"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 pa.s.sage 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 G.o.ddess Anansi who was also visiting the royal house at that time."
"There are no G.o.ds," 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 G.o.ds," 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds!" 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 beginning 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 G.o.ddess 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 G.o.ddess 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 G.o.ds and only they can destroy it."
"There are no G.o.ds," 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 G.o.ddess of Death who rewards those who serve her with eternal d.a.m.nation in the Abyss."
"I thank you for your advice," said Lousa, standing up and walking towards the darkling. "Have you examined the staff to your satisfaction?"
Lilithia stood and offered the staff to Lousa, who took a step back from it and darted a look to Ariana. The girl stood herself and walked over to the darkling, her face an undisguised mask of hate, and stuck out her hand to take it.
Lilithia pulled it back ever so slight causing the girl to miss with her grab; she smiled broadly, and then offered it again, and this time allowed Ariana to take it.
Ariana took it with a sigh, then walked back to the sack, placed it inside, carefully tying back the top, and then sat down on her bed directly next to it.
"I have honored my agreement," said Lilithia with a nod of her head and a smoldering look towards Tanner.
"You have," said Tanner with a bow. "We have also honored our agreement so if you wouldn"t mind leaving us to talk among ourselves?"
"Of course," said the darkling as she bowed to him and shimmied out of the room, her trim but well-shaped figure drawing the eyes of all the men as she went out. At the door she smiled up at Shamki and ran her hand over his chest, "Such muscles, yummy," and then she was gone. The half-orc showed no sign that the touch affected him and his face remained pa.s.sive and his eyes narrow.
"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 G.o.ddesses 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 do 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, 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. An 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," said the shadow 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 showing 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 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 little child"s tame 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. "These 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."