Charis pushed passed the guard, who observing her hurried approach hastened to open the doors to the Great Hall, Helice following. While it wasn’t time for the middle of the day meal, some food and drink graced the table before the Baron and the Magistrate. Both of whom were in deep, private conversation and didn’t register the intrusion.

“Pardon me Baron and Magistrate, I have some terrible news.”

The urgency in her voice didn’t alarm either of them as they slowly craned their necks to stare at the interruption to their meeting. The Baron glanced at the Magistrate and reluctantly nodded in Charis’ direction. One of the downfalls of her pale complexion, it displayed the slightest hint of blushing, in this case rosy pink. She hoped they thought the cause was her haste and not her impatience with the two men ignorant of the possible danger.

“The High Priest must possess some magic or power of some sort. Three of the Baron’s men attacked members of my company in an enraged or possessed state and would not stop until killed. Their bodies are in the Daughter’s Barracks now. We believe, while they were guarding the High Priest he influenced them someway or somehow. I would like to ask where the High Priest is now and who is or has looked after him since last evening,” Charis said.

The Magistrate stared at one of his Inquisitors who ate by himself. He sat off to one side of the Great Hall, which Charis thought odd. The Inquisitor glanced up, his face white and drained the ‘Am I in trouble’ face now on display, his meal no longer important. Everything happened in slow motion as he decided upon a choice.

The loafer flew from the one-person table he used as he charged at the Magistrate, long dagger in hand. Charis recognised the same gritted jaw and narrowed eyes possession in him as the guards displayed. Helice in one smooth action threw her daggers one after the other, both slowing the Inquisitor down as they hit his chest and abdomen respectively. Both effective as he didn’t wear armour, the daggers easily slicing through his black woollen robes.

As he was about to reach the Magistrate, blood spittle on his lips, long dagger limp in his right hand, the Magistrate punched him in his face, his head flung back as his body continued travelling forward. Losing his feet, he landed on his back slamming into the stone floor, winded. While lying stunned on the ground Helice retrieved her daggers allowing the blood stoppered by them released. Without more than a glance between them, Charis and Helice followed the Baron and the Magistrate to the Dungeon.

“Guard, to the Great Hall and oversee a bleeding traitor!” the Baron yelled.

Climbing down the final narrow stairs the four viewed the cell door in turn relieved in that same order to discover it closed, exhaling a breath in relief.

“Where is the Inquisitor good Magistrate?” the Baron asked.

The Magistrate tested the cell door, to find it unlocked and screeched it open. Staring into the empty cell, he wheeled to face the Baron.

“I suspect, running with the High Priest as the cell is empty,” he spat the words, frustrated.

“The attack at the Barracks was a distraction then and from here the quickest way out of the Keep would mean using the Servant’s entrance and then up onto the wall and down the other side. The Gate has been under guard since first light, the fight at the Barracks a few bells later,” offered Charis.

“The servants would not interfere with an Inquisitor exercising his duties him escorting the High Priest would have been accepted,” the Baron stated.

“Can you track him beyond the Keep wall Charis?” the Magistrate asked.

“I can try.”

---

Charis placed an arm out to prevent the Baron and the Magistrate stepping off the stone steps leading away from the Servant’s entrance. Charis examined the footfalls leading from it trying to isolate a couple of sets.

“Helice find and ask Dione and Otonia to saddle their horses, make ready to ride and ask them to prepare my horse as well. I will meet them at the Gate.”

“Yes Mistress. We will also fetch your armour and weapons,” Helice answered.

“Yes, I will meet you at the Gate.”

Helice sprinted back through the Kitchen, while the Baron and Magistrate waited.

“Well, have all those years in the forest with my brother been of benefit?”

Charis resisted the urge to slap him, the words hurt, although the way he said them pained her more, impatient, belittling and disrespectful. Charis kept her silence, to reply would not be prudent.

Charis followed the double sets of striding tracks to the Guard’s Barracks; they returned strolling past the Servant’s entrance and then started sprinting. Perhaps a servant exited the Kitchen and they didn’t want to risk one of them reporting two priests in a hurry to someone important. Their footfalls disappeared when they accessed the stone staircase to the Keep’s Outer Wall.

Two ways to escape and Charis choose the one furthest away from the Gate, suggested by the occasional dropping of fresh mud. Eventually confirmed when she found the rope deployed to allow them to climb down the wall. The High Priest and Inquisitor escaping to the forest side of the Keep.

Charis sprinted for the Gate, leaving the Baron and the Magistrate to contemplate and discuss what might have been or what it could mean.

When she arrived, she was ambush by two of her sisters, Dirce and Drosis ready and waiting to strap on her armour. Charis tried to protest, and shouted down, no point reaching them and then dying. Dirce and Drosis demonstrated an extreme proficiency and were quickly finished. Charis, Dione, and Otonia were then out of the Gate and riding to pick up the High Priest’s trail on the forest side of the Keep.

“You know they practiced on Astera, while they were waiting for you,” Dione called out.

“That makes sense, they were very fast, and I must admit I am safer with armour than without,” Charis replied.

Charis picked up their tracks easy enough since they weren’t trying to hide them, any attempt to cover their tracks complicated by the muddied ground. They probably assumed the Gate Guards and the other Inquisitor would make the necessary delay they needed. From their horses, they couldn’t spot anyone racing ahead of them and with no other choice; they continued to follow the tracks before them.

Eventually Charis slowed her horse to a walk and raised a hand, lowering it again.

“Running and jogging finished, they are walking now, so we are closing in on them.”

“Should I send the stallion on a head Mistress? It may flush them out if they are hiding and if not they may try to chase him to save their legs?” Dione offered.

“Yes, that should help. They could try to catch him. Can you read their tracks through the horse’s eyes?”

“These ones I can they aren’t trying to cover them probably due to the mud, easy,” Dione said, eager to join with her stallion again.

Dione sent her stallion on, doubling with Otonia, hugging her snugly while she linked to her stallion. Charis and Otonia followed the stallion at a respectable distance.

There were plenty of gnarled trees, low bush, and brush as they neared the forest and plenty of potential ambush sites. Ambush always easier if you knew the path your targets were about to travel. Dione thought they were waiting in ambush when the tracks stopped or where disguised. She decided to face her stallion towards the mountains and then start him grazing. Her stallion would bait them to draw the escapees out of ambush when they attempt to capture him.

When she relayed this to Charis, they thought it best for Charis to hunt on foot going away from the mountains. Dione to remain with Charis’ horse and she would continue to stay in contact with her stallion, pretending to graze while searching for them. Dione would urge her stallion to whinny if they approached him. Otonia needed to ride hard towards the mountains, and circle around as if she was riding from the mountains; possibly chasing the escaped horse, making lots of noise.

Charis crept, as silently as possible carefully picking her way around using the cover available. The trick was not to scout too far wide to arrive late and not scout too shallow, and lose any surprise. Otonia was trying to make up time so she could materialise from another direction; her and her horse being tired would assist with the illusion. Dione was to ensure the stallion wasn’t surprised, and he resisted, although careful to avoid injury.

---

“Are you sure we are being followed?” the Inquisitor checked.

“I am not sure; I thought I saw some riders. This country is good to run and hide in, not so good to check if you are being followed,” the High Priest answered.

“Well I am tired, so let’s lead our tracks in a direction and then cover them and sneak around and wait in cover. Sooner or later we will know if we are being followed.”

“What if it is too many? When we leave cover we will be dead.”

“We will die if it is too many. If it is a few, perhaps we can overcome them by ambush instead of being hunted down until we are tired, hungry, and thirsty,” the Inquisitor answered.

“Do you see what I see?” the High Priest asked.

“Yes I see it also, a horse, with saddle and a few weapons tied to it.”

“What does that mean?”

“I am not sure, although it is too good to be true, so we wait.” the Inquisitor suggested.

“A huge horse, it could carry both of us.”

“We will need to capture it first and we left our rope on the Keep Wall, so difficult at best unless you can whisper to it, to walk over here?” the inquisitor quipped.

“Well maybe I can, although I will need to edge closer. I’ve spotted some cover I could use. Warn me if anyone follows our trail as I can’t look in that direction.”

“You can try, still I think you are wasting your time, the horse waits, and nothing about it looks right to me.” When the Inquisitor glances in his direction, the High Priest is gone.

The Inquisitor glimpsed the High Priest, satisfied, catching enough sight of him to confirm he reached an ideal position, settling into cover near the horse.

The High Priest began to concentrate and then cursed and shouted. The Inquisitor cringed upon hearing him and ducked further under cover.

“Dam you horse, when I get hold of you!” he yelled.

The inquisitor started to stand trying to spy the High Priest. Did he leave the cover? The horse was still there, was it spooked by the shouting, and ran over the High Priest or ran to the High Priest? The Inquisitor continued, slowly standing up, temptation; he would find the High Priest. There he was! Then pain, difficulty breathing, instinctively his hand grasped his neck, fortunately he blacked out before he died drowning on his own blood, an arrow shaft through his throat.

---

Charis, Otonia, and Dione met where the High Priest died.

“The Inquisitor is dead back at the ambush site. Looks like your stallion claims the High Priest?” Charis asked.

“Well yes and no, the High Priest was trying to influence the stallion and was distracted when Otonia started yelling. So I started looking around and found him under cover, I charged and reared, coming down upon his head. I nearly lost control of him as he was about to walk to the High Priest, I was shocked myself until I heard Otonia.”

“So our well planned plan got lucky?” Otonia asked, finishing with a broad smile.

“Let us find the item this High Priest still has, shall we?” Charis suggested.

Otonia and Dione rolled his body over. It was weird knowing there was something to find, frustrating when it couldn’t be. They stripped him of his robe, and his loincloth. They didn’t search there at first, although they couldn’t ignore it if they found nothing elsewhere.

“Found it, well found two of them, one in each heel, smooth flat gems, like river stones,” Dione said.

“Quickly, clothes back on, Dione I will need your horse to crush his feet and ankles, in case someone investigates his body.”

“Can’t we burn both of them here Mistress? It is almost, middle of the day, the Inquisitor judged, and the High Priest sent to Jury, done,” Otonia suggested.

“No we need to return the bodies to the Magistrate, proof they didn’t escape justice and proving beyond any doubt we do what we say we are going to do. Load them up, one on the back of my horse, the other on the back of Otonia’s so Dione can ride free to scout ahead. I felt a small shiver crawl up my spine, and I thought us far enough away from the forest, let’s move as fast as we can.”

“Yes Mistress.”