Gershwin reached the city gates and headed out towards the lane to find a suitable inn for stealing horses. It was a good deal after dawn, and it was a good day to gather a herd. He found a likely target and was headed towards it when he heard the whistle ring out across the countryside.

He turned instinctively towards the south-west, and as his eyes locked on the horizon, a sharp and deafening ringing errupted in his left ear, stabbing through incessantly until he buckled at the knees and fell to the ground, hands pressed in hopes of alleviating the pain.

The door opened, and Marley looked up. Dawn had broken, so their trial would be soon. It was a good thing Kendra had managed a plan so soon. Otherwise, the escape wouldn't have been anywhere nearly so successful. As it was, Kendra had been small enough to fit through the bars and get the keys to unlock the cell. From there, the girls had managed to escape, leaving only Marley and Janice.

Marley had stayed because without a scapegoat, the men would not have stopped pursuing the girls. She would martyr herself so that they could run to a different town and live. Lina knew enough that she was almost a healer. Another few months, and she would have gotten her ink as well. Marley had to stay, if only to protect them all.

Lord only knew why Janice had stayed.

But they were playing their parts up well. Several of the girls had risked a trip to the house and found a more risque change of clothes for them to wear. If they were supposed to be witches, harlots of the devil, then why not look the part?

Janice certainly played her part well, draping herself around the cell in the brightly-colored sheer cloths that had been Marley's upstairs curtains. Marley herself had cinched her skirts high with red ribbons, revealing her snow-white thighs above her gartered stockings. Her working clothes had been exchanged for a dress of significantly lower cut, and her breasts were wrapped to push them up out the top in a more heaving display. The girls had also brought back a bunch of fresh redwineberries to brighten their lips to a most hedonistic shade of red.

Then, they had disappeared into the night, Kendra having locked the doors behind them before leaving with the girls 'to keep them safe', she had explained.

When dawn broke, Marley started to feel the weight of their soon-to-be sacrifice starting to bear down on her. Janice, however, was quite comfortable leaning against the bars in an alluring, seductive manner, lips half-way open, back arched in just that way that Marley had seen other girls use to drive men wild. She moved so naturally, Marley was almost certain that wasn't Janice.

But then, it could well be. She hadn't known the woman nearly long enough to guess when her changes happened, or even if such a change would happen again. The snake poison had all but left her system, and so far as they could tell, that was what had triggered the strange episode that landed them here.

But yes. The door opened, and Marley looked up to see a group of soldiers trouncing down the stairs. She crossed the cell and leaned her hands out the bars, Janice holding most of her weight up with the iron, her knees bending a little, looking out from lowered lids in a way that made Marley blush to look at.

"Hello, soldier," she purred in that same tone of voice she'd used on the general. So she wasn't in there, after all, Marley decided. "Fancy a roll in the hay?"

The soldier smacked the bars with a wooden rod where their fingers were sticking out, and the two of them shrank back.

"Naughty naughty," Janice chided with a coy smirk as she pressed herself up against the bars and snaked a hand out to grope the soldier's crotch. "You'll bruise my little fingers, and you won't like that at all, because then you'll be missing the best part." She paused, her tongue pressed to the corner of her mouth, before looking towards the door. "Isn't that right, Liam?"

Marley just leaned on the bars and watched, not seeing any need to intercept the two of them a second time, especially since that first time worked out so well. The soldier at hand beat her back into the cell and straightened his pants, and Janice actually winked at him before retreating to the little bench in the back, lounging languidly on it.

As General Farrows descended the steps, he was followed by a pair of soldiers toting a third body, whom they proceeded to haul into the cell beside theirs, separated only by a line of bars. Janice eyed the body with a cold, critical eye, but Marley recognized it immediately as belonging to Feivel, the Tribesman who had brought Janice here.

"Now that we've caught the three of you, we're free to start the trial," General Farrows said.

"If you think these wads of meat concern me, Liam, you're vastly mistaken. By the time I'm finished, this town will know the truth of it, be it my life or theirs on the line," Janice reported coldly.

Marley looked away, trying to hide her horrified expression from the men. She knew they were going to die, but hearing it fall from Janice's bright red lips so readily was not something she was willing to handle. If the other woman were silent, or at least emboldened, things would have been easier to handle.

"If you think your brave words concern me, witch, you have much to learn and little time to learn it in."

He left, and as soon as the door closed behind the lot of them, Janice rushed over to the bars. "Feivel!" she hissed slightly more coherant than they'd seen her since she arrived and definitely not anyone named Lenra, Petra, Sadie, or anything similar.

"What are you doing?" he groaned from the floor in a slurred manner that made Marley certain half his face was swollen.

"I should ask you the same thing," she answered merrily.

He looked up at her, then looked down and groaned. "You're not good to me, you know that? You're really quite troubling, and I don't appreciate it."

Janice laughed lightly.

"We're screwed," he muttered, dragging himself up to his elbows. Marley crouched down beside Janice in such a way that Feivel wouldn't be able to look up her skirt. "Hello, ma'am," he muttered to her.

"What happened to your ears?" Marley asked.

Feivel's hands went to his ears and came away bloody, bright red. His light hazel eyes flashed completely black for a split second, and she blinked down at him as she was sure she'd seen his teeth much sharper than usual. Marley backed up slowly, but Janice wasn't the least perturbed by this.

"There, there," she said warmly. "We'll get them back." She reached her hand into the cell with him, twisting her fingers through his loose curls until he collapsed again to his side, his breathing shallow but steady.