They broke their fast with a rabbit Sir Madoc had caught while Thom was still asleep, and the two apples Thom had in his sack (Asking for permission first, if you can credit it!), sharing them both.

Once the fire was completely out, Sir Madoc retied Thom (he'd been given the liberty of his hands to eat) and strapped himself to his captive on the horse as he had the day before. Soon they were off.

First they made a stop at an outpost. Sir Madoc got them free of each other and completely untied Thom. Inside the outpost there were too many soldiers around to try anything.

Sir Madoc abandoned his saddle here to make riding easier for Thom. He said that it was not his place to make a subject of the King uncomfortable. Thom was slightly worried about that, but grateful for the gesture.

He gathered what supplies he had in his saddlebags and divided them between a small sack of his own and Thom's now empty sack. The outpost would send the saddle back to the capital after them.

Riding bareback and lashed together, they set out once more for Aragon.

The knight came up to them, still on horseback, and asked them what was happening in the village, which was called Cairncross. The old man explained that a plague had taken the village. The church was being used as a hospital and that the local wizard was tending to everyone.

Sir Madoc untied them and pulled Thom into the church. Apparently he trusted the horse to stay.

Inside there were fifty or more villagers with wan faces, tired eyes and sweat on their brows. The church was chilly inside. This must have been done as a curative for the fever. It didn't seem to be working.

The wizard, whose name turned out to be Eleazar, was a wrinkled greybeard in a deep blue robe. Strange symbols were etched somehow into the material in white.

"Thank goodness someone else has come!" he cried once the introductions were over. "It is so frustrating. I know how to cure this blasted plague, but I am missing several ingredients. Several other noble souls have come to Cairncross and have offered to help, but none have returned. I fear they came to their ends in the quest."

"I will, of course, try to help, but I must escort my prisoner to the capital," Sir Madoc explained.

"People are dying here. I don't know how long what magicks I have available to me will keep the villagers alive. We are in dire need of help."

"Then this must take precedence. I will go in search of your ingredients at once."

"What about me? You can't let me go, obviously," Thom argued, "but you can't leave me here either! I'll take sick!"

"You are correct. So you will accompany me."

"Accompany you?! How can you complete the task while dragging me behind you bound at the hands?"

"Ah, there I might be able to help you," the wizard grinned. "Follow me."

Eleazar led them to his workshop on a hill outside the village. Inside, the wizard sifted through the drawers underneath one workbench piled high with papers, strange metal tools and bizarre-looking glassware. He triumphantly produced a ring. It was gold with a flat red stone.

The wizard pressed the stone to Thom's forehead. A blue circle was visible there when the ring was taken away. Eleazar instructed Sir Madoc to put the thing on the third finger of his right hand. The stone had turned blue.

"Now you, young man," he said, pointing to Thom. "Try to remove the ring."

Thom gestured with his wrists and Sir Madoc spent a minute freeing them. Thom gripped the ring and pulled. Then he tugged. He could not budge the ring. He wasn't even pulling the knight's hand forward.

"The ring cannot be removed except by the person wearing it. Try it." Sir Madoc took the ring off easily, then put it back on again.

"Now," the wizard continued, "not only will the ring not come off, you can't even cut off the finger. Or the hand! It's all in your control. Now, prisoner, run. Try to get away." Thom stared at him. "Go on, git! Shoo!" Thom started walking out the door. Sir Madoc tried to stop him but Eleazar interceded. "Watch," he advised.

Through the open door Sir Madoc saw Thom run halfway down the hill... and stop, collapsing to his knees. "You'd best go to him, lad," the wizard told him.

The knight jogged down the hill to his prisoner, who was gagging. "What's wrong?"

"I started feeling sick to my stomach," Thom said. "It seems to be passing now." Eleazar strolled up behind them. "Is this the plague?"

"No, no. It's the ring. You can't get more than twenty feet from it without feeling ill," Eleazar explained. "I modified it somewhat, but mainly it's used to train dogs though it works on people too. Better, I think," he told Sir Madoc conversationally.

"How do you undo it?" the knight asked.

"Simply press the ring to his forehead again. But *you* must do it, and the ring must be on your finger," Eleazar instructed. "The ring will turn back to red when the enchantment has ended. Here is your rope, goodknight."

"Thank you. Now what ingredients must I gather for you?"

"I've written them down. I'm truly tired of having to do that. Good luck to you."

"I know where to get that," Thom said, pointing at the list. The blue circle had completely faded from his forehead.

"Not from one of your fences," Sir Madoc said. "Sea fungus is rare. It needs to be preserved in its water."

"Of course not from a fence. You can get it straight from the source. The Polynites harvest them. We can get some from them."

"The Polynites are from an underwater kingdom. Why would they help us?"

"You're an envoy of the human King, aren't you? You have a need for the sea fungus and a valid reason for getting it. You can always ask. The Polyny Sea is just a half-day's ride from here."

"And for what reason do you provide such helpful advice?" Sir Madoc asked suspiciously.

"I'm willing to do anything that will delay my going to the King's dungeons. Or his gallows. And since I'm stuck with you I may as well help. I'm just grateful I won't be trussed up like a stag for the rest of the trip," Thom said.

Sir Madoc helped Thom mount the horse. Sir Madoc would ordinarily have mounted first, but Thom couldn't get up onto the animal without stirrups. They set off east to the sea.

They sat in much the same positions as before, Thom with his arms wrapped around Sir Madoc's chest, only now Thom sat directly behind the knight. Thom tried hard not to get another erection. The body contact was nice, though. He'd pretty much given in to the fact that there was no escape for him. As long as they were stuck together, Thom would try to be as accommodating as he could. Despite everything, he liked the knight.

By the evening they had arrived at the seashore. Thom dismounted first. He was still sore but he was getting used to the idea of riding.

Sir Madoc suggested that Thom bathe while he saw to his horse. Thom agreed. He stayed in the shallows near the beach, following the convention that the knight had irrationally imposed, keeping his smallclothes on most of the time. He also saw to his secret weapon, still hidden and still useless. He cleaned it discreetly. There was a major problem hiding it from the knight any time he had to relieve himself but he could make do.

He climbed back up onto the beach, wet and clean. Sir Madoc had been looking at him, over his shoulder, every once in a while, trying, he guessed, to convince himself Thom wasn't swimming away.

Sir Madoc passed Thom's black breeches over to him, but Thom put his hand up. "I need to dry out," he said. "It's warm enough. I'll stay like this. Have you got anything you can use to catch fish?" Sir Madoc nodded. "Why don't you do that after you bathe and I'll build a fire." The knight agreed.

While the knight washed himself, the thief gathered some rocks together in a ring. Then he went after driftwood. There wasn't much near their campsite, so Thom had to prowl up and down the beach. Sir Madoc was always certain to follow him so that he remained within twenty feet.

Sir Madoc had to be careful of that while he tried to catch fish for their dinner. His attention was always divided. He had to keep one eye on the water and one on his prisoner. His smallclothes were still wet, so Sir Madoc could see everything as Thom would climb sand dunes or reach for driftwood. He found it difficult to concentrate on fishing, but he managed to catch three fairly good-sized dragonfish. By the time Sir Madoc waded to shore, Thom's fire was blazing.

Thom met him there, still undressed, and he noticed that the knight's dick was hard and sticking straight up. He could see through the cloth quite clearly how big it was. Impressive. He looked Sir Madoc right in the eyes and smiled. The knight's face froze, expressionless. Thom took the fish and prepared them for cooking, smiling all the time. Sir Madoc wondered just what he was grinning for.

The knight dried himself, changed and dressed. He didn't bother wearing more than the tunic and hose. It was, Thom felt, a sign of trust. But he still kept his dagger and sword close by.

After eating, Thom still refused to get into his clothes. He was covered in sand, he said, and he preferred to be like this. He sat on the beach, his legs slightly spread apart, heels in the sand and his arms on his knees. He was staring over the water at the night sky. The two moons were beautiful tonight. If he'd been more observant, he'd have noticed Sir Madoc staring at his unclad body. He'd been trying to avoid it all evening and his resolve was wearing down. Thom was not so bulked as he was, because thieves tend to swing a sword less than do knights. Thom's body was leaner but still muscled. His skin took on a wonderful color in the firelight. He looked so innocent as he stargazed, filled with wonder. Hard to believe this man was the notorious Dark Rogue.

The knight had felt Thom's hard member in his back most of the day. It had made him uncomfortable, not by its intrusive presence, but by the way it mirrored his own strange feelings. He had to keep distant. This was his prisoner. He deserved the dignity of any subject of the realm, but the man was a criminal. Best not to get involved in it.

Later on, they both slept fitfully.

Sir Madoc had objections about bringing the tabard, but Thom argued that it was the only proof they had of who he was.

They had to swim out quite a distance to catch sight of the city. Wearing only their smallclothes, with Sir Madoc bearing the sheathed dagger tucked through near the hip, and Thom keeping the tabard in much the same place, they dove down.

The Polynite city was built strangely into several coral shelves. It appeared that some of the buildings were built on top of the shelves as you'd expect, and others were built on the undersides, like air bubbles trapped there. The buildings themselves were variations on a dome shape, and constructed of a green-blue stone that had made them difficult to spot in the first place.

These features made the distance to the city hard to gauge, and the two soon found that they were not going to make it all the way down, and they did not have enough air to swim back up. The last thing either of them remembered before blacking out was seeing two odd-colored people swimming up toward them.