STEPHANIE (formerly Sophie) and Mark were sitting quietly on a grassy bank beside the Kentak road, a few miles out from Waknuk, munching sandwiches. They had loosely tethered their horses and allowed them to rest and graze.

Much had changed in Waknuk, and they were finally on their way; following in the footsteps of Rachel and Michael—or so Mark convinced himself; although Stephanie had been unusually quiet about their plans recently.

Amelia, Rachel’s mother, had sold the farm and gone to live with her sister, as she had promised. The Strorms’ farm, called Waknuk like the village, had also been sold—to Angus Morton. Many rumoured that he’d acquired it ‘at a bargain price’, seeing as Sarah, Joseph Strorm’s second daughter, was reputed to be a poor negotiator. Sarah denied this, of course. Mary, the elder daughter, had married and left Waknuk: she refused to get involved in the sale, although she did get her share of the proceeds. Sarah, along with several of the farm-hands, stayed on at the farm, temporarily in charge. She was still unmarried, but one of Morton’s sons certainly had an eye for her: they were often seen together and most people in the district predict­ed that wedding bells were not far off. With Joseph dead, Angus Morton’s feud with the Strorms was long since ended, and certainly he no longer objected to a union between the two families: indeed he rather encouraged it.

Emily, Joseph’s widow and Sarah and Mary’s mother, had never really recovered from the shock of losing Joseph, David and Petra all at once. She was allowed to stay at Waknuk as an invalid, but Sarah was tasked with caring for her. She kept to her room most days and barely spoke.

So Stephanie and Mark were on the road at last. It was not the ideal time to set out on a journey, since winter was fast drawing in, but they had taken care to carry warm clothing. And they had made a convinc­ing forged identity/normalcy tag for Stephanie to carry, giving her the same surname as Mark (‘to avoid questions on the journey,’ as she had declared, ‘—but don’t make any assumptions!’). She also wore a plain gold-coloured ring on her left hand middle finger—which she was prepared to transfer to the fourth finger ‘if necessary’.

They also had a tent and some blankets, two bows with arrows, and a gun, though Mark hoped he’d never have to use it. It was quite a load for the two horses, but they seemed capable enough.

And Amelia had made them a handsome present out of the proceeds of the farm sale—they had been been reluctant to accept it, but Amelia had insisted; “Besides,” she’d added, “I want you to do your very best to track down Rachel; find out where she is, and what’s happening to her. You’ll need money. I have a sort of ‘feeling’ that all’s well with her, but I can’t be sure…”

Mark proposed that their first destination ought to be Kentak, to which Stephanie promptly agreed. After all, that was where Michael and Rachel had been making for, the last time they had been in contact. Since then, they had heard nothing. Besides, Mark had a suspicion that his thought-shape powers were diminishing once again: the fever that he had suffered must have had some long-lasting effects. Since there was no-one in range, except Stephanie, with whom he could communicate, he couldn’t be sure about this—but Stephanie, whose powers, on the other hand, seemed to be improving, said that his thought-shapes were getting weaker. This would make it more difficult for them to track down Michael and Rachel, of course.

Luckily, there had been no apparent suspicions about them, during their stay at Waknuk. Mark had had no occasion to project his thoughts once Michael and Rachel were out of range, and Stephanie, of course, had taken pains not to repeat her mistake—so many years ago now—of revealing her feet to any stranger. Amelia was the only other person in Waknuk who knew—and Amelia was trustworthy. So they were able to follow the Kentak road at a more leisurely pace without fear of pursuit.

It was evening when they entered Kentak. Mark knew the town slightly: he had visited it once or twice in the past, though he had not shared Michael’s privilege of being schooled there. They had some difficulty in tracing their way through the streets to the flat shared by Michael’s two friends—the last place where they believed that the fugitives had stayed—but finally they were able to dismount, tie up the horses, and knock on the door.

It was opened, just a crack, by a tall man slightly older than either Mark or Michael, who eyed them with some suspicion. At first he seemed reluctant to admit them. Mark gave their names and explained that they were friends of Michael and Rachel, who he believed had called on them some months earlier. At this, the man asked them to wait for a moment, then he disappeared inside, closing the door on them. Mark and Stephanie waited.

After quite a long time the door was opened again and the two were ushered inside; then the door was firmly closed again and bolted. There the man who had admitted them named himself as Jack, and introduced them to his flatmate Adrian, who was about the same age as Jack, but shorter, with a bushy black moustache.

After staring at the visitors for a while, Adrian began, somewhat defensively, “So you’re friends of Michael are you? Michael who used to live here? What do you want to know?”

“We just want to know if he, and Rachel, stayed here, for how long, and where they went on to,” said Mark. “We’re trying to catch up with them.”

“Any particular reason?”

“Just that we’re their friends. What’s with all this suspicion?” retorted Mark, getting somewhat annoyed and edgy.

“Calm down,” replied Adrian. “Do you have any idea what hap­pened here, during the time they were here?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“What happened!” Mark’s heart sank, and he feared the worst. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Stephanie’s face contorted with horror. “You don’t mean—you don’t mean they were followed? Arrested?”

Adrian smiled. “Aha. I think that’s good enough for us to believe you.” Jack nodded. “You must forgive our suspicions. But I’m fairly certain that if you had been what we were afraid you might be, you wouldn’t have reacted like that to my question—nor come out with that remark. So we’re better explain to you what happened here. Jack?”

“Please don’t worry,” continued Jack. “It’s not what you’re think­ing. Last time we saw them, they were perfectly all right. But it was a near thing. Yes, Michael and Rachel did call in here, a few months ago. Michael said they were in a great hurry: he was leaving Kentak for good—he didn’t tell us why—and he gave us his share of the outstanding rent. And another thing. They said they’d got married just after they arrived in Kentak.”

“Married!” Stephanie exclaimed, with evident delight. “That’s wonderful! I couldn’t be happier for them. How did they manage it, with so little time to spare?”

“We think they did a sort of ‘do-it-yourself’ wedding, in an empty church. Probably not legal, but fair enough for us! Anyway we treated them to a sort of ‘wedding breakfast’ and then they settled down for the night in Michael’s old bedroom.

“But in the middle of the night some rough young fellows, four of them, came banging on the door. Country folk, by the look of them: certainly not locals from Kentak. They demanded to come in and search for some fugitives—‘Blasphemies’ they said they were. ‘Blasphemies’ my foot! If they were meaning Michael and Rachel, well they’re as normal as you and I are.” Stephanie felt an uncomfort­able itch in her foot, but said nothing. “So we told them, no way are you stepping inside without a search warrant. They said, they don’t need a warrant, but we held our ground.

“At that they tried to force their way in. Well, the one who was their ringleader, I guess—chap with a ponytail—tried to go for us, landed a punch or two—but then his mates held him back. It took a while, but eventually we managed to force them out and close the door on them. I stood guard while Adrian went to warn Michael and Rachel. He came back and said they’d disappeared. At that we both went to look: their belongings were gone too: they seemed to have grabbed every­thing and got out through the window. Their horses were gone. When we got back to the front door the four young men had also run off. We just hope we gave Michael and Rachel enough time to get a good enough start. If I know Michael, he’ll know plenty of back ways and hidden paths around these parts, and he’s country-bred. He should have been able to shake off the pursuit if there was one. With any luck…”

“I just hope you’re right,” said Mark. “We’ll want to get after them as quickly as possible. You think they were aiming for Rigo?”

“That’s what they said,” replied Adrian.

“Well, that gives us a start, at any rate.” Mark was aware of Stephanie looking at him as if she wanted to interrupt him, but she said nothing. “Whatever happens, we can’t thank you enough for what you did. You may have saved their lives.”

“Are you going to tell us what it was all about then? Are they Deviational in some way?”

“I suppose the truth will come out some time, anyway, and I’ll have to trust you,” said Mark. “You’ve heard of the raid from Waknuk district. On the Fringes?”

“Yes, we heard about it. Nearly all of the men got killed, so we heard. Dreadful business.”

“Did you know what the purpose of the raid was?”

“Something about intending to give the Fringes folk a hell of a beating,” replied Adrian. “Stopping them from ever raiding civilised parts again. Clearly they failed at that.”

“That wasn’t the whole of it,” continued Mark. “Fact is, several of my friends, including Michael and Rachel, have this ability to trans­mit their thoughts over a distance, to others with the same power. That’s all. I have a little of this power too, but in me it’s a lot weaker—it diminished after I was ill a few months ago, and I haven’t really recovered. Stephanie, here, well she never grew up with this ability, but in recent months she’s been developing it, in a limited way. My theory is, that spending one’s time in the company of a ‘thought-shaper’—as we call ourselves—causes one to begin to acquire the gift oneself. At any rate, Stephanie can transmit and receive a few thoughts—though not over any distance.”

“That’s very interesting,” put in Jack. “Did Michael ever read either of our thoughts? Did you read any of his, Adrian? Or mine?”

“Can’t say that I did,” replied Adrian. “Though I will say, there was always something strange about Michael. About how sometimes he seemed to know what I was about to say, before I said it. And then he was always so brilliant at school. Perhaps he was getting help from somewhere?”

“Perhaps he was,” admitted Mark, slyly. “Anyway, to continue: the people out to the west of here, Waknuk and surrounding areas, they got wind of it and they didn’t like it. They were afraid of us. So they pronounced us Deviations, and some of my friends had to flee for their lives. To the Fringes. I wasn’t caught up in it, nor were Michael and Rachel, simply because they didn’t know about the three of us. My other friends, those who weren’t captured, did manage to escape somehow, so I heard: Michael told me that they were rescued by some sort of aliens from another part of the world.

“But you can see what a risk we’re taking by telling you all this. We just have to trust you.”

“Oh you can trust us all right,” said Adrian. “Michael’s a good friend of ours, we’d never dream of betraying him, so why should we betray his friends? Besides, I’m not sure that what you’ve described is a ‘Deviation’. If ordinary people can pick up the habit, like Stephanie has, surely not! And don’t they say that the Old People had this ability to talk at a distance?”

“Well, all I can say is, we’re very grateful,” said Mark. “I wanted to get this off my chest, and I feel that if those thugs ever come your way again, it’d be better to know what it’s all about. So I think we’ll be wanting to set off first thing tomorrow. You couldn’t put us up, perhaps—”

But at this point Stephanie interrupted. “No, Mark, we can’t possibly impose on these good people in this way. Even if the trail has gone cold, wherever we are there’s danger. Surely we don’t want to put them to any more risk, not after what happened with Michael and Rachel? We’ll find a room at the inn.”

Mark saw the sense in this. So they took their leave of Jack and Adrian, after having enquired about inns in the town. They collected up their horses, and set out in search of the inn.