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Chapter 21: The King's Orders

Even though she had closed her eyes before the flash of light struck her, Seeta could still see a glow through her eyelids. Nonetheless she opened them again when the glow faded a moment later. Right away she noticed her sight was somehoe different than it had been before; her periferal vision was much superior to what it had been, and her vision directly forward seemed somehow different as well.

She didn't have time to ponder what that meant, for she also saw Savona open her mouth as if to scream once more. Without hesitation Seeta opened her own mouth, but the sound that issued forth was not a high pitched humman female scream, but a loud trumpeting that had the sorceress reeling backward as if struck by some invisible force. Seeta didn't pause to wonder why her voice had changed; an opportunity lay at hand to capture Savona, so she charged forward and knocked her down with a flying leap. Savona tried to throw her off, but Celina and Dison quickly piled on top of her as well, and then Rhon clapped a hand over her mouth, thus rendering her mute. Now she was unable to cast spells, either verbally or by gesture.

Savona was finally subdued, but the time had yet to come when she could be removed from the bottom of the human pile. Fardo knelt at her head, a stern look on his face telling her 'don't try anything.' Her eyes glared back but she complied with his order for her to raise her head. At that point Rhon took his hand off her mouth and the knight slipped a mute's bridle over her mouth. At his word the others then got off Savona and he ordered her to stand up, the others now taking hold of one of her arms or legs. Fardo clicked the halves of the bridle together behind Savona's head, now it was not coming off until they returned to Tulla, as the key had intentionally been left behind in King Delwod's castle. The bridle was not actively uncomfortable, a wearer could breathe without impairment and eat and drink as well, albeit more slowly, but the tongue protruded into the mouth in such a way as to render speech in any language impossible.

Making Savona mute was the most important but not the only precautionary step taken against further attempts at sorcery on her part. Shackles were placed on her ankles and joined by a short chain, thus making it impossible to take steps greater than a few inches, let alone run. Her hands were bound together in a similar manner, then both sets of shackles were linked by another chain which made it impossible to raise her hands above her waist. Another look from Fardo told her if she wished to receive sustenance in the future she would have to comply with whatever orders she might be given. A look of resignation on her face combined with a shrug of her shoulders indicated she indeed would.

So intent had everyone been with capturing and securing Savona, that it was only after she had been chained to a large tree for the night that her captors really took stock of themselves. All were as they had been before the ambush, with one exception. Lady Celina looked toward Seeta and immediately gasped "My lord, Seeta! What happened to you?!"

The king's neice opened her mouth to answer, but once more what came forth was not a human woman's voice, but an elephant-like trumpeting. Only then did she look herself over closely. To the shock of herself and everyone else she now discovered why her voice, and her vision, had been changed. Her eyes had migrated much closer to the sides of her head, and her facial visage was now dominated by an elephant's trunk which reached almost to her knees.

To the surprise of some of her onlookers, Seeta did not scream/trumpet in horror when she saw how she had been changed by Savona's latest curse. Instead, the mental discipline she had already learned as an aspiring magician now asserted itself as she examined her new appendage. Curling her trunk up so she could look it over more closely, she twisted it in various ways and soon appreciated it was fully as flexible as those on her elephantine counterparts. Running her fingers along its length demonstrated to her that it was as sensitive to touch as the rest of her body normally was. Finally, she reached up with her trunk, wrapped the tip around a moderately sized dead branch overhead, pulled on it until it broke off, and added it to the fire which was just being started in order to cook supper.

Try as she would however, Seeta could not speak in a human voice, her every attempt produced only more elephant-like trumpeting. Finally, out of frustration and because no one had thought to bring quill-pen and paper from Hanatoby, she took another stick in her hand and wrote in dirt on the ground in the fading light for her mentor to read [What exactly did she do to me? Why can't I talk?]

Setay looked at Seeta's scrawled message for a few moments, then stood up and turned to face his student, a thoughtful look on his face.

"I cannot say for certain what her intentions were, as she presumably did not have time to cast a spell which might have prevented us from capturing her...possibly she intended to cast the spell she cast upon you on her next intended victims...and when you became a human elephant hybrid you lost your human voice and acquired that of an elephant..."

Seeta listened to the wizard's words with a surprisingly thoughtful look on her reshapen face, then used her stick to write another message.

[Can you at least give me my human voice back?]

"I'm sorry, but that will not be possible for now. She hit you with a very powerful spell, and to couterract it I will need more time and ingredients than we have available right now...remember, now that we have Savona in custody, his majesty wants us to return with all possible speed...can you wait until we return, and then abide by his decision?"

Somewhat to Setay's surprise, Seeta did not hesitate to nod her acceptance, then wrote another message in the dirt, with the cooking fire providing light for him to read by.

[Yes, I can.]

Now it was Fardo's turn to speak, and issue orders. One member of each of the original pairs of searchers was sent to bring the horses back to the point where they had originally split up; two would then bed down with their mounts while others of the party would take turns watching over the captured sorceress and make sure she did not try anything, despite now being shackled and gagged.

Savona didn't try anything. In the darkness she could not see the featureless silhouettes that were Celina and Rhon, but could hear them well enough whenever she awoke. Watching Seeta's trunk occasionally twitch when she stood watch was also disconcerting for her.

'What will happen to me now?' she wondered.

In accordance with Sir Fardo's decision the evening prior, the party was mounted and on its way back to Hanatoby by the time the sun was peeking over the eastern horizon. Fardo rode in the lead, Savona was chained into the back of a wagon which had been dispatched from Hanatoby overnight after one of the erstwhile search party had been sent to notify Lord Benbris of her capture. Seeta and Dison rode close on either flank, ready to react if need be. The witch was blindfolded and evidently nervous, for when Seeta touched her with her trunk as a reminder she was there and watching, she gave an involuntary shudder.

The ride back to Hanatoby did pass without incident, but some tension did arise in the town itself. When the party was spotted returning, rumors did not take long to spread through the town that the witch who had cast the curse making it impossible for them to come within six feet of one another was the prisoner. Many who watched glared her way, blaming her for their current predicament. A few shouted insults, and one man lunged her way with a scythe blade; Dison parried him with the blunt edge of his sword. Another who tried to strike her with a club was sent sprawling by a swing of Seeta's trunk, when he took a closer look at her as he lay flat on his back on the ground, he got wide-eyed in disbelief.

What could have been the most serious incident occured just before the wagon and its escorts reached the waterfront. A woman lunged at the wagon, screaming more insults, until she was sent sprawling backwards by the same invisible force which afflicted her along with all the other residents of the town. Bouncing back up she shouted "Why don't you just kill her so we can be free of this curse she has cast upon us?"

Fardo and Setay both wondered how she had come to her conclusion; they had not confided what Celina had told them of her encounter with the sorceress at Bonoton with anyone but Benbris, and Celina herself had not had an opportunity to speak with Berea since their arrival.

Though her blindfold prevented her from seeing what was then transpiring, Savona could still hear well enough, and now rattled her chains and tried to mumble through her gag. A tap on the shoulder with the blunt edge of a sword wielded by a guard riding in the back of the wagon with her was enough to disuade her from any further such actions.

Benbris, being the good local lord that he was, had anticipated the possibility of such incidents born of frustration or anger. Though he was subject to the same curse as the others, he now exploited his much larger size to slowly nudge the woman out of the wagon's path, and patiently explain to her "Milady, it is the order of the king that she be brought alive to Tulla...he wishes to interrogate her himself, in person...and find out why she did what she did...and what must be done to undo the curses she has cast..."

"How long will that take?"

"I'm sorry, but I do not know yet...that ship is to sail directly to Tulla as soon as they board..."

Fardo overheard part of their conversation as he rode past before dismounting at the foot of the dock and then leading his mount on board. When he returned back on deck after securing his horse it its stall, Lord Benbris was just walking up the gangway for a few final words with the ship's master, Setay, and Fardo himself. He provided an update on how the fused travelers were faring in their temporary quarters in one of the stables, including how they were enjoying the warmth provided by the cattle who had been stabled in the building for just that purpose.

"We were also able to reposition another of them so they could walk somewhat more easily, and rest more comfortably too" he added.

It was also agreed that Elys and Sugir would remain in Hanatoby until the curse which prevented the people of the town from caring for their youngest and most dependent children could somehow be lifted. Indeed, both women had early on volunteered to do so, seeing it as their responsibility to help those in need as only nursing mothers could do.

Soon after their ship had cast off with Savona safely secured and under guard in the hold, and her mask locked in the master's strongbox, Setay and Seeta retreated to a room adjacent to his cabin, while the other passengers remained on deck watching the shoreline recede in the distance. He wanted to give encouragement to his student, who was becoming somewhat frustrated by her inability to speak, and by her severely mishapen face. The wizard was certain he would not have felt so, but she was young and inexperienced yet, indeed young enough to have been his granddaughter, and learning to remain stoic in the face of adversity or setback was commonly one of the more challenging mental disciplines for an aspiring Cardi magician to master. He also wished to examine her trunk in an effort to gain a better understanding of Savona's evolving power and how she had cast her spells.

At first though, they simply stood facing one another as he asked her questions. Wisdom born of years of experience enabled him to anticipate many of the questions she might have for him, and some of the answers she would have in response to his own queries. Rarely did she find it neccessary to sit down to write out an answer, a nod or shake of the head or some other gesture often sufficing. Finally, he gestured toward her trunk and asked "May I?" After a few moments Seeta signaled her consent with a nod of her head. The wizard first held his hand just beyond the tip, feeling her breath as she exhaled; it felt normal in every way except its source. He then gently ran his hand up her trunk, top, sides, and underside, stopping well short of her mouth.

"Your trunk is unfortunately as fully a part of you as your normal face would be. We will need to learn more from Savona before I can restore you to how you should be..."

Seeta hid any disappointment she might have felt behind a mask of stoicism, merely nodded her head in aknowledgment, then they decided to take a break for coffee. He picked his cup up in the usual way, but she wrapped her trunk around hers and thus brought it to her own mouth for sipping.

"You are not getting used to being as you are, are you?" Setay asked with a mixture of bemusement and seriousness.

[I do have to admit I am. I have seen worse] she wrote in reply.

The two were just finishing their cups when there was a knock on the door. Seeta signaled her approval to her mentor, who then called out "Come in."

The door opened and a featureless black shadow entered. Even before it spoke they recognized it as Lady Celina, both from her height and from the silhouette of her dress. She had just come off a shift of watching over Savona in the hold, now she thought Seeta might like to chat with her, as they were then the only free women on board. She was agreeable, and pointed to the quill-pen and pad on the table which allowed her to express her thoughts in a manner other humans could understand. Following an exchange of nods, Setay left the room so the two could converse as women only do when no men are within earshot, if they chose to do so.

After the door closed once more Celina and Seeta embraced, which initially proved a bit of a challenge for Seeta, as she had to feel around with hands and trunk where Celina's dress ended and she began. Nonetheless both soon themselves giggling or trumpeting after Celina's bulging belly proved very ticklish when touched by Seeta's trunk. At first the student wizard was worried she might have at least scared her friend's baby, but she assured her it liked being tickled.

"That is why I rub my belly so much" she said.

Seeta gave another quiet trumpeting, then wrote [I'll think of that. I do hope to marry and have children some day.]

Does being as you now are really bother you a lot?" Celina next asked. The answer she got surprised her.

[I know this does sound strange, but having a trunk bothers me a lot less than not being able to speak.]

"Really?" Celina could not hide the astonishment in her voice.

[Yes. Setay has changed me before, and always let me be able to speak until he changed me back."

"Why can't he change you back now?"

[Everyone at the school of magic must learn to do their spells a certain way...]

There was a good reason for that requirement. Long ago, in the early days of the magic school, a wizard had transformed one of his students into a living statue, then suddenly died before he could change him back. As no one else knew the process he had used the student had to live the rest of his life as an immobile silvery marble statue, able to hear and comprehend, but unable to actively communicate in any way.

[...Unfortunately I was changed in a different way, so he cannot change me back, at least not for now.]

Celina's thoughts went back to her first encounter with Savona, when the sorceress had declared her victims would stay as she had transformed them for as long as she lived. Again, she was surprised by what Seeta wrote in response.

[There are strict rules against permanently changing someone, but when we are out of class and in our rooms we sometimes joke about what we might want to change ourselves into, if it was allowed.]

"Would you change yourself, if you could?"

[Yes.]

"Into what?"

[A mermaid!}

Celina couldn't help but laugh in response, and the sound of trumpeting could be heard as well. As residents of an island, they and their fellow Cardis had heard their share of stories of mythological being who lived in the sea, who were half human, half fish. No one who was considered sober and reliable had ever admitted to having seen one, but that did little to diminish the fascination their land-dwelling counterparts had in them...

Aided by favorable winds and a passage made entirely in daylight, the voyage back to the royal dock at Tulla went much faster than the outbound trip had two nights earlier. Much distance and time were saved by sailing to the north of the island of Ess-Ran, via a well marked navigation channel. About noon they had passed the channel which led north to Alupia, although the town itself could not be seen from shipboard due to distance and several small islands which lay in between. Fardo wondered how the inhabitants were faring now, trapped as they were in the golden yellow globes which served as their inescapable prisons, and whether anyone else had fallen victim to the curse afflicting their town. None could be seen out on the water as they sailed on toward their destination.

By early afternoon the last of the small islands were astern, and the ship's master was able to shape a course that would take them past a headland which now loomed several miles away. Beyond that headland lay the royal dock and a road which led directly to King Delwod's castle. Fardo now busied himself writing a message to the king; it informed him of the capture of Savona, a messenger would take it forward as soon as the ship made fast at the dock. He also wondered how he would react to the news that yet more of his subjects had fallen victim to the witche's latest curses, including the entire population of Hanatoby.

Seeta too wondered how the king would react upon seeing her in her curent form, and wondered if her need to write notes in order to communicate would significantly slow or otherwise affect whatever plans he had for interrogating the witch when she was brought before him.

Setay likewise had various thoughts pass through his mind. Having done some interrogating of the sorceress himself, he was sure he could restore her power of human speech, but should he? It would make getting answers out of her that much easier, but it could also enable Savona to cast hurried spells, as she had done to the group of travelers, and Seeta. In the end he decided to pose the options to his sovereign, and abide by his decision.

In little more than an hour's additional sailing time the headland was passed and the royal dock at last came into view.

So did a golden yellow orb, with someone clearly trapped inside.

Description
Chapter 21: The King's Orders

Even though she had closed her eyes before the flash of light struck her, Seeta could still see a glow through her eyelids. Nonetheless she opened them again when the glow faded a moment later. Right away she noticed her sight was somehoe different than it had been before; her periferal vision was much superior to what it had been, and her vision directly forward seemed somehow different as well.

She didn't have time to ponder what that meant, for she also saw Savona open her mouth as if to scream once more. Without hesitation Seeta opened her own mouth, but the sound that issued forth was not a high pitched humman female scream, but a loud trumpeting that had the sorceress reeling backward as if struck by some invisible force. Seeta didn't pause to wonder why her voice had changed; an opportunity lay at hand to capture Savona, so she charged forward and knocked her down with a flying leap. Savona tried to throw her off, but Celina and Dison quickly piled on top of her as well, and then Rhon clapped a hand over her mouth, thus rendering her mute. Now she was unable to cast spells, either verbally or by gesture.

Savona was finally subdued, but the time had yet to come when she could be removed from the bottom of the human pile. Fardo knelt at her head, a stern look on his face telling her 'don't try anything.' Her eyes glared back but she complied with his order for her to raise her head. At that point Rhon took his hand off her mouth and the knight slipped a mute's bridle over her mouth. At his word the others then got off Savona and he ordered her to stand up, the others now taking hold of one of her arms or legs. Fardo clicked the halves of the bridle together behind Savona's head, now it was not coming off until they returned to Tulla, as the key had intentionally been left behind in King Delwod's castle. The bridle was not actively uncomfortable, a wearer could breathe without impairment and eat and drink as well, albeit more slowly, but the tongue protruded into the mouth in such a way as to render speech in any language impossible.

Making Savona mute was the most important but not the only precautionary step taken against further attempts at sorcery on her part. Shackles were placed on her ankles and joined by a short chain, thus making it impossible to take steps greater than a few inches, let alone run. Her hands were bound together in a similar manner, then both sets of shackles were linked by another chain which made it impossible to raise her hands above her waist. Another look from Fardo told her if she wished to receive sustenance in the future she would have to comply with whatever orders she might be given. A look of resignation on her face combined with a shrug of her shoulders indicated she indeed would.

So intent had everyone been with capturing and securing Savona, that it was only after she had been chained to a large tree for the night that her captors really took stock of themselves. All were as they had been before the ambush, with one exception. Lady Celina looked toward Seeta and immediately gasped "My lord, Seeta! What happened to you?!"

The king's neice opened her mouth to answer, but once more what came forth was not a human woman's voice, but an elephant-like trumpeting. Only then did she look herself over closely. To the shock of herself and everyone else she now discovered why her voice, and her vision, had been changed. Her eyes had migrated much closer to the sides of her head, and her facial visage was now dominated by an elephant's trunk which reached almost to her knees.

To the surprise of some of her onlookers, Seeta did not scream/trumpet in horror when she saw how she had been changed by Savona's latest curse. Instead, the mental discipline she had already learned as an aspiring magician now asserted itself as she examined her new appendage. Curling her trunk up so she could look it over more closely, she twisted it in various ways and soon appreciated it was fully as flexible as those on her elephantine counterparts. Running her fingers along its length demonstrated to her that it was as sensitive to touch as the rest of her body normally was. Finally, she reached up with her trunk, wrapped the tip around a moderately sized dead branch overhead, pulled on it until it broke off, and added it to the fire which was just being started in order to cook supper.

Try as she would however, Seeta could not speak in a human voice, her every attempt produced only more elephant-like trumpeting. Finally, out of frustration and because no one had thought to bring quill-pen and paper from Hanatoby, she took another stick in her hand and wrote in dirt on the ground in the fading light for her mentor to read [What exactly did she do to me? Why can't I talk?]

Setay looked at Seeta's scrawled message for a few moments, then stood up and turned to face his student, a thoughtful look on his face.

"I cannot say for certain what her intentions were, as she presumably did not have time to cast a spell which might have prevented us from capturing her...possibly she intended to cast the spell she cast upon you on her next intended victims...and when you became a human elephant hybrid you lost your human voice and acquired that of an elephant..."

Seeta listened to the wizard's words with a surprisingly thoughtful look on her reshapen face, then used her stick to write another message.

[Can you at least give me my human voice back?]

"I'm sorry, but that will not be possible for now. She hit you with a very powerful spell, and to couterract it I will need more time and ingredients than we have available right now...remember, now that we have Savona in custody, his majesty wants us to return with all possible speed...can you wait until we return, and then abide by his decision?"

Somewhat to Setay's surprise, Seeta did not hesitate to nod her acceptance, then wrote another message in the dirt, with the cooking fire providing light for him to read by.

[Yes, I can.]

Now it was Fardo's turn to speak, and issue orders. One member of each of the original pairs of searchers was sent to bring the horses back to the point where they had originally split up; two would then bed down with their mounts while others of the party would take turns watching over the captured sorceress and make sure she did not try anything, despite now being shackled and gagged.

Savona didn't try anything. In the darkness she could not see the featureless silhouettes that were Celina and Rhon, but could hear them well enough whenever she awoke. Watching Seeta's trunk occasionally twitch when she stood watch was also disconcerting for her.

'What will happen to me now?' she wondered.

In accordance with Sir Fardo's decision the evening prior, the party was mounted and on its way back to Hanatoby by the time the sun was peeking over the eastern horizon. Fardo rode in the lead, Savona was chained into the back of a wagon which had been dispatched from Hanatoby overnight after one of the erstwhile search party had been sent to notify Lord Benbris of her capture. Seeta and Dison rode close on either flank, ready to react if need be. The witch was blindfolded and evidently nervous, for when Seeta touched her with her trunk as a reminder she was there and watching, she gave an involuntary shudder.

The ride back to Hanatoby did pass without incident, but some tension did arise in the town itself. When the party was spotted returning, rumors did not take long to spread through the town that the witch who had cast the curse making it impossible for them to come within six feet of one another was the prisoner. Many who watched glared her way, blaming her for their current predicament. A few shouted insults, and one man lunged her way with a scythe blade; Dison parried him with the blunt edge of his sword. Another who tried to strike her with a club was sent sprawling by a swing of Seeta's trunk, when he took a closer look at her as he lay flat on his back on the ground, he got wide-eyed in disbelief.

What could have been the most serious incident occured just before the wagon and its escorts reached the waterfront. A woman lunged at the wagon, screaming more insults, until she was sent sprawling backwards by the same invisible force which afflicted her along with all the other residents of the town. Bouncing back up she shouted "Why don't you just kill her so we can be free of this curse she has cast upon us?"

Fardo and Setay both wondered how she had come to her conclusion; they had not confided what Celina had told them of her encounter with the sorceress at Bonoton with anyone but Benbris, and Celina herself had not had an opportunity to speak with Berea since their arrival.

Though her blindfold prevented her from seeing what was then transpiring, Savona could still hear well enough, and now rattled her chains and tried to mumble through her gag. A tap on the shoulder with the blunt edge of a sword wielded by a guard riding in the back of the wagon with her was enough to disuade her from any further such actions.

Benbris, being the good local lord that he was, had anticipated the possibility of such incidents born of frustration or anger. Though he was subject to the same curse as the others, he now exploited his much larger size to slowly nudge the woman out of the wagon's path, and patiently explain to her "Milady, it is the order of the king that she be brought alive to Tulla...he wishes to interrogate her himself, in person...and find out why she did what she did...and what must be done to undo the curses she has cast..."

"How long will that take?"

"I'm sorry, but I do not know yet...that ship is to sail directly to Tulla as soon as they board..."

Fardo overheard part of their conversation as he rode past before dismounting at the foot of the dock and then leading his mount on board. When he returned back on deck after securing his horse it its stall, Lord Benbris was just walking up the gangway for a few final words with the ship's master, Setay, and Fardo himself. He provided an update on how the fused travelers were faring in their temporary quarters in one of the stables, including how they were enjoying the warmth provided by the cattle who had been stabled in the building for just that purpose.

"We were also able to reposition another of them so they could walk somewhat more easily, and rest more comfortably too" he added.

It was also agreed that Elys and Sugir would remain in Hanatoby until the curse which prevented the people of the town from caring for their youngest and most dependent children could somehow be lifted. Indeed, both women had early on volunteered to do so, seeing it as their responsibility to help those in need as only nursing mothers could do.

Soon after their ship had cast off with Savona safely secured and under guard in the hold, and her mask locked in the master's strongbox, Setay and Seeta retreated to a room adjacent to his cabin, while the other passengers remained on deck watching the shoreline recede in the distance. He wanted to give encouragement to his student, who was becoming somewhat frustrated by her inability to speak, and by her severely mishapen face. The wizard was certain he would not have felt so, but she was young and inexperienced yet, indeed young enough to have been his granddaughter, and learning to remain stoic in the face of adversity or setback was commonly one of the more challenging mental disciplines for an aspiring Cardi magician to master. He also wished to examine her trunk in an effort to gain a better understanding of Savona's evolving power and how she had cast her spells.

At first though, they simply stood facing one another as he asked her questions. Wisdom born of years of experience enabled him to anticipate many of the questions she might have for him, and some of the answers she would have in response to his own queries. Rarely did she find it neccessary to sit down to write out an answer, a nod or shake of the head or some other gesture often sufficing. Finally, he gestured toward her trunk and asked "May I?" After a few moments Seeta signaled her consent with a nod of her head. The wizard first held his hand just beyond the tip, feeling her breath as she exhaled; it felt normal in every way except its source. He then gently ran his hand up her trunk, top, sides, and underside, stopping well short of her mouth.

"Your trunk is unfortunately as fully a part of you as your normal face would be. We will need to learn more from Savona before I can restore you to how you should be..."

Seeta hid any disappointment she might have felt behind a mask of stoicism, merely nodded her head in aknowledgment, then they decided to take a break for coffee. He picked his cup up in the usual way, but she wrapped her trunk around hers and thus brought it to her own mouth for sipping.

"You are not getting used to being as you are, are you?" Setay asked with a mixture of bemusement and seriousness.

[I do have to admit I am. I have seen worse] she wrote in reply.

The two were just finishing their cups when there was a knock on the door. Seeta signaled her approval to her mentor, who then called out "Come in."

The door opened and a featureless black shadow entered. Even before it spoke they recognized it as Lady Celina, both from her height and from the silhouette of her dress. She had just come off a shift of watching over Savona in the hold, now she thought Seeta might like to chat with her, as they were then the only free women on board. She was agreeable, and pointed to the quill-pen and pad on the table which allowed her to express her thoughts in a manner other humans could understand. Following an exchange of nods, Setay left the room so the two could converse as women only do when no men are within earshot, if they chose to do so.

After the door closed once more Celina and Seeta embraced, which initially proved a bit of a challenge for Seeta, as she had to feel around with hands and trunk where Celina's dress ended and she began. Nonetheless both soon themselves giggling or trumpeting after Celina's bulging belly proved very ticklish when touched by Seeta's trunk. At first the student wizard was worried she might have at least scared her friend's baby, but she assured her it liked being tickled.

"That is why I rub my belly so much" she said.

Seeta gave another quiet trumpeting, then wrote [I'll think of that. I do hope to marry and have children some day.]

Does being as you now are really bother you a lot?" Celina next asked. The answer she got surprised her.

[I know this does sound strange, but having a trunk bothers me a lot less than not being able to speak.]

"Really?" Celina could not hide the astonishment in her voice.

[Yes. Setay has changed me before, and always let me be able to speak until he changed me back."

"Why can't he change you back now?"

[Everyone at the school of magic must learn to do their spells a certain way...]

There was a good reason for that requirement. Long ago, in the early days of the magic school, a wizard had transformed one of his students into a living statue, then suddenly died before he could change him back. As no one else knew the process he had used the student had to live the rest of his life as an immobile silvery marble statue, able to hear and comprehend, but unable to actively communicate in any way.

[...Unfortunately I was changed in a different way, so he cannot change me back, at least not for now.]

Celina's thoughts went back to her first encounter with Savona, when the sorceress had declared her victims would stay as she had transformed them for as long as she lived. Again, she was surprised by what Seeta wrote in response.

[There are strict rules against permanently changing someone, but when we are out of class and in our rooms we sometimes joke about what we might want to change ourselves into, if it was allowed.]

"Would you change yourself, if you could?"

[Yes.]

"Into what?"

[A mermaid!}

Celina couldn't help but laugh in response, and the sound of trumpeting could be heard as well. As residents of an island, they and their fellow Cardis had heard their share of stories of mythological being who lived in the sea, who were half human, half fish. No one who was considered sober and reliable had ever admitted to having seen one, but that did little to diminish the fascination their land-dwelling counterparts had in them...

Aided by favorable winds and a passage made entirely in daylight, the voyage back to the royal dock at Tulla went much faster than the outbound trip had two nights earlier. Much distance and time were saved by sailing to the north of the island of Ess-Ran, via a well marked navigation channel. About noon they had passed the channel which led north to Alupia, although the town itself could not be seen from shipboard due to distance and several small islands which lay in between. Fardo wondered how the inhabitants were faring now, trapped as they were in the golden yellow globes which served as their inescapable prisons, and whether anyone else had fallen victim to the curse afflicting their town. None could be seen out on the water as they sailed on toward their destination.

By early afternoon the last of the small islands were astern, and the ship's master was able to shape a course that would take them past a headland which now loomed several miles away. Beyond that headland lay the royal dock and a road which led directly to King Delwod's castle. Fardo now busied himself writing a message to the king; it informed him of the capture of Savona, a messenger would take it forward as soon as the ship made fast at the dock. He also wondered how he would react to the news that yet more of his subjects had fallen victim to the witche's latest curses, including the entire population of Hanatoby.

Seeta too wondered how the king would react upon seeing her in her curent form, and wondered if her need to write notes in order to communicate would significantly slow or otherwise affect whatever plans he had for interrogating the witch when she was brought before him.

Setay likewise had various thoughts pass through his mind. Having done some interrogating of the sorceress himself, he was sure he could restore her power of human speech, but should he? It would make getting answers out of her that much easier, but it could also enable Savona to cast hurried spells, as she had done to the group of travelers, and Seeta. In the end he decided to pose the options to his sovereign, and abide by his decision.

In little more than an hour's additional sailing time the headland was passed and the royal dock at last came into view.

So did a golden yellow orb, with someone clearly trapped inside.