Plan of Attack

Kalena listened to the seasoned bounty hunter as he methodically and precisely laid out all that he knew. She was not surprised to hear their quarry was not human, or at least not entirely so, nor that the man possessed a certain degree of magical power. No ordinary human being could wipe out so many armed men at once, and so quickly. That the killer might be in the company of a female slave she found mildly interesting. She was still in need of a new handmaiden, and in lieu of a reward payment she possibly could take possession of the slave girl should the wench prove suitable.

Oruvand loaded his crossbow and turned to her as he still maintained a watchful eye on the Inn. "You're okay with all of that? This man is extremely dangerous, and I don't want you in harm's way without knowing what you're getting yourself into."

“I appreciate the sentiment,” Kalena said, favouring him with a goodnatured smile. “But I do have some experience in these matters.”

She was long accustomed to being underestimated, and was not at all offended by his concern. Her brunette curls and refined features caused many to think her a dilettante playing at a dangerous game. But the best assassins were the ones that were least expected, and she learned long ago to work such misperceptions to her best advantage. Not that it did not grate on her ego at times when her hard-earned skills went underappreciated, or seethe inwardly when potential employers passed her over for lesser talented men, as was often the case back in the early days.

But there was no shortage of work for an expert in the killing arts, and in time she found ample opportunity to make a name for herself across half a dozen lands and empires. She might not have ever become a master assassin like a couple of the fearsome individuals with whom she'd trained under, but barring magic, she had to think there were a small few in the Two kingdoms who could come close to matching her capabilities.

“His running speed will do him little good if he has no space to run in,” Kalena mused, considering their course of action. “If he cares about this slave girl she could be useful as a hostage to force him to surrender, and one of us might want to focus on capturing her and putting a knife to her throat. But burst into his room, and he and this companion of his might escape out the window. Perhaps it would be best if you simply flushed him out of the Inn toward me?”

She looked through her quiver and plucked out an arrow that had a long teak shaft and a red coated tip. She held it up in front of Oruvand, close enough that he could smell the faint acrid scent of the metallic poison.

“This is laced with a very nasty iron-based toxin. It has only marginal effects on humans, but is absolutely lethal to elf folk and faeries. Even a small nick should put our man down, and at around a hundred and fifty yards I happen to be an exceptionally good shot. Unless he can move several times faster than a running stag I ought to be able to hit him on horseback, and aiming ahead of him. If you manage to do him a damage and slow him down a bit, that would certainly be helpful.”

Kalena replaced the arrow in her quiver and and touched Oruvand's shoulder in a comradely gesture. “Since you were the one who tracked him down, I will bow to your wishes on how you would like to proceed.”