Richard Tuttle - Winged Warrior

“Fisher?” frowned Marak. “What are you doing here?”

Fisher sighed and explained the whole thing over again. Marak opened the door with the mark of the Torak on it and ushered everyone through it. In Changragar, they continued through to Khadoratung. When they reached the capital city, Emperor Marak entered the library and sat at one of the tables. He invited Fisher to sit with him.

“I should have realized that I could not keep a secret from you for long,” smiled the Torak. “The problem is, now we know that others can stumble across the doors. We must make preparations to secure ourselves from their use by enemies.”

“Then perhaps this day has proved worthwhile after all,” Fisher replied sheepishly. “If it is any consolation, I have arranged for a new spy to go to the Island of Darkness. His only purpose is to notify us of the time of the attack.”

“We have already had an attack,” reported Emperor Marak. “The Sakovan city of Duran no longer exists. That is why I left the palace in such a fashion.”

“Then it has begun,” Fisher nodded slowly. “I would like permission to use the doors. It will help me gather information.”

“Consider it done,” nodded Marak, “but always remain aware that your entry to the doors must be stealthy.”

“After today,” frowned Fisher, “I shall never make that mistake again.”

Shouts rang out from every direction as the search spread outward. This was the second day of searching for the dark mage, and the patrols had kept Aakuta on his toes. Aakuta crawled to one side of the large tree in the forest and stuck his head out to see what was going on behind the temple.

A large column of soldiers was standing at attention. Aakuta started counting them and then realized that there were ten soldiers for each mage standing in front of the soldiers. He counted the mages instead and frowned when he realized how many soldiers were being added to the search. He would have little chance of avoiding them this day.

Aakuta grunted with pain and pulled his head back behind the tree. The pain was more intense now that the curse had been lifted. Aakuta had known the moment that Dobuk released the curse. His body instantly screamed from every pore. Old wounds that had been dull and almost forgotten screamed anew. Without Lady Mystic’s potions, he would have already killed himself.

Aakuta frowned when he thought about the potions. Lady Mystic had been far off in her estimate. While she thought one potion might last an hour, each had actually lasted for four hours. The problem Aakuta faced now was that he had just consumed the last of the potions. He had only four hours to find a way out of his predicament before he became totally insane and took his own life.

Aakuta felt the effects of the last potion kick in. A warm glow flowed through his body, and his nerves dulled as the aches and pains subsided. He sighed with relief.

The noise behind the temple increased dramatically and Aakuta peeked around the tree again. His brow creased heavily as he saw the soldiers breaking up into groups. The mages were taking control of their soldiers and pointing the direction to start the search. Several of the mages pointed towards the forest where Aakuta was hiding. Aakuta knew that it was time to flee.

The dark mage pushed himself off the ground and stood behind the large tree. His eyes swept the forest as he plotted his path through the trees. He closed his eyes and memorized the path because there was no way that he would be able to see the trees later.

Aakuta called for his spell of fog and let it build around his feet. He knew that the fog would alert the soldiers to his location, but he had no choice. If he just ran, they would easily see him now that they had decided to search outside the city. Already the soldiers were getting closer.

When the density of fog had risen greatly, Aakuta snapped his wrist and sent the cloud outward in a circle. He immediately started running as the shouts of alarm drifted on the air. He kept his eyes open, not that it mattered much. The fog was so thick that he could not see his hand if he extended his arm out before himself. He counted numbers in his head and altered his course when he thought he was at the point to do so.

The fog was not the perfect plan for escape, but it was the best that he had at the moment. If he could put enough distance between the soldiers and himself, he could veer off to either side and circle around behind the searchers. Once behind them, he would seek a new place to hide.

Aakuta debated between veering to the right and the dense forest at the foot of the mountains, or angling to the left and the jungle along the shore of the island. As the sound of his pursuers grew more distant behind him, he knew that he had to choose soon. He was almost out of the fog, and he was rapidly losing his breath.

Aakuta chose to turn to the left and headed for the jungle. That was when he slammed right into a tree. He grunted loudly as the impact took his breath away, and he toppled to the ground.

“Off to the left,” a shouted voice drifted through the fog. “I heard him.”

Aakuta cursed under his breath and scrambled to his feet. He wondered what he would do now that he had not shaken his pursuers. Surely he could turn and attack the soldiers magically. He still did have the power to kill a great number of them, but each group also had a mage with it. And what would be the point of killing a hundred of Vand’s soldiers anyway? Vand already had more soldiers than he knew what to do with. Aakuta shook his head as he ran as fast as he could towards the jungle. The fog lessened somewhat and then suddenly disappeared completely. Aakuta instantly measured the distance to the jungle and tried to estimate how far behind him the pursuers must be. It would be a close race.

Aakuta saw a small trail leading into the jungle. He veered slightly to head for it. As he tore along the small trail into the deep foliage of the jungle, he chanced a look over his shoulder. The first of the pursuers was just emerging from the fog. The dark mage cursed as one of the soldiers shouted and pointed directly at Aakuta. He had been too slow in his dash to the jungle.

Gasping for breath, his heart pounding wildly, Aakuta halted as the trail made a sharp bend. He quickly wove an air tunnel and directed it far off towards the left. He cursed loudly into his cupped hands and the sound came out at the end of the air tunnel. He heard his pursuers shout and then heard the thrashing as dozens of soldiers left the trail and started tromping through the dense undergrowth towards the distant sound.

Aakuta slowly and quietly stepped off the trail to the right. He was careful not to disturb the foliage along the trail as he picked his way deeper into the jungle. The going was slow through the dense jungle, but it gave Aakuta the time he needed to catch his breath. His body was not up to the exertion that he was putting it through. He knew that the diversion would not fool his pursuers for long, but without the ability to breathe, he could not have run much further anyway.

Slowly Aakuta made his way through the thick jungle, the shouts of the soldiers falling away behind him. When he could no longer hear the soldiers, Aakuta dropped to the ground and rested. The dark mage reclined on his back and stared up at the sky. As he watched the clouds drift overhead, he tried to figure out what he would do next. His time was running out.

Suddenly, Aakuta heard the foliage moving off to his right. At first he thought it might be a large snake moving about, but several noises came in unison. The dark mage swallowed hard as he realized that someone was near. Slowly, he rolled over onto his stomach and rose to his knees. His eyes opened wide as he scanned the thick jungle for any signs of movement. When he finally saw one of the soldiers, Aakuta thought his heart would stop beating; his pulse was pounding in his ears.