crawls across your foot. Do you suppose for a moment that I don’t?”
Thantos looked at his foot for a moment, started to jump backwards, managed to control himself, and looked back up at the skeletal lord with fangs bared, “You like to play games Lord Whitebone,” he said, a small snarl coming from his mouth, “but you cannot think that giving Snowball to that creature was wise.”
“Again, you presume to tell me my business, I clearly was not plain enough in my admonishment. Thantos, do not tell me how to run my affairs, do not critique my decisions; report to me the messages from your mistress and consider yourself privileged that I do not send you to the Deathlands myself.
Thantos scratched himself under the arm and sniffed at the finger for a moment before he returned to scratch a little more.
The tall skeletal figure shook his boney head and sighed, “You are certain that I cannot deal with Tenebrous anymore?”
“The shadow whose name shall not be spoken is not able to fulfill his duties at this time because he cannot follow orders. You will deal with me and only me if you wish to communicate with the lady of the Abyss, she who rules eternally,” said Thanotos. “Now, you will tell me your plan to gain the Staff of Sakatha from the lizards, should they manage to find the thing.”
“I will,” said Lord Whitebone as he made this statement seem more like a question.
“You will or you face the wrath of the mistress of the Abyss. She aided you up until now only because of your past loyalty but do not take her support for granted. She wants to have the Staff of Sakatha.”
“Of course she wants the staff,” said Whitebone with a shake of his head. “Everyone knows she wants it so that she can control Sakatha when he rises as a lich lord.”
Thantos bowed his head, “I cannot speak to my mistress’s desires,” he said and once again licked his impossibly long tongue over his teeth. “I can only convey messages from her to you, Lord Whitebone. She wants to know, specifically, what are you doing to acquire the staff?”
“I have explained to both you and Tenebrous before you,” said Whitebone, although Thantos grimaced at the name, “that I am doing everything in my power to gain the staff. There are a number of possible outcomes to the endeavor and success is uncertain. Your mistress will have to live with that.”
“She will not like it,” said Thantos. “She wants more concrete reports as to your plans. She learned through sources that you sent your dragon up to the surface to aid the darkling’s men and their allies and this has upset her. She wants to know what you are doing, specifically, to get her the staff.”
“I do not have time for this nonsense, Thantos,” said Whitebone his hands beating out a strange tempo at the bone arm of the throne. “I am trying to get the staff. If we do not get the staff then we cannot use the staff. I don’t know where the staff is currently located, your mistress doesn’t know where the staff is currently located, I don’t know where the remains of Sakatha are hidden or even how to use the staff to resurrect his deathly form. The first step in this process is to find the damn staff!” said the skeletal creature and for the first time raised his voice. “Now, the only one who knows where the thing is hidden is the toxic one and his dreams are unpredictable and certainly not available to the likes of you or me. So, we have to use his dreams as a conduit to someone we can control once they obtain the staff. Does this chain of logic stretch your ability to follow it?”
Thantos thought for a moment and began to scratch himself on one of his many open sores and then looked up at the tall skeletal figure, “So, you hope to use the dragon child to get the staff and then take it from him?”
Whitebone nodded his head almost wearily if that were possible for a living skeleton. “I’m so pleased you have grasped the nuances of the situation.”
“But what if the creature gains the staff and takes it back to the lizards?” said Thantos.
“There is nothing certain in life or in death,” said Whitebone. “That is a dilemma we will deal with when it comes. The first thing is to make sure that the staff is found. That being said, do you think it will be useful to have my pet dragon around when the staff is found?”
Thantos thought for long minutes as Whitebone stared at him, the deep red embers of his eyes glowing with muted heat, finally the ghoul scratched himself again. “I shall report your progress to the mistress of the Abyss, she who rules eternally, and, if you are lucky, she won’t summon you to her side. You are a creature beyond the curtain of life as am I, and you too are subject to her will, no matter that in your arrogance you might believe otherwise. Do not think to betray her Whitebone, or she will send you to the Deathlands. I understand you’ve never been?”
Whitebone stood up, turned away, walked down a narrow corridor, and left the ghoul to his own devices. The creature smiled deeply and revealed its long fangs yet again, “Run away little skeleton, run away,” he said in a low whisper, “the mistress will have you soon enough and, after she is tired of playing with you, you will be mine.”
Chapter 9
The wide, well lit staircase went down and down; somewhere past the two hundredth step Sorus lost exact count, and another hundred after that he no longer bothered to keep track. The evenly spaced lights made the passage of time and distance seem like a dream, and the young brewer wasn’t sure how far or how long they had traveled when he bumped into Germanius whose hand was up against the wall. “What is it?” asked the young brewer.
“It’s my knees,” said the old knight. “These stairs are too much, give me a moment to rest,” he finished and flexed first his left knee and then his right.
“Jon,” whispered Sorus, but the gray knight was already too many steps ahead to hear the voice. “Jon!” he said a little more loudly but even that voice seemed to die in the stairwell. “Wait here,” he said to Germanius with a pat on the old warrior’s shoulder. “I’ll get him and we’ll wait a bit. It’s been a long day and night, we all need to rest.” With that Sorus started off down the stairs in pursuit of Jon as he whispered out now and again, “Jon!” but he got no reply. He went down another hundred steps at a quickened pace and once stumbled as his toe caught an edge, and he almost fell head over heels but managed to catch himself with a quick hand on the wall and skittered to a stop, “Jon!” he whispered again, “Jon, wait, it’s Germanius!” But there was no reply. Sorus stood for a long moment and looked forward down the stairs and backwards towards Germanius and then sighed, “damn.” Then he began to trudge back up the stairs towards the old warrior. It took him longer than he thought but he found the man coming down towards him with hobbled little strides.
“Germanius,” he whispered as he came up to the old warrior. “Sit down, Jon’s gone ahead but he’ll realize he’s alone and come back for us soon enough,” although Sorus didn’t believe it even as the words came out of his mouth. After a month with young Jon Gray the brewer knew the boy’s habits too well and caution wasn’t one of his traits.
The knight of Elekargul looked at Sorus for a long moment as if he wanted say something caustic but then a pained expression came over his face and he winced badly. “Damn shooters, maybe you’re right, I’ll sit for a spell. That boy is headstrong but I can’t say I wasn’t the same when I was his age. He’s got a lot of responsibility for one so young.” With that the knight slowly lowered himself to a stair and, with Sorus’s help, came to the ground with only a small thump. “Ahhh, damn that hurts,” he said.
“It’s ok, Germanius,” said Sorus. “Now that I think about it, my knees hurt too and I’m exhausted. I’m a fifth your age. We’ve pushed too much. We should have stayed in that cave and waited until morning.”
“I should argue with you,” grunted Germanius, leaning against the wall and putting his legs out along the step, “but I’m too damn tired.”
“Here,” said Sorus and took off his heavy woolen jerkin, “use this as a pillow, it’s warm down here anyway,” he said and put it under the old knight’s head. “Get some sleep, Jon’ll be back eventually, he won’t just leave us.”
Germanius nodded his head and his eyes began to close even before he leaned back on the make-shift pillow. Within seconds his snores filled the stairwell and suddenly Sorus felt very sleepy as well. He knew he had to stay away to keep watch over the old knight but it wasn’t long before he dreamed as well. It seemed only a moment later that a rough shake of his shoulder woke him up. “Good morning,” said Jon and smiled down at him. “Did you sleep well?”
“Huh,” said Sorus, looking around. He couldn’t remember where he was for a moment. “Where are we?”
“On the stairs into the darkling land,” said Jon. “I let you sleep for a few hours, Sir Germanius is still out, but I’m going to need some sleep as well. Can you take over the watch?”
