The next morning when I awoke, I knew something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
Hurriedly, I slipped on the slippers Mama had provided me to walk around the inn and hurried on downstairs. On the landing, Sven was sweeping up. Yesterday, I hadn't been able to identify his features much because of the darkness...but now, since morning light was flooding through every window, I could see him crisp and clear.
He was tall, like I had said. His silvery-white hair had grown long into a mullet which framed his lean face. He wore a mid-thigh length tunic with draw-strings at the chest in a criss-cross pattern over which he had donned a sleeveless, brown jacket thing which seemed very thin and ragged. Under all of this, he wore plain trousers and holed slippers like mine.
