"Well, I'm glad one of you is talking some sense," Peschek the Slaver said, his cracked and yellow teeth bared as he deftly shoved one of his men into the path of a swung sword. The brief moment gained as the man fell with a blade in his gut was all the time Peschek needed to nimbly dance a few steps back, his cracking whip buying him a little bit of space. Out of the brawl, he looked around, rolled his eyes as he saw his untrained men falling like wheat to a scythe. Peschek knew as soon as the last of his slave drivers were down he'd be next, regardless of what the man from the mountains might choose to do. If they already wanted to keep the witch, so be it.<br/><br/>Peschek folded his whip over itself, skirted around the brawl to the young woman, the girl with the copper hair, cringing and panting. The old stories said that using too much magic would exhaust the sorcerer, especially an inexperienced one. Perfect.<br/><br/>The leather strap looped nicely around the girl's neck, her green eyes going wide as Peschek tried to position her to cover as much of him as possible. No sense in getting a crossbow bolt in the belly. He saw the last of his men fall, uselessly swinging his club as though it would save him from the obviously well-trained slaves. Their attention was on him.<br/><br/>"I'm out of patience here," he snarled from behind his human shield, tightening the noose ever so slightly. The girl with the copper hair could still breathe, but was otherwise completely in his power. He nodded to the mountain man. "Get horses. We ride to Maksenny. If any of you try to follow, I will choke the life out of<span style="font-style: italic">milashka</span>here."<br/><br/>"My name is Katerina, damn you," the girl grunted through grit teeth. Her lips, tinged with blue and flecked with exhausted foam, began to move in another whispered incantation. Peschek went pale, desperately tried to smother her words with a leathery hand over the mouth. He howled as her teeth bit into his thumb, hard enough to draw beads of blood, hard enough to make him let go, stumble back clutching his hand. There was nothing he could do.<br/><br/>The dropped whip rose into the air, untouched by any visible hand. Undulating with the fluid motion of a snake, it crawled through the air towards the gaping slaver, the strand wrapping itself around his legs, forcing his arms to his sides as it curled around his torso. "How tight would you like your bonds, slaver?" the girl with the copper hair asked tauntingly. "Tight enough to draw blood? To break bones?"<br/><br/>"Please," the man gasped. Trying to loosen himself, he fell to the ground, flexing uselessly against the whip wrapped around him. He had become almost like a spiraled bar of iron, inflexible.<br/><br/>"Lie down and have a rest, you lazy bastard," she said, something cruel in her green eyes. She looked towards the other slaves, weariness in her face as she bent over, exhausted. "We are free now. Where shall we go?" she asked. "I'm so, so tired. Please, someone carry me."