by Mike Dukk
“I-I have to wield it,” Celiann said. “The task was given to me.”
I moved to Celiann and examined her. She had not been hit by the creature, but her face was taut and pale. She still grasped the Golden Sword, which hummed in her hands.
I helped her to her feet. “We’re right beside you. You’re one of us, after all.”
She met my eyes and grinned. The Golden Sword shone brighter for just a moment, highlighting her regal features. Thank Berythal I was strong-willed and remembered my wonderful Elanor. How mad she would be if —
“We thank you for welcoming us,” Yensid said as he clapped me on my shoulder.
“Just Celiann,” Birch said. “Yensid still stupid.”
Birch wasn’t always that rude (actually, yes he was), but other than Mina, the experiences of our group as a whole with arcane spell casters had been quite tragic. There was Quath, the blue-robed sorcerer and the fireball incident. Oh, and I should mention Ziga, the dwarf wizard who had magically charmed Birch. And I cannot forget Nadasta, a wizard that had turned out to be a necromancer intent on killing us so she could reanimate us into zombies.
Celiann had proven herself. Yensid had a much longer road.
We journeyed onward. A few hours later, twilight was upon us. It was then that we stumbled upon a burnt and blackened area of rock that stuck out near the trail we walked.
Celiann stopped, closed her eyes, and concentrated. A blue glow surrounded her.
“Sword make Celiann glow,” Birch said.
“Don’t be stupid. She was detecting evil,” Yensid said.
Birch stared at him. “Birch think elf talk too much.”
“My friend, I was simply correcting you. Though you have honed your skill with the blade, you lack any true knowledge of magic.”
The half-orc grinned. “Birch can solve riddles elf can’t.”
Yensid stared at him for several long, amusing moments, knuckles gripped white upon his quarterstaff.
Suddenly, Mina squealed. “Oh! A blackened bone.” She took a small brush from a hidden pocket in her robes and swept the dust off the foot-long bone, eyes bright with curiosity. “It’s a big leg bone, a femur.”
“Put that down,” Yensid said. “It is not good fortune to hold a bone of the dead.”
“Holy Flame was used here,” Celiann said. “Whatever killed this creature was a being of true good.”
“Oooo. An evil bone. Even better. I wonder if…” Mina’s voice trailed off as she walked away from the party, enthralled with her newest oddity.
“Discard that at once,” Yensid said.
Mina ignored him. “I’ll examine it on the way to the Dragon King.” She put it in her backpack, one blackened end jutting out of the corner of it.
“Disgusting,” Yensid said.
Birch grinned. “Birch never appreciated Mina’s collection so much.”
Yensid glared at him.
Birch laughed as he sauntered up the path to walk beside Mina, joining her in yet another tune they had learned from the Halfling sailors.
“Let it go, brother,” Celiann said. “Mina’s a good person. She’s studious of her art, that’s all.”
“The people you get involved with,” Yensid said.
Berythal forgive me, I wanted to punch the elf between his eyes.
As evening descended to nightfall, we allowed ourselves a small campfire. We had found a secluded cave that would conceal our presence, or so we hoped. Without Lelliani, we were walking blind. How else would that undead monstrosity have caught us by surprise?
During the meal shared by all around the campfire, Mina further examined the bone.
“I’m certain it belonged to a hobgoblin. See the small indentation right here?” Mina asked Birch.
“Birch see. What Yensid think?”
“I think I will take first watch,” Yensid said. He stood and walked outside the cave, mumbling to himself.
Mina and Birch looked at each other and smiled. I tried not to.
I scooted over next to Celiann. “Is your brother always this difficult?”
She nodded, though her gaze remained upon the fire. “He means well. But he is rude and inconsiderate sometimes. I should have never asked him to come with me when I left our home.”
“He can be quite intolerable,” I replied.
She frowned at me. “That’s not something a cleric of Berythal should say.”
“I was just agreeing with —”
“Don’t lie. I know you can’t stand him. Neither can they.” She looked across the fire at Birch and Mina. “We’ll be out of your hair as soon as this is done.”
After a few silent moments, Birch said, “Birch think Celiann want to stay with us.”
She didn’t answer. She just stared across the fire at him.
“Yensid’s mean,” Mina said. “You’re not. You’ve been nothing but nice to us, you fight well, and I love the way your armor matches so well with your boots. And —”
Birch elbowed her gently, and Mina giggled. “We like you. Need you.”
Celiann’s eyes glistened wet in the reflection of the fire. “I just can’t leave my brother all alone. He thinks I have a duty to serve my people and that I should have never left. He believes I should be a wizard like everyone else in my family. But I was born to fight, to stand up for those that cannot defend themselves.”
“Surely he’s changed his mind, seeing the way you’re willing to sacrifice yourself. The three of us see the strain you’re under, how hard it is for you. I’m certain Yensid does, too,” I said.
“Celiann likes adventure,” the half-orc said.
“Maybe I do. Maybe I won’t go back. But my first duty is to deliver the Golden Sword. If we survive that —”
Birch thumped his chest. “We survive. Dragon King intimidated by mighty Birch.”
Celiann and Mina laughed, though the image of Birch trying to bully the Dragon King was not funny to me. Images of him punching that green dragon flashed in my head.
Soon afterward, we decided to rest for the night. Mina and Celiann lay in the back of the cave, Birch and I toward the front. Sleep had nearly claimed me when Birch whispered. “Birch not tell Elanor that Brady like Celiann. Brady can’t heal Birch with hole poked in head.”
“What? Birch I don’t — I couldn’t possibly —”
He chuckled, rolled to face the fire, and in a few minutes he was sound asleep.
I lay there a long time, telling myself that he most certainly was not right. Really, he wasn’t.
I was nearly asleep when Yensid came back into the cave. He moved soundless as a slight breeze until he reached Mina’s backpack. From it Yensid withdrew the bone, and then catted back to the cave entrance. Once outside, I heard a crack somewhere in the night.
When he returned, he took a drink from a water skin and whispered to himself. “Perhaps now I’ll have some peace.” He then took up his staff and walked into the night to finish his watch.
I was certain Mina took that bone just to irritate him; she had an instinct of how to creep people out, after all. I also knew she would find some other way to bother Yensid, and it shamed me to find myself looking forward to it.
The next morning we travelled onward. Shrubs and sparse trees remained, but the flat ground became rolling, rocky hills that turned into small mountains as morning became afternoon. We found ourselves on a path that wound its way through the middle of two sheer mountains. The ground was covered with sharp, loose rocks that crunched under our feet. Grainy, black sand spanned twenty feet on either side of a narrow brook that flowed from one side of the pass to another.
We had just crossed the shallow, three-foot wide stream when sand and rock burst all around us. As I cleared the sand from my eyes, I saw the three huge, black scorpions surrounding us. They were over six feet wide and five feet tall. Each had a tail that arched and swayed over their black-plated bodies, green liquid squirting from the pointed tips. The fluid hissed and steamed when it hit the rocky ground.
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bsp; Birch never hesitated. He stepped toward one and swung his sword. The scorpion caught the blow with one of its thick, powerful pincers. Its black chitin cracked from the force of the parry, leaving bits of red flesh exposed beneath its carapace.
It whipped its tail downward, but Birch caught the arcing blow with an overhead parry. The creature’s other pincer snapped. Birch jumped back and into a guarded stance.
I called forth the power of Berythal and granted the party divine luck, a spell that also disoriented the scorpions with celestial misfortune. The spell would enhance the party’s clarity in combat, while causing the enemy to lose focus. It was the spell I always cast when I was scared out of my wits.
The other scorpion attacked the elves. A pincer clanged against Celiann’s shield, deflected away. Its other claw swiped at Yensid, who whipped his staff across his body, barely repelling the attack. The tail whipped downward and landed between the two of them, never coming close to striking.
Not to brag, but I believe my spell had something to do with that series of misses; I was nearly certain of it.
Celiann swung the Golden Sword and lopped off a pincer. The scorpion screeched. Its tail slashed, plunging toward her. Celiann caught the brunt of the strike upon her battered shield. Green liquid from the tail blanketed it, hissing as it dribbled over its edge to soak Celiann’s forearm. Both arm and shield hissed as the acidic substance ate at both.
Celiann screamed. Pain evident in her stoic face, she swung the Golden Sword in retort, slicing carapace away from the scorpion’s remaining pincher.
Yensid waved his hands, and his voice rose as he cast a spell. “Flamach Bursan.” A ball of fire burst into the one-clawed scorpion and simply incinerated its shell. The scorpion’s legs collapsed, and its body thudded to the ground. Its wicked tail snapped one last time and then cracked against the rocks. Green liquid splattered and hissed as acidic splash burned several gold-piece sized holes through my cloak.
The third scorpion bowled Mina over, and she toppled to the ground. It was the fall (or my wonderful spell) that saved her from the tail, which slammed into the sand only a hands-breadth from her skull. The scorpion snapped its claws at her diminutive form, but Mina somehow managed to scamper under it, managing to avoid being snapped in half. Instead, one of the sharp edges of the pincer gashed her hip and stomach. The impact knocked her to the ground. She tried to scramble to her feet, but slipped on a wet rock. Mina fell backward, and her head bounced off another rock.
The scorpion stepped back and focused its beady eyes upon the halfling as it clacked its claws. Another blow would probably kill her.
I yelled at the top of my lungs. “Birch, switch!”
There was no time to see if Birch heard me. I stepped forward and knelt next to Mina, my incantation for healing already in motion. I had almost finished when the blunt end of a black pincer meant for Mina bludgeoned me. The force of the blow knocked me backward into the stream, knocking the wind out of me.
As I struggled to gasp for breath, the creature’s tail reared back, poised to strike.
Then Birch was there. He grabbed its tail from behind and heaved the scorpion up and over his body. The scorpion’s huge body somersaulted in mid-air and landed heavily upon its crab-like legs.
Needless to say, Birch had its attention.
Mina clambered to her feet, blood dripping from one of her elbows. Her colorful purple robes were darkened by her own blood. She ignored the pain, composed herself, and cast her spell. “Shradi Cala Zaah!”
A lightning bolt crackled from her hand. It hit the scorpion’s tail and melted it. Lightning rippled across its carapace, and its huge form shuddered. The scorpion was still shaking when Birch’s great sword shattered the shell right between its beady eyes. It imploded and collapsed, its legs convulsing.
I pulled myself from the water and my eyes found the elves, which had moved to battle the last scorpion. Celiann had lopped off both the creature’s pincers, and held her shield upright as its tail ricocheted off of it. She screamed in pain on impact, but her strength never wavered.
Balanced upon the scorpion’s back was a burning ball of flame. It tried to dart to and fro to shake it, but could not dislodge it.
The scorpion tried to charge Celiann, but she stepped to the side. As it passed her she took its tail clean off, and her next blow severed two of the scorpion’s legs.
I wasn’t quite certain if the flaming ball on its back finally killed the scorpion or if it simply bled to death.
The rest of our party stayed alert, making certain there were not any more of them. I moved directly to Mina, whose own blood pooled at her feet. She was pale and shaking, yet energy surrounded her hands.
“Treacherous things,” I said as I knelt in front of Mina to heal her wounds.
Mina let her arcane energy dissipate. She staggered, and I had to hold her up. “Oh, I don’t know. I’d kind of like to have one as a pet. If I could get it as a baby, I could train it. Wouldn’t it be handy?”
“Whatever for?”
“It could guard Waspy.”
Berythal guide me, she was serious.
After I healed Mina’s wounds, I moved to Celiann. Her arm was burnt to the bone. Had it not been for the potion the Goldars had given us, she would’ve lost the hand, for the wound was beyond my abilities. The Goldar potion became more like a salve as I applied it to her arm. The entire time I applied it to her wound, Celiann never so much as gasped. I found myself once more admiring her strength; how she had managed to function in battle with such pain was truly remarkable.
Birch knelt next to Celiann, who sat upon a rock. “Celiann valiant. Birch fight by side anytime.” He walked by and whispered to me loud enough for her to hear. “Birch told Brady that Celiann tough.”
Celiann, of course, scrutinized me. “Did you ever doubt me?”
I stared into her eyes, enthralled by her beauty.
“Well?” She asked me again, her eyes softening just a bit.
I finally managed to speak. “After today, noble Celiann, none of us will ever doubt you again.”
A relieved grin formed upon her flawless face. And somehow, my hand found hers. After a moment, I slowly, reluctantly, pulled it away.
I walked away from her and toward Birch, who chuckled.
“Don’t say a word,” I said to him.
Berythal guide me, what a day.
We finally arrived at the end of the trail marked on our map. The enormous mountain that several days ago had appeared so far away was looming right over us. A narrow and jagged path wound its way upward, and I dreaded such a treacherous road. Rubble, loose rocks, and small gaps were apparent, and it would only get worse as we ascended. Someone would fall, inevitably me.
Birch pulled out several mounds of rope and began knotting them together. I remembered a particularly painful time when one of his knots unraveled and I fell upon some particularly hard rocks. After he made certain I was still alive, Birch laughed. Barbarian humor was something I would never understand.
I found myself envying Lelliani’s rope skills. I wondered if a few nonlethal falls were worth her not being around. I can honestly say it was a toss-up.
All heads turned toward Celiann as the Golden Sword began to hum. She pulled the Legendary Sword from its scabbard and held it aloft with both hands. As she walked toward the mountainside, the sword hummed so loud it shook my earlobes.
She touched the tip of the Golden Sword to the stone, and a golden outline appeared in the shape of an enormous door. Where I expected a door to open, the stone simply vanished.
A passageway led into the belly of the mountain.
“Oh, a dark, scary path. What fun,” Mina said. Waspy flew into the cave ahead of us, chattering all the while.
“Well? The Dragon King waits.” Yensid said, and he strode forward into the cave as a light twice as bright as my own spell appeared on tip of his staff.
“That useful,” Birch said.
Yensid looked over his should
er. “You have your riddles, I have my tricks.”
Birch chuckled and elbowed Celiann as he walked by. “See? Brother tell joke. Coming around.”
We followed the wizard into the darkness.
The passageway delved into the winding path that meandered for several hundred feet into the mountain. Long, thick stalactites covered the ceiling, while stalagmites jutted chaotically up into the darkness on either side of us. We walked within the radius of Yensid’s light for nearly an hour until we approached a fifteen feet wide stone staircase that curled upward into darkness.
“Birch hate steps,” Birch said. He picked up Mina and set her upon his shoulders. “No pulling hair.”
“I never pull your hair. I comb it,” Mina said.
Birch led the way, grunting and complaining as Mina produced a comb from the folds of her robes.
Birch hated stairs? No worse than me. I began to gasp for air several minutes into the climb.
After about a half an hour, we encountered our first problem. The remnants of an old avalanche blocked the way ahead. It was a significant problem; a cave-in on the very steps we needed to ascend.
“We’ll never be able to clear those,” I said.
“Ooo! I’ve got just the thing,” Mina said excitedly. She pulled out a halfling-sized scepter. It was purple and black, Mina’s favorite colors. “Be right back.”
Mina waived the scepter and disappeared.
Yensid moved to the spot on which she had stood and examined the ground. “That’s ballsy.”
Celiann gasped. “Such language, brother.”
“Those halflings on the boat taught me some new words. I’m trying them out,” Yensid said.
“That’s not like you. Why the sudden —” Celiann began.
Mina flashed back to the very place she stood just moments before. “I did it! The Goldar told me it would work. I can teleport us to the other side.”
That was when I understood Yensid’s remark.
There were horrid tales of the Teleport spell, and I knew that only the wisest and experienced of wizards attempted it. Reckless or desperate mages would cast it as a last-ditch effort to try and escape a bad situation, only to end up stuck halfway into the ground or a wall or even the bottom of a riverbed. It could be a catastrophic spell.