With Aidan leaning on Flame they set out back the way they’d come. They had only gone a few miles when the sun again peeked above the horizon. Aidan groaned. He already ached all over, his head felt like it was going to explode, and the light seemed to pierce through his eyes and burn its way towards his injured scalp from the inside. He only stumbled on a few more steps before Belak had to carry him. So when they reached an abandoned town an hour or so later Brianna called a halt. Aidan hadn’t even noticed the town on the way up, but now he was very glad of it. He knew that he was the main reason Brianna insisted on stopping, any of the others could easily have gone on, but he wasn’t going to argue. There was no sign of pursuit. If Baron Almaric's sister had noticed her loss she did not seem immediately inclined to do anything about it.

They found an empty inn and made themselves at home. Aidan felt weak, he couldn’t stay in focus, and he was worried. Flame Song guided him over to a dusty couch and sat him down gently on it.

“Are you going to be all right Aidan?” she asked, looking concerned. “You don’t look good at all. What happened?”

“I was tripped by a tree, as far as I can tell. And it was deliberate too! Darn trees…”

Flame smiled. “I had a run in with some greenery too.”

“Tell me about it. I need something to focus on. I’m worried… I’ve heard that you need to keep awake when you have a concussion, that if you lose consciousness you might never wake up.”

Flame Song nodded. “All right. The first thing was the maze. The actual maze itself wasn’t hard, but it turns out it was enchanted. There were these bush sculptures, animals, monsters, things like that. They started coming alive. One of them got the jump on me, but then Lon had a bright idea and started setting them on fire. I got a bit scorched, but of course fire can’t hurt me.”

“I got burned too. Or well, I should have been burned, I was right in the fire, but I didn’t. I can’t figure that out. It’s not like I could catch fire immunity from you.”

Flame Song cocked her head to one side and looked at her husband. “Maybe you did get it from me.”

“Huh?”

“Well, you did drink my blood. Maybe whatever it is that makes me immune to fire is in my blood and it got into you.”

“Heh. Maybe so. It makes more sense than anything else I can think of. What else happened to you guys? How did you get the amulet?”

“It’s like Brianna said, the witch thought Lavasida was charming. We made such a racket fighting the bushes that she heard and met us right at the door. She had a spell that kept us from moving, and she locked us all up without too much trouble. But apparently she liked the looks of Lavasida. She took him up to her bedroom." Flame blushed a bit. "So he, um… anyway, he got the amulet after she fell asleep and came down and let us out. That’s it. What about you?”

“Nothing really. We tried to go through the woods, the trees attacked us, Belak rescued me and set them on fire, I almost got set on fire, I lived, we turned back. I’m really not much use you know. No matter what I always seem to end up needing a rescue.”

“You’re plenty of use, Aidan love. Just because you’re not out front with sword in hand, being the hero, doesn’t mean you haven’t contributed. Why without you I’d most likely have been killed by that pirate, and that’s not the first time you’ve saved my life.”

“Guess I’m just feeling a bit down right now. This place is getting to me.”

“Well maybe this will cheer you a bit. There is something I meant to ask you about. When Brianna charged the animated bushes that were attacking us, she shouted a very odd war cry, something about knights of knees and shrubbery. It that another of your obscure Earth jokes?”

“Knights of knees… knights of knees and shrubbery…” It took a moment for it to dawn on him, but when it did he burst out laughing. His aching head instantly told him that laughter was a bad idea, but he couldn’t help it. In spite of the pain it felt good to laugh. He hadn’t really laughed in far too long. “Yes, it’s one of those obscure Earth jokes,” he said when at last he calmed down, “And I don’t really think I could explain it properly. I think you have to see it to understand.”

“Oh.” She shrugged. “Well, I was just curious. And now I’m curious about the prospect of food. Lon said he was going to try and cook something."

She stood up and went, leaving Aidan alone with his somewhat jumbled thoughts. He kept trying to focus on something, but his mind insisted on wandering off on tangents.

Stop wandering, mind, he told himself, if I lose you I’ll be in trouble. I’m in trouble already, I think, and there I’m thinking so my mind must be around here somewhere… I never thought that vampires could get concussions. Looks like they can. I wonder how Lavasida is doing? He looked around until he spotted the other vampire, talking to Brianna. So strange, that. He has more presence than Brianna, but he follows her lead. Why? There’s so much history I’m missing here. So odd that the Dark Lord is part of the Queen's Own. He’s evil, sort of. But he has his own kind of honor. I guess that’s why he follows Brianna too, honor. And maybe respect for her. There’s something between them. Wish I knew the whole story there… But I’m wandering again. Need to focus, need to be in control.

Lavasida now, he's always in control, definitely dominant, Hmmm… alliteration, and there goes my mind again. Come back here, I need to focus, on what? Oh yes, vampires. I’m one now and Lavasida has always been one. I have a feeling that if it were just the two of us he’d be the one in charge. Right now if he said “frog” I’d hop without thinking. I can just sense his dominance. Guess vampires are kind of like wolves, there has to be an alpha.

Wolves and wandering minds, and there’s that alliteration again and why can’t I focus? Strange how my senses are so good but it just distracts. I can tell where the sun is, which is really odd now that I think of it. Even when it’s set I can still feel it. And I can smell people, and I can sense Lavasida’s strength. This vampire thing is just weird all over.

Finally Flame Song returned, carrying a bowl filled with something. The smell of it ought to have been enticing, but instead it smelled utterly unappetizing.

“What’s that?”

“Stew. Lon threw together a bit of this and a bit of that. It’s not the best I’ve ever had, but it fills up the empty spots. Speaking of which, how are you doing?”

“Wishing I could stomach that,” said Aidan. “I’m starving again, I think being injured is making it worse, but that stuff smells awful.” Aidan could smell what he really needed, the blood scent was practically pouring off of Flame Song. He tried to put it out of his mind. After all, they had the amulet and they were on their way back. Three more days at the most would see them off of this world. Surely he could hold out that long.

Flame Song finished the stew and put the bowl down. “You really don’t look so good. I think you need some help in order to heal up.” And before Aidan really registered what she’d said she’d pulled out her little dagger and nicked herself across her wrist. Aidan went wide-eyed. How could she just do that? I can stand the sight of blood just fine, especially now, oh yes… but I don’t think I could take a knife to myself like that.

“Flame! What are you doing?”

“What do you think? Here.” She held out her wrist to him and he stared at it, fascinated almost against his will. He could smell her blood, rich and inviting. The scent overwhelmed all thought, leaving room only for action. He took her wrist in his hands and brought it to his lips. The warmth of it flowed through him, soothing and strengthening and electrifying all at once, and the pain in his head gradually faded away.

This time he managed to stop before Flame fainted. It was still difficult, but it seemed to be getting easier. Flame Song smiled at him and put her arm around him. He smiled back, and all of the sudden everything that had happened seemed to catch up with him at once. He put his head in Flame's lap and closed his eyes. Before he knew it he was sound asleep.