Malcolm said a few words and Tintinel rushed over to greet us. We all danced around in a mutual hug and then Tintinel drew back and said, "I'm truly happy to see you but I'd liked to have seen you much earlier, I was beginning to think I'd never catch up!"

"We're sorry, we thought we were being pursued by the slavers." Malcolm replied, "It never occurred to us that anyone following us would be a friend."

"They'd have to have a master wizard; some of your diversions almost fooled me! But I'm sure glad you put them there; I'd never have know you were here if I hadn't stumbled on one - your magic signature was very obvious. You can relax, too, I've set several alarms along the way and not one has been tripped. You know, if you'd contacted a tree along the way you'd have know it was me - I contacted the first tree I saw but there had been no contact from any of you for a couple of days."

"We were concerned with finding a good place to confront our pursuers and didn't think there was any need to stop until we'd found one. When we found this place there was no tree around.

"Oh Malcolm, we've forgotten the little trees we carry." said Aril and Lira almost together.

"That's true, but even during our short breaks we didn't think of them because it didn't seem important at the time. Be that as it may, we're together now, and now, what on earth happened to you and how did you get here?"

"I want to know how you got here too and where we are and all that's occurred since that night I spied on Justin's priests! But I'll tell my story first, it's pretty short.

We escorted Tintinel to our hiding place while Malcolm renewed the perimeter alarm and then joined us. We sat in a comfortable circle and listened to Tintinel's story:

After you had left and the priests had finished their dinner they went up to their rooms. There were enough of them so that it wasn't too hard to get into the room where they were meeting. The room was pretty crowded so I had to jig around a bit to keep out of their way until Dampster called for order. They gathered around him and I sat down on a chest in one corner of the room.

Dampster said, "Now that we know Justin is in the vicinity we must be ready to take him whenever the opportunity occurs to return him to his rightful place in our community. To that end I have obtained a net that will immobilize him."

Then he took a pouch out of his robes and opened it. He pulled out a net and said, "See this small cylinder on the corner. One end is connected to the net and the other end will rotate. You turn the free end and the net is activated."

With that he turned it and the whole net began to glow violet. I knew instantly that this was the same kind of net Aril had been trapped in. The priests jumped back and muttered about magic, but Dampster reassured them, "Do not think this net is any kind of accursed magic - it is made in ways we cannot understand but it has no magic in it. you don't have to say any secret words or use evil powders or wands.

"You can safely handle it when it is activated, but if it covers any living being their life force is slowed to almost nothing; they cannot see or hear or move. You cannot detect breath or heartbeat, but they are alive. When the net is deactivated they will slowly return to normal. Every one of us must be ready to use this net if the chance comes."

"We only need to get Justin alone and cast this net over him and he's ours to carry home. The sooner we get out of these accursed lands and their wizards the better I will like it."

"How does it work?" asked one of the priests, "I'm no fisherman and have never cast a net."

"Each of the four corners is weighted. The weights on the other three corners are square so you won't mistake the one that activates it. It's made to open quickly when thrown; you hold the four corners in you hand and then throw them at the person you wish to ensnare, like this."

And with that, before I could so much as twitch, he hurled the net, I presume at the chest I was sitting on, and that's the last I knew until I woke up in a slave house.

It was a simple matter to escape and remove the slave collar I found gracing my neck, but I had no idea where I was. I had not gone far from the slave house when I picked up your familiar aura, Malcolm. At first I followed where it seemed to lead but I soon determined it was some diversionary tactic you left to hide your trail. After that it was easy to follow you - and leave some diversions of my own. Now that I've caught up with you I want to know where we are, what were doing and what's been going on since I was netted and how long it's been and anything else you can tell me!

"Well, that's quite an order, we'll bring you up to date as much as we can." said Malcolm, "It's too bad you know nothing about how you got here; the priests disappeared without a trace when you did and we'd sure like to know what happened to them - and to you.

"I'd like to know how I got here too, but I didn't stop to ask my hosts before I left their estimable company."

"First I'll let the others know what's going on - none of them speak our language."

"We must be much further from home than I thought! This should indeed be a story!"

After Malcolm had let the others in on who Tintinel was and why he was here, he began by telling Tintinel of our transfer to Malcolm's farm after he and the priests had disappeared, giving the others an edited version as he went along.

Tintinel was astonished that we were on the other side of the world from home and it was autumn here. He was even more astonished at how quickly he had been transported here without the portal between Malcolm's retreat and farm. When he mentioned it, we too were astonished, we just hadn't taken notice in the flurry of greetings.

"There are only three explanations I can think of." said Malcolm, "One, someone has discovered a set of portals in addition to mine, two, someone has discovered the principals of these portals without even knowing about my portals or three, you were flown here with one of those beasts Bolgar uses or a dragon. Each of those possibilities fills me with apprehension. Whatever forces used one of those methods is obviously in league with the priests and they are far more important than we thought. Also there may be far more danger on this side of the world than we have been thinking. Or it just may be that they were getting you as far out of the way as possible.

"Once we get back to the ships we will have to wring the sailors and captains dry of any information they may have on this as well as any information on the great tree. We don't know if she's on an island in this sea or some other, but if here, someone will know something. And I know if she's in this sea they'll help us find her - certainly captain Jar will do anything for us after getting his son back.

Then Malcolm talked about our trip with the traveling entertainers and introduced him to Piro and Fortas (and the rest of the company.) He finished off with our capture by the slavers and our rescue.

"After dark," Malcolm concluded, "we will continue to the cove where the longboat is hidden and sail out to captain Jar's ship, which passes by well out to sea each night. There should be no more slaver trouble after that. Now we should eat and then get whatever rest we can for the last two legs of the journey tonight."

As we had our lunch we discussed many things with Tintinel. He now knew the main story but he had many questions about the details and the people involved. We began to teach him many words of the local language and he was an excellent pupil.

There were no more alarms until late afternoon when the logging wagons passed us loaded with logs, two with a single great log each and another with three and a fourth with several. No doubt the remains of a single tree. We had an evening meal and when it was dark we set off down the cliff ourselves. At the bottom we found the road went through a forest again. It was a new forest; the biggest trees were only about two feet in diameter and were interspersed with great stumps gradually rotting into the ground.

About two hours into our journey we came to a great clearing that had huge piles of great logs. It was by a river and we could see by the lights from the buildings that much of the river was diverted into a large pond where logs floated. Beyond this the road went for a time along side a channel made of wood with water flowing in it. One of the sailors said it was a called a flume and the logs were sent down it to the harbor where they were either loaded on ships or cut up and then loaded. He said there were cabins every couple of miles where watchmen lived who inspected the flume every day for leaks and damage. If anything caused a log to get stuck another could crash into it and cause damage that would take weeks to repair, so they kept the flume in as good repair as the finest ship of the sea.

Two more hours down the road Malcolm led us down a gully that went under the flume and down towards the sea. It was rough going for a while in the darkness, but soon widened out into a nice valley with only a few trees. Eventually the valley again became a gully again but now we could hear the sea.

We emerged from the gully into a tiny cove and Malcolm led us over to a large driftwood log. But it wasn't a log at all; Malcolm's magic had disguised it and it was the longboat overturned. We all pitched in to right it and drag it down the beach and we were soon in it and the sailors were rowing us out to sea. When they thought we were far enough out they shipped the oars and hoisted the mast and sails and were headed straight away from the island.

Read Part Fourteen 

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