Pursuit

---Aaron---

"Guys! Huddle close!" I yelled, twisting around in the saddle. "Jason, I need you to call on the wind with me and create a protective layer above us, okay?"

"Got it!" Jason flashed me a thumbs up as his horse pulled up beside ours, the others following closely behind.

"Fire!" Someone screeched from above us, his voice piercing the air. The twangs of bowstrings and the whizzes of arrows filled my ears as I stuck my hand out, palm flat, and concentrated. A powerful gust of wind arose, whipping up dust and dirt. I raised my arm to the sky, and saw that Jason did the same. The wind rose with our arms, and positioned itself over our heads, acting as a deflective shield. The arrows that hit the wind were swept off to the side, littering the desolate ground.

I felt the power coursing through my veins. It's been a while since I used my elemental power. All the pent up energy I had fueled the strength of the wind Jason and I called up, making it stronger and more solid.

"Aaron, let's give them a taste of their own medicine!" Jason shouted to me over the roar of the wind. I understood what he meant and nodded. In one sweeping gesture, we commanded the wind to pick up all the arrows the army had shot at us—believe me, there were a lot—and sent them all flying back up to their archers. As I released my hold on the wind, I heard cries of pain and panic as the arrows found their marks and the tightly packed army tried to dodge the flying missiles. I felt a surge of satisfaction. In this world, it was kill or be killed, and I had every intention of staying alive till the very end.

"Follow them! Don't let them get away!" A voice commanded as we put on a burst of speed and left the chaos behind. The army would take a few moments to regroup. It gave us a big head-start.

"Rachel, did our maps mention any possible ways out of here?" I heard Indigo ask.

"Uh, I don't recall anything!" Rachel replied. "But then again, we don't have detailed maps of Dead Man's Chasm!"

"We won't be here forever, right?" Lucian asked. "Because I don't want to end up like one of those." He pointed at an animal skull among the brushes as we galloped past.

"We found a way down, so we will find a way up!" Indigo said confidently. "Everyone keep your eyes open."

We encountered plenty of false alarms: a trick of the light, a raised ledge, a crack in the cliff that made it look like a trail from afar…I heard the thunderous steps of Lord Victor's army again. We need to get out of here!

"Guys! Look!" I snapped to attention at Ashley's voice. But to my extreme disappointment I saw the approaching end of the chasm. Why didn't I notice the gradual narrowing of the chasm earlier? Had we really traveled twenty miles already? I turned the horse around and looked at the others hopelessly.

"What do we do now?" I asked, the dread pooling at the bottom of my stomach. "We're trapped, and the Evils are coming."

"There's got to be a way out." Rachel insisted, pacing along the cliff walls, looking.

"Please tell me we don't need to climb out of here," Lucian groaned.

"We don't have any other choices," Indigo pointed out, "but I really doubt we can climb up a vertical wall." The seven of us looked up the sheer cliff sides in despair.

"What do we do?" Ashley echoed, pulling up next to our stallion.

"Are you sure we didn't just miss a narrow trail or something?" Rachel wasn't giving up yet. "We were galloping pretty fast."

"It's too late to go back and check," Katherine spoke up. She looked slightly less pale, but still seemed tired. "And I'm pretty sure there weren't any other paths up. We just got lucky the first time."

Our horses pawed the ground restlessly. The army was getting closer by the minute; we're losing our head start. We all lapsed into silence, having run out of ideas.

"If only a path could rise up from the ground!" Lucian exclaimed in frustration. Indigo suddenly jerked to attention.

"Brilliant, Lucian, brilliant!" she said excitedly. "Why didn't we think of this earlier?"

"What? What's so brilliant?" I asked eagerly. "Did you find a way out?"

"Absolutely brilliant, Lucian." Indigo ignored my questions and muttered to herself, looking at the cliff sides, gauging distances, all the while nodding vigorously. "Apparently you're useful for something other than eating."

"Hey! There's a reason why I'm part of the Rosewood Seven," Lucian said defensively.

"What is it, Indigo? We're running out of time," Rachel reminded Indigo.

"Right. Okay, Jason, we need your elemental powers." Indigo looked at Jason. "I need you to build a path for us with your earth powers."

"Why didn't I think of that?!" Jason clapped a hand to his forehead. "I'm the elemental master; this should be second nature."

"Hurry, Jason." Ashley glanced back behind us. "I think some of the Evils might have decided to jump down."

"Alright. Here goes nothing." As we watched, Jason nudged his horse forward and furrowed his brow, concentrating. Then his hand shot out, and the earth began to shake. With a great rumbling sound, a giant mound of rock and dirt rose out of the ground, jagged and uneven. Jason made a series of hand gestures, manipulating the mountain of earth into a sloping path that stretched all the way to the top of the chasm.

"Come on!" Jason beckoned to the rest of us as he admired his handiwork and sped towards the new path. "I assure you, it's perfectly safe!"

I urged our stallion forward to follow Jason up the new path. Thankfully, Jason had made this one wider and less steep, so that it was easier to ride up. However, all the commotion that Jason made while creating this path also attracted the attention of Lord Victor's army.

"There they are!" I heard someone shout. "I see them!"

"Everybody run! Gallop as fast as you can!" Indigo yelled. Without having to be told twice, our four horses shot off, leaving a trail of dust behind us.

"Indigo, where are we headed next?" I asked over my shoulder.

"The Desederium Forest," Indigo replied. "We should be approaching it soon. After that, we will reach Devil's Peak."

I risked a glance behind us to check on the progress of the Evils. The good news was that we had a good head start. The bad news was that they were catching up fast, especially the horsemen and Evils that ran faster than the rest.

"Indigo! Are we heading to the Desederium Forest?" Katherine asked as hers and Ashley's stallion was running alongside ours.

"Yes. We'll have to cross the forest in order to reach Devil's Peak," Indigo answered.

"I was sort of hoping you wouldn't say that," Katherine muttered darkly. I looked at her in confusion.

"Why? I thought we had agreed on this plan."

"Aaron, just look at those trees." Katherine pointed at a spot far ahead as we crested a small dune. I saw a dark mass of trees huddling together like an impenetrable fortress, stretching in all directions formidably.

"It's a very dense forest. So what? It seems like a good hiding place to me," I said quizzically, not understanding Katherine's concern. "We will totally lose the Evils in a place like that."

"No, Aaron, you don't understand." A grim look came over Katherine's face as her eyes met mine. "The Desederium Forest will drive you insane; that place could very well be our graves."