They rested their horses ten miles from Greystone Hill at Diana's insistence when she saw Drake slumped over the saddle, obviously in great pain and close to losing consciousness. Petronax and Shaun gently lifted him down from the saddle and laid him on the grass, where the cleric examined him. The plague priest's spell had hurt him badly, and it had taken all his strength to put on a bold face and continue the confrontation on the hill, but his strength had given out now and he was suffering badly. Diana prayed over him, feeling the power of the Goddess flowing through her into him, and the priest relaxed and drifted off to sleep.

     "I think he'll be alright now," she said, "but I don't think he should be moved until he wakes up."

     "All right, we'll wait here until morning," said Petronax.

     They helped the women down from their horses, and Janice searched among them for her sister, giving her a bonecrushing hug when she found her. "Karen!" she sobbed joyfully. "Thank the Gods you're safe!" Karen just stood there with a dreamy look on her face, however, seemingly unaware of her sister's presence, and Janice looked around at the others in concern. "What's wrong with her?" she asked.

     "It's the spell the priests put on her," explained Lirenna. "Don't worry, it'll wear off in its own time, and then she'll be the same as you've always known her."

     "How long?"

     "I don't know, it depends on how long ago it was put on her. They usually last about a week. When it does wear off, however, she'll remember everything, so feel free to talk to her. She can hear and understand everything you say, even though she doesn't reply."

     Janice cheered up and hugged her sister again. "Thank you all," she said, tears in her eyes. "Thank you, both for myself and my sister, who would also thank you if she could, and all the others as well. I can't tell you what this means to me."

     She gave Diana a great hug and then, since they wanted to make an early start in case the followers of Molrot were still after them, they arranged their sleeping blankets on the ground, crawled into them and went to sleep.

     The next morning, Drake woke up normally and said he was much better, but Diana could see that he was still in pain and prayed over him again, even though he could have prayed for the power of his own God, the God of War. Diana was a follower of the Lady of Healing, though, and she saw it as her responsibility to look after the health of everyone in their party. Afterwards, Janice thanked him for what he had done, but most of her attention was given to her sister who, like the other women, was beginning to show healthy signs of life, indicating that the spell they were under was beginning to wear off. By the time they had breakfasted and packed away their camp, they had recovered completely.

     As Diana had promised, they remembered everything that had happened to them and were badly shaken by it, but had suffered no lasting harm. They thanked the travellers for their rescue, but seemed almost as scared of them as they had been of the plague priests and huddled nervously together in a group, holding each others hands and glancing now and then at the fearsome, heavily armed fighting men with wide, frightened eyes. Only Karen's expressions of gratitude had any warmth and sincerity, due to her sister having been among the rescuers, and she hinted that she might be willing to express her gratitude further, leaving no doubt what she had in mind.

     Drake declined her offer politely but firmly and Shaun and Matthew also declined, after receiving a warning glare from Diana. Petronax might have been tempted, but was too busy thinking about the Shadowsoldiers getting further ahead with every passing minute. Thomas was the only one who might have accepted, but he found himself looking at Lirenna, and when she looked back at him and their eyes met he found himself politely declining her offer as well without really knowing why. The demi shae beamed at him, however, and for some reason that cheered him and raised his spirits for the rest of the day.

     "That was a good idea of yours last night," he said, anxious to change the subject. He was referring to the demi shae's idea that the two of them combine their firepower, shooting two firebolts each, to fool the priests into thinking that all four had been cast by a single wizard more powerful than either of them. Timing had been the crucial thing. They'd had to stand with their shoulders touching and cast their spells at exactly the same time for the deception to be effective, and that had required very careful concentration. That they had managed to pull it off not once, but twice, was a tribute to the quality of training they had received at the University, and the skill of their teachers. Tragius would have been proud of them.

     Lirenna hugged him and pressed her head against his shoulder. "I was so worried when you went up with Robert to face them," she murmured. "If they'd cast the same spell at you as they did at him, it would probably have killed you."

     "I had to, you know that," replied Thomas. "It was all a bluff. We had to act tough in order to carry it off."

     "Do you think they'll come after us?"

     "I don't know. They won't soon forget how we ruined their most sacred ceremony, that's for sure. On the other hand, being such great cowards, they might just drop the whole thing, lick their wounds for a while and then go off to find some new victims. It really doesn't matter whether they do or not. They're on foot whereas we're on horseback, so there's no way they can catch us."

     "Unless they get some horses of their own." She shuddered. "When I think of what they were going to do to those poor girls... You didn’t see the soldiers we killed, didn’t see what the curse did to them." She pulled away from him, holding him by the arms, and looked up into his eyes. "I want you to promise me something. If they do catch up with us, don't let them take me alive. Promise, please."

     "Don't talk like that," said Thomas reassuringly. "We're never going to see any more of that particular bunch."

     "Promise!" insisted Lirenna. "Please!"

     "All right, I promise," He said it too glibly, though, clearly not meaning it, and the demi shae made him repeat the promise, this time sincerely. Thomas hedged and fidgeted, though, unable to even think about hurting her, and in the end Lirenna gave up, conceding defeat but knowing she’d made her feelings clear. If, all the Gods forbid, she was captured by the plague priests, the wizard would know what to do.

    They hugged, therefore, and Thomas held the demi shae until Petronax came over to get them. "If you two have quite finished," he said, "we're about to leave."

☆☆☆

     They dropped the ten women off in the Kenestran town of Delvar, twenty miles further south. Diana gave each of them ten silver coins from the treasure they'd found in the Ghost Ocean, enough for them to buy some new clothes and travel back to their own homes with a little left over for any other problems they might encounter on the way. Then they went to the town hall to explain the situation to the authorities, wanting to warn them of the threat lurking to the north that might well come south to trouble them some day. They had to battle their way through several layers of bureaucracy, though, before they finally found themselves talking to the Mayor, who thanked them for the warning and said that he would send a patrol up there straight away to investigate and deal with the problem.

     They then went to the town’s small market, needing to restock on trail rations and each of them wanting to replace some essential supplies, and then they booked themselves into the town’s only boarding house, glad for the chance to sleep in real beds again and eat real cooked meals, a luxury after so long sleeping under the stars. They made enquiries about the lands to the south of them, and found to their relief that the great river Tew was only two days away. Merchants went there all the time, they could go in their company for protection. It was once they were on the other side of the river that their problems would really begin. That was uninhabited wilderness, totally devoid of human or demihuman life. The travellers nodded glumly, and retired to their rooms, deciding to make the most of the comforts of civilization while they could.

     The next morning, when they were ready to leave, a crowd of townspeople came to see them off, and they were pleased to see that it included the ten women they'd rescued. "Are you sure you won't stay a while?" asked Karen. "Three of the girls you rescued come from this town, so you're heroes here. They'd love to throw a party for you, and so would we."

     "Thanks," said Petronax, "but we can't wait. We're on a very urgent mission, a race against time, and we can't afford to delay any longer. You're offer is appreciated, though, and if the pressure on us weren't so great, we would gladly accept."

     The sisters were disappointed but understood, so they hugged Diana and Lirenna one last time and gave the men farewell kisses. Then the friends and relatives of the three native girls stepped forward to thank them and offer them various rewards, which Diana politely refused on behalf of them all. The only things she allowed them to keep, since common courtesy demanded that they accept something, was one little keepsake each, a tiny trifle of no great value that would remind them of their gratitude for ever after. Diana and Lirenna, therefore, each accepted a small silver brooch in the shape of a butterfly, which they wore proudly on their shoulders, and the men each accepted a small silver badge bearing the coat of arms of Delvar.

     At Petronax's insistence, they then said their farewells and left, while half the town lined the streets to see them off, cheering and waving. They trotted slowly and sedately while they were still in sight of the townspeople, but as soon as they were out of sight they spurred their horses into a gallop, wanting to cover as much distance as possible during what remained of the day. They spent the night in another town thirty miles further south, and in the early afternoon of the next day they reached the river Tew, which they crossed on a ferry near the riverside town of Breeton.