Liadan shook her head. "We don't need the guard slowing us up." Liadan dug into her pockets and pulled out a knife in a sheath, it was meant for eating but could do for stabbing. Liadan offered it to Aislyn.

"He's not a guard," Aislyn pointed out but accepted the knife. "Wish we had a sword, I'd really rather not get that close to him."

"We'll knock him out with the broom, then finish him off with the knife." Liadan said bravely.

"Could work." Aislyn fastened the knife under her belt and headed from the room to lead Lia to where Nelek was.

Liadan turned a corner- and there Nelek was on top of another woman. There was no doubt about what was going on here. Liadan nearly dropped her forks, then grasped them more tightly and swore.

Something snapped inside of Aislyn. She gripped the broom with both hands as she seethed. "Nelek," she growled, along with a string of curse words that might have made Lia proud. The past few years of pain and loneliness, her daughter's bruised face and battered body. She rushed forward with the broom. "You bastard!" She brought the broom handle down hard on the back of his head.

Mazi had expected Aislyn to crumple, not attack him. He rolled off Ila and stood up.

"If you didn't want me with younger, better women you shouldn't have gotten old and let yourself go." Mazi taunted, rubbing the back of his head.

Fire blazed in Aislyn's eyes and mind. "I don't even care about that, you bastard. But to beat your own daughter that way." She whacked him again with the broom handle.

Mazi grabbed at the broom. "She deserved it, maybe if you disciplined her once in a while I wouldn't have to beat her. She probably isn't even my daughter you unfaithful whore."

Aislyn let out an enraged screamed and kicked him hard, hoping she knocked his man parts everywhere.

Ila was red with humiliation. She scooted aside, pulling the quilt to herself. This was Nelek's wife, the real Nelek's wife. Ila could only imagine what Aislyn thought of her. She looked down and spotted the jug of potion, Mazi was distracted, here was her chance. Ila grabbed the jug and smashed it against the stone floor.

"He's not who he looks like." Ila said.

Xavier was distracted. The refugees weren't being forthcoming with their skills and he was fairly certain Lia and Aislyn were up to something. He didn't know them very well, in fact, only barely, but he couldn't help thinking something was amiss the way they took off from their room. And then he heard pottery smash from the direction they had gone. He hurried down that way.

In reply to Ila (msg # 199):

Aislyn put all of her trust in Lia to keep her safe. She paused for a brief section, ceasing her whacking of Nelek. "What? What do you mean?"

Mazi was in pain, but got himself together when he heard Ila break the jug and what she said.

"Shut up!" Mazi screamed. He took the broom and struck Ila in the head so hard with the handle that it cracked. He did not need this land woman to ruin everything. He should have cut out her tongue weeks ago.

Ila would have been happy to explain, but was then rendered unconscious by Mazi hitting her head with the broom. She slumped to the floor.

Xavier came to a halt in the doorway. "What's going on in here?" He pointedly glared at Mazi. He didn't believe in a man harming a woman in any way. He narrowed his eyes, the man was vaguely familiar from the last time he had been to Buckley Village. Aislyn's husband? He had never seemed violent before. "Nelek?"

It was getting too crowded in here. Mazi had accomplished his goal, now he had to get out of there. Because the land woman was a talker he had to get her out of there too. Mazi slung Ila over his shoulder, turned and ran for it.

Great, a witness for when we kill Nelek. Liadan thought. Liadan ran after the fleeing Nelek.

Xavier blocked the doorway, sword in hand. "Think you're going somewhere?" His expression was forbidding. "You're certainly not taking the woman anywhere, unhand her."

Aislyn pulled her knife and went after Nelek.

Mazi slipped Ila from his shoulder and she hung limply from his arm. Mazi took the shell knife and held it to her throat.

"Let me go or she'll get it." The quilt fell from Ila and pooled under Mazi's feet.

Xavier's eyes narrowed. "And what guarantee do I have that you wouldn't kill her if I do let you go?" He didn't believe for one second that this woman had a snowball's chance in hell of living no matter what he did.

Aislyn rushed the man she believed to be her husband from behind. She drove the knife she held into his back, up to the hilt.

Mazi shrieked. He dropped Ila and the shell knife. He spun around, groping for the knife in his back.

Xavier instantly had his sword at Mazi's throat. "Hold." Without taking his gaze away from Mazi, he said "Can the two of you get her to safety? I find myself with unfinished business with this cretin."