Fili opened his eyes, grasped his sword and raised it over his head. Sword and wood collided and the club sank onto his sword three inches deep before it stuck. Both weapons were locked together, but Fili had saved himself from a crushing blow. The man grunted and swore when he found that he had not killed. His prey seldom had time to fight back.

It took all of Fili's strength to hold the sword as the man, taller and several stones heavier, bore down on him with all his strength. He felt something scratch his cheek and saw that there were spikes driven through the head of the club to make it more deadly.

"Kili! Wake up!"

Kili heard his brother's shout and woke in time to roll aside before a long, curved blade plunged into the mattress, through the pillow where his head had been. He kicked out his foot, and struck a body. In the dark, it was hard to see who he was supposed to be fighting, but the knife was still stuck through the mattress beside him. Kili pulled it out and jumped to his feet, ready to fight whoever it was.

He saw the silhouette of the second man outlined by the open door. Kili laughed and lunged forward, but his feet were tangled in the bedclothes and the man knew better than to fight a dwarf who was awake and armed. He escaped out the door before Kili could free himself; his footsteps were loud as he ran down the stairs and away. Kili was about to follow his would-be murderer when his brother shouted again.

"Don't just stand there, damn it! Help me!"

Fili was still trapped on the bed under the first man who was not as easily scared off as his partner. The man fought to regain his club, or to push the spikes down into Fili's face. Kili gave a cry and ran back across the room to Fili's cot. He dropped the burglar's knife and took up his own sword from where it leaned against the wall; he pulled the notched blade from its scabbard.

Hearing the ring of the blade as it was drawn, the man finally saw that he was outmatched. He abandoned his club, still stuck onto Fili's sword, and jumped away from the bed. Fili pulled down his hands, and only just fast enough, as Kili swung blindly and nearly shaved the hair off his brother's knuckles. His sword caught the man as well, cutting a line across his shoulder and jaw but it was only a scratch and a glancing blow. The man ran fast and in fear for his life. He escaped out the door after his partner and was gone.

Kili went to the door and would have gone after them, but Fili stopped him.

"We'll have the whole house up in arms if we go running through the inn with weapons drawn!" Fili said, pulling his brother back into the room. He looked up and down the hall. There was no sound from below or from the rooms about them. If there were other guests at the inn that night, they were minding their own business.

"Foul robbers in the night," Fili muttered. He braced the club with his boot and pried his sword free of it. "This is good wood. It should make a solid handle or a doorstep, not a club for cowardly hands."

Fili shut the door to their room. There was only moonlight to see by, but he heard the snick of the latch and knew that the lock had not been broken. The burglars had had the key or they had picked the lock with more skill than he would willingly give them credit for; either way, he guessed who was to blame for their interrupted sleep.

"In the morning, we must have a word with the owner of this fine establishment," Kili said, smiling. "He should be taught the meaning of hospitality. If we were nearer to the mountain, I would…"

There came a muffled thud from the next room. Both brothers remembered that there was a third member of their company unaccounted for. Fili reached for his second sword, but Kili did not hesitate. He kicked open the door with his heavy boot and burst in with his sword already in hand.

He very nearly impaled the body of a young boy who was thrown suddenly against his chest. The boy tried to run, but Kili caught him by the shirt and held him tight. Betta was braced against the far wall, her knife in her hand and her eyes wide. She did not relax even when she saw the dwarves but kept her weapon held out before her.

"Are you hurt?" Fili asked her.

"She cut me!" the boy cried, twisting in Kili's hand. "She's killed me, and I've done nothing!"

"Nothing?" Kili said angrily, and shook him. "Do not deny that you're in league with the two cowards who tried to kill me and my brother in our beds."

"She stabbed me!" the boy insisted. He could not have been more than twelve years old.

"If you break into a stranger's room, you deserve what you get," he told him.

Fili took the boy from his brother and looked him over, turning him around and checking for wounds. "She cut only cloth," he said. "Follow your friends and be grateful that I do not give you worse. If I have sight of you or them again, it will go badly for all three."

He let go of the boy, who did not need to be told twice. The boy ran. Kili watched him go, still angry, but then he laughed and shook his head. "So begins our adventure," he said. "Well, are you hurt, lass?" he asked Betta.

She scowled, and her hands shook as she put her knife back in its sheath. "Do you always let live those who would try to kill you?" she said.

"Would you like me to bring the boy back?" Fili offered. "He was down at the kitchen when I ordered our meal. I'd guess I would find him there again if you would like another try at sticking him with your letter opener there."

"I have never killed a man in cold blood."

Fili frowned, and Kili glanced at his brother. There was more in her words than she said. "When have you killed a man?" he asked.

Betta shook her head and said nothing.

The small room was a mess. Her cot had been tipped on its side and her baggage scattered. Kili helped to right the cot, but Fili insisted that they all sleep in one room now. The two dwarves carried the cot and her baggage into their room, and Fili put his bed against the door to the hall. Kili put his bed against the door to Betta's small room. They made certain that the window was latched, and then all three checked their packs to be sure that nothing had been stolen. Even after that was done, Betta stared long at Fili and there was anger in her eyes.

"What have you to say now?" he demanded. "I am tired of your scowl."

"I only wonder why they would risk two dwarves with such long knives," she said. "Your guests were cowards, but they were not stupid. The boy was looking for something."

"And how would you know this? I suppose you had a very friendly conversation before you flailed your arm like a child and tore his shirt with your butter knife."

"I have been pickpocketed before," she said. "I know the difference between it and a thief that knows what he is looking for. And I heard the boy speak as he searched my room before he knew that I was awake. He said, 'Where is the purple stone.'"

"How could they know about that?" Kili said, looking at his brother.

Fili stared at her. He put his hand into his pocket and felt the weight of the pearl. He had gone down to order their dinner the evening before, and had seen the boy in the kitchen. Had the boy been there when Fili had taken the pearl from his pocket and looked at it in the firelight? The innkeeper had been long in coming to take their order; Fili had not thought anything of holding the precious stone in his hand as he waited, but perhaps that had been a mistake.

"Fili?" Kili said, waking his brother from his thoughts. "Fili, where is the pearl?"

"It is safe," Fili said. Kili had nearly had his throat cut because his older brother had been careless with their small treasure. Fili, who prided himself on his practical thought and planning, was to blame for their attack.

Betta had not yet forgiven him for keeping her pearl from her, and she had many more angry things to say to him now, but she saw his doubt and the way he looked at his brother, and she knew that no fighting words on her part would change him.

"What is done is done," she said to Kili. She refused to speak to the other brother. "We are all tired. Best to get as much sleep as we can out of what is left of the night. I am sure that your brother will want us early on the road again when morning comes."

She lay down without another word and turned her back to them. Kili looked to his brother for answers, but Fili only shook his head. Betta had a right to be angry. Kili had a right to be angry as well, but Fili knew that he would never see his older brother as anything less than a hero. For the first time, Fili wondered if he had done right by taking his brother on this adventure. Kili had wanted to go – and it had been his idea to speak with the woman in the first place – but life would always be an adventure for Kili; he seldom saw the danger until he was hip deep in it.

Fili's frown was contagious, and Kili was no longer smiling. "Well, brother," he said, "is this not an adventure that will prove our worth to our uncle?" he asked.

"I think that we will all look upon it better by the light of day," Fili said. Anything else that he might have said he kept to himself. He was embarrassed by his mistake, but he could not admit it, not even to Kili, when he knew that Betta lay nearby and was listening to every word that was spoken.