[Susan Delgado]

Remdil watched his wife pack with an astonishment he shouldn't have felt after knowing her for so many years. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore.
"What are you doing?" He uttered in a preternaturally shrill voice.
"Packing," She replied, calm as ever.
Supressing an irritated sigh, he said, "I can see that. Why are you packing? It's the middle of the night."
"Don't you want to find our daughter?"
No response but a snort. She shrugged and continued her packing.
Remdil tried again. "What I meant was, why can't you wait until morning? Or at least daylight."
"The longer we wait, the farther ahead they are."
"But, Eolinda, it's night. They must be camped."
For the first time she stopped what she was doing and turned to face him. "Oh, Remdil, dearest husband, don't be stupid."
"What?! What do you mean, 'stupid'?"
She gave an exasperated sigh. "When did they leave?"
"Yesterday at dawn."
"And how far do you think they could have gotten in a day? A fair way, I'd say. They had horses, didn't they? Of course they did," she said, not waiting for his reply. "Now, we can wait around here and allow them to still be a full day ahead of us, or we can set out now and shorten their lead by several hours. Which do you think is the wiser course?"
Remdil didn't bother answering. He knew when he was beaten.

Just then, Razawyn popped her head in through the doorway. "I got horses," she said cheerily.
Remdil looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Where?" He asked suspiciously.
She glanced around the room, refusing to meet his eyes. "Oh, you know, they were...around," she said a bit vaguely.
Remdil sighed. "They aren't the inn's, are they?"
Razawyn widened her eyes in mock innocence. "Of course not! They were in a field."
"Stop!!" Eolinda suddenly burst out. She was very confused by the exchange between Razawyn and her husband and she was not a woman who relished the feeling of confusion. "What is going on here?"
Remdil uncomfortably told her of Razawyn's part in the excitement of the previous two nights and of her part in Livia's kidnapping. He ended with, "But she's helping us now, so we shouldn't do anything hasty!" As he restrained his incenced wife from going after the Elf's throat.
"Fine," Eolinda said as she starightened herself, "I'll use her but I'll never trust her."
"Oh, and she's a horse thief," Remdil said.
"And my real name's Dineniel," The Elf added.
Eolinda just threw up her hands and finished packing.

When they got out to the horses, though, she stopped dead. "Those are Ailin's horses!" She exclaimed, "We can't take those! Put them back immediately!"
Remdil shook his head. "We have no choice. We'll bring them back when we come back to town. We're only borrowing them."
Muttering deprecations under her breath, Eolinda allowed Remdil to help her mount and the three of them rode away from Garolin, into the darkness of the Wild.

[ September 17, 2002: Message edited by: Susan Delgado ]