[Ealasaide]

Kaldir

Kaldir caught the carved wooden whistle by reflex and closed it in his fist.

"...if in need, one will find the other," Dulrain vowed, but Kaldir only nodded in response and turned his horse to go. It was a childish oath, made by children in another lifetime. What loyalty did this man owe to him? And what loyalty did Kaldir owe to this Ranger? This man was one of those who had left him for dead, was he not? Kaldir had been in need that day at Raven Falls, yet no one had come to his assistance. And for three years after that when his mind and body had been pushed to the very brink of insanity and death, no one came. Finally, when someone did come, it was Amandur and a team of strangers. No one had even identified him as one of their own until Kaldir himself had managed to whisper a few cracked words in the Adunaic tongue. They were the last words he had spoken for weeks, perhaps months, afterward. He had been in such a shattered state in those days that words - in any tongue - were beyond him.

"If in need, one will find the other..." Kaldir murmured to himself. Just words. He almost tossed the whistle aside, but instead, on an impulse, looped the leather thong over his head. The past was gone. For fifteen years now, he had lived purely in the moment, but the whistle, like the sword, represented something he had once possessed and lost...

He would keep the whistle. For the moment.

Having gotten rid of the Ranger, he turned his attention to the business at hand. The morning was slipping away. He would have to move quickly if he intended to check Barrold Ferny's hideouts for a sign of Naiore, especially since Ferny had a lot of hidden places around Bree. Checking them all would take time. Originally, Kaldir had planned to drop by Ferny’s rundown house in the southern end of Bree first to see what could be found, but now? He glanced up at the sun, which was mounting rapidly higher into the clear sky. Now it would be a waste of time. Ferny was a scoundrel of the deepest dye, but he was not a fool. Neither was Naiore. She was as clever and cagey a creature as she was cruel. If she had ever been at Ferny’s house at all, she would be well clear of it now.

Kaldir decided to change his strategy. Since he had come into town by the north gate, he would begin in the north and work his way south through the town and across Bree Hill. Then, if still nothing of Naiore had been found, he might drop in at Ferny’s house for another chat with Barrold. That is, if he was at home. Kaldir smiled grimly. The second chat would not be quite so friendly. He kicked his horse and moved ahead of Gilly and Benia as they re-entered the busy street.

“Stay very close to me,” he ordered them as he passed. “Not everyone in Bree is so polite as Mr. Dulrain. The individual we seek would be quite happy to use your hides for new saddlebags.”

He thought he saw Benia nod under her veil, but Mrs. Banks looked decidedly unhappy. Nonetheless, both women fell in obediently behind him. They rode only a short distance before Kaldir made a turn into the weed-choked yard of a long abandoned wine-shop and dismounted. Choosing his steps carefully so as not to disturb any existing prints, he examined the ground on all sides of the door and under the windows. Finding nothing, he gestured to the two women to dismount and follow him.

“We’re going inside,” he said and, taking the dagger from his belt, forced the lock on the door. It fell open with a rusty groan. Still holding his drawn dagger at the ready, Kaldir pushed the door open and entered.

“Oh, my!” sighed Gilly behind him. “This place could sure use a good cleaning.”

Dirt, broken furniture and garbage covered the floor and the broken countertop. Kaldir looked past the counter to the room where great flasks had once held some of the finest wines in the area. After the shop had closed down, smugglers, Ferny chief among them, had installed hinges and made false fronts on most of them, using the flasks as temporary stashes for their ill gotten goods. Now the flasks stood empty, the false fronts hanging open to reveal nothing more than a thick layer of dust. The shop had not been used for sometime, by smugglers or anyone else. Kaldir sheathed his dagger.

“For whom do we search?” asked a clear voice behind him. Turning, he saw that Benia had come into the shop behind Mrs. Banks and removed her veil. A tense mixture of anger and fear burned in her amber eyes.