The next morning, after a light breakfast, the four visitors prepared to leave. A search of the lakeside had failed to reveal any sign of the carpet, which had probably washed up on the shore somewhere and would probably be buried under soil and leaf mould without ever being found. Thomas had a suspicion that Darris had found it and hidden it somewhere, though. Even without any magic in it, it would still be quite valuable, worth a fair few pennies in the nearest large town, and it was no longer of any use to the University. He privately hoped that they did have it. He wanted them to have some reward for saving their lives.

     Darris advised them to follow the road to Leverton until they came to a crossroads, and then to take the road going south, although calling it a road was a bit of a compliment. It was really no more than a narrow track through the trees, but it was the only road going in their direction that wouldn't take them a week out of their way. After about a hundred miles they would come to an Agglemonian great road, which they could then follow all the way into Ilandia. Once they were on the road they probably wouldn't have any trouble from wild animals or outlaws, who generally avoided it because of all the traffic that passed along it, guarded by hired mercenaries who enjoyed taking the odd pot shot at the local wildlife to help relieve the boredom.

     Father Tikram left first, travelling on his own this time. He knew the way back to his home town, and the power of the Goddess he served would protect him from any perils he might come across on the way. Then, when he was gone, it was the turn of the three young wizards to leave. They thanked Darris and his family once again for their help and hospitality, for their very lives, and Lirenna hugged each of them in turn. Thomas and Jerry shook their hands vigorously, and then they set off, the two groups waving at each other until they were out of each other's sight.

      After their flight on the carpet, during which they had covered several thousand miles in only a few days, their five day journey to the road was quite a considerable letdown. Instead of gliding smoothly over the forest, they now had to trudge their way through it, and they suffered many cuts and bruises as they struggled through places where patches of bramble had grown over the narrow, rarely used track. In other places the road had subsided to become areas of marshy ground into which they sank up to their knees.

     In other places they had to wade through river crossings, normally fairly tame but now treacherously deep and fast moving because of recent heavy rains in the mountains, and once they were stalked by a pack of half starved butterfly wolves, so called because of the wide 'wings' of stiff fur that stuck out sideways from their shoulders and spines. The graduates weren't worried at first, because these creatures were reputed to rarely attack people, preferring to feed on small forest creatures, but these ones had a slightly crazed look in their eyes as they approached and had circled them in a definitely threatening way, their teeth bared and growling deep in their throats as if working up the courage to attack.

     The wizards had eventually grown worried enough to cast their spells at them, something that they'd been reluctant to do because it left them defenceless until their bodies could absorb more magic force from the world around them, something that, at their young age, would take several hours. There were plenty of worse creatures in the Overgreen Forest than butterfly wolves, but these animals had clearly been deranged by something, some kind of illness or disease perhaps, and so they decided to take action while they still could. Thomas cast his spell first, launching a bolt of fire that struck the largest wolf in the flank, making it howl and dance off to the side, snapping at the injury as if the pain were an attacking enemy. The rest of the pack was visibly upset, but they didn't scatter, as they'd hoped, and Jerry and Lirenna were forced to cast their spells as well.

     Lirenna's sleep spell sent four of them into spell induced slumber, and Jerry terrified the rest by casting an illusion, another auditory one, the sound of a huge angry monster lumbering towards them. That did the trick and the wolves disappeared into the forest, yapping and howling, looking for easier prey and having no way of knowing that the three newly graduated wizards were now almost as defenceless as children. Nevertheless the graduates were exhilarated by their victory, their first use of magic in a real world situation. The feeling soon wore off, though, leaving them feeling scared and vulnerable, aware as never before that they were surrounded by the true wilderness, an area that even heavily armed and experienced army patrols entered with heavy apprehension.

     They were lucky. It wasn’t until the next day that they had to defend themselves again, but it wasn’t animals that attacked them this time. They were threading their way between the wide, moss covered boles of the gigantic ceenar trees, trying to see well enough in the gloom not to trip over the thick roots that crossed their path, when a woodsman suddenly appeared from the dense undergrowth ahead of them. Filthy and bearded, dressed in clothes he’d made himself from animal skins and tree bark, his wrinkled skin grey with deeply ingrained dirt and with eyes that stared madly out from under a tangled mop of greasy black hair. “Whoorit?” he demanded as he strode belligerently into their path, forcing them to stop dead in their tracks and stare is astonishment. “Whoorommit?” Then he drew a long ironwood dagger he’d had tucked into his belt and lunged at Thomas, screaming incoherently.

     Thomas ducked to the side as Lirenna screamed and the dagger missed him, but the crazed woodsman grabbed at his jacket and pulled him off his feet. The young human heard Jerry and Lirenna howling in protest, unable to believe what was happening, and Thomas kicked out with his feet as the woodsman tried to stab him again. The woodsman went down and Thomas scrambled to his feet, the words of his spells jumping to the forefront of his mind. He pointed a finger and was on the point of casting a firebolt, but this was a human being! Every instinct rebelled against the taking of a human life and so he hesitated, and the woodsman took advantage by lunging at him again, coming at him on all fours like an animal.

     Thomas scrambled away, still pointing with his finger, tripped over a root and fell, and the woodsman was on him, kneeling on his chest, the weight of him driving the air from his lungs. He drove the knife down at his throat, and Thomas grabbed his wrist with both hands, desperately trying to halt its downward plunge. The woodsman was terrifyingly strong though, and made even stronger by his madness. The dagger pricked his shirt and Thomas felt a sharp pain as the point, almost as sharp and hard as steel, broke his skin, but then Jerry was on his back, screaming in his high pitched voice as he tried to pull him off. A part of Thomas’s mind thought what a comical sight it must have been, the tiny nome on the huge woodsman’s back trying to wrestle him off the human wizard, but then the woodsman grabbed the nome’s arm and threw him away, to land hard against the bole of a ceenar tree where he lay, half stunned.

     Thomas took the opportunity to try to get out from under the crazed woodsman, but the man still had his full weight on the wizard’s chest and there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t even find the breath for spellcasting and could only grab the man’s wrist again as the dagger slashed downwards. He managed to deflect the knife sideways so that it slashed his jacket, and the woodsman reacted by punching the wizard full in the face. Everything went white with shock and pain and the woodsman raised the knife again. This time there was nothing the wizard could do to stop it.

     Then the woodsman gave a cry of pain, and the faint smell of burned flesh filled the air. The woodsman arched backwards, a look of astonishment on his face, and both he and Thomas looked at Lirenna, whom they’d both forgotten. She was standing there, a look of horror on her face, one finger still pointed at the woodsman. She shot a firebolt, Thomas realised. The words of his own firebolt spell leapt to the front of his mind, but he didn’t have to use it as the woodsman climbed unsteadily to his knees, fingering the burned wound in his side. He took a couple of staggering steps towards her, then slumped to the side and lay still.

     Thomas climbed back to his feet and stared down at him, checking to make sure he was really dead. He was joined by Jerry, rubbing his head and looking a little unsteady. Then they heard a sob and looked around, to see the demi shae looking stricken, still staring at the woodsman in horror and guilt. “Is he...” she began, tears streaming down her cheeks.

     Thomas gave the corpse a kick. The woodsman lay still, his eyes open, a little coil of smoke rising from his side. “Dead,” he said gratefully, rubbing at a split lip. “Wonder if it was something I said...”

     “I killed him!” wailed the demi shae. “Oh Gods, I killed him!”

     “You had to,” said Thomas, crossing towards her and reaching out to touch her shoulder. She pulled away from him. “You had to!” he repeated. “You saved my life!” Lirenna stared at the dead woodsman, and Thomas took her firmly by the shoulders. He resisted her efforts to shake him off and turned her around to face him. She tried to turn back around to look at the corpse again but Thomas kept hold of her. “Lirenna!” he said firmly. “Lirenna!” He shook her by the shoulders until she raised her eyes to look at him. “You had to!” he repeated. “You had no choice! He would have killed me!”

     “I should have used my sleep spell...”

     “You would have put us both to sleep, and what would you have done when he woke up?”

     “Reasoned with him. Convinced him...”

     “He was beyond reason  He would have killed all of us. You did what you had to do! You saved all of us.”

     Lirenna nodded slowly, but she looked unconvinced and Thomas had to keep repeating the same words over and over again until they sank in. Jerry added his own words and gradually she began to believe them. There was a haunted look in her eyes as Thomas and Jerry guided her gently away from the scene of the conflict, until the corpse was lost from sight among the trees behind them. Even then, though, they kept talking to her in soft words, and she said nothing in return, remaining silent all the rest of the day.