She woke she knew not how many hours or even days later, to find the dark mage not leering over her as he was so often want to do, but instead peering ahead into the distance. The length of rope that bound her waist was clutched tightly in his grip.

She followed the direction of his gaze. There, no more than a mile or so from where they stopped, a small village sat atop the crest of a large hill. "This I suppose will be as good a place to start as any," he said finally, ...