” said Hazlebub.

“No, but I’ve traveled with him for many weeks now and I know him more than well enough. When he says he wants to eradicate the darkness of the world what he really means is that he wants to eradicate anyone who worships a god other than Ras. He is fanatical and he is not open to reason, logic, or other points of view. What makes him particularly dangerous is that he somehow has bonded Oliver to him.”

“The warrior, he looks a mean’un,” said Hazlebub and continued to scrub her voice became quieter as if there was a chance the priest might overhear the conversation.

“He is the most powerful paladin in all of Tarlton. His reputation extends far into the desert and I know that the Black Horsemen fear him. I’ve seen him fight and he is a force with which not to be trifled. Once Seymour gets the staff and destroys it with his Icon of Ras …,” went on the wizards.

“What is that thing?” said Hazlebub.