A week later, she was wondering what could be grand about all this plodding. It seemed that the road would just go on forever, with the two of them doomed to follow it until they died. They had passed through several small towns, most around the size of Land's End, though a few were somewhat bigger, but other than the people in them being generally fairer skinned and lighter haired they were exactly like home. She wished she could take to the air and fly, she was sure she could make the trip in just a few days and skip all this tedious trudging, but she still wasn't sure if she wanted to tell Janus her great secret or not. She voiced her complaints, minus the bit about flying, to Janus, but he had no sympathy for her woes.

"Just be grateful that we've had no excitement, Serali, because the only excitement available on this part of the road would be bandits, and we're better off being bored."

"I thought you said that you could handle anything that happened?"

"And I can, but it's one of the first lessons that a mage needs to learn, though many never do, is that you don't use power if you don't have to. I could take care of an attack, but why should I want to waste power when the best thing all around is to not have to use it in the first place? Besides, I hate to see people get hurt, and if we were attacked, there would be hurts a-plenty. Though not," he added with a grin, "to either of us."

Serali grinned back. "I hope not, because..."

She didn't get to finish her sentence, because just then an arrow whizzed out of the trees that grew thickly on either side of the road, passing only a yard or so ahead of the pair. They both halted and looked over at the spot where the shaft had originated. There was nothing to see but greenery. They'd left the desert a day or so before and were in greener lands now, and the forest was so thick you could have hid an army in it.

A voice spoke from amid the trees. "Stop right there," said the voice, authoritatively, "otherwise, I'll have to have my boys here put a shaft or two through you."

Janus sighed and refrained from pointing out that they had already stopped. "If you insist, sir. Though I'd rather speak to someone I can see, if you don't mind."

"I think I might mind," said the voice. "I can skewer you from right here, so why should I come out?"

"Well for one thing because for all I know you're bluffing and there's just you. So if I don't see any evidence to the contrary, I think I'll just continue on my way," said Janus calmly. Serali was feeling anything but calm, but she kept still and tried to keep from showing how nervous she was.

"Oh, I'm not bluffing at all. Come on out, boys."

From the woods on both sides emerged a number of raggedly clad men. Each one held a spear or a long bow. At first is seemed there must be hundreds to Serali's frightened eyes, but a closer look showed their numbers to be only a dozen or so. That's still more than enough to kill the two of us, she thought. Though Janus said he could take care of anything... But what if he can't? I don't want to die here! She took a breath and tried to calm herself as the men surrounded them. Suddenly she remembered the summer four years ago. She'd dealt with bandits then easily enough! If it looked like Janus couldn't deal with them, she didn't need to worry. She could just change into her dragon form and squish them all. With that heartening thought she was able to stop trembling and give the men a closer look. They were of all ages and sizes and colors, the one thing they all had in common was an air of desperate ferocity. The apparent leader of the group was a large man dressed in clothes only slightly less ragged than those worn by his men.

His hair was dirty blond, and he stood only in inch shorter than Serali's six foot two, but he was much broader. He carried a long bow of mammoth proportions and he had an arrow to the string, not quite drawn, but ready to shoot in mere seconds all the same.

"You see, here we are. I wasn't bluffing. Too bad isn't it?"

"Yes." Janus agreed, shaking his head sorrowfully. "I was hoping that I wouldn't have to resort to drastic measures." The he looked the bandit in the eye. "I will warn you once and once only. There is a reason you've found no competition in this area. You just moved in without a thought to why the forest is empty, didn't you? Well, I come through here every other year, and whenever I find bandits, I deal with them. I dislike hurting people, but I dislike banditry even more. I am a mage of no small ability, and you will no doubt regret it greatly if you don't take my warning and leave right now."

Several of the bandits looked nervous at this proclamation, but their leader only laughed. "You say you're a frog-maker, eh? Well where's you robe, where's your crystal staff? Don't tell me that stick you're carrying is it!" He shouted to his men. "Come on, he's no mage. I've seen mages, and they're nothing like this little runt. He's the one who's bluffing." He pulled back his arrow and aimed it directly at Janus.

He ought to have shot me the minute I spoke, thought Janus critically. He's obviously new at this. He grinned cheerfully at the bandit. He's going to be surprised!

Janus took a pinch of powder out of one of his pouches and threw it into the air in front of the bandit. Whispering a string of syllables, he willed the powder to life. Suddenly the air in front of the bandit was on fire. The man let out a shocked yelp and fired his arrow, but it simply vanished into the flames and didn't come out again. Then the flames rushed at him and over him. He yelled again and dropped to the ground. That didn't help him any. The fire clung to him, flickering with green and blue as well as the usual flame colors. His men began yelling, running off into the forest in all directions. The leader screeched horribly, rolling on the ground in a futile effort to quench the flames before he collapsed and was still. Immediately the fire faded. Serali looked at the bandit in horrified fascination, and was surprised to see no sign of burning on him at all.

"What did you do to him?" she asked curiously. "And why isn't he burned?"

"The fire was only in his mind. It caused him as much pain as real flame, but it couldn't actually harm him. It wouldn't have even hurt if he hadn't expected it to."

"What will we do with him now?"

Janus looked down with pity on the still form. "He's no harm to any one any more. After what happened here, he'll have lost too much face. I doubt he'll even try to regain his control over the other bandits, and I think that a great many of them may be re-thinking their profession right now."

"Why didn't you use real fire? Wouldn't that have been easier?"

"Yes, it would have. But I told you before, I don't like to hurt people when I don't have to. This way he learned a lesson without any serious damage."

"But what if he didn't learn his lesson?"

"Well, I suppose I can make sure of it." He nudged the bandit with one foot, none too gently. "Wake up you."

The man sat up, and then promptly cringed away from Janus, looking utterly terrified. Janus gave him a cold look. "I've put a geas on you. If you haven't turned yourself in at Brighting inside of a week, the fire will come back, and this time you'll just keep burning."

The man actually whimpered. "Please, I'll be hung if I go to Brighting."

"I'll put in a word with the guard captain when I reach town myself in two days. Come in after then, and maybe he'll only put you in prison."

The man stuttered out a brief thanks and scrambled backwards, away from the mage. He got to his feet and pelted off into the woods.

Janus looked at Serali. "Well that was exciting! But now we should be going. We need to make Brighting in two days." He set off down the road at a brisk pace.

Serali, thoroughly amazed, turned and went after him.