Tom Liberman - The Staff of Sakatha

“Do you think we can trust him?” said Sorus, shaking his head no.

“We have no choice,” said the First Rider. “It’s that or just go home and forget all this happened.”

“I’m not totally opposed to that,” said Odellius with a smile, his face covered with dirt and sweat.

“If you want to go back, I’d understand,” said Jon as he looked at Odellius. “This is my fight, not yours. I’ll go on alone.”

Odellius smiled and laughed out loud, “What do you think the chances of that are?”

Jon smiled back at the huge warrior, “None at all.”

“What kind of a distraction did you have in mind, Vipsanius?” said Odellius and turned to the First Rider, a wipe of his brow with the filthy sleeve of his jerkin only managing to spread the dirt around.

The First Rider tossed the pick in his hand aside and drew his sword, “Lay into them like knights of Elekargul,” he said with a smile. “Once Sorus grabs the staff we’ll cover his retreat as best we can and follow if possible.”

“What do I do with it if I get out of here and… and you’re not around?” said Sorus his face pale in the dim light of the stones.

“That is your decision to make if I’m not there,” said Vipsanius as the smile left his face and he looked at the boy with a steady gaze. “If you make it to the surface alive then take the thing to our warriors, or give it over to Jon, whichever you think is best. You’re a knight of Elekargul, a Nightwalker now, Sorus, but you have no commanding officer other than me.”

“Yes, First Rider Vipsanius,” said Sorus suddenly standing up straight and giving the salute of his people. “You can count on me.”

“I know,” said Vipsanius and patted the boy on the shoulder just as the dark shadow suddenly coalesced out of the darkness.

“It is up ahead,” said Tenebrous, “not more than five hundred paces. You should put away your light stones except for one and mask that. The reptiles have gathered for a ceremony. Thantos and some darklings observe them. I am uncertain as to the length of the ritual but it cannot be long. The region ahead is of white marble and the magic is extraordinarily potent. It disrupts me to some degree and my ability to aid you will be limited.”

“I’ve never seen a white marble ruin,” said Sorus with a look to the other three, who in turn looked to one another, their faces expressionless and their eyes hardened.

“You will know it when you see it,” said the First Rider with a glance to the boy. “Just remember what we talked about and do your duty as a knight of Elekargul,” he said and handed his light stone to Sorus. “You carry this for now but wrap it in cloth to dim the light. The reptiles are not underground creatures and need a light source, so we won’t need ours once we get there.”

Sorus took the stone in his good left hand and then looked down at his right arm in a sling, thought about it for a moment before he placed the stone in his right hand, and fished around under his jerkin to find something with which to wrap the stone and dim its light. After a few seconds he pulled out a small pouch filled with a leafy green material which he dumped out. He put the light stone inside and its glow was enough to penetrate the thin material of the bag, although made sight more than a few feet ahead all but impossible. “Good enough?” he said and began to walk forward behind the lead of Tenebrous, who all but vanished in the gloom.

“Careful,” said Odellius as Jon bumped into him from behind.

“It’s too dark, I can’t even see a giant bulk like Odellius,” said the young knight of gray with a chuckle, “and Tenebrous is completely gone.”

“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.”