the southwestern corner. If any're knowing of Cottie, there's the place to find them."
Word spread fast through Nesme that the arriving caravan had carried with it a couple of extraordinary guards. When the whispers of Catti-brie and Wulfgar reached the ears of Cottie Cooperson's fellow refugees, they knew at once that their friend was in jeopardy.
So by the time Wulfgar and Catti-brie had made their way to the tavern avenue, a pair of concerned friends had whisked Cottie and Colson to the barracks area and the separate house of the town's current leader, Galen Firth.
"He's come to take the child," Teegorr Reth explained to Galen, while his friend Romduul kept Cottie and Colson out in the anteroom.
Galen Firth settled back in his chair behind his desk, digesting it all. It had come as a shock to him, and not a pleasant one, that the human prince and princess of Mithral Hall had arrived in his town. He had assumed it to be a diplomatic mission, and given the principals involved, he had suspected that it wouldn't be a friendly one. Mithral Hall had suffered losses for the sake of Nesme in the recent battles. Could it be that King Bruenor sought some sort of recompense?
Galen had never been friendly with the dwarves of Mithral Hall or with these two.
"You cannot let him have her," Teegorr implored the Nesmian leader.
"What is his claim?" Galen asked.
"Begging your pardon, sir, but Cottie's been seeing to the girl since she left Mithral Hall. She's taken Colson as her own child, and she's been hurt."
"The child?"
"No, Cottie, sir," Teegorr explained. "She's lost her own - all her own."
"And the child is Wulfgar's?"
"No, not really. He brought the girl to Mithral Hall, with Delly, but then Delly gave her to Cottie."
"With or without Wulfgar's agreement?"
"Who's to say?"
"Wulfgar, I would assume."
"But..."
"You assume that Wulfgar has come here to take the child, but could it be that he is merely passing through to check up on her?" Galen asked. "Or might it be that he is here for different reasons - would he even know that your friend Cottie decided to settle in Nesme?"
"I...I...I can't be saying for sure, sir."
"So you presume. Very well, then. Let Cottie stay here for now until we can determine why Wulfgar has come."
"Oh, and I thank you for that!"
"But make no mistake, good Teegorr, if Wulfgar's claim is true and he wants the child back, I am bound to honor his claim."
"Your pardon, sir, but Cottie's got twenty folk with her. Good strong hands, who know the frontier and who know how to fight."
"Are you threatening me?"
"No, sir!" Teegorr was quick to reply. "But if Nesme's not to protect our own, then how are our own to stay in Nesme?"
"What are you asking?" Galen replied, standing up forcefully. "Am I to condone kidnapping? Is Nesme to become an outpost for criminals?"
"It's not so simple as that, is all," said Teegorr. "Delly Curtie gave the girl to Cottie, so she's no kidnapper, and not without claim."
That settled Galen Firth back a bit. He couldn't keep the disdain from his face, for it was not a fight he wanted to entertain just then. Clan Battlehammer and Nesme were not on good terms, despite the fact that the dwarves had sent warriors down to help the Nesmians. In the subsequent sorting of events, the rebuilding of Nesme had taken precedence over King Bruenor's desire to take the war back to Obould, something that had clearly simmered behind the angry eyes of the fiery dwarf.
And there remained that old issue of the treatment Bruenor and his friends, including Wulfgar and the drow elf Drizzt, had met with on their initial pass through Nesme those years ago, an unpleasant confrontation that had set Galen Firth and the dwarf at odds.
Neither could Galen Firth keep the wry grin from breaking through his otherwise solemn expression on occasion as he pondered the possibilities. He couldn't deny that there would be a measure of satisfaction in causing grief to Wulfgar, if the opportunity presented itself.
"Who knows that you came here?" Galen asked.
Teegorr looked at him curiously. "To Nesme?"
"Who knows that you and your friend brought Cottie and the child here to me?"
"Some of the others who crossed the Surbrin beside us."
"And they will not speak of it?"
"No," said Teegorr. "Not a one of us wants to see the child taken from Cottie Cooperson. She's suffered terribly, and now she's found peace - and one that's better for the girl than