Living Proof

Chapter Eighteen

He stared at her.

Kaia was all too aware of the pale blue eyes that had been on her since the moment the gaunt man swept into the courtyard of the White Tower. She didn't have to turn and look at him. The burning on her back told her he stared.

She'd never seen him before and she knew that if she had, she certainly would have remembered him. Tall. Long, almost flowing white hair and beard, dressed in immaculate white robes that seemed to glow around him.

And yet, he stared at her as if he knew her, but could not place her. She tried to ignore it, but after a while, it troubled her more than the wounds on her arm did, so she crossed the rain-dampened courtyard to stand before him. "Excuse me?"

The gaunt man looked down at her. "Yes?"

"Have you a problem with my being here?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Do you think I've not noticed you?" She held his piercing gaze with only a hint of discomfort. "You keep looking over at me and if you are troubled by my being here, I'd like to know what it is."

"I'm not at all troubled by you, my lady," he replied, his voice low and almost soothing. "I was simply wondering how your mother fared these days."

"My—my mother?" Her stomach twisted slightly.

"Aye. You look very much like her."

"How do you know what my mother looked like?"

"How do I know? I knew her, of course. And your father, also."

Kaia felt as if she'd been punched in the gut as she just stared up at the old man. "You—you knew him? Knew them? But how? Who are you?"

"Oh, yes, I suppose my name would help, wouldn't it. I am Gandalf. You were but a wee lass when I last saw you. No more than two summers old. I'm not at all surprised you do not remember me."

She just stared up at him for a long moment, but before she could say anything, he added, "I was there, at Erebor, when your father fell."

"You were?"

"Indeed, I was. And he fought bravely. Tell me, how is your mother?"

To Kaia's surprise, her throat tightened and her eyes stung. She swallowed hard as she shook her head. "She... she was killed in an orc raid the summer before last."

Gandalf's eyes widened. "Oh, I am so sorry."

"Thank you. I—I wasn't expecting to bump into anyone who knew her. Not here, anyway."

"Tell me, how did you find your way here from Mirkwood?"

She blinked away the tears and managed a slight laugh. "It's a long, boring story that ends with my finding the steward's son and later on joining his brother's soldiers."

Those blue eyes widened now. "The steward's son? You are the woman Boromir brought off the field out there?"

Kaia smiled even as she felt a bit of a pang at hearing his name and tried not to think about where he was, what he was doing at that moment. Nodding, she said, "I am, yes."

To her surprise, his eyes softened and a hint of a smile creased his already-creased face even more. "And what does the steward think of this?"

"Think of what? I've not met him."

"Think of his son, his heir, bringing a woman home with him."

She chuckled. "He didn't bring me home that way, you know."