A Changeling in Erebor
Dedicated to the readers that stuck with me through the journey of writing 'Donnabelle', and especially to Calenthion and Nikolai who helped me so much with Khuzdul.
Chapter Ten
"We cannot send anyone from the company," Balin told Thorin, "as much as each and every one of us would like to find the uslâr."
Thorin looked up from his desk at each of the company gathered in his office. He had shared with them the details of Donnabelle and Frérin's slave life and what had been 'required' of them after she had shown signs of becoming an adult. Not one of the company were happy about what had been done to their hobbit. "Explain."
"If we send anyone from the company, Donnabelle will get suspicious. She is rather attached to us."
"She won't if it's a diplomatic mission to Gondor," Fíli suggested.
"Oh. And that would give it away."
Thorin set his jaw and leaned back against his chair. "If any of the company does go, I will have to stay, as would Fíli and Kíli." His two nephews sat up in protest but the king cut them off. "Fíli cannot go because of his resemblance to Frérin. And Kíli, if I let you go, your mother would never forgive me."
"I'll go," Nori interrupted. He was leaning against Thorin's office door with his arms folded across his chest. The company all turned to face the thief and spymaster. "At least one of us should go and I'll be the one that Donnabelle won't miss as much. Anyway, does anyone of you know the slaver's name?" He raised an eyebrow and looked each of the company in the eye. When he received a negative in response, the dwarf smiled. "I do. His name is Kaupi. I'll find him and bring him back to face dwarven justice."
Thorin looked the thief over and gave a brief nod. The king trusted the sly spymaster to succeed in the mission to bring their hobbit's slave owner to them. Before Nori could slip away to gather the few dwarrow that would journey with him to the south, their leader cleared his throat. "No one is to tell Donnabelle of this mission until after Nori and his team are safely back in the Mountain with the filth so the slaver can face justice."
Each and every one of the company agreed, unaware that Donnabelle was already aware of their plans.
ACIEACIE
Nori was packing up the last of his supplies at the gate when he heard a throat clear behind him. He spun around to face a young dwarfling that was vaguely familiar. The chestnut wavy hair fell to the dwarf's shoulders and it was pulled back out of his face in a partial ponytail. There were no other adornments in the young dwarf's hair. His blue eyes reminded the spymaster of the dwarven king. Nori ran his eyes over the other person partially hidden in the shadows and thought the youngling looked remarkably like the Frérin Donnabelle had shown them on the Carrock, though also different.
"Yes?"
"Could you do me a favour, Master Nori?" When the dwarfling spoke, it was with a voice that Nori had long since forgotten. Yet he was not sure where he had heard the voice before.
"Perhaps. What is this favour?"
The young dwarf cleared his throat again. "I know you are going south to find a particular person to bring them back to justice. You may not find them, but if you find Starur and he is still a slave, give him this." He pulled out a small katar; a weapon that had a triangular blade and was joined to a rectangular handhold along the shortest side of the triangle. Nori took the well-crafted weapon off the young dwarf and looked it over. There was only one other person he had seen that carried a blade like it and that was Donnabelle.
"Where did you get this?"
"He made it for me. Starur will recognise it and will help anyone that comes in my name."
The spymaster looked up and focused on the other dwarf's face. "Thérin?" He received a nod in reply. Nori ran his hand over his face. "You know what I'm doing?"
"It's why I told you his name. I don't think you'll find him in the South."
"Why not?"
Donnabelle looked away and swallowed. "If he is still alive, he'll be in his seventies. And I had a feeling he followed Frérin and me after we… left. Please. Find Starur and bring him back with any other slaves you find. Kaupi will find justice another way, if my family has anything to say about it."
Nori gave his queen a brief smile. "What have you got planned?"
"I told you that the Tooks were protective of me?" The thief nodded with a frown on his face. "Other than the rangers, no human was welcomed within the borders of the Shire. Several of my cousins travelled to Bree, where they reported a man with similar characteristics and appearance to my former master. From what I heard recently, the Lady Dís is in the Shire?"
"She is."
"Hmmm… I wonder what my family would tell her."
ACIEACIE
Dís, daughter of Thráin, was not at all impressed when a late snow storm forced her and her entourage to seek shelter in the Shire. She was loathed to seek shelter in one of the inns until the worst of the storm was over.
From what she had heard of hobbits over the years, they had not been all that hospitable toward outsiders until one young lass had returned to Hobbiton more dwarf than hobbit. Dís could not recall the name of the hobbit lass, nor give a viable description when she was asked for it. Of course, she did not remember the circumstances that surrounded the girl's disappearance or of the girl's return. All she knew from the stories of other dwarrow that had travelled through the area that the hobbits had become friendlier to outsiders because of that one lass.
Not that it mattered much to her current predicament: Dís had really wanted to return to Erebor with the last caravan in the previous summer. That did not happen after the Blue Mountains were attacked by the surviving orcs that survived the Battle of the Five Armies just as the last caravan was preparing to set out for their ancient homeland. So her departure had been delayed until it was too late to safely travel the distance during the winter. She wrote to Thorin to explain the situation and wanted him to know that she would arrive in the mountain as soon as she could.
"Cousin, does that dwarf remind you of anyone?" a voice interrupted the dark-haired princess's thoughts. The dam turned her azure gaze upward from her mug of ale just as two hobbits sat down in the chairs opposite her. Dís was sitting in a darkened corner of the Green Dragon, wanting some peace before her company set out the following morning for Erebor.
The younger of the two cousins had coppery curls and cheerful green eyes. "Yes," he drawled. "Reminds me of a certain dwarf lord… What was his name?"
"Oakenbark? Bagginshield?"
"What do you want?" Dís growled.
The two hobbits suddenly got serious when the older one pulled out a charcoal drawing. "Do you recognise this dwarf?"
Dís reached out and pulled the parchment closer to her with a trembling hand. Of course, she recognised dwarf in the drawing. "That… that's Frérin. How did you get this?"
"Who was he to you?" a third hobbit asked as he joined the two hobbits and one dwarrowdam at the table. Dís looked over the new hobbit with veiled interest. Though she did not know a lot about how hobbits aged, she would place his age between the two hobbits that had joined her initially. He was also more regal looking and held himself in a way she had seen many times before with Thorin.
"My brother. How did you get this?"
Fortinbras sighed and looked at the two cousins he had sent to Erebor with their uncles. "Are you sure this is a picture of Frérin? Not of…" he turned to the younger Took cousin in askance.
"Fíli," Adalger supplied. "Bilbo said the blond prince looked like his late uncle."
"This is not my son. It's Frérin." Dís placed the picture back on the table. "Mind introducing yourselves and telling me how you know of him?"
Fortinbras cocked an eyebrow. "I am Thain Fortinbras Took and these are my cousins, Dondinas Brandybuck and Adalger Took. We got that," he indicated to the drawing of Frérin, "from our cousin Bilbo."
Dís growled low in her throat. Her two guards stepped closer to the table in an effort to show her their support. "Unless your cousin is at least 150 years old, I don't see how. Frérin died during a battle 144 years ago, as did my father and grandfather."
"Bilbo is 42," Dondinas quietly said. "Only a few months younger than me."
"That's not possible," the dwarrowdam refuted. "Thorin wouldn't have lied to me about our brother's death. He fell defending Fundin…"
"Did Thorin actually state that Frérin was killed, or that he fell?" Adalger posed. "We know that this dwarf survived whatever battle happened 144 years ago. If he had not, Bilbo would have never been returned to the Shire after she was taken as a slave."
Dís paused at the statements Adalger made. How was she to believe these hobbits? Had Frérin really survived the battle only to be… wait. "Bilbo?"
The three hobbits looked at each other with some sort of dread. Of course, each and every one of them would use Donnabelle's male name, as was their habit. "You may have heard of her. She went with Thorin to reclaim Erebor."
"I thought the halfling that went with my idiot brother was Donnabelle, not Bilbo."
"Round these parts, she's known as Bilbo, but her name is Donnabelle. And to warn you: DON'T call us halflings. Rather insulting when we're not even half your height."
The dam pursed her lips and nodded. She understood. "How did this hobbit know of Frérin? You mentioned something about slavery?"
"Our cousin was taken just after one of our grandfather's mid-summer parties. She was sold into slavery and taken to the southern parts of Gondor. Her masters also owned two other slaves: Frérin and Starur. Frérin took Bilbo under his wing and protected her until they could buy their freedom. We are not sure what became of Starur."
The princess ran a hand over her weary face. She knew that name. Starur had been an apprentice blacksmith beginning his training with Thorin's teacher just as Thorin finished his mastery. Taking in a calming breath, Dís focused her attention back on the three hobbits in front of her. "What happened to Frérin?"
"He died protecting her," Fortinbras answered. He paused and waited for the dwarven princess to collect herself. Then he continued, "What is interesting though, and this might not mean much to you, is that we found out the slave owner's name."
"And that he had settled in Bree, no more than a few days ride from Tookland."
Dís leant forward. "What is his name and where is he now?"
AN: Translation
Uslâr = slavers
Kaupi (name of the slaver that owned Frérin and Donnabelle) is a Norse name that means 'purchaser' or 'merchant'