The next morning went by in a haze. After all the stress was gone all the abuse of my body hit me like a train. I made myself comfortable on a blanked with backpack as a backrest. Painkillers would be very nice to have.

Milly and Loraline left for a while and came back with fresh water and a mountain goat. Loraline butchered it the afternoon and we had a very nice dinner.

Tilly and Alenae sat together discussing magic. I listened in once in a while but wasn’t able to focus enough to follow their discussion. They were talking about spells Alenae had been able to cast. She was trying to teach Tilly one of them. Something with fire.

Caroline kept an eye on the surroundings.

Loraline spent some time afterwards to roast the rest of the meat. Without freezer it would start to decay soon. They had found a small valley with trees, where they collected some dry wood as well.

Since we hadn’t eaten much the last week we dug in to make up for it. I was denied helping with the watches. Actually I was glad about it as moving was painful as hell. I wondered how I had made it to this place in the first place.

“How long will we rest here?” Tilly rubbed her belly.

“Hmm. It’s not that far until The High Suns. A week? Let’s celebrate and maybe move on the day after.” I looked at Tilly with a smile.

“It’s in seven days. How about our pursuers?” She leaned back and propped herself on her arms.

“We have the mirror viewpoint at the crossroad, which is the most probable direction they show up. We move out as soon as they show up.” I grimaced at her.

“Walking would be bad. Your thigh has gotten worse over the last days.” Loraline furrowed her brows.

“Maybe we could make a stretcher.” Milly looked at Loraline.

“We should get some more firewood anyway. This time we bring an ax.” She nodded back.

“You should give me the mirror. I can’t do anything else useful anyway at the moment.” I groaned as I made a wrong movement.

“Sure. We try to make a stretcher. It will come handy if we have to leave early, so we should take care of it as soon as possible.” She gave me a long thoughtful look.

I nodded.

“I’m trying to get some sleep.” I yawned.

“We take care of the night watches. Good night.” She gave me a slim smile.

The next morning the weather was fine again. Milly handed me the magic mirror, which I set against a few pieces of wood next to me.

All but Tilly left for gathering after breakfast.

She sat next to me most of the time, getting up for observing the surrounding terrain frequently.

“My cut will be healed soon. How are your injuries doing?” She looked at me with concern.

“The burns are doing well, but that beam was hot. The burning equipment later wasn’t much of a problem though. The leg is bad and I don’t think it will be much better soon.” I shrugged carefully.

“The improved magic makes a difference.” She stared into space.

“It does, but it will take time to get more mana again. I can tell it’s growing, but with the pool always near empty there is not really a way to tell how much.” I focused inward.

The mana trickling in over they day disappeared nearly instantly.

“Aleane tries to teach me a real fire spell!” Tilly looked me with a wide smile.

“Might be useful at some point. It’s annoying. I’d like to spend time with my mana as well, but it’s simply not there.” I nodded with a sad smile.

“It’s a mess at the moment, but it will get better!” She she gave me an encouraging smile.

Then she got up to make one of her rounds. I was monitoring the mirror frequently, but there had been nothing of interest.

“Nothing.” She sat down again.

“We’re going to have to start training Alenae soon.” I pressed my lips together.

“Poor girl.” She chuckled.

“It’s for her best. At least she hadn’t been complaining on our way here.” I shrugged.

“It’s quite a change for her I suppose.” She nodded.

It was after noon as the rest returned with fire wood and a few thin trunks for the stretcher.

Milly spent the afternoon to rope them together into a crude stretcher.

“Alenae.” I looked at our newest companion.

“Yes, Lilly!” She turned to me with a nod.

“Tomorrow you will start learning to fight. I’m sorry that I can’t help with that myself though.” I glared at my thigh.

“I take care of that.” Milly gave me an evil grin.

“Just fighting. Okay?” I looked her into the eyes.

“Just fighting.” She nodded and winked at me.

“We should take care of her freezing up in dangerous situations first.” Loraline crossed her arms below her chest.

“We can combine that perfectly. As we might have to leave at moments notice we won’t do much endurance training.” I looked at Alenae again.

“I shall give all I have.” She nodded.

As she waited I gave her a slight wave with my hand. She turned back to help with the preparations for dinner.

The next few days were rather uneventful for me, but quite painful. Something was off the wound at my thigh as it wasn’t healing properly. Milly spent most of the day training with Aleane. The only thing I was able to do was dropping smart comments. I had an eye on the mirror, which I kept all day. At night one of the people on the watch took care of it. The other tried to forage or preserved meat from the goats. We got a few nice pelts as well. Finally the High Suns approached.

“I think there is a change with the magic ties to the slave ring.” Tilly sat down beside me in the afternoon.

“Did you try some triangulation?” I looked at Tilly.

“It’s not enough to get an idea of distance, but I think there is a difference when I move away from you a few hundred meters. I don’t think it’s near, but as I’ve no experience with that, it’s just an educated guess.” She shrugged.

“It’s good to know, as we have to take it into account when deciding what to do. Should that thing be close enough it would be a waste of time to try to lead them on false tracks.” I furrowed my brows.

“It’s going to get more difficult.” Tilly hung her head.

“Way more difficult. Let’s hope they still need some time. We might be forced to fight, which seemed to be a very bad idea with that ring around. For now we stick to our plan.” I glared south.

“Do you think we’ve got a chance?” Tilly tilted her head.

“Only as long as we keep fighting.” I grinned at Tilly.

“I hope your leg will get better soon.” She looked at my wounded leg.

“It’s a mess, but whining won’t help. I hope it gets better when the burns are healed.” I bit my lower lip.

“I hope so too. And maybe the damage to the slave mark helps as well, even if it changes only at a snails pace.” Tilly sighed.

“The way ahead will be dangerous, with me not able to walk.” I looked east.

“We’re going to be careful.” Milly patted my head as she passed us.

“We will be slower for a while.” I sighed.

“As long as the ring is at a distance, it might be even an advantage, as they might not notice us going east instead of north for a while.” Tilly looked at me with a smile.

“We can’t do anything about it, so we have to wait and be vigilant.” I smiled back at her.

“It might take some time until someone able to track you down with good accuracy.” Alenae looked south.

“Why do you think that?” I looked at her.

“The most powerful mages are nobles which had the resources to study magic, and usually they learn it to have a better position in the intrigues at the imperial palace. Leaving means to give your enemies time to abuse your absence, which means that they will try to find reasons for staying for themselves and reasons for their rivals to get the job. It will take time to sort out, even for the emperor, since he depends on the great houses loyalty.” Alenae came over with some plates with roasted goat.

I nodded at Alenae.

“Let’s have dinner. Tomorrow we shall feast and we’re going to leave the day after.” Milly sat down beside me setting a bowl with dried apple slices on the blanket.

We chatted while dining and when the stars came out I got ready for the night. It would be a night with many painful interruptions, but a bit sleep was better than none at all. A full nights sleep seemed like a memory from another time.

The next day we all rested chatted about better times. It was nice to push back all the misery for a while. We put up a watch though. The weather had been sunny and warm the last days, and I hope would stay that way for a while. Wet rocks were slippery and it would be difficult enough for the others to carry me.