Chapter 11

Because of our late start, there was no way that we could make the fifty kilometers to Gray before dark. We passed through the hamlet of Belleauve that afternoon, and had neared Mirebeau-sur-Beze before deciding to stop for the night. We looked for, and found, a wooded area with a pond nearby, at the edge of an open field.

Pat and I had unsaddled our riding horses, unhitched the cart team, and removed their harnesses before we took them out to the pond for a drink. The women were preparing the camp for the night while we did this. The horses had been drinking at the pond for several minutes when we heard a scream from the camp and felt the use of a large amount of Magic. We left the horses and rushed back to camp. We were shocked when we got there.

There were seven - no, eight horses scattered along the roadway, or out in the field across from the woods. Lying on the ground leading from the road to the wooded area and our camp, we could see the bodies of seven men, and what appeared to be a juvenile from its small stature.

"What happened?" we demanded on reaching the women, who were all shaking in fright.

"We were setting up camp when those men came galloping down the road and then charged off the road toward our camp!" Shannon told us, but she was shaking badly, and I took her in my arms to hold her. Clare also slipped up against me, and I put one arm around her. She too was shaking.

"What did you do?" Pat asked looking at the downed men. He had his arms around his women, comforting them also.

"We used the most recent spell that we have been taught. It was practically right on the tips of our tongues," Sheena told him, as she slowly stopped sobbing. "Did we kill them?" she asked with a squeak in her voice.

"No, I don't think so," Pat reassured her. "What kind of spell was it?" he asked again.

"A spell to knock people out," Cathleen told him. "It didn't affect the horses other than to frighten them."

"How do you know that?" I asked Cathleen, surprised that she knew a spell from our Magic.

"It is similar to a spell that we have also," she told me.

"Well, let's have a look at them, and see who they are," I told them, and released my two women. We all walked over toward the bodies on the ground.

A closer inspection revealed that seven of them were, in fact, in the livery of the Duke's Guard. We had seen similar uniforms on the guards at his Manor while there.

"We don't have anywhere near enough rope to secure all of these men. I'm not sure what to do with them," I said, as we began checking each of the unconscious men and removing their weapons.

"We can take care of that," Clare told me. "Move them closer together and away from our camp. The field across the road would be a good place for them."

These were all large, full grown men, and while Pat and I were strong, we didn't feel like wearing ourselves out dragging all of those men over into the other field. Instead we used a spell and transported them individually some distance into the field. We soon had six of them moved. Pat took the final one while I went to check on the juvenile.

Imagine my shock when I got to what I thought was a child, as it definitely wasn't a child or juvenile. What I found instead of a child was a small, fat gnome like man. From his wrinkled appearance, he was quite old looking, to me at least, and was perhaps sixty from his looks. This wasn't the only surprise, however, as he also had a strong Talent, perhaps as strong as that of Grandfather O'Connell. He was also the one farthest from our camp. It was obvious that he intended to allow the larger men to do all of the work.

I quickly cast a freeze spell on top of the knock out spell that the women had used, and then for good measure added a confusion spell. I wasn't sure how effective these spells would be on someone with that much Talent.

When I looked up from my work, I saw Clare and Cathleen sitting in the field near the unconscious men. They were reciting a mantra of some kind and drawing signs on the ground with sticks. Vines started growing out of the ground even as I watched, and grew over and around the men lying there. The vines thickened rapidly as they grew, and in minutes the seven men were secured by them.

"What have we got here?" Pat asked as he approached, and then turned very serious.

"Another Wizard!!" he exclaimed in shock, having sensed his Talent.

"Yes, a rather old and wrinkled Wizard," I told him when he stood beside me.

"What are we going to do with him!?" Pat asked.

"That's a good question," I answered. "I've used a freeze spell and a confusion spell on him in addition to the knock out spell that the girls used, but I'm still not sure how long they will hold him."

"Defensive shell, a small one with wards on the inside surface to keep him in," Pat suggested.

"That may be the solution," I told him, as I couldn't think of a more effective one immediately.

"We could send him back to the middle cell in the Duke's basement with the other Wizard," I suggested after a short pause.

"That is an option," Pat agreed, but didn't sound enthusiastic about it. "A defensive shell for now though. We still have a lot to do, and it's not getting any lighter out."

"Yes, we need to collect all of those horses also," I reminded him. Clare and Cathleen had already finished their work on the men, and were now standing quietly in the field. We could just barely feel them doing something. The horses were slowly approaching them from eight different directions.

Sheena and Shannon were approaching us to look at the small person. "Oh!" they both said in shock, as they neared us.

"Another Wizard!!" they added after sensing his Talent. "Did we knock him out, too?"

"Yes! You must have put a lot of power into that spell," I told them.

"We don't know. We were scared and just used it," Sheena told us, as she slipped into Pat's arms for some comfort. Shannon came into my arms also.

"Pat and I have been discussing what to do with him," I told them.

"Send him away! Far away!!" both girls answered quickly.

"We have considered that," I told them. "We need to interrogate some of the other men before we do anything though."

Pat and I transferred the Wizard to the field across the road, but a good distance from the other men. We then walked over there, and sat on the ground to cast the spell for the defensive shell. Following that we wove our full wards on the inside surface, and a simple ward on the outside to prevent anyone from either entering or leaving the shell.

"We need to do something about these horses," Clare told us when we had finished.

"Yes," I agreed. "They need to be unsaddled, groomed, and watered. I hate to give them any of the limited grain that we have for our horses. We'll picket them in the field near the pond and they can nibble on the grass."

"There is no need to picket them. We will insure that they stay in the field," Cathleen told us, as each of us led one or more of the horses over to our camp area, unsaddled them, brushed them down, and then took them to the pond to drink. By the time we had finished, it was already dark. We left them in the field to graze.

Clare and Cathleen had used another mantra to do something so the horses would remain in the field near the pond. Pat and I had felt their Magic, but again couldn't tell what they had done. We had led our horses back to camp well before this. We had left them at the pond when the women had screamed earlier. They still needed a good grooming, but first we needed some light to see by.

I called firewood to us, as it was now too dark to gather it in the usual way, and used a fire spell to start part of it burning. The women went back to the task of setting up the camp that the charging Guards had interrupted. Pat and I finished with our horses and fed them.

"We are going to need to interrogate some of those men," I told everyone once the fire was going well, and we were working on the horses.

"After dinner," Shannon told us, as they retrieved pots, food, and other things from the cart to start preparing dinner.

"Those men will be unconscious for some time yet," Sheena told us.

"That was quite some spell that you used," Pat told her. "How come you haven't used more Magic before this?"

"The 'Book' ... the 'Book of Dreams' kept telling us to wait and not use most of the Magic that it was teaching us until we had learned a certain amount of Magic. But it never said how much that would be, or when we could use the Magic it had taught us. It did tell us that we would know when to use it," Shannon told us.

"Yes, this was definitely the time to use it," I told her. "We will need to be more vigilant from now on. I didn't expect them to have a third Wizard on hand."

"One of us will need to stay with the women and the cart at all times now. That means that one of you ladies will need to help one of us with the horses," Pat told everyone.

"We can do that," the women all agreed.

Dinner tonight consisted of some of the ham chopped up and mixed with part of the vegetables that we had purchase in Dijon, and also some pickled vegetables that were heated separately. Bread with some of the butter we had gotten today finished the meal off. We drank cold water from the pond. It was quite late and very dark when we finished.

"When we interrogate these men, we need to have them separated from the rest. After we finish interrogating them, they also need to be kept separate from the others," Pat told us before we began the interrogations.

"Yes, and that will require more spells," I said. "We will be leaving one hell of a large Magic signature here."

"I don't think it can be helped," Pat told me.

"No!" I answered in agreement..."It probably can't, and they already know that we were here."

"A simple defensive shell should do. None of the guards have any Talent," Pat told me.

"Sure! Another one," I answered. We created a defensive shell about fifteen feet in diameter. I also called in more firewood from the surrounding area before we began the interrogations.

Clare went with Pat and me to release the vines holding the first man so we could walk him over to the fire. We needed to cancel the knock out spell on him before we could do that. The women must have really put a lot of power into the spell to keep all of these men out this long.

The man was very groggy when the spell was canceled, and Pat and I needed to help him up from the ground and help him walk back to the fire. We sat him on a log there. We didn't have enough food to feed all of these men, and consequently offered him nothing but some water to drink.

"Who sent you after us?" I asked first, after casting a truth spell on him.

"The Duke," he answered in poor Trade Celtic, but we could understand him well enough. "He is outraged about all that you have done. He wants his apartment and his Wizard back. He will torture all of you for a long time before killing you when he gets his hands of you," he told us.

"We'll just have to see that he doesn't get a hold of us then," Pat told him with a grin.

"Where did the other two Wizards come from?" Pat asked him next.

"They arrived several days ago. Their carriage had an accident near the Manor. The Duke was expecting them, but didn't tell us where they came from," he told us.