Traitor's Refuge

Xenia's mother is dead, her brother, accused of being an accessory to the queen's murder, is every bit the persona non grata in their homeland she is, and Dremeadow faces civil war.

            Folco and Kiran led Xenia back along the very path on which Xenia had followed them earlier that day.  Many of the badge-bearing dwarves, elves, gnomes, humans and hobbits that normally appeared at the Traitor’s Festival were headed away from the marketplace back to their respective dwellings. Most were alone or in pairs, carefully averting their eyes from all who did not have a badge. More than once, she had to quash the impulse to slip off the road herself because of someone badgeless one looking her direction for longer than was custom. 

It’s because of Kiran, she reassured herself, wondering why he found it necessary to don clothing that garnered attention when he had Wanted posters of himself. It was as though he wanted to be noticed, or worse, caught. Though stealth and subtlety were not exactly strengths of humans, the paladin was especially inept at avoiding notice. During the entirety of the walk, Xenia half-expected a bounty hunter or even one of the Dolingdarrow Watch to confront them.

             As they entered the pastry shop and walked past the ornately carved display cases filled with crumpets, scones, cakes, cream puffs, pies, éclairs, fruit tarts and other such delights, Xenia found her eyes furtively scanning the occupants. Now she knew what was concealed beneath the floorboards, she was exceptionally worried that one of the customers might notice. What if someone saw them? What if someone overheard the password as she herself had and passed it on to the wrong people? What if someone recognized one of them, perhaps even guessed who she herself was because she was in Folco’s company, and reported them to local authorities? She wished she could render herself invisible. “The Waste of Dré shall fade away,” she heard her brother intone through her jumbled thoughts.

            As they passed through the room from before, she noticed it seemed even more cramped than before, perhaps because at least ten more than before in there. Many hobbits she assumed were fellow fugitives from Drémeadow and their helpers were gathered, talking in hushed tones. There were also a couple of dwarves and gnomes. Xenia noticed several curious glances. More than once, she thought she heard words and phrases such as “Foxtrot,” “princess,” “ran away,” “disowned” and even her true name, not the alias and alter ego she had adopted for half a decade. She then noticed a young elf-woman. Like most elves, she was beautiful and slender, with clear skin. However, she had an ethereal quality to her that others lacked, almost as though a pale light emanated from the core of her very being. Xenia blinked before looking away lest she be noticed. Perhaps it is a trick of the light, she thought with a suspicious glance at the single chandelier with candles hanging from the middle of the ceiling.

            She followed the paladin and her younger brother along a dim corridor that reeked of mildew. Off to the right side, there was another door. She shifted her trajectory slightly clockwise, expecting one of them to open the door, but instead they both bypassed it, continuing along the corridor. At the end, there was yet another door. Folco reached in his pocket as though looking for something, but Kiran already had a key in hand that he was inserting into the keyhole. “I’ve got it,” he said as he turned the key. Xenia heard the door click. The human pushed it open to reveal a room with no furniture but a plethora of bedrolls.

 “Our sleeping quarters,” the paladin informed her as he led the two hobbits into the room. Xenia groaned inwardly as she took note of the lack of even straw mattresses. There were no beds here? Why, this seemed quite as bad as she remembered sleeping outdoors being! In fact, it might even be worse. Even though there was cold and rain outdoors, she could mostly shield herself from them sleeping under a soft spot beneath a bush. Here, she would be sleeping on hard rock in a musty underground compartment. Just what I’ve always wanted, to sleep in a moldering cellar- maybe I ought to have wished them luck and stayed out of it. Despite her objections, however, she could not bring herself to reverse her decision. Now she knew more than she ever wanted about what her father was capable of, not to mention what his regime had put their subjects through and hints at an ordeal he’d made his own son suffer, she could not bring herself to abandon everyone.

            “My bedroll is there, between Kiran and Nont’im’s, ” Folco said, indicating a normal sized rolled, tied tan blanket between  a gigantic  golden and a green close that was close to normal size, but still outsized by hobbit standards. Xenia shook her head incredulously. Didn’t Kiran have anything that wasn’t brightly colored?  Her brother glanced around the vicinity. “It looks like there’s some room there, against the wall, if you want that spot,” he added, pointing past several normal sized rolls to a bare patch of wooden floor in the corner of the room.

            The two Foxtrots were stooping on the floor arranging Xenia’s belongings when Kiran reentered. He strode towards them. Xenia relinquished her grip on her pack, craning her neck in hopes of meeting his eyes. She only came to just above his knees when squatting.

            “I’d rather have Xenia between you and either Nont’im or me,” Kiran said, pointing back towards the goldenrod bedroll.  Both hobbits frowned in confusion. How was she supposed to fit there when Kiran and Nont’im clearly had someone else on their other side?  The paladin stooped so he would be closer to their height and elaborated, “ I feel it would be safer for Xenia.”

Xenia sniffed, checking the sudden urge to roll her eyes. It was amusing how he felt she would be  safer with him when he stood out from everyone else like a red wine stain on a white rug. He might presumably be good at hand-to-hand combat if his muscle tone, armor bearing the Cancalian royal family’s insignia alongside that of his god and weapons were anything to go by,  but she knew how to altogether avoid trouble and notice. “I’ve avoided danger for five years all on my own, I’ll be perfectly fine in a room of what I’ll assume are allies” she scoffed.  That was not completely true. She’d encountered many perils. However, she had also dodged or escaped them without anyone else’s help. Why were they acting as though she were incapable of protecting herself?

“If you insist,” the man replied .  He stroked his clean-shaven chin. “Wouldn’t you rather be near your brother though? We could just shift everyone this way to make space for you.”

He had a point there. Folco needed her. Sighing in resignation, Xenia began to gather up her belongings, dropping them in the center of the room. “We’d have to move everyone’s stuff over,” she pointed out, “there isn’t room for a rabbit by you three, let alone me. Just saying.”

In reply, the paladin knelt in front of a worn-gray bedroll with visible pulls and a tear towards one side and shifted it to the wall. He frowned,  remarking “we’ll need to find a new blanket for whoever this is,” and shifted the dusty pack belonging to the bedroll’s user before proceeding to the next one. Back towards the center part of the wall, Xenia’s younger brother haphazardly shoved his and Kiran’s possessions together and sliding her things into the vacated spot against the wall.  Once Kiran finished relocating the rest of the belongings of the hideout’s denizens, he said in clipped tones, “I’ll let you help Xenia get settled. Bring her to the meeting. Am I presiding over it or would you prefer doing so, Your Highness?”

Folco replied. “I feel like it would be better if you led it.” The words “you have much more experience than we do when it comes to war” were added in a murmur. Xenia felt the blood drain from her face. Was it really coming to that point? If so, she dreaded this meeting. Humans and dwarves might be fond of war, and even elves sometimes saw glory in battles, but such things went against a hobbit’s very nature. As she unpacked the few belongings she’d decided to bring, her mind was abuzz with questions. How did things come to this? What went so very wrong? I thought things were a bad idea, but I never expected it to get this bad! How did my father get this extreme? It’s not even hobbit-like! And why did my mother have to die? Who in damnation did that to her anyway? They need to be dealt with!  

She felt a hand on her elbow and looked to see her brother’s solemn dark eyes, so very like their mother’s, staring into her own, snapping her back to the present. She could not let herself show her inner turmoil. She had to be strong for her brother. From the sound of things, he'd enough trauma to cope with without his older sister becomeing an emotional wreck “Come on, sister,” he mumbled, smoothing her bedroll with his free hand while patting her with the sinewy  hand clasping her arm, “we ought to get to the meeting. There’s a lot they’ll be talking about.”

Reluctantly, she stood to follow her younger sibling out of the room. What had she gotten herself into? For what seemed like the millionth time since her life had fallen apart when she was twenty-three, Xenia thought the four words that were the theme of the past six years. How is this my life?

Author's Note

I was unsure of whether to have the meeting in the same chapter as Xenia first being led to the sleeping quarters of the Dremeadow refugees Kiran and Folco have found in Simillior and everything hitting her like a ton of bricks. I decided they would be better separated, particularly because of the revelations I have planned for next chapter in the meeting about the latest atrocities Dremeadow has been up to.

Should I have combined them, given this was only three pages in Word? Should I have manifested more of Xenia's thought process, or is what I have sufficient?

Reviews

[NoelHC]

Breaking up chapter length if all the information you wished to convey it has been achieved is OK. I often find when reading, I will look at the next chapter, and if not overly long will continue to read. If there is a good cliffhanger at the end of it, I carry on and the next thing you know it is 3 AM!

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Duly noted my friend!

[Mila]

Short, sweet and well written! Good job!

[Craig2591]

I personally prefer shorter chapters. I find them more manageable. Both to write and to read.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... I like Xenia. Not only is she tough and brave, but she's sensible, too.

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Awww, thanks! Yeah, I was hoping to make her come across as sensible and not totally reckless- leave the recklessness to her little brother =D

[Jennie Baron]

This narrative is short but I see no reason so far not to make it its own chapter with the new setting, etc. I would have to see the next chapter to say definitely, though.

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Okay, cool, will let ya know when next one is up

[A. H. Pinley]

Folco and Kiran led Xenia back along the very path on which Xenia had followed them (earlier in) the day. Many of the badge-bearing dwarves, elves, gnomes, humans and hobbits that normally appeared at the Traitor’s Festival were headed away from the marketplace back to wherever they (live). Most were alone or in pairs, carefully averting their eyes from all who did not have a badge. More than once, she had to quash the impulse to slip off the road herself because of (some) (badge-less) (one) looking her direction for longer than was (custom). It’s because of Kiran, she reassured herself, wondering why he found it necessary to don clothing that garnered attention when he had Wanted posters of himself. It was as though he wanted to be noticed, or worse, caught.
I like the story! Have fun!

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Thanks for the heads up about the grammatical hiccups, will get those when home later!

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

And sorted, along with some other tweaks to the opening paragraphs! [= I'm sure I'll find more when the "revise Traitor Princess" mood strikes, but those snafus you mentioned are particularty important to eliminate because of their being in the opening paragraphs!

[A. Amos]

Another amazing chapter, neatly created my friend...good job

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Thanks for reading, my friend! (=