The Arcane Staff Trilogy Box Set

by Hans Bezdek

  “The bird? Yeah, I see it,” she shrugged.

  “W-We need to get out of here!” cried Delvin, heading for the horses.

  “I get that you frighten easily, but it’s just a bird,” Sloane laughed. “Are you really scared of them?”

  “It’s not just a bird, it’s a roc!” he shouted, grabbing the reigns of both horses.

  “Never heard of one,” said Sloane, glancing back. Her eyes widened as the bird was nearly at them now. Not only had it covered a huge distance in a matter of seconds, but the creature was giant. It was nearly the size of a house, and its talons were the size of their horses.

  “I-It’s too late!” cried Delvin. “W-Watch out!”

  The roc screeched, diving down with its talons outstretched. Sloane was surprised by the giant bird’s speed, but still managed to dive out of the way in time. She hit the cracked ground hard, scrambling to her feet and drawing her bow.

  “You okay?!” she called out to Delvin.

  The gnome nodded, fighting hard to keep ahold of the horses’ reigns. “I-I’m not sure how much longer I can hold these two!”

  Sloane looked up at the roc, which was circling around above them. It looked like it wasn’t going to leave the two of them alone anytime soon.

  “Let’s hop on and ride!” she shouted, rushing over and jumping onto her horse. She had to fight it, but she was able to get it under control.

  Delvin didn’t have the same luck.

  After jumping on his horse, the creature took off as fast as it could to the north.

  “Sloane!!” cried Delvin, doing everything he could to keep on the horse’s back.

  “Coming!” she called after him, looking up as she set her horse in motion. The roc’s attention shifted from her to Delvin, and was now chasing after him and his horse.

  Sloane raised her bow and nocked an arrow, trying to get a feel for when her horse bobbed up and down. As the roc began its descent, she knew she didn’t have the time to make sure the shot was perfect. She just had to take it.

  “Help!” cried out the helpless Delvin, seeing the giant bird diving down for him. His horse was going too fast for him to jump off, and he didn’t look like he was in any position to summon an illusion to distract the enemy.

  Mumbling an incantation Sloane hadn’t used in a while, the tip of her arrow flared with flames. She aimed just ahead of the Roc’s trajectory, then let the shot loose.

  Her target was the creature’s head, but again she underestimated the roc’s speed. Instead, it struck the bird’s midsection, digging in deep and shoot flames across the bird’s body.

  The roc let loose a horribly cry, crashing into the ground just a few feet from Delvin. His horse jumped in surprise, then took a hard left and ran even faster.

  Sloane slowed her horse down as they approached the roc, keeping some distance. The bird rolled around back and forth on the ground as it screeched, trying to get rid of the fire but digging the arrow deeper into itself.

  Sloane leveled her bow at the distracted creature’s head, then put the roc out of its misery.

  The archer looked to her left to see Delvin fighting to get control of his horse again, then back down at the burning roc carcass. This wasn’t the welcome to the Juentes Canyons that she was hoping for.

  Maybe this wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought it would be.

  Chapter 13

  “U-Undead?!” cried one of the twins, staring up ahead at the unnatural creatures.

  “T-They’re real?!” cried the other.

  Everyone else began to freak out. Bethany whimpered and clung to Don, who looked even more frightened than she did. The elf, Londar, began praying fervently.

  “Keep your voices down!” hissed Kriket. “They can still hear!”

  “That’s true,” nodded Zeke. While he wasn’t surprised the twins were freaking out, he was surprised the others were. More shocking was that some of them didn’t think the abominations weren’t real. “You knew Kutarm has sway over these creatures, didn’t you? There’s a very good chance they’ll be some at Burston, too.”

  “W-We thought those were just rumors,” whimpered Bethany.

  “Well… they aren’t,” shrugged Zeke. This was not making him feel more confident about going to war with this ragtag group.

  “It’s one thing to intellectually know they are real,” gulped Londar. “It’s another to see them in person.”

  “Surely you were scared the first time you saw one, right?” Don asked Zeke.

  Of course he had been. In fact, he wanted nothing to do with the creatures. He was willing to let Delvin die initially. He was glad that wasn’t ultimately what happened, but it easily could’ve. But, like most things about Zeke’s life, there was no reason to let other people know this.

  “Nope,” said Zeke, his hand resting on his hips as he valiantly stared off into the distance. “I’m not frightened easily.”

  Kriket looked off to where Zeke was looking, back to Zeke, then back off to the distance again.

  “What’s over there?” asked the lizard. “More undead?”

  “What? No. I was just… nevermind,” sighed Zeke, reaching back and pulling out the Fourth Staff. He hopped off the wagon and began walking towards the creatures.

  “Y-You d-didn’t want us to come with you, did you?” asked Don.

  “No. I don’t,” said Zeke truthfully. It looked like there was just a handful of undead here. They shouldn’t be too difficult for him to take out, especially with the Arcane Staff. The last thing he needed was one of the Resistance ‘fighters’ to accidentally hurt themselves.

  “Just let us know if you need us,” wheezed out Kriket.

  Zeke gave a thumbs up as he walked.

  He could see now there were about six undead humanoids. They were tearing into a dead deer, which most definitely was dead by the time they came upon it. The creatures were much too slow and dumb to take a live one down on their own.

  While no undead ever looked healthy, these were worse off than the others Zeke had seen before. One of them had no legs, while others were all missing a large array of bones and other body parts. One of them appeared to be missing the bottom of its jaw, which made for a hard time chewing into the deer.

  Zeke raised the Arcane Staff towards the creatures, prepared to take them out in one go… but then stopped. The undead weren’t paying him any attention. He felt like it would be cheating. On top of that, he wanted to put on a show for the others. Give them a little taste of what was to come when they made it to Burston.

  “Hey!” shouted Zeke. “You lot better scram!”

  The undead continued to eat the deer, ignoring him.

  Zeke felt his eye twitch.

  “This wagon is under Zeke Northwood’s protection!” declared Zeke loudly, holding the Arcane Staff high above him.

  One of the undead glanced at him, then turned back to the deer.

  “Everything going okay?” called out one of the twins from the wagon.

  “Yup,” shouted back Zeke. “Everything’s under control.”

  The elf shifted his attention back to the undead, muttering under his breath about how they deserved what they got for not playing along. He raised the Fourth Staff towards them, the circle at the top of it filling in with a purple glow.

  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” mumbled Zeke, shooting off a blast of energy at the abominations.

  The purple blast landed between them, blowing the deer and two of the undead away and far into the forest.

  Well, that wasn’t exactly what he was going for.

  “Woohoo!” cheered Don.

  “That was incredible!” shouted Bethany.

  Zeke smiled and stood a little taller. Now they were seeing the kind of firepower he brought with him.

  The remaining four undead turned towards him, growling in anger. The elf had blown away their food, and they didn’t seem thrilled about it.

  Figuring another shot would finish them off, he took aim at th
e group as they stumbled and crawled towards him. Right as he was about to release another blast… the purple energy laxed, and nothing happened.

  “Again?” whined Zeke, shaking the weapon up and down.

  “What’s he doing?” he heard one of the twins ask.

  “Just watch,” said Kriket. “He must be luring the fast one in.”

  The fast one?

  Zeke looked up just in time to see one of the undead already in front of him.

  “Gah!” shouted Zeke, falling backward as the undead swung a rusty sword at him. The elf landed uncomfortably, awkwardly trying to scoot backward and away from the creature.

  “Do… do you think we should help him?” Kriket asked the others, his hand resting on his hilt.

  “He does seem to be having some trouble…” nodded Londar.

  “Nonsense!” said one of the twins confidently. “He’s got these freaks right where he wants them!”

  “Yeah!” cheered Don. “We’d just get in his way. He’s probably putting on a show for us!”

  “So brave…” marveled Bethany.

  Before Zeke could get up or away, the quick undead creature was on top of him. The creature let loose an unnerving groan as it lifted its sword high above it, then swung down. Zeke instinctively brought the Arcane Staff up to block the blow.

  The Staff flashed in a glow of purple as the sword connected with it. Just as fast as the flash came, it exploded out. The sword, along with both of the undead’s arms, shot back, flying high above them and off into the distance.

  “Incredible!” cheered Don. “He blew that creature’s arms right off him!”

  “I guess we were worried for nothing,” wheezed Kriket in laughter.

  Zeke wasn’t sure if he’d have put it that way, struggling back to his feet as the quick undead tried to bite at him. When he got up, he brought the Fourth Staff back and crashed it down on top of the creature’s skull. Immediately, the creature dropped.

  Before the elf could celebrate, the other three had finally made it to him, including the one with no legs.

  The top of the Arcane Staff glowed bright purple as it closed in the loop again. He wasn’t entirely sure why it decided to start working again, but he wasn’t going to waste anymore time.

  Letting loose a ray of purple force magic, he leveled the weapon at each undead in turn. One by one the creatures flew back into the trees, exploding into dust as they connected.

  The ray ended shortly after the last undead was destroyed, the Arcane Staff going back to its usual state. Zeke took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down. That had been a lot closer than he thought it would be. Sloane had made killing undead look easy back when they found Delvin. If the Fourth Staff hadn’t started working again when it did, he wasn’t sure if Lucky would’ve been enough to see him out of the fight in one piece.

  “He did it!” came shouts from the others. The creak of the wagon resumed, as did the sound of the horses’ steps.

  Zeke steadied his breathing, then turned to face them with a confident smile as the wagon drew near.

  “See? Nothing to worry about when you have me on your side,” he laughed.

  “That was impressive,” nodded Kriket. “I won’t lie and say I didn’t have some reservations, but you really proved yourself.”

  “You gathered us when you weren’t sure he was who he said he was?!” asked an annoyed Londar.

  The chubby lizard shrugged. “It worked out in the end, didn’t it?”

  Londar still looked annoyed, but the others cut off any hope he had of pressing the matter.

  “With your help, we’ll certainly defeat Lord Kutarm!” cheered Don.

  “The tyranny won’t stand a chance!” agreed one of the twins.

  “Calm down, everyone,” snickered Kriket as he pulled Zeke up onto the wagon. “Kutarm himself won’t be at Burston. At least, hopefully not.”

  A ping of fear coursed through Zeke as the thought of confronting Kutarm came to his mind. He guessed he was going to fight with the man someday, he just hoped it wouldn’t be for a while. He then remembered what he overheard back in Newbridge, about Kutarm’s men saying that their leader was focused elsewhere. He had nothing to worry about.

  “I hope he is there,” said Zeke, glancing around at the others. “I’d love to finally get my hands on that coward. All he does is send his men out to do his dirty work. He has to rely on deals with demons and the undead to get anything done!”

  The others nodded, looking encouraged. Talk quickly broke out of what they would do if Kutarm was there, and how there wasn’t anything to worry about. Kriket was the only one who didn’t join in. He looked at Zeke with concern in his eye, but then went back to guiding the horses without saying anything.

  Zeke knew what the lizard must’ve been thinking. Of course Lord Kutarm wasn’t a pushover. Zeke knew that, and he wasn’t planning on taking him lightly. Still, he could talk as big a game as he wanted for the time being.

  What harm was there in boosting morale before a big battle?

  Chapter 14

  Sloane sighed as she marked out another section on her map. They had to outrun an angry nomad group to get near this mountain, and then it cost them nearly a half a day to get all the way to the top. All that work was for nothing.

  They had been searching nonstop since they got to the Canyons a few days ago, hardly stopping to sleep and rest. If it was just her and Delvin they wouldn’t at all, but she knew it wasn’t wise to push their horses to such an extreme. After the fight with the roc on the first day they got here, they were more careful to keep an eye out for danger. That had come in handy more than once.

  They quickly found that while the Juentes Canyons didn’t have any permanent towns or cities, it was still filled with inhabitants. In addition to rocs, they had noticed sand wyrms, giant coyotes, and even some strange fae creatures that resembled giant turtles. That wasn’t even including the dozens of nomads, all of whom seemed to hate outsiders with a passion.

  “Try not to get too frustrated,” recommended Delvin as he fed their horses. “Did you really think we’d find it in just five days?”

  Secretly, she did. She knew better, but she had felt like they would find the Lost Citadel in no time. The longer they went at this, the better chance there was that Zeke was right, and they should’ve just gone with him. For all she knew, the battle at Burston had already been fought and won.

  “I suppose you’re right,” she said, looking around at the Juentes Canyons from their high vantage point. It was actually a beautiful sight. They had a perfect view of the canyons, including all the bloodthirsty creatures and people. The area appeared to stretch out endlessly before them, with countless nooks and crannies to investigate. For all they knew, the Lost Citadel could be tucked away, hidden under some fallen rocks. That would make it nearly impossible to find.

  “How long are we going to keep this up?” asked Delvin, walking over and taking in the view himself. “Not that I’m against searching, of course. Just curious how long you want to.”

  “We’ll search as long as we half to,” she said, somewhat half-heartedly. She wasn’t sure if she really wanted the Lost Citadel so badly that she’d die after wandering these canyons for the next fifty years, assuming one of those nasty beasts didn’t get to her first.

  “I figured you’d say that,” chuckled Delvin as he sat down.

  “You don’t have to stay, you know,” said Sloane taking a seat beside him.

  “I know,” he nodded. “You’ve only said that about a hundred times. I’m not leaving you, though.”

  “I appreciate that,” she smiled. “It’s nice to see that some people actually value their friends.”

  The gnome’s eyes widened slightly and she immediately regretted saying that. She knew he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to bring up the elf again.

  “Speaking of Zeke…” said Delvin slowly. “We only have enough supplies to carry us for another week, two at the max. Why not look around for him
when we go back to civilization?”

  “Because he’s just going to gloat about how we haven’t found it yet,” sighed Sloane as she shook her head. “I don’t want to see him again until after we find the Lost Citadel, if I ever see him again.”

  Delvin frowned but didn’t say anything.

  The two looked into the distance again, watching the sun high in the air. It was after noon, and it was on its way down. From such a high view, they could see several groups of nomads slowly walking around aimlessly across the canyons. There were to group in the northeast that looked like they may cross paths. That would at least give them some entertainment while they waited for the horses to finish eating.

  Delvin suddenly snickered.

  “What’s funny?” she asked, glancing at him. “You think I’m being too harsh about Zeke?”

  “It’s… It’s nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “I mean, I do think you’re being too harsh, but that’s not why I laughed.”

  “Why did you, then?”

  “You’ll think I’m being a dweeb...”

  “Well, now you have to tell me!” she laughed.

  “I know it’s a lame thing to laugh about, but the pattern of the nomads is so predictable,” he explained, face turning slightly red. “I think it’s sort of funny.”

  Delvin was right. Sloane did think he was a dweeb for laughing at that. Still, she didn’t understand what he meant. She hadn’t noticed any sort of pattern at all.

  “What’s the pattern?” she asked, looking at several of the groups. They seemed to be moving erratically to her, probably looking for food.

  The gnome pointed to a group off to their west, which was now moving south. Sloane hadn’t noticed them earlier, but there wasn’t anything noteworthy from what she could see.

  “The nomads inevitably move over towards those cliffs to the west, but then none of them ever head north,” said Delvin. “They always reach that point and then head south. What’s funny is they’ll go farther north to other parts of the canyons, just not there.”

  Sloane wasn’t sure if ‘funny’ was exactly the right word, but it was interesting.