Chapter 3: The Lads
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog."
-Mark Twain
"I hope you've learned a very important lesson today," said Idril sternly.
"I did," I said. "I learned that your father is terrifying."
Idril sighed. "I suppose he is," she said. "I just wish he would recognize me as his heir." We were sitting in her room eating supper, after Idril had finished showing me around. I had been too shaken to pay attention most of the time.
"What's he going to do for an heir if you're not it?" I asked.
"He expects me to get married and have a son who'll be his heir, but who'd marry me?"
"My parents expect me to get married, too," I said. "That's what happens to all the women in my family: We go off to work, we stay for a few years, and then we run off with some middle-class gent and live out in the country. I expect it'll happen to me, too."
"It doesn't have to," said Idril. "Look at my aunt. She's not married, and she's been grown up for years. Say, I have an idea…why don't I introduce you to my friends tomorrow? They've got some pretty elaborate theories as to what you're like."
"Oh, dear," I said. "Do I want to know what they are?"
"I expect you'll hear plenty about them tomorrow," Idril evaded. I nodded and sighed, knowing full well that it could be nothing good.
The next morning, Idril, of course, followed her usual routine of bursting into the room, sitting on me, and telling me to get up. "Come on, come on!" she said. "The lads are waiting for us outside!"
"The lads?" I said. I wasn't quite prepared to talk to a bunch of boysI'd never met.
"Yes. They're the best; you'll love them. And they'll like you, since you're cute. Come on!"
I was a bit sick of hearing "Come on!" all the time, but I just nodded and got up.
There wasn't anyone waiting in the courtyard when we got out there, and I briefly wondered whether Idril's friends had gotten sick of waiting and gone home. This was proven to be false when two figures leaped out of the shadows yelling, "Surprise!" causing me to scream and trip backwards.
"My, my," said a male voice. "I knew we were scary, but I didn't know we were that scary."
I looked up at the handsomest boy I had ever seen. He had light green eyes, sleek golden hair, perfect angular features, and the most charming smile I had ever seen. I was temporarily rendered speechless.
The boy bowed. "My apologies, miss. It was completely rude of us to jump out at you like that."
"Meleth, this is Glorfindel," said Idril, rolling her eyes. "He has delusions of being a grand and charming nobleman when in fact he's a sleazy urchin who couldn't make a desperate old widow fall in love with him."
"I am a grand nobleman," said Glorfindel. "May I remind you that I'm technically the Lord of the House of the Golden Flower?"
"Yeah, well, I'm a princess, so I outrank you."
"You'd think so, but no," commented the other boy. He was thin and slightly shorter than Glorfindel, with long fingers and dark hair. "I'm Ecthelion, by the way. Meleth, is it? Nice to meet you."
"N…nice to meet you too," I stuttered. "I'm…um…I'm Idril's new maid…"
"Ah, of course, the new maid!" cried Glorfindel. "We've had all sorts of theories about you. Mine was that Turgon's looking for a new wife and he wants some fresh little girl from the country so that's why he hired you. Tell me, has he made any advances toward you yet?"
"No, but he did accuse me of lying."
"Well, coming from Turgon, that's pretty close," said Ecthelion. "My theory was that you're a do-gooder who's come to try and save all poor street urchins. Is that true?"
"No," I said. "I came here because my mother made me."
"How boring," said Glorfindel, shaking his head. Idril rolled her eyes, and we all made our way out of the courtyard and into the street.
"So I take it by your shocked expression that this is the first proper city you've ever been in," said Glorfindel.
"Actually," I said, "I'd never left my parents' property before this."
"Sad," said Glorfindel.
"I've been leaving my parents' property since I was tall enough to unlatch the gate," said Ecthelion. "After all, how am I going to find fame and fortune if I stay inside all the time?"
"You've already got your entire family fortune," said Idril. "As for fame, well, don't hold your breath. Try to get some talent first."
"Oh, that I've got," said Ecthelion. "After all, didn't the great Maglor Feanorion himself tell me so? And haven't I got it in writing?"
"You do?" I asked. "Can I see?" I'd heard of Maglor Feanorion, of course…the field hands went about singing his songs all the time (a lot of them had swear words in them). I'd never heard him sing in person, though.
"That you may, love," said Ecthelion. From his pocket he pulled a rather ragged piece of paper and handed it to me. The writing on it was fairly smudged, but I was able to make out:
Ecthelion, you've got talent, kid! Keep up the practice and in a few years you'll be better than me. I might have to run you out of town when that happens though, so be warned. Your pal, Maglor
"He brags about that all the time," said Idril. "It's kind of sad that that's the only thing he has to be proud of."
"When did you get this?" I asked.
"Maglor came and did a show at the harvest festival five years back," said Glorfindel. "You can't tell me you weren't there! Even the strictest parents let their children go there! What kind of family are you from?"
"Now hold on a minute!" I said, stopping angrily. "My parents aren't strict. They're the best parents anyone could ask for. I never left our farm because I didn't want to! It's perfect there! And anyway, how can you be so rude about my life, when…" I stopped talking when I realized Glorfindel and the others weren't there anymore. They must have not realized I had stopped and kept going, or maybe they were just annoyed with me. Either way, I was now alone.
My first thought was to stay where I was until they came back and found me, but since people were bumping into me and saying, "Move, girl!" quite frequently, I decided that this wasn't such a good idea. My second thought was to duck into a side street until I could figure out where to go next, which I wound up doing. Unfortunately, this side street had already been taken over by a group of very oddly dressed people.
"Excuse me," I said politely. "But have you seen my friends? They…"
"Oh, dear, a lost country girl!" cried one of the women. "Isn't she precious! Come here, darling, and let me tell your fortune."
"Oh, no thank you, ma'am, I…" But she had already come up to me and grabbed my hand, closely inspecting the palm.
"Hmm…" she said. "I see that you're a long ways from home."
She could be saying that about anyone, I thought. Especially me, since I'm so obviously lost. I tried to pull away again, and didn't succeed.
"I see a man with no heir, and a girl with no chance…they will both need your help. I see a boy…a handsome boy, but you are angry at him. Be careful with him…he will make you happy, but not for long."
I was staring at her with wide eyes by now, since I was fairly sure she had just described Turgon, Idril, and Glorfindel. But I didn't think Glorfindel would ever make me anything but annoyed.
"And finally…" said the fortune-teller, pausing dramatically, "I see that you owe me five silver."
"But I don't have any money," I said. "You didn't tell me this cost anything."
"Do you think we tell fortunes for nothing? This is our only livelihood!" Some of the other people in the shadows had started to walk towards us, and I could see that there were several tough-looking men. I automatically took a step backward, knowing that it wouldn't do me any good. "So you'd better have some money, or…"
"Here," said someone behind me. I turned around to see Glorfindel throw a few silver coins onto the ground. "Now will you leave this poor girl alone, you filth?"
"Meleth, where were you?" cried Idril, running up to join us. She glanced at the fortune-teller and the others and scowled. "Were you bothering my maid? Take your money and go, or I'll have the king kick you out of town."
"Yes, miss," muttered my assailants, and quickly grabbed the silver coins and disappeared into the shadows. Idril shook her head and linked arms with me.
"Don't ever get lost like that again, you hear me?" she said. "We were so worried!"
"Damn gypsies," muttered Glorfindel. "You're not the first kid they've pulled that scam on."
"What are gypsies?" I asked.
"People who travel around from city to city and perform, or tell fortunes, or anything, really. Most of them are all right, but sometimes you get a bad crew, like those ones."
"What would they have done to me if you hadn't come?"
"Probably shoved you around a little and then taken whatever you had that was the least bit valuable," said Idril. "You'd be ok, but it wouldn't be fun."
"Oh," I said. "Well, thank you for saving me."
"Of course. And please excuse my rudeness earlier," said Glorfindel. "Idril's right, I am remarkably tactless sometimes. And now, let's go meet up with Ecthelion, whom I instructed to fetch us something to eat." With that, he also linked arms with me, and we walked back out of the alley. I don't know why, but I blushed.
"So how do you like my friends?" asked Idril when we were safely home again.
I thought for a moment, and then nodded. "They're all right. Glorfindel's kind of annoying, though."
Idril laughed. "Kind of? That's what I love about you, Meleth…you're so nice. Anyway, I want to show you something."
Obediently, I followed her out of the door and down the hall, where we finally reached a small door with a sign stating "Please keep out. Watch only," on it.
"Miss Idril?" I said. "This is…safe, isn't it?"
Idril shrugged. "Safe for me. You just hold on tight."
"Hold on tight to what?"
In reply, Idril flung open the door. Inside was…nothing, just the dark inside of a tall tower. There appeared to be some ropes hanging from the top, but I couldn't imagine what they were for.
"Just a second," said Idril. "The lift is still on the bottom floor; I just have to pull it up." I nodded, still with absolutely no idea what was going on. Idril proceeded to pull on one of the ropes until a small wooden platform was pulled into view.
"Hop on!" said Idril with a grin.
"What?" I cried. "Hop on that? We'll be killed! How does this even work?"
"Oh, relax, sweetie. The platform is attached to the top by ropes that go around a wheel. When I pull down on the rope, the platform goes up. The boys from the watch use this every day."
I sighed. "Promise you won't kill us?"
"Promise." Idril hopped onto the platform, which shuddered a little. "Let's go."
Please, Eru, let me die quickly and painlessly, I prayed, and stepped carefully onto the "lift." Idril grinned and slowly started to pull us up.
"Okay, rules for the lift," she said. "Put your arm around my shoulder and pull down on the rope with the other one. And we always have to remember to tie the rope to the hook when we get to the top or the platform will fall down and make a ton of noise and we'll get caught. Ok? Great."
We continued up the tower, but I'm afraid I wasn't much help in pulling the rope since I had my eyes closed the entire time. I thought I was going to faint by the time we finally reached the top.
"Here we are!" Idril said brightly, leaping off the lift and deftly tying the rope around the hook. "Check out this view, country girl!"
I opened my eyes, stepped carefully off the lift, and gasped.
We were standing nearly at the top of the tower, probably the highest up I'd ever been. Spread out before us was the entire city of Vinyamar, lit up by torches and candles and still full of the sounds of people shouting and carts rolling by.
"Everyone's still going about after dark?" I said.
"Of course," said Idril. "Vinyamar is famous for its night market. No one around here goes to bed for hours yet."
What a place this is, where people go to markets in the middle of the night and beat you up if you can't pay them, I thought. I briefly wondered if I liked it here or not.
"Time will tell, I guess," said Idril thoughtfully. I looked at her, surprised, and she winked at me.
