In the center of the chaos filling one of the back rooms of the Prancing Pony stood young Audea. Hawke’s seagull pendant, her yule gift to him, clutched in one trembling hand as she stood, frozen.
Hawke, however, was gone.
Audea stared in horror at the destroyed room, then looked plaintively at the two recent arrivals, Xanderian of Belfalas and her companion, Gretal Greenbrier, her hand clenching the necklace over her heart, looking utterly helpless.
Xanderian sighed, surveying the scene as if she were assessing the remains of a battlefield. ”If he is not dead here, that means that whoever assaulted him wishes to use him so as to gain prestige or money in Gondor. If he is not already dead, then they have a clear interest in keeping him alive. If he were slain, there was no reason to take his remains from this place. The question now is where will they take him before traveling forth.”
Gretal shot the elleth a questioning glance when she mentioned Gondor, as if to ask what that far away kingdom could have to do with a hardscrabble street urchin and Breetown rough-houser like Hawke.
Xanderian simply shook her head in response. Now was not the time to answer questions that were not hers for which to offer enlightenment. Gretal nodded, having grown used to trusting Xanderian at moments like this.
Audea barely seemed to hear the elleth, looking down to the floor through bleary eyes. With shaking shoulders, she pointed to the trail of blood leading out of the room, unable to put her thoughts into coherent words.
Xanderian nodded again, her eye filled with concern not only for Hawke but young Audea as well. “I was foolish to assume the "appointed time" Hilston mentioned was to be the time they would attempt this mischief...rather it is the point when he is to be handed over to that stranger for transport, and we know nothing of it whatsoever.
Audea began to weep…then to cry...finally to sob, a wracking, horrible sound. Gretal turned to study the bloodstains on the wall, unable to watch her friend breakdown.
Xanderian stepped up and took Audea in her arms...her voice soft and calm. “Hush little sister...we know he is alive...and we shall regain him. All this means is that he is closer to finally being free of all of this strife and confusion and learning the truth. Be of strong heart and good cheer, for our enemies have finally acted, so now we may respond. Clearly, as is typical of him, Hawke did not go easily...it is good to see his basic nature vexes foes as well as friends.”
Audea just shook her head, breaking free of Xanderian's embrace. Again, she motioned to the trail of blood, and then turned to begin following it, running out of the room all while making little noises as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Gretal ran out close behind the girl, calling after her. Xanderian however paused for a moment, surveying the room once more. It was clear from the scents that several different people had shed blood in the room…Red boot prints in several sizes…Six attackers perhaps. Several fresh notches in a headboard indicated a blade was drawn and wielded. There was no blood on the wood however, so it seemed that the blade had not found flesh. The elleth knelt, finding scraps of torn blue cloth amidst the sheets, the threads pulled taut as if grabbed and pulled. The texture and shade was the same as Hilston had worn earlier.
The huntress finally rose…content that she had discovered all there was to be learned in the room, and disheartened by how little that was.
As Xanderian stepped out into the street outside the Pony, Gretal was near frantic. “I can't see her anywhere, where did she go? I think she tried to follow the trail of blood.”
Xanderian noted the tracks of the girl’s soft soled boots, leading behind the Prancing Pony. “This way.” When they finally came upon her, Audea was looking around aimlessly for some further hints as the blood trail seemed to have ended, exhaling labored breaths.
With a cry, Audea spied blood on the rear wall of the Pony near the back door. It seemed that the scuffle had continued once they got Hawke outside the Inn. Smeared blood gleamed darkly on the stones and the bushes nearby were badly broken after someone had crashed into them. Most curious of all were a pair of hobbit feet sticking out of the hay bale near the back stairs.
Xanderian gasped. “The monsters, they have cut one of the little ones in half!!!
Audea didn’t seem to hear the elleth as she and Gretal carefully pulled poor Nob out of the bale. His eyes were wide, and when he noticed Xanderian staring fixedly at him, he began to weep.
Audea tried her best to calm the little fellow. Clearing her throat, she mustered up a gentle, "E-Excuse me? Where did the people go who did this to you?"
Xanderian reached forward to brush him off as if he were a child. The hobbit was clearly in a state, not only from Xanderian hovering over him but from whatever had befallen him. He was huffing and puffing until all he could get out was "Noooorrrrrtthhh Gate" before he mercifully fainted dead away in Xanderian’s startled arms.
The elleth smiled. “And we have our direction...” With that she dropped the hobbit, who cracked his head on the cobblestones, ouching loudly in his swoon as the elleth looked around. “Which one of these foolish things do they call North?” However Audea, knowing the little town far better than Xanderian, was already off at a run, Gretal right behind her. With a shrug, the huntress followed until the came to the gate leading out of the town into the farmlands to the North.
As they neared the gate, a scruffy looking masked fellow, his sword fallen out of his reach, was trying to rise on a painfully broken leg. Xanderian smiled. “Somehow I cannot imagine that ruffian is typical for the farmers hereabouts.” She slipped Heartbreaker off her shoulder...which began to hum excitedly.
Audea and Gretal were already hauling him to his feet as Xanderian looked closely at the brigand. “Truly friend, I feel your pain, Hawke can be a handful in any condition he may be in....However, I must ask you politely what direction your fellows who abandoned you were headed, or I will put out your eyes and leave you to bleed to death.” Xanderian smiled reassuringly.
The bandit sputtered and yelled, yanking out of the grasp of the two women and drew a dagger from his boot, though his foot was at an odd angle which left him slow and awkward. His decent quality leather armor was covered in blood that didn’t seem to be his own, which upset Audea all the more. ''Back off! You're too late, anyhow!'' he barked.
Xanderian smiled...and sidestepping, knocked the blade easily to one side. She grabbed and spun the man deftly, wrapping both arms about his chest, her thumbs pressing lightly to both of his eyes as he went stiff.
Audea reached up to wipe the wetness from her eyes, blinking a few times before she could focus in on the poor ruffian Xanderian was interrogating, her gaze far harder then anyone who knew her would imagine. Gretal on the other hand couldn’t watch. In her short time with Xanderian she had learned the sort of things the Sindar was capable of.
Xanderian was still smiling, speaking in a gentle sort of purr. “I fear time is of the essence. Tell me where they departed to with their prize....shall I start with one eye while you decide?” She began to press her thumb firmly into the brigand’s right eye
The ruffian yelped loudly and tried desperately to wriggle out of the Elf's hold..with no effect whatsoever. ''Wait! Wait, I can't tell you!''
Xanderian smiled as the brigand’s pain began in earnest, the pressure increasing as a thin line of blood ran down the brigands cheek like a crimson tear. “Then you will be blinded for what few hours you yet live...such a shame really.”
Xanderian hummed softly as the pain intensified. The ruffian clawed at Xanderian's hands, his voice rising to a terrified shriek. ''I can't t-tell you because I don't know!''
Audeahad taken this time to bring the necklace she had been gripping oh-so-tightly in her hand to her neck, clasping the chain behind her hair. "Miss Xan," she said firmly.
Xanderian didn’t seem to hear her. “How sad for you friend. Then perhaps you can tell me something of worth?”
Audea repeated louder, growing concerned. This was a side of her friend she had not seen before. “Miss Xan!”. Gretal set a hand on her shoulder, whispering. “Just don’t look…”
Xanderian pressed harder....but as poor man thought the others were trying to speak up for him, he made an last attempt to comply whileonly one eye was nearly ruined. ''Stop! S-stop, I don't know much! Agdarom the Viper was hired to take him!''
Xanderian smiled happily…and stopped increasing the pressure. “There, now we have a name...and what else do you know? I really am losing patience, friend...so please be more helpful quickly.”
As the pressure eased the ruffian gained courage and started kicking blindly, trying to dislodge Xanderian. ''I won't say...nothing else! Unless you stop!''
Audea’s desire for revenge had run its course and her soft heart was again ascendant. “Miss Xan... Please, stop.'
Xanderian laughed. “You could still talk with one eye...you are very silly. And one eye is better than none, is it not?”
The ruffian made a harsh gurgling sound and continued thrashing, but said nothing else.
Xanderian sighed...and took her thumb out of the man’s bleeding eye. “Very well...bargain while you can. After the Pony and the assault, what next?”
Content that mercy has been shown, Audea folded her arms firmly over her chest, watching the ruffian with an entirely blank expression.
The huntress looked calmly into the brigands remaining good eye. “If you tell me everything you know, I promise not to hurt you. You have my word.”
The man gasped for air, reaching his hand up to clutch at his painfully wounded eye. It was clear he was desperate for any chance of escape. ''Me and my mates are from Bree-land, we ran with the Blackwold for a while.'' He glared with his remaining eye. ''Agdarom hired us...but I ain't never worked for him before this!''
Xanderian nodded..."And where were you headed once you had the boy?
Casting about for any sign that someone might rescue him from the crazy Elf, the ruffian shook his head. ''The Viper only told one of us, and it wasn't me! They left me behind after the horse kicked me - it got spooked with all the noise. That brat was squirming and kicking until he passed out.''
Audea scowled. "Oh, squirming and kicking from folks tha' kidnap him? How bloody dare he!"
Unwisely, the ruffian reacted to Audea's taunt. ''If he'd come quietly we wouldn't have had to be so rough, eh? Little shit was already injured, but it's nothing compared to what the Viper'll do. He likes to have his way--''
Xanderian sighed..."He truly does seem to know nothing... However it is interesting that all those this Viper employed had once been Blackwolds. He is certainly from foreign climes, as he needed those who knew Breeland well and the roads thereabout well, especially how to travel them in secrecy.
Sensing an end to the interrogation, the ruffian was quick to speak up. ''Wherever they take him, they'll have to hold him for a bit. Until the Viper takes him to Gondor. Alive or not, who knows. That's all I know, I swear!''
Xanderian nodded and quietly nocked an arrow to Heartbreaker.
The ruffian was quick to scuttle away when Xanderian let him go to draw her bow. His voice was enraged and panicked ''You said...''
“I told you I would not hurt you....” Xanderian drew and released the string on the ancient bow without seeming to move, the arrow effortlessly going through the brigand’s good eye and out the back of his skull, tacking his twitching body to the cobblestones.
The elleth shrugged. "You never felt a thing, so my word is kept.” She then turned to Audea and Gretal. “He has confirmed that they wish to take Hawke to Gondor, and that they needed knowledge of local roads to do so.'
Gretal blanched at the sight of the man being shot, but Audea looked down at the ruffian with her blank expression back in place. Then, after watching the blood pool for a moment, she looked up to Xanderian with steely eyes, but then she exhaled a drawn out sigh, allowing her face to fall into her palms as she tried to gather her thoughts.
Xanderian leaned back on one foot, looking up at the sky. “They will make for the Needle...into Ered Luin for the foul docks of Kheledul...no other way to take ship easily for Gondor. They are shire bound then, up the Greenway. They will need to make speed with Hawke, but find somewhere for him to heal lest he die on the passage.”
At the mention of death, Audea turned her head to look down at the still twitching ruffian, blood still spurting weakly from his eye. With a hum, she ambled around the gate and bent over, clenching onto her stomach as she tried to get sick as quietly as one can.
Audea turned around to flop back against the edge of the gate once she'd finished spewing up her last meal, a hand coming up to wipe her lips. When she could speak, her voice was rough but determined. “Miss Xan... We should come up with a plan or.. somethin'.. Can't jus' rush in blindly, else we get stopped 'fore we can even get to him.."
Gretal looked at her friend and rested a hand on her shoulder. “Audea, what do YOU think we should do?”
The woman smiled weakly, as if surprised anyone was asking her. "I'm.. I'm not really sure, Miss Gretal.. I need t'get some things together, though, before we go. And..there is something I might need to tend to. Maybe.. we can meet back here later t'head off? They have t'let him heal up, righ'?" The girl seemed to be more trying to convince herself more than anything else.
Gretal shrugged. “I...don't know what they would do Audea, but I hope so. They would if they expect him to travel. Otherwise he'd burden them wouldn't he?”
Xanderian nodded. “We have time to prepare, they will seek a place to heal him, and even once he is hale again, they will not be able to travel fast through this pleasant country with a captive. They will stick to the wild as much as they can.”
Audea reached up to grip the necklace she had hung around her neck, nodding at all the reassurance. "Aye..." She took another few steps forward. "Then.. I'll be back here later. If y'want, we can meet here, bu' I'll be goin' no matter wha', really, so."
Xanderian nodded. ”Then at dawn…we make for Needlehole fair Audea. Hawke will be freed, or this Viper will rue the day he took on this foul task.”
