New Excerpt @Solsticepublish @Solsticeshadows

Necromancer first tested the theory that the best hiding place

was in plain sight. He examined a bin of staffs by the door. There

was nothing out of the ordinary about any of them. Angered, he

used his magic to toss furniture around and search the kitchen,

bedrooms, attic and cellar. With the interior of the house

destroyed, Necromancer returned to the living room and cast an

exasperated glare at his prisoner.

“No luck yet?” Anvar asked. “What a pity! I am sure you would

tear this entire house apart were it not for the fact that it would

draw too much attention from the neighbors. What a mess you

have created for yourself!”

Necromancer hovered quickly to Anvar’s side. “Do you think I

fear them or anyone? I will do what I must, and I will complete my

mission. You act so smug knowing full well that I will find it.”

Anvar managed a smile. “At least I am a free man. How has life

as a slave treated you? Confined to this wretched existence you are

but a shadow of your former self. And a small shadow at that.”

Necromancer became infuriated and crashed Anvar through the

ceiling of his house and then smashed him back through another

place, stopping just above the floor. “I may not be allowed to kill

you, but I can still make you suffer.”

Anvar’s wounds were mounting to lethal levels, but he would

not give up the information or the verbal assault. “You might as

well give up,” he said painfully. “All your years in slavery have

dulled your wit. Perhaps now I have regained that respect I lost

earlier.”

Necromancer responded by diving his prisoner through the

floor. The floorboards shattered and revealed a space between the

floor and the ground. The mighty wizard gestured Anvar out of the

way and examined the area. With haste, he began ripping out the

boards with his magic until he found what he sought. There had

been a hidden compartment in the floor. Just under the wood was a

staff looking exactly like Linvin’s and a stash of gold.

Necromancer levitated the staff to his hand.

He examined the piece as Anvar spoke in a somber voice. “You

have won. For what do you need me alive?”

Necromancer paid him no attention. “This is masterful

workmanship,” he said as he examined the staff. “It must have

taken quite a skilled artisan to create such a compelling fabrication

of the real artifact.”

Anvar looked distressed. “That cannot be. Dirk assured me that

he had given me the blue staff for safe keeping. It must be real or

else I have endured all of this for nothing.”

Necromancer cast the staff aside. “Brilliant acting job,” he told

Anvar during a slow, insincere clap. “Most people would have

believed you, but I know that the staff is a living entity. It should

have been angered by my contact with it, but I felt no such being

present.

“You planted this here in case someone was looking for it.

When they found this, they should have left your home. You even

surrounded the forgery with gold to reinforce the fact that the

searcher had indeed found the hiding place. It was a well-conceived

plan but not sufficient to fool me. If I were to guess, the

last place an intruder would look for the real prize is underneath

the fake.”

With of a wave of his hand, Necromancer made the wood under

the gold disappear. The coins fell, and the wizard moved to see

what he had found. A long object the same length of the staff laid

at the bottom of the hole, wrapped completely in cloth.

Necromancer summoned the item to him. Reaching beneath the

fabric, he contacted the staff. Moments later he smiled his fiendish

grin that Anvar despised so intently. “Your failure to outwit me is

complete. You have lost.”