[Child of the 7th Age]

As the messenger's words carried through the corridor to the room where the Borrim were seated, Khandr pushed back his chair and stood up abruptly. The approaching footsteps were barely audible. If it had not been for the initial spoken words, he would not have been aware of his visitors' presence, whoever that visitor might be. Khandr was not expecting other guests tonight. Indeed, in the long months they had been in the village, their Ulfang neighbors had shown absolutely no interest in paying social calls after dark. Briga glanced at her husband and queried nervously, "Who is there?"

"I do not know. But I can not think of worse timing." Khandr shook his head. He faced the others and explained, "I asked the servants to leave, once dinner was served, so there would be no one in the house to overhear the conversation."

A voice near the end of the table whispered. "But how long were they there? Did they hear us before?"

Not waiting to reply, Khandr pulled out a small dagger from his belt and gestured that Fastarr and Hunta should retrieve their weapons and accompany him. The three walked out of the room together and proceeded slowly down the dark hallway until they stood beside a pair of impossibly tall strangers, barely visible under the gutted light of the wall torch.

The guest repeated his earlier question, "Am I now in the House of Khandr?"

Khandr had heard that type of accent before but it seemed so out of place in this mundane village that he failed to appreciate it for what it was. He replied in a cold, stern tone that conveyed a meaning far different than his surface words. "Yes, this is the House of Khandr, and how may I help you?"