Lauren wanted to beg her friends for forgiveness but couldn't. The druid inside the dagger she carried wouldn’t let her. His name was Galdus, and he had started out only gaining her useful information, such as where the village was and the most protected way to get there. He still did that and more. He had hidden her and her friends during the attack at the manor house, and he had prevented the druids’ spell from making them fall asleep. But now sometimes he wouldn’t let her say what she wanted to say, and sometimes he gave her commands. She needed his help in order to get home. She was dependent on him. What had she done?

Galdus’s voice spoke in her mind.

"There. Take them intae that wee alcove on the higher ground beneath the overhang sae that the rain tonight will na get ye."

Lauren followed these useful instructions, settling her friends in for the night.

Her friends didn't have a clue how much danger they were in. They still thought this was a fun adventure.

Jessica proudly took a lighter out of her purse.

"We can have a fire! We’ll be warm!"

Lauren started to tell Jessica that was a bad idea, but Galdus took over, making Lauren's voice sound much harsher than she'd ever been when speaking to her friend. It made Jessica cringe. It made Lauren cringe too, having her friend think she regarded her so little.

"Put that away! How dare you! Are you daft? We went to so much trouble to hide our tracks and get away, and now you want to send up a smoke signal to tell the men exactly where we are!"

Delirious with sickness, Jessica broke down in tears, looking to Katherine for support.

"I'm sorry. I just want to be warm. I was hot with fever before, but now I'm getting cold."

Katherine pulled Jessica closer where they had settled on the ground and put her arm around her, spreading the quilt and both of their huge woolen shawls over both of them. She gave Lauren a scathing look.

"What is wrong with you, Lauren? You could have said that much more nicely.” And then Katherine spoke softly. “Still, you're right. Come over on my other side. The only way we will stay warm enough is to snuggle up close together and share body heat. You know that. You’re the product field tester, the outdoor survivalist. You have more experience out here then both of us combined, so please don't be afraid to share the things you think of. Unlike some people, I would appreciate it."

Miserable, Lauren snuggled up next to Katherine, who she didn't know nearly as well as Jessica. It was awkward, but it was warm. Before long, she fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

* * *

Galdus woke Lauren just before dawn.

"Get up and walk away from camp tae relieve yourself."

Lauren wandered up the hill opposite their camp.

"Make certies there be cover enough, or ye wull be seen."

Seen by whom, Lauren wondered. There’s no one for miles.

But she didn't deliberately speak to Galdus in her mind.

‘Choose your battles,’ her father always said.

In this instance that seemed to apply in spades. She would dig in about other, more important things. She went up over the top of the hill and halfway down the other side, just to make him happy. And then she had to go about taking off the belt full of bags and oddities that she carried around underneath her leine. She set it all safely aside, did her business, and then reassembled herself so that all her items were safely stored underneath her leine yet again.

She was coming back up on their camp, and Jessica and Katherine were gone! Their purses were still there by where their heads had lain. The quilt had been tossed aside and lay in the mud.

Panic grabbed hold of Lauren as she picked these things up, folding the quilt so the mud was inside and wouldn’t make her cold.

"Galdus, where are they?"

"We don't need them anymore. They kept you warm last night, and there's another warm place for you to sleep less than a day's walk from here."

"They’re my friends, Galdus. And I brought them here. I'm responsible for them. They’ll never get home without… your help."

Galdus was quiet, and Lauren took that as an admission. He had deliberately separated her from them.

And then she heard a cry. It was Katherine!

"Lauren! Lauren, if you can hear me, go get Luag and Taran and—"

Lauren dropped the quilt but shouldered the purses and took off running in the direction of Katherine’s voice, almost tripping over rocks and almost being skewered by branches. When at long last she came in sight of her friend, she despaired.

Her friends had been kidnapped by a couple of men with a wooden cage on a wagon.

"Galdus, you can get them away. You can free them."

Lauren ran toward her poor captured friends.

"But I willna,” said Galdus. “If ye go after them, ye will just become captured tae, and I will hae tae go intae the hands o' one o' those men’s druid masters. Dinna get yerself captured. The slave o' another druid is na o' any use tae me. Go on tae the next castle sae that ye may help me. Once ye deliver the artifact, I will help ye get home. That is oor bargain."

He had separated her out so that she couldn’t help them!

So he thought.

"Ye dinna ken people at all. I'm gaun'ae get Taran and Leif and Luag. And we're gaun'ae save my friends.”