Wulfsen chopped down the sapling and began clearing branches off it. "We're going to need a stretcher, and Miss Yehudit will need a new walking stick."

The other knight began to gather pieces of wood that would work for both things needed.


The first knight stepped out on the path. "Mrs. Buckley?" he called out.

Yehudit leaned on her rough new walking stick and worriedly watched her father.

After a few minutes, the knight returned to the small group. "Mrs. Buckley must already have gone back to the keep."

Wulfsen had his cloak off for the umpteenth time to make a stretcher for Aron Buckley.

"Hopefully we can manage between the three of us, and it is okay to move him." Wulfsen wished Green had come.

The two knights and quickly assembled a stretcher with the longer branches and Wulfsen's cloak.

Wulfsen was still walking funny, so he had the knights move Aron to the stretcher and carry him to the keep.

----to the healing room

The timing seemed perfect, no sooner had Wulfsen taken care of his responsibilities when a knight told him that the wagon from Portside had returned. Wulfsen smoothed his hair and hurried to the wagon, eager to see Sileas.

But Sileas was not there. "Did Sileas go inside already?" Wulfsen asked one of the knights unloading the wagon.

The man shook his head. "She and the other two girls boarded a ship in Portside."

"What?!" Wulfsen was disappointed and worried. "What ship? Where is it going?"

The knight shrugged. "I don't know."

Wulfsen had already been wishing he went with Sileas to Portside, now he really regretted staying in the keep.

Shawn stepped outside just in time to hear they had no idea where the ship had headed. "How did you just let them get on a strange boat and disappear?" he demanded as he stalked up to the men. "Three girls, allowed to just board a boat filled with sailors. What the hell kind of men do you have under your command, Wulfsen?" His hands balled into fists.

"I'm disappointed in them too!" Wulfsen said angrily.

"It's not out fault!" The knight bristled. "A man was ogling Sileas so I dealt with him, while we were fighting ruffians Lek and the girls ran away. When Lek came back to us he told us they had boarded a ship and sailed away."

Shawn glowered. "If all he was doing was ogling, it could have been ignored. The safety of the girls and Lek were more important. Now they're God only knows where." He grabbed the knight by the shirt collar and slammed him against the wagon. "So apparently it's your fault."

"I nipped a possible assault in the bud! How was I to know she'd foolishly board a ship like that?" The knight reached for his sword angrily, not about to let a captain of the guard to a village that no longer existed treat him that way. "Whatever trouble she has gotten herself into it was her own choice."

Shaun hauled off and slugged him. "That'a s possible assault. Not ogling. You never ever take your eye off the person you are guarding. Especially not all of you!" Shawn glared at him angrily. "If you REALLY thought there would be an assault, the others should have been surrounding the girls and Lek!" he spat.

The knight began to draw his sword and insult Sileas's intelligence and Shawn's parenting skills.

"Enough!" Wulfsen bellowed at the knight. "You're lucky I don't dismiss you! Unload the wagon." He ordered and turned to Shawn.

"Lek must know more, let's find him."

Shawn's jaw clenched, his hands still fisted. He wanted to beat the devil out of that knight. "Lia's already seen him but I haven't." He moved to follow Wulfsen.

"Do you know where he is?" Wulfsen asked.

"Probably near the kitchen, where is mother is," Shawn said.

Wulfsen nodded and headed for the kitchen.

Shawn followed Wulfsen, still seething about the incompetence of the knights.

Millie strolled down the hallway toward the kitchen. She was walking a little slower than normal and not paying much attention to her surroundings, her mind still back with Pinja.

Once the wagon pulled to a stop in front of the keep, Aalyssa touched Cyan's shoulder gently before getting down. Thankfully Xavier was out front and while she waited for Cyan to be lifted out, she filled him. Xavier angrily agreed and began calling men together to form a squad. He cared little if the raiders were rounded up alive, but at the very least he wanted them permanently neutralized.

"Get her into the healing room," she said to the two knights with Cyan and she followed them inside.

Aalyssa headed toward the kitchen asked for soup then hurried to her tiny room for what she needed. She returned to the kitchen for the soup and returned to the healing room.

The knight rode through the gates, still dragging Jack behind his horse. He jumped off and cut Jack's hands free and roughly lifted him.

"Tell the healer if she wants to save what's left of him she's free to come down to the dungeon, but not until she treats more worthy patients that are on their way." The knight told a bystander and headed to the dungeon, the mangled dying prisoner in tow.