The Arcane Staff Trilogy Box Set

by Hans Bezdek

  “I heard a louder than usual commotion outside, so decided to take a peek,” he grinned. “I’ve never seen someone treat Doluk like that before! I thought for sure he’d kill you before you made it up here.”

  “I was a bit worried about that,” she conceded.

  “Rightfully so,” nodded the halfling, gesturing for her to come take a seat with him. “To take such a risk, you must be after something very important… would you like a glass of wine?”

  “No thank you,” she said, taking a seat across from him. She wasn’t big on being poisoned.

  “Very well,” he shrugged, uncorking a bottle and pouring some for himself. “What is it that you wish to discuss?”

  “I am searching for a particular place, the whereabouts of which have been forgotten by time,” she began.

  “Ah… you seek the Lost Citadel?” asked Tariq, leaning back in his seat and taking a sip from his glass.

  “I do,” she nodded. “Do you know where it is? Word is that you’ve come across some maps and-”

  “What do you want with the place?” he asked, interrupting her.

  “What do I want with it?” she repeated, confused.

  “It’s a simple question,” he shrugged. “Why do you want to go there? There must be a reason if you’ve come this far and risked fighting an orc for it.”

  “I… I guess I want the treasure inside of it,” she said, still not sure what he was getting at. “Why else would anyone want to go there? The rumors claim that it holds unimaginable wealth.”

  “Some could want to find it in order to hide from the world,” he explained. “Others could want to discover it for fame. There are some who would probably want to find it for academic reasons… I’m sure there are some interesting scrolls in there that share secrets about Linsuk that no one remembers.”

  Sloane was quiet for a moment. Hiding out from the world’s problems was also an added benefit of finding the place, even if she didn’t particularly care about the fame or knowledge. Unfortunately, she guessed that she answered wrong. Tariq must’ve been looking for a better answer.

  “I suppose I answered your question incorrectly, then,” she said. “Just being in it for the money isn’t a great reason to go after it, huh?”

  “Quite the opposite!” he laughed, setting his glass down. “That’s the only good reason to go after anything! I just wanted to make sure that we were of the same mind before I helped someone look for it.”

  Sloane wasn’t so sure she liked being told she had the same mind as someone like Tariq, but at least he was willing to help her.

  “So you do know where it is!” she exclaimed, relieved to finally have tracked down a solid lead. She wasn’t going to tell Zeke or Delvin it, but she was starting to worry that she was wasting their time. It was good to get some validation.

  “I don’t know the specific location, but I can get you pretty close,” he explained. “If I knew exactly where it was, I’d have just taken it myself.”

  “Great,” smiled Sloane. “Where is it?”

  Tariq thought for a moment, then leaned forward. “Getting this information cost me quite a bit… I’m not going to be able to part with what I know out of the kindness of my heart.”

  Sloane was expecting this. “Understandable. I’ve got 100,000 gold, if that’s doable.”

  “Unfortunately it’s not,” said Tariq, shaking his head. “That wouldn’t really come close to covering the cost.”

  Sloane was getting annoyed. It took her a long time to amass 100,000 gold, and it wasn’t worth the general area of the Lost Citadel? “Okay… well, I can’t pay you anything more until after I find the Lost Citadel.”

  “There are other forms of payment besides coin,” he said, smiling darkly.

  “I’m not going to exchange any of those kinds of favors,” said Sloane firmly.

  “What? Ew!” exclaimed the halfling, shrinking back in his seat as his face contorted. “Heavens no! I didn’t mean anything like that. I don’t mix with the larger races. I find your people’s long limbs… disturbing.”

  Sloane smirked in spite of herself. “Well, at least we’re on the same page there. What is it that you want, then?”

  “There are some things going on in the political landscape that I’d like fixed,” he said vaguely.

  “You want me to kill some politicians in Newbridge?”

  “No, no. At least, not in Newbridge…” he hesitated. It was clear he had someone in mind, but wasn’t saying their name.

  Sloane had a hunch who he was hinting at. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her red Linsuk Resistance coin, laying it on her leg.

  “I told you, gold wouldn’t be…” the halfling’s eyes widened when he saw the coin, suddenly relaxing a few seconds later. “Oh, thank goodness. You’re with the Resistance. Now I don’t have to pretend to be all sneaky about this. I want you to get rid of Lord Kutarm’s influence on the city.”

  “I’m fairly surprised you dislike Kutarm,” said Sloane, putting the coin away. “I’d assume having someone even eviler than you around helped take pressure off of you.”

  “That’s what I thought at first,” nodded Tariq. “However, it’s turned out to be bad for business. Back before Lord Kutarm was welcome in, when my employees got caught doing jobs that the city didn’t like, they’d get a little slap on the wrist. Worst case, they’d be sent to prison. We’d always smuggle our people out after a few days, though, and they’d be back on the streets before anyone was the wiser.”

  “And Kutarm doesn’t operate that way?”

  “The man loves to execute people,” sighed Tariq. “Really hurts my retention rates. Our life insurance costs have also been skyrocketing. It’s bad for employee morale all around.”

  “So you want me to kill Lord Kutarm?” laughed Sloane. “That’s impossible.”

  “I just want his influence over the city gone,” shrugged Tariq. “If that means killing him, more power to you. I’ll leave the specifics to you.”

  “There’s no way I can accomplish that,” said Sloane, shaking her head. “He’s got an entire military at his disposal.”

  “What’s stopping you from forming one of your own?” he asked. “While there are some for Lord Kutarm, there are plenty against. Not to mention those that don’t care, and would be willing to fight for some coin.”

  “100,000 gold isn’t enough to do that.”

  “Correct,” nodded Tariq. “The large sum you can find in the Lost Citadel surely is, however. You could afford to equip an army even larger than Kutarm’s!”

  “But I can’t do that without your information,” implored Sloane.

  “I’m fine with that,” said the halfling. “I’d be willing to give you the information that you seek if you give me your word that after you find the Lost Citadel, you’ll do whatever it takes to get rid of Kutarm.”

  Sloane played through the scenarios in her mind. One of the reasons to get to the Lost Citadel was to escape the war that Kutarm was spreading across Linsuk. However, after seeing how hard the people of Nurem, and then Tunil, were willing to fight against the evil tyrant, she was more willing to take a stand. Plus, Zeke seemed pretty gung-ho about fighting Kutarm. He’d probably be thrilled at the mere mention of the idea.

  “I can agree to those terms,” nodded Sloane. “You continue to be full of surprises. I didn’t expect you to be willing to trust someone you just met on their word alone.”

  “It’s not how I typically work,” he conceded, “but this isn’t a normal deal. It’s no loss for me either way. I have no intention of going after the Lost Citadel as it could just prove to be a deadly waste of time. I can’t really afford to have my men going on such an adventure that may yield nothing.”

  “I was wondering why you haven’t taken the knowledge to go after it yourself,” said Sloane.

  “It’s easier for me to just continue operations here,” shrugged the halfling. “Besides, I feel like life would get boring living at the Lost Citadel
. Not enough mischief to get into.”

  Sloane smiled at that. She wouldn’t mind a more boring life, but it wasn’t for everyone. “For what it’s worth, I fully intend to live up to my side of the deal.”

  “That’s nice to hear, but it’s not like you’d say otherwise,” laughed Tariq. “Now, where you want to go to first isn’t going to exactly be the most welcoming place…”

  Chapter 10

  Zeke woke up early the next day, excited to begin the journey down to Burston. He and Delvin met up with Sloane the night before at the inn. She said she got some details on where the Lost Citadel was, but Zeke wasn’t going to hold his breath. It was probably just another questionable lead, but whatever made her happy. They all went to bed early to get a jump on the next day as soon as possible.

  The elf studied a map of the area he found in the lobby as he waited for the others to meet him. It looked like Burston was at least two days away to the southwest, maybe three. He wasn’t sure what sort of supplies Kriket had access to, and assumed they would be walking instead of riding horses.

  Sloane had mentioned something about the Juentes Canyons the night before, a place Zeke had never heard of. Zeke figured it would’ve been in the direction they were heading, but looking at the map he saw it was up to the northwest. The elf had planned on convincing her to head there after, but it looked like it was going to take longer to get there than he first thought. There looked to be a couple of towns between their destinations, though, so they could always pass through them and help fight Kutarm there. Tales of Zeke and the Fourth Staff would get a chance to spread even more.

  “There he is!” came Delvin’s voice.

  Zeke smiled as the two approached, putting the map back where he found it. “About time the two of you woke up!”

  “Yesterday was a big day for all of us,” smiled Sloane. “Delvin mentioned something about meeting another Resistance fighter and getting a scabbard for Lucky. Maybe some of its luck rubbed off on me on the way to talking with my contact!”

  “That must’ve been it,” laughed Delvin as the three of them exited the inn.

  Zeke took a turn towards the southern gates, realizing he hadn’t asked Kriket which one the lizardman and his crew would be at. That might prove to be a bit time consuming…

  “Hey, where are you going?” asked Sloane, a few feet behind him.

  “Oh, Burston’s to the southwest,” explained Zeke, glancing over his shoulder. “We’re meeting our contact near one of the gates to travel down as a group.”

  “But that’s really far out of our way,” said Sloane, raising an eyebrow.

  Zeke gave Delvin a look, who just shrugged.

  “It’s not out of our way,” said Zeke, confused. “It’s where we’re headed. The town is under siege, and they could use my help.”

  “Our help,” added Delvin.

  “Y-Yeah,” said Zeke. “You know what I mean. I mentioned Burston last night.”

  “Right, I thought you were just excited to hear about the Resistance helping out down there,” said Sloane.

  “Excited for us to go help them,” nodded Zeke.

  “But we know where the Lost Citadel is,” laughed Sloane. “That surely takes precedent now.”

  “Oh, your lead told you the exact location of it?” asked Zeke.

  “Well, no,” she said. “He told me the general area. Juentes Canyons, remember?”

  “I looked at that place on the map,” said Zeke. “It’s huge! It could take ages to get around the place and find the Lost Citadel.”

  “Sure, but at least we know where to focus our attention now,” she said. “That’s to the north, not down south where Burston is.”

  “Nonsense,” said Zeke, shaking his head. “We can help out at Burston first, then head up to the Juentes Canyons.”

  “Isn’t there quite the distance between the two?” asked Delvin.

  “There is,” conceded Zeke. “But there are some small towns between them. After we free Burston, we can free the others while we move north.”

  “Woah, what?” said Sloane, taking a step closer. “We never agreed on any of that.”

  “We never agreed on going to Juentes Canyons either,” said Zeke.

  “Yes, we did,” she insisted. “We decided that we were going after leads for the Lost Citadel, and then the actual place once we found out where it was.”

  She was right, but things had changed. “Burston needs us now. The Lost Citadel will remain lost until we can get there. What’s another few weeks?”

  Sloane took a deep breath. “Look, Zeke… I know you feel a certain level of importance with helping the Resistance because of who you are, but them just knowing The Elf Thief is on their side will be enough.”

  “Enough with The Elf Thief stuff, okay?” growled Zeke, getting annoyed. Why was she wasting all this time? Kriket could leave any minute!

  “Why?” asked Sloane, confused.

  “Y-You should tell her,” mumbled Delvin.

  “Tell me what?” she asked.

  Zeke rolled his eyes. This probably wasn’t the best time, but there was no escaping it now.

  “When you came to the conclusion I was The Elf Thief I may have… stretched the truth some.”

  Sloane stared at him blankly. “I don’t understand.”

  “I’m not The Elf Thief. I never was. I just told you that because you sounded so convinced. I didn’t think you were going to blab about it all the time, which is what got us involved with the Linsuk Resistance in the first place!”

  Sloane was silent for a moment.

  “Our contact is waiting for us to head down to Burston,” continued Zeke. “We should really-”

  “That’s why you keep telling people to call you Zeke…” said Sloane quietly.

  “Because I’m not The Elf Thief,” nodded Zeke. “Can we talk about this while we walk? I think-”

  “That’s why you’re telling me the truth now,” said the human. “You’re trying to get me to come with you to Burston so that you can continue spreading your great name.”

  “That’s not exactly it…” he mumbled. If he thought about it, she wasn’t exactly wrong either.

  “You want your town to think you’re great, and they won’t hear about what you’re doing unless you tell everyone in the Resistance your actual name,” said Sloane, shaking her head. “That’s why you’re helping them at all. You’re just doing it so that the elves of Re’Lus will hopefully hear about how great a hero you are. You need to keep fighting in these towns to increase the chance word will get back.”

  “That’s not entirely it,” said Zeke defensively. There was perhaps a little truth to what she was saying, but hey, he was actually helping people, right? “Even if that was the case, at least I’m helping people with this. You’re just after the Lost Citadel so that you can hoard as much money as possible.”

  “Haha,” laughed Delvin nervously. “Let’s all calm down…”

  “I’ve always been upfront with wanting to go to the Lost Citadel,” said Sloane. “You came along with me back when we first met near the Forbidden Forest knowing exactly what I was doing. Don’t act like you’re better than me because you’ve changed-”

  “That’s true,” nodded Zeke. “I have changed. I thought you had, too.”

  “You changed for the worst!” accused Sloane. “It’s a fake change! You want so badly to be accepted by your stupid little village that you’re willing to lie to hundreds of people in order to get them to fight for you! You’re nearly as bad as Lord Kutarm!”

  Zeke’s jaw dropped.

  What had gotten into her? Was she so determined to find the Lost Citadel that she thought anyone against her was as horrible as an evil tyrant? Did she not even care about the war that was going on, costing an unknown amount of lives? Sure, he wanted to be known, but what was so bad about that? It didn’t make him a bad guy.

  “G-Guys,” whimpered Delvin. “I really don’t think we need to get this excited-”


  “Are you seriously accusing me of being as bad as Kutarm?!” demanded Zeke.

  Sloane hesitated. “I-I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair of-”

  “You’re the one that only cares about herself and making as much money as she can!” accused Zeke. “You only fought for Nurem because they were willing to pay you for it! You practically extorted them!”

  “That’s not true! And I didn’t accept their payment anyway!”

  “Oh, that’s a first,” said Zeke, clapping obnoxiously. “Congratulations, Sloane. You did the right thing for once.”

  Sloane’s eye twitched. “You’re really coming across like a valiant hero right now, Zeke. Really impressive.”

  “At least I’m not some greedy mercenary only out for themselves!”

  Sloane took a step backward. “Wow… is that really what you think of me?”

  Zeke broke his gaze but didn’t say anything. That might’ve crossed a line, but she did it first.

  “Sloane, of course he doesn’t mean that,” said Delvin, trying to quickly repair the friendship. “You know he doesn’t. Things are just getting stressful and-”

  “I don’t know that he doesn’t,” she said, shaking her head. “Until a minute ago, I thought I knew Zeke. But apparently, I don’t. He’s been lying to me this whole time, making me a fool. I shouldn’t be surprised someone like that thinks so little of me.”

  Zeke winced. Maybe he had gone too far.

  “Sloane, I-” he tried.

  “No, I’m done with this,” said Sloane, taking a few more steps backward. “You’ve shown how you truly feel. You’ve lied this whole time, what’s to say you aren’t lying when you apologize?”

  “I just-”

  “Good luck with everything at Burston. I hope you become a super famous hero like you’ve always wanted to be. Deep down, though, you’ll know the truth,” she said, turning an walking away. “You’re just a weak elf that happened to luck into an Arcane Staff. You’re nothing special without it. You’re just a phony.”

  “Sloane!” gasped Delvin.

  “Nice! Good one!” shouted Zeke. “Have fun not finding your make believe treasure!”

  Zeke’s hands formed into fists and he stormed off. How dare she. She knew that wasn’t true and was just trying to hurt him. He hoped he’d never see her again.