The Ivory Wand
By Jeffrey Ober
Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Ober
“You know I’ll always fight when the money’s right!” The others around the campfire laughed and nodded in agreement to the big man speaking.
“Tell it like it is, Particus.”
Particus nodded at the man, took another drink from his mug and continued in his deep voice:
“In battle my arm is strong and true;
I’ll take on any foe, old or new.
Take my sword, take my shield;
I’ll fight some more, a stick I’ll wield!
Take my money, take my gold;
I’ll leave you all out in the cold.”
The group of mercenaries grumbled and nodded in agreement at that last verse. Particus sat back down and grabbed some more of the smoking meat from out of the fire. The smell of the cooked pig was refreshing, and he voraciously ate it down. The smaller man at his right interrupted his thoughts: “Hey Particus, how long have we been out here now? Three weeks? Or has it been four now?”
Particus paused in mid-chew and answered, his voice muffled by the mouthful of pig, “Aye, I guess its been four now, Timar.”
Timar nodded, “Four weeks, and hardly a bit of fighting. We just sit around these fires, eating and telling stories. Every few days we move to a new campsite and do it all over again. And just think: we get paid for it!”
Particus swallowed and tossed the bone over his shoulder into the darkness. While wiping the grease from his hands he said, “I come here to fight. I get paid to fight. That’s what I do. I don’t like sitting here, eating and getting lazy. I think the enemy knows that. They’re just sitting out there in the dark, waiting. Waiting to attack us. We should go to them and fight!”
With that, Particus finished off his mug of ale and stood. He adjusted his sword on his belt and looked out into the darkness. He looked up at the two moons, deep in thought for a moment. He turned to face Timar, speaking so that only Timar could hear him:
“In another night, the moons will align. That will be the one night this month we will have complete darkness. I think that’s when they will attack.” Timar nodded and stood, looking into the darkness. Particus continued, “We’ve been at this site a day, and I think they’ll have us stay another day. That means we may be here tomorrow evening. I’m going to check out those ruins over there right now, before someone or something comes out of them to interrupt us.”
Particus looked around the fire at the other mercenaries drinking and enjoying themselves and then headed away from the warmth of the fire into the darkness. Timar followed.
The ruins, as Particus referred to them, were hardly more than a pile of rubble. It looked as if at some time in the distant past that there had been some sort of small square tower or fortress on the site, but now there were just a couple of walls and a lot of broken rock. Particus and Timar walked towards the ruins, the sounds of their companion’s laughter fading in the background.
At the ruins, things were very quiet. The two stopped and listened for a moment, but the only sound was a lonely cricket chirping nearby. Without speaking, the two men stepped into the ruins. Rocks crumbled underfoot as they tried to step through an old doorway. The sounds of rock breaking and tumbling over one another echoed off the few remaining walls. Particus stopped and held up his hand to Timar.
“One moment,” he whispered. “Did you hear that?”
Timar turned his head to the side and strained his ear to try and hear anything. He could hear nothing but the slight sound of a few pebbles still bouncing around near their feet. He shook his head to Particus and shrugged his shoulders.
The two men headed towards the one section of the ruins that appeared to be intact. There was an open doorway leading into a room of some sort with no roof. There was a brief sound of well-oiled metal on metal as the men simultaneously drew their swords. They carefully stepped through the rubble towards the open room, swords at the ready.
Particus stepped through the doorway into the room. The moons lit the room enough to see all but the darkest corners. It was a square room, about twenty feet on a side. There was no roof, but all the walls were intact at least to eight feet on a side. Particus looked around the room and saw nothing but rubble.
He stepped to the near wall and pushed hard, still holding his sword. A few pebbles rolled off the top of the wall and scraped on the ground as they fell. Particus sheathed his sword and headed to the left wall. Again he pushed on the wall, and it held sturdy. As he headed towards the third wall, a small white object caught his eye half-buried on the floor in the corner.
Particus pushed the rubble aside while Timar stepped closer to see what Particus had found. He uncovered a small rod about two feet long. It was dusty: it had clearly been buried here for quite some time. Particus picked it up and brushed the dust from the item with a gloved hand. He turned it over in his hands as Timar looked over his shoulder.
It was completely smooth, end to end. It was just about two feet long and completely symmetrical. It looked like a bone, but it was too finely polished and even. The ends were solid, and the weight of the wand made it appear that it was solid. Particus held it by one end and waved it towards Timar. Timar backed up and exclaimed, “No, wait, that could be a…”
Just then a white beam tracked from the end of the wand and towards Timar, striking him in the chest. Startled, the two men both fell to the ground, Particus dropping the wand. Timar recovered first. He scrambled to his feet and shook his head. “Wow. I feel better. Refreshed.”
Particus, however, was slower getting to his feet. He held his head in his hands while shaking it. “Oh. That really drained me. I feel like I’ve spent the entire night out drinking.”
Particus picked the wand up from the ground and looked at it carefully. Timar looked at it as well, then spoke: “You know what this is. You know what this means! This is some sort of magic. You know what the church would do if they saw this! Magic isn’t permitted, ever since the Great Breaking. We can’t have this. We have to turn it in to the church. They’ll kill us if they find us with it!”
Particus nodded thoughtfully and looked around the small room. “But who would know? What if I were to find someone of the underground. I hear they pay good money for black market magic. I think maybe I’ll hold on to it and decide what to do later.”
Timar was nearly jumping out of his skin. “Nooooo! You can’t! I just know they’ll find us. This is against all the rules. If we turn it in now, they won’t bother us. Better yet, let’s just put it back. I don’t want to have anything to do with magic. The church. They’ll kill us for sure!”
Particus tried to calm Timar: “Look, just you and I know about it. No one else needs to know. There’s no way the church will find out if we just keep our mouths shut. I’m not going to use it! Did you see the way it drained me? It appears to be some way of transferring energy from one person to another. If you had actually been hurt, I’m sure I would have taken your injuries. You think I’m going to use this thing? No way. I’m just going to hold it until I can find someone who is willing to pay solid gold. Then we’ll be rid of it and be richer at the same time. There’s no sense in leaving it here, as someone else will be sure to find it and sell it. If it’s going to be sold, I say that I’m the one to sell it.”
Timar nodded and calmed down some. Particus continued to reassure him, while all the time thinking of how much gold he might be able to get for the forbidden magic item. After Timar finally quieted down, the two men looked around the room. As they were about to head towards the door, they heard the sound of crunching rubble from outside the room.
Particus put his fing
er to his lips and gestured for Timar to be quiet. Particus slowly pulled his sword from his scabbard, trying to muffle the sound of sliding steel at the same time he put the wand into a sack at his waist. The footsteps outside the room stopped at the noise. The two men heard the sound of numerous swords being pulled from scabbards. They realized they were quite outnumbered, so Particus sheathed his sword and stepped openly to the doorway, hands above his head.
As he stepped through the door, he saw five or six men, swords drawn, facing the empty room. After a moment, he realized that the men were some of the same men that had been at the campfire. He put his hands down and laughed, “What are you guys doing up here?”
The group of men relaxed and the one that appeared to be the leader said, “We’re patrolling. They told us to head up here and check this place