Chapter 18
The Invisible BindingThe next dawn found Wardyke alone and shivering, still tied to the stake beside the cold embers of his home. The villagers had all gone to get what rest they could before the excitement of the ceremony at the Sacred Circle. Only a stray dog was abroad, sniffing and lifting its leg against the blackened stumps of the great columns that had once held up the grandest house that had ever been in this village.
Wardyke was tired, stiff, dirty and cold. No one was guarding him and yet not one of the strangers had come to set him free. He saw some of them leaving with all their animals and their belongings in the early dawn, without so much as a backward glance. Bitterly his hungry eyes roamed the valley, trying to summon up some of his old will power, his old com
