The Staff of Naught (23 page)

“Five percent,” replied Tanner.

“I’ll agree to five if you throw in that hammer you recently acquired. I’m quite certain that I know someone who would like it back as a family keepsake.” said Lorim and put out his little hand that was soft with no calluses.

“Six percent and no hammer,” said Tanner and put out his own hand.

Lorim smiled brightly and took the proffered hand in a firm grip that belied the soft look to his hand. “Deal.”

“Deal,” said Tanner.

“Now, my client, who wishes to remain nameless for the purposes of negotiations is willing to purchase the staff from you for a princely sum of 15,000 value of silver coins in gemstones and sundried other valuables,” said Lorim. “This is a fine offer I think but, naturally you must make the final call.”

“Fifteen thousand,” said Humbort his eyes wide. “I ain’t never seen so much silver in my life.”

Tanner smiled at Humbort, “It is a nice offer, but I think far below what we were expecting to see. I’ll have to talk with my associates but I think it is safe to say that your client will have to significantly up their offer before a serious negotiation can begin.”

“I look forward to your counter offer,” said Lorim with a smile and the little fellow stood up and made a motion to the door. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have other business to which to attend.”

“Of course,” said Tanner and stood, as did Lousa, Humbort, and Hazlebub as they quickly exited the lush chamber.

“I don’t think …,” started Lousa but Tanner silenced her with a quick shake of the head. “Not here,” he said in a low tone and the four made their way out of the building, and only stopped to pick up their iron helmets at the door.

Back inside the building Lilithia appeared from behind another door and moved next to Lorim and put her arm around the gnomelike man that made his entire body give a little shudder. “You did well my sweet,” said the silver haired darkling and ran her fingers through his thinning brown hair.

Lorim nodded his head and leered up at her his own arm snaking around her slender waist, “Well enough to be rewarded?”

“Not that well,” said Lilithia with a smile as she detached his arm with shake of her hip and moved across the room to the painting of the volcano where she lingered for a long moment. “Now, the next phase of my plan is going to be more difficult but I have confidence in you trade master.”

“Your wish is my command Lilithia. I don’t think they will counter particularly high and your resources should be able to purchase the item without too much difficult. If worse comes to worse we can attempt a violent solution again. Now that I have a better understanding of their strength I imagine we can pull it off without too many difficulties.”

“Ah, my little friend,” said Lilithia, “and I only say little in reference to your stature, not your other attributes, that is not what I have in mind.”

Lorim smiled broadly, leaned back in his chair, and stretched broadly which caused his heavy belly to extend. “I am confused then,” he said. “I thought the object was to purchase the item legitimately rather than attempt a more, shall we say, direct approach.”

“After consultation with my mother the plan has been change. As you are to be the intermediary in these negotiations I must trust you with certain information. This information is of a delicate nature and I must have assurances that you will not share it with other parties.”

“My discretion is beyond doubt Lilithia,” said Lorim opening his palms up to the woman. “I’m hurt that you would even suggest otherwise.”

“Your discretion is truly beyond doubt,” said Lilithia with a smile. “It is available to the highest bidder and that is why I want to make it quite clear that in this case, the highest bidder is offering to let you live should you keep this information to yourself.”

“Are threats really necessary my lovely,” said Lorim a wide smile on his face.

“I notice you don’t deny the accuracy of my character assessment,” said Lilithia as she returned the smile.

“Strong moral fiber is not a suitable trait for my position as trade master,” said Lorim and again smiled at the woman, “but, that said, I certainly understand the price you put on my discretion. Please feel at ease to explain the situation to me so that I can pass it along to the interested parties.”

Lilithia paused for a moment and looked at Lorim with narrowed eyes before she walked over to the front of his desk and leaned towards him. Her high necked silk top revealed none of the décolletage that Lousa had in abundance but enhanced her more limited attributes in the same way. “I no longer wish to obtain the staff,” she said with raised eyebrows.

Lorim’s lips pursed and moved back and forth his eyes narrowed for a moment and he sat in silence for some time before returning his gaze to the darkling, “I see. So the offer was intentionally low hoping they would not accept.”

The woman nodded her head.

“And no matter the counter offer I am to refuse saying it is too high. Eventually the negotiations stall and then you offer something else. Is that fairly accurate?”

“I suspect,” said Lilithia who leaned back and smiled. “That they do not want to sell the staff but simply want information about it. They want to know what it is and, more particularly, how to destroy it. They were surprised that their ally, I can’t remember his name, the one whose head was smashed in by the boy?”

“He is dead, his name is unimportant,” said Lorim as he leaned forward in his chair, licked his lips, and waited for Lilithia to unveil the true plan.

“Not completely,” said Lilithia. “My mother is quite interested in whom he was and how he came to have the staff but that will all be part of the information exchange. Nevertheless, my goal is to give them the information they want and make certain they believe what I am telling them. Therefore the negotiations must have a ring of truth to them.”

“I see, I see,” said Lorim. “That is easier said than done. We want to lose the bargaining but make it seem as if the losing was not our intention. Tanner is a crafty merchant and it won’t be easy to fool him.”

“Tanner, he is the plain looking fellow,” asked Lilithia.

“Yes, the merchant. He is here with his wife and children. I had thought that we might use threats against them to facilitate the negotiations but I see now that is not our plan,” said the trade master once again leaning back in his chair. “Would you care for a drink of fine dwarven Apple Brandy? A shipment came in this morning as a gift for my part in negotiation an iron ore treaty with a citadel of the little fellows.”

“Please,” said Lilithia, “I assume it is strong and thick just like the people who make it?”

“Indeed, a little too much for my delicate palette but I add a dollop or two of water to even things out. I find the dwarves to be a distasteful race on the whole given over to simplicity and violence. But, they are excellent customers so one must make sacrifices.” With that the little man stood up and went over to the small sideboard and opened it to reveal many bottles of brilliantly colored liquids. After a moment he chose a bottle with a light brown fluid inside and poured some of the contents into a pair of round glasses with long stems. He swirled them several times and brought them over to Lilithia. “Now, tell me what I am supposed to learn from the merchant and his friends and what I am supposed to tell them.”

“You’re going to sell it!” shouted Ariana as they gathered in a common room and people at the other tables of the Camel Sway Inn turned to see why the girl screamed.

“Keep your voice down,” said Lousa with a raised forefinger of her right hand and gave the girl a stern look. “This is a private matter and not for everyone in the bar to hear. And, no, we are not planning on selling the staff.”

“Then why did you say you were?” asked Ariana her voice still elevated and she looked back at Lousa with a frown and a glare still in her eyes.

Tanner, seated across the table from Lousa and Ariana and next to his wife interrupted, “We didn’t say we were going to sell it. We just gave the trade master that impression. If we tell him that we refuse to sell then he has no other choice than to try and take it from us by force.

“He already tried that,” said Unerus with a grin towards Shamki who used a knife and fork to go at a thick hunk of meat and appeared not to listen to the conversation. “And it didn’t work!”

“The trade master has a virtually unlimited supply of warriors willing to do his dirty work and while I respect the prowess of Shamki,” said Tanner and Unerus gave him a glare and pulled out a little knife. “And, of course, your growing skill,” he continued. “I also think that if it is the trade master’s best interests to take the staff from us he will make that happen. Therefore, we have to keep negotiations open in order to try and get as much information as possible.”

“Exactly,” said Lousa with a nod of her head to Tanner. She wore one of her least revealing outfits, a thick leather coat made from the hide of an alligator under which she had a wool shirt perhaps one size too big. She had her hair pulled back into a long pony tail and wore no makeup. Yet, even now her cheeks were a rosy red, her lips flush, and her green eyes glimmered like emeralds. “Tanner has it exactly right. He is experienced in these matters.”

Almara looked up from her bowl of noodle soup and her eyes darted back and forth between her husband and the woman. Tanner nodded his head and tore his eyes from the hypnotic half-elf and looked down at his own plate of steak and thick potatoes. “Thank you Lousa.”

“What kind of information,” asked Ariana her plate of mixed vegetables untouched.

“Information on how to destroy the staff,” said Lousa her hand reached out to pat the girl’s but Ariana snatched her own hand back and left the woman with her arm poised uselessly in midair.

“I don’t want to destroy it!” said Ariana. “We’re supposed to use it!”

“How do you know that, dear,” said Hazlebub while she stirred the steaming contents of her own bowl and did not look up although her body tensed.

“I just know it,” replied Ariana and looked down at her vegetables and gave them a desultory stir with her fork and then took a sip from the mug in front of her.

“Yes,” said Lousa and nodded her head, “but how do you know it?”

“I already answered you,” said Ariana again. “I think we are supposed to use it.”

“Use it how?” asked Humbort his mouth filled with steak and vegetables so much so that a partially chewed carrot fell out and landed next to his plate.

“I don’t know!” shrieked Ariana again this time she stood up quickly which caused the table to rock precariously as her knee smacked one of its legs. The mug in front of Shalalee fell with a bang; a milky liquid poured out onto the table and quickly spread in rivulets across the cloth. Almara pulled the napkin off her lap and immediately began to soak up the liquid while Tanner, Lousa, and Hazlebub quickly followed.

“See what you did,” shouted Shalalee at Ariana and glared at the girl until Ariana dashed out of the common room towards the hallway that led to her room.

“It wasn’t her fault,” said Tylan jumping to his feet.

“Then whose fault was it,” said Shalalee back at him. “You just take her side because she’s your girlfriend.”

“She’s not my girlfriend!” said Tylan and pushed his sister who fell over her chair, her arms flailed, and crashed into the table which sent three more glasses tumbling.

“Tylan!” shouted Almara. “Go to your room.”

“She’s the one who fell on the table,” he replied but the glare he got back in return from his mother sent him to the room without a further word.

It took a few minutes to get things straightened up but eventually the table was back to normal albeit missing the two children.

“She’s becoming overly attached to that staff,” said Lousa to Unerus. “She admires you Unerus; do you think you can talk to her about giving it to one of us for a while?”

The young boy shook his head and said, “No. She’s stubborn about stuff like this. I remember when she was little and I’d leave her with one of the girls at the Red Garter and by the time I’d got back they’d have tied her to a chair to keep her from climbing over the bar and getting at the pretty bottles.”

“It’s all because of the stupid staff,” said Shalalee her face still red from the fight but that seemed to make the young girl pretty. “Why don’t we just sell it to whatever his name is and then we don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

“Yeah,” said Humbort as he again emerged from the depths of his food.

Shalalee looked at the tall man as he immediately dug back into his food using his fork like a shovel, holding the plate up to his mouth and sighed. “I guess we can’t do that.”

Everyone else at the table laughed out loud and Humbort looked up and around at them in confusion but then went back to eating without further thought.

“The question becomes,” said Lousa looking to Tanner. “How do we convince Lorim to give us the information we want without selling him the staff?”

“Darkling,” said Shamki and didn’t even look up from this plate as he glowered at the steak.

“Shamki’s right,” said Lousa. “We’re dealing with Lorim but whoever that darkling girl was is the real interested party. She wanted the staff and hired Lorim to steal it for her. When that failed she made a grab for it herself. Thanks to Shamki and Unerus that plan failed.”

“I still don’t understand why a darkling would want the thing,” said Tanner. “They worship spiders and this thing has got Smyrnala’s name written all over it.”

“That I don’t understand at all,” agreed Lousa with a shrug. “But, I suppose it is enough to know that she wants it and we can use that as a negotiating tool.”

“I’m going to see about Ariana,” said Unerus and stood up from the table.

“Ask to be excused,” said Almara to the boy who stood for a moment and looked at her in confusion. “It’s polite to ask to be excused instead of just leaving.”

“Oh,” said the boy. Then he looked at Lousa who nodded, and then at Shamki who completely ignored him. “Can I be excused?” he asked with his eyebrows raised and his nose wrinkled in confusion.