Chonkorchuk awakens as
a familiar set of tiny claws sinks into his shoulder. Two armored men are in
the processes of binding Druvvaldis with ropes. A man in dark robes, with a
wide-brimmed hat appears to be directing them, though incongruously, no sound
of any kind is coming from them. Chonkorchuk wakes the snoring Vasya – it’s not
clear who was supposed to be on watch, but one of the armored men easily
strikes him down with his sword – a flash of light erupts from it as he does.
Chonkorchuk is left alone against three, and decides to make an invisible
getaway. He leaves tracks through the snowy forest floor, but the men do not
appear to follow him. As he now seems safe, Chonkorchuk reflects on what has
happened. The armored men bore the same devices on their shields that he had
seen in his earlier vision. The hermit settles down to rest up after an eventful
night, and leaves the faithful fefila to keep watch.
* * *
 |
| Father Sigismund |
At the knights’ camp,
the raiding party shows up with two more prisoners – Druvvaldis and Vasya. They
put them in the prisoner’s tent, where Katarina and Plamen are already being
held. Plamen was captured several days ago and interrogated by the man in the
wide-brimmed hat, who had his knightly companions deliver blows with mailed
fists and the pommel of their swords, to show that they mean business.
Primarily, they want to know what the party’s business in the Otherworld is,
how many allies they have, and whether they know the way to Baba Yaga’s abode.
They are also interested in Plamen’s specific powers – whether he can perform
magic, fly, transform into other beings, and so on. Plamen lets on only that he
is a healer and a tender of animals, and that as a half-polevik, he has some
facility to affect fires. Otherwise, he tells the knights nothing they don’t
appear to already know. When not being interrogated, he is watched closely by
the knights’ two servitors – Hans and Franz – who are generally quite vigilant,
and point their crossbows at the prisoners at all times. That night, they do
nod off, and Plamen tries to free himself from his bonds, and roll out of the
tent. But the bonds are too strong, and the tent is well moored to the ground,
so Plamen misses his opportunity. He does learn, during the period of his
captivity, that aside from Hans and Franz, there are three heavily armored
knights, and an unarmed advisor called Father Sigismund, who leads most of the
interrogations. Sigismund, along the knights, speak the Noriki language, though
Hans and Franz do not appear to. Sigismund and Andreas, the knight’s leader,
appear to treat each other as equals, while all the others seem to be in a
subordinate position. There are also three horses about – they were used to
carry the bound prisoners through the woods – but they did not accompany the
group while they were on the lake, and do not appear to be about presently.
* * *
Later that morning,
Chonkorchuk is awakened by the fefila again, warning him of another intruder.
The intruder turns out to be none other than Raskel-Rodion. He had spent the
winter in the woods north of Medunitsa – strange, because Chonkorchuk and his
companions have only spent a few days in the Otherworld. After learning of
Lionia’s escape, the takeover of his house by Yelizarov’s people, and the
destruction of Chonkorchuk’s hermitage, Raskel hid his share of the treasure
and wintered in fox form, but as spring arrived, he began to search for his old
companions, who had disappeared without a trace. That is when he ran into Baba
Yaga, who chided him for stealing her treasure (though she made no attempt to
recover it), and for abandoning his companions. She conducted him to the
portal, and ever since he emerged from the shrine with the standing stones, he
had been following, first, his own companions, and then, the Knights after they
had captured them, in fox form. After Raskel finishes reciting his tale, both
send their creature companions to search out the knights’ camp, while the two
of them try to hunt down some food.
Toward evening, the fefila,
whose search is more successful, returns with intelligence. It reports on the
number of captors and tents (three), and the horse tracks near the camp. It
also discovers some sort of magically charged circle almost imperceptibly laid
out in white pebbles and crumbs around the snowy encampment. Rodion, who has
studied such things before, surmises that it releases radiant energy if someone
attempts to cross the circle. The fefila also reports that the man in the
wide-brimmed hat does cross it on occasion to fulfill his natural needs. Rodion
and Raskel debate whether they should capture him, or use one of their captured
hares to trigger the protective circle, and then invade the camp, and free
their companions. They decide in favor of the second option, because they can’t
see clear to what use capturing the wide-brimmed hat man (who Chonkorchuk says
is a warlock) will bring them.
 |
| Andreas von Drachenberg - leader of the Knights |
That evening, the
knights awaken late (after their raid last knight), and begin the process of
attending to the day’s business, and to interrogating the captives again.
Plamen decides to put on a demonstration of his powers, and is taken outside
the camp to create (and then magically extinguish) a flaming sphere. Sigismund
appears to be impressed by the demonstration, and Plamen is not beaten that
night. Signs of the fire are later detectable to Rodion and Chonkorchuk, as
they move in on the camp, using Rodion’s mystical lights as illumination. They position
themselves about 100 feet away. The wide-brimmed hat man briefly emerges, but
does not come close to the hidden ambushers, and returns to the camp. Rodion
then summons an unseen servant, and makes it trigger the circle of protection. The
three knights soon emerge, and converge on the spot where Rodion and
Chonkorchuk are hiding.
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