Chapter 1

Once I started calming down, I started to understand that now I had a real problem in front of me. A very real and concrete problem. I might have just saved Kara’s life but most likely that wouldn’t make her like me. Probably she didn’t even know what I had just done and as soon as possible she would try to contact her people - The Magicians - or her family - and either of those would expose me. Something I could not allow to happen. Some part of my brain tried to tell me that there would be a very easy solution to this - just knock her unconscious and drag her body to the Aston river. After all, she already died once, right? Besides, this part of the river bank was not visible from above and, at this time of the year and late afternoon, it was so hazy that nobody could really see us from the other side of the wide river.

Kara was still gasping for breath when I understood my second, quite as real problem when a cold gust of wind hit me in my wet clothes. Yes, I had been prepared that I might get wet during my mission - but I only had ONE extra set of dry clothes with me! Even if I was quite sure that nobody would go and check after me, I had decided to leave almost everything behind and, besides the things I had stolen from the Library, I only had my money and a few extra clothes. Most of which had been used in securing the books inside the barrels. The next gust of wind made me really shiver. I needed to do something or soon we would freeze to death here on this river bank. One more time I cursed my own stupidity before breaking into action.

I took hold of Kara’s hand and made her stand up before I started guiding her a bit upstream towards some thick bushes. I felt cold and my shoes were filled with water and I knew that they would need some extra care after this incident if I wanted to continue using them. After some walking, I stopped in front of a thick bush that totally hid the row boat both from above and from the river. I released Kara’s hand and reached for the package that was there in front of the boat, hidden under the dark canvas covering the whole boat. Then I turned towards Kara, who had followed me looking a bit dumbfounded, but now was already focusing at least a bit to what I was doing.

””Kara, strip!””

The look on Kara’s face told me that she had understood her name, but not the command given with the Old Language. I was a bit surprised but tried again.

“Kara, take off those wet clothes. Now!”

I could have pushed much more, but I saw no need. She would obey unless she was an idiot since she must have felt at least as cold as I did. However, instead of doing as I had ordered, she just started looking around and putting her hands to her temples.

“Where are we... - Why should I strip in front of you?”

She was obviously feeling better as she was ready to challenge me. I took a deep breath and tried to ignore how cold I felt myself.

“Kara, Strip! Now! Then you’ll get some dry clothes.”

Now I pushed with my magic, hard, since I didn’t want to play any games with her. When she didn’t react and looked up the river bank towards the city, I continued.

“If you try to scream or try to do something else stupid, I’ll silence you and take your clothes off and dress you myself. I’m certain that you’d rather do it yourself.”

Now Kara started to take her off her black robe, and while she was doing that I decided that it was safe enough for me to start to take off my own dripping wet clothes as well. All the time, I kept on eye on Kara, just to make sure she wouldn’t do anything stupid. After taking off her robe, a shirt and some long thin trousers, she was standing there shivering in her underpants and thin, see-through shirt. Even if I tried, I couldn’t help noticing her nipples poking. I started to remember the young woman who had been sitting in the Hidden Floor of the Library with her Magician student friends. Not so nice friends. Suddenly it was quite easy to ignore what I saw.

“All of it, you don’t want your dry clothes to become instantly wet again.”

Hesitantly she did what I had asked and I did my best for not to stare, even though I kept an eye on her. Once she got the dry clothes I had reserved for myself she looked instantly grateful - and ready to do something. Something stupid. I was still partly dressed myself and, even if I was feeling the cold, I was able to move before she was able to react and take hold of her and push her against the side of the boat.

“What are you doing? Release me immediately!”

Instead of speaking, I held her there while I tore a strip from the hem of her wet, black, robe and quickly used that strip to tie her hands behind her back.

“Stop it! Release me! Don’t you know who I am?”

The last question felt really stupid and I let out a little laugh. Most certainly I knew who she was. However, instead of laughing more, I started to feel pissed since I would be spending the rest of the day in wet clothes and I wasn’t too gentle when I turned her to face me.

“Miss - or Kara. You are asking the wrong questions. Instead of asking me ‘do you know who I am’ you should be asking yourself the question ‘what am I now?’. Think about it, do you feel any different now? If so, think about what the other people in their black robes would do to you now when your grandfather isn’t protecting you anymore. Now, I don’t recommend running, since there’s no easy way away from here with your hands tied behind your back - and if you consider shouting I can always put a gag to you. Think about it.”

After saying that, I took two steps back and did my best to ignore her when I finished undressing. After that, I did my best to squeeze some water out of my soaked clothes. Even though I might have been partly successful with that, it still felt terrible to put those wet clothes back on. All the time, Kara kept on looking at me while I did my best to ignore her. Still, it was clear that she was at least somewhat curious to see me naked. In any other situation I might have found that humorous.

“What did you do to me? Please, tell me.”

Suddenly that arrogant young woman wasn’t so arrogant anymore. However, I wasn’t in a mood for talking, since I still felt cold and I was now starting to feel all the bruises I had got and I was sure that it would only be getting worse after a while.

“In fact, I have no idea. I just got angry because I had made a promise that I’d try to save your life. That’s all.”

“But...”

“Now, Kara, do you promise to obey me and stay quiet, or do I need to tie you up some more and gag you?”

“How much choice do I have?”

“I think that I just gave you a possibility to choose.”

“I’ll do as you say.”

I was quite sure that I heard the words ‘for now’ as well, but I decided to believe her - for now. I noticed that she had looked at the steep river banks and decided that there would be better chances to escape later. Unfortunately I agreed with her.

“What ... what’s in those barrels?”

I had just pulled the canvas and the branches from the top of the biggest row boat I had been able to find and I had also cursed the situation a bit. Because of the interference of Rurik and the other Magician, I’d had to react a bit sooner than I would have liked, and now I wouldn’t be able to use the high tide as much as I had planned to. Now it would be harder to get the boat into the river and rowing upstream to the other side of the river would be really hard, since the boat was big and it was floating quite deep already. However, instead of cursing aloud, I turned to Kara.

“You’ll learn about it when it’s the right time. If you behave.”

I was nearly exhausted when I finally got the boat afloat. Unless I had collected a few more or less round branches that I rolled under the boat, I would not have been able to do it. When I looked at the boat, I noticed that it was floating quite a bit deeper than I had hoped - and Kara and I weren’t even in it yet. I guess that my skills with Mathematics could have been better since I had tried to estimate this, too. Just as I had tried to estimate how quickly the Dark Floor would fill with water. That wasn’t even all, as it also started raining. Great.

“Okay Kara, I’ll carry you to the boat - and I recommend that you stay on the boat floor. You can use that canvas to protect you from the rain.”

She didn’t thank me for that, but at least she did as I asked.

The fact that the weather turned worse was both a blessing and a curse. The blessing part was that, for sure, nobody would be able to clearly see us from the river banks. Or see us at all. I really wasn’t too worried about that. What I was worried about was that I was already exhausted and instead of the rising tide I had planned to use, we were facing the turning of the tides and gusts of wind which both did their best to turn the boat away from its intended direction. At least I had been cautious and used twenty crowns for one of my most precious treasures, the compass. As soon as I lost sight of the river bank I had had to rely on that wonderful little thing. A precious iron stick protected by a piece of glass. At least I didn’t feel that cold anymore - even if my clothes were still wet and felt heavy.