[Ealasaide]

Benia

As Benia listened to Dulrain recount a series of adventures and misadventures he had shared with Kaldir as a youth, she found her heart warming to him and to the often silent and forbidding bounty hunter. She glanced out into the darkening night in the direction Kaldir had taken, thinking over the things Dulrain had said. So, Kaldir had not always been as he was when she ran afoul of him. What was it that Kaldir himself had said to her back in the deserted wine shop in Bree? I wasn’t always the monster you see before you.

“No,” Benia whispered to herself, gazing into the darkness. “You weren’t, were you?” Turning her attention back toward the wounded Ranger at her side, she smiled as Dulrain broke off his narrative and faced her.

"So how is it,” he asked. “That such a sweet and beautiful desert rose found herself so far north as to have been snared by a misguided ranger and forced into this hapless adventure?"

Benia laughed. “Hapless misadventure, to be sure!” She shrugged. “To be honest, I was born with only one foot in the desert. Only my mother was of the Painted Sand. My father was a Bree man.” Sensing Dulrain’s interest and forgetting her usual reticence regarding her own history, Benia launched into the tale of her mother’s flight from Harad all those years ago and her subsequent capture by the Rohirrim horse patrol that had led her eventually into the arms of Jack Nightshade. She told him of her own birth in the desert of Harad and her family’s subsequent return to Rohan and Eriador where they were hounded by bounty hunters. When she reached the part in the tale of how Gilly had played a role in saving them from pursuers in the Shire, Dulrain laughed softly.

“I should have known!” he said, looking out in the direction Gilly had gone in search of firewood. “They always say that hobbits are made of tougher stuff than they appear. She’s quite the heroine, isn’t she?”

Benia nodded solemnly. “To me, she is. And my dearest friend in the world. The only reason she is here on this little adventure is that she refused to let me fall into our friend Kaldir’s hands without a fight.”

Dulrain nodded, his grey eyes studying her face. “Has Kaldir treated you well?”

Benia cocked her head to one side and thought for a long moment. “Yes, he has,” she answered finally. “To be honest, I can’t figure him out. I think when he carried me away from the inn, he intended to kill me, just as my mother was killed for a bounty. Something stayed his hand - I don’t know what - and, since then, he hasn’t seemed particularly interested in parting company with us, either amicably or otherwise. Oh, he used to threaten us quite regularly with disembowelment and all sorts of unpleasant things, but, in actuality, he has never so much as slapped either of us on the wrist.” She paused. “Well, he did give Gilly a rather nasty rope burn at one point but I think it was more to make a point than to do her any injury.”

“Unusual for a bounty hunter, wouldn’t you say?” asked Dulrain.

“I would certainly say!” interjected Gilly, coming around the edge of the briar hedge with a bundle of dry sticks in her hand. Adding a handful of them to the fire, she walked off in the direction of the packs and began dragging out an assortment of cooking implements. “I’d also say these hills are fairly crawling with Rangers. Did you know I ran into another one of your ilk? He rode up as I was collecting wood.”

“He’s the one Kaldir had words with in Chetwood a few days back,” she added to Benia.

“An older fellow? With a wounded face?” asked Dulrain. When Gilly nodded, he smiled. “That would be my companion, Rauthain. We were traveling together. Did you happen to see where he was off to?”

“Oh, he went to find Mr. Kaldir,” answered Gilly. “I reckon they’re having words again by now.”

************************************************** *

Kaldir

Kaldir had been working for some time stacking the dead bodies of the orcs at a safe distance downwind from the camp, then building a cairn of stones over the top of them. He was surprised to be joined by Rauthain, who appeared out of the darkness to lend a hand. Tired and irritable to begin with, the sight of his old betrayer made Kaldir snappish as well. He let a few harsh comments fly without even looking up from his work. The old Ranger, on the other hand, seemed to be in a more magnanimous frame of mind and let the barbs pass without response, merely asking after the well-being of Dulrain. Before long, the subject turned to the direction they should take from where they currently camped.

Kaldir was not surprised when Rauthain suggested that they make straight for Rivendell in order to put Dulrain as quickly as possible into the hands of the Elven healers who still resided there. In fact, Kaldir had already come to the decision that they would do just that before Rauthain ever entered the picture. What did surprise him was Rauthain’s suggestion that he, Rauthain, take not only Dulrain, but the two women as well, and make for Rivendell by road, leaving Kaldir to continue along Naiore’s trail through the Lonelands alone.

Kaldir grew silent for a time. "No, Rauthain, you keep to the trail and I will see Dúlrain and the others safely there," he answered slowly, placing the last stone on top of the cairn covering the dead orcs. While he felt strongly that he should bear the responsibility of getting Dulrain into the Elven Houses of Healing himself, he was also quite loathe to hand over the women into Rauthain’s hands and watch as they all rode happily away into the sunset. In short, it simply wasn’t going to happen. He had carried them with him too far simply to hand them over and wave them good-bye. Even as much as he disliked the idea of abandoning Naiore’s trail across the Lonelands, Kaldir disliked the idea of losing Benia so quickly even more. Naiore represented Death, but Benia, to him, meant life, possibly even a future. If he let her go now, that future would never materialize. Scowling darkly, he shook his head.

“No,” he muttered under his breath, pushing past Rauthain in the direction of the campsite. “You can’t have her.”

Rauthain’s hand caught his arm. “Who, Kaldir?”

Kaldir looked down at the gloved hand on his arm, then smiled slowly with the unmarred side of his face, his pale eyes glittering in the moonlight. “Do you think I speak of Naiore?” he asked quietly. “Do you think I serve a new mistress?”

“Do you?” asked Rauthain.

Kaldir laughed and twitched his sleeve out of Rauthain’s grip. “Who did you serve when you left me to die? Ask yourself that. When you have an acceptable answer, then you may question me.”

“I served my king and my captain. I made a mistake that I have regretted sorely for many dark days since,” answered Rauthain calmly. “That is the only answer I have for you or will ever have for you. But now, before I release my friend and compatriot, wounded and vulnerable as he is, into your hands, I must know. Do you serve Naiore?”

Kaldir’s eyes narrowed. “If I did, do you think Dulrain would still breathe?” He placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. “Do you think I would let you walk away from this meeting alive?” He drew his sword six inches above the top of the scabbard. “Do you think I would not be working her will even as we speak?”

Rauthain stepped back and placed his own hand on the hilt of his sword.

The two of them remained in a standoff for a long moment before Kaldir shook his head and slid his sword the rest of the way back into the scabbard. “I would sooner cast myself into the fires of Orodruin than serve that Elven witch,” he snarled at last. “May she be flayed alive sooner than she see another dawn.” With that, he turned and walked back to the camp, leaving Rauthain alone in the darkness behind him.

When he arrived back into the warmth of the campfire, Kaldir found Gilly and Benia seated on either side of Dulrain, all of them sharing in a pot of stew. Gilly was talking - as usual - telling some long, involved tale of old happenings in the Shire. When she saw Kaldir, she broke off abruptly. He bid her to continue with a gesture and retreated to a quiet spot a short distance away, where he could keep watch, not only for intruders but on what was happening within the camp as well. He was pleased to see that Dulrain was eating well. It was a good sign for his quickly regaining his strength. Rauthain entered the camp and joined the group by the fire a short while later. Kaldir listened as Rauthain told the others of the plans for the morrow, of how Kaldir would escort the group back to the road and speed them on toward Rivendell, while Rauthain would remain behind to continue in Naiore’s tracks. Kaldir was pleased to notice Benia’s smile in his direction.

The next morning, they broke camp early and, as planned, Kaldir led all but Rauthain back to the road. The old Ranger was last seen riding slowly into the east, his hooded head bent, his eyes focused on the ground and the fading tracks before him.

Although they had to stop fairly frequently to allow Dulrain to rest, Kaldir and his company made good time once they reached the road. Dulrain was stronger than Kaldir had initially hoped. They reached Rivendell by the end of the fifth day’s ride. Arriving late in the evening, they made their camp just outside the boundaries of the fair realm. They would approach the elven refuge in the morning.