The Staff of Sakatha (12 page)

Jon nodded his head, “You can call me fish for brains but that’s dangerous stuff down there, darklings, brain suckers, black things, if you come with us it won’t be pleasant.”

“Sir Fish for Brains,” said Germanius and clapped Jon on the back.

 Jon laughed out loud as did Sorus. “Ok then,” said the young Tanelornian as he put his hand on the hilt of his sword and moved to the front. “Follow me.”

“I don’t know why you trust that dragon child,” said the ghoulish creature as it licked its lips with an impossibly long tongue and fingered the open sores along its left side with the two digits that remained on its right hand. Before it, on a throne made of the thick bones of several creatures, or possibly of one many ribbed beast, sat Lord Whitebone in a regal and lush purple robe. “The creature clearly works for the lizards of Darag’dal, that unctuous Melharras, and his overly sly sidekick. It will betray us and use the Staff of Sakatha for his own ends once we raise the master.”

“You servants of the Lady of the Abyss are not capable of independent thought,” said Whitebone with a shake of his head and he gave a strange sigh. How he managed such without any air in his lungs remained a mystery to the ghoul lord but one he did not ponder greatly, being without a heartbeat himself. “The only one of you that shows any capability towards rational thinking is Tenebrous and I understand he is, once again, in trouble with she who has ruled for all eternity.”

“Do not speak his name,” said the ghoul as it scratched at other sores, this time on its leg. “The sooner she returns him to the Deathlands from whence he came the sooner I can take back my rightful place beside her throne.”

“The internal strife within the Abyss bores me,” said Whitebone as he somehow managed a tired expression on his skeletal face. “I understand the child of the dragon’s motivation just as I understand your motivation Thantos, the motivation of the lizards, the motivation of your mistress, and the motivations of the cockroach that crawls across your foot. Do you suppose for a moment that I don’t?”

Thantos looked at his foot for a moment, started to jump backwards, managed to control himself, and looked back up at the skeletal lord with fangs bared, “You like to play games Lord Whitebone,” he said, a small snarl coming from his mouth, “but you cannot think that giving Snowball to that creature was wise.”

“Again, you presume to tell me my business, I clearly was not plain enough in my admonishment. Thantos, do not tell me how to run my affairs, do not critique my decisions; report to me the messages from your mistress and consider yourself privileged that I do not send you to the Deathlands myself.

Thantos scratched himself under the arm and sniffed at the finger for a moment before he returned to scratch a little more.

The tall skeletal figure shook his boney head and sighed, “You are certain that I cannot deal with Tenebrous anymore?”

“The shadow whose name shall not be spoken is not able to fulfill his duties at this time because he cannot follow orders. You will deal with me and only me if you wish to communicate with the lady of the Abyss, she who rules eternally,” said Thanotos. “Now, you will tell me your plan to gain the Staff of Sakatha from the lizards, should they manage to find the thing.”

“I will,” said Lord Whitebone as he made this statement seem more like a question.

“You will or you face the wrath of the mistress of the Abyss. She aided you up until now only because of your past loyalty but do not take her support for granted. She wants to have the Staff of Sakatha.”

“Of course she wants the staff,” said Whitebone with a shake of his head. “Everyone knows she wants it so that she can control Sakatha when he rises as a lich lord.”

Thantos bowed his head, “I cannot speak to my mistress’s desires,” he said and once again licked his impossibly long tongue over his teeth. “I can only convey messages from her to you, Lord Whitebone. She wants to know, specifically, what are you doing to acquire the staff?”

“I have explained to both you and Tenebrous before you,” said Whitebone, although Thantos grimaced at the name, “that I am doing everything in my power to gain the staff. There are a number of possible outcomes to the endeavor and success is uncertain. Your mistress will have to live with that.”

“She will not like it,” said Thantos. “She wants more concrete reports as to your plans. She learned through sources that you sent your dragon up to the surface to aid the darkling’s men and their allies and this has upset her. She wants to know what you are doing, specifically, to get her the staff.”

“I do not have time for this nonsense, Thantos,” said Whitebone his hands beating out a strange tempo at the bone arm of the throne. “I am trying to get the staff. If we do not get the staff then we cannot use the staff. I don’t know where the staff is currently located, your mistress doesn’t know where the staff is currently located, I don’t know where the remains of Sakatha are hidden or even how to use the staff to resurrect his deathly form. The first step in this process is to find the damn staff!” said the skeletal creature and for the first time raised his voice. “Now, the only one who knows where the thing is hidden is the toxic one and his dreams are unpredictable and certainly not available to the likes of you or me. So, we have to use his dreams as a conduit to someone we can control once they obtain the staff. Does this chain of logic stretch your ability to follow it?”

Thantos thought for a moment and began to scratch himself on one of his many open sores and then looked up at the tall skeletal figure, “So, you hope to use the dragon child to get the staff and then take it from him?”

Whitebone nodded his head almost wearily if that were possible for a living skeleton. “I’m so pleased you have grasped the nuances of the situation.”

“But what if the creature gains the staff and takes it back to the lizards?” said Thantos.

“There is nothing certain in life or in death,” said Whitebone. “That is a dilemma we will deal with when it comes. The first thing is to make sure that the staff is found. That being said, do you think it will be useful to have my pet dragon around when the staff is found?”

Thantos thought for long minutes as Whitebone stared at him, the deep red embers of his eyes glowing with muted heat, finally the ghoul scratched himself again. “I shall report your progress to the mistress of the Abyss, she who rules eternally, and, if you are lucky, she won’t summon you to her side. You are a creature beyond the curtain of life as am I, and you too are subject to her will, no matter that in your arrogance you might believe otherwise. Do not think to betray her Whitebone, or she will send you to the Deathlands. I understand you’ve never been?”

Whitebone stood up, turned away, walked down a narrow corridor, and left the ghoul to his own devices. The creature smiled deeply and revealed its long fangs yet again, “Run away little skeleton, run away,” he said in a low whisper, “the mistress will have you soon enough and, after she is tired of playing with you, you will be mine.”

The wide, well lit staircase went down and down; somewhere past the two hundredth step Sorus lost exact count, and another hundred after that he no longer bothered to keep track. The evenly spaced lights made the passage of time and distance seem like a dream, and the young brewer wasn’t sure how far or how long they had traveled when he bumped into Germanius whose hand was up against the wall. “What is it?” asked the young brewer.

“It’s my knees,” said the old knight. “These stairs are too much, give me a moment to rest,” he finished and flexed first his left knee and then his right.

“Jon,” whispered Sorus, but the gray knight was already too many steps ahead to hear the voice. “Jon!” he said a little more loudly but even that voice seemed to die in the stairwell. “Wait here,” he said to Germanius with a pat on the old warrior’s shoulder. “I’ll get him and we’ll wait a bit. It’s been a long day and night, we all need to rest.” With that Sorus started off down the stairs in pursuit of Jon as he whispered out now and again, “Jon!” but he got no reply. He went down another hundred steps at a quickened pace and once stumbled as his toe caught an edge, and he almost fell head over heels but managed to catch himself with a quick hand on the wall and skittered to a stop, “Jon!” he whispered again, “Jon, wait, it’s Germanius!” But there was no reply. Sorus stood for a long moment and looked forward down the stairs and backwards towards Germanius and then sighed, “damn.” Then he began to trudge back up the stairs towards the old warrior. It took him longer than he thought but he found the man coming down towards him with hobbled little strides.

“Germanius,” he whispered as he came up to the old warrior. “Sit down, Jon’s gone ahead but he’ll realize he’s alone and come back for us soon enough,” although Sorus didn’t believe it even as the words came out of his mouth. After a month with young Jon Gray the brewer knew the boy’s habits too well and caution wasn’t one of his traits.

The knight of Elekargul looked at Sorus for a long moment as if he wanted say something caustic but then a pained expression came over his face and he winced badly. “Damn shooters, maybe you’re right, I’ll sit for a spell. That boy is headstrong but I can’t say I wasn’t the same when I was his age. He’s got a lot of responsibility for one so young.” With that the knight slowly lowered himself to a stair and, with Sorus’s help, came to the ground with only a small thump. “Ahhh, damn that hurts,” he said.

“It’s ok, Germanius,” said Sorus. “Now that I think about it, my knees hurt too and I’m exhausted. I’m a fifth your age. We’ve pushed too much. We should have stayed in that cave and waited until morning.”

“I should argue with you,” grunted Germanius, leaning against the wall and putting his legs out along the step, “but I’m too damn tired.”

“Here,” said Sorus and took off his heavy woolen jerkin, “use this as a pillow, it’s warm down here anyway,” he said and put it under the old knight’s head. “Get some sleep, Jon’ll be back eventually, he won’t just leave us.”

Germanius nodded his head and his eyes began to close even before he leaned back on the make-shift pillow. Within seconds his snores filled the stairwell and suddenly Sorus felt very sleepy as well. He knew he had to stay away to keep watch over the old knight but it wasn’t long before he dreamed as well. It seemed only a moment later that a rough shake of his shoulder woke him up. “Good morning,” said Jon and smiled down at him. “Did you sleep well?”

“Huh,” said Sorus, looking around. He couldn’t remember where he was for a moment. “Where are we?”

“On the stairs into the darkling land,” said Jon. “I let you sleep for a few hours, Sir Germanius is still out, but I’m going to need some sleep as well. Can you take over the watch?”

Sorus nodded his head, “At least it’s warm,” he said and groaned as he tried to sit up.

“What is it?” said Jon.

“My back,” said Sorus, reaching behind and putting his palm to his spine. “This floor is a bit harder than my bed at home or even that cot at the Smooth Strider. I’ll be ok.”

“We should have thought all this through before we charged away,” said Jon with a shake of his head. “I’m worried about the horses as well. We left them hobbled back at the camp site and they won’t survive more than a couple of days without water. We need to finish up here and head back as soon as possible. If Jane finds out about this I’ll never hear the end of it. Now, keep watch and give me a few hours of sleep. If Sir Germanius is up for it in the morning I know where to go.”

“Where?” said Sorus as he suddenly came fully awake and the pain in his spine vanished.

But Jon already lay on the stone step his eyes closed and his breath in an even rhythm.

It seemed to Sorus that each minute took an hour as he watched the two sleep that long, long night, but eventually Germanius stirred, groaned loudly, and opened his eyes. It took the old warrior a few seconds to focus in on Sorus and then Jon, still gently in slumber, but then he grimaced and began slowly to rise.

“Arrahgh,” he said. “That smarts,” and he grabbed at his back exactly the way Sorus did earlier. “How long did you let me sleep?”

“I’m not sure, how do you keep track of time underground?” said Sorus.

“You don’t,” said Germanius. “You pretty much eat when your belly tells you and sleep when you’re tired. I was underground once for almost a week chasing darklings back in the year Romius Openpalm was First Rider. We never caught them and we only found out how long we were underground later when we got back up. It’s a strange thing being underground.” All the while the old knight stretched and turned first his legs, then his arms, and finally his back. “I haven’t warmed up like this in years,” said the old knight, “but you should do it. It keeps the body limber.”

“I’m not too bad,” said Sorus, smiling and stretching his arms to the sky.

“I know that, because you’re young,” said Germanius. “But, you should learn to stretch everyday proper like and when you get older you won’t have as many troubles.”

“So, how do I do it?” asked the young knight and watched Germanius. The two went through a long series of small movements and by the end Sorus had to admit that he did feel a bit better. When they finished they saw Jon Gray watching them with a twinkle in his eye.

“I’ve seen morning salutations like that before,” he said. “In Tanelorn we’re allies with the elves of Alianus and they practice that sort of thing. One of my father’s friends, a dwarf named Sir Pedlow Fivefist has a son that married an elf girl and she tried to teach them to me.”

“A dwarf married to an elf?” said Germanius, “That must be some place, your Tanelorn. She must be an ugly elf.”

“It’s a long story but ugly isn’t the word I’d use for Appolonia,” said Jon and got up and started a routine similar but different from the one Germanius used.

“It’ll take me a wee bit longer to be ready,” said the old knight with a smile as he flexed his leg. “Why don’t you go ahead and tell it. I’m sure the boy wants to know,” he continued with a look towards Sorus. “Yes, even though you’re a knight now, I can still call you a boy,” he said which shut the objection that was on Sorus’s lips before it could emerge.