EO glanced behind her, watching the others leave the room. Rose was still weaving her story, the guards firmly entranced by the buxom beauty that danced between the Storyteller’s hands. She frowned a moment as she considered her options. Rose seemed to think that she would be all right. Despite EO’s own misgivings about Bubbles being with Venger, she knew that Bubbles would *not* be a happy camper if she were to interrupt. She would just have to trust that Bubbles could get safely away from Venger, no matter how difficult a task it seemed.That left only Kimmy.
EO hadn’t noticed until the performance was more than half-finished that Kimmy was no longer there. She also knew the trouble that Kender could get themselves into, deliberately or not. Kimmy was her friend, and EO felt no desire to fight Adeline’s protective streak that was making her want to locate Kimmy and make sure she was safe.
She stepped up quietly behind Rose, leaning in close to whisper in her ear. “I’m going to look for Kimmy. Don’t worry about us, between the two of us we can probably find a way out, if necessary. Kender are good at sneaking, and right now I’m not half-bad at it either.”
Rose nodded, and EO slipped quietly away, unnoticed by the guards. As she made her way up the staircase to the second level she paused, as she realized that she had inadvertently been speaking in Elven. Rose had understood her anyway. Giving a puzzled shrug—-she could find out later what that meant—-she continued up the stairs.
She steered well clear of the balcony that looked out over the throne room; no way did she want to be accidentally spotted up here. If she were discovered later, she could claim to have become hopelessly lost, but here it would be a flimsy lie at best, considering she could see where the others were currently.
EO turned a corner and paused to look down the corridor. She blinked in surprise as a familiar scent caught her attention. She looked around her, finally catching sight of the bright purple scrawl on the wall behind her. She crouched down so that the markings were at eye level and chuckled. Kimmy was here all right, she’d left her mark. Taking a good deep sniff, she had to fight to keep from laughing. Where had Kimmy gotten one of those grape-scented magic markers? Heaven knows that EO was familiar enough with the smell, being a teacher’s aide for the art teacher at her high school had made it all too easy to recognize.
She peered at the ‘Kimmy wuz here’ a moment, then noticed the picture scrawled above it, and had to clamp both hands over her mouth to stifle a laugh. A Venger-Killroy! Kimmy was just *entirely* too funny!
She stood, taking deep breaths to stifle her mirth. The last thing she needed was her laughter to give her away when she was trying to sneak around! Finally calm, EO continued to make her way down the corridor.
