Half an hour later, the time finally came for them to leave and they made their way back out into the street. Kennara paused to have a word with Lomar and Perrin, and Thomas took the opportunity to take Lirenna by the elbow and steer her a short distance away, out of earshot. "Lenny, will you do something for me?" he asked in a low, conspiratorial voice.

     "Of course," replied the demi shae with a puzzled frown. "What?"

     "Those two men over there." He indicated Lomar and Perrin. "Read their minds."

     "What!" exclaimed Lirenna in outrage. "Tom! They know the location of Haven! It's forbidden to try to steal that information!"

     "I'm not asking you to," replied Thomas, cursing himself for not having thought of that. "I just want to know what they think of us."

     "Why?"

     "I just don't like the idea of being so totally at their mercy. I want to know what kind of people we're putting our trust in."

     Lirenna was shocked all over again. "Why? What in the name of the Gods do you think they're going to do to us?"

     "That's what I'm trying not to think about."

     "Tom, we went through all this twenty years ago. They can be trusted, take it from me. Do you think I'd put Derry in their hands if I didn't trust them completely?"

     "You know them? You've met them before?"

     "Well, no, but they're Havenites. That means they're sure to be completely trustworthy."

     "But you can't be absolutely sure of that..."

     "Tom! You've lived here for twenty years now. You should know the kind of people we are. You've been perfectly happy to let Derry go off with people we hardly knew..."

     "That's not the same and you know it. Someone who abducts Derry by force runs the risk of being found out and caught, but with all three of us in a trance... I just want to be absolutely sure. All you've got to do is read their minds. Just a quick glance..."

     "And what if one of them is thinking about the route we'll be taking? I might discover the location of Haven, putting the whole valley in danger." She looked around to see that the Waykeepers had finished talking and were walking towards them. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Now stop being so silly! I trust them and you trust me. Right?"

     "Right," agreed Thomas reluctantly.

     "Good. Let's get on with it then, and no more of these silly worries."

     "A problem?" asked Kennara as he drew level with them.

     "Not at all," replied the demi shae, smiling brightly.

     "Good. If you're ready then, I'm ready to put you under. So, who wants to be first?"

     "I will," said Derrin, stepping forward. “The sooner we’re under, the sooner we wake up right?”

     “That's how it will appear to you,” the wizard replied. “I just need you to clear your mind, then. Don't try to fight it. Okay?”

     “What happens if he tries to fight it?” asked Thomas.

     “If his willpower is strong enough, the spell might fail and I'll have to try again. No harm will come to him, though, or to any of you, no matter how many times the spell fails.” He turned back to the boy. “Ready?”

     Derrin glanced sideways at his father, then looked back at Kennara. “Ready,” he said. He went to stand before the older wizard and stared trustingly up into his eyes while the Waykeeper spoke a few words, and Thomas watched with an agonised, nagging worry as the eager, questing intelligence behind them was gently put to sleep.

     Lomar then took Derrin's hand and led him back towards the carriage, the boy following with obedient docility. Kennara then went over to Lirenna. "Are you ready?" he asked.

     "Yes," replied the demi shae with a warning glance at Thomas. A moment later she was also in a deep trance and being led back to the carriage by Perrin. Thomas watched anxiously as she was sat next to her son, the two of them sitting as motionless as statues with only the occasional slow blink of their eyes to show that they were still alive. They now had no control over what happened to their bodies, and were totally dependant upon the professionalism of the Waykeepers.

     "I understand your fears," said Kennara to Thomas. "However, I assure you that measures are taken to ensure that they are unfounded."

     "What measures?" asked Thomas warily.

     "I can't tell you, but I assure you they exist. We've taken whole families through before. Do you think you're the first man to feel this way about it?"

     "No, I suppose not," conceded the wizard. "Go on then, get it over with. I'll try not to spoil the spell by resisting too hard."

     Kennara nodded, and looked into his eyes. He spoke a few words, and suddenly he was replaced by Perrin, snapping his fingers in front of his face. The town was gone as well, and the carriage now stood in the middle of a dense forest. A few paces away Lomar was rousing Lirenna from her trance, while Derrin stood docilely beside her, awaiting his turn.

     "What..." began the wizard in surprise. "Is that it? Of course it is, I’d forgotten what it’s like.”

     "That's it," confirmed the Waykeeper, grinning in amusement. "All over. We're now in the Overgreen Forest, just a few miles from the town of Atterdale. We always rouse our passengers before we enter the town, as the arrival of entranced people would probably cause comment."

     "Yes, I suppose it would," agreed the wizard, looking around at the dense, impenetrable forest, no doubt filled with outlaws, highwaymen and all kinds of woodland monsters. How long had they been traveling through this dangerous country, dependant only upon the Waykeepers for their protection? Days? Weeks? He didn't care what reassurances Kennara gave them. Even if the Waykeepers were as trustworthy and reliable as they claimed, this trance business was dangerous. Far too dangerous for him and Lirenna to submit themselves to it twice a year until Derrin began his apprenticeship. There had to be a better way.

     The Waykeepers had brought changes of clothes for them; the clothes of a moderately wealthy Ilandian tradesman and his family. The kind of clothes that wouldn't look out of place in an Overgreen Forest town. "You can use the carriage as a changing room," offered Perrin, "and when you're finished we'll set off on the last leg of the journey. We can be in Atterdale in just a couple of hours."

     "Do we have to actually enter the town?" asked Lirenna, though. "Why can't we teleport to Lexandria from here?"

     "No reason at all," agreed Thomas. He turned to the Waykeepers. "How would you feel about that?"

     "It's all the same to us," replied Lomar, coming over to join them. He was followed by an eagerly excited Derrin and Thomas was relieved to see that the boy's personality and intelligence appeared to have survived the entrancement intact. The sight of him being led away to the carriage like a mindless zombie still burned brightly in his memory, though. He and Lirenna must have had to perform bodily functions and change clothes during the journey, he knew. Had the Waykeepers watched while they'd done it? If they had, who would ever know? Now that it was over, the fear he’s been feeling was gradually giving way to a steady, simmering anger. The Havenites might have grown accustomed to this kind of thing over the centuries, he thought, but I never will!

     "We've got to go on to Atterdale to pick up supplies," continued Lomar, "plus whatever mail might have come in. You're welcome to come with us, or you can leave now. Whatever suits you best."

     "Well?" said Lirenna eagerly. "Why not? What's the point of us entering Atterdale itself? We might just as well go from here. What do you say?"

     "Good idea," agreed Thomas, who was anxious to get away from the Waykeepers as quickly as possible. He wasn't looking forward to the return journey one little bit. "Come on then, let's get our stuff."

     They unloaded their luggage from the carriage and placed it in the small clearing by the side of the road. Derrin and Lirenna then went over to stand next to Thomas and they held hands, linking themselves into a circle. "Thank you for looking after us," Lirenna said to the Waykeepers. "We look forward to seeing you again very soon."

     "Well, it might not be us next time," pointed out Perrin. "There are about a dozen of us, but I expect we'll see you again one day."

     "Take care of yourselves," added Lomar. "Goodbye."

     "Goodbye," replied Thomas, and Derrin let go of his hand to wave to the Waykeepers. Lomar and Perrin waved back, and then they climbed back up onto the carriage. Perrin picked up the reins, preparing to give the team of horses the order to move on, but he waited while Thomas grabbed Derrin's hand again to mend the broken circle. The wizard gazed back up at the two Waykeepers for a moment longer, his look of suspicion plain to see, and then he spoke a word and the three of them vanished.

☆☆☆

     Lomar slapped the reins, and the horses broke into a walk, jerking the carriage into motion. "Outlanders!" he muttered, his face forming an unhappy scowl now they were alone. "Letting outlanders into Haven is never a good idea. I don't know why they allowed it. You saw what he suspected us of, didn't you?"

     "Don't let it get to you. He doesn't know our ways. You have to make allowances."

     "But to think we'd take advantage like that! What kind of monsters does he think we are?"

     "He's a husband and a father," said Perrin, trying to calm him down. "He feels protective towards his family. Outlanders have no real idea what it means to be a Waykeeper."

     Lomar gave a grunt of grudging agreement and the conversation drifted on to other things.

     They reached the town of Atterdale a couple of hours later and stopped outside the coachhouse. It was a waystation and resupply depot for travelers passing through the town that doubled as one of the safehouses for Havenites on their way in or out of the secret valley. Stableboys dashed out to see the horses followed by another wizard; the one who put travelers into their trances for the journey into Haven. He stared at the empty carriage in confusion and lifted a questioning eyebrow at the Waykeepers.

     "They left early," explained Perrin as the three of them hurried back into the coachhouse, out of sight and earshot of the townspeople, most of whom knew nothing about what really went on there. "They teleported off as soon as we woke them up."

     The wizard snorted in annoyance. "Impulsive," he grunted. "If they'd come all the way here they'd have found some mail waiting for them." He took a letter from a wall of pigeonholes and showed them the huge wax seal, impressed with the emblem of a nest of snakes spilling out of an overturned chest. "The seal of the wizard Lamaniss," he explained to the puzzled Waykeepers. "One of the most powerful in Ilandia. It would have to be something important for him to send a letter bearing his personal seal."

     "Something that concerns us?" wondered Lomar, eyeing the letter as though it were a scorpion. "We should open it. We're empowered to do so if the security of Haven is at stake."

     "We don't know that the security of Haven is at stake," pointed out the wizard, Barranox by name. "It could be a purely personal thing, of no great importance."

     "Bearing his personal seal?" replied Lomar. "He put the seal on it to draw attention to it, to tell them it required urgent attention. It's more than just family gossip, you can be sure of that."

     "They sent a letter to Lamaniss a few days ago," said Perrin, "but he wasn't home. His housekeeper sent a reply in his place. I bet Lamaniss sent this letter when he returned home and found out what had happened."

     "What was the letter about?" demanded Barranox.

     "How should I know? You know the conditioning we're given to make us respect other people's privacy."

     "Except where the security of Haven is at stake," repeated Lomar. "We should open it."

     "That letter was written by a wizard!" pointed out Perrin in alarm. "That seal could have all kinds of magical traps spelled onto it, to ensure that only the person it's addressed to can open it safely."

     "It doesn't," replied Barranox, though. "I've already checked. This letter contains no magic of any kind."

     "So open it!" demanded Lomar. "We're empowered to do so, and it's our duty as the guardians of Haven."

     Barranox hesitated a moment longer in indecision, then shrugged and broke the seal with his thumb. He opened the thick, stiffly folded paper and scanned his eyes across the elegantly calligraphed handwriting. When he looked up, his forehead was creased with worry and concern.

     "What is it?" demanded Lomar impatiently.

     The wizard handed the letter across and the Waykeeper read it hurriedly. "Do not, repeat, do not attempt to teleport to Lexandria!" he read aloud. "Do not attempt to teleport any distance greater than five hundred miles. You must travel to Lexandria overland. Come to my mansion in Fort Battleaxe and I will arrange passage for you. I will explain everything when you arrive." He stared at the others. "What does it mean?" he demanded.

     "I think," replied Barranox, "that it means Thomas Gown and his family are in a lot of trouble. A lot of trouble indeed."