They're huddled together near the wagon that the bandits were trying to shove them into. Most of them are still tied up; several are crying quietly. The girl who looks like the mayor's wife seems to have gotten herself out of her bindings - based on the smell of burnt rope and the red marks on her wrists, she did it with some sort of mage-fire - and is reassuring the others while she works on getting them untied. She doesn't have a knife or anything and is trying to unpick the knots rather than scorching the others. 

Her head jerks up at the sound of Yfandes' hooves. "- Herald?" she says uncertainly. "Are you - did you rescue us - thank you..." 

"You're all going to be okay," he says, moving to untie someone she hasn't gotten to yet. "Good job escaping."

She bobs her head, looking shyly away. "Thank you. How did you find us?" 

"The Guard found" don't mention the dead body to the traumatized child "evidence that the kidnappers were in the area and then I saw the aftereffects of the magic they were doing. It looks like you have a Gift of your own?"

"I - I think so. I didn't - I hadn't told anyone..." She looks abashed now. 

He's not totally sure what she's embarrassed about, so he just says, "Well, it looks like you got pretty good at controlling it on your own, so congratulations."

Since he does have a belt knife it doesn't take long to free the rest of the kids; reassuring them might take longer.

They're pretty scared, but in a quiet curled-up way, not hysterical. 

:You're doing great: Yfandes assures him. 

And eventually Herald Jores comes tromping over. "Think it's just cleanup here. Trying to decide if it makes more sense to trap the mages here, in some sort of barrier, or haul them back to the gaol in town. Probably the latter's safer but it'll be more of a hassle." 

"What would you need me to do, for that?"

"Hmm. Can you Gate them back to town?" 

"I, uhhhh, I'm really bad at Gates. Sorry," Abras informs the ground.

"- Oh, right, that's fine. Well, we can tie them to horses, if you keep them magically restrained and ride with them in case they try anything, that should be manageable?" 

"Yeah, that I can do." And when he gets back to Haven he needs to figure out how to stop being awful at Gates.

It takes a while to figure out horse arrangements. The children really don't want to go into the wagon they were about to be hauled off in, but also most of them are too weakened from their poor treatment to walk as far as the village. The bandits have a few horses but not enough to carry all of them. 

Eventually they're all divvied up among the Guards' horses plus the bandits' spares, two bandits tied together on each horse. Two of the children can ride double with Jores and Abras, and the rest can be carried by Guards. 

Abras makes sure the kid riding with him is steady enough in the saddle (it shouldn't be hard; Yfandes wouldn't let either of them fall) and then focuses on keeping the captive mages from trying anything.

The captive mages are very cowed. They don't try anything. Neither do the un-Gifted bandits. 

There's a rather impressively large crowd in the town square waiting for them. They see Abras and cheer. "Herald Abras! Herald Abras!" someone starts chanting. Others join in. 

Aaaaaaa what. Do not want.

It turns out he cannot sneak off and hide while riding a Companion through a town square. He can stare at Yfandes' mane and turn pink instead.

Yfandes, rudely, is mentally chuckling about it! :Chosen, come on, let them have their celebration. They're incredibly relieved that the children and the two adult hostages are safe: 

(The women are a lot calmer now, and walking alongside the Guards carrying or riding with the children, keeping them soothed as well as they can.) 

Herald Jores is calling out to the crowd, shooing them out of the way, so that they can reach the stables.

Abras is also relieved that the rescued people are safe! It's good that everyone is happy but that's no reason why people should go looking at him. He should focus on getting everyone where they need to go. Also he should probably take a quick Healing-Sight look at the bandits he froze and see what exactly he did.

They're mostly all right now, although still shivering, and kind of groggy and sluggish. It looks like he gave them mild frostbite on some exposed body parts, but it should heal without their losing any fingers or toes. It's also affecting their bodies more broadly, in some vague hard-to-pinpoint way, just - slowing, dimming their life-force. They certainly don't seem to be in any shape to do magic right now, which is convenient. 

Convenient, but also he should definitely improve his fine control so he can be reliably non-lethal with it. This time only worked because Yfandes was paying attention.

The gaol isn't going to have any trouble holding them, right? Also he's going to want to question them under Truth Spell and see if they know of any other groups doing the same thing. Possibly tomorrow, actually; now that it's finally sinking in that the fight is over he mostly just wants to go somewhere quiet with no other people and sleep.

Herald Jores has some ideas for the gaol. "I think you'd better put a barrier up. And maybe restrain just their hands with magic? Hmm, and if possible, can you do wards that'll make an alarm if they try doing magic, so we can respond?" 

A barrier and an alarm shouldn't be too difficult. Restraining just their hands isn't something he's done before, but he can try it. (He tries experimenting on himself first, but has to fight off another stupid wave of panic and gives up on that.)