The Staff of Sakatha (13 page)

“About five years ago, I was just a kid then,” started Jon, “a group of orc kingdoms called the Five Nations attacked an elf nation called Alianus. My father has pledged never to lead a war of aggression and we only defend ourselves, but to get to Alianus the orcs either had to go through a gnoll kingdom called Grelm or Tanelorn. My father and many of the knights wouldn’t let the orcs pass so we got involved in the fight. One of the dwarves was the son of Sir Pedlow, a fellow by the name of Sir Strombolt Fivefist, and he went up to the elf lands for something or another. I can never remember the story, but he ended up saving the life of one of the elf princes, Halavar Evenday, but took a terrible wound doing it. Halavar took Strombolt back to his home in Alianus and his sister, Appolonia, nursed Strombolt back to health. Well, you can guess the rest. They’ve got a little girl now but I can’t remember her name. She bit me though, I remember that, when I tried to pinch her.”

“Maybe if I get wounded,” said Sorus, and Jon and Germanius looked at the boy with smiles on their faces.

“It’s a good strategy for finding a wife, that’s true,” said the old warrior and chucked Sorus on the chin, “but it comes with its own dangers.”

“The wounds or the wife?” said Jon.

“You’ll find a girl that steals your heart one day,” said Germanius to the young gray knight. “I know you’re happy to sow your wild oats in whatever pretty lass happens by the farm, but one day you’ll find someone and then you’ll see. Yes you will.”

“I already found the one I want,” said Sorus, and neither the old man or the young knight chose to contradict him.

“Come along now,” said Jon. “Sir Germanius, I’ve found that dragon for you and it’s not a small one either. I wouldn’t call it an earth shaker but a good twenty feet long to the tail, white as snow, with a pair of horns about as long my dick and twice as thick!”

The old knight suddenly stood up straight and nodded his head, a gleam of anticipation in his eyes. “You’ll let me strike the first blow, boy,” he said more as an order than a request and Jon nodded his head.

“Of course, old man, a promise is a promise,” he replied and put a huge hand on the knight’s shoulder. “It’s about five hundred steps down and then along a corridor into a cave. It’s with another of those dragon children and a darkling elf. I couldn’t get close enough to hear what they were saying, but I think it might have something to do with my little quest as well. I think they’re waiting for our friends upstairs and I doubt they’ll wait much longer.”

“Then why do you stand there and yak away,” said Germanius, looking up at Jon, and putting his hand to the hilt of his sword. “Let’s be about it. If this is my last day alive I’d prefer it to be shorter than the second to last. My knees can’t handle much more. I feel like it’s bone rubbing bone down there, can’t you hear the grinding?” he said and squatted down and then rose again.

Jon and Sorus listened for a moment but the old man suddenly broke into a large grin, “Stop your foolishness boys, I wasn’t serious. There’s a dragon to kill and I’m just the old knight to do it.”

With that the three made their way down the stairs, although Sir Germanius moved with care and his limp became pronouncedly worse as the journey went on.

“Only 500 steps you say,” said Germanius with a grimace as his right knee almost collapsed under him.

“Here, put an arm around my shoulder,” said Jon and leaned down and put his own arm around the waist of the old knight. “You need to save up strength so you can kill that white beast down there.”

“Ahh, that I do,” said the old knight as he slipped his arm around Jon, who walked hunched over to help Sir Germanius, as they slowly made their way down the staircase.

It seemed like hours to Sorus as he watched the old knight and Jon Gray limp down the stairs, and the long journey gave him too much time to think, “Maybe I should whittle,” he said quietly to himself and then laughed. This brought about a glance from Jon and Germanius but neither said anything as they continued their trip. “It’s well and good for Sir Germanius to want to die in glory at the end of his life, but fighting a dragon I could die as well, and for what, so that Jon can find this thing his father just wants to lock away so no one can ever get to it?” he thought to himself as the journey continued. “If it’s that powerful who’s to say I couldn’t use it and become a great knight, the First Rider, and then Shia will marry me.”

Every time his thoughts drifted down this path he pulled himself up short and tried to think more nobly, like a knight should, but it didn’t take him long to realize that being Sir Sorus didn’t change him more than his thirteenth birthday changed him into being a man. “I’m the same person no matter what,” he finally admitted to himself. “I want the same things I wanted before. I promised Sir Germanius I’d stay with Jon and I guess that’s what I’ll do.”

He just came to that decision when they reached the bottom of the seemingly endless stairwell. “Who could have built these stairs?” he asked out loud and looked back up to the endless string of light stones that stretched behind them.

“Darklings,” said Jon, but Germanius shook his head. “This was built by the Old Empire, nobody builds a set of stairs like this unless they’re marching armies. When the emperor finished conquering the world he started conquering the darklings and this was one of the roads that made it possible.”

“You can’t know that,” said Jon with a skeptical look at the old man. “It could be darkling construction just as easily.”

“No,” said Germanius, “I’ve seen plenty of darkling tunnels to the surface and they’re not anything like this. This is a road for an army and the darkling’s don’t invade the surface, they can’t stand the light. Besides, they see well enough in the dark, what do ya think those light stones in the walls are doing?”

“That’s true,” said Sorus and Jon nodded his head.

“You’re probably right, Germanius but that was so long ago. My father, he thinks the Old Empire … that things are turning circle, that creatures buried during the reign of the Usurper before the fall of everything are coming back, that the world is … well, I don’t even really know, he mostly talks to Val about that stuff.”

“I thought your sister was named Jane,” said Sorus.

“My older brother Valarius,” said Jon. “He’s a druid. He and father talk a lot about those sorts of things but I’ve never really been much interested. It always seemed kind of boring but these steps are something else. The power to do something like this, the power to make … Banisher,” said the young gray knight.

“Banisher!” said Germanius and suddenly turned to him. “That’s a name from the dim. Banisher, the Black Sword, wielded by the Usurper to slay the Emperor and send his allies back to the Nine Hells and beyond.”

“No one knows if those stories are true,” said Jon. “In any case, yonder lies a big open cavern and the dragon is inside with the darkling elf and the dragon child. I don’t think we can surprise them. The cave is big and they’ll see us coming from a distance.”

“How can we take them then?” asked Sorus, his hand ahold of his slim blade. The cold of the hilt made him feel better, but the thought of a dragon quickly sent fear through his body again. He felt his legs suddenly go weak, and he put a hand up against the wall to steady himself. “If we can’t surprise them and that dragon unleashes his breath on us we’ll never even get close to them.”

“We don’t know if it can use its breath,” said Jon. “Not all dragons can but we do need a plan and I’ve been thinking all the way down here.”

“Go on, Jon,” said Germanius, standing up straight and looking into the young knights eyes as much as he could from so far below. “You make a plan and I’ll follow it. So will Sir Sorus here. This is your mission and yours alone to decide.”

“They’re waiting for those creatures we killed upstairs, so they might not be in the mood to attack us right away,” said Jon. “Germanius goes in first and tells them you found their friends just after an ambush up in that cave. Tell them the truth, the dying creatures, the bloody remains, and then say something about a giant human with a big sword and a young knight of Elekargul. Then Sorus and I burst in; while they look at us you close in on the dragon and kill the creature. You’ll be alone up there against all of them for a few moments and it won’t be easy but Sir Sorus and I will come up as fast as we can to help you.”

“I’ll have to cover my knightly sigil,” said Germanius and pointed to the symbol of the knights of Elekargul, a set of four horseshoes pointing away from each other and a hand broken at the wrist in the middle.

“I don’t think so,” said Jon. “I didn’t watch them long but I got the impression the dragon child and the white dragon weren’t from around here and the darkling elf has probably never been on the surface at all. He might know about the knights of Elekargul but he won’t make the connection between your symbol and the knights fast enough. If we go quickly this has a chance of working.”

“All right,” said Germanius. “I’ll kill the dragon but I won’t be able to hold off the others long.”

Jon stood up straight and stuck his hand out for the old knight to grasp and they shook for a long moment and stared at one another. “It’s been a pleasure serving with you Sir Germanius Brokenhand,” said Jon with a nod of his head. “If I ever do find one girl to settle down with I’ll remember you to her with kind words.”

Sir Germanius smiled, “You’re a good boy, Jon,” he said. “But you’re young and headstrong. You listen to your father if you ever make it back to Tanelorn, and I want you to promise me something.”

“Of course,” said Jon with a nod of his head, “anything.”

“Take Sir Sorus with you. You two are bound together I think. Take him back to this Tanelorn of yours, keep him with you and keep him safe.”

Jon nodded, “I will.”

The two men then turned to Sorus who stood there, a sheepish look on his face, and suddenly he found tears in his eyes, “I don’t want you to die, Germanius,” he blubbered and hated himself immediately.

“What you want doesn’t matter,” said the old knight with a smile as he patted the young knight on the shoulder. “It’s time for me to die. You watch me kill that dragon and tell everyone back in town; my grandson lives in the hills west of Red Roost. You tell him how I died, and you tell the First Rider.”

Sorus nodded as the tears still came down his face, “I will, Sir Germanius. You can count on me.”

“I know I can,” replied the knight and then turned towards the cave mouth and strode inside.

A moment later they heard his voice calling, “Great dragon of the north, I have news of your allies, they are slain by a giant but they told me of the staff!”

There was a sudden babble of sounds from beyond the door as the acoustics of the large cave seemed to turn all conversation into a muddle.

“Give him a few moments to get away from the cave entrance,” said Jon. “He’ll move off to the side so they’re not looking directly at it and then we make our move.”

Sorus nodded and pulled out his sword, “I’m with you, Jon.”

“I know,” said Jon. “It looks like I’m to take you back to Tanelorn. There’s no getting out of that promise I made to Germanius, so you’re stuck with me.”

Sorus nodded and they waited for a few more seconds and then Jon pulled his mammoth stone sword from its scabbard and raised it up, “For the Gray!” he shouted and dashed into the room. Sorus didn’t have a moment to contemplate the war cry but simply shouted out, “For Elakargul” and charged in after.

Sorus watched Jon as he loped across the smooth marble floor of the immense cavern, immediately broke into a sprint of his own, but fell further behind with every stride. The seven foot tall teenager moved with apparent languid motions but covered ground faster than a sprinter, which left Sorus far behind. Up ahead stood the first dragon the young knight saw outside of pictures, a dragon child much like the one upstairs but with green and white scales, and a darkling elf with purplish black skin, silver hair, and a twinkling set of chain mail on his breast and arms. In front of them stood Sir Germanius, his arms spread out as if in appeal although the eyes of the three foes eyes locked on Jon Gray as he dashed towards them his sword raised above his head.

Things seemed to move in slow motion as Sorus willed his legs to move faster. The darkling elf moved first as it pulled a slim, curved blade from the jeweled scabbard at his side and lunged towards Jon and shouted out something in a language that the young knight did not understand. The dragon child looked towards the white dragon in confusion and the creature itself, just as Jon described with two long, thick horns protruding from its head, turned to face Jon with a look of anticipation in its eyes.

“Jon Gray,” it said in the plainest words Sorus ever heard in his life. “My master told me you might be meddling in these affairs. I’m glad it will be I, Snowball the steed of Lord Wh …. Argahaha,” it screamed, and Sorus noted Sir Germanius’s sword plunged deeply into its neck.

The dragon child hissed, charged towards the old knight, and drew a wicked blade from its side with a quick motion.

“Watch out!” screamed Sorus still halfway across the great chamber and Germanius pulled the blade from the creatures neck but not before it reached forward like a snake with one talon and grabbed the wrist of the old warrior. Sorus heard the snap from across the room clearly, but the broken sword arm didn’t stop the old knight as he pulled a longer dagger from his belt with his left hand and lunged forward towards the beast’s mouth. The creature opened its jaws wide enough to encircle the waist of Germanius and bit down with a terrible crunching sound as the teeth bit into chain armor.

Germanius plunged the dagger into the creature’s head between the two horns and a fountain of blood spewed out of his mouth. A moment later the dragon child plunged his blade into the old warrior’s lower body which hung kicking and squirming in the mouth of the creature.

“Damn you,” screamed Sorus, and suddenly he was there, on top of them, as he rushed past Jon and the darkling elf and towards the dragon child. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the elf raise up his sword to parry Jon’s sweeping blow and heard a strange little tinkle sound, but then he was upon the dragon child who busied itself plunging its blade into Sir Germanius a second time. He lunged forward the point of his own sword aimed at the creatures exposed back but it half turned, perhaps as it heard his cry, and the blade slid along its right shoulder and sliced through a thick leather breastplate but failed to damage the creature.