Now They Are Six

Rowena seemed to adjust to her strange situation remarkably well, and Fred felt pride in her to add to his shock and sorrow. After introductions had been carried out (she had not previously met either Astra or Toby), she told the others her story. She had been out for a ride on her own when she had suddenly felt very sleepy. She had been forced to dismount or she would have fallen from the saddle. She had planned to rest under the shade of a nearby tree, but even before she could reach it she had lost consciousness. The next thing she knew was waking up in the cell.

"I always envied you going off and having adventures, while I was forced to remain behind," she told her brother. "There's an old proverb that says 'be careful what you wish for". It seems that I should have paid more attention to it, as this is not at all the sort of adventure that I had envisaged for myself. So are we expecting any further arrivals?"

"I don't think so," Sir Josh said. "There were six sets of shackles cemented into the wall, and all of those are now in use."

"So what do they want us for?" Rowena asked.

"We have no idea," Exotica said. She probably had the most analytical mind of any of them, and added: "We are all either from the nobility or are knights. None of the common people have been taken, which may be a clue. I am uneasy that we are three men and thre women. I don't like to think what that could imply. And we are five Allarians and one Aqualarian, though it's hard to see any significance to that. One thing that is clear is that the mages who have abducted us must be very powerful. Assuming that this cell might be part of the Southern Caves, then it is one thing to grab four people from those caves but quite another to seize Rowena and myself, who were far distant. That would require the ability to cast both a sleep spell and a teleportation spell over a range of a hundred miles or more, which I would hardly have thought possible."

"Unless they had perhaps pre-positioned one of their number in Caemlyn and another close to the keep of the D'Honaires?" Astra suggested.

"Or perhaps they had previously left some magical artifact in the vicinity, through which they could focus their power?" Sir Toby suggested.

1. The three mages returned. Perhaps now the six captives would be told why they were here?
2. Servants appeared with food and, since they could not feed themselves, spoon-fed them. "Don't try to resist," Sir Toby warned. "I was the first one here, and was afraid the food might be drugged. They just shoved a tube down my throat and force fed me."
3. Rowena suddenly gasped. "I can feel my stomach filling with food!" "Yes, they teleport food directly into our stomachs," Exotica said. "But I'm not sure that they have the quantities right. If we're here any length of time, we could all become obese."

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