The Staff of Sakatha

by Tom Liberman

  “Don’t listen to him, son,” said Mayor Thorius sidling up to the boy and putting his hand on his shoulder. “He’s a spy for the reptile men and hopes to clear the way for their invasion. He tricked you, but we won’t hold that against you in a trial. He fooled everyone in town except me and my son. I don’t think you killed Mikus, I’m sure it looked like an ambush but how did they know you were coming, how did Jon escape without any wounds, ask yourself that Sorus. You won’t be blamed; testify against him and I guarantee your safety and the safety of your family.”

  Sorus stood for a long moment as his eye darted back and forth between Jon and the mayor and then to the hulking Decilus and his sidekick Thadeus. His hand clenched and unclenched at his side and then he felt the weight of Sir Germanius’s sword on his side, he remembered Jon carrying the old knight up all those stairs and how they buried him together, he remembered how the dragon creature knew Jon’s name. He turned to the mayor, “My name is Sorus Nightwalk because I slew my enemies underground in the darkling realm. I do honor to Agrium Nightwalk who led the midnight attack on the orc fortress we now call Agrium’s Keep. I pledge to honor his memory and hold his name to the highest standards of Elekargul. Today I go with my friend Jon Gray and any man who tries to stop me will feel my wrath!”

  “Fool,” spat Thorius and looked to Decilus, “Kill them both.”

  Decilus smiled and drew his sword, a long blade of black iron with strange yellow sigils carved up and down its side. Next to him Thadeus looked back and forth between the mayor and Jon Gray and appeared almost ready to run but then found his courage and drew his own blade, a slim steel weapon curved towards the end in the style of the humans of Doria. “I’ll take the boy,” he said and moved to face Sorus.

  A number of passersby heard the exchange of words and saw the swords glint in the sunlight. Some of them stayed to watch the battle while others ran off to spread the news.

  “This doesn’t have to be this …,” started Sorus, but Thadeus wasted no time and lunged at the boy before he even pulled out his weapon. Sorus jumped aside as the blade scraped over his left ribs and a sharp sensation of pain quickly followed. He took two quick steps backwards, pulled out his sword, and felt a momentary slickness as his hand brushed his left side.

  Jon and Decilus circled one another for a moment before the orc blooded knight raised his sword and brought it around with a long low sweep designed to take advantage of Jon’s exposed legs. The gray knight didn’t even bother to draw his own sword but simply raised his boot and brought it crashing down on the wrist of his opponent which shattered like an old tree limb with too much ice in a heavy windstorm.

  Decilus screamed in pain and spun to the ground, pinned there by the weight of Jon’s foot as the gray knight reached forward with his right hand and put it fully around the neck of his foe. Jon’s wrist flexed and Decilus’s neck pressed backwards to an unnatural angle. The Brokenshield punched at Jon’s face with his other hand, connected with a solid blow, but the boy ignored it completely and continued to push the neck backwards. A second snap followed a moment later and then the big warrior lay glassy eyed on the ground, his eyes bulging hideously and his neck muscles frozen in clenched rigor.

  Jon turned to the mayor and saw that the man had a knife in his hand and circled behind Sorus, “Don’t do it,” said Jon his voice low but filled with menace. “Let them finish it.”

  Mayor Thorius looked up at the huge boy and then his eyes came to rest on the dead Decilus and his courage fled. He tossed the knife at Jon but the blade spun badly and only the hilt struck him in the midsection. The mayor then fled back into the building as he shouted, “murderers, murderers, save me!”

  The crowd didn’t seem inclined to heed his call and stood silently as Sorus and Thadeus circled one another; their blades leapt out to strike now and again but neither man gained any advantage. “You fight well for a brewer,” spat Thadeus to Sorus and flicked his blade towards the boy’s head but came up well short as Sorus thrust forward with his own blade. Sorus tried to remember the things he watched when the other squires worked with their masters but nothing seemed to be real in this fight as the steel blade of his foe flicked out and back. Whenever he circled to his left there was a strange pain in his side that he couldn’t quite pinpoint but that bothered him nonetheless.

  He feinted at Thadeus but the experienced knight simply parried and moved again to his right and forced the painful turn. “You’ll bleed out soon enough,” said the newly restored Brokenshield and moved away from Sorus with a broad smile on his face. At that moment his path took him across the corpse of his ally and his foot hit it with a thump. Thadeus stumbled and his eyes opened in horror as he saw the frozen death mask of his friend.

  “Now, strike,” whispered Jon to himself but so quietly that only he heard it.

  Sorus noted the distraction but did not attack and instead circled to gain a better position and Thadeus snarled, “You bastard,” and regained his balance as quickly as he lost it. “I’ll kill you,” he said and moved forward, his sword a blur of motion. Sorus managed to block the first few blows but was driven quickly backwards and suddenly felt a stinging on the side of his face and then another on his shield arm.

  “Now you die!” shrieked Thadeus lunging towards the former brewer with the tip of blade aimed directly at the center of Sorus’ chest.

  Sorus suddenly remembered how Jon had stepped forward when the dragon child attacked him and did the same while also turning his body slightly sideways; this caused the thrust to slide inches past him. His own blade, the heavy sword of Sir Germanius, came down on the area between Thadeus’s shoulder and neck and bit ten inches into the flesh.

  Thadeus’s momentum took him into Sorus and the two collided with a thud that sent them both backward a step. Thadeus snarled, and then the shower of blood that coated the left side of his face and body seemed to catch his attention as he reached up and touched the wound. The expression on his face went from anger to puzzlement, and then his legs collapsed out from under him, the blood gushing from the deep wound. He stayed on his knees for a second, his gaze still fixed at Sorus as his mouth opened and closed silently. Finally he managed to gasp, “A brewer boy?” and fell face first to the ground.

  “Well fought, Sorus Nightwalk,” said Jon as he came up behind Sorus. “You should have taken him when he stumbled, but you hesitated.”

  “I know,” said Sorus with a look down at his fallen foe. The blood geyser slowly abated although the pool of reddish brown ichor continued to grow. “I’ll need lessons.”

  Jon nodded his head, “You did well though. The only badly fought duel is the one you lose. Now, I suspect the people in town will support us against the mayor, but I think it best if we don’t put them in that position. Shall we try to find the First Rider or look for Sir Odellius and the other townsmen?”

  “I … I don’t know,” said Sorus. “Let’s just get the horses and get out of here for now. Is that all right Jon?”

  The big gray knight nodded his head, “That sounds just about perfect to me, Sir Sorus, after you?” he said with a motion of his hand towards the stables. “They probably haven’t even finished brushing down the horses yet.”

  Sorus started to lead the way but then looked back at the two bodies in the dirt, two men who, moments before, stood vibrant and alive, and thanks to a stupid disagreement now lay dead on the ground. Sorus knew that Thadeus had a daughter and maybe a son as well from a marriage that ended sometime in the past, and he now remembered the party just two months ago at the Smooth Strider where Decilus celebrated the birth of his first son. He looked at the two lifeless bodies and felt not just an overwhelming sadness at their death, for dying happened to everyone, but that he caused the death and not indirectly at that. His hand found Sir Germanius’s sword sheathed at his side and he bit his upper lip as he stared at the bodies for a long moment.

  Jon watched the boy for a moment and remembered a similar moment in his own life, when he fought
against the orcs of the Five Nations and left behind him a trail of corpses. His father stood next to him that day and told him someday he’d have to encourage young knights in the same position. “I knew someday I’d be the one leading others, telling them how to behave, I just didn’t think so soon,” he thought to himself and turned to Sorus. He let the boy look at the bodies for a moment longer and then stepped up behind him and spoke, “They’re dead and only dark magic can bring them back. You killed Thadeus because that is the way the world spun today. Tomorrow someone might stand over your corpse and wonder why. I don’t think there are any answers,” he went on and put his hand on Sorus’s shoulder. “My father says the only reason for anything is that which we give it. There is no grand scheme, no power to guider our destiny, we make our own way in the world, and if that’s not enough then too bad.”

  Sorus looked up from the bodies. “Your father is a hard man,” he said to his friend. “I’d like to think there is meaning behind all of this whether it be the Black Horse, the White Mare, or some other god of the orcs or the dragon children, or the Dorians, maybe. I don’t know.”

  “Give it meaning,” said Jon. “That’s what my father always says. Nothing happens for a reason but we go on living anyway.” The young man suddenly got a faraway look in his eyes and stood up straight:

  “Because my life is my own to lead

  Because my destiny is my own to forge

  No one else can guide my hand

  No one else can govern my mind”

  “What’s that,” said Sorus as Jon began to walk off towards the stables.

  “It’s part of the gray oath,” said Jon. “When a gray knight invites you to join the order you stand in front of the gray wall, plant a flag of your old allegiance on it, and say the oath.”

  “Oh,” said Sorus. “So if I were to come back with you to Tanelorn and become a gray knight I’d have to give up my loyalty to Elekargul?”

  Jon looked at him as they walked and nodded his head, “That’s right, Sir Sorus. When you become a gray knight you foreswear all other oaths and promise to lead your own life.”

  “But isn’t that swearing an oath to the Gray Lord then?” said Sorus as they approached the stables. Their horses still stood out front as a young groomsman carefully brushed them down.

  “No,” said Jon. “That oath is really to you, not the Gray Lord, not Tanelorn. You swear to be true to yourself no matter what. It’s a surprisingly difficult oath to say and to keep.”

  “I suppose your father is the one who made it up?” said Sorus with a smile. “Ho there, Junius,” he shouted to the boy who brushed down the horses. “Saddle up mine and Sir Jon’s again, we’re heading back out.”

  “Hey Sorus,” started the dark haired boy with a smile but then caught himself, “I mean Sir Sorus.”

  “Word’s getting around then, is it?” he said with a smile and walked over to his friend. “There was trouble at the mayor’s,” he said. “You’re probably going to hear some bad things about me and about Jon but I’m on your side in all this. Jon and I are going to get to the bottom of this trouble, don’t you worry.”

  “I was mostly worried that Sir Arturious was going to tan my backside for not brushing down the horses fast enough, so two less is a good thing!” said Junius and broke into a large smile. “I can’t wait until his twelve month is done, the First Rider has to put someone better in charge next time.”

  “It’s good to worry about the things that affect you most,” said Jon as he meandered over and patted his trotter on the flank. “A good tanning of the backside is of more immediate importance than an invading reptile army. Let that be a lesson to you, Sir Sorus.”

  Sorus nodded his head, “I see your point,” and then he stood and watched as the boy saddled up both of the horses.

  “We keep a supply of grain and rations in saddle bags for emergencies,” said Junius looking at Sorus. “In case someone doesn’t have time to pack. I can get a couple if you like?”

  “That’s a very good idea, Junius,” said the young knight and put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Why don’t you go grab that while Jon and I finish prepping the horses?”

  The boy nodded his head and ran off into the stable.

  “I should have thought of that,” said Sorus to no one in particular. “I’m still getting the hang of being a knight, and now I’ve got to learn how to be a fugitive!”

  Chapter 13

  The two riders moved slowly as their mounts walked towards the wide river that flowed in front of them. When they reached it Jon Gray dismounted, tied back the reins, and let the horse trot over to the water which it began to gulp down eagerly. Sorus sat on the back of his mount for a while longer and looked to his left and right before he also dismounted and allowed his own steed to drink.

  “We’ve reached the point of decision,” said Jon as Sorus moved over to him. The two young men stood on a grassy knoll that looked out across the Frosty Run and towards the interior of the lands of Elekargul. “Tell me again what lies in which direction,” he went on, his gaze still towards the horizon.

  “If we follow the Frosty downstream we’ll eventually get to Black Roost, the capital of Elekargul. It’s along the Southern Sea at the head of the Bay of Lights. I don’t think the First Rider will be there though. He’s almost always on patrol. If what they said in town is true, we’re more likely to find the men of Black Dale in that direction. The attacking reptile men are supposedly coming from the south.”

  “I know the Mountains of the Orc are to our northeast,” said Jon and looked in that direction, “but I don’t think that’s our destination. What about that way,” he said and pointed straight across the river to a series of low hills.

  “That’s mostly just farmland,” said Sorus with a shrug of his shoulders and a glance at Jon. “If you go far enough you get to a hilly region where the Dorian knights have a temple.”

  “There are Dorian knights in Elekargul?” asked Jon with a look at the boy, his eyebrows raised, and his head tilted slightly to the side.

  “That’s what they say,” said Sorus. “Don’t forget that I’ve never been much out of Black Dale. Anything I tell you is just what I’ve heard other people say.”

  “Why is there a Dorian temple in the middle of Elekargul?” said Jon as he looked in that direction.

  “I don’t know,” said Sorus with a shrug. “I think it’s called the Temple of Fear. I’ve seen traveling Dorian knights come through Black Dale a few times over the years but I’ve never really talked with them. You went through Doria to get here so you probably know more than me about it.”

  “I didn’t spend much time in one place,” said Jon and now looked back over his shoulder and towards the town of Black Dale from whence they came. “The biggest order of knights is Mixcowatel or something like that. I can’t pronounce most of the names. They like to use a spear; that is their holiest weapon I think.”

  “That sounds right,” said Sorus as he closed one eye and pursed his lips. “There was something about a spear; I remember that … I can’t remember. I don’t think it’s important anyway. Now, if we get past those hills then we arrive at the heartlands of Elekargul. Most of our major cities are there on the Old Water Lake: Black Home, Black Helm, Black Sword.”

  “You people like naming things by color I can see,” said Jon.

  “Don’t look at me,” said Sorus. “I’m just telling you what you asked. Now, if we head north then we get to Hollow Wood and west of there is the Wood of Waves. The First Rider is usually up that way patrolling because the insect men are so aggressive. He could be close to us or even all the way to the east on the border with Relm.”

  “You don’t have a guess?”

  Sorus shook his head, “There’s no telling, Jon. “The First Rider is on patrol for almost his entire twelve month. The only time he’s not is the first week when he makes all the civilian assignments for the knights coming off their year of military service.”

  “So,
there’s a new First Rider every year?” said Jon, his gaze still looking deep into the heart of Elekargul.

  “That’s right,” said Sorus with a nod of his head. “Every year on the Day of the Black Horse the knights on civilian duty gather in the plains and anyone who wants sets out that morning to where the wild stallions roam. The knight who returns with the finest mount is the First Rider for the next season.”

  “Who makes the decision on the finest mount?” said Jon. “Anything subjective like that might end up in a fist fight is how I find those things finish often enough.”

  “The First Rider from the previous season makes that decision,” said Sorus. “Then the new First Rider makes all the civilian assignments for the coming year and also sets up the groups for the military patrols. Maybe someday I’ll get to try for First Rider.”

  “Didn’t you say that anyone can make the attempt,” said Jon turning to the boy. “Why couldn’t you just try every year?”

  “Oh no,” said Sorus, his eyes wide and with a firm shake of his head. “Only the best knights try. If you tried when you weren’t one of the top knights … that’s bad. Everyone will laugh at you. Sometimes only two or three knights make the attempt but usually about a dozen go for it. I would never try for that until I get much more experienced.”

  Jon nodded, “I can see why my father wants to be allied with Elekargul,” he said with a smile. “All right, so one direction is as good as any another? I’d like to see this Hollow Wood and the insect men.”

  “North then,” said Sorus and looked to his right and upstream. “We’ll head up the Frosty Run and look for somewhere to ford. We can do some fishing and hunting and there will be plenty of farmers along the way. I won’t be surprised if we run into a patrol within a day or two. There is usually some activity along the eastern edge of the Mountains of the Orc.”