Jon nodded his head, “Make your offer, Lord Whitebone.”
The skeleton moved a hand to its chin and apparently did not notice as Proteus sidled another step closer, “The Staff of Sakatha is a relic from the Old Empire. The reptile men of Darag’dal are degenerate dragon children, their blood thinned over the generations, but they hope to raise a great hero from that bygone era, Sakatha the Great.”
“Go on,” said Jon careful not to look at Proteus, who edged closer in small motions and now stood only twenty feet from the bone lord.
“The Lady of the Abyss wants the staff for a similar purpose; she hopes not to raise Great Sakatha but to animate his corpse and make him one of her most powerful minions,” Whitebone said as his red eyes began to blaze with fire. “I want neither of these things, and if your father takes the staff out of circulation or even destroys it I will be quite pleased.”
Jon nodded his head, “Are you not a servant of She of the Undeath? You certainly have the countenance of the dead,” he said as his eyes glanced once towards Proteus who now stood no more than three steps from the undead lord.
“I am subject to her will, yes,” said Whitebone, “but she and I have different agendas. Have you heard the name Shinamar?” he said with a tilt of his head.
Jon shook his head, “No, should I?”
“No,” said Lord Whitebone, “and I am not in such an expansive mood as to illuminate you to his role in all of this. All I need is a child of the dragon to tell me where the thing is located; you help me find it, and then we turn it over to your father. That seems reasonable, does it not?”
“It does,” said Jon.
“Don’t trust him,” shouted Sorus and pointed with his finger to the skeletal warrior. “I bet that white dragon was his all along, that’s how it knew your name!”
Whitebone stood up stiffly for a moment but then resumed his previous attitude, “I am not lying to you Jon,” he said. “I am not telling the complete truth of course, as our desires do not match exactly. But, in this case I think we can, and should, work together.”
Jon nodded his head, “I’m willing to accept that, Whitebone,” he said.
“Did the boy mention a white dragon,” said Whitebone his inflection apparently calm.
“It was traveling with some dragon children,” said Jon with a shrug. “Sorus, myself, and another knight came here and found the creature. I suspect it wanted to find the Staff of Sakatha as well. It probably worked for the dragon children.”
“That would seem to make sense,” said Whitebone with a casual nod of his head. “You’ve been in this region before?”
“Yes, just a couple of days ago,” said Jon. “We came across the creature and its friends in the darkling lands below the mountains. Sir Germanius killed it but died in the effort, so the dragon cannot be of any help to us now.”
“I see,” said Whitebone his voice suddenly cool, but the fire in his eyes now glowing with white hot intensity.
“Jon,” said Sorus. “Something’s up!”
“This friend of yours, Sir Germanius the dragon slayer, he died while killing the beast,” said Whitebone as his body began to tremble.
“Yes,” said Jon with a nod. “It was a fair battle and they killed one another. There was a darkling with them that I killed, and Sorus here fought and killed a dragon child at the same time.”
Whitebone stood silently for a long moment as his eyes grew more intense until they were white hot and boring into Jon with pure hatred.
“Watch out, Jon,” said Sorus and leapt forward to push Jon out of the way as a bolt of energy shot out of the skeleton lord’s eyes at the young gray knight. Sorus hit Jon like a wooden practice sword against a set of heavy plate mail, bounced off straight backwards onto the floor, but the impact caused the Gray Knight to turn sideways and the white hot bolt sailed past his right ear. He clapped a hand over it as the near miss sent a burning sensation through his body.
As Sorus picked himself up off the floor Proteus moved in from behind the skeletal lord with his sword raised and began a quick motion aimed at the creature’s midsection. Whitebone whirled with astonishing speed and parried the blow. Proteus slid sideways but managed to get his own defense up in time to knock aside the riposte that sailed harmlessly past his head.
Jon looked at the green shield that separated him from Whitebone, and the lord of death glanced over his shoulder, smiled, and then his blade flashed out again, this time it caught Proteus a glancing blow on his shoulder. The knight of Elekargul winced in pain but struck back, although he missed missing widely, as Whitebone moved with tremendous grace.
“Jon,” screamed Sorus, “I’m going to go around it,” he continued and then dashed off to the side of the energy field as he hoped to follow Proteus’s movements. This time the green glow actually lurched at Sorus, and the boy, surprised, was unable to dodge aside. It hit him with a crackling burst of energy, and he flew back against the wall and smashed his head with a dreadful thunk. The lad slid to the ground with his eyes rolled back in his head and his sword on the floor next to his limp hand.
Whitebone parried another blow from Proteus with apparent ease and his own blade nicked the warrior on the right hand, drawing a narrow stream of blood, “I’ll kill your friend here first,” said Whitebone with a casual glance at Jon, “and then I’ll finish you slowly and painfully.”
Jon paused for a moment, watched the swordplay between Proteus and Whitebone, took a quick glance at the fallen Sorus, set his jaw, and raised his sword, “For the Gray!” he yelled and charged directly at the glowing green energy shield as his massive stone sword swung down with devastating force. The two forces met, green energy shot up the blade and into Jon’s arm. His body stiffened but his momentum kept him going forward until he reached the shield itself. There was a strange silence as its energy engulfed the sword and then Jon at the same second, but then there was a terrible cracking sound and Jon plunged through to the other side, stumbled for a moment, and then caught his feet and turned to Whitebone.
Lord Whitebone looked over at the sound and Proteus lunged forward, the tip of the sword penetrated the skeletal master’s heavy cloak, slid into his body, and nicked a rib. Whitebone whirled with a move too fast to completely comprehend, raised his free hand, slapped Proteus across the face, and the knight turned almost instantly blue, flew backwards ten feet, and collapsed to the ground, his entire body shivering.
Meanwhile, Jon moved directly at Whitebone who spun again and brought his sword up to block the descending stone blade. There was the slightest clink when the skeletal lord’s blade broke, but the parry did nothing to stop Jon’s sword and it continued to decend almost unabated and crashed into Whitebone’s shoulder with such force that the bone turned to powder and sprayed out of the collars around his neck and wrist with a puff.
Whitebone screamed in agony, his eyes burning red, Jon flipped his massive sword up with a simple wrist movement, and then turned it in a downward sweeping arc aimed at the skeleton’s head. The creature shrieked out a single word and vanished as the sword plunged through the spot it occupied a moment before and crashed into the ground with the terrible sound of rock on rock. Jon looked around but could not see Whitebone, and then rushed over to Proteus who lay in a curled-up position, his face blue and his body cold to the touch.
“Are you all right?” Jon said as he put his hand on the man.
“I’m cold,” said Proteus with a smile, “which means I’m not dead, should you care to look on the positive side of things.”
“True enough, here, take my cloak,” said the gray knight and pulled off the gray cloak with the mistletoe symbol on the shoulder. “I’m going to check on Sorus, I think he’s all right as well, just dazed from that energy shield thing.”
Proteus nodded as his teeth chattered, “I’ll try to get up and move around; my legs don’t seem to want to take orders at the moment but I’ll convince them.”
Jon walked over to Sorus who sat against the wall and blinked wide eyes set in a face ashen white. He reached back to feel his head and immediately knew he was bleeding again, “I think Proteus is going to be mad at me for opening my wound,” he said with a smile.
“Just sit right there for a bit,” said Jon. “You were right about Whitebone and you saved me from that bolt he threw. Proteus is going to be okay but we need to get out of here as quickly as possible. I think there are more
