Aidan stood to leave, but the amogh caught his shoulder. “Wait, before you leave,” The young assassin pushed a dagger into the mage’s hand. “End it. Please.”
Aidan eyes widened. “I-I can’t do that.”
The amogh gave a weak chuckle. “Your girlfriend’s aim is true. I’m dying, mage. Now end it, I’m in pain.”
Aidan looked at the knife in his hand. The name “Lucas” had been etched into the wooden hilt.
“Lucas,” he said, “You may have been my enemy, but you fought bravely.” The amogh closed his eyes and smiled. For a moment they were just two boys. Whether they were friends, enemies, mages, amoghs, assassins or sorcerers mattered not. For that one second, they were both members of humanity.
Then Aidan turned his head and plunged the dagger into Lucas’s heart.
Aidan’s anger was as potent as it had ever been as he crashed through the forest. He wasn’t sure why his rage burned so hot, but he knew who to take it out on. For years, he had learned to deal with every problem in his life with anger. He no longer needed a cause for it, just an excuse. Between Lucas’s death, Aaliyah’s capture, and Timothy’s desertion, Aidan had a more than valid excuse to let his anger burn hot against his enemy.
And so, though his arm was broken, his magic was unstable, and his only real asset was currently captured by the enemy, Aidan charged through the forest, in a manner that would have made Aaliyah cringe from its complete lack of stealth. He kept running until he came to a clearing. It was about twenty feet long and wide, and a small, two person griffin was tied to a tree on one side, next to a few packs. Aaliyah lay in the middle, facedown, her wrists tied behind her back with a strong rope.
Aidan considered stopping and waiting outside the clearing, but he figured the amogh would be expecting that. Instead, he pressed the button on his staff to release the blade and ran towards his friend, hoping to surprise his hidden enemy. Aaliyah was unconscious and disarmed, with a large gash on her forehead, but otherwise unscathed.
The moment he reached her he began to saw at the ropes. He had no idea what he would do once his friend was free, but in truth, he doubted he would get that far.
Aidan suddenly felt an absence of magic in the air behind him and swung around with his staff. The amogh caught it easily and twisted it out of the mage’s hand, throwing him and the weapon to the ground in one smooth motion.
“Did you honestly think that you, an untrained, injured sorcerer, could defeat me, the greatest assassin in all of Sortiledge?”
Aidan’s mind began to race for ideas. His anger was quickly fading, replaced by fear, and he was beginning to realize that he had put Aaliyah in more danger. As long as he had remained free, the amogh would have kept her alive to attempt to lure Aidan to a trap. Now, however, there would be nothing to keep him from killing the girl.
The sorcerer was about to resort to yelling out as much of The Sorcerer’s Tongue as he had memorized when he saw one of Aaliyah’s eyes open. In the same moment, he noticed that his staff had fallen on her back, and she was using the blade to saw at the rope.
All I have to do is stall him. Aidan thought.
“You can’t kill me. Your master wants me alive.” He said.
The amogh laughed. “You know nothing about my employer. And he doesn’t want anything to do with you, just your ring. He doesn’t want you killed because he doesn’t know if that would affect its power.”
“But I can destroy the ring whenever I want,” Aidan said, pulling it off his finger. “And then what will your master do to you?”
The amogh’s eyes narrowed. “You’re bluffing. No wizard can do that.”
“But I’m not a wizard. I’m the greatest mage to ever live.” Aidan really hoped Aaliyah was almost free. He wouldn’t be able to distract the amogh for much longer, and he had never been a good liar.
The assassin considered his words. “I think my employer was wrong about the importance of your life.”
Aidan’s heart flew into a panic as the amogh unsheathed a knife and raised it above his head-
And dropped it to the ground, where it embedded itself no more than two inches from Aidan’s leg.
The amogh gave a wet sounding moan and fell to the ground, Aaliyah standing behind him.
“That was the most pitiful rescue I have ever seen or heard of,” the girl said, offering a hand to a very relieved Aidan.
“Are you okay?” he asked as his heartbeat began to slow down to normal speed.
“Yeah, I’m fi-“ Aaliyah suddenly stopped speaking and clutched her stomach. Aidan had just enough time to register that she was anything but fine before she fell into his arms.