Day Twenty-Seven - The Duelling Club

SpaceWizards
(Another SpaceWizards Action/Adventure Mystery)

Legends aren’t always a true. But most of them are. And the one about The Duelling Club bka The Decorative Death Stick is one of them that’s true. The Legend of the Decorative Death Stick states that whoever holds it can challenge any wizard or SpaceWizard to a one-on-one fight to the death. And that wizard or SpaceWizard can’t refuse the fight. If they do, they forfeit their lives. The Decorative Death Stick has been missing for almost twenty thousand years. And some believe that it has been destroyed. But the SpaceWizards aren’t among those who do. When they learn from a Horrald Traitor that he is looking for it, they know they need to find it first. Especially Angoria because she is sure she will be the first on to be challenged. This is her story.

“The Duelling Club”

A Short Story

Remembered By

Angoria

     All the SpaceWizards dove for cover behind a fallen tree in a Wooded Area as a Fire Ball shot past them. It exploded against one of only a few standing trees barely beyond them. I thought that she was a Horrald Traitor. Yena started getting up.

     I don’t think that Fire Ball was meant for us. It was probably aimed at her. Mairon mumbled something.

     A few seconds later Mairon could see through the tree at only one of the dead. She was the intended one. There’s just one attacker. If they were here for us there would have been a lot more of the dead here.

     The other six SpaceWizards looked behind them. They each one scanned their part of the Wooded Area. Mairon fired one electrical string at the dead attacker. And saw that it hit him in the head. The dead was truly dead before he hit the ground.

     I don’t see anyone back there, thought Jacci. The other five said the same thing. They just did it in their own way. But they did it. I still think this is a trap.

     Maybe it is, but I don’t think so, thought Mairon. If it were I think they would have started their attack by now.

     The female voice echoed all around them. “It’s not a trap. That Fire Ball was meant for me. It almost got me too.”

     A Woodim stepped out of another tree and brushed off here dead tree skin. “Once you join Horrald you are a Follower for as long as you live. You can’t quit being one. That doesn’t mean you can’t help those who are against him. That’s why I contacted you. Do any of you know what The Decorated Death Stick is?”

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     No one stood or paced in front of the others in the Practice Chamber. They all sat in a swivel chair in a semi-circle. “What do you think about what that Woodim told us about The Decorated Death Stick. Do you believe that what she told us is the truth?” Mairon asked.

     “You already know what I think,” said Jacci. “I think it’s a trap.”

     “I think that we all agree that it’s probably another trap,” said Pacill. “But whether it is or not, if it has to do with the Death Stick then we have to check it out. Especially if Horrald is looking for it too.”

     Angoria spoke next. “I think she was telling the truth. Don’t ask me why I know it, I just do.”

     No one said anything for several minutes. It was Stavon who broke the silence. “I agree with Angoria. The Woodim was telling us the truth.”

     “I agree with both Angoria and Pacill,” said Mairon. “It probably is a trap. But we need to check it out anyway.”

     Mairon continued a few seconds later. “Have any of you been a participant of the Death Stick?”

     Yena spoke first. “Thankfully I have never been challenged to a Death Match. But I have seen a lot of them over the centuries.”

     “Unfortunately, I have been in one. Luckily, I won it.”

     “That’s obvious, Borrele. After all, you are here with us. What I want to know is what it was like to be in one,” said Angoria. “I have never been in one.”

     “I haven’t ever been in one either,” said Jacci. “In fact, I have never seen one.”

     “The legend about it is true. Whoever holds The Decorated Death Stick can challenge any wizard or SpaceWizard that they want to challenge in a one-on-one Death Match. And you can’t refuse to accept the challenge. If you do, it’s death instantly.”

     Borrele had taken a deep breath before she continued. “Just before I was challenged there was a SpaceWizard that refuse to do it. He was turned into ashes and blew away a second later. There was no way I was going to refuse too after that. But I wasn’t going to do it anyway because I was sure I would win, and I did.”

     No one said anything for several minutes. They just stared at Borrele in shock. It was Mairon who spoke first. “Okay, it’s agreed we all don’t believe that the Death Stick was destroyed about twenty thousand years ago. We also agree that we need to find it before Horrald does. The only problem is no one knows where it’s at. Do any of you have any thoughts about where it’s at?”

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     “I’m not surprised that Horrald thinks the Death Stick is somewhere in the Gogdon Solar System. After all, there are thirteen planets in that system. Eight of them are Wizard Worlds, and the other five have at least one million wizards on them.”

     Mairon sat in the control chair in the Control Chamber. But he was facing the other six SpaceWizards in the chairs behind him. “Horrald thinks that it was created on one of these worlds. And that it found its way back home before it disappeared.”

     “Why did it disappear? Does anyone know why it did?” Yena asked.

     “No one does. There have been a lot of thoughts about that. But no one has ever figured out why it disappeared.”

     “Maybe we can find that out once we find it,” said Angoria. “All we have to do is be the first ones to do it.”

     “Horrald thinks it must be on one of the Wizard Worlds. After all, only a Naturally Born Wizard could have created it. But I disagree with that thinking. It could be on any one of these planets.”

     Mairon continued a few seconds later. “Horrald is only checking the Wizard Worlds. And he’s started at one end. That’s why we are beginning at the other end. Only we are checking every planet.”

     No one said anything else. The six SpaceWizards behind Mairon got up and headed toward the entrance as Mairon turned around in his chair to face the viewscreen. Everyone left except for Angoria. “How long before we get to the first planet?”

     “About five more hours. Why do you ask?”

     “Good. That will give me a little time for me to practice spells. After all, I’m going to be needing them if Horrald finds the Death Stick first.”

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     The seven SpaceWizards sat behind a different Data Monitor in the Information Chamber. Three were tapping away at the controls in front of them. And the other four were staring at their monitors, moving their heads from side to side as they did it. Stavon was the first one of the three to start staring at his monitor and moving his head too. A few seconds later Jacci joined them. And about a minute after that Mairon joined the other six.

     “Has anyone found anything on this planet?” Mairon asked after about fifteen minutes of them just staring at their monitors. One after another they all told him they hadn’t.

     Another ten minutes had passed before Mairon spoke again. “How much of your part of the planet have you scanned so far?”

     “I’ve done about half of my part,” said Borrele. “It would be more, but I have a lot of Wooded Areas.”

     “That’s better than a bunch of villages, towns, and cities like what I need to scan,” said Pacill. “Most of them are pretty good-sized places too. That’s why I have done less than half of mine.”

     “I have a bunch of those places too,” said Jacci. “But mine aren’t that big. I’m almost done with mine.”

     Yena smiled at the others sheepishly. “Anyone want mine instead. It’s mostly waterways. And I hate the water. That’s why I’m only about half the rest of you.”

     “I’ve got a little bit of everything in my part,” said Stavon. “And I’m doing a little bit better than Pacill, but not by much.”

     “I’m almost done with mine too,” said Angoria. “I only have a couple of cities and a few Wooded Areas left to scan.”

     “This is taking too long,” said Mairon. “We all need to speed up our scanning, I included. It shouldn’t be taking us this long to do it.”

     A few seconds later Mairon continued. “Horrald is already three weeks ahead of us, and at least two of the Wizard Worlds. We need a faster way to scan these planets.”

     “At least we know one thing,” said Jacci. “We know that he hasn’t found it yet either.”

     “We are almost halfway through our half of these planets,” said stavon. “And we still haven’t found it either. Maybe Horrald is wrong, and the Death Stick insist on one of these planets after all.”

     No one said anything for about half an hour. They just continued scanning their part of the planet below them. Then one after another they announced that they had finished their scans and had found nothing. “Just like the other five planets,” said Mairon. “We have scanned six planets and have only found three possible Death Sticks. But they just turned out to be a SpaceGem, a power source that was about to blow up, and Death Bomb that was leaking chemicals. I’m starting to think the Death Stick isn’t on these planets too.”

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     “I just found the Death Stick,” said Borrele. “I’m not talking about the Death Stick itself. But that it was created in this Solar System. In fact, it was created on the next planet we are headed for.”

     “How do you know that?” Mairon asked while looking up at the viewscreen in front of him. The other six were seated behind him.

     Borrele continued tapping away on the Mini Monitor floating in front of her. “I thought about what you said about scanning faster. And since I am so slow at it I decided I would start scanning my part of the next planet now. Look what I found.” Borrele tapped a single button on her Mini Monitor.

     A few second later an image of a business appeared on the screen. There were Death Sticks everywhere. Some were still on display. And some were already in the hands of both Young Ones and Old Ones. A few with the Younger Ones and the Older Ones too. “Are any of those the Death Stick we are looking for?” Angoria asked.

     “None of these are, no. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not down there somewhere. These are just replicas. Some are toys and some all collectibles.”

     “Borrele had a good idea. I want everyone to start scanning their part of the planet. By the time that we get there, I want everyone to be done with their scans.”

     Three days later they were in orbit around that planet. And their scans show six possible Death Stick locations. “I will stay on board and monitor you while you go and check out these possible Death Sticks,” said Mairon.

     Mairon continued a few seconds later. “Horrald isn’t here yet. But he could be at any time. After all, this is a Wizard World.”

     “If he does show up, I will try to stop him. I can’t stop him by myself. But I can slow him down long enough for you to complete your check and get back here.”

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     All seven SpaceWizards were slowly walked through a Wooded Area. But they weren’t together. They have spread out a distance from each other. Each one of them could see one or two of the others. But not the rest of them. Be careful everyone, thought Mairon. The dead are on this planet too.

     The dead have been on every planet that we have scanned or been on. They are probably on every planet. Especially the planets that Horrald isn’t on or going to be on, thought Yena.

     Horrald may be only searching the Wizard World, thought Pacill. But he knows that the Death Stick could be on any of them.

     Angoria thought next. He’s sure that it’s on a Wizard World. But he can’t take the chance that he might be wrong. Especially if he knows we are looking for it too.

     Of course, he knows about us. I still don’t know how he’s doing it, thought Mairon. But he knows.

     No one thought anything for several minutes. They just continued walking through that Wooded Area. It was Jacci who broke the silence. Are you sure this is where they said the Death Stick might be.

     That’s what the scans showed, said Stavon. It’s the biggest power pulsating that we have found so far. Whatever it is we should be coming up on it at any time now.

     The SpaceWizards continued walking deeper into that Wooded Area. After fifteen minutes, they stopped at the edge of a large open area. In the center of that open area, there was a Water Hole. “Is that where the Death Stick is supposed to be?” Borrele asked.

     Stavon looked over at Borrele. “I think it is. The scan showed it was almost in the center of this Wooded Area. And this is almost the center of it.”

     Just then the surface of the water turned white and a few seconds later white spikes about two feet tall shot up out of it. “That sure does look like the power we are looking for,” said Pacill. “Is the Death Stick in the water?”

     “There’s only one way to find out.” Mairon walked toward the water. He only took a few steps then stopped. “But I think it’s best if we wait for this whiteness to go away.”

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     “It would be a lot easier to do this if we could use Wizardry.” Angoria sat behind one of the Data Monitors in the Information Chamber.

     “We can’t do that because of the Death Stick. If it detects Wizardry, then it will either hide better or use itself against us. Either way, we have to do this the hard way.”

     “I know you’re right, Mairon. But I still would like to use Wizardry.”

     “So, would I Angoria. But we can’t.”

     “At least we don’t have to be worried about Horrald being here,” said Yena who sat between Angoria and Mairon. “This is a non-Wizard World.”

     “We might not have to deal with Horrald,” said Stavon who sat on the other side of Angoria. “But we still have several thousand of the dead to save.”

     No one said anything for several minutes. They just stared at their monitors as one image after another appeared on them. It was Mairon who broke the silence. “Let’s just finish these scans. We will deal with the dead if we need to do it. If we don’t find any possible locations for the Death Stick, I don’t really care if the dead is there or not.”

     The SpaceWizard continued scanning for a couple of more hours. Suddenly Mairon sighed. “The Death Stick isn’t on this planet either. We have scanned it twice. It’s not here.”

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     Walking down a busy walkway, Mairon kept mumbling something. I thought you told us we shouldn’t be using Wizardry, thought Stavon.

     I still don’t think that we should. But we have no choice on this planet. We are in a populated area. Up until now we either were in unpopulated areas, or we were scanning the planet from our ship.

     A few seconds later Mairon continued thinking. Besides, I don’t think that the Death Stick is here either. We only detected one possible location for it. And it’s in this community somewhere.

     The dead sure does think that it’s here. look around, they are everywhere. There must be at least two hundred of them here.

     Mairon looked at Pacill. There are a lot more of the dead than usually here, Pacill. But there is nothing we can do about them.

     Sometimes I wish we could just save them. But I know that we can’t do that, thought Angoria. They have to be trying to kill us before we can kill them first.

     No one thought anything for several minutes. They just continued walking down that walkway. Every few seconds they would walk right past one of the inhabitants of that planet. And they never seem to notice that they are there. The same was true for the dead. No one seemed to notice them either. It was Jacci who broke the silence. It’s not here. It could be anywhere in this community.

     I have been thinking about that ever since we came down to this planet and realized that the possible location for the Death Stick was in this community, thought Mairon. It’s probably in one of these buildings. Separate and check all these buildings. As soon as you find what we are looking for let the rest of us know where it is.

     The SpaceWizards separated and went into different buildings. They kept in thought communication so that they wouldn’t check out the same building more than once. It took them almost an hour. But the Death Stick location was finally discovered. And it was Borrele who found it.

     It’s not the Death Stick. It’s a self-made bomb of some kind. And it’s glowing. I think it’s about to blow itself up.

     Mairon quickly mumbled something. A few seconds later he disappeared. He appeared in the Control Chamber of their spaceship a second later. The other six SpaceWizards where all around him. They all looked at the viewscreen that showed that community on it just as there was a large explosion that made the image disappear. “Maybe the dead got saved after all,” said Jacci.

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     The “Horrald is near’ alarm suddenly started flashing. Everyone in the Control Chamber looked at each other in shock. Mairon was already seated in front of the viewscreen. He started tapping the controls. “Where is he. I don’t see him anywhere.”

     “Maybe he’s on the next planet we are headed for,” said Pacill. “We are only about an hour from getting there. That’s close enough for the alarms to be going off.”

     “It can’t be that planet,” said Borrele. “That’s a non-Wizard World.”

     “I know that. But he still might be there. Maybe he finished checking out all the Wizard Worlds and has started with the non-Wizard World.”

     “That’s one possibility, Pacill. Another one is that he thinks this is the planet where the Death Stick is at,” said Mairon.

     A few seconds later Mairon continued. “There’s only one way to find out. Stop your current scans and scan for Horrald. If he’s down there, I want to know where he is.”

     About an hour later they were in orbit around the next planet. Just before they got there, Yena announced, “Horrald is there. I don’t know why he’s there. But he is on that planet.”

     “Where is he at?” Mairon asked.

     “Horrald is in one of the mountains. It’s on a small island. In fact, it takes up almost the whole island.”

     Mairon looked at each individual SpaceWizard for a few seconds each. “Which island is it? Who has the scan for that island?”

     Yena tapped a few buttons on the controls. A few seconds later an image of her island appeared on the viewscreen. “I’m not sure who has this scan. But it’s not mine.”

     “I think it might be mine,” said Stavon. Stavon took over the control chair and started tapping the controls. “It’s mine alright. But I haven’t had the chance to scan it.”

     “Scan it now,” said Mairon. “I want to know if there is a possibility that the Death Stick might be there.”

     It took Stavon only a few minutes before he had the answer to Mairon’s unasked question. “It’s not there. If it is on that planet that isn’t where it’s at.”

     “Then why is Horrald there?” Angoria asked.

     “Let’s all complete our scans,” said Mairon. “If he’s still there when we complete them maybe we will go down there and ask him what he’s doing there.”

     An hour later and all their scans were finished. There were no possible locations the Death Stick might be on that planet. And Horrald was gone. “Let’s go to the next planet. It’s the last one we haven’t checked. If the Death Stick isn’t on it, them it’s not in this Solar System. It might have been created here. But it’s not here now.”

=====-=====-=====-=====-=====-=====

     “Did anyone discover what Horrald was doing on the last planet?” Mairon asked.

     Stavon looked at Mairon. “I did. When I finished with my scan, I went back to scan that island mountain again. I’m not exactly sure what I heard. But a spell lets me hear Horrald talking to an old wizard. I think she was telling him where the Death Stick was at.”

     “If that’s true then the Death Stick must be on this planet. It’s the only one we haven’t checked yet,” said Angoria.

     “How can it be this one? Horrald already checked it out. Why didn’t he find it then?” Jacci asked.

     Mairon smiled. “It’s probably because he has been using Wizardry to do his searching.”
The SpaceWizards sat behind individual Data Monitors in the Information Chamber. They returned to their monitors and continued looking at the images that appear every few seconds. No one said anything for several minutes. It was Borrele who broke the silence. “At least we know Horrald isn’t here. The alarm hasn’t gone off yet.”

     “There could be several reasons why that hasn’t happened,” said Pacill. “Maybe the old wizard sent Horrald to another planet.”

     “I hope you’re right about that,” said Mairon. “Especially if this is the planet that it’s on.”

     The SpaceWizards went back to their Data Monitors. It took them another an hour before they found it. But they did. In fact, they found several possible Death Stick locations. It was the fourth one that they went to. The Death Stick hovered a few feet from them in a mountain opened area. Angoria started to reach for it. But Mairon pulled her hand away from it.

     Mairon closed his eyes and mumbled something. When he opened his eyes, four small light blue balls came shooting out of them. All four struck the Death Stick, and the stick started to dissolve a little piece at a time. Within a minute it was completely gone.

     “Why did you do that? What were those balls?” Angoria asked.

     “Those were Chemical Balls. They can eat through anything. That Death Stick was too dangerous to be left alive, even for us. It had to be destroyed. Besides, I think it wanted to be destroyed. That’s why it didn’t let Horrald know it was here.”

Word Count = 3,751