All was sedate as the four souls walked down the dirt path passing several farms, edging around a thick wood. Nightstar wickered softly as her passenger adjusted her seat.
"Easy lass, she’s just unused to the saddle is all." Mattrick soothed the black coated mare. The star shaped mark on her forehead, where she got her name from twitched as she rolled her eyes at Mattrick.
Benji tired of walking and a bit cranky from lack of sleep yawned and spoke up "How far ‘til camp? I be falling asleep on me feet."
Irritated, Mattrick snapped at him "The same as the last time you asked that, you overeager rapscallion! It’s a good walk from Haverston to my hunting lodge and we haven’t covered nearly enough ground to rest yet. Now hush, the night air carries voices far. As you should know, oh sailor boy."
Benji was about to retort when he looked up at Daisy and subsided. Daisy was fatigued and found the walk too arduous as they set out so she ended up riding Nightstar. The motion of the saddle soon lulled her into a dream of sorts. She dreamed she was riding Steelwind, flying across hill and dale, carefree and happy. Then black arrows flew out at her and her childhood friend collapsed underneath her. She jolted awake and heard her companions arguing. This reminded her of the seriousness of her situation.
When the knights first burst into the den of iniquity, the Iron Duccat, Daisy was aghast to learn they were seeking her. She did not recognize the insignia exactly but knew it belonged to a duke. She thought perhaps her uncle had contacted friends to find her. But when Mattrick told her who owned the coat of arms she felt confusion.
She’d heard of Callonway but never knew it was a duchy. It was a province in the neighboring kingdom of Lavilla. Why would some noble from another nation be seeking her? And more importantly how did that personage find almost precisely where she was with enough ease to be able to send sorcerous minions to fetch her? And how did they know so soon after her escape? And why send armored knights when supposedly he was seeking just her? Not merely armored knights. Sorcerously summoned knights in black armor, guaranteed to scare anyone of normal wits out of them.
Sorcery was a fearsome legend to most people, used mainly to frighten children at bedtime into behaving. Reasonable people did not much believe in it these days. But there were evidences if you looked for them. And the everburning fire was clearly still around. The black arts were not precisely illegal but they were frowned on and the church expressly forbade its laity to practice them. For a peasant to be caught with anything stinking of Sorcery was a death sentence for them and possibly their loved ones.
Daisy did not much care for religion, specifically not that which demands faith, but she also realized the threat this type of magic posed to her directly and to the populous at large. The church might be puritanical by some views but it was filling a purpose of protecting its members from what it perceived as dangerous to their souls and wellbeing. Not many of the nobility bothered with the church and were largely out of its jurisdiction so the black arts still thrived in some remote places but it was very rare to hear of someone powerful enough to summon nether spirits to do their bidding. This troubled Daisy.