[Ealasaid]

Once more seated in the common room of the inn, Benia looked around for Gilly who quickly joined her at the table that had only a few minutes earlier, unbeknownst to Benia, been occupied by Silvanis and the bounty hunter, Kaldir. The situation with her ankle both frustrated and irritated Benia more than she cared to admit. She felt helpless and tethered to one spot, two sensations which she had seldom experienced before in her lifetime. She watched as Gilly inexplicably switched out the vacant chair at their table for one from a different table.

They talked for a moment of Silvanis and Kaldir, but, all the while, Benia's misgivings continued to grow. She had confided a good deal in Silvanis, a man she barely knew and only a day earlier had feared to be a bounty hunter himself. Now, her doubts tormented her. Why had she given him her family's location in Bree? On the other hand, there were no Nightshades in Bree other than her relations. All anyone would have to do is inquire in the town as to where to find them, and they would be found. On the other hand, while her father's family knew how to contact the hidden ones on her mother's side, there were many buffers and layers of secrecy in between. Few would be able to track the tribesmen by way of the Nightshades. She breathed a little easier, but still felt troubled in her heart. This had been an ill-fated venture nearly from the start.

She looked across at Gilly, who was watching her with a furrowed brow. Benia smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, Gilly," she said. "Everything I have done since getting to the Shire seems to be a mistake. I have been too quick to trust, too quick to confide in strangers, and now I find myself trapped here, when the best thing I could do would be to flee. But, in my current state, Mr. Kaldir would be on me like a wolf on an injured rabbit."

Gilly nodded sympathetically, thinking of the scarred man's wolflike eyes. It was an apt metaphor. "What will you do?" she asked.

Benia shrugged. "I don't know. Wait, I suppose."

She followed Gilly's eyes as the hobbit watched the two elves, Vanwe and Lespheria, move across the room into the kitchen. "There is more to those two than meets the eye," she said softly.

Gilly nodded again. "I was thinking the same thing, the one of them so calm and brave, the other so, well... so shy and frightened and volatile all at once. She reminds me of wren or a robin, or something, when there are hawks about."

Benia smiled impishly and gave her a sideways glance. "Kind of like me?"

"No," Gilly answered immediately, but she gave Benia a long, thoughtful stare, taking in the silvery sparkle of the desert woman's facial jewelry and the careful detail of her kohl-lined eyes. "Not like you at all," she continued after a moment, remembering Benia's father. "There is a lot of Jack Nightshade in you, as if wherever you go, that is where you intended to be. When I am around Vanwe, it always seems as though she is balancing on a knife's edge."

Benia nodded, considering Gilly's words. Just then, Vanwe reappeared, passing through the common room on the way to the stableyard with a candle in her hand. Noticing Benia and Gilly watching her, Vanwe bowed before moving out the door. Benia smiled and inclined her head slightly in response. "How precarious," she murmurred. "Perhaps she and I have more in common than I would have guessed. I hope she will be careful out there in the darkness."