It had been too easy. As Vanwe and Silvanis had had their little talk on the grassy hillock the night before, Kaldir had listened for awhile before growing bored. What the two of them had had to say to one another was of little consequence to him. He already knew most of what Vanwe had had to impart. Leaving them to their conversation, he had stayed in the shadows and drifted around to the side of the inn to see what access was like to the upper rooms. What he found delighted him. Ivy grew up the walls and around the window of the room that housed Benia, the desert woman. He saw Gilly, the desert woman's hobbit friend come in and close the window during the night. Once he had waited awhile for her to get settled again, he simply scaled the ivy to the desert woman's second floor window and broke the latch, letting himself in. As luck would have it, Gilly slept in the adjacent room, posing no threat of interuption.
It had taken mere seconds for him to bind the woman foot and ankle, stuffing a handkerchief in her mouth to prevent her from crying out. She did awaken and start to struggle, but, when he reminded her softly that the first person to arrive and be slain would more than likely be Gilly, she simply closed her amber eyes and allowed him to sling her across his shoulder. He left the same way he had come in, carrying her away from the grounds of the Green Dragon on foot to a hiding place he had procured the day before he arrived at the inn. He was just returning to the inn for his horse when he heard the elf woman Lespheria cry out and fall from her horse. He saw Vanwe run to her aid.
Curious, but also concerned, as he had a liking and a sort of respect for Lespheria, Kaldir went to where she lay. He knealt down beside the elf women.
"What happened?" he asked Vanwe. Seeing no visible wounds on Lespheria, he was troubled by the way she had clutched her side before falling. "Is she ill?"
Vanwe whipped around to look at him, the sharp edge of fear in her eyes. Recognition and accusation registered there as well.
Kaldir shook his head. "Nay, I had nothing to do with the lady's misadventure," he told Vanwe, thinking all the while that here was another missed opportunity. If he had not felt such regard for Lespheria, he might have left her to her fate and grabbed Vanwe right then to add to his collection of captured fugitives. But, he wished no harm to befall Lespheria. Vanwe could carry on in her efforts to aid her. "I merely wish to help you," he added. "Do you think she could be moved? She would be better served and better cared for in the inn than out here in the stable."
Still obviously apprehensive of him, Vanwe nodded and stepped out of the way. Kaldir bent over Lespheria and gathered her up in his arms to carry her back to the inn.
[ July 12, 2003: Message edited by: Ealasaid ]
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