The carriage rolled through two more villages over the next three days, following the same pattern each time. Aldric would disappear for an hour or two, returning with one or two more children in tow. Each new addition looked as confused and nervous as Renard's group had been initially.
Renard watched it happen twice more. First in a small farming village where Aldric came back with a skinny boy who couldn't stop looking over his shoulder. Then in a mountain settlement where he returned with twin girls who held each other's hands so tight their knuckles were white.
The same lies. The same promises. The same desperate hope in young eyes.
'They really think they're going to learn magic,' Renard thought as he watched the newest arrivals try to make sense of their situation.
