The Phoenix Ring(44)

The girl's body seemed to glide as she moved through the forest. She easily vaulted branches that Timothy and Aidan would have to push aside, never making a sound. Aidan and Timothy, however, constantly had to pause to untangle their staffs or robes, and consistently ran into thorns, vines, and branches.

It didn't make it any easier that both of them were trying to read their books of magic as they ran. Timothy faintly remembered hearing about a spell that could detect amoghs, but he didn't remember the wording or the type of magic.

"How much further?" Timothy asked Aaliyah in between pants.

"How should I know? Whenever we find a good spot to hide."

She saw it a few minutes later, in the form of a huge bush growing around a tree. She grabbed the mages arms and shoved them under it, then followed herself.

They had just stopped panting when a crossbow bolt slammed into the tree above their heads.

"I know where you are, mages. Come out or the next one goes in your head." said a voice from about twenty feet away.

Timothy tensed himself to stand, but Aaliyah caught him.

"We already know this man isn't afraid to kill. If he knew where you were, you would already be dead. Any luck on that spell, magic boy?"

"Yes," Aidan whispered, "Give me a moment.”

The spell, like so many, only involved one word, vahailen, freedom. That didn't make it easy. In order to actually complete the magic Aidan would have to separate his Arror from his body and let it roam free. If anything happened to his Arror, or he became too separated, then his body would die, leaving his life magic broken yet stuck, bound to the place of his death.

"Any time would be great!" Aaliyah hissed through clenched teeth, a blade in each hand.

Aidan closed his eyes and let the magic flow through his veins.

"Vahailen," he whispered.

The spell's reaction was not immediate, but gradual. Slowly Aidan's hearing faded, and then, though he did not open his eyes, he began to see.

Everything was a shade of gray, even the vibrant leaves. Aidan turned around, and saw his own body.

He jumped, startled, and flew ten feet in the air, before slowly settling down.

I'm a spirit. I can do whatever I want!

He tried to grab a stick from a nearby tree, but he found he had no arms. Actually, his entire being consisted of nothing more than a ball of light.

Now that he looked closely, he could see that all the living creatures in the forest had a little light inside of them, from the mosquitoes flying around Timothy's head to the mole underground that no one seemed to notice.

Timothy had one too, but it was tinged. Black lines ran up and down it that were identical in color to a little ball of blackness in the packs.

Grogg.

Then Aidan looked at Aaliyah. He hadn't expected to see anything there, why would an amogh have life magic? He was wrong. Her Arror was the biggest and strongest of them all, pulsing with a unique sort of power.

I must be looking at our very souls.

Aidan suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be doing and jumped into the air, above the trees. He saw four souls, hurt and pierced by anger and greed, three about a mile away and one only fifteen feet.

He fell back to the ground, next to his body. He knew that the information he had just acquired was important, but he couldn't remember for what. And it felt so peaceful here, as if he could just lie down and sleep…

"Ow!" he tried to yell, but a hand was covering his mouth. Aaliyah had been twisting his arm.

"Sorry mate, but you were getting distant. Do you know where he is?" Timothy whispered.

Aidan nodded, his vision beginning to feel more normal.

"He's fifteen feet that way. There are three more a mile back."

Aaliyah let go and slipped out from under the bush, immediately seeming to disappear.

The two mages glimpsed through the leaves, where they could just barely see the head of the man. He had dark hair, massive muscles, and some sort of strange clothing that covered most of his body. For a horrible second, Aidan was reminded of a dragon rider, laughing as he stood over the broken bodies of Eleanor and Timothy.

Aidan saw movement in the trees above the murderer, a moment before he did. By then it was too late.

Aaliyah dropped down, unsheathing a gleaming knife from somewhere on her chest in midair, and landed on his back, one hand around his mouth and the other already making the fatal blow to his neck.

Aidan reeled back in shock. He had been expecting the amogh to knock the other man out with a blow to the head, maybe even to strangle the consciousness out of him, but to murder him was inconceivable.

The mage ducked out of the bush and ran forward, grabbing the enemy's hand just as the last of the Arror left his broken body.

"Why would you do that?" Timothy asked, sounding as horrified as Aidan felt.