The Staff Of Naught Part 25

"What's elaborate?" said Humbort and the merchant rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"I don't think we're going 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 G.o.ds," said Tanner as he approached Oliver and saw the much more significant wounds along his left side. The paladin's his heavy chain s.h.i.+rt 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 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 s.h.i.+rt was. .h.i.tched 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 G.o.ds, 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 s.h.i.+rt.

"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 peace.

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 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 girl's 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 greater 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 s.h.i.+ft her position to one of relative comfort but by then her head was a ma.s.s 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 pa.s.s 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 b.a.l.l.s," 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 mouthful of water. "Get your pale, skinny a.s.s 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 chest, its fiery center burning 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 sh.o.r.eline 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 wors.h.i.+ps a G.o.d 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 as she 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 Hors.e.m.e.n 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.

"I think, it's difficult to look at, so bright ... but I think ...," said the wizard and then paused.

"What?" asked Hazlebub and paused in her scrubbing.

"You'll think I'm mad," he said.

"Tell me," she said and resumed her work.

He pointed to the sky and sun, "The sun, I think it's a reflection, or an image, or actually it, somehow."

"But, it would be too hot," she said. "He couldn't wear it."

"The planets," went on Sutekha. "Have you studied astronomy?"

"Of course," said Hazlebub. "The planets move around the sun."

"If you look closely, it's difficult, it's so bright, but if you look closely you can see them, the planets, orbiting his icon. I did some calculations, I tried to watch, it's madness, but I think they are one and the same, the planets are in the right positions. I think that thing around his neck is the actual sun, somehow."

"That's not possible," said the witch, her hand still scrubbing but going back and forth over the same spot on the wizard's back like some automaton without a will of its own.

"As I said," replied Sutekha, his face a study in concentration as he totally forgot about the scrub brush. "It's impossible, insane, but I think it's true. Seymour claims Ras himself gave him the Icon in reward for some great deed. Oliver and Seymour have traveled together for many years. Seymour is a bit of a legend in my lands. He is the son of the old king and considered the finest priest of his generation. Everyone a.s.sumed he would eventually become the new king but he truly believed in his religious calling. He traveled the world for many years in the manner of Yumanar the Traveler and became the most powerful priest in the world. He only recently came back to Tarlton and settled in the city. His younger brother is king now but the boy is weak and lets the darkling, Ming, control his actions. Speculation is rampant that Seymour will take the throne by force and it is well known he has no love for the warlord, the two being wors.h.i.+ppers of darkness and light."

"It sounds volatile," said Hazlebub, her head tilted at a slight angle and her eyes looking off into the distance. "You said the Icon of Ras is capable of destroying the Staff of Naught?"

"Yes," said Sutekha but then checked himself. "At least Seymour seems to think it is possible. He wants to take it to one of those old White Marble ruins and perform some sort of ceremony."

"Ahhh," said the witch with a long, drawn out sigh. "The White Marble."

"The building block of the Old Empire," said Sutekha his own eyes now going far away. "I learned of it deep underground from my people, the Golden Worm Nomads. There are a number of the old structures buried far beneath the earth and much of our magic is derived from what we learned of the ancients."

"Yes, there is one in the woodlands outside of Iv's Folly," said the witch. "My mother, bless her, she was killed by Dorian soldiers, let me think, 30 years ago, she taught me about the place and how to summon the ancient magic."

"All the old stone circles are from the same era although most of them are not the White Marble that is reserved for especially powerful sites. In any case, Seymour hopes to use the power of one of the old sites to amplify the Icon of Ras enough to destroy the Staff of Naught. Apparently the staff and Seymour go back a long way. There was some fellow named Khemer who used ..."

"Khemer!" cried Hazlebub and completely stopped in her cleansing of the wizard as her mouth suddenly hung open.

"Yes, you know the name?" said Sutekha with a sharp glance at the witch.

"It was the ghost," said Hazlebub.

"Ghost?" said the wizard just as the witch began to scrub at his back.

"Lift your leg there," she said. "Yes, when the skeletons first started marching I summoned a spirit, I thought I summoned a spirit but maybe he was there, waiting, all the time."

"I'm not following you," said Sutekha, "and be a little judicious with the brush in that area if you don't mind."

"Of course," said the witch a broad smile on her face. "I wouldn't want to hurt that. Khemer, of course, he was waiting there, he used my summoning ritual as an excuse, and he knew what he was doing all the time. That explains everything."

"Not to me," said Sutekha. "When do I get my turn with the brush?"

"Not quite yet, my pale little friend," she said.

"Little?" said Sutekha.

"You men are all the same. My sister's husband is an insecure fellow," replied Hazlebub.

"So, you're not partnered with anyone?" said Sutekha and tried to keep his voice even but his eagerness showed through a bit.

"Do you want to know about Khemer or about my s.e.x life?"

Sutekha shrugged his shoulders, "Does it have to be one or the other? Ouch! You did that on purpose."

Hazlebub smiled and continued to scrub, "Khemer told us he wanted to destroy the staff, the lying little p.r.i.c.k, but then he tried to bring himself back to life with it and we killed him."

"You killed a ghost?" said Sutekha with raised eyebrows. "Most impressive. The creatures are notoriously difficult to dispose of permanently. They simply melt away and appear somewhere else at another time."

"Khemer made the mistake of bringing himself back to life and then we realized he was up to something. He almost killed Lousa with that staff and gave me a good knock as well but Tylan killed him."

"Tylan?" said Sutekha and turned all the way around to face the woman. "The boy? Really?"

Hazlebub nodded her head, "Yes, he used a hammer that the bugbear was carrying when he ambushed us. I wonder where that thing has gotten to?"

"I'm completely lost," said Sutekha and shook his head, "but I'll tell you all I know about this Khemer fellow as that might shed some light ... haha ... on the situation."

"Ha ha," said Hazlebub in a flat tone.

"Seymour and Oliver apparently became enemies with this Khemer fellow thirty years ago, or maybe even more, and it had to do with the staff. They were fighting for power in Tarlton, Seymour's father would have been king then, and Seymour ended up winning the power struggle and chased Khemer away. They spent years tracking him down and killed him in the end but somehow they couldn't get the staff to destroy it. They thought it was forever lost but then, somehow, Seymour knew the thing had returned and that's where I came in. They wanted me to use my divination magic to spy on you and learn what you planned to do with it. I mostly watched Ariana, I didn't even know her name then, because she handled the thing and that was what I tuned into in my divining. I told Seymour that you planned to destroy it but he didn't care. He calls all you Dorians heathens and if he ever comes to power in Tarlton he will wage war against your queen."

"And the Staff of Naught is something he wants destroyed," said Hazlebub, her finger on her chin.

The worm wizard used the moment to grab the brush from the witch woman and lather it up on the soap, "Now you turn around, my dear, and I shall have my vengeance!"

Hazlebub turned her back to the wizard, a thoughtful expression still in her eyes. "If Seymour wants it destroyed, and Seymour is the enemy of Doria, then it stands to reason that we don't want to destroy the thing."

"I have no problem with that," said Sutekha and went about his work with vigor although the thick-skinned witch did not seem to have a problem with even his most forceful attempts. "But I warn you that stopping Seymour will not alleviate the threat to Doria. The warlord is also bent on expanding the Tarltonite Empire; first he hopes to unite the nomads claiming that he is the Black Horseman reborn, and then he will march on the Orcs of Danazai, the Mantis Men of Dnubcia the Sharp City, the Dwarves of Temin and eventually onto Doria."

"The staff would be a potent weapon against either Seymour or this Warlord," said Hazlebub as the wizard continued his ministrations.

"True," said Sutekha, "That is undeniable. But, how do you propose to stop him from destroying it? Your own friends will help him. Lousa and Tanner seem fine with the idea of destroying the staff and only little Ariana is opposed." The wizard stopped for a moment. "There is something about that girl, some quality of strength that I cannot put my finger directly upon. I would welcome her as an apprentice if by chance I were to stay in Doria and not return to my homelands."

"Is that something you think might happen?" said Hazlebub with a smile.

"It is something that I would like very much to happen," said the wizard and suddenly put his hands on her shoulders and spun her around so that they looked at one another in the eyes.

"I too would like that," said the witch.

Chapter 33.