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managing to breath again, and offered a prayer to the Almighty.
    Gerome made two more passes then frowned as he concentrated again.  The gem faded back to off white.
    “ The Almighty has spoken,” Gerome boomed out.  “He has shown us the path we must take.  I will use the Amulet again tomorrow morning, for the agents of darkness are sly.  Let us give thanks…”
    The guards bowed their heads as Gerome prepared to lead the group in prayer.  Josef studied Gerome for slightly longer, noticing that the other man seemed tired, exhausted almost, his arms had a definite tremor.  Being so close to the power of the Almighty must have caused it Josef decided.  It was a power that mortals were not designed to hold — not even those of the Order.
    Josef bowed his head and closed his eyes as Gerome started the prayer.
     
     

Chapter Seven
    Daniel had tasks to deal with while the family slept.  He stood and walked over to his horse, who nuzzled his hand.
    “ You are hungry are you?  Let me see what I can find.”
    A search of the saddle bags produced two apples which the horse quickly devoured, before nuzzling him again.
    “That is all for now…”
    He stumbled to a halt, unable to recall the horses name.  He hoped he could remember it soon, simply calling the horse 'boy' would grow tiresome very quickly.  He had hope that it would, other things were coming back already.  He knew that most of the bags over the horse had belonged to him, though two smaller sacks secured tightly to the saddle hadn't.
    He started with his own bags first, finding the contents a mixture of the familiar and the unexpected.  Spare clothes, needle and thread, a waxed coat and other mundane items felt familiar.  So did the cooking implements. 
    Other items rang no bells at all.  He wasn't sure if that was due to his memory loss or because they had belonged to the bandit leader.  Amongst those items was a small, collapsible crossbow with bolts, two knives with ornately carved bone handles and a pair of shining metal wrist guards with intricate runes traced across them.  Most surprising of all was a small but thick leather-bound book.  Daniel pulled it out and examined it, letting it fall open at random pages.  Either the writing was in a language he didn't know or his mind was still scrambled, he couldn't make any sense of it.  None of the characters looked at all familiar.  He flicked through many pages looking for any pictures amongst the densely packed writing, but found none.  Only the writing changed, clearly it had been written by different people at different times.
    Replacing the book he finished checking through the packs.  Secured beside them he had already found a stout staff and a small spade.  He removed both.
    Stepping away from the horse and the family he used the staff first, tracing several characters and then words into the sandy dirt.  Being able to form the characters was a huge relief, as was being able to recognise the words.  He knew it could be that the characters he formed were incorrect, that only he would recognise them and that only because of his illness, but it didn't seem at all likely.  That made the book more of a puzzle.  Had he been carrying it, and if so why?  If it belonged to the bandit leader then what was he doing with it?  It didn't seem that valuable.  Had the leader been able to read it?
    Putting those thoughts aside he turned to his next job, sighing deeply as he did.  The dead bodies of the leader and his henchman needed to be cleared away before the family woke.  First Daniel searched them for anything useful.  The leader had a bag nearly full of coins, and wore several rings and other jewellery.  Daniel stripped them all.  At first he worried about what he was doing, worried it might open the door to the darkness again, but somehow it felt right.  The bandit leader had almost certainly stolen most of it anyway and Daniel wasn't depriving anyone else of the items.
    Next he