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“There’s no time to argue. I’m five hours behind as it is, and I’m faster than you are. Gather up their things and go for help.” He didn’t wait for a reply, he turned his horse and raced for the small gap in the greenery where he’d caught sight of deep cart wheel impressions.

At least they were alive when they left, Theo thought as he raced along the path the cart had carved into the plain. There was no sign of blood, other than on the end of Ricardo’s stick.

He refused to consider there were ways of killing that didn’t require the spilling of blood.

These were children. Cervantes children.

Just like the children who had been the focus of kidnap long ago.

Someone had foolishly decided to try it again.

All children were precious to the Cervantes. It wouldn’t have mattered to the rescue mission whether the princess was one of their number or not. But she was.

And Theo looked forward to meeting up with their abductor.

Very much.

CHAPTER 2

Theo crepta little deeper under the bush, and at last he could see most of the camp.

He had followed the cart tracks to a road, and guessing the abductors wouldn’t be headed south, deeper into Cervantes territory, where they would be surrounded by angry warriors, Theo had turned north, toward the Grimwalt border.

Hours later, long after dusk, the sight of a campfire glow off the road, and cart tracks digging into soft soil toward a small copse, had elated him.

He had left his horse near the road and ventured toward the camp on foot, finding a bush to take cover in while he sized up the situation.

The fire was dancing merrily, but the whole scene was eerily quiet. Bodies lay around the fire, and at first his heart jerked in his chest at their stillness, but after a moment he noticed the few who were facing his way were were trussed up tight, with gags around their mouths. Some lay with their backs to him, but now his panic had cleared, he could see the bindings around their arms and hands, legs and feet.

All four were accounted for.

Ricardo, Jonquil, Genevieve, and Viviane.

He felt the first easing of the fear he’d been fighting since he’d come across their empty camp.

They were alive and he had eyes on them.

He could work with those circumstances.

He drew in a deep breath of relief.

Then he studied the camp layout.

The children were placed around the fire in a curiously equidistant manner, as if the person who had laid them down had measured the distance between each one to make sure it was exactly the same.

That worried Theo.

It smacked of spell work or a disturbed mind.

The cart that he’d been following was parked off to the side, the horse hobbled and left to graze.

There was no sign of the driver.

He had been operating under the assumption there was more than one person involved in the abduction, because while his students were only thirteen, they were Cervantes warriors in training, and no one would find them easy prey.

But the way they were laid out brought the possibility of spell work into things, and he conceded a powerful spell caster could have managed it alone.

He also sensed a trap. He could almost hear someone whispering,‘Here they are, come and get them.’