This was merely met with nods. We were all too disheartened to make much conversation and simply ate in silence as night fell. The hum of the forest made a background of white noise I hardly even noticed anymore, which was why it was so startling when a voice spoke out of the shadows.

“You are not going to replace me with that pretty boy Davin.”

I nearly choked on my berries. Hastily swallowing, I spun around to look at Rurik. He was still sitting but no longer in a frozen, blank way. He was shifting, working the kinks out of his arms as he blinked the world into focus.

“Rurik!” I ran over and knelt before him, Keeli and Jasmine right behind me. “Rurik, are you okay?”

He started to speak, and then a grimace came over his face. Turning, he spat onto the ground. “What was in my mouth?”

“A necessary evil,” I said, grinning like a fool. “Oh my God. You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

“I hear that a lot from women,” he said, wincing as he shrugged his undoubtedly stiff shoulders.

“Do you remember anything?” asked Jasmine. “From this morning?”

“I remember ...” He frowned and suddenly looked confused. “Those women ... the green-haired women. I remember them coming to us, and then ... I don’t know. It was like I was in a tunnel, and there were voices coming to me from a long ways away.” He glanced at the three of us. “Your voices.”

I was so happy that I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “This is the best news ever. Now that we know the enchantment can be broken, we can get the others out of it too.”

“The others ...” Rurik looked around him and noticed his fellow men. The sun was nearly gone, but our campfire clearly illuminated the statuelike quality of the others. Rurik jumped to his feet with amazing speed for someone who’d been catatonic all day. “What the—? My lord! My lord, what’s wrong?”

He flew to Dorian’s side with a devotion that almost brought tears to my eyes. Much as we’d first tried, Rurik began shaking Dorian in an effort to wake him up.

“It won’t work,” I said.

Rurik turned to me, and I think it was the most scared I’d ever seen him. “What’s wrong with him? With them?”

We explained, and Rurik wanted to waste no time in helping. I urged him to take a moment to recover from his ordeal, but he’d hear nothing of it. His energy and awakening inspired the rest of us, and we continued our efforts with new vigor.