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Subject: [CERNBORN] At The Inn Part III
Message-ID: <1995Feb13.182010.1@wkuvx2.wku.edu>
From: hilanse@wkuvx1.wku.edu (Wonko The Sane)
Date: 13 Feb 95 18:20:10 CDT
Organization: Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY
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Cernborn came back into the commons room shortly before eight.  Gone
were the travelstained clothes.  In their place, he wore fine
blue-gray silk robes with finely embroidered borders.  His house
symbol was emblazoned on the back, with a smaller modified version on
the front left breast.  The key difference was the appearance of a
pine tree in the smaller symbol.  A finely crafted, burnished silver
pine tree hung from a chain about his neck on prominent display.  His
feet were completely hidden by the length of the robes which trailed
slightly behind him as he walked.  Scanning the room for his dinner
companion and seeing no likely candidates, he headed for the bar where
Littlefair stood conversing with another patron. 

He stopped just short of Littlefair and waited quietly until
Littlefair noticed he was there.  "She hasn't come down yet.  I'll let
you know when she's here."  Cernborn nodded and scanned the room for
an empty table.

The air was damp and chilly this night due to the rain.  Most of the
patrons had clustered around tables close to the fire roaring in the
hearth.  An empty table near the stairs and far from the fire seemed
to suit his purpose.  He sat down with his back to the wall where he
could easily watch the stairs as well as the main door to the inn.

He signaled a barmaid.  "Dost thou have any elven wine?"  

She nodded, "We have quite an extensive selection, my lord, do you have a
particular vintage in mind?"

He replied with a name and a date about 500 years old.

The barmaid gasped, "Err..I don't know about that one; I'll have to go
check."   She stopped to confer with Littlefair.  He raised his
eyebrows and glanced at Cernborn.  He spoke with her, making little
motions of opening a bottle and pouring.  Then she ran off into the
back with a slightly bewildered expression.

She returned a few minutes later with a dusty bottle and a damp rag to
clean it off.  "I'm sorry, my lord, but we didn't have the particular
one you asked for.  This one comes from the same winery, though it is
only about 20 years old."  She showed him the bottle.  "Would you like
to try it?"

"Yes, of course."  He replied after he read the label.

The barmaid set two wine glasses on the table and carefully cleaned
off the bottle and with a surprisingly expert twist removed the cork.
She poured a small amount into a wine glass and handed it to Cernborn.
He tasted it and nodded his satisfaction.  She poured out two full
glasses and left the bottle on the table and hurried away thinking to
herself, "How strange.  We never serve like that here; I wonder why
Littlefair wanted me to do it this time."

Cernborn leaned back in the chair, sipped the wine and waited.

------

     Athorbalo sat in front of the small mirror in her room, preparing for
dinner with the man Littlefair had told her about. She was interested in
finding out more than the minor details that he had given her. She stood
and finished dressing, putting on her uniform, a loose-fitting tunic and pants,
colored black, according to her profession, slipping on her boots and sliding a
dagger into the concealed sheath in them, and fastening her dagger-belt with
its serpentine blades. She went to the door and out into the hallway, pausing
to lock the door.

     Athorbalo walked down the hallway in near silence, her feet making
only the slightest sound as she approached the stairway down into the Inn's
common room. She stopped at the top of the stairs and thought about the curious
way that Littlefair had been acting when he told her of the man who wanted her
room. The description of the stranger that she had been given was almost normal
for a place as strange (on the whole) as Generica. Her real curiousity stemmed
from the fact that Littlefair said he wanted the room because of the tub in it.
Athorbalo was surprised to know that any man would be so adamant about
cleanliness, especially someone staying at the Dragon's Inn.

     She patted the daggers at her sides reassuringly, deciding to peek into
the room before she entered. She slipped down the stairs and looked around the
corner to see if she could spot the man Littlefair had described. As she did,
she found herself staring directly into the eyes of the stranger. He was
dressed in finery, definitely lordly, and, Athorbalo thought, a little bit
antiquated. She walked into the room and stood beside the table, only a little
bit conscious of the stranger's deformity, and very conscious of his finery in
comparison to her functional clothing. 

--------------

Cernborn started to get up in an effort to seat Athorbalo, but she was
too quick for him.  She smiled and taking her seat, said, "You must be
the stranger that would like my room."

Cernborn gave the woman who had seated herself at his table a quick
appraisal with his eyes as he re-seated himself, noting the daggers at
her sides, the scars on her face and arms, and the fact that she was
clad entirely in black.  She seemed to be a pure elf and young, but
had little of the merriment he often associated with her race.

He replied in unaccented, though archaic, elvish, "Yes.  I am the Lord
Captain Cernborn of the House of Ehrland, and I have need of your room
this night if you would permit me to move you to another and, of
course, pay for the inconvenience."

Athorbalo looked at Cernborn with her piercing blue eyes and said, in
the common tongue, "Why is it that you want my room anyway?"

His eyes unfocused as he replied in a just as archaic sounding common,
"I have this skin condition which requires that I soak myself every
few nights, and it has been too long this time."  He unconsciously
scratched at an arm.  His eyes re-focused and looked directly at her,
"You, my lady, appear to have the room with the largest bath." 

Athorbalo leaned back and considered what he had said, toying with a
dagger.  Something he had said was not quite right; she could tell
that this was not someone who easily lied, and she suspected he was not
telling her the complete truth.

The dagger whose handle she had been toying with, fell out of its
sheath and hit the floor, sticking into the wood. She pulled it out,
dextrously spinning it on her fingers and slipped it into its sheath
again. She looked up at Cernborn and grinned, waiting for a reaction.

Cernborn shrank back slightly from the display.  "You handle that
dagger quite deftly for someone seeming so young."

She chuckled and replied, "Am I the first woman you've met who makes
her living as an assassin?"

He smiled, "No, not the first woman, but definitely the only elvish
maid.  In my day, no elf would openly declare such a thing."

Athorbalo was puzzled:  this stranger seemed human and had obviously
no more than 30 years, yet spoke in a way no longer used and almost
seemed to dwell in the past.

"Would you care for some wine?"  He deftly poured her a glass when she
nodded and then re-filled his own.  He raised his glass, "To new
friends and lost loves." 

Athorbalo choked slightly as she swallowed the wine, How could he
know? 

"Shall we order?" Cernborn asked as if what he had said was simply
rote.  But Athorbalo knew that somehow he was testing her.

-----------------
Lord Captain Cernborn of the House of Ehrland  & Athorbalo
tolsen@leland.stanford.edu                       hilanse@wkuvx1.wku.edu