Legends of the Lurker Box Set

by Richard H. Stephens

  “Part human,” Tamra said matter-of-factly as she handed the staff back. “Part elf.”

  Reecah frowned.

  “I sense her elven heritage in the staff. If she is related to you by blood, she will most certainly share your elven heritage.”

  Reecah digested Tamra’s words. Elven heritage had been insinuated a few times now but its relevance never registered in Reecah’s mind. Windwalkers descended from elves. She looked at Junior on the rock. She held out her hand.

  Junior took it and rose to stand beside her, wrapping a protective arm around her waist and giving her a quick squeeze of reassurance.

  She smiled at him. It was time he knew the truth. “Devius claims that only the rare humans who possess dragon magic can speak with dragons. Or, someone of elven descent.”

  Junior listened but her words didn’t sink in.

  She grasped his hand and squeezed, raising her eyebrows.

  Junior staggered.

  “I’m not sure which category you fall into, but if Devius is to be trusted, there’s a lot more to being a Waverunner than you know.”

  “But…?” Junior searched his companions.

  They all nodded in turn.

  “What about Aramyss?” He indicated the dwarf with his chin. “You can hear the dragons, can’t you?”

  Aramyss puffed out his considerable chest. “I’m a dwarf! We’re magical by nature.”

  Tamra frowned at Aramyss.

  Aramyss returned her scowl. “Well, perhaps not in a wizardly way, but we ain’t restrained like a human, I assure ye of that.”

  Junior wiggled his fingers in awe. “You mean I have magic?”

  “Hardly.” Tamra guffawed. “Now that I know you better, I sense it lies dormant somewhere deep inside you. That being said, there’s no fear of you casting a spell anytime soon. Talking to dragons will likely be the extent of your magic.”

  “A magic better than all others,” Scarletclaws spoke up.

  “You won’t get an argument from us,” Reecah said to the red dragon. “But we’re straying from what we’re about to do.”

  “Aye. Talk sense into ye.”

  Reecah’s eyes twinkled as she faced the stubborn dwarf. “Afraid that’s been tried before. Didn’t work then…”

  “Aye, miss GG. I know. Ain’t to be workin’ now.”

  The name, GG, put a grin on Reecah’s face, but did little to ease her dilemma. Sighing, she thumped her staff on the ground. “Look. I need you all to trust me in this. If I can find Devius, I might find a way to make a difference. If not, I’m just one more body J’kwaad needs to go through to get at Queen Askara.”

  Junior’s hand leapt to the hilt of his sword.

  The dragons growled.

  Tamra’s muscles tightened.

  Aramyss spat on the ground. “The dark heir will have to get past me first and I ain’t goin’ down easy like.”

  “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Junior shouted above the rushing wind. “Do you have any idea where to find this wizard friend of yours?”

  They had left Aramyss, Scarletclaws, Tamra and Silence, and flown until sundown—spending an uneventful, but restless night in the northern swampland. Reecah was happy to share Junior’s warmth as they shivered in the darkness despite the fire she kept alight using her recently unbound magic. She loved the way Junior had taken to Raver sleeping next to her even though it was obvious her feathery friend wasn’t sold on Junior’s companionship.

  Setting off at first light, it hadn’t been long before the southern shore of the Lake of the Lost glistened on the horizon.

  She flashed Junior a disarming smile. “No. Not really.”

  Junior stared at her as if in disbelief. Just when she thought he would berate her for her foolishness, he grinned. “That’s what I love most about you! Everyday is a mystery!”

  A warmth tingled her skin. Junior truly must have been sent to her by the gods. She threw her head back and laughed. “You haven’t seen anything yet!”

  “Bring it on!” Junior yelled into the wind.

  “You really think it’s necessary to encourage recklessness in him too?”

  Reecah stared at Lurker’s neck. Taking a lesson from Junior, instead of biting back, she patted his neck. “You need to join us, my friend. Me, Junior and Swoop!”

  Lurker craned his neck to give her a stern look, the movement throwing off his flight.

  “Hey!” Reecah winced and wrapped her arms around his neck, afraid they were about to collide with Swoop and Junior.

  Swoop peeled off, dropping quickly to avoid Lurker’s wingspan. “Watch it Lurky!”

  Making sure Junior wasn’t thrown from Swoop’s neck, Reecah eased her strangle hold as Lurker righted himself. A wide smile lifted her cheeks. “Lurky?”

  “Don’t.” Lurker said in a tone that brooked further comment.

  Reecah couldn’t help herself. “That’s so sweet. Lurky Lurker. I love it! Can I call you that?”

  “Only if you want to find out if you can fly on your own.”

  “Ha-ha! Okay. I won’t, but I still think it’s cute.”

  Swoop rejoined their altitude, looking questioningly at Lurker. Lurker rolled his eyes. If they were communicating, they excluded Reecah.

  Reecah gazed happily at Junior. She couldn’t think of any place she’d rather be. Flying the skies on the back of a dragon with a man she considered her soul mate. His hair fluttered behind him like a golden pennant in the sun.

  He returned her blissful look. “So, what now? I say we fly away to a secluded place and never return.”

  She knew he was only kidding, but the thought had its merit. Flying the skies, she felt unencumbered by the pressure her role as a Windwalker placed upon her. Her four most important beings were right here in one spot, out of harm’s way. The selfish side of her tried to force its way to the forefront. Why risk them? Without the foursome, what was the point of fighting at all? She should flee and hide. Leave the crazy mixed up world to the ones who were responsible for its undoing and let them sort it out.

  “That’s a great idea!”

  Lurker stiffened beneath her.

  “Easy, Lurky, I wouldn’t really do that.”

  He veered away from Swoop, choosing to eye her from the other side.

  “Sorry. I couldn’t resist.” She lifted a scale and scratched the skin beneath, thinking about Junior’s question. Heading back to Headwater would be suicidal. If Devius was still alive, he wouldn’t have remained where the king’s men could easily take him.

  Thoughts of Anvil’s forced march jogged her memory. “I think I know where we need to go. Devius mentioned a wizard’s guild. He referred to it as Arcanium.”

  “Do you know where it is?” Junior asked.

  She thought hard for a moment. “You know what? I think I do. Anvil mentioned it was at the eastern end of the King’s Road.”

  Without being told, Swoop dipped her wings to veer eastward across the expanse of the Lake of the Lost. Two islands passed by on their right, one much larger than the other.

  To the west, the Lake of the Lost carried on to a line of trees barely visible on the horizon.

  “I don’t recall any volcanoes this far north,” Junior shouted looking over his left shoulder.

  Reecah followed his gaze. A plume of black smoke billowed high in the sky. “That’s coming from South Fort or Sea Keep! Must be a big fire!”

  She turned her attention to the northeast, searching the landscape for signs of human habitation. The lake and endless tract of forest beyond carried on seemingly forever. A solitary peak dwarfed the horizon, its bulk dominating the landscape beyond.

  “That must be Dragon’s Tooth!” Reecah had heard Devius mention the mountain.

  Junior raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

  It took a while for the northern shoreline of the Lake of the Lost to disappear behind them, but as the mixture of green pines and bare deciduous trees passed underneath in a rush, a walled city began to
take shape on the eastern edge of the King’s Wood. A plume of black smoke rose into the clear sky and drifted eastward.

  Reecah pointed. “There! That’s got to be Arcanium! It’s burning too!”

  “I’ve a bad feeling about this.”

  “I don’t blame you, buddy. It’s as if the entire northland is under attack. Do you think it could be Ryonin’s forces?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt silly. There was no way the duke’s army could have gotten here before them. She wasn’t sure of the distances involved, but she guessed it to be a least a week’s march from Carillon to South Fort. It would be another three days if not more to Arcanium.

  “Not unless he already has a standing army in the Kraidic duchy.”

  She couldn’t help thinking that everything was happening on account of her. The thick plumes of smoke to the west bespoke of great damage to whatever castle had been set ablaze. She hoped that innocent lives weren’t lost as a result.

  The south and west walls of Arcanium were fringed by thick woods. It would be tough to set the dragons down safely. Barren scrub stretched north of the city toward what appeared to be great crevices etched into the ground. Beyond the fissures, the bulk of an enormous mountain dominated the horizon, its peak at least twice the altitude they flew at.

  “Set us down near those ravines.”

  “We’ll be seen.”

  “We can’t help that now. We’ll be seen no matter where we go. They’ll be on the lookout for us.”

  They kept high above Arcanium, giving the wizard’s guild a wide berth. No one knew how far a spell could be cast.

  “Looks like a couple of separate fires recently. Probably yesterday or the day before,” Lurker observed.

  Reecah squinted, trying to see the affected areas of the city, but they were too far away to see anything besides two blackened areas. “Do you think they’re related to the smoke in the west?”

  “No idea. Makes sense, but there’s no way to tell.”

  Reecah grimaced. So many things were happening at once. Even to her uneducated eye, the fires were likely not coincidental. That meant someone was fighting back. She twisted on Lurker’s shoulders to catch a fleeting glimpse of the destruction near Arcanium’s north gate. “Do you think the people of the duchy of Kraidic are rebelling against the king?”

  “We can always hope.”

  Reecah was about to agree when her stomach rose into her throat.

  Lurker changed the tilt of his wings and dropped from the sky toward the edge of a deep crevice that branched off the main canyon and snaked its way to a point a league from Arcanium’s north wall. His wings flipped around as he back-flapped and the ground rushed up to meet them.

  The sensation of a sudden landing always left her with a mixture of giddiness and fright. The way Lurker’s thick, hind legs absorbed the landing amazed her. With nary a bump, Lurker lowered his front legs and lowered his chest to the ground.

  She slid from his shoulder and jumped clear of his foreleg. “Nice landing, as usual.”

  A scream disturbed the barren landscape.

  “Watch yourself.”

  Reecah stepped back to bump against Lurker’s hind foot, almost falling.

  Borne on a rush of wind, Swoop dove at the ground, inverting herself at the last possible moment to spread her wings wide and flap furiously as her legs hit the ground hard.

  Junior hung onto her neck for dear life—the landing jarring him to the point that he ended up hanging from Swoop’s neck, his feet barely above the ground. Releasing his stranglehold, he dropped to the dirt and ran his fingers through his dishevelled hair. “Now that’s a landing.”

  Reecah rolled her eyes. She wasn’t happy about Swoop continuing to push her flying limits, especially now that she carried Junior, but surprisingly, Junior didn’t seem to mind. The two of them had created a bond as deep as the one she shared with Lurker.

  She walked over and hugged Junior, kissing him on the lips before turning to Lurker. “Can you talk to your girlfriend about taking unnecessary risks?”

  Lurker gave her a skeptical look.

  Glancing at Swoop, the brown dragon smiled. “What now, Windwalker?”

  Reecah sighed. Swoop had always been a free spirit. Shaking her head, she let it drop and thought about what to do next. “I don’t know where to start.”

  Junior checked his sword belt, adjusting how it hung on his hips. “I’m thinking that city we just passed.”

  Nodding, Reecah walked to the pointed edge of the crack in the ground and stared out over a chasm that stretched northward to where it joined a wider canyon—its bottom lost in shadow. Though she was used to flying above the clouds on the back of a dragon, and climbing the heights of the Spine back home, the scope of the vista falling away at her feet left her breathless. Reddish-brown rock formations soared up from the canyon floor—monoliths carved by nature’s hand.

  Junior joined her, putting a steadying hand on her shoulder. “Wow. I’d hate to fall down there.”

  Stepping back, Reecah pulled her staff over her shoulder and tightened the strap holding her bow, quiver and quarterstaff. She shrugged her shoulders to get everything to sit right and walked back to Lurker to rub the side of his face. “Wait here for us. If you see anyone, don’t stick around to find out who they are. And be ready. I imagine we’ll be in a hurry if we find Devius.”

  “Be careful, Reecah.”

  She kissed his cheek and started away with Junior at her side. A deft shoulder flick made the equipment across her back clatter. “I really need to get rid of some of this stuff.”

  “Here. Let me carry something.”

  Since acquiring Grimelda’s staff, Reecah had no further need of her quarterstaff, but she had been loath to leave it behind. She turned her back to him. “My quarterstaff would be great.”

  Junior fumbled with its binding, his thick fingers struggling to undo the ties. Pulling the quarterstaff free he faced her with it in his right hand. “How do I look?”

  “Like a shiny, silver wizard.” Reecah smiled and resumed walking.

  The barren terrain consisted of little more than hard-packed dirt and withered trees. The walls of Arcanium were visible in the distance; emerging from the edge of the King’s Wood on its western flank and traversing the non-descript flatland toward more rugged countryside in the east.

  Halfway between where the dragons had dropped them off and the city walls, Junior knelt and inspected the patchy scrub covering the desolate ground.

  Reecah leaned on her staff. “What is it?”

  “Hard to say. Tracks from someone who came this way recently. Scuff marks, really.”

  “Coming or going?”

  “They lead toward the city gate, but whether leaving or approaching it, I can’t tell.”

  Reecah followed an imaginary path to the distant gate and imagined a straight line past the dragons. If whoever created the tracks didn’t stray, their path took them into the fissures. “Could be anyone.”

  Junior ran his tongue along the inside of his upper lip, consternation gripping his features. “I don’t suppose it means much, but I can’t see signs of anyone else travelling this way. It’s like no one ventures out here.”

  Reecah shrugged. “Can’t say I blame them. Nothing here but windswept rock.”

  Straightening, Junior slapped his hands together to rid them of dirt and fell into step beside Reecah. “I hope the wizard’s guild isn’t looking for you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “One would think the high king has sent word to the cities and towns all over the Great Kingdom to be on the lookout for you.”

  Reecah grabbed his forearm and stopped, not taking her gaze off the city gates. “You think so?”

  Junior raised his eyebrows. “I know I would if I were king.”

  “Perhaps we shouldn’t go in there.”

  “Ya. I’d hate to get lost in the city and have someone spot you.”

  Reecah’s brows came together. She lif
ted her head trying to hear something she thought she had imagined.

  Junior followed her gaze around the barren plains. Other than Tamra, he wasn’t used to people picking up on things before him. “What is it?”

  Reecah held up a hand for him to be quiet. Her head jerked to a copse of pine trees separate from the King’s Wood, closer to them than the dragons. “There’s someone in there.”

  Junior squinted, leaning his head forward as if that would help close the distance. “I don’t see anything. How can you tell?”

  She shook her raised hand. “Shh.”

  At first, she thought it was the wind, but as she concentrated, she heard the faintest of words. They didn’t make sense—jumbled and erratic. Listening intently, it was like a dragon spoke to her, but she didn’t recognize the soft voice. “Food. Large. Danger. Reecah.”

  Reecah stared hard and swallowed. It knew her name.

  Clutching her staff, Junior’s sword slid from its scabbard.

  “Stay safe. Don’t approach. I’ll come for you.”

  “Can you hear that?”

  Junior frowned, his eyes searching all around.

  “Hide. Wait for me. Don’t trust the king,” Reecah repeated the words sounding in her mind.

  Junior shook his head. “One of the dragons talking?”

  “Not one we’re familiar with.”

  “That would explain why you can hear them and I can’t. You’re a Windwalker.”

  “Ya, but I still need to be allowed into their circle of trust.”

  “I thought your wizard friend said that by unbinding your dragon magic, that was no longer the case.”

  “Perhaps. Even so, if a dragon doesn’t wish to include me in their conversation, they can shut me out. You and Swoop were having a great old time in the sky earlier and I never heard a thing.”

  “Hmm? Beats me. I’m not the best one to ask. I’m just a simple fisherman.”

  Reecah took her eyes off the stand of trees and gave him a sympathetic smile. “Don’t say that. Remember? Tamra claims you have elven blood.”

  “Great. A lost elf with no concept of who he is.”

  She thought he was feeling sorry for himself, but his smirk hinted he was trying to lighten the mood that had settled over them. The smirk made her look twice. It reminded her of Jaxon. Not an image she cared to recall.