Chapter 17

The weeks passed slowly. With each day Phae slipped further from their grasp. They travelled further than they'd ever travelled together as a group before from the first rays of dawn through each day and then well into the night. Fortune favoured them slightly at least on their journey south they made a brief detour back to Keln where Callum borrowed a cart and a pair of horses from the generous village folk. But however hard they pushed, and however far they travelled, Phae still seemed to be slipping away. Her trail was now almost impossible to follow, and with each passing day Aaron found his task that much harder than the day before.

They barely spoke as they travelled each member of the party lost in his or her own thoughts as high above them a black spot stained the sky, masking a small part of the sun. They made camp that night just as they always did; Callum wandered off in search of firewood while Aaron arranged their meal and Lena tended to their horses. All of a sudden, Lena let out a yelp. Aaron turned. "Are you alright?"

Lena held her fingers to her temples and contorted her face. "My head"

Aaron shifted over to where she sat. "Are you ill?"

"I don't I"

Just then Callum staggered back to the campsite. Firewood clattered to the ground as he fell to his knees, his head in his hands.

"Argh!"

"Callum?" Aaron looked around helplessly, unsure as to what he was supposed to do. "What's wrong?" he stammered. Beside him, Lena grasped his hand. She squeezed so hard he let out a small cry. "Not so hard Lena I"

His words were cut off. Callum grabbed his water bottle and took a deep swig. "Magic," he gasped. "The source"

"But the second source is miles away! It's in the far south, it's"

Callum nodded slowly. "I know."

Just then, their pain started to fade. Aaron let out a sigh as Lena released his hand and his two friends slowly returned to their normal selves. As the pain subsided, Callum collected the scattered firewood and brought it over to the fire.

As soon as the flame was built sufficiently they prepared their meal in silence as they each gathered their thoughts.

Aaron was the first to speak. "I think we all know what this means."

Lena's voice was barely a whisper. "She's closed another source" She looked to Callum. "She can't be doing this on her own, can she?"

Callum stared silently at the flames for a moment before turning to face her. His voice was choked, "I don't know," he whispered. "I just don't know what to think anymore. All this time I've been hoping to find her the victim of some evil plot against us, but every day we follow the trail and see just the one set of hoof-prints I can't help but think it might not be the case. She's a clever girl and powerful too. She's suffering, and she's desperate. Given all that's happened I just don't know what to think. She's capable of just about anything."

Lena paused as she composed herself. Her voice was remarkably calm. "I don't think," she said, "we should concern ourselves yet with what might or what might not be. I've not come all this way to see my dearest friends suffer, and I certainly haven't come all this way to see them lose hope. If there's anything I've learnt over the years it's to trust in hope. Together we can always overcome whatever trials may face us. We need to be strong for each other now we must be strong for Phae. First thing's first we need to find her and stop her causing any more harm. After that, we need to see about repairing the sources and restoring magic to the realm." She looked sternly at her two companions. "Are there any questions?"

There was silence.

Slowly, Callum nodded.

They rose early the next morning. As soon as he rose from his slumber Aaron was able to confirm what they all feared: the second source had closed and his sight was failing rapidly. Only Lena was able to offer them any crumb of hope.

"I've been thinking," she said.

"Oh?"

"If you think about it," Lena continued, "so far everything Phae has done has been to a pattern, to a purpose. She headed for the Lake one of the known sources of magic in this realm and as we all know, she somehow managed to close it. After that she headed south and as we have now confirmed, has managed to close the next source."

Callum frowned. "Stupid question I know, but just how many sources of magic are there?" he asked. "I'm certainly not as well read on the subject as you are, but as far as I can recall there are three recorded sites where researchers have proposed there to be sources: Lake Forever, the ancient Va'leri Monoliths and"

"Stormy Falls," Lena nodded her head.

It was now Aaron's turn to frown. "Are they where I think they are?"

"The north east, yes."

"You don't think she'll really be heading there next do you?"

"Well it would certainly make sense," Lena replied. "And so given how far behind her we are already, there's a good chance if we head east we can cut her off on her journey back north. At the very least we can close on her trail."

Callum rubbed his chin. "Well it's certainly a risk," he said slowly. "But then what you're saying makes a lot of sense. She's already way ahead of us and pulling away with each passing day. If we can cut off the bottom point of the triangle we may well start to catch her."

"But what if she continues further south?" Aaron asked. "If she continues south out of the realm we might never catch her."

Callum sighed. "Well if she does that my friend then I fear we may well have far greater challenges to worry about. If we can't find a way to restore the sources soon the whole realm could descend into chaos." He took a deep breath. "Lena's right," he said. "We need to catch her, but we also need to think about the bigger picture. If she is heading for the third and as far as we know final source, then we need to get there as quickly as we can. If she succeeds in closing it then I dread to think what might happen. A realm without magic is a terrifying thought. If she shuts the source then everything the Seer predicted might come true and perhaps worse things still." He took another deep breath and looked at each of his companions in turn. "It's decided," he said at last, "we head east."