“We did it,” Shailyn said.

Harth passed out again, finishing another round of screaming, but I think he would wake up soon. And yes, we managed fine, without damaging anything more that is not already damaged.

“Only the tainted part,” I told her, standing up. “The other part still remains, but it's good enough for now. I think he has enough willpower to not be compelled now.”

Shailyn nodded. “That’s some downright impressive power you have there,” she said. “Maybe we should study it later.”

“Shailyn, you sounded just like Rosalyn.”

We waited after that and just as I thought, Harth woke up after a few minutes, but this time he didn’t start screaming, though still tied up with the pine tree. His cloudy eyes wavered and lucidity came back, eventually.

“Young man,” Shailyn called, “some serious trouble you got yourself into for no reason at all.”

Harth looked at her with confusion and a bit uncertainly, then he found me, standing next to her. The confused eyes widened in horror, and he screamed. Again!

“I didn’t do it,” Harth screamed in a plea, looking towards me. “It's all Althan’s plan, it's all his plan. Please believe me. . . .”

“What is he talking about?” Noyar asked, confused by the outburst.

“Something not particularly important at the moment.” I sighed. Looks like Harth here doesn’t hold that much loyalty to Althan. Well, I can’t blame him. Althan was a hard master to follow. I would be surprised if any one of them choose to follow him if they weren’t under any circumstances.

“Whatever it is, make him shut up,” she grunted. Noyar probably hasn’t slept all night, stayed awake on guard duty while the two of us slept like babes. Then she even went for investigation—all of this with a wound that barely closed up.

I nodded and stooped down to his eye level. “Harth, was it?” I asked, “Be a bigger man and shut up. Whatever beef I have with your master will be dealt with later, but first, we must deal with the more imminent matter. You have already encountered what we are dealing with, right?”

“I . . .”

“Of course, it isn’t all your fault, so shut up, take a few breaths, calm down and tell us from the beginning. What happened? How it happened? And most importantly, where’s your master and the others?”

Harth nodded vigorously, more out of fear than understanding the situation. It was probably wrong to intimidate a patient whose mind went through some mess, but we didn’t have a choice.

“You’re quite good at intimidation, aren’t you?” Shailyn whispered.

“It's the eyes,” I said, grunting. These red pupils of mine were the root of making my situation difficult mostly when I go to make things better. Just staring at it, one could tell magic was real. Well, it was useful here, still, it would be a lot better if it came with an on-off switch.

Harth told us everything from the beginning, well, not from the beginning, but middle—I would say. After I ‘fled’--his word, from Althan and the gang, they gave up on capturing me again, and wanted to get away from the blizzard—which turned out to be impossible, so they took the next best decision—which was camping finding some relatively safe spot, ignoring every sign of dark magic they came across.

They really are some retarded fool to not even give some heed to those signs. I mean Althan was their leader, I expected nothing less, still, he couldn’t be this retarded.

What’s done is done. The important matter was what happened after that. Of course, the warlock and his associates attacked them. Only fools would leave something so easy that they can use.

“Things got a lot more complicated now,” Shailyn muttered, clenching her fist. Shaking her head, she questioned, “How many of you are there?”

“Nine counting me,” Harth answered. “No, ten. We found another person before the attack. She was with us when the dark practitioners attacked us.”

“She?” I asked and after a little confirmation, I understood she was none other than Yeriel, and now, she very well be at the mercy of another warlock.

“Did any of them manage to get away?”

“I . . .” he swallowed a breath. “I don’t think so.”

“Which lead me to assume how did you get away?” Shailyn touched her chin, musing.

Harth turned silent.

“Perhaps a message,” Noyar said. “Perhaps the warlock left him to show what he could do with the others.”

I raised an eyebrow, and so did my aunt. This actually seemed feasible.

“So they sent one squire with heavy compulsion as a message that they would not mind doing anything like that to the others?” Shailyn said, scratching her cap.

An utter silence descended there. Everyone was thinking of any solution to this problem where Harth was staring at our faces as if wanting to know if his answer satisfied us.

“What do we do now?” I asked, looking at the two women.

Shailyn exchanged glances with her partner as Noyar nodded. “We will need help,” she said, “I’m not sure if they can send more in time, but first, we need to decide what to do with Lord Kirien’s wife and him.” She pointed at Harth. “We certainly cannot leave them anywhere in this weather, not to mention rogue practitioners running amok.”

“Nor can we give in to the Warlock’s threat,” I said, and returned my gaze to the squire. “Can he not bring Mrs Kirien out of here? There’s still time, and I don’t think the blizzard will go all out before the night of brilliance. He can get away with Mrs Kirien.”

Shailyn considered for a second. “No, it's still too risky,” she said and deliberately looked at me. “How about you join them? You have already done enough, and not to mention your mission was only to look for the warlock’s trail, you’ve overdone yourself here.”

“But we still don’t know where they were hiding,” I said, clenching my jaws. “Aunt, I won’t go.”

“Oscar,” Shailyn came forward, furrowing her brows at me. “Think for a moment, lives are at risk here. You can save two lives here.”

“No,” I said outright. “I won’t go, not when my friend is in mortal danger.” And something more.

However, Shailyn was in no mood to listen to me. Blood and ashes, she still thinks, I’m in danger and can’t handle myself. Ultimately, I looked towards the knight, asking for her help, gesturing with my eyes.

However, Noyar actually ignored me at that moment. Hell, what went wrong? I remembered, she said some good words about my performance last night.

“Let me stay,” I said, gritting my teeth. “I can help. Noyar, say something to her.”

Noyar remained silent, as if the two women from Victoria had already gone through all this before and were only waiting for the right moment.

Shailyn came before me, shaking her head. “As the Arbiter placed by the Starlight Academy in this region, I’m ordering you, Oscar Emberheart,” she said in a stern tone. “You’ve completed your mission very finely, so now, I’m giving you the duty of keeping two lawful citizens safe from the Warlock’s grasp.”

“No, they will be safe without me,” I told her and looked towards Noyar. “Bloody woman, tell her I can help.”

Noyar remained silent the whole time, while Shailyn continued, “I’m ordering you, Squire,” she said sternly. “This is from a higher order officer, not from your aunt. You can’t disobey it without consequences.”

“Don’t do this,” I muttered, “Please don’t do this.”

Shailyn softened a little, touching my head, and rubbing my hair. “It's alright,” she said. “I promise you, I won’t let anything happen to your friend. You just have to trust me on this.”

“I can help,” I said firmly.

“You did help,” she said, “but you’re not alright right now. You need rest, and something less . . . frustrating.” she seemed to choose the word carefully, not to irk her nephew. “You trust me, right?”

I ultimately released a heavy breath and nodded.

“Good,” she said, “You’ll depart as soon as possible, and also, if you can alert the other warder camp at the foot of the mountain. I think you’ll be able to get help in time with the False-ward. We would be depending on you.”

I nodded. “Aunt, I’ll go, but I’ll come back the moment, I put them in someone else’s hand.”