|
Falco and Javan arrived at the place in the road nearest the ruins. They dismounted and Falco waited and listened while Javan tied his horse to a a tree trunk just off the road.
"Shh! Quiet!" Falco whispered. "It's too quiet hereabouts considering there's outlaws." He feared that Eodwine had been taken captive, or killed, as well as Thornden and all the others, and the outlaws were already long gone. That fool Thornden would be in no such scrape if he'd allowed me to come along in the first place, Falco thought irritably. "Follow me as quiet as a mouse," he said to Javan.
Javan followed Falco's footsteps and seemed to be trying his best not to be a lumber footed human. It helped he wasn't full grown yet.
Falco put out a hand to stop Javan.
"There's somebody just over there." It was a young man and a stranger. Falco wondered if it was one of the outlaws, but he didn't seem the type. He was got up outlandish with strange clothes from far away places that made no sense to Falco. There was an ink picture on one of his forearms that had to be a compass, of all things. And his hair was long as an Elf woman's. A brief recollection of the overbearing Uien of Lorien came to mind and Falco quickly dismissed it.
Javan stepped on an old dead stick and it broke with a snap. The young man's head turned suddenly in their direction. Falco put his finger to his lips to shush the boy. He didn't figure the young man could see them behind the foliage, but just in case he was wrong he slowly and silently drew his dagger from his belt.
|