Arie dragged the man back to Raoul's tent. She heard the him speaking to who she assumed was the different leaders of her group and his own subordinates.

"I just don't know how we are going to carry all the wounded," Flynn said.

"We aren't leaving them to be fodder for this." That was Raoul.

"It will take weeks just to get them there, we don't have any way to transport-."

Arie cleared her throat as she entered the tent. Everyone turned and looked at her. Arie recognized the leaders of her band; Abba and Mac, while Raoul's second in command stood alongside several others in military gear.

"I have a solution."

A slight smile spread across Raoul's face. Though his expression turned sour when his gaze moved to the man she had been dragging along beside her. The young commander gestured two of the others to take him off Arie. No small relief since he was basically dead weight. Raoul waited for the man to be taken away for his smile to return. Very much looking the part a relieved man. Though he didn't seem surprised that she had a way out for them. Her own people looked at her with surprise and relief. They clearly did not want to be left here to face more raids without extra hands.

"When I left, I asked a friend to look at getting a few wagons so that wounded could be moved quickly and safely if need be. He seems to have come through on his end."

Flynn listened to her vague explanation with suspicion and asked, "And where exactly did you get-?"

Raoul elbowed him, cutting off what he was about to ask. They all knew perfectly well her friend had probably obtained them through shady methods, but they needed the wagons to move the injured, otherwise they'd have even more dead. Seems there was a time to be noble and time to swallow your pride, Arie thought bitterly. At least Raoul seemed to be able to, Flynn still looked miffed.

"As I am not the one who retrieved them, I have no idea where they came from. However, I can vouch that they will be returned once we are done with them. I'm sure several of my people can even mend them so they are in better condition upon their return to wherever they came from. At the moment though, I don't care where they came from or how they were obtained. We all need them to move our sick and injured. And we need to do it now." Arie saw Flynn and several others raised their eyebrows at her. Some looked like they would even protest. "If you have a problem with this then this where we part ways. I will take my people and those who are too injured to travel by horseback away from here and see to it they are safe." She didn't mention that she would then work from the shadows to do what she could. Already they looked worried at the idea of losing two of three people present who could fight against the poison. Raoul cleared his throat.

"That won't be necessary, if you are sure they will be returned with reasonable compensation to the owners." Now his expression darkened "And the gentleman that you brought back here?"

Arie shrugged. "He was dressed like and with the others that broke into the camp. He, however lacks signs of possession that the others seemed to have had."

Raoul nodded his understanding and quickly wrote down a message. He then had Lerant called in and passed the note off to him with whispered instructions.
Uneasy, Arie asked, "What are you going to do with him?" She did not want to hand the man over to die, but on other hand she didn't want him reporting back to his master either, but she also couldn't baby sit him forever.

"We will hold him with the other man you managed to detain. They will be questioned and then once we are sure we have all the information from them they if they were willing participant they will be handed over to Provost's guard where the courts will deal with them."

Arie let out a small breath of relief.

"What about the search?"

"Everyone who isn't watching over the wounded are being gathered. They should be ready."

Arie suddenly realized with a start she never checked the people in this room or the men that had taken away her prisoner. She cursed herself under her breath for being so careless. Quickly, she brought her Gift to her eyes and checked the people in room with her. Thankfully, there was no tell-tale signs of poison. She let out a sigh of relief, that was too careless, she thought to herself, one day that was going to come back to bite her.

Raoul led her out to where all the people; who were fit enough to stand, were lined up. Neal waited for her, and together they walked the lines of people. In the end found only two who had the barest beginnings of poison. Both of them were part of the group that was left of the village Sea King. The first was a husband to one of the band's leaders the other was son of the fur trader who had gone off with those infected with the poison. Neal and Arie took them aside and drew out the poison. Mercifully, it was nowhere near as taxing as the other healings had been due to having not even beginning to manifest systems. Once that was done, Arie checked on Zev who was staying with the wounded. Everything was fine there too.

"Too fine," Zev muttered. "They had plenty of time to cause mischief so why didn't they?"

"Or maybe they didn't just infect people." With that thought she went to the makeshift well that the band had been forced to dig after being cast out. Sure enough, the telltale blackness swirled thickly in its depths. Arie swore and went back to the main tent and informed Raoul what she found.

"Anyone who has drawn water from it needs to dump it now. I can clean out anything used to hold it, but it will take too long the clean the well. After everything has been searched, we need to leave."

"We can't leave a poisoned well for just anyone to come across either."

"I can block the well, but we need to move these people to safety, now." Even after having been in Raoul's company for as long as she had she still expected the man to bristle at her giving a command, but instead he nodded and gave the order for all the water and food that may have come in contact with the poisoned water to be dumped. Soon, everyone who couldn't ride was loaded into the wagons including the few children that were left. Arie was about to climb up on SandStorm's back when a small hand grabbed the hem of her cloak. She turned to find Jess clinging to her cloak.

"I'm staying with you." Her small voice quivered, but there was steel in her. Arie sighed then pulled her up on SandStorm's back. Her horse friend eyed the child.

(*Don't let her kick me.*)

(*Don't be such a colt*), Arie told him as she adjusted herself better. (*You good to walk through the night?*)

(*I'm not a colt to get startled by the darkness.*)

(*I wasn't worried about that.*)

(*I know, I will be fine. You should rest while you can.*)

Arie yawned. (*Not likely to happen.*)

"They are following."

Arie looked down at Jess, but the girl was looking back at the group of ghosts that were drifting along behind the wagons. Arie nearly jerked on the reins when she realized the child could actually see them.

"You see them?"

Jess nodded, but didn't take her eyes off the ghosts. "A man can too."

"Which man?"

Jess shrugged. "He was wounded and with you when you came to the village."

"Could you point him out?"

Jess nodded. Arie sat back and considered this. How on earth was Jess able to see the ghosts and why could she see them and others not, she wondered. Slowly she drifted off to sleep in the saddle.