***Chapter 8: Getting chased by Kalderans isn't fun***
They continued onward for five days. On the third day Dylan took TG aside and asked her, "TG do you know the Verbena plant?" Verbena? Aye it's a flower. "It may help to slow the poison. TG and Dylan gathered the flowers and Dylan boiled the petals in water and placed them on Trance's wounds. Although it did not cause a marked improvement, it did abate some of her pain. On mid-day on the fifth day the group had paused to rest when suddenly they heard the sound of a single horse approaching them. They hid themselves and from their shelter they watched the horse and rider approach. Unlike the black robed Kalderans and their black horses this rider was an android and rode a white horse. Dylan sprang from his hiding place and greeted the android warmly in Vedran. The android, HG, was an old friend of Dylan and an inhabitant of Rivendell. He placed Trance on his horse and spoke to her. "You must go now. My horse will bear you swiftly and speedily to Rivendell." Although she was very weak, Trance still found the energy to protest, "But I don't want to abandon my friends while they are in danger." "I doubt that they will be in danger if you are not there.", HG said gently, "It is you and what you carry that they search for." Trance nodded, understanding the situation. He spoke to the horse in Vedran. "Travel swiftly, bear your rider safely to Rivendell." The horse galloped away and suddenly she was ambushed by five Kalderans who chased her to the Ford of the Branduin River. She was filled suddenly with the insane urge to just stop and let herself be captured. The horse, however, had other plans. It continued to gallop across the river and stopped at the opposite shore. The Kalderans called to her, "Come back, come back, to the Worldship we will take you." Trance responded by drawing her sword and saying, "By the powers of the Empress of Tarn-Vedra you shall have neither the Ring nor me." At that moment the waters in the river receded and then suddenly surged back into the river with crests that resembled white horses. The flood carried away both the Kalderans and their horses. Overwhelmed with pain Trance fainted.