Astargoth done to deserve your vendetta? And why did you give him your old sword, if he is indeed, as you said, your `sworn enemy unto death'?"
Palindor's anger was so palpable as to burn like fire in his eyes. "Niles of County Peridew abducted my sister, Julina, on the pretense that she desired his attentions! She was but fifteen years of age, a young, gangly filly, not yet aware of her own emerging womanhood!" He made an angry noise, rolled up the map of the Black Wood, and set it to one side. Noting the dwarf's scrutiny, he grumbled, "Out with it!"
"If I didn't know you better, and I do," Grol added meaningly, "this has less to do with a certain Captain Niles than it does with a certain cousin of his by the name of Amrhost. I know what it is that you fear: that your dear sister is, at this moment, travelling alone in the company of one Amrhost of Astargoth. I know, too, whither Amrhost intended to jounrey, once Hollind's occupants were evacuated. It was his intent to journey alone into the Burning Lands."
Palindor sighed deeply, his mien bleak, all his fires suddenly gone out. "I charged Nylandor my countryman with my sister's care . . . but it is not enough! She is rash, and headstrong, and should she choose to follow Amrhost on his insane quest, there would be no stopping her!" He drank deeply from his flagon, set it down once more.