The Phoenix Ring(46)

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.