The Phoenix Ring(45)

"He was a threat," Aaliyah said, her eyes cold steel, "This is the man that killed Cook. I was avenging a friend and protecting my charges at the same time."

She stood and wiped the blood off of her hands and blade.

"Come, we have a long journey ahead of us."





That night, as the sun set over the canopy, Aidan sat with his back against a tree, sharpening his staff's blade.

Aaliyah was laying in her hammock, twirling a dagger, and Timothy was cooking something with jerky and a few herbs over a fire. Grogg was probably sitting near him, unseen to the human eye.

"You're doing it wrong." Aaliyah said, almost offhandedly.

Aidan gritted his teeth and kept trying to sharpen the knife. He and Timothy had been slogging after the amogh all day, and she hadn't said a word, not even when they stopped for the night.

"No seriously!" Aaliyah said, standing up and walking towards the mage. "That's Rakka steal. It's way tougher than other metals. Look," she sat down and put her hand on top of Aidan's forcing him to push down far harder on the whetstone, right on the tip of the blade. It would have cracked or bent any other material, but the steel held firm.

"Thanks," Aidan said grudgingly, trying to let some anger flow out of his body. "How did you know?"

"It's anti-magic, just like me." Aaliyah said, fondly touching the tip. "We can feel it."

Aidan held the button and used the whetstone to push the blade into the staff.

"Listen," he said, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible, "I don't know if I ever did anything to you to make you want to kill me, but we're in this together whether we like it or not. Can you please try not to hate me so much?"

Aaliyah opened her mouth, a sharp reply ready, and then closed it again.

"You're right," she said, in a perfectly even tempered voice, "I won't pick any fights, in return for one thing."

"What's that?" Aidan asked, wary of the response.

"When we get to the city, I lead. No matter what. Deal?" She asked, sticking out her hand.

Aidan hesitantly grasped it. "Deal."





It was the next night that Grogg made his appearance. They were all sitting around a campfire, roasting a rabbit that Aaliyah had managed to shoot with her bow.

It had been a long day, but they had finally managed to get back on the main path. At this rate, they should have been able to make it to the city the next day.

Aaliyah, true to her word, had remained quiet that day, even laughing halfheartedly at a joke Timothy had told. She had also laid a false trail for the amogh assassins, though none of them believed that it would delay them for very long.

Aidan had tried to find them using the vahailen spell, but to no avail. Either they were too far back for Aidan to see, or they had found a way to hide their very souls.

He had just settled back into his body when something small and green shot across the grass in front of the fire. Aaliyah tried to grab it, but it disappeared into Timothy's pack before her hands could touch it, hissing angrily.

"So that's the goblin," she said, glaring at the pack.

She never saw Timothy coming from behind. He hit her in the back with his entire body, pinning her to the ground.

"How dare you touch my gnome, you filthy amogh!" he screamed into her ear.

Aidan ran forward, the blood racing through his body, just as Aaliyah threw his friend onto the ground, right beside his staff.

Aidan grabbed his own staff at the same time Timothy grabbed his.

"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."