Halasían
A Retired Dúnedain Ranger Fishing Lake Evendim
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2001
- Messages
- 2,279
That morning Almara woke to find the warmth of Rie-Zunic's arms had left her. Sometime early in the morning. He must have slipped out. She knew where he would be. At work. He was always at work. She thought of following, chasing him down, or finding out where he was stationed that day. She decided against it. Sooner or later, he would come home. That was a surety.
She looked around the house. It was cluttered with, yet with few items. The items needed a home, she thought. A place to call their own. So, she busied herself with cleaning the place up and fixing a meal. Anything to keep her occupied. Else-wise she would go mad with the wait.
Elsewhere Rie-Zunic was on duty in the palace when he noticed Aldamir walk out of a chamber with a Shieldmaiden. "You," Aldamir called to him. "You are of a high rank in the royal guard. I have need of aid, but it must be done discretely."
"Of course," Rie-Zunic agreed. "What is your order?"
"The young women, Amarwen, has fled her chamber. I will see to the mix up being sorted out that brought her here, but in the meantime, she must be retrieved. Go with this woman and find her. Please, bring her back quietly."
"Right away sire," Rie-Zunic agreed.
He and the shieldmaiden strolled off at a hurried pace down the halls. "Why did she flee?" Rie-Zunic asked.
"They were going to force her to be married," the woman responded. "To Aldamir."
Rie-Zunic only scowled, considering the information as they went about their task.
Helda strode off with the officer Prince Aldamir had dispatched to search with her. The palace complex was vast and there was no telling just how much of a lead Amarwen had on them.
”If we are to find her, you must be able to recognise her,” Helda said, preparing to describe their errant noblewoman, ”She has-
“Ï will recognise her,” the officer cut in and before Helda she could challenge the officer’s over-confidence, he continued, ”The lady attended last night’s feast.”
Immediately the Shieldmaiden grinned for Rhinnin had told her all about last night’s feast and one Amarwen of Edhellond – the perfect weapon to deploy against the guard in the watch tower.
Helda nodded knowingly, ”We must split up – I will take the royal quarters and you the gardens.”
“And if she is found?” the officer queried.
Helda shrugged a moment, tempted to say it was best to sit on the young woman for she had a clear inclination to abscond when it suited her to do so. But sitting on a member of the aristocracy, particularly an overwrought and very angry member of the aristocracy, was not likely to be discrete either.
Inform her that the Prince is working even now to put this right and she is best served to return to her lodgings as he does so.”
Rie-Zunic nodded tersely. In this time, they had reached the other end of the hall. Helda nodded to the officer and turned right, towards the royal accommodations, leaving Rie-Zunic with the hall to the left and beyond that, after a few turns, the palace grounds and gardens.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Aldamir seethed as he prowled the halls of his family’s apartments. The day had started so sweetly. A delightful morning and then Vinyarion with his gambling debts and now this! What could have possessed his parents to take this path? Shaking his head, he swung around a corner only to find Amarwen’s father coming along in the other direction. The man looked worried and distracted and it took him a moment to realise he was not alone anymore. Therald’s head swung up and he swiftly took in Aldamir’s forbidding expression.
The prince began without hesitation, eyes narrowing, ”I had considered you a man of honour, Lord Therald. A man who loved his only child. Only now do I perceive your ambition!”
Lord Therald lifted a hand to his face but let it drop again, ”If it is ambitious to want to protect your people and your daughter, then yes Prince Aldamir. I am ambitious.”
Aldamir frowned, ”I do not understand. Speak plainly, Therald.”
“Shortly after Amarwen came of age, the Master of Ships has sought her for marriage to one of his sons. As his power and influence has grown so too has his boldness.”
”Refuse him!” Aldamir returned.
Therald’s jaw knotted, ”We have, your grace. Repeatedly…and in doing so we have earned his enmity. His overtures became demands and now they are threats – threats a mercantile port such as Edhellond is ill-equipped to defend against.”
And there it was, laid out now. Unless they surrendered their daughter to the Master of Ships or found a suitably powerful alternative able and willing to withstand Castimir’s vengeance, Edhellond was dangerously vulnerable. It was far enough away that the Master of Ships could raze it if he so wished. If he so dared. And he would dare unless Edhellond had a sufficiently powerful alliance to protect them, for if he gained Amarwen of Edhellond he further enhanced his legitimacy.
Therald shook his head from side to side, ”Even here in Osgiliath, Castimir’s agents are moving. Yesterday, one was so bold as to approach my daughter directly and this morning, in the guild halls of Osgiliath itself… I saw little recourse but to advance the signing of contracts – both for Amarwen’s sake and that of Edhellond.”
“I see that we are caught fast in a web not of our own making,” Aldamir observed wearily.
Therald was quiet for a few moments and then swallowed, ”Sire, if it is your will then Edhellond will release you from the contract. Perhaps we could send Amarwen north, far from his grasp.”
Whilst that might save Amarwen, it would do little to protect the people of Edhellond. A powerful alliance with the crown would make Edhellond a target that the Master of Ships might think carefully about before reprisals.
”The contract will stand,” Aldamir said reluctantly for anything less would see either Edhellond attacked or Amarwen drawn into the cruel machinations of the Master of Ships. He could not countenance either and he added, ”I will see to it that sufficient protections are set in place at Edhellond to further discourage the Master of Ships.”
“A chain across the harbour,” Therald suggested immediately and Aldamir nodded.
”A start, certainly…and as for your daughter…she should learn of this not from me but from you. Perhaps, once she is informed, she will come to see this in a different light.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The gardens! She was finally outside but by daylight the gardens looked quite different to what she recalled from last night. Amarwen remembered a fountain clearly but just now she could see several depending on which direction she looked. There was a spot where there was a gap in the hedges. She had slipped through it only last night with Rhinnin. Unguarded too. If only she could locate it now!
Once through the hedge, she’d make for the docks and hopefully stow onto the boat Halvarin had taken up from Pelargir. He’d told her its name this morning at the library. She could do this. She could really do this. It was terrifying and just a little exhilarating. Amarwen hurried around a trellis thick with trailing rose only to spot a guard hurrying along on the other side. This man did not look like the others she had seen. He was clearly looking for someone. His head turned this way and that restlessly and a moment later he had seen her.
Discovery!
She had not come so far to give up now, though. Amarwen turned and then ran, as fleet footed as ever she had been, in the opposite direction. No matter that she lost a shoe and her hair was now little more than two messy braids bumping down her back as she ran. She was not going to surrender so easily.
Amarwen didn’t dare look back to see if he gained on her. That would cost her precious time. She weaved around fountains and trees and right through one bed of tulips only to find herself face to breathless face with the man she was trying elude. A man who had a better grasp of the garden’s topography than she did. Clear grey eyes wide, Amarwen reeled backwards but he was too quick for her and his hand closed on her forearm.
”Wait!” he panted but panic and outrage made Amarwen try to wrench herself from his grip, ”I mean you no harm, m’lady!”
Still struggling against his grip, Amarwen retorted sharply, ”Then you will unhand me and escort me to the docks at once!”
He wouldn’t, she knew, for his uniform marked him one of the palace guards. His grip on her arm only proved her point. But was there any harm in trying for all she could rely on now was an unreasonable measure of good luck. The man’s hold on her arm loosened a measure. It was firm still and she could not break it, but it was kinder.
Hope lit in her expression as she looked into his face. Please. Please. Please.
"Please, just hear me out," Rie-Zunic requested, his tone serious, yet somewhat sympathetic to her cause. "Aldamir's himself was not even informed of this turn of events! He only discovered what had been done just this morning. He sent me to look for you, bearing his word that he will set this right."
Rie-Zunic, glanced around them, then back to the lady. The gardens were vacant, gladly, as subtly was one of Aldamir's requests. More so he loosened his grip, but kept sure that it would not fail.
Now, with a calmer voice he made his final request. "Please, return to your chamber, only long enough that Prince Aldamir has a chance to right this wrong. He would not have you treated this way, m'lady. He was quite upset when he discovered what had taken place."
He looked Amarwen steady in the eyes, awaiting her response.
Tendrils of black hair had come loose from Amarwen's braids. A breeze pushed one across her face. He was taking her back. Hope became ashes on her tongue and after a long moment, she closed her eyes over tears she would not have him see. Not with her dignity in tatters. Her head wilted and her shoulders slumped. He was taking her back.
When she did not speak further, the officer shifted his weight.
"What say you, Lady Amarwen," he prompted, the concern in his voice only making it somehow worse.
Everyone was concerned. Everyone was dismayed. Everyone, even Aldamir, according to the officer that had apprehended her. And yet no one, it seemed, could do anything! Impotent fury whipped through Amarwen, making her shiver with it.
"Do as you must," she said, head still bowed and eyes closed, her voice flat to her own ears.
With those words, the guard set into motion. He guided her back to where she had lost a shoe. Amarwen shoved her foot back into it, listless, and then was led back towards the palace itself. She felt small and wretched.
Helda pushed out of the palace to see Rie-Zunic drawing up. He had found Amarwen but the state the young woman was in was troubling. She was dishevelled, braids ragged and unwound and her gown was crumpled, hem stained with mud. Had she been running through garden beds, the Shieldmaiden wondered. Worst of all was the terrible expression on Amarwen's face. It was devoid of all animation. Amarwen stared blankly, as if she heeded nothing. Still, Rie-Zunic had a precautionary hand under her elbow.
"No one saw us," he supplied as Helda's scrutiny transferred to him, "The Lady has returned of her own volition."
He was not, she saw, particularly well pleased but it did not appear that there had been a scuffle.
Helda nodded to him, "I will see Lady Amarwen to her rooms."
The muscles in Rie-Zunic's jaw feathered momentarily before he transferred Amarwen to Helda's keeping. In doing so, Amarwen seemed to draw even further into herself if such a thing was possible. Wretched as it was, duty was duty. And the Prince was setting this to rights. Helda towed Amarwen away and soon the two women were lost to sight within the palace. But not before Amarwen looked back to where Rie-Zunic stood, her clear grey eyes filled with a despair that was haunting in one so very young.