Chapter 10
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Harry didn't have a lot of options and right now he would have given quite a lot for a few more. The adrenalin from his fight was rapidly wearing off and he was starting to worry. His training and the element of surprise had helped him so far but he feared that he wouldn't be so lucky again. His eyes flicked to the dark, motionless shapes nearby; more deaths to be laid squarely at his feet.
Harry raised his blade as the sound of riders drew closer and the shadows finally gave up what appeared to be an even score of riders. Most were bearing heavy spears but several had bows. Harry was grateful to see that at least they were not pointed at him. Cautiously Harry lowered his sword and the lead rider signalled and his men lowered their weapons to a slightly less threatening position. Three riders dismounted and moved to check the fallen. Harry made a show of slowly sheathing his sword.
"What happened here?" demanded the lead rider, a powerfully built older man with a grey beard.
Harry wasn't really sure how to answer so decided to give a simple version of the truth.
"I'm not really sure, found around a dozen men attacking these children. I intervened and was able to save some of them" he paused and looked sorrowfully at the young man who had fallen trying to save the others.
"I was too slow to save the young man there" he gestured with his left hand toward where a rider was closing the sightless eyes of the teenage boy. "One of the girls here was injured but I think she's going to be alright, but you had best get her to a real healer."
Several riders quickly moved to the group of buildings. A younger rider was kneeling while talking quietly to the elder of the young girls. Another offered Harry a canteen of water and he gratefully took a long drink before handing it back. As he drank one of the riders who had dismounted to check the immediate area had approached the older rider and had a quiet conversation with him. The older man nodded and gestured with his hand and five men dismounted and moved toward where Harry had first engaged the men.
The elder rider turned serious blue eyes once more to Harry.
"Stranger my Lord Éomund is entrusted with the defence of these lands and these goodly folk, you have my thanks on his behalf for your aid. Now may I know your name and if I may be so bold your destination?"
"Harry Potter late of the Grey Havens, I am bound for Mirkwood."
The older rider looked surprised by Harry's statement but simply nodded and then looked once more around the still burning homestead his expression sad.
"Finbar" he called to a bearded young man. "Take four men and ride the perimeter if you come across any of the scum that did this ride them down, I won't have Dunlendings brigands thinking they can raid us and walk away."
Next he turned to one of his other men ordering a thorough search of the area.
"Come Harry Potter let us take these younglings to a better place than this, then we can have a talk."
"Sir I have important business to the North and…." The rider interrupted Harry's excuse with a raised hand.
"I must insist Harry Potter there are some…questions that I need to ask you. Also would you deny my Lord and my oldest friend the right to thank you for his nieces' lives?"
Harry looked around noting that there were several riders still nearby. They were not threatening merely present. He could probably get away but why bother; if they meant to do him any harm then he would take steps to escape. "That's fine …I'm sorry I don't know your name."
The older rider smiled "My apologies Harry Potter my name is Horvath son of Halfrey. Now if you Frewolf ride double with young Earown and I take Freya, we can leave Ayrica to ride with Harry Potter."
Once the group were all mounted they set out along with two extra riders. Harry wasn't willing to bet if they were escorts for the group or guards to watch him. As they rode he became aware of the fact that the girl riding behind him was crying softly. After a few moments Harry decided that he needed to say something. It was just that he had never really been much good with crying girls.
"Er….um….are you hurt? Do you need to stop and rest?" he enquired.
"No….its just that everything happened so quickly, then the fire and those men came."
"It must have been terrifying, what I saw was horrible enough. I'm just sorry that I couldn't have got their earlier. Your brother was very brave."
"His name was Eredian. I've always argued with him about being a stupid farmer when our family were riders." Ayrica paused a few moments obviously composing her self before continuing.
"I guess we will all have to live with my Uncle and Aunt now. That or become wards of the King" she paused again and took a deep breath.
"I want to thank you for saving what's left of my family. You saved me Harry; I felt the sword go through me. I know you did something. I felt so very cold and then you touched me and I was warm again. I don't know who or what you really are Harry but you saved all of us."
Harry could feel the young girl's arms gripping his waist, they were shaking.
"Ayrica you know that you saved me too. You threw yourself on to that sword. I couldn't let you die to save me. Too many good brave people have already done that for me."
"My parents are dead, I can't…I can't believe it. Why did this happen?" She was sobbing on to Harry's back.
"Ayrica my parents were murdered when I was a baby, nothing I can say will make it better. But you have your sisters and you still have family. You'll get through this even if you don't feel like it now."
Ayrica simply held Harry a bit tighter. She didn't speak for the rest of the ride and Harry wrongfully assumed that she was asleep.
Less than two hours later Harry was riding up a steep incline toward a fortified wooden palisade. To squat wooden towers, each with bowmen manning them guarded the heavy wooden gate. One of the guards blew a small horn and the gate swung slowly open as they approached. Passing through the gate revealed an open area of hard packed earth surrounded by wooden buildings. A large hall and a stable were two buildings he could make out in the dancing illumination of the burning torches.
As a stableman took the bridle of Harry's horse Ayrica let go of him and slid in to the hands of a middle aged man who hugged her close. Before relinquishing her to the care of a heavily pregnant woman, who Ayrica referred to as Aunt Théodwyn half steered half carried her in to one of the buildings. The two younger girls were carried in to the same building by their escorts. As Harry dismounted he could here the elderly man talking to Horvath. Feeling a bit guilty he listened in to the conversation as he tried to look busy loosening the horses harness.
"The others?" his voice was steady but hinted at anger and concern.
"I'm sorry old friend but it was all but over when we arrived. Eldred and Elspeth were gone. Eredian was slain defending the girls, he died with a sword in his hand."
"You saved my girls Horvath, I'm in your debt one more time."
Horvath shook his head and laid a hand on his friends shoulder. "No Éomund it was not I, the young man, an outlander who rode in with Ayrica saved them all. I found him standing over them sword in hand. There were at least eight dead Dunlending brigands around the farm."
"Well then I'd best have a word with the young lad" as Éomund looked about to turn away Horvath gripped his shoulder tighter for a moment.
"Wait a moment there's more you need to hear before you talk to him. He had no horse, yet said he's a traveler heading to Mirkwood, travelling from the Grey Havens if you can believe that." He paused a moment trying to find a way to articulate his thoughts. "We'll know more when my outriders get back in. I'm just saying that there is something strange happening here."
"You think him an enemy of Rohan?" Éomund enquired.
'I don't know, my experience tells me to beware, that the lads dangerous. But my heart tells me he's to be trusted. That's why I brought him in, I don't want him loose in the Riddermark if he's a spy but at the same time there's naught he's done that I can say means us ill."
"Yet," cautioned Éomund.
"Yet" echoed Horvath "Anyway we need to talk to him about what happened and what he saw. You need to talk with the girls lets see what develops."
As Harry ducked in to the stables helping the stableman with the tact and harness he decided that he had better leave and soon. His reconnaissance mission in Dol Guldur was important. He and the white council needed to know who and what was controlling the fortress. While Horvath and his men seemed polite, the man himself seemed to have suspicions and to be honest Harry didn't want to find out how they would react to his magic.
In the main lodge Lady Théodwyn was supervising the examination of her younger nieces' while talking to the eldest. While her young son Éomer watched it all from the shadows near the door. Théodwyn thought it was miracle her nieces had survived. Her husbands' brother had been a stubborn man refusing to move his family to the safety of Éomund's Fort. Trusting his own instincts against all advice had gotten him killed. As she mused she was only partly listening to fourteen year old Ayrica as she talked.
When she heard "Then I felt the blade slide through me". She nearly fell as she spun to grasp Ayrica's shoulders, when she spotted the dried blood on her nieces' dress she nearly fainted.
"You are hurt Ayrica! Why didn't you say something? Fréa make up a bed and call for my husband's surgeon. Quickly girl lay down" Théodwyn tried to steer her to a bed.
"Aunt please I'm fine, Harry healed me somehow look you can see where I was struck"
Feeling light headed Théodwyn looked at the rent in the bloody dress. An inch long hole surrounded by blood and naught but an angry but healed red scar.
"What is this….how could this be healed so quickly?"
Ayrica looked her Aunt in the eyes as she answered, "That's not all you and Uncle need to know" she paused as the images form hours earlier played in her minds eye.
"We were as good as dead, Mother and Father never made it out of the house after it was fired. Ere took fathers sword and tried to fight but they killed him." She was crying now as she recounted the events. She spoke of this Harry Potter fighting off the brigands, her own sacrifice to save her sisters and her miraculous healing.
As she finished her Aunt took her in to an embrace and stroked her hair. "You need to sleep now my dear. You are safe here."
Half an hour later Théodwyn leant against the wall outside the room. Calling on her maid to watch the children, she went in search of her husband. Something strange had happened tonight amidst the tragedy, and it was something that needed to be looked at. As she pushed of the wall her abdomen gave a slight twitch reminding her that she should be resting as close to term as she was.
oOoOoOoOo
Éomund was an intelligent man, a brave man and a skilled judge of character yet those attributes were not helping him to puzzle out the young man in standing before him. At first glance he seemed a beardless boy, a boy still on the road to manhood yet his eyes were odd.
They were old and powerful, the eyes of a veteran. Éomund had seen eyes like that on older riders, men who had seen too much blood, men who had suffered loss. There was also an aura of 'otherness' around this young man, an indefinable feeling of power. Deciding that he had best get on with this he cleared his throat.
"Harry Potter of the Grey Havens I owe you a debt of gratitude for your aid. But in these dangerous times needs must and I need to ask you some questions about what you witnessed. Would you tell us your tale?"
Harry sighed and nodded. He quickly told the tale of his intervention from when he reached the house till the arrival of Horvath. He was truthful but omitted any mention of magic.
"Thank you. I must ask you however about how you dealt with the other men in the raiding party. We found several of them disarmed and unconscious a fair way from the farm".
"I am a skilled fighter sir and they were not expecting the attack" Harry replied.
Éomund nodded and was about to ask another question when a woman's voice asked her question.
"Well and good Harry Potter but you omit to say how you healed my niece. What healing magic was it that allowed you to overcome a mortal wound?" Théodwyn strode in to the room.
"What is this Théodwyn?" asked an alarmed Éomund.
Théodwyn held up a hand quieting her husband.
"Ayrica has quite a tale to tell young man, a fantastical tale not to be believed yet she is a truthful lass who's alive and asleep with her sisters in another room. So I think we need to hear more of what happened young Harry Potter, don't you?"
Harry was starting to worry now, while he knew running to the rescue was a risk he now had to think of some way to answer without alerting potential enemies of his powers and purpose. Well he could just apparate away but that would probably make matters worse. He needed to say something other than screaming out 'damn it how do I get in to these situations'. Just as he contemplated just what sort of answer he could give a very familiar voice sounded within his mind.
'You must ride tonight beloved….warn them Harry…the hand of Sauron reaches out for the horse lord' Luna's voice began to grow stronger louder in his mind. He could almost see her face suddenly power coursed through him and Luna spoke using his body to project her voice.
Luna's voice rang through the room, "Harry warn Éomund, enemies ride this night in the Riddermark, warn him Harry only through him can you save the horse lord in his golden hall' Then the link to Luna broke sending a backlash of pain through Harry who called out "Luna".
To the others in the hall Harry was suddenly standing rigid his eyes were like liquid silver before turning to a glowing green and then back to their normal colour. Then he soundlessly collapsed to the floor. Unsure of what they were seeing several guards drew their weapons and moved forward toward Harry.
"Hold, send for my surgeon" commanded Éomund.
He thought on the mystic warning, and while he wasn't a superstitious man he decided that caution was called for "Tell my riders to arm themselves and prepare mounts".
"Husband?" enquired Théodwyn.
"Something is going on here my wife and I need to know what was said to you by my niece".
Théodwyn quickly told him Ayrica's tale and of her healed injury. She finished with a question of her own "What is he? Man or sorcerer?"
Éomund shrugged "I know not but that was not his voice, t'was a woman's voice, I'm guessing this Luna has sent us a warning."
"Horse Lord" mused Théodwyn "could they mean my brother?"
"We'll ride for Edoras on the morrow but tonight I'm riding patrol with Horvath and the men. I don't know what is going on but I'll not risk a threat to the Riddermark going unchecked because I didn't trust the messenger."
Horvath sighed as he peered into the darkness. Damn these clouds, visibility was terrible. There wasn't long left of this night only an hour or so till dawn. He turned to his lord. "Éomund I don't know what we are looking for here but…"
He was interrupted by the sound of a rider galloping towards them. It was Ceorl one of his scouts.
"My Lord we've spotted a good thirty warg riders ahead, looks like the bastards have just sacked some village somewhere they're arguing over the spoils."
"Were you seen, did they challenge you?" enquired Horvath.
"No we were out of sight, downwind and on foot at the time."
Éomund looked around at the forty-six riders with him. He instructed Ceorl to lead them back to the enemy. As they rode he quickly organised his riders he had the numbers. They would charge to break up the enemy and then ride the survivors down.
oOoOoOoOo
As Éomund tried to rally the survivors to him, Horvath crushed the skull of an Orc spearman attacking his friend.
As dawn had broken they had attacked, driving the Orc's and Warg's back but then over three score of the scum had charged from the west. It was either a trap or just bad luck, regardless they were in serious trouble.
oOoOoOoOo
Back in Éomund's hill fort Harry Potter sat up and prayed he wasn't too late, pausing only to gather up and draw his sword he apparated in to battle.