Crap! Sorry! Here it is again . . .

Pat

Estrenar moved quickly as soon as he had made it out of the door. He needed more places to hide, and he needed to get away from the makeshift hospital. He saw a portion of the city that was dense, just across a clearing where many buildings had been destroyed. He sprinted across the clearing and entered the shadows once more, feeling safer now

that he was surrounded by buildings, by darkened streets, and by lots of

places that would have to be searched. Stealth became the priority once

more, and speed took a back seat. Also, as he calmed down a little, he noticed that the city was not as cold as he had expected. He laughed inwardly --it seemed that leaving on those damp blankets earlier had made things worse for him. At any rate, he did feel much better, but something warm to drink and a fire to sit by sounded damn good. If only

he wasn=92t the subject of yet another witch hunt . . .

=

Councilwoman Iilena had been having a rough time lately. The murderer of both her lover and her father was loose. In fact, Tannin=92s body was never found. In addition, her injuries had kept her hobbled, and she had left the library clinic only a few days before, against the advice of those treating her. She could walk with the help of a crutch,

and that was exactly what she did. Skenic was a mess, in every way, and

with Adek in a coma, she knew that every leader in the city had work to do. Her pride and upbringing as a Skenician would not allow her to grieve. But her mental resolve had its limits, and these limits were being tested frequently.

On this particular night, it was her duty to be the "council member on call," so to speak. Any problems that arose were brought to her, and

it was her decision on whether to wake the other council members, or to handle the situation alone. For once, she didn=92t mind. Normally she hated being awoken in the middle of a night of fit sleep, but fit sleep hadn=92t been coming to her lately. Nightmares of her lost love haunted her. She dreamt of Tannin and of Jenner as well, and she=92d often wake drenched in sweat. She had steeled herself against these invading visions, sealing herself more deeply inside, as a true Skenician could never allow grief to overcome duty. It was a wonder that she had not become insane from it all.

As fate would have it on this night, her sleep was disturbed before she ever had the chance to dream at all. A messenger from the library informed her of yet another stranger in the city. Rising wearily, she told him to gather the guards from her own house and send them towards the library to start their search immediately, then to alert the night watchmen. She herself would meet with the assembled watchmen outside the library as soon as possible. The guard left, taking her four personal guards with him, and Iilena got out of bed and slipped on a tunic. She put a belt around her waist, hanging her mace from it, as Skenicians were to be prepared for everything. She then got her crutch under one arm and grabbed her lantern in her other hand. She slowly made her way to the library.

Within minutes she was outside the library with the gathering watchmen, waiting for the last few stragglers to arrive. The contingent

was fairly large; apparently, the walls would now be thinly guarded. Twenty men awaited her orders. Her first question was about where her personal guards had began their search. Apparently, they had started to

search on this block. "Good!" she thought, "if this mystery guest is a complete moron!" She sighed and quickly broke up the twenty men into four groups of five each, sending three of them off in different directions. "Keep your groups together," she ordered. "This man was reported to be well armed." The fourth group she led personally. If this man was intelligent at all, she reasoned, he would have made sure to put some space between himself and the library. Leading her contingent of five men across a clearing of destroyed buildings, she reminded her men to be alert and not to try to take this stranger alone. She didn=92t want one of her soldiers trying to win himself prais= e

and ending up dead. The pace Iilena kept up was not fast enough for some of the guards who were actually looking forward to this chase, and she had to continuously call them back to her.

They arrived at the other side of the clearing, and entered into a different section of the city. "Remember people, stay close!" she warned sternly. "Try to stay within sight of everyone else, and make sure to yell out if you see something. They fanned out a little, as some of the men would only cast a glance down an alley, while others were more careful. Thus, the man in the lead was the first to yell out something. He ran down the alley sword first, yelling at the top of his

lungs. All the other men followed. Of course, this was most displeasing to Iilena. She hobbled a few steps and yelled after them, "Wait, dammit!" Her attention was soon caught, however, by something down a dark alleyway to her right.

=

Estrenar had not expected chase so quickly, and hurriedly ducked down a side street, where there lots of shadows about. Unfortunately, he noticed the shadows also concealed a dead end. He turned to find more open terrain, but that was when the guard shouted. He stood paralyzed for a moment, thinking he had been seen, but breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the footsteps moving away. He started to come out towards the main road, into more light, when a woman appeared at the

entrance to the alley. He froze, then slowly, silently, tried to tiptoe

backwards into the shadows once more, moving as little as possible. He was almost successful.

Iilena caught the slightest hint of movement from the corner of her eye and turned slowly to investigate, almost as though she were in a trance. Estrenar cursed his luck. In the depths of the shadows, he drew his two-handed weapon, the haft feeling cold in his hands. He awaited her silently. The woman, in the meantime, crept ever closer. She held her lantern out in front of her to try to see better, her mace held hanging at her side near her left hand. The lantern=92s light began to illuminate the darkness of the corner, and the first thing she saw was an axe held by pallid hands. As more of the figure became visible, she noticed how heavily wrapped in clothing it was --hardly any flesh

was visible. Only the hands and the eyes were visible. The red eyes. She trembled a little as her mind raced. Could this apparition be her beloved? Perhaps he had not been killed by the traitor, she always held

onto the hope he could still be alive. She was afraid and hopeful at the same time. She could barely speak, but had to. She had to know that this was not another dream. Her voice wavered as she spoke the name.

"Tannin?"

The answer to her question was swift and decisive.

"No."

Iilena recovered quickly, chastising herself for being so foolish. The figure before her somewhat resembled a ghost, but such things were mere myth. Besides, he was shorter and less stocky than Tannin ever was. This man didn=92t resemble Tannin at all, now that she got a longer look at him. Her voice didn=92t sound shaky this time at all. Rather, i= t

resounded with authority. "You are trespassing in the city of Skenic. Who are you, and what are your intentions?"

The man to whom she spoke seemed surprised. He gave no answer. "Fine. You don=92t have to talk, stranger, but you will come with me," she stated, and began to hobble forward. He didn=92t seem to be offering any resistance. She stopped however, when he himself took a step forward. His eyes were narrowed, and she noticed that he seemed to shift the axe he held in his hands.

"No," he said again. She could tell he wasn=92t fooling around. She decided to keep talking. She hoped to avoid killing this man, whether by convincing him to surrender, or by stalling until her men returned, so he could be overcome by numbers.

"Oh really? Why not?" she queried. "You are seriously outnumbered,

and-"

"Look," he cut her off, "I=92m freezing my ass off, I don=92t know wh= ere

the hell Skenic is, and don=92t feel like being the subject of yet anothe= r

witch hunt. Let=92s get this shit over with." He began to advance on her, but this time it was her turn to look surprised.

"Witch hunt? What are you talking about?"

He stopped advancing, not ready for this reaction from her. "Huh? You know, the one where everyone comes out looking for me, trying to capture me so that you can burn me at the stake, since I=92m the =91spawn= of

the devil=92? Why else would you be chasing me?"

"Because," she returned, "you are a stranger. We=92ve had our fill o= f

strangers in our city, so we don=92t want another one coming into our cit= y

and wreaking havoc. How did you get inside the wall without being seen,

anyway?"

"Because I=92m a stranger? Do you make a habit of hunting down guest= s

to your city?" He didn=92t bother to answer her question; he didn't thin= k

he'd like her reaction.

"We don=92t get many =91guests=92 here. It isn=92t easy to get to ou= r city. Those that have of late have caused some damage . . . for example, all those destroyed buildings you must have seen between the library and here. That=92s why we want to closely monitor any visitors t= o

our home."

Estrenar finally began to understand, and his guard began to lower. "I see."

"That=92s why you will come with me," Iilena stated, and approached him again. Immediately, his guard went back up again, which stopped her

in her tracks once more.

"No," he said flatly. "I=92m not going to be a prisoner, either."

Iilena wasn=92t sure what to do. It seemed they were at an impasse. "Well, you aren=92t going to remain free to roam the city."

Estrenar had the same feeling she did. "Well, I don=92t know what to tell you. I don=92t feel like killing someone for no good reason, but I don=92t plan on being treated like an animal when your men come back." This brought her back to reality a little. She had completely forgotten

her men, and she knew they would be returning soon. She didn=92t want to see him treated poorly, either. It seemed to her that he meant no harm,

nor did he really want to be in the city at all.

"I will make you a deal," she offered. "You are skilled in stealth,

are you not? I will not reveal you to my men. Follow me back to my home. There, you will surrender your weapons to me, and you will stay there as my guest. But if you allow yourself to be seen, I cannot promise anything. Agreed?"

He seemed to think for a minute. "Well, I don=92t see any better solution. I guess I agree. But you better not be lying to me."

"I give my word as a Skenician, I will not let harm befall you while

you are my guest."

"That means something," he muttered.

"What do you want me to say, then?" she growled back. "Your other choice is to let my men find and capture you, beat you, and throw you in

jail. You=92d only have to go without food or water for a few days, though. Sound good?"

"Alright! I agree." He froze as he heard the guards approaching. Their footsteps were loud and they were calling out for their commander. They were still a ways off, but this odd duo needed to end this quick. "I=92ll hide here and follow you back," he said, replacing his weapon on its harness on his back and stepping back, deeper into the

corner. "And get that light out of here, it=92s blinding me!" She obliged quickly, almost apologizing, then cursed herself for being so pathetic. She hated it when she did something that showed weakness like

that. She turned and began limping out toward the main road, then stopped and whispered one more thing over her shoulder to him.

"Be careful!" She made it back to the main road, where she was almost ran over by her men.

"Where were you, Lady Iilena? We were worried that the intruder ambushed you!" spoke one of the guards. She noticed it was the reckless

one that had led the other men off on their wild goose chase.

"No, I didn=92t get ambushed, but if I had, you wouldn=92t have been much help, would you?" she scolded. "I told you to stick together!" She sounded angry, but in honesty, she was glad that they had ran off, so that she was able to deal with this situation without them. "Let=92s return to the library and see if the others found him." She was a little worried about this plan. Not only if it would succeed, but also what the council would say when it was revealed that she harbored this man. But, she thought, Roschane had done the same for Destral Minare, and she=92d be damned if the standard was different just because she was = a

woman. Thinking of the near-tragedy that Destral caused, she hoped that

she could trust her instincts about this stranger.

As she and her men made the trek across the open area where much of the city had been destroyed, a shadow followed them at a distance.