The road to the Black Lake was quite long. It felt like weeks had passed since dinner with David and Abigial, as if it had been days for Ewin since he had seen the black horseman. He could no longer feel anything but numbness on his shoulders carrying Yelis's stretcher. David had been quiet for a while. Ewin wasn't sure how long it had been since the murmurs had ceased. Reaching the black lake was their only hope. They tiredly tried to increase their speed, but their legs were moving slowly.Ewin finally fell to his knees. He checked Yelis' covers, tiredly. Yelis's breathing was regular. "What if they come back?" he said coldly.
"The wheel of fate turns as it pleases," said Aunt Abigial uneasily. "If they come back…We'll gather our strength and stop them," he said, and sighed, his face loosening as he bent his back. Ewin realized for the first time that Abigial was as frightened as he was, if not more. Uras nodded and looked at the firewall. "We'll get over it," Ewin said, encouragingly. We're always here." He gripped his stick tighter and his face hardened. "Don't worry, boy. Remember, we are followers of Tonka."
Ewin took one last look at the firewall as he walked away. They had seen the black-cloaked rider and felt his hatred. Wisdom dropped to her knees beside the gurney without giving her a glance. The dark circles in her eyes had become evident. He lowered the stretcher to the ground one last time. He felt Yelis's face and opened his eyelids with his thumbs. He frowned and pulled the covers down. Sighing, he smoothed the blanket up to Yelis's neck with a soft touch.
"We have to speed up," he said. Ewin's eyes fell on David. His breathing came out weary, gasping, and wheezing. The passengers continued their journey in silence.
Finally, the passengers managed to reach the Black Lake. They carried Yelis's stretcher to the sage's house in the black lake. When the sage bent over the bed, David and Abigial stopped talking and gave the sage an uneasy look. He ignored everyone except Bilge Yelis. He frowned at her and quickly left the room. Ewin looked after him.
The sage returned to the room. Ewin opened his mouth, but before he could speak, the sage said, "Leave me with him, Master Karmas. There's nothing you can do here but get in my way." Ewin hesitated for a moment, he couldn't disobey a sage. Finally, he patted David and Uras on the shoulder, "Come on. Let's leave Yelis to him."
When they cleared the room, Bilge lifted the sleeves of her dress up and spread her arms up to her elbows. His attention never left Yelis. His eyes slowly went from Yelis's feet to her head. Sage knelt beside the bed muttering to himself and placed his hands lightly on Yelis's chest. He closed his eyes and did not move or make a sound for a long time. Then he began to whisper something in a soft voice. After a while, when blue lights started pouring into the air from Yelis' chest, Bilge held up an object similar to a ram's horn in his hand. The Sage's hand holding the horn trembled as blue light began to filter through the ram's horn.