Curse of the Phoenix

Ch.57 -Soul Rubies

Luke~

"Arya? What are you doing here?" I whispered. She looked up and put a finger to her lips. I opened my mouth and looked around before quietly getting up and going over to her.

"Arya!" I whispered. "What's going on? Where's everyone else, why-"

"Luke listen, I'll answer all of those later, right now I really need your help with something."

"Ok. I started finding the amulets, if that's what you're here for. I have three, the rest are buried under rubble."

"Good job, ok, can you help me clear the rest away? Then we need to get back to Eragon and Murtagh."

"They're ok?"

"Yes, everyone is." After that she lifted up a chunk of stone and carried it to the pile I had forming. I took that as an end to our conversation and began to help her.

I was a little bit jealous of how she could lift more than I could, but I didnt let it bother me. Most of the chunks required us to actually work together, soon the pile was too big to make taller so we had to make it longer, until we had a wall of stone.

It was then that we found another one. Mine.

"There's mine..the ones I found were Dru's, Luna's and Alice's."

"So we're still missing those of Iara, Marumen and Mikael."

"Yep. Buried under there somewhere." I motioned to the pile.

"Let's keep going then." It was almost as if we had a wall of stone. We were both sweating, and eventually settled to just moving the chunks, instead of moving them all the way to the pile. Next we found Iara's. Then Marumen's, and lastly Mikael's.

"Is that everyone?" Arya asked.

"Yeah, let me go get the other three, I put them over here." I quickly grabbed them and handed them to her.

"Thank you."

"Alright, let's go."

"Are you sure you want to come with me?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Nevermind. It took me most of the night and some of the morning to get here, that was without stopping."

"Do you want to sleep?"

"Only if you have to. I do not need to sleep, at the moment."

"Alright, let's go. Lead the way." With a quick nod she began to run towards where she had come from. It was unexpected, so it took me a moment to catch up. I was barely able to keep up with her, but somehow I managed.

We stopped for a water break, and even Arya was panting.

"Come on Luke-" She took a breath, "-we have to keep moving."

"I know," I leaned on my knees and kept breathing "-let's go."

So we ran again. Jumping over fallen trees and the root every once and a while, the only sound our breathing and the wind through the treetops. It was early the next morning when we finally made it back.

Thorn was the first thing I saw, his ruby scales were easily seen through the trees. Next Saphira, then Firnen.

I looked around for my brothers and sisters, but saw none of them.

"Guys, where's everyone else?" I asked. It seemed like Eragon and Murtagh hadn't noticed me until now.

Eragon~

Luke. He was here. He was safe.

"Nobody else is here."

"But why, I-"

He stopped as Angela came up behind him. And shoved her Húthvir through his chest. The blade poked out, coated in dark red blood that ran down the middle and dripped on the ground. He was still looking at us, even as he spat up blood, staining his teeth, and fell to his knees. Angela pulled out her sword and shoved it back in, a little higher this time, near his heart. The air left his lungs in a small sound, as he looked us in the eyes.

A faint roar could be heard, somewhere far away on the island.

And then Luke fell face first to the ground.

We said nothing. We all sat in silence. Even the dragons, stared, not even the tip of their tails twitching. Solembum padded over to the body, and sniffed it.

"Arya, give me his amulet. Now, if it isn't too much trouble." Angela said. Arya picked one out, made of a silvery metal, and tossed it the twenty feet. Angela swiftly caught it. And then she took a step back before whipping it at Luke's cold body.

Quicker than any eye could follow, an arm shot up. Luke's arm. There was a single sound, like breaking glass. One of the small red rubies came loose and fell to the ground.

Once there, it cracked in half, and those pieces in half, until the thing was gone. And then a red light, not dark and evil red like the phoenix, a nice red light. That light grew larger and larger, until it covered Luke completely.

The light went into him, we watched as the two wounds healed themselves, new skin forming smoothly. The only evidence was the blood on the ground and the holes in his clothes. But he still did not move.

And then he opened his eyes and shot to his feet, gasping and coughing, spitting out any blood left in his throat. He looked at all of us.

"Well damn that sucked. Couldn't you have made it quicker by cutting my head off?" Surprisingly, Murtagh was the one who slowly walked forward. And he hugged Luke. Luke seemed surprised, then returned the gesture.

"Don't be such a smartass." He mumbled. He let go, then turned to Angela. "Couldn't you have told us that's what the amulets did before making us watch that?"

"Then what would be so interesting? And Luke, how in the heck was that your third gem?"

"Hey the other two times weren't my fault. Oh, and Arya?" He asked.

Her head quickly looked over to him.

"Yes?"

"I don't think I need to rest anymore." He said with a grin. Murtagh cuffed his head lightly.

"Just go get cleaned up before tomorrow."

We were interrupted as a roar sounded. Verdana was above us. Somehow she has gotten here. Then she landed in front of Luke. He yelled and then jumped up, hugging her head.

"Now it's five versus six. Better odds than before!" Angela said cheerily. With that she sat down and began to clean her weapon. I sighed.

"That was...hard to watch."