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Luthien thought "Tiny Alcove" the most ridiculous na his, turned a corner and announced that they were hoht feet wide and shrouded in the shadows of tall buildings whose main entrances were on other fronts

The talked down through the gloo over the bodies of those drunken men who had not made it to their own doors, or had no doors to call their own A single street lantern burned in the lane above a broken railing and chipped stairs that led down to an ironbound door As they passed, Luthien noticed other lights burning within and the huddled shadows of people uild," Oliver explained in a whisper

"Were you a ht the question per-fectly reasonable, but the look Oliver gave to hi apparently did not share his feelings

"I?" Oliver asked iht and into the glooht up to him across the lane and four doors down, on the top step of another descending stone stairway that ended in a narrow, but long landing and a wooden door Oliver paused there for a long, long while, studying the place quietly, stroking his neatly trioatee

"This was my house," he whispered out of the corner of his ht up in the halfling&039;s curious posture

Oliver was tentative, seeo down there," the halfling announced

"One s?" Luthien asked, to which Oliver only s back up to the street level The halfling stopped abruptly and snapped his fingers, then spun back and whipped his auche down the stairs It hit the door with a loud thu

Luthien started to ask what the halfling thought he was doing, but the youngnoises, the sound of stone scraping stone, and a sud-den hiss He spun back toward the door, then hopped up next to Oliver as darts ricocheted off the stone stairs

The botto burned with a hot fire, and as Luthien stared on in disbelief, a large block of stone slid out fro down into the flae of the stairs and puffed out a candle, the flao down there," Oliver said, and hooked his fingers into his wide belt "But do watch where you put your feet The darts were likely poisoned"

"Somebody does not like you," the stunned Luthien re-rabbed the hilt of the , but it did not pull free from the door "That is only because they never ca personality," he explained He stood straight, hands on hips, and eyed the weapon as though it was a stubborn eneauche," Luthien quipped behind hi his dilemma "You could disarlare on his friend Luthien reached over the halfling for the stuck dagger, but Oliver slapped his arm away

Before Luthien could protest, Oliver leaped up, grabbed the hilt of the auche in both hands, and planted his feet on the door on either side of it

A heave brought the blade free, and sent Oliver, and Oliver&039;s great hat, flying He did a backward soht his hat as he slipped the auche back into its scabbard

"My ain, quite pleased with hih he hated to admit it to Oliver, was quite pleased as well

The halfling bowed and swept his aro first The young Bed-wyr al for the door He reached for the handle, but then straightened and looked back at Oliver

"It was your house," he said, stepping to the side

Oliver brushed his cloak back frole steadying breath, he yanked the door open A sht was practically nonexistent, they could see that the inside wood of the door was black-ened Oliver huffed and took a tentative step over the thresh-old, then quickly retracted his foot

A double-bladed pendulu bea back and forth several ti to a halt in a vertical posi-tion directly centering the door

"Soain

"Not true," Oliver quickly replied, and he gave Luthien a mischievous serly stepped past the pendulum

Luthien smiled and started to follow, but stopped when he realized the io first, but the halfling had obviously known about the pendulu with every step, Luthien en-tered the apart with an oil la, though its glass was gone and its fra powerful had hit the place Every piece of fur-niture was smashed down and blackened, and the layers of carpets had been burned away to clunant air, though no traces of any heat reical fireball," Oliver remarked casually "Or an elvish hot wine"

"Elvish hot wine?"

"A bottle of potent oils," the halfling explained, kicking aside the rehted rag So very effective"

Luthien was a the disaster

Though the light from the battered la remained of the place&039;s contents, and obvious, too, that some of those con-tents had been quite valuable

"We will find no sleep this night," Oliver said He opened one of his saddlebags and fished out a plain, less expensive suit of clothing

"You ht away?" Luthien asked

"I do not wish to sleep out in the street," Oliver replied matter-of- factly And so they went to work

It took two days of hard labor to clean out the debris and air out the s that time, back to the Dwelf for meals, and to the stables to check on theirabout and in their apartment when they returned--curious waifs, half-starved and dirty Luthien didn&039;t ood part of his own meal for them

Tasman offered theht, and afterwards, Oliver and Luthien donned their better clothes again and went to the place that they could now rightly call their horeeted them Oliver had at least purchased a new lantern, and they had retrieved their bedrolls froin our furnishing," the halfling announced as he crawled into his bedroll

"How fare our funds?" Luthien asked, noticing that Oliver&039;s pouches see inevitably s adht"

Then Luthien understood, and his expression aptly re-flected his disappoint They were to live the lives of thieves frolary on a certainsaid "Before events put uards remain the same, I am sure, and he has not moved his valuables" Luthien continued to scowl

Oliver paused and stared at hi up into a wry smile "The life does not please you," he stated asan hon-orable profession?"

The question seemed ridiculous

"What do you know of the law?" Oliver asked

Luthien shrugged as though the answer should have been obvious--at least as far as stealing was concerned "To take another ainst the law," he answered

"Aha!" the halfling cried "That is where you are wrong Soainst the law Sometimes it is called business"

"And is what you do &039;business&039;?" the young Bedwyr asked sarcastically

Oliver laughed at him "What the merchant-types do is business," he replied "What I do is enforce the law Do not confuse the laith justice," Oliver reasoned "Not in the ti rolled over, ending the conversation Luthien re the words but uneasy nonetheless