A/N: Okay...let's see now...what should happen next? Um...I know!

Tom, Phi and Alex's View

Tom carefully studied the darkened stone hallway as they were escorted through it, unsure of what was going to happen to them. Alex kept giving him this look like we-are-so-dead but he didn't understand how they could be so afraid of a man. The only thing that he noticed that was slightly unnerving was a rather large sword at the man's side, but so what? He had a sword too. Tom also felt something tugging at the back of his mind, like he knew Dausael from somewhere, but he didn't at the same time.

He tried to shake the feeling off as Dausael's guard led them into a very large room at the end of the hallway, and then it hit him. This Dausael guy was the man that he had seen in his vision, the one with the glowing sword. He looked harder at the man's face as Dausael turned around and sat down on his throne while the three stood in front of him. Their gazes met and a creepy smile crept onto the Scanran's face, "So, I finally have the third traveler...good. But it seems that you two were not disposed of as I had commanded. Hmm...I will have to look into that later, now it seems that I have a slight situation on my hands. My dungeon was destroyed by my own soldier, the rest of them have been killed, a large force of Tortallian troops are searching for you three as we speak, and I am really the only one left who is able to fight...but I pity he who thinks you have a chance, because you haven't, not by a long shot."

Alex glanced at Phi and Tom, then turned back to Dausael, "So what do you plan to do now?"

"Ahh, but that is the beauty of my plan. Seeing that I do not have the time to get the information I was seeking from you, I have decided that the best thing for us Scanrans is if I kill you so that you don't have the chance to give the Tortallians any useful information."

Tom stepped in front of Phi and Alex and drew his sword, "I would like to see you try..."

Dausael laughed and Phi looked at Tom, "What are you doing!"

The Scanran stood and drew his own sword, "Let's see how good you are boy!"

Alex jumped next to Tom and grabbed his weapon, "Let me. You have no experience, even less than I do, with a sword." Tom nodded and released the blade as the Scanran chief took a step closer.

Alex braced himself and moved his feet into a defensive stance as Dausael's first blow fell. The boy was thrown back a few inches and grimaced from the impact. The Scanran made a couple more attempts to knock Alex off balance, but he was obviously just playing with them. Suddenly, the man pulled back, "It seems that you have a good sense of balance, but let's se how good your reflexes are!"

Alex looked at the commander in surprise, "What the...?" but wasn't able to finish his sentence as Dausael's blade began to glow that blood red color and a burst of the Gift shot out of the tip of the broadsword like a laser cannon. Alex cried out in pain and the magic made contact with his body square in the chest and both he and the sword went flying.

Phi yelled and ran over to Alex, who was lying unconscious about twenty feet away from where he was standing just moments ago, "Alex! Please be alright..." She shook him and lifted his head up as he blinked his eyes open.

Alex grinned up at her, "Watch out for that..." She sighed with relief and stood up, picking up the sword that he had dropped, and charged at Dausael. The man laughed again and let loose another magic fire ball of doom thingy, but she was able to dodge it and was only two feet away when his guard ran up from beside her and slashed her with his sword. Phi stumbled and Tom rushed up to her, ignoring the guard, and pushed her out of Dausael's way as the man was just about to use his own sword to take off her head.

Alex forced himself up onto his feet and grabbed at his chest, which was slightly singed from Dausael's magic and tackled the guard who was just about to go back and help his commander. The guard definitely would have won if Alex had not managed to grab a dagger that was at the man's side and use it to cut him with in the back of his leg. The guard howled in pain and fell to the side and Alex went to help Tom and Phi, who were basically attempting to dodge Dausael's blows.

"Enough!" Cried the Scanran, "This has gone on long enough..." A new light entered his eyes and more of his Gift surged into his sword.

Phi and Tom paled, while Alex, who was battling with unconsciousness, looked at the weapon, "Does that look like a light saber to anyone else, or is it just me?"

Tom, never taking his eyes off their attacker, replied tersely, "No, just you..."

The red magic pulsed and expanded until the glow moved up the blade and engulfed Dausael's entire body, "It is time to end this..."

A huge ball of energy began form at the tip of his sword, and Tom grabbed Phi and Alex and threw them and himself to the ground just as Dausael's gift exploded from his blade and hurdled towards the three.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. As the huge surge of magic hit its mark, the heavy double wooden doors were flung open and several cries rang out from the rescuers that had come a second to late. Phi screamed in pain while Alex reached out and held her close and Tom collapsed limply on top of them, being the one that had taken most of the hit.

Alanna and Raoul, who, along with Devic, were leading the group of knights, ran in with their swords drawn and cut Dausael down on the spot before he could even raise his own weapon.

Devic's sword clattered to the ground and he raced over to the three with unruly tears welling up in his eyes, "Gods...Alex, Phi...Tom, please be alive..."

Kel, Merric, Esmond, Owen, and Dom walked slowly over and helped Devic pull them apart and lay them out flat on the ground. Duke Baird rushed over and quickly examined Tom, who was the closest one to him, with his Gift. As his light blue magic ran from his hands into the boy, he sighed with relief, "He is still breathing, but his pulse is weak. His back also seems to be badly burnt along with the palm of his right hand..." He moved over to Phi, "She will be fine too, although it seems that she has inhaled a lot of smoke into her lungs and she hasn't eaten much for the past few days..." By this point Alanna and Raoul had returned to the rest of the group and were talking hurriedly to each other about the advancement of Scanran troops.

Duke Baird ignored them and moved towards Alex, "He seems to be in much of the same condition as Phi is, except he has a burn like Tom's on his chest that should be tended to..." The mage grimaced and he turned to the older knights, "I can't heal them all alone, I need some help from another mage..."

The Lioness stepped forward, "I can help."

"I'm afraid that they also should be treated in a better environment than this as well if we want them to heal completely from this ordeal..."

Devic looked at his friends and a determined look spread across his face, "Is there anything I can do now, to help them at least until we get back to the Palace?"

The duke smiled tiredly, "I suppose we could all try to ease their pain as much as we can, but they also probably won't be awake for hours, maybe days...I'm not sure..."

Just then Alex stirred and raised himself onto his elbows, "...am I dead?" They all stared at him in surprise. He turned and looked over at Phi and Tom and grinned, "Nope...hurts to much ta be dead..." With that he fell back down to the ground, and back into unconsciousness.

Devic looked at Duke Baird who was staring at Alex, "Um...was he supposed to do that?"

The mage turned back to the page and grinned, "Well I didn't see it coming, but I would guess that that is a good sign..."

Kel moved over to Phi and began to lift her up, "Well, I think that we had better get these three loaded up and head towards the Palace."

Alanna nodded, and helped to carry the girl over to her own horse, while Dom and Raoul carried Tom over to Raoul's horse and Alex was carried by Merric and Owen to Esmond's horse, who was busy trying to saddle up and make room for a second rider.

After everyone was ready to go, Raoul motioned for the group to begin riding and they galloped off as quickly as they could manage, back to Conte.

A/N: Well that ending of the chapter stunk...oh well, ya win some, ya lose some. I hope all of you enjoyed my insane, made-up story line and that you keep reading to see what happens next! (P.S: Thank you all for the nice reviews...I appreciate them sniff anyway, um... ya...please review more if you haven't recently!)