The Staff of Sakatha (38 page)

“Be quiet,” ordered the First Rider without a look back as he stayed right behind Sorus and the light. The boy continued to do his best to follow the black shadow but in the diminished light the creature was all but invisible.

“Tenebrous,” he hissed when they reached a fork in the narrow passage, “I can’t see you. Which way did you go?”

The deep voice intoned from nowhere and everywhere, “Over here.”

“That doesn’t help,” said Sorus and looked down both passages with no clear idea from where the voice emanated.

The three men following closely behind all chuckled and even the deep black voice seemed to laugh albeit in an ominous fashion. A dark tendril of smoke came out from the passage to Sorus’s right, licked over the boy, which caused him to jump back and straight into the First Rider with a crash. “Don’t do that!” he said in a loud voice as his body shuddered. “That is creepy.”

“This way,” said Tenebrous, barely visible in the gloomy cave with the limited light source, and gave sort of a waving motion to the boy. “It’s not much further. You should be able to dim your light soon.”

Sorus looked ahead and could make out a faint glow from up ahead and beyond a curve in the passage. “We’re close,” he whispered back to the others, “try to be quiet.”

Jon looked at Odellius and Odellius looked at Jon and then they both looked to their heavy chain armor and massive feet and barely managed to avoid a laugh. “Good luck,” they whispered to each other at the same moment.

The First Rider looked back at them, shook his head but smiled, and brought his finger up to his lips, “Shhhh.”

With that all four, and the black shape of Tenebrous, moved forwards towards the light. As they rounded the corner Sorus first glimpsed the white marble temple of the Old Empire and stopped dead in his tracks.

After miles of dank cave walls the dazzling white of this area blinded him for a moment, and he shut his eyes and put his hand in front of face. Murmurs and chants of a strange language emanated from somewhere up ahead although its exact location remained elusive. The cave was not a particularly massive chamber with a ceiling only ten to fifteen feet high with a great stone circle at its center. Each stone was of perfectly cut white marble and stood six feet tall, about three feet wide, and another foot in depth. There were perhaps a hundred of them in all and they cut off Sorus’s vision of the interior of the circle, but that was undoubtedly from where the sound came.

As his eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness he spotted a group of the small darkling creatures at another entrance to the chamber, with their swords pulled out as they watched the stone circle intently. Sorus pulled back with a start. “There are darklings up there,” he whispered back to Vipsanius, “in a passageway to our right. I can’t tell how many.”

The First Rider nodded his head as his body tensed and he quietly drew his sword from its scabbard. “We’ll wait until Tenebrous tells us or the darklings make their move,” he whispered to Sorus and then looked back at Jon and Odellius to make sure they heard.

“I don’t see Tenebrous,” said Sorus in a low voice and peered back around the corner. “It’s awful bright in there with those white marble pillars. I can hear chanting or something but I can’t see anyone, there are too many stones in the way.”

“Just keep an eye on the darklings,” said Vipsanius. “They are waiting for the lizards to get the staff and then they’ll move.”

Sorus nodded his head and went back to peer around the corner. At that moment the sinuous black form of Tenebrous materialized behind Odellius at the rear, although it took them a few moments to realize the creature’s presence.

“I cannot get close enough to see what is transpiring,” said the deep voice. “The region is too well illuminated and I will be seen.”

“What about the darklings,” said Vipsanius as he looked over his shoulder quickly but then turned to watch Sorus. He put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, “You’re doing fine. Just keep watching and don’t worry about anything else.”

“I cannot approach the darklings either,” said Tenebrous. “Thantos is with them and he would recognize my presence immediately. I cannot tell you their precise numbers.”

“So you can’t tell us much of anything then,” said the First Rider in a low whisper.

“I’m afraid that is an accurate assessment,” said the shadowy shape. “It should be apparent when the dragon children complete their ceremony and gain the Staff of Sakatha. That is when Thantos and the darklings will strike. Once that happens you must act.”

“I understand as much,” said the First Rider, his hand still on Sorus’s back. “We’re going to send Sorus forward to grab the thing while the rest of us distract or disable the others. You lead him back to the surface and my people,” he went on and suddenly turned and gazed intently at Tenebrous, “if you do not safely guide this boy I’ll want a personal explanation as to why not. Is that understood, Tenebrous?”

The black cloud coalesced for a moment into a humanoid shape something like a man with two great horns on its head and massive wings sprouting from its back. “I understand, Vipsanius, First Rider of the people of Elekargul. I pledge that I will honor my part of the agreement.”

“I think they’re moving,” said Sorus as he noted several of the little darkling creatures move into the open. They were followed by a massive furred beast of the same variety he fought earlier. One of the little creatures got his foot under the large creature’s clumsy gait and shouted out in pain.

“What was that?” said Vipsanius and leaned forward and over Sorus’s shoulder.

“Clumsy,” whispered Sorus back to the First Rider. “I think, yes, the lizards heard it as well. I think there’s going to be a fight. Should we go?”

“Wait and see what happens,” said Vipsanius. “Maybe they’ll battle themselves out and we can strike from behind.”

“What if they take the staff out some other entrance?” said Jon from the rear.

Vipsanius looked to the dark cloud of Tenebrous, “Tenebrous?”

“It is possible the dragon children know another exit from here,” he said, his form darkening. “They have full access to the dreams of the Toxic One and I do not.”

Sorus watched as a darkling horde spilled out of the side passage with two more of the great furry creatures as well as half a dozen ghoulish monstrosities, their flesh rotting and decayed. Soon the sounds of battle echoed throughout the chamber for all to hear.

Odellius moved up next to the First Rider, “I do not like to stand and wait for the stronger side to emerge.”

“I agree,” said the First Rider, “but we’ve no sign of the staff.”

“The reptile men are coming out from the center of the circle and I can’t hear chanting anymore,” said Sorus in a normal tone of voice. A sudden explosion sounded from past the corner and the boy turned to look.

“Enough waiting,” said Vipsanius. “Odellius, Jon, with me; Sorus follow. We’ll head toward the stones and try and get to the middle.”

With that Odellius, Jon, and the First Rider burst out from their hiding place and immediately shuttered their eyes as the brilliance of the white marble reflected even the dim light a thousand fold. It took them a few seconds to adjust to the brightness; fortunately, the creatures embroiled in conflict were either too busy to notice them or did see them but were unable to react.

A dozen darklings lay scattered on their ground, their bodies burnt by some fiery spell while one of the big furry creatures lay on its side, a great blackened mass of flesh that emanated smoke. Near the closest of the white marble pillars three reptile men lay on the ground either dead or near death while half a dozen more, all in priestly robes, fought on against twice their number in ghouls and darklings.

Jon Gray’s massive strides took him toward the rear of the darkling creatures, although Vispanius kept up with his own little legs churning like spokes in a wagon wheel and Odellius quickly fell behind, his rolling gate no match for the other two. With one sweep of his massive stone sword Jon sent three of the creatures straight to oblivion, and the First Rider cut into another two with precise sword strokes through their necks.

Odellius, who brought up the rear, attacked the second of the huge furry beasts and drove his blade into the thing’s lower back at an upward angle, and his forward momentum caused him to crash into the creature. The sword burst out of the thing’s chest as it sprawled forward on top of a reptile man with upraised arms and crushed him to the floor with a terrible splat.

The arrival of the third force changed the dynamics of the situation immediately as the darklings turned to face their new foes, while the last of the furry creatures grabbed a reptile man and tore off his arm with a seemingly nonchalant motion. One of the priest’s eyes opened wide and a smile began to form on his lips as he assumed the First Rider and his friends were allies. Jon disavowed him of this notion with a flick of his wrist; his massive stone sword came down on the head of the creature, crushed it and sprayed a wide splatter of skull and brain matter in all directions.

Jon, Vipsanius, and Odellius blew straight through the combatants and into the maze of giant white stones while Sorus moved behind them. The reptile men and darklings stood in stunned silence for a moment, their weapons and spell-casting paraphernalia held high. The third, and final, great furry beast recovered first and took a swipe at a priest of Sakatha, severing his head cleanly, after which the battle resumed in full force.

The First Rider strode through the white stones, running headlong into a spectacularly bedecked priest and shoving him against a pillar with a thrust of his short but powerful arms. The reptile man cracked his skull against the stone, slumped to the ground, and left a trail of blood on the otherwise bright white surface. Within seconds all four of them stood near the center of the stone circle where a huge green stone made of jade, or some like substance, glowed with an internal light, and three reptile men stood around it, their arms raised and their chants at some sort of a crescendo.

Vipsanius raised his hand and the others stopped immediately as they took in the sight. One of the reptiles spotted the group from the corner of its eye, and the chant faltered for a moment, but a glance from the leader of the group returned them to their duties. The leader then raised a hand towards the First Rider, Jon, Odellius, and Sorus and a greenish gas engulfed them. All four scattered away from the miasma and coughs racked their lungs, although the First Rider went towards the priest at the center of the circle with his sword upraised.

At that moment the chants hit a crescendo and a tremendous flash of intensely bright green light, focused on the stone in the center of the room, exploded into the chamber.

Jon Gray stood stunned for a moment, shook his head as bright little spots impaired his vision, blinked again and again as he tried to clear his sight. First he began to see large blobs of white but they slowly resolved themselves into marble pillars and then he spotted both his friends and the reptile men priests. Everything seemed unusually bright and a glance up revealed blue sky through a skylight in a domed ceiling that he didn’t remember from a moment before.

The reptile men looked up, down, at one another, and then merely stood there without a sound.

“What … what happened?” said Sorus as he blinked his eyes and tried to clear his vision. “Where is that light coming from? Are we outside?”

“The stones look the same,” said Vipsanius as also shook his head and blinked rapidly. “We’re in the same place, they’re,” with a point to the reptile men, “the same, I don’t hear any combat, but that,” with a look up, “is very different.”

 A cool, calm voice said something that no one understood and a moment later a tall man who wore white robes with the emblem of a lithe cat on them appeared around some of the rocks. Right behind him came a group of children. He stopped, pointed to one of the rocks and began to lecture the little ones  in the strange language without a glance at the group.

Odellius went right up to him, looked at him, waved his hand in front of the man’s eyes, but neither he, nor the children, seemed to notice as he continued to lecture and the children looked rather bored. A number of different races appeared to be in the mix with at least one full blooded elf child, an orc, and even a little minotaur boy.

“What happened?” said Sorus again.

“Look,” said Jon, and pointed to the side of the chamber where a long set of stairs led towards the cavern roof and out into the open where sunlight filtered in. The reptiles seemed to notice it as well and they, with a glance towards the group and a bit of jabbering among themselves, began to walk towards the stairs.

“Is Tenebrous here?” said Odellius and looked around for the shadowy form but there was no sign of the creature.

“Let’s follow the reptile men,” said the First Rider as he started to walk after the creatures, “we still don’t have the Staff of Sakatha and they know where it is … presumably.”

The four followed, took the perfectly cut stairwell up to the surface and soon found themselves in a small city with dozens of tidy stone buildings and hundreds of people of all sizes and shapes who wandered around apparently oblivious to the two strange groups.

“What is this?” said Jon and noted that the reptile men likewise stared in stunned silence at the region.

“It’s the ruin, Jon,” said Sorus as he suddenly guessed the truth. “The ruin we were supposed to find, that the First Rider sent the other group to visit, but from thousands of years ago when the Old Empire still existed!”

“That’s not possible,” said Jon.

Odellius nodded his head in agreement, “I’m with Jon on this one, this is not possible,” he echoed the thoughts. “How can we be here?”

“I’m not sure we are here,” said the First Rider with a look around at all the people who seemed to take no note of them at all. “What was it Tenebrous said about Chusarausea and his dreams?”

“We’re in a dream?” said Sorus as he looked around from the mountainside at the valley below and then pinched his arm, closed his eyes, and shook his head.