Upon entering the stableyard, Kaldir found the stables full and the stableman absent. He dismounted anyway and tied his horse to a hitching post in the yard. Such a full stable boded a full inn, which meant the likelihood of his getting a room would be slim. Well, that was okay, too. He would have liked a little privacy, but he had slept in worse places than a common room or a hayloft. He took the rope off of his saddle horn and, after widening the loop of it, slung it across his broad shoulder. One could never be too sure when opportunity might present itself again. He walked across the yard and entered the inn.
His eyes adjusted quickly to the muted light inside. Directly ahead of him lay the bar, where an elven lady was serving drinks. Kaldir moved in that direction.
He pushed his cloak back over his shoulders and lowered his hood, revealing a darkly tanned face that few forgot once they had seen it. The right side was ruggedly handsome with a high cheekbone, straight nose, and a strong brow. The left side had been horribly disfigured: the cheekbone smashed, and the skin a gnarled floret of scar tissue from his hairline to the point where the skin disappeared beneath his short brown beard. Icy blue eyes peered out from between dark lashes, with irises so pale that they nearly vanished into the whites. He leaned across the bar toward the elven lady.
"Excuse me, mistress," he said politely. "Could you direct me to the innkeeper?"
Lespheria looked up with a smile on her face that only faltered for an instant at the initial sight of him. She nodded toward the kitchen, gamely finishing her smile. "You will find her in there, sir, if you can make your way through the mob."
His pale eyes followed her nod. There was indeed a small mob of hobbits gathered around the entrance to the kitchen.
"Mathom," the elven lady informed him with a wink.
"Ah!" Kaldir smiled with the good half of his face. "Perhaps you could help me instead. I am hoping to find lodgings."
"Lodgings," echoed the elven lady. "Then you will have to speak to Aman. We are quite full at the moment."
"Then I shall wait," he said amiably. He pushed a coin across the counter. "An ale, please."
Once he had received the ale, Kaldir turned his attention toward the common room, surveying the other occupants with his eyes. Most seemed comfortable with themselves and their surroundings, but others seemed rather skittish to his practiced gaze. He would have to remember the skittish ones, he told himself. They could be of interest later. Continuing his visual tour of the room, he found the Desert Lady, the one he had almost managed to capture in the courtyard, sitting on the floor at the base of the stairs in a litter of scattered packages with a Ranger holding her foot. The hobbit lady from the courtyard was there as well, looking on anxiously.
She must have fallen, thought Kaldir. So much the better. Now she can't run away. A cold smile danced at the back of his eyes.
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