The Phoenix Ring(26)

"Mahor yok wenne!"

"Ingo!"

The flames shot from Timothy's staff a moment before Aidan's spell hit him, knocking the magic out of his body.

Aidan saw the fire race over Aaliyah's face, and for a moment he thought  that the girl was lost. No human, dwarf, or elf could survive that.

But Aaliyah could.

Her hair wasn't even singed, though a patch of clothing on her shoulder  was on fire. She put her hand on top of the flame, extinguishing it, and  slowly sheathed her knife. Aidan hadn't even seen her pull the weapon  out.

Timothy was frothing at the mouth, half sobbing and half screaming into  the ground. Aidan watched him for a moment before the anger welled up  inside him.

He walked to Timothy's pack and reached into the magic compartment, his  staff ready. He grabbed the first slimy thing he felt and pulled it into  the air.

He was holding Grogg by the neck, and the creature was hissing at him as a snake.

"Are you happy now?" the creature asked, "You brought the amogh here, you forced my hand, and now your friend is paying for it."

"Release him." Aidan said, his vision becoming a red haze.

The goblin grinned. "You can't make me."

"We'll see about that," Aidan said, his grip tightening on his staff. "Morka."

The creature's eyes suddenly widened, a moment before it began to screech into the night. Timothy's moans only became louder.

Aidan waited for a few seconds, battling emotions of anger, pity, and guilt raging through his body.

"Eslang."

Grogg stopped screaming and sagged into Aidan's hand, gasping for air.

"Release him." Aidan said again, though he doubted he had the willpower to keep this up much longer.

"I will loosen his bonds," the creature said in between breaths, "But that is all."

Aidan thought about it for a moment, all the anger in his body telling him to just stab the creature and be done with it.                       
       
           



       

"Fine," Aidan said, trying hard not to squeeze the life out of the creature. "Do it."

He released his grip on the beast, who fell to the grass and began to  slowly crawl towards Timothy, who was thankfully still too weak to  stand. As it crawled past Aaliyah the girl gave it a small kick to the  backside.

"Move it, goblin," she said, all mercy gone from her body.

It picked itself up and ran the rest of the way to Timothy. The monster  whispered something into the boy's ear before looking back at Aidan.

"The boy will wake in the morning and remember none of this. I suggest  you put him onto his bed, there are many beasts in the forest."

The goblin cackled and disappeared into the night.

As soon as the beast was gone, Aidan turned around and threw up into the forest.

"You did the right thing," Aaliyah said, her voice hard as steel,  "You're friend would have killed me or died trying if he had continued  to be held captive."

"I don't understand," Aidan said without turning back, his voice queasy. "He never tried anything violent before."

"The bond with the goblin is weakening. His soul is fighting back, so  there is a constant battle inside him. By the time we get to the city  the goblin should be losing. Come help me get Timothy into his hammock."

Aidan fought off his nausea and grabbed he friend's legs, while Aaliyah  picked up his shoulders. They gently lowered him into his hammock, and  then Aaliyah crashed into her hammock while Aidan sat down on a stump to  take first watch. He knew it would be a long night, Timothy was in no  condition to lose any sleep to guard the camp.

"Aaliyah?" Aidan said, after a few minutes of listening to the crickets.

"Yes?" Came the sleepy response.

"Thanks for not stabbing Timothy. I know it would have been easier for you."

There was silence for a few moments.

"No. It would have been far, far harder."

Aidan turned to glance quizzically at the girl, but she was already asleep.

Maybe I have misjudged you, Aaliyah, he thought. But the more he tried  to think about the girl, the more questions filled his mind. Eventually  he gave up and settled down for a long, cold night, staff in hand.





From where the three assassins were hiding, they had an almost perfect  view of the camp. They had arrived just in time to see the young girl  wake up and take her turn at watch. The leader of the three amoghs, a  man who had the ability to always hit a target with a thrown projectile,  swore under his breath.

"I can kill the girl from above. Revenge for what she did to Seoul," one of the lesser assassins whispered.

Their leader considered it for a moment, but quickly dismissed the  thought. While it was tempting to serve the girl the same fate she had  given his friend, he knew that the cost far outweighed the benefits.  Unlike the boy, she was searching the trees around the campsite  carefully. If the men were spotted, then it was almost guaranteed that  at least one of the youths would escape. Their orders were to leave no  survivors.

And the penalty for disobeying orders was death.

"No, I have a better plan," he said. "It's going to be a long night boys. We have some traps to make."





Aidan snapped awake, instinctively lunging for his staff. He rolled out  of his hammock onto the ground and jumped to his feet, staff at the  ready.

"What's the rush?" Timothy asked.

Aidan spun around, looking for his unseen threat. Timothy and Aaliyah  were eating some bread that they had been given at Camp Ward, their  hammocks already packed. Other than that there was no change in the  camp.

"I don't know," Aidan said, "It just felt like something was …  off."

"A premonition?" Timothy said, his mouth full.

"No, I don't think so," Aidan said, letting the power leak out of his body.

Timothy raised an eyebrow. "I still think it's odd that one of the most  powerful mages I've ever met doesn't know how to understand an omen. I  know I've been feeling them today."

"What do you mean?" Aidan asked, starting to untie his hammock.

"I mean I felt something. Remember when I told you something was going  to go wrong and then the dragons attacked? This is worse. Have some  bread!" Timothy said, throwing his friend a crust.

For some reason, Aidan didn't feel like eating.

As soon as Aidan finished packing the trio left the campsite, first  spreading the ashes. They had no illusions that the assassins would be  fooled, but it felt like the sensible thing to do.

"So uh …  how did everyone sleep?" Aidan asked, trying to avoid walking in silence again.

He got no more than a non-committal grunt from Aaliyah.

Glad to know she's back. Aidan thought.

"I had an …  interesting dream," Timothy said, casting a hostile glance at Aaliyah. Aidan gripped his staff a little tighter.                       
       
           



       

They had been walking for about three hours when they came across a tree  that stretched far above the canopy. Aaliyah signaled for them to stop  and then jumped into the lower branches. She had only been gone for a  few minutes before she appeared again, dropping to the ground with  perfect grace. She then pulled a map out of her small pack and held it  open on a tree.

"We're about here," she said, pointing to a place along the trail. "The  city is here. On the main path it takes about one hour to get there.  Ours will take about three."

"What?" Timothy said, impatience seeping into his voice.

"I saw a man along the path with a black hood. They're waiting for us.  We wouldn't make it more than halfway. We're going through the woods,  this way," she said, pointing southeast, "until we leave the forest.  Then we're cutting back. If we are seen I'm going to lead them back into  the forest and meet up with you at the front gates. Let's get moving."

With that, she took off into the forest, leaving the boys stumbling after her.

They kept walking for another two hours before Aaliyah thrust her arm out in front of Aidan.

"Do you hear that?" she asked, slowly pulling her bow off of her shoulder.

Aidan listened for a moment, but he couldn't hear anything at all.

"No, I hear nothing," Timothy said, voicing Aidan's thoughts.

"Exactly," Aaliyah said, "There's nothing. No squirrels, birds, nothing. Walk carefully."

Aidan put one foot forward, hearing a twig snap under his foot.

Almost instantly, a net sprang up from under the leaves, encircling the  mages and pulling them into the air, upside down. Aidan tried to  struggle for a few seconds, but to no avail.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" asked a voice from under their heads.

"Get away from here, you filthy amogh, or I'll smite you with a fireball!" Timothy shouted, though his voice shook a little.