Neither of them is Gifted, it turns out, and he can read their surface thoughts just fine. They're bored and annoyed at being sent out for 'busywork', and having a side conversation with each other; he can't quite follow the words, they're speaking another language, but the leers and teasing lechery are clear in their thoughts. 

They get within fifty yards of the downed tree, picking their way along the stones beside the creekbed, and don't seem to suspect anything yet. 

He doesn't try to follow their conversation; their personal lives aren't tactically relevant and definitely aren't his business. 

When they're close to his position and out of sight and earshot of their camp, he grabs them both in a force-net.

They're so startled! They start trying to scream for help; the camp is probably not in earshot, it's nearly a mile away, but still. 

Aaaaaa shit shit he doesn't know how to make them shut up shit. He drags them towards where the guards are hiding and Fetches their swords out of their hands.

The Guards swarm out and efficiently gag both of them with bits of cloth. "This is going to make it hard to question them," one of them hisses to Abras in a low voice. "Guess we could haul them further away?" 

"I can set up a thing so nobody except us can hear them," he says, because he just now remembered that sound-barriers are a thing, because he is a moron. He puts one up and checks the camp again to see if they're reacting like they heard something.

A couple of the children, ankles still bound so they can't run, have been put to work by the creek, scrubbing burnt crust from the bottom of pots with handfuls of sand, and they're blinking and peering that way, but most of the men are gossiping loudly by the smoking-meat firepit and haven't noticed a thing. 

Hang in there, kids. He and also several people who know what they're doing will be there soon. 

Abras has to stop watching to cast the Truth Spell; he goes right to the second level and looks at the nearest Guard in the hope he'll know what questions to ask.

Herald Jores is the one who steps in with questions, yanking the gag from one of the men's mouths. "How long have you been taking children and how many," he says flatly. 

The man wriggles, clearly trying to resist the Truth Spell, but it's futile.

     "Three years," he answers in accented Valdemaran. "Fourteen." 

Surprised blink, glance at Abras. "You have fourteen children in the camp now?" 

     "No."

"How many." 

     "Eight." 

"What about the others." 

     "Handed off." 

Herald Jores sighs, clearly irritated. "To whom." 

     "Didn't give a name."

"Do you know where they were taken." 

     "North." 

"...Do you know who wanted them." 

     "No."

Herald Jores makes a face at Abras. "Do you have a guess." 

     The man squirms and digs his nails into his fists and finally is forced to spit out an answer. "M-Master Dark." 

Abras has questions about how many mages and other Gifted they have and their capabilities. He also has suspicions but those need to wait.

They have six moderate-strength mages (the man claims "Master level") and three with minimal hedge-wizard potential; one of those also has a touch of Healing. They're not aware of other Gifts and the man being interrogated seems to barely have heard of other Gifts at all; none of the bandits are Mindspeakers. 

They have two adult hostages intended for emergency blood-magic, hidden in a shed that Abras apparently didn't check. They also have an artifact or focus that gives them wards and shielding. Supplied by Master Dark. 

The fact that they have adult hostages does not at all persuade him that they won't kill the kids too if they think they're going to lose otherwise, but it's good to know. Abras gets a description of the shielding artifact and its location and asks Herald Jores, "Think we have enough to go in? I want to move before they decide this one's been gone too long." 

Herald Jores frowns. "What's our plan, lad? Anything you can do to take down the shield so we can, you know, actually get in?" 

"If I can find the thing with Farsight I can try to Fetch it over here, and that should disrupt what it's doing?" He meant that to sound more like a statement.

Herald Jores nods sagely. "Clever plan. I suppose we know your Farsight works through the shield - do we know that your Fetching does? I think that's about as hard to shield as Farsight, so if it doesn't block the one it probably won't do the other either, but you're more the expert here." 

"If it does shield against Fetching I can try just getting close and blasting it--but it might set off some kind of alarm along with the shield and if it works they'll notice it going down, so we should be ready to move right after I try it either way. I'm thinking I focus on the mages and everyone else focuses on the rest."

"That makes sense to me. Hmm. We should sneak up closer, I think, it doesn't look like their sentries are especially attentive and you can sense anyone nearby with Thoughtsensing, no? And then you give us the go-ahead and take the shields down however seems best, and we'll move all at once, yes?" 

"Agreed. I'll Mindspeak you if anyone notices us or when I'm about to try for the shield." And then he and Yfandes can start moving slowly forward. He's not looking forward to this, not at all, but there's a level on which it's good to be moving, to be doing something, to be on the way out of the horrible pre-battle waiting that's so often worse than the thing itself.

:You're doing really well, Chosen. I'm right here with you: 

There are some un-Gifted minds outside the shields (which do seem to block Thoughtsensing, even once he's closer he can't sense the minds inside.) They're bored and not that attentive and seem oblivious to his presence even as he draws quite close. 

Once they get as close as he dares to get, he searches with Farsight for the shield artifact. Is it where the prisoner said it would be?

Yes, there it is! It's about a handspan across, a single polished sphere of quartz nestled in the grass in the centre of the compound. 

Then he's going to tell Yfandes and Herald Jores, :I'm about to go for the shield,: and tries to Fetch it to a few yards in front of himself.

- and the wards lash at him as the barrier comes down in a crash of wild magic. The crystal sphere is suddenly a few yards ahead of him. It glows faintly to mage-sight, as though almost alive. 

:Got it down!: They can't have failed to notice that, so now the important thing is charging in at speed. That and trying to isolate the mages.