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Standing near the door at the residential wing Stigend got a new idea. Where’s Leof? I haven’t seen him… He might still be in the stables. Now if he’s there and doesn’t know that there is a possibility of an outlaw creeping in… But at the same moment he heard a sound of quiet footsteps from the direction of the hall. He was in full alert in a second. No one would come through the corridor, at least silently… If anyone was just coming in they would come the straightest way through the nearest door and they would not have to move quietly. And in no way had the eorl and the others had time to already tie-up and lock the outlaws yet… and even then they would not come in this silently…
In distress he crept quietly away from the door and moved towards the hall. There was indeed someone moving quietly in the hall. Stigend tried to peek in but saw no one. Sweat was pouring down his face from both excitement and fear. He would not wish to meet Ghem again as he seemed to have been a cunning and able fighter compared to his one and half years training with the men-at-arms and the occasional fights with drunken brutes who had scorned his wife or son. And not less because his left arm felt quite lame now… there was no feel in it anymore to be frank. How bad is it indeed? … I need to check it… later, he thought to himself and still crept forwards to the door separating the hall from the residential wing. But if it was Ghem… he’d surely face him rather than letting him drag Modtryth or the kids with a knife in their throats like his friends had done to Rowenna and Ginna. The image of that filled his mind with horror and anger.
The steps were coming closer.
Stigend raised his chip-axe and made for a better position in relation to the door. For Modtryth and the kids then … ¤%&?# Stigend cursed in his mind as the sudden movement sent pain radiating all around his body from his left shoulder. It’s not senseless then…, he frowned to himself.
The steps stopped. It was quiet. Someone... whoever it was had heard his movent.
Stigend would wait for no longer. He paced to the doorway and called loudly: “Who is it?” His axe was ready to deal a blow to anyone threatening his wife or son… or Garstan’s children for that matter.
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