Introduction

"Oh we are so glad to have you" said Lord Sandran." How is your stay so far, Lady Xanell?"

Lord Sandran was utterly polite. One had to be polite to foreigners.

"I am quite pleased with my stay thus far" said the woman to his right." And please, call me Xila.

"Very well, Xila. It's only a pity that your father could not find time to join us. Such a pity." said Lord Sandran." Well would you like a tour of the house?" "Yes, please." said Lady Xila eagerly.

A few hours after Xila left, a door opened at the back of Lord & Lady Sandran's manor. A shadow slunk in quietly, slipped out just as quietly and slipped to the unguarded servant gate. The shadow pulled at the gate. Locked! "How foolish", thought the shadow. Pulling out a set of lockpicks, the shadow opened the gate in a few seconds. It slipped out and then went at a dead run down Cobblestone Street. A few minutes later, it heard Lady Sandran scream. It paused for a minute, then giggled and continued on down the street. _ .

"Oh, I think I'm going to faint!"

Lord Sandran looked at his wife with his most angry expression and finally got her shut up. He was quite annoyed with her by now. A thief had made off with everything they owned and all she could do was whine? Of course, she had some excuse but he was feeling too irritable himself to care. She had woken up & apparently gone to heed the call of nature, but when she had stepped had found a dead guard in the bathroom! Of course, he wasn't really dead just knocked out, but her scream had woken up most of manor. He had run to her rescue and quickly discovered that almost all of their valuables were gone. "I'm just glad Lady Xanell decided not to stay for the night. Imagine what she would have thought of all this!" thought Sandran. How could he know what she did think of the night's occurrences…?

Chapter 1