Their path out of the guardhouse was not challenged, though the Trickster helped the elderly priest step over the bodies (some unconscious, some dead) that lay in their way. One part of the guardhouse, where two corridors met, was particularly body-and-debris strewn, with blackened gouges taken out of one of the stone walls.

"What's your name?" the Trickster asked the priest cheerfully.

"Mia" she said. "How did..." she gestured around at the chaos, then trailed off, not knowing whether she wanted an explanation.

"Oh, we're witches!" the Trickster said.

"We are not," Magnus grumbled. "Is there anyone waiting for us outside?"

"How should I know?"

Magnus sighed. "I didn't get enough sleep, and I am in a really bad mood right now. Don't play games."

"W-- oh. Um, I can't do that anymore."

"What do you mean, 'you can't do that anymore'?"

"I gave it to Cassie to look after," the Trickster said, "but I'm sure that she would tell us if we needed to know."

"Sure," Magnus said, and drew a longstaff out from under his cloak.

"I'm sure you won't need--" the Trickster began, then stopped as they walked out of the guardhouse into the sight of a large mob made of guardsmen and townsfolk.

"Surrender now or Sally gets it," the guardsman who the Trickster had knocked out shouted. He winced at his own voice, evidently still nursing a headache.

"You do realise," Magnus said, "that you murdered Cassie, right?"

"She would have been murdered anyway!"

"That doesn't make it better!"

"Don't hurt my sister!" Mia cried. The guard pushed Sally in front of him. Her hands were tied, but apart from her wild hair (it looked like they had used her own hair ribbon to tie up her hands) she seemed untouched.

"You should tell Brian to stay here and help the rebels," Cassie said.

"What?" Magnus asked, distracted.

"We can't afford to leave this place as it is," Cassie explained.

"Wait..." Magnus turned around to look at the Trickster, but she had an innocent, oblivious look on her face, and Magnus shook his head and concentrated back on the job at hand. While the guardsman certainly didn't look like he really wanted to hurt Sally, that could certainly change very quickly if they started hurting people. Magnus didn't know why there was a Templeman being held hostage, but assumed it was the Trickster's fault.

There was a whistling noise from behind him; before he could react, the Trickster had caught the arrow headed for his back and threw it back like an overlarge dart, her face like thunder.

"They could hurt Mia," the Trickster muttered. Magnus looked at her in concern. He knew that Gods got very protective of their priests--otherwise he wouldn't have been able to call the Trickster to him by taking Mia out of the anti-magic field--but it could get worrisome if it meant she couldn't keep a cool head.

"Any ideas?" Magnus asked, hoping to get her to think about her actions.

"Let's just kill them all," the Trickster said darkly, putting paid to that idea.

"All right, put that down as plan D," Magnus muttered.

"For Death," Mia added, with a slightly hysterical laugh.

"Don't you start!" Magnus looked around. "What we need is--"

"A distraction," Cassie said, and at that point two giant ravenous dogs came bounding up from behind the group. Cassie was already moving as the crowd turned around, and had reached Sally as it began to scatter, the growls of the dogs and the screams of their victims filling the air.

"Blink," she said to the guardsman, who subsequently didn't see her take Sally's hand pull her away. By the time he saw where Sally had gone in the chaos, she was back with Magnus and Mia.

"Now we run," Cassie said.

"Much better plan," Magnus agreed.

It was a little more difficult running away than the Trickster and Magnus envisaged, having two elderly women, one who had spent multiple decades locked up in a cell, along for the ride. A portion of the mob stayed on target and followed them, and it took half an hour before they could get ahead of the guardsmen enough to lose them in the winding streets of the poorer part of town.

"Here," Sally said faintly, pointing to one of the houses, and they hurried in, Mia falling to her knees as they closed the door.

"Im sure there is a nice chair here somewhere," the Trickster said, pulling her to her feet and leading her further into the house. She was stopped in the corridor by a large, angry-looking man.

"We're with Sally," the Trickster said blithely.

"Oh, no, I'm not dealing with that nonsense again," the man said. The Trickster sighed, and led Mia back to the others, the man following.

"Sorry to bother you, Nick," Sally said.

"Get out of my house!"

"I can't, there's a mob after me," Sally said calmly.

"Don't bring a mob to my house!"

"They won't find it if we don't go outside," Sally said reasonably. "This is your other third cousin, by the way, Mia."

"Nice to meet you," Nick said to Mia, not really sounding like he meant it. "And who are these people? More of your revolutionaries?"

"This is Cassie," Sally said, "and this is... I'm sorry, I don't know your name."

Magnus kept his mouth shut.

"In any case, we were just passing through and got arrested because he insists on wearing a cloak," the Trickster said.

"There is nothing wrong with wearing a cloak! Hundreds, no, thousands of people do it every day! The last five times I've travelled through here I've had no problems!"

"So you brought fugitives to my house," Nick said to Sally.

"Sorry," Sally said.

"I can't believe you would--" Nick broke off, as the noise of multiple sets of feet started coming from outside. The five of them stood silent, staring at the door, as the sounds of the mob moved past the door down the street, and finally out of hearing range. Sally gave a sigh.

"I guess it's likely that they'll see you coming out of my house, and I'll get in trouble," Nick grumbled. "Fine, stay here for the night. But I want you gone by morning."

"Thank you," Sally said. Nick grumbled something under his breath, then gestured to them to follow him further into the house.