Rejoining Vissarion and Ivan....
"If you are sure you can walk on your own," said Vissarion without annoyance, "by all means do so, though you can change your mind if it hurts too much. I am your friend, not your kidnapper. But you need not worry too much about those women and girls. Three of them have special powers that you and I don't have. Besides, continuing to search for them, inside that rambling castle or whatever it is, might have taken _longer_ than this effort to find an inhabited settlement."