Chapter 6

We materialized in the Duke's apartment on the second floor of the Manor house. The lamps there ran on Magic and they were lit. There was a fire in the large fireplace, making it much cheerier than the cell that we had just left. Of course the four girls couldn't see any of this, but they could feel the increased warmth.

A large sumptuous dinner had been set out on the large table in the dining area here. It appeared that the Duke and Duchess had been interrupted as they prepared to have their dinner.

"Where are we?" Shannon asked very quietly, as the four girls turned and put their hands out to determine what was around them.

"Easy!" I told them, as I decided where to put them while I worked on the healing circle. I guided them over to a long sofa on one side of the room.

"Sit here," I told them, and guided their hands to the sofa and helped each pair get seated and comfortable.

"I need to prepare the symbols for our Magic on the floor," I told them as they relaxed on the sofa. I called Pat's and my things to me from the tiny room that we had been given on arriving here, and got the blue chalk out of my case to construct a circle large enough for one girl at a time to lie in, and then inscribed the circle in an Octagon. Following that I used other colors of chalk to make the glyphs and signs for healing inside the circle while leaving both symbols open. Pat arrived while I was working.

"You finished?" I asked.

"Yes. That boar is real unhappy, and will make a mess of that cell," Pat told me.

"This will be ready in a bit," I told him, as I continued to work.

"Who will go first?" Pat asked.

"Shannon. She seems to be the spokesman for the group," I told him, as I finished the symbols on the floor and stood.

"Shannon," I called quietly so as not to startle them when we reached the sofa where they were all sitting. "We are ready to heal you now. I'll guide you to the circle where you will lie down on the floor. I will need Sheena and one other to help us perform the Healing Magic," I informed her.

"Clare should be the other, Master, for we are very close," Shannon told me.

"All right. We'll return for Sheena and Clare once you are positioned," I told her and the others, as I took her arm and guided her over to the open area of floor where I had drawn the symbols.

"I will place you where your feet are to be in the circle. Will you be able to lie down by yourself? You must lie on your back," I told her.

"I ... I will try, Master," Shannon answered nervously. I placed her where she needed to be, and turned her so she would wind up with her head pointing to the north.

"We are here. Do you need help getting down on the floor?" I asked.

"I ... I don't know. Can you guide me, Master?" she asked.

"Yes. I'll guide you and get you lined up correctly," I assured her. I helped her sit and adjusted her position until she was aligned correctly.

"You must not move until the spell is finished and I have broken the circle," I warned her, as I stepped out of the two figures and closed both with the chalk.

"You bring Sheena, and I'll guide Clare over to her place," I told Pat who had been waiting.

After guiding both girls over and getting them seated correctly, Pat and I took our places with me at Shannon's head at the north point and Pat at her feet. Sheena was on my right and Clare was on my left. We all joined hands before starting. I could feel the Magic begin to gather as the circle of hands was completed. We all sat there in silence for a time and let the Magic grow stronger.

Pat and I started the long spell to restore Shannon to health and make her whole again when we judged that sufficient Magic power had accumulated. The Eternal Flame appeared above Shannon as the spell continued, and burned all of the various colored fumes and vapors that came from her body.

When the spell was completed, we all sat there for a time to regain our energy for the spell had consumed much of it.

"Shannon sit up and open your eyes," I directed when we had recovered. She sat up, but didn't even try to open her eyes until she had been sitting there for a time. Only then did I see her restored eyelids flicker, and then open in wonderment.

"I ... I can see!!" she squealed in excitement and wonder, as she looked around.

"Sheena, I can see again! It's a miracle!" she proclaimed a little less loudly, as she turned to face her twin, and gasped in shock.

"Oh gods!!" she whimpered in horror. "DO we all look like that!?"

"Yes, you all look like that, but we will restore the sight of all four of you," I assured her. "Do not worry."

"Thank you! Thank you, Masters!!" she whimpered in tears. I broke the east side of both symbols then and helped Shannon up and guided her out of the Magic circle.

"Sheena will be next," Pat said, and I helped Clare up and guided her over to the sofa, and then guided Cathleen over the circle. Shannon had guided Sheena to her place in the circle and helped Pat position her on the floor while I was helping Cathleen. I restored the circle and octagon when they were finished.

Now Pat sat at the north point at Sheena's head, Shannon sat on Pat's right, and Cathleen was on his left while I sat at her feet. We all joined hands again and let the Magic accumulate longer this time before starting the spell for the second time. The Eternal Flame appeared again also.

"You may sit up, Sheena, and open your eyes," Pat told her shortly after we had finished the spell. Sheena sat up slowly, but started to cry.

"I'm afraid to try to open my eyes. Are you sure that I have eyes?" she mumbled through her tears.

"Dearest She," Shannon said to her sister. "Do not be afraid. I can see that you have been healed. Open your eyes, and see for yourself."

"Nooo! What if I can't see? I would rather not know, then to try and find out that it had failed," she wailed in anguish through her crying.

"Sheena, open your eyes!" Pat commanded in a stern voice. Sheena's eyelids flickered for a second, and then she opened her eyes.

"I can see!!" she exclaimed, and began to cry even harder. "Thank you, Masters! Thank you!!" she mumbled through her tears, as she turned toward Pat. She would have moved but Pat warned her in time.

"Do not move, Sheena. We will get you out of the circle after it is properly broken," Pat warned her. I again interrupted both symbols on the east side, and Pat and Shannon moved to help Sheena out of the circle. I noticed that several of the symbols inside it had been smudged and that I would need to restore them before we used the circle again.

"We need to stop for a short time, and all of us need to eat something. This spell takes a lot of energy, and we all need to rebuild ours," I told everyone.

"You won't forget Clare and Cathleen, will you?" Shannon asked, as those two sisters began to weep in despair.

"No, we will just take a short break and eat. Then we will heal the other girls," I assured her. "Aren't any of you hungry?" I asked.

"Yes, we have had very little to eat," Sheena admitted. She guided Cathleen to the table full of food, while Shannon went to get Clare from the sofa and brought her to the table. There were plenty of chairs, and the girls sat on the sides of the table in pairs, allowing Pat and me to sit at the ends.

Shannon and Sheena prepared plates of food for us and themselves after Pat and I had heated up those items that were supposed to be eaten hot. They then helped the two blond sisters with their meal while they themselves ate. Pat and I dug into our food, as the spells had taken a lot out of us. Healing spells, and especially the one that we had been using, require a lot of power.

While eating, Pat and I questioned the two blond sisters to learn more about them.

"Clare and Cathleen, can you tell us more about yourselves?" I asked to start things.

"Yes, Master," Clare said quietly. "Our family is part of Clan O'Toole. We lived in the village of Kilcullen in County Wicklow. While we count ourselves Irish, our distant relatives were part of the Nordic settlers in Dublin which accounts for our blond hair."

"We had just celebrated our fourteenth birthday the week before the raiders came to our village in the night. Everyone was asleep, even the men on guard. We later heard the raiders say that their Wizard had done a good job putting everyone to sleep.

"We and several other young girls were roughly awakened by men who molested us while they bound us, and carried us off to their ship," Cathleen told us in tears.

"We were on their ship for several weeks. More girls were brought on board from other villages during that time. They finally landed us somewhere, and we two were brought here. We don't know where the other girls were taken. When we arrived here, they ... they blinded us ... and ... and... !!" Clare broke down in sobs at that point, and reached for Shannon to cry against her friend shoulder.

"They were very hard on them," Shannon said very quietly after consoling her friend for a while. "The Masters and others took great delight in taking them in their butts without any oil or stretching. They would just force their way in. We heard them scream and felt their pain often," Shannon told us, as she continued to comfort Clare while Sheena comforted Cathleen.

"You don't have to worry. We will take you away from here with us, and take care of you," Pat told both pairs of sisters.

After completing our meal, and washing it down with just a little of the Duke's wine, Pat and I turned our attention to rebuilding the fire in the fireplace. It had burned down while we were healing the first two girls, and the room had become quite chilly. Even the girls had noticed it and donned the cloaks again while we ate.

They all waited while I redrew the smudged symbols in the circle and touched up both it and the octagon. With two of the girls having their sight back it was much easier to get the remaining girls positioned and everyone linked together. The spell was still just as long, but the preparations were completed quicker. Things went well, and soon all four girls had their sight restored, and any other problem taken care of by the healing spell. It also looked like they had filled out a little from the work done by the spell, as they didn't appear to be quite as thin and malnourished now.

"May we wash ourselves, Masters?" Shannon asked after we were finished, and Pat and I had carefully removed all evidence of the circle, octagon and other symbols magically. "Is there any place that we may clean ourselves?"

"There should be," Pat told her, and went to check the other rooms that were a part of the Duke's apartment. He soon located a bath area. It was located between the master bedroom and the mistress bedroom suites. There were two large brass tubs there. Both were empty, however, and the room was cold. The cold was reasonably easy to take care of by changing the air there for summer air - five or six times. Water would require a different spell.

"How large would you say those tubs are?" I asked Pat.

"I don't know, but let's try using ten gallons of water, and see how full one gets," Pat answered.

"Make that, ten gallons of hot water," I told him.

"Yes, hot water," he agreed, and we used the spell to transport water here. With ten gallons, the first tub was only partly full.

"What do you think?" I asked Shannon who was standing near me in amazed silence.

"Allow Clare and me to get in, and we'll see, Master," she answered. They both got in the first tub, and the water level rose appreciably.

"This is fine, Master!" Shannon assured us enthusiastically, as her sister brought over some soap, and the two girls began to wash themselves, and each other. Pat and I filled the second tub for the other two girls who happily climbed in.

"Do we need to bathe?" I asked Pat after sniffing myself, and not caring for the results.

"I don't know about bathing, but I would kill for a shower right about now," Pat told me.

"Yes, well, they haven't invented the shower stall here yet. Of course, they don't have running water in most places either," I said expressing my own distaste for their bathing facilities.