Taken - part 6

Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog :) This is part six of a little story I'm writing. For anyone who is new here, I would recommend you start at part one and work your way through. Happy reading!
I'm still trying to work out the page views here on Blogger. There are two pages which show how many views I've had, but they never agree. I'd really appreciate it if anyone reading this could post a comment (anything, really), so that I can get an accurate number and sort all of this out. Thanks!

"What do we do?" I whisper.
"Well, we don't stand here and watch, that's for sure," Max whispers back. Before either of us can so much as take a single step back, though, Haen is looking straight at us.
"Well, well, what do we have here?"
"Run," Max says.
I don't hesitate. The two of us are streaking off through the trees. If we can just get to Erele, she can fly us away from here. Suddenly I am jerked back as though by an invisible rope. By the way Max flies backwards beside me, he has been caught by the same thing.
My breath is knocked out of me as I hit the ground hard. I can hear Max hitting beside me, but I can't see anything - everything seems to be blurred around the edges.
"So. I see I will need to erase two more sets of memories tonight."
Haen is standing above us, glaring down at Max and me.
"Why?" Max whispers. "Why would you turn to black magic?"
"The king is weak," Haen says dismissively. "He does not have the strength to do what must be done to vanquish his enemies. I do."
"You'll never get away with this!" I shout, knowing full well that he is already getting away with it.
Haen kicks me in the ribs, and I am thrown two feet away. Max is yelling, and my ears are ringing. There is something hard underneath me, pressing into my side.
Rolling over, I see that the hard thing is a blue stone, shining ever son faintly in the dark night. Without pausing to wonder if my suspicions are correct, I tap the stone three times with my nail and whisper "help."
"Say goodbye to your pasts," Haen sneers. "See what meddling gets you."
I open my mouth to scream, but Haen is already advancing on Max, holding his one hand over his prone body, and the other clutching some kind of crystal bottle.
Before anything else can happen, the darkness of the night is shattered in a rain of fire. Erele roars as she soars over the trees, breathing flames down on the scene. I am forced to roll to avoid them, pulling Max with me. Haen is not so lucky. His robes catch fire, and while he shoots a magical jet of water that extinguishes it instantly, it buys Erele the second she needs. She lands with a thud and her great tail sweeps around. Haen is pushed off his feet and his head collides with a nearby tree trunk, hard. His eyes roll back as he faints.
"Halie, are you ok?" Max scrambles towards me, his hands fluttering over my body. I try to get up, but groan and fall back.
"Erele, she's injured! I think it's a broken rib."
Erele gives Haen one last shove with her tail for good measure, then lumbers over to me.
"Hold on, I'll have you healed in a second," she says, already concentrating on my torso. A sensation unlike anything I have ever felt before sweeps through me. It is not unpleasant, but so alien that I can't help but gasp in surprise.
"It's ok," Max says holding my hand. "It'll help."
Help it does. By the time Erele is done, I still feel stiff and tired, but apart from that, perfectly normal.
"You came just in time," I pant.
"You called me just in time."
I hold out the blue stone, which is warm in my palm. "I guess this has saved our necks twice now."
"Let's not try for a third."
"Agreed," I say. "What should we do with him?" I gesture to the prone wizard.
"We'll take him to the king," Max says. "He'll deal with him from there."
"How do we know the king will believe us?"
Max looks stumped at this, but Erele has the answer. "Black magic always leaves traces. There will be evidence, you can take my word on that."
She looks at Haen with such hatred that for a moment I am afraid she is going to incinerate him on the spot. Then the moment has passed and she is lowering herself onto the ground.
"We don't have time for caution, now. If he wakes, we have no way to hold him - not a wizard of his power. We need to get to the king now. I'll carry him, and you two ride my back."
"But we'll be seen -"
"That is the least of our worries right now!"
Looking at Haen, his fingertips still a sinister green, I can't bring myself to disagree. "Ok," I say. "Ok, let's go."
Max and I clamber onto Erele's scaly back without speaking, and as she grabs Haen in her claws and takes off, Max puts his hands on my waist, holding on. We fly through the night, towards the king's palace. It is peaceful, now. I can only imagine how it will be when people start waking up and see a dragon flying overhead.
"What do we do if he wakes up?" I ask Max.
He glances down at Haen, whose head is lolling from one side to the other. His arms tighten slightly around me. "We had just better hope that he doesn't."

To be continued