The Phoenix Ring(18)

Even as Aidan watched, a circle of wizards standing around a huge pile  of bricks raised their wands, which caused each brick to fly  individually into the air.

They collided on the ground, falling into a perfect harmony that became a new staff and wand building, all in a few seconds.                       
       
           



       

Aidan sighed.

I could probably blow that to smithereens with one spell. But if someone asked me to fix a chair …

He sat down and pulled the crystal that his master had given him out of a pocket sewn into his robe.

He was startled to see that it was glowing.

"Uh, master?" he asked.

Bartemus voice was ragged, as if he had been running, when he answered, "Aidan, are you alone?"

"Yes. Why?" Aidan asked, fearing Master Tong had found a way to contact his master.

"I need you to run as fast as you can and find Malachi for me."

"What's going on?" Aidan asked, already starting to jog.

"I'm not sure yet, but I think that we might be headed for another Great War."





9





"You want me to do what?"

Aidan, Malachi and Timothy were all standing around a table in the  warlock's study, surrounded by various animals chirping, growling, and  screeching in their cages.

The crystal was on the center of the table, glowing softly in the dimness of the room.

"I don't think I could have made myself more clear, Aidan. I want  Malachi to help you escape the fort, and then I want you to travel to  Camp Ward and let me talk through the crystal to Master Borin, if he's  still there. After that, contact me and I will give you further  instructions."

Aidan was stunned. Not only was what his master asking him to do very  illegal, it was also dangerous and it made very little sense.

Malachi spoke for the first time. "Bartemus, you do realize that we  haven't spoken to the amoghs since Borin was initiated. We don't even  know if he's still alive."

Again, Aidan was stunned that Malachi would be the voice of logic.

"Where do I fit in here?" Timothy asked.

"Aidan can take one or two friends with him. Magic is always stronger in groups."

"But the only magic I can do is destructive, not helpful!" Aidan said,  "There has to be someone with more experience that you can send."

There was silence for a little while from the stone.

"Aidan, you are the only one I can send. You are the only one I trust  that has enough power for what I fear lies ahead. It is necessary that  Malachi stay at the Fort to prepare the wizards for battle."

Aidan was starting to feel his anger rise again.

"What do you people expect from me? I only got a ring a week ago, is it  too much to ask not to go on a life endangering trip this soon?"

Bartemus finally lost his patience. "Yes it is. Aidan, do you know what a  war is? People die in a war. If there is a war, people will die. You  and I may be the key to preventing that war, and you have no right to  sit at home and ignore the fact that you have the potential to save  hundreds of lives."

Aidan's anger dropped to the floor, replaced by cold shame.

"Now are you in this or not?" His master asked.

"I'll do it," Aidan said hesitantly, "Just tell me what you need."





The owl soared through the night air, searching for its prey on the  ground. It normally tried to avoid the giant blue bubble, many a bird  had flown into it and then taken the great fall.

Not the owl though. The owl is a wise, intelligent creature, capable of  seeing its next victim from hundreds of feet away. It would never do  something so careless as that.

The huge amber eyes snapped onto its next target, a small, perfectly  white rabbit laying in a little clearing of the woods right outside of  the sphere. Strange, because normally other animals didn't get that  close to the blue bubble.

Nonetheless, the owl began an extremely fast descent towards his target.

Closer.

Closer.

There was a flash of light, and the bird fell to the ground. An old  human with a long beard stepped out of the trees, followed by two human  youths covered in black garments, each of them holding a staff and  burdened by a large pack.

"Bartemus threw a little door in the safety sphere when they recreated  it," Malachi said, "So that I could still catch and release little  critters, like this one."

He picked up the stunned owl and the fake white rabbit and put them gently into separate sacks.

"Are you ready? Once I leave you can't come back in unless I open the  door, and I should probably avoid anything out of the ordinary until  Barty gets back. We still don't know who's on our side."

Aidan glanced at Timothy, who shook his head.

"No, I think we're ready to go. We have the map, our staffs, and enough supplies to last us a year. I think we're good."

"Well then, the first landmark is that way," the warlock said, pointing  nearly west. "You shouldn't have many problems with bandits, not many  people live in these parts. If all goes well, I'll see you in a few  weeks."

With that, the warlock turned into the trees and disappeared from sight.                       
       
           



       

Aidan took a moment to breath in the cool mountain air, to feel the wind  on his face and the woods at his back. This was where he belonged.

Timothy on the other hand was already shivering, and his hand was drifting closer and closer to the strap on his pack.

"Alright, might as well get moving," Aidan said, turning to the south.

They had come out on the east side of the safety sphere, and so they  would have to skirt around the edges of the entire bubble in order to  get to the west side, where there should have been the ruined remains of  a road.

That road would take them all the way to Camp Ward, the home of the  amohgs, if it was still there. No one had used it in over twenty years,  and so Bartemus didn't know if it was still intact.

They began to make their way through the woods around the sphere and  made it to the other side just as the sun began to rise over the trees.

The road appeared intact, and only a little overgrown, considering that  it hadn't been tread in two decades. There was a feeling of an old,  powerful magic in the air, as strong as a dragon, yet somehow subtle.  Aidan was sure it was protecting the path, though he was not sure how or  from what.

Now that Aidan could see the road he thought he would be able to estimate how long it would take to get to Camp Ward.

He knew from experience that if he pushed himself the whole day he could  walk a little less than forty miles. However, accounting for the  forest, the heavy packs, and the fact that Timothy looked like he was  thinner than a stick, Aidan could hope for at best twenty five to  thirty. Camp Ward was about ninety miles away, so Aidan thought they  could get there in four days.

"When we get to the top of that hill," Aidan said, pointing ahead,  "We'll stop to eat. After that we should be able to keep going until  we're done for the day."

They only made it halfway up before Timothy was panting so hard that Aidan decided to rest.

The sun rose over the sphere just as the two mages were pulling off their packs.

The large knapsacks somehow felt far lighter than they were and had  three different openings, one for food, one for gear, and one that was  lined with a silvery sheen. Dragon scales.

Malachi had explained to Aidan that one of the worst mistakes a sorcerer  could make was to put magical items with anything else. Once a mage had  put a live fire salamander into the same compartment as his friend's  fire wood and, unknowingly, cooking oil, as a practical joke. Both had  died in the resulting inferno. The salamander, the warlock had gleefully  found, was unharmed and now sat in one of his cages.

Aidan's "magic compartment" was full of spineback scales and spikes, a  gift for the amohgs, while Timothy's was empty. Both boys had a book in  their supplies about magic, and any and all useful plants and herbs were  to be gathered and taken back to the fort.

Aidan was just about to unpack some magic-dried beef, which probably  didn't taste very good considering it was going to be their staple diet  for the next few days, when he noticed a small tree touting perfect  bright red apples.

He realized with alarm that it was already autumn, and he was fairly  sure that it would snow when winter came this high in the mountains.

He went and plucked two of the sweet fruits and tossed one to Timothy.

They ate in silence, staring at the great blue bubble that had become Aidan's home.

Timothy sighed sadly and threw away his apple core.

"She could have come with us, you know." Aidan said.

"No," the younger mage said, "Don't you know it's bad luck to bring  women on journeys? I think we've had enough bad luck. Besides, I left  her a note, she knows we're fine."