The Staff of Naught

by Tom Liberman

  “I’ll go,” said Ariana suddenly and darted down the passage.

  “No!” shouted Hazlebub but her grab at the girl missed badly. Shamki was quicker to move and managed to catch a hold of her shirt sleeve, ragged to begin with, but it ripped off and left him with only a torn and wretched piece of cloth. He tried to jam his bulky body into the passage but was unable make any progress.

  “Let me try,” said Hazlebub and moved forward while she ducked down. She managed to get inside the passage but had to bend over so far that her knees immediately gave out underneath her and she shrieked loudly as a terrible pain prevented her from going on.

  “Are you okay,” said Humbort and helped haul her out from the passage.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” said Hazlebub and let the simpleton help her limp slowly to the corner where she sat down with a thump. “I’m getting too old for this sort of thing.”

  Humbort patted her wrist and smiled with a kindly face, got a flask of water, and offered it to her. He then rummaged in his pack and found a small vial and held it up his face shining happily, “Rub, rub oil, good for sore,” he said and helped straighten her leg out on the floor.

  “Really, Humbort, that won’t, ohh, that is quite nice,” she said as he began warm her leg with the oil. “What is that, it smells of almonds but perhaps not?”

  Ariana wasn’t exactly sure why she darted down the tunnel. No matter how much she tried to summon up the voice it did not come and she now believed that the voice was unable to communicate with her if she did not have the staff in hand or nearby. The passageway was a tight squeeze even for her but she made her way through stooped slightly and turned sidewise. On a couple occasions she bumped the stone wall with her head and she learned to slow down after the second such incident. At one point she looked back hoping to see Shamki and his little magic light but realized that the passageway must have made several twists and turns and it was pitched black. She stopped as her heart raced wildly.

  “Go on,” said the old man’s voice.

  “You’re back!” she cried perhaps too loudly because the sound of it seemed to echo back and forth in the small chamber. She waited for further instruction but none came. Ariana found that if she closed her eyes it somehow didn’t seem as dark and so she did as she felt her way forward through the narrow passage. At one point she felt a strange tingle run throughout her body and stopped to look around but the darkness of the corridor was no different than if she kept eyes shut, so she continued to creep forward with the hope that the voice would guide her.

  After what seemed like hours of slow progress but what she probably knew was no more than five minutes the walls seemed to fade away on either side and a dank breeze that bore the stench of death came to her nostrils.

  A sickly sweet voice, not the one she hoped for, spoke, “You can open your eyes little darling.”

  Ariana paused for a moment her eyes still squeezed tightly shut but then opened them by the narrowest crack and saw the large chamber around her. On a large throne made of bones sat a woman with dull green hair with the skimpiest of silken robes barely covering her lush body.

  “And who,” she said smiling in the most unreassuringly way Ariana ever saw, “are you?”

  “Ariana,” said Ariana as she looked around the room and spotted ghoulish forms moving about in the background. They had bodies like men but with no skin and their eyes bulged in a most disturbing way. Later those eyes haunted Ariana’s dreams more than anything else did.

  “Well, Ariana,” said the voice. “Did you bring it to me?”

  Ariana shook her head no. “I … who are you?”

  The sweetly demeanor cracked noticeably, “I get to ask questions here,” she said but then tried her awful smile on for size one more time. “Where is the staff? I can see by your aura that you once held it. I opened the portal so that my minions might more easily bring it to me but I see they have failed again,” with this last comment she threw a look over her right shoulder at a tall creature whose skin was mostly intact except for a completely skeletal skull and eyeballs that moved uneasily inside its sockets. “Has anyone seen Tenebrous?”

  Ariana paused for a moment and then spoke, “I have.”

  “You have?” said the woman.

  Ariana nodded. “He talked to us not long ago.”

  “What did he say,” said the woman and stood up her dull green eyes flashing violently. Ariana noted that the woman’s hair, figure and coloring was not too dissimilar from Lousa and yet the total effect could not have been more different. Yes, they were both beautiful but Lousa shone like a star and this woman seemed to bring darkness with just a glance.

  “What will you give me if I tell you?” said Ariana and stuck out her little chin.

  The woman’s eyes suddenly seemed to grow twice as large and her face twisted into a snarl that revealed rows of fanged teeth. “You dare disobey me in my own demesne? I am the Goddess of Death and I can strike …” she started but Ariana interrupted her.

  “There are no gods!”

  If the woman was angry before this pronouncement seemed to send her over the edge into madness. Her hands came to her face and she actually clawed at herself and became so agitated she nearly slipped on the stone floor but managed to catch herself, took three quick strides, and grabbed the girl by the collar and lifted her off the ground.

  “What do you say?” she shrieked her high pitched voice so loud as to hurt Ariana’s ears more than the claws that dug into her collarbone.

  “She proclaims there are no gods,” said a deep voice and for a moment Ariana thought that her friend was back but the intonation was different.

  The Goddess of the Abyss spun on her heels the centrifugal movement sent Ariana in a spin that proved more than the material of her collar could take and with a rip she flew free of the woman’s grasp, skittered across the floor, and came to a rest in a heap not far from where a strange purplish door shimmered.

  Ariana realized this was the way she came into the chamber in the first place but couldn’t stop herself as she turned back to face the woman and the dark voice which she suddenly realized was Tenebrous the Shade.

  “Tenebrous,” said the Goddess of the Abyss once again with the sickly sweet voice as she moved slowly with an exaggerated sway to her hips back to her throne. “So good of you to return after all this time. I would think that you were up to no good if I didn’t know better.”

  “The girl is influenced by Shinamar the Loathsome,” said Tenebrous.

  “And who, pray tell, is that?” said the woman and even Ariana could tell that the shade was taken aback by the lack of knowledge she evinced.

  “A human,” said Tenebrous. “A powerful mage, the apprentice of Elucidor,” he suggested and looked for any sign of recognition in the face of the woman.

  “That name sounds familiar,” she said with a smile and a thoughtful look. “I can’t remember exactly from where but it does ring a bell.”

  “He was the King of Das’von,” said Tenebrous but the woman simply looked at him blankly.

  “In the material world, where your worshippers reside,” he prompted.

  “Ah yes, my worshippers, you see darling,” said the woman turning to cast a quick glance at Ariana. “Worshippers worship gods, it’s really rather simple to follow if you have a brain at all.”

  “Without worshippers much, if not all, of your power dissipates,” said Tenebrous to the woman his shadowy form somehow knelt down to the floor.

  “My power is derived from my divine essence,” said the woman. “How dare you suggest otherwise, Tenebrous? Shall I send you to back to the Deathlands?”

  A small noise caught the attention of Ariana as the purple door behind suddenly seemed to change its hew by the slightest amount. A moment later a short little thing with long arms and a bulbous head popped out. A terrible burn covered one side of its body and it clutched in its hands the Staff of Naught. The creature took one step and collapsed to the floor its narrows eyes
slit and unmoving.

  Ariana did not pause, nor did the voice have to urge her to action. With a single motion she leaned down, grabbed he staff, and leapt through the gateway and into blinding brightness.

  Chapter 31

  The woman by the throne stood in gap mouthed astonishment for a moment unable to react in anyway. It was up to Tenebrous to suggest a course of action, “Perhaps some of the ghouls should be sent in pursuit,” he said and pointed to the dozen or so things that lurked near the throne.

  “This is your fault,” shrieked the woman suddenly finding her voice with a glare at Tenebrous. “If you hadn’t distracted me the staff would have been mine!”

  “While laying blame is pertinent,” said Tenebrous his dark form backed away from the woman. “I would suggest a more immediate course of action is to chase after the staff. It doesn’t look like Englibirg there,” with a glance to the smoldering corpse, “is capable of doing it and my own powers against the living are rather limited as you’ve seen to.”

  “Vile thing,” said the woman but paused to lick her lips and looked at her minion sprawled out dead on the floor. “But, you are right Tenebrous. She is merely a girl. You ghouls, go get her and bring back the staff. If you have to kill her it is not a bother.” With that she flounced back to her throne and sat down with a satisfied smile.

  “You let it get through the portal,” shrieked the voice of Seymour the Bright as he turned to Oliver who stood next to him a long bloody wound down his right arm. “You missed it!”

  “It was well skilled in the ways of martial combat my liege,” said Oliver as he looked down. “I’m afraid to say I let the light of the fireball effect my swing,” he went on and bowed down towards the vague form of the Priest of Ras that he could make out in the array of spots that circled throughout his vision.

  “Follow it as soon as your eyes allow,” said the priest with a shake his head and he muttered under his breath. “Even the competent ones fail me, I fear for Tarlton.”

  If Oliver heard this comment he showed no outwards indications as such and continued to blink his eyes for a few moments until there was a shout from the door, “What happened?” said Hazlebub as she looked around the corner and saw the two desert dwellers near a large purplish door that seemed to hover over one of the sarcophagi with the smashed open lids.

  “The beast took refuge around the corner apparently looking for a portal back to the Abyss,” said Sutekha, “and when Oliver pushed off that lid we found it. The creature jumped through …”

  At that moment the portal changed from a dark purple to a slighter lighter shade and Ariana popped out the Staff of Naught clutched in her hand.

  “Ara!” shouted Hazlebub.

  “That I did not expect,” said Sutekha, stroked his hairless chin, and shook his head.

  “Praised be Ras,” said Seymour and touched the Holy Symbol around his neck. “Take it from the girl,” he ordered Oliver.

  “No,” screamed Ariana and held the thing up like a weapon. “If you try I’ll … I’ll … smash you.”

  Oliver walked over to the girl, looked down on her, sheathed his sword, and held out his hand. “Give it to me.”

  “No,” repeated Ariana and Oliver swiveled his head towards Seymour with his eyebrows raised.

  “Take it from the wretch, kill if her need be,” said the High Priest of Ras a fierce look on his face as his teeth clenched and his eyes narrowed into little beads.

  “No take,” said the voice of Shamki from behind Hazlebub and his sword was in his right hand.

  Oliver didn’t even look in the orc’s direction and his own sword was out and at the ready whistling just past Ariana’s head so quickly it took the girl a moment to realize what happened and stagger backwards almost into the portal. She might well have fallen into it if a creature coming out the other side hadn’t smashed into her and sent her sprawling and the Staff of Naught once again skittered across the floor.

  Seymour took two quick strides towards the staff and did not notice the cavalcade of ghoulish creatures that began to pour out of the portal as Oliver and Shamki whirled to face them. A blinding flash thrust from Shamki impaled one of them, Oliver’s sweeping blow beheaded the next, and both crashed to the floor where their gooey innards spilled out in copious quantities.

  Even as the two swordsmen worked together the ghoulish foes poured out of the portal faster than Shamki and Oliver killed them and the two warriors moved slowly backwards away from the tide of ghouls. Ariana tried to crawl towards the staff and a large ghoul wielding a long scythe took aim at her head; Shamki managed to grab her by the foot and sling her back towards Sutekha and Hazlebub but at the cost of taking a slash to his arm from the crusty nails of another of the creatures.

  “We have to shut the portal!” shrieked Hazlebub to Sutekha who nodded his head and pulled out a pair of small vials from his robes.

  “What spells do you know to close it?” he asked the witch while his fingers twisted off the cork stopper in one of the bottles.

  “I make love potions for village morons, mostly,” admitted Hazlebub with a rather sheepish expression on her face.

  Sutekha laughed for a moment but then winked at the woman and smiled, “That’s all right, my first teacher was a potion master, you can help.”

  Hazlebub smiled broadly and her body seemed to lose some of its tension, “Really?”

  The wizard of the golden worm smiled, “Yes, really, but it might be a bit dangerous.”

  “What can I do?” said Ariana clambering to her feet.

  Sutekha looked first to the girl and then to the witch who stood straight up instead of stooped with her face eager in anticipation rather than screwed up in a scowl. For the first time he realized the woman was not nearly as old as she pretended and actually not particularly ugly at all. “Why, Hazlebub,” he said. “You’re a fine looking woman.”

  Hazlebub suddenly blushed and patted her hair, “Well, I have to pretend to be a witch or no one buys my potions.”

  Ariana stood looking at the two her hands on her little hips, “Really, right now you have this discussion?”

  “Ah, yes,” said Sutekha with a shrug and another wink at the witch. “Take this potion,” he said handing it over to Hazlebub, “and work your way around to the portal. Try not to let any of those ghouls touch you, their claws can paralyze. Once you get there try and sprinkle as much as you can around the edges. Don’t throw it in the middle, the edges are key.”

  Hazlebub nodded her head, took the potion and moved far more quickly than she normally did to the circle, at one point dodging to the side as one the ghouls, it’s arm chopped off from a blow, staggered past her and collapsed in the corner.

  “Watch out,” screamed Ariana at the near miss.

  “Ariana,” said Sutekha and reached down and held the girl by the arm. She immediately tried to pull away, “I’m trying to help. I don’t want Seymour to have the staff,” and at that she stopped struggling. “Look,” he said and pointed to where Shamki and Oliver slowly gave way to the ghouls, “Shamki was wounded, he’s been poisoned by the things. He needs a curative and that’s not my magic. After Hazlebub finishes pouring that potion out you tell her he needs her help, okay?”

  Ariana nodded her head and smiled. “Okay.”

  With that Sutekha began to murmur slow words, sprinkle some powder from the second vial into his hands, and then began to gently rub them together. His words began to build in power as he rubbed his hands faster and faster.

  Hazlebub approached the portal, knelt down, and poured some of the liquid out not even paying much attention as another of the hideous ghoul things came out. It was a massive version of the species with a strange, squarely misshapen head in which three eyes seemed to loll about. It stood directly over the witch woman for a moment before the screaming sound of an ally caught its attention and it charged off towards the battle. The witch crawled across the floor and sprinkled the liquid evenly and carefully from the lip of the bottle to t
he floor. When she reached the other side of the portal she held it up and let some pour out and trickle down the side of the thing. So focused on her task was she that Ariana had to pull her sleeve to catch her attention.

  “What,” said Hazlebub with a look at the girl and a shake of her head, “what are you doing here?”

  “It’s Shamki,” shouted Ariana over the sounds of battle and the now screaming voice of Sutekha whose words actually seemed to have weight as they floated off his tongue and towards the portal.

  Hazlebub looked over at the half-orc who leaned against one of the sarcophagi with the left side of his body drooping but still slashing away with his sword although his arm moved more slowly.

  “Sutekha says he’s paraplyzed,” shouted the girl her eyes wide. “He says you have a cumulative.”

  Hazlebub looked at the girl a puzzled expression on her face for a moment and she scratched her ear and then suddenly she smiled and patted Ariana on the head. “Paralyzed, curative, yes. Here,” she said and rummaged around in her sack just as the words of the Golden Worm Wizard reached a terrible crescendo. “Take this to him, rub it in his wounds!”

  At that moment a terrible creature appeared in the portal its body leaned forward to get at the girl and the witch. It stood at least ten feet tall and had to duck just get through the portal. Its body was immensely fat with huge rolls of blubber that jiggled horribly as it raised a massive stone club out towards the pair. Its eyes were equally large and leaked blood while its free hand ended in five black claws each at least three inches long, which also dripped bloody ichor. It smiled at the two as the club came swinging around in an arc towards them as the witch put her arm around Ariana and tried to push her back and out of the way. At that moment the dark purple portal suddenly vanished and along with it the back half of the thing’s body.

  Both the girl and the woman stared up at the creature when the portal closed and it fell forward its eyes instantly glazed over and unseeing. Out of the back of its body a deluge of black ichor, a partial spinal column, several unidentifiable organs, and apparently a good dozen yards of intestines spilled directly on them with a hideous splash.