With a look of firm resolve, Morgan slapped Duncan on the shoulder as a signal to go, then began clambering down the side of the cliff, keeping to the shadows as much as possible and trusting the roar of the waterfall to cover the sound of their descent. His face was grim but pleased as he and Duncan ducked into cover near the remaining horse, and he controlled the urge to smile again as the three children came out of the falls and hauled themselves dripping onto the bank.

The three glanced back at their friend across the stream, who was letting the captured horse graze while she scanned the cliff far above their heads—looking for them, Morgan realized. Then the other three began moving stealthily toward the remaining horse.

Morgan let them all get within touching distance of the animal, one of them actually taking the reins and reaching to stroke the beast’s nose. Then he and Duncan broke from cover and started grabbing children.

“Michael!” squealed the lone child on the opposite bank. “No! No! Let them go!”

In a flurry of screams, frantic squirming, and flailing arms and legs, the children tried to escape. Morgan succeeded in getting a strong grip on the first boy, who had been gentling the horse, and had a hold on a second for an instant. But the second boy was also the oldest, and strong, struggling hard; and after a few frantic squirms, he was able to wrench loose to flee shrieking toward the falls.

Duncan, his hands controlling the third child, made an effort to capture the second as he shot past, but ended up with only a handful of wet tunic to show for his trouble. The boy—for there was no mistaking that fact with the tunic missing—streaked for the falls and jumped into the water like an eel, disappearing behind the falls before either of the men could take more than a few steps in that direction.

The two children the men had managed to hold onto continued to struggle and scream, and Morgan was forced to silence his with a hastily applied touch. The girl on the opposite bank had scrambled into the saddle of the stolen horse and was guiding it toward the falls, reaching a hand down for her escaping comrade as he scrambled from the water in the buff.

Morgan had no choice but to call up a spell. Magic would but terrify the children more at this point, but he could not permit them to escape and tell tales of the two men trying to ford the stream. Morgan let his child slip limply to the ground and raised his arms.

As the two on the other side tried to flee, drumming thin, bare legs against the heavy saddle in an effort to make the big horse move, a wall of incandescence suddenly sprang up before them, blocking their way. The children pulled their mount to a plunging halt, their eyes wide as saucers as the light extended to a semi-circle hemming them against the bank of the stream. Duncan calmed the child in his grasp and laid his limp form across the saddle of the remaining horse, then nursed a bloodied hand to his lips, bent to plunge it into the rushing water.