Astra's Assailant and a Surprise for Fred

Fred could see the form of Astra waving in the distance, and she sounded like she was out of breath, and slightly frightened. He ran as fast as he could towards her, and as he got closer, he noticed there was the body of a man wearing dark clothes at her feet.

"Wizard," was her reply to his curious expression. "He suddenly appeared behind me. Wilkes was beginning to stir and the first thing the wizard did was cast some spell and kill him. He then grabbed me and tried to teleport away, but for some reason it didn't work. He swore, and seemed to try several different spells on me, none of which worked, so he had to resort to trying to drag me along with him. He was pretty strong, but as you can see, I managed to overpower him."

Fred seemed to get hung up on her comment about the teleport spell not working, and only half heard the rest. He knew neither of them had any natural resistance to magic, and so surmised it had to be the spirits doing, and told Astra as much.

"It's strange that they didn't inform us about that," she said. "Unless, of course, it is a normal side-effect of them transporting us."

"Possibly," Fred agreed. "It might only be temporary, though." He turned his attention to the body at their feet. "I wonder if it's anyone I'd recognise."

The body of the wizard was face down, as the last thing Astra had done was a chop to the back of the neck. Fred turned the body over and gave a gasp of recognition.

"Who is it, Fred?"

"Bert," he said, before realising she wouldn't have any idea who that was. "He is - or was - the King's mage," he explained.

This puzzled Astra even more. "The King's mage? Then why did he attack me and kill Wilkes?"

Fred was silent. He had never heard of a mage turning bad, especially one such as Bert, who had served the monarchy for nigh on seventy years.

1. Fred and Astra took a step back.. The wizard's form was changing shape!
2. They went back to the horses and gave Wilkes a simple burial.
3. Bert's eyes suddenly shot open and stared at Fred.

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