"Captain Hethlin! You've finally come for your tankard?" The interior of the potter's shop was dim compared to the already glaring light outside, and cooler as well. There was a pleasant smell of damp earth. A latticework partition with a door in the center separated Edryd's work area from the front room wherein were displayed his wares upon wooden shelves. The potter himself stood in that doorway, wiping his hands upon a clay-smeared smock, and smiling at me, while his wife Moreth nodded from the corner where she was busily working a spinning wheel. Their daughter Pilara, sometimes surnamed the Oft-lost, was stationary for once, intent it seemed upon unrolling every skein of yarn in her mother's wool basket.
"For that, and for something else. I bring you a request from the King." I handed him the very official-looking letter, sealed with the royal seal, and watched his eyes widen, and jaw drop.
"A request from the King? For me? What is this about, Captain?" he sounded as if he did not know whether to be glad or affrighted, and I moved swiftly to reassure him.
"It is nothing ill, Edryd! Hopefully, a bit of good fortune. He needed a potter, and I gave him your name." His expression lightened considerably.
"A commission? From the King? Why didn't you say so? Really, Captain, you scared me half to death!"
"It's not a commission exactly. You had better read the letter." He opened it and scanned it quickly enough while I waited, then turned to his wife.
"Moreth, the King wishes us to close shop for a week, to take an apprentice! He promises me twice our usual weekly income, and a contract for wares for the royal kitchen, if I will teach this person full-time. What say you?"
Moreth, rescuing some yarn from her daughter's clutches, gave me a keen look. "I say that it seems strange to me. Who is this apprentice? Some lordling with a desire to play in the mud? It seems a princely offer, but it is almost too good. What are you not telling us about this 'apprentice', Captain? Is he difficult? Perhaps feeble-minded?" There was a faint chuckle outside the door, and I felt movement behind me. Stepping aside, I watched as Lord Celeborn entered, bending his tall head so as to not hit it upon the lintel. Edryd's jaw dropped for the second time in five minutes, and his wife's for the first, as the elf-lord, seeming to shimmer in the dimness, regarded them with gentle humor.
"I have been called both difficult and feeble-minded at various times in my life, but I would like to believe that it is not so," he remarked with a smile. "Perhaps you would care to judge for yourself, good potter? I promise to be an attentive student." Edryth was unable to do aught but stammer a stunned assent, while his usually talkative wife looked on in astounded silence. Pilara, looking up from the yarn basket, was more eloquent. Her already large eyes grew wider still, then a huge smile came over her face and she scrambled to her feet. Her stout legs were almost a blur as she scurried forward to throw herself upon Lord Celeborn.
"Tree-man! Tree-man!" she caroled, reaching upward with plump arms from somewhere around the region of his knees.
Celeborn of Lorien smiled in return. It lit the room like the moon rising above the trees. "May I?" he asked Pilara's parents politely. Her mother nodded after a moment, still mute with disbelief, and he stooped to lift the little girl up. Her chubby fingers immediately twined tightly into his silver locks, and it looked to me as if she were tugging them quite roughly, but he did not seem to mind. "You are a wise young lady! Yes, I am a tree-man of sorts. Would you like me to tell you a story about some real tree-men? They are called Ents." As Pilara burbled with enthusiasm, Lord Celeborn glanced over at me, his eyes alight with pleasure over the child. "I think we will do well enough now, Lady Hethlin." Knowing a dismissal when I heard one, I bowed and left the humble room where it seemed a star had fallen to earth. It wasn't until I was well down the street that I realized I had forgotten the tankard.
Two days before, when I had awakened from Lord Elrond's healing, it had been night, and I had been much impressed, for I thought it had taken but a couple of hours. Then Elrohir, sleeping in the chair beside my bed, awakened and told me that I had been asleep for the whole of the night in which they had worked, and the following day as well! Although Lord Celeborn, Lady Galadriel and the Queen had assisted Lord Elrond in his task, he was much fatigued when he was finished. But he had been successful, as he informed me when he came to check upon my progress the next morning.
"You are now subject to the same concerns as any other young woman, Lady Hethlin," he explained after looking in my eyes, listening to my chest, and laying a gentle hand upon my belly. "And so I bid you be careful, should you lie with anyone but my son. The women of the Dunedain in the North have a tonic they take while in the field, so as to be spared their monthly and the possibility of a child, but it is not recommended for women who wish to bear, and in any event is made of plants native to the North. I do not know if they would be available here, and I fear I am ill-equipped to counsel you in any event--my people have no need for such things. Should you wish for some advice upon the matter, I would recommend the Warden of the Houses of Healing--providing you have an open afternoon." His face was absolutely serious, but I thought I detected a deeply buried glint of humor in his eyes.
"I know the Warden well, sir. I spent some time in his house myself. And you are correct, as usual--he is a man who loves to talk about his work."
"That is one way of putting it." His tone was dry, but not hostile, and I took my courage in hand.
"My lord, I wish to thank you for this. I know that you do not like me. It was a great kindness for you to take such trouble upon my account. You do not know how much it means to me." My eyes started to burn, to my dismay, and I blinked several times to make them stop.
Lord Elrond folded his hands gracefully in his lap, then looked down and studied them as he spoke. I suddenly realized that he was doing me the courtesy of allowing me privacy to compose myself.
"As has been pointed out to me, it is my duty as a healer to lend aid and succor where I may," he said, the corner of his mouth drawn up wryly. Elrohir had promised me immortality in his memories, and it seemed at if my liege lord had unintentionally achieved the same thing; to be remembered ever after, even in Valinor, as the cheeky mortal who had had the nerve to remind Lord Elrond of his duty.
"Besides, I knew your father. And his father, and many of the others of your house. Over the centuries, I watched them try to expiate your ancestor's treachery with acts of valor and their own blood. Over and over again, I witnessed this. I healed several of them, and at least two of them are buried in that place in Imladris we keep for the Dunedain who are brought there to be healed but do not survive."
"It seemed to me rather unfair that when the curse had finally been ended, your house should end with it as well. There is so much else that is ending........In truth, I found that it was comforting to me to be able to preserve and restore something. And whether I like it or not, or you like it or not, we are kindred from afar, as are all the Dunedain. I swore an oath long ago to guide and protect my brother's children. This was but one of the last things I will do to keep that oath before they pass from my care entirely."
"Whatever your reasons, my lord, know that I will always be grateful." He nodded, then turned with obvious relief to more practical matters, asking if I were in any discomfort. I wasn't much, rather to my surprise, given what he had told me to expect earlier--it wasn't any worse than a bad monthly. That seemed to please him, though he left me some medicine to take should things get worse, and told me that I should stay in bed for the day, and perhaps the next if I still felt weak. After that, I would be free to do as much as I felt like doing, though he said that it might be a week before I felt truly well again.
And as matters turned out, Elrohir was unable to continue in his role as my faithful nurse, and was forced to bid me a regretful farewell, for he and his brother, Glorfindel, Faramir, Lord Legolas and a suitable escort of elves and City Guard set out that day for Ithilien. The Prince of Mirkwood was thinking of bringing some Elves down to Ithilien from his kingdom, and wished to scout out the area. Faramir was also going to take the opportunity to decide where he wished to build his manor or castle, or whatever it was he had planned for Emyn Arnen.
I had thought that I would spend the day convalescing by myself, catching up on my reading, but that did not happen. About an hour after Lord Elrond left, my grandfather arrived to make sure that I did not need anything and chatted with me for a while. Then at lunch-time, Prince Imrahil and Princess Lothiriel arrived, carrying a large vase of roses from their garden, followed by a blushing Felith with a tray of food for three people. When they confirmed that I was indeed glad for some company, they spent a pleasant hour with me, Lothiriel conversing cheerfully about her new horse, and some goings-on at court she thought I would find amusing.
After they departed, I dozed off for a while, to be awakened by a tentative tap at the door in the middle of the afternoon. When I bade the knocker enter, Master Samwise poked his head in tentatively.
"I thought to take care of the plants, miss, but they tell me you are ill, so if you do not wish to be bothered, then just say so and I'll go." I smiled.
"By all means come in, Master Gamgee. I'm enjoying them so much, I should hate to see them suffer for the lack of your care." He gave me a shy grin, his cheeks rosy with embarrassment at the sight of me in my nightgown, and sidled into the room. A stout manservant followed with a couple of cans of water, which he carried out to the balcony, then bowed to me and to Master Samwise and departed.
"You're very kind, miss," murmured the hobbit, and to my surprise, he too had brought me flowers, a mixed bouquet put up in a small vase. "I thought you might like these, though they look mighty plain next to this lot," he said, indicating the Dol Amroth roses. "My word, but those are beautiful!"
"I think your flowers are just as beautiful, Master Gamgee. They put me in mind of the bouquets my mother would put upon our table at home." That obviously pleased him, and I was struck by an idea. "Since you like his roses so much, have you seen the Prince's gardens at his townhouse?" He shook his head. "Would you like me to ask him to let you see them? I'm sure he would be glad to."
"I shouldn't like to put him to any trouble, Lady Hethlin."
Never had I known such a modest, unassuming hero! "It would be no trouble if it pleased you, Master Samwise! He would be glad of the opportunity to do something to make you comfortable. If he had been home of late, he would have invited you by now himself, I am certain of that. And he likes flowers and plants--we talked for a long time on the way to Lorien about the sorts that grow in Dol Amroth, for some of them differ from what grows here and in Anorien. He would enjoy and be honored by your visit." Samwise blushed again.
"If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'll own I'd be much obliged, miss." I promised that I would see to matters and he went out to tend to his green friends on the balcony. That took but a few minutes, then he carried the empty water cans to the door one at a time, set them down outside, bowed and wished me farewell and to feel better, and departed. I picked up a book, and started to read it, then dozed off propped up by my pillows, the book held open by my hand.
Another knock on the door woke me about an hour later, and a head somewhat higher from the floor than Samwise's stuck itself in at my request to enter.
"Getting a bit too high and mighty for your old friends these days?" a familiar and much-missed voice grumped. "'Tis a sad state of affairs when the only way I can track you down is to wait until you're bedridden!"
"Well, 'tis a sad state of affairs when I have to find out from the Captain that you're getting married!" I retorted. "Get in here, Mablung!" He did so, smiling, and I noted that he was carrying a bottle.
"What's that?" I asked suspiciously.
"Medicine," he replied in a matter-of-fact manner. "That is, if your healer allows it."
"The question never came up. He knows very little about the sort of company I keep." That statement drew a harrumph from him, and at the familiar, homey sound I grinned and beckoned that he should sit in the chair beside the bed.
"You have any cups in this fancy room of yours?" he asked.
"Look in that cupboard over there. No, not that one, that's the wardrobe. The other one. There are sheets and towels, and I think I saw a couple of goblets on the top shelf." He found them, retrieved them, uncorked the bottle with his long knife without getting too much cork into the wine, and poured half a cup for each of us.
"Ranger tea," he declared, giving me mine, and I grinned again. "To fallen comrades," came his solemn toast, and I answered in kind, finding that the wine was actually reasonably good. Then came my toast.
"To love, and marriage. And letting your friends know about it." Mablung grimaced.
"I would have told you, Heth, had you been here, right along with the Captain. The Valar know I didn't tell the others until I had to! They have been insufferable--the endless jokes and jibes, and wanting to drag me off every single night to go drinking till dawn! Not to mention taking up a collection to buy me a wench! As if I'd be capable of anything of the sort, should Delyth find out about it!"
I smiled, amused. "Faramir said that she was pretty. Do you truly love her, Mablung?" His weather-beaten face reddened, much to my delight, and he cleared his throat more than once before he answered, but he was straightforward enough when he did.
"Yes, that I do, lass. So the Captain says she's pretty?" That seemed to please him.
"Indeed. He also said that she'd have no trouble keeping you in line."
"There's some truth to that," he sighed. "You'd think that after growing up with my sisters, I'd choose a meek woman, someone biddable and sweet, but no. Delyth is no frail flower."
"You couldn't live with a meek woman and you know it. Your sisters aside, you spent too much time with me."
"Oh, you had your meek moments, in the beginning at least. Wouldn't say boo to a goose. Then things changed, somehow....." His voice trailed off in mock puzzlement, and I grinned.
"I became corrupted, and a Ranger."
"That will do it every time," he agreed, and then gave me a serious look, gesturing at the bed. "What is all this about, Heth? I heard some story about you taking down a bunch of orcs on the Road, but you looked well enough at the wedding. Did you get out of bed too soon?"
I shook my head. "I'm quite recovered from that, Mablung." And I was--whatever Lord Elrond had done to heal my insides had also mended my hand and the last of the soreness from the battle at Min-rimmon. I'd also noticed to my amazement that my scars seemed much reduced in appearance as well. They were not gone by any means, they simply looked as if the fading process that had taken place over the last four years had been accelerated, and were a fainter, white-silver that was not so obvious. The only thing I could still complain of was the ache in my belly, and a weary feeling.
"Lord Elrond is a very great healer and the Prince talked to him and got him to agree to try to heal me."
"Heal the injuries you got in that fight?"
"Nay--he healed what the orcs did to me. Made it so that I can have children." Mablung stared at me for a moment, astounded. His face reddened slightly again, as he probably considered what that healing might entail. Then he shook himself, and a big smile spread slowly across his face.
"Oh, Heth! Lass. That is wonderful! I am very glad for you!" His sword and bow-callused hand reached out and clasped mine, and I squeezed it, blinking a bit.
"Thank you, Mablung. I am rather happy right now myself."
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "You'll have to be careful now, lass. Have an eye to that elf lord! He's liable to try to trick you into his bed, from the looks of him. Make you earn that bow he gave you."
"It's a little late to be worrying about that, Mablung!" I laughed. His face darkened, he frowned, and I moved swiftly to reassure him. "We are lovers, 'tis true, but he asked, and I agreed. And it wasn't for the bow. We've been pretty close as friends for a while now. And you needn't worry about any unintended children--elves don't have children unless they wish to."
"Lovers, heh? I'm not sure I like that idea much, Heth," he grumbled. "Nothing against the Queen, or her kindred, but they are an uncanny lot."
"Mablung," I replied gently, "you and the other Rangers are the reason that this happened." And I finally explained to him what had happened the night he brought Elladan and Elrohir to my bedside in the Houses of Healing. His eyes widened in disbelief at my description of the Grey Lands, and his brow furrowed as I explained about the bond between Elrohir and myself.
"It sounds as if you're near married to that fellow already! All this business about being able to talk to each other in your heads......it's strange, Heth, and that's a fact! I wish I'd never brought the two of them to you now."
"If you had not, I would have died. They were the only people who could have saved me, besides possibly the King, and they seemed to think that even he could not have done what they did. You were only looking out for me, like you always have. There is no harm done."
"So you say now. But does he intend to marry you, or just keep dallying? Because if he doesn't do right by you, he and I could find ourselves having a little shooting contest, elf-lord or no."
I smiled ruefully at my friend's fierce protectiveness. "He'd win, Mablung. He's had nearly three thousand years to practice." Mablung blinked as that soaked in. "And I will not marry him. He is a Peredhil, a half-elf. Mortal blood runs in his veins. If he chose to wed with me, he would lose his immortality, grow old and die, even as the Queen will because she married the King. I cannot do that to him."
Mablung looked surprised, and then thoughtful. "The Queen will.......I wondered how that was going to work out! How did you find out about all of this?"
"The King, and Elrohir of course. I've learned quite a bit about Elves over the last couple of months."
He took another gulp of his wine suddenly, shaking his head as he did so. "So it seems, so it seems.......Are you just going to keep on fooling around with this fellow, then?" There was a faint tinge of disapproval in his voice, and I blushed a bit.
"Do you see the men of Gondor lining up to make an honest woman of me? It is true that I received three proposals of marriage during the wedding festivities: from a boy of seventeen, whose father put him up to it because I was the King's kinswoman; an old codger who said I could sleep with whomever I wished so long as I gave him access to the King; and from a fat merchant who wanted trade concessions. Would you have me make such a marriage, and live miserable the rest of my life for my so-called 'reputation's' sake? I have it on good authority that I have no reputation, Mablung--I was running around in the wilderness for four years with two hundred men!"
He bristled indignantly at that. "We none of us ever laid a hand upon you in that way, Heth! Aside from the danger of battle, you were as safe with us as if you'd been on your own farm!" I sighed wearily.
"I know that Mablung, you know it, the Captain knows it, and every Ranger in the troop knows it. But no one else believes it! It seems impossible to them that men could remain decent and good in the face of temptation--even if I were never that much of a temptation!" He harrumphed. "Why it should be so hard to believe, given recent events, I don't know, but there you have it." The Prince's words, I decided, would serve perfectly well for the next part of my explanation. "So I have a choice--I can live my own life to please myself, or spend the rest of it dancing to other peoples' tunes in a futile effort to please them. I have decided to please myself. And right now, it pleases me to be lovers with Elrohir ." Draining my own glass in one long draught, I plopped back against my pillows.
Mablung gave me a troubled look. "What do you think the Captain would say about that, Heth?"
"The Captain," I replied tersely, "is no longer my commander, or my liege, for that matter. He is not my kinsman, that I must apply to him for permission to marry or indulge in a dalliance. The King has given me dominion over my own house. And any other claim Faramir might have had upon me died the day he plighted troth with Eowyn of Rohan."
My friend raised his eyebrows at my vehemence. "I am sorry about that, lass." I stared at the goblet in my hands, running my thumbs over the pretty carvings.
"It obviously wasn't meant to be, Mablung. All the things that would have kept me from him have been resolved, they've just been resolved too late. If I had known three months ago that this," and I waved a hand over my belly, "could be mended, I'd have given Eowyn quite the fight over him, even if I'd still thought myself a commoner."
"I have no doubt that you would have. And I know who my money would have been on." I wrinkled my nose, considered in many circles a fearsome sight.
"That's kind of you, but the smart money would be on her. From the moment he first saw her, I had no chance. Though I would have tried, I really would have tried."
He nodded acknowledgment, then frowned worriedly. "Heth? You're not with Lord Elrohir because you want to make Faramir jealous, are you?" The Captain of the South Ithilien Rangers looked as if the question left a bad taste in his mouth, but he asked it nonetheless.
I did not take offense. "It does look that way, doesn't it? On the surface of things? But I'm not. Elrohir would know if I were using him in that way. Not that he might not play along, just for mischief--he doesn't much care for Faramir at all!" I set the goblet upon the table beside the bed, and Mablung, after an inquiring glance at me, filled it again.
"No, we are together right now because it suits us to be so. He is much grieved over losing his sister, and you know what I am grieved over. We are very close friends--that is the best description, I guess."
"Very close friends who just happen to sleep together?" he asked dryly, refilling his own cup. I nodded, and took mine up once more.
"And I'm grateful for it. As far as I've come, for a long time after the orcs, I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to do that, allow myself to be touched in that way. The Captain was the one person I thought could help me, and the time was never right to ask him. Elrohir is probably the only other person who could have done it. In his way, he has done as much to heal me as his father has."
Mablung studied me for a long moment, then gave an abrupt nod. "All right then. If you say he helps you, and does no harm, I'll keep my nose out of it and try to like him for your sake." I chuckled.
"Yes, father!" He promptly turned beet red. "You needn't worry much in any event--he will be returning North with his father soon. I doubt I'll see him again for a long time, unless I too go North with my grandfather, as he wishes." A pang of sadness suddenly smote me at the prospect of Elrohir's absence.
"Your grandfather?" Mablung interjected, surprised. "You've found some kin?"
Grinning, I exclaimed, "We are behind the times, aren't we? You don't know about my family, and I certainly don't know anything about this young lady you are marrying! And after all the questioning you've just given me about my lover, you had better believe I want to know everything about yours!"
We then exchanged information, me telling him about how I'd come to know Litharel, and he finally disclosing how he'd met the redoubtable Delyth upon a visit to her family's shop to collect some quivers for the Rangers. It was great fun to watch him talk about her--he was obviously smitten, and afraid of being ridiculed about it by his fellow Rangers. He was also terrified of the upcoming ceremony that loomed upon the horizon like a great dark cloud that he would have to pass through to reach the rainbow beyond, though there were certain aspects about it that pleased him.
"Did you know that all the nobles have been petitioning the King to let them hold their marriages in the Court of the Tree? And he hasn't been letting them do it. But he told me that was where my wedding was being held, whether I liked it or not. And me just a mere captain!" He had by now finished off his half of the wine bottle, and was slightly flushed with it. I had but sipped my refilled goblet, but was feeling relaxed and happy nonetheless.
"You are hardly a mere Captain, Mablung! You've been Faramir's right hand in Ithilien for years now, and you did all that wonderful fighting at the Black Gate, and that extremely clever ambush on the way there. The King is a Ranger paying respects to another really good Ranger." I pondered thoughtfully for a moment, then continued. "I think he also wants the Ithilien Rangers to stop confusing him with Sauron."
Mablung chuckled. "He'll get his wish then--he's donating a couple of fine bullocks and a wagon-load of beer to the festivities!"
"That will certainly do it!" I agreed, and we both laughed. The conversation meandered pleasantly after that until right before dinner time, when he bade me farewell, saying he was to take dinner with Delyth and her family that night.
"Tonight is just the family, but two nights hence, they have asked me to bring some of my friends over. If you are well enough to come, would you?"
"I would very much like to meet your lady! And Lord Elrond said that I would be feeling better by then. Shall I bring anything?" He shrugged.
"You don't have to. You may if you like. I'll stop by here, and walk you over." Arrangements made, he had hugged me tightly, and departed, whistling, while I chuckled fondly about my smitten friend.
My own supper that night was quiet. Felith came in after dinner to help me with a bath and washing my hair, and when she was done I found myself more than content to return to bed. Hoping that more of my energy would return on the morrow, I read for a time by the glow of the bedside lamp, then settled down to rest, pondering the mysteries of love and marriage, and feeling rather lonely because of the cold and empty space at my side.
"For that, and for something else. I bring you a request from the King." I handed him the very official-looking letter, sealed with the royal seal, and watched his eyes widen, and jaw drop.
"A request from the King? For me? What is this about, Captain?" he sounded as if he did not know whether to be glad or affrighted, and I moved swiftly to reassure him.
"It is nothing ill, Edryd! Hopefully, a bit of good fortune. He needed a potter, and I gave him your name." His expression lightened considerably.
"A commission? From the King? Why didn't you say so? Really, Captain, you scared me half to death!"
"It's not a commission exactly. You had better read the letter." He opened it and scanned it quickly enough while I waited, then turned to his wife.
"Moreth, the King wishes us to close shop for a week, to take an apprentice! He promises me twice our usual weekly income, and a contract for wares for the royal kitchen, if I will teach this person full-time. What say you?"
Moreth, rescuing some yarn from her daughter's clutches, gave me a keen look. "I say that it seems strange to me. Who is this apprentice? Some lordling with a desire to play in the mud? It seems a princely offer, but it is almost too good. What are you not telling us about this 'apprentice', Captain? Is he difficult? Perhaps feeble-minded?" There was a faint chuckle outside the door, and I felt movement behind me. Stepping aside, I watched as Lord Celeborn entered, bending his tall head so as to not hit it upon the lintel. Edryd's jaw dropped for the second time in five minutes, and his wife's for the first, as the elf-lord, seeming to shimmer in the dimness, regarded them with gentle humor.
"I have been called both difficult and feeble-minded at various times in my life, but I would like to believe that it is not so," he remarked with a smile. "Perhaps you would care to judge for yourself, good potter? I promise to be an attentive student." Edryth was unable to do aught but stammer a stunned assent, while his usually talkative wife looked on in astounded silence. Pilara, looking up from the yarn basket, was more eloquent. Her already large eyes grew wider still, then a huge smile came over her face and she scrambled to her feet. Her stout legs were almost a blur as she scurried forward to throw herself upon Lord Celeborn.
"Tree-man! Tree-man!" she caroled, reaching upward with plump arms from somewhere around the region of his knees.
Celeborn of Lorien smiled in return. It lit the room like the moon rising above the trees. "May I?" he asked Pilara's parents politely. Her mother nodded after a moment, still mute with disbelief, and he stooped to lift the little girl up. Her chubby fingers immediately twined tightly into his silver locks, and it looked to me as if she were tugging them quite roughly, but he did not seem to mind. "You are a wise young lady! Yes, I am a tree-man of sorts. Would you like me to tell you a story about some real tree-men? They are called Ents." As Pilara burbled with enthusiasm, Lord Celeborn glanced over at me, his eyes alight with pleasure over the child. "I think we will do well enough now, Lady Hethlin." Knowing a dismissal when I heard one, I bowed and left the humble room where it seemed a star had fallen to earth. It wasn't until I was well down the street that I realized I had forgotten the tankard.
Two days before, when I had awakened from Lord Elrond's healing, it had been night, and I had been much impressed, for I thought it had taken but a couple of hours. Then Elrohir, sleeping in the chair beside my bed, awakened and told me that I had been asleep for the whole of the night in which they had worked, and the following day as well! Although Lord Celeborn, Lady Galadriel and the Queen had assisted Lord Elrond in his task, he was much fatigued when he was finished. But he had been successful, as he informed me when he came to check upon my progress the next morning.
"You are now subject to the same concerns as any other young woman, Lady Hethlin," he explained after looking in my eyes, listening to my chest, and laying a gentle hand upon my belly. "And so I bid you be careful, should you lie with anyone but my son. The women of the Dunedain in the North have a tonic they take while in the field, so as to be spared their monthly and the possibility of a child, but it is not recommended for women who wish to bear, and in any event is made of plants native to the North. I do not know if they would be available here, and I fear I am ill-equipped to counsel you in any event--my people have no need for such things. Should you wish for some advice upon the matter, I would recommend the Warden of the Houses of Healing--providing you have an open afternoon." His face was absolutely serious, but I thought I detected a deeply buried glint of humor in his eyes.
"I know the Warden well, sir. I spent some time in his house myself. And you are correct, as usual--he is a man who loves to talk about his work."
"That is one way of putting it." His tone was dry, but not hostile, and I took my courage in hand.
"My lord, I wish to thank you for this. I know that you do not like me. It was a great kindness for you to take such trouble upon my account. You do not know how much it means to me." My eyes started to burn, to my dismay, and I blinked several times to make them stop.
Lord Elrond folded his hands gracefully in his lap, then looked down and studied them as he spoke. I suddenly realized that he was doing me the courtesy of allowing me privacy to compose myself.
"As has been pointed out to me, it is my duty as a healer to lend aid and succor where I may," he said, the corner of his mouth drawn up wryly. Elrohir had promised me immortality in his memories, and it seemed at if my liege lord had unintentionally achieved the same thing; to be remembered ever after, even in Valinor, as the cheeky mortal who had had the nerve to remind Lord Elrond of his duty.
"Besides, I knew your father. And his father, and many of the others of your house. Over the centuries, I watched them try to expiate your ancestor's treachery with acts of valor and their own blood. Over and over again, I witnessed this. I healed several of them, and at least two of them are buried in that place in Imladris we keep for the Dunedain who are brought there to be healed but do not survive."
"It seemed to me rather unfair that when the curse had finally been ended, your house should end with it as well. There is so much else that is ending........In truth, I found that it was comforting to me to be able to preserve and restore something. And whether I like it or not, or you like it or not, we are kindred from afar, as are all the Dunedain. I swore an oath long ago to guide and protect my brother's children. This was but one of the last things I will do to keep that oath before they pass from my care entirely."
"Whatever your reasons, my lord, know that I will always be grateful." He nodded, then turned with obvious relief to more practical matters, asking if I were in any discomfort. I wasn't much, rather to my surprise, given what he had told me to expect earlier--it wasn't any worse than a bad monthly. That seemed to please him, though he left me some medicine to take should things get worse, and told me that I should stay in bed for the day, and perhaps the next if I still felt weak. After that, I would be free to do as much as I felt like doing, though he said that it might be a week before I felt truly well again.
And as matters turned out, Elrohir was unable to continue in his role as my faithful nurse, and was forced to bid me a regretful farewell, for he and his brother, Glorfindel, Faramir, Lord Legolas and a suitable escort of elves and City Guard set out that day for Ithilien. The Prince of Mirkwood was thinking of bringing some Elves down to Ithilien from his kingdom, and wished to scout out the area. Faramir was also going to take the opportunity to decide where he wished to build his manor or castle, or whatever it was he had planned for Emyn Arnen.
I had thought that I would spend the day convalescing by myself, catching up on my reading, but that did not happen. About an hour after Lord Elrond left, my grandfather arrived to make sure that I did not need anything and chatted with me for a while. Then at lunch-time, Prince Imrahil and Princess Lothiriel arrived, carrying a large vase of roses from their garden, followed by a blushing Felith with a tray of food for three people. When they confirmed that I was indeed glad for some company, they spent a pleasant hour with me, Lothiriel conversing cheerfully about her new horse, and some goings-on at court she thought I would find amusing.
After they departed, I dozed off for a while, to be awakened by a tentative tap at the door in the middle of the afternoon. When I bade the knocker enter, Master Samwise poked his head in tentatively.
"I thought to take care of the plants, miss, but they tell me you are ill, so if you do not wish to be bothered, then just say so and I'll go." I smiled.
"By all means come in, Master Gamgee. I'm enjoying them so much, I should hate to see them suffer for the lack of your care." He gave me a shy grin, his cheeks rosy with embarrassment at the sight of me in my nightgown, and sidled into the room. A stout manservant followed with a couple of cans of water, which he carried out to the balcony, then bowed to me and to Master Samwise and departed.
"You're very kind, miss," murmured the hobbit, and to my surprise, he too had brought me flowers, a mixed bouquet put up in a small vase. "I thought you might like these, though they look mighty plain next to this lot," he said, indicating the Dol Amroth roses. "My word, but those are beautiful!"
"I think your flowers are just as beautiful, Master Gamgee. They put me in mind of the bouquets my mother would put upon our table at home." That obviously pleased him, and I was struck by an idea. "Since you like his roses so much, have you seen the Prince's gardens at his townhouse?" He shook his head. "Would you like me to ask him to let you see them? I'm sure he would be glad to."
"I shouldn't like to put him to any trouble, Lady Hethlin."
Never had I known such a modest, unassuming hero! "It would be no trouble if it pleased you, Master Samwise! He would be glad of the opportunity to do something to make you comfortable. If he had been home of late, he would have invited you by now himself, I am certain of that. And he likes flowers and plants--we talked for a long time on the way to Lorien about the sorts that grow in Dol Amroth, for some of them differ from what grows here and in Anorien. He would enjoy and be honored by your visit." Samwise blushed again.
"If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'll own I'd be much obliged, miss." I promised that I would see to matters and he went out to tend to his green friends on the balcony. That took but a few minutes, then he carried the empty water cans to the door one at a time, set them down outside, bowed and wished me farewell and to feel better, and departed. I picked up a book, and started to read it, then dozed off propped up by my pillows, the book held open by my hand.
Another knock on the door woke me about an hour later, and a head somewhat higher from the floor than Samwise's stuck itself in at my request to enter.
"Getting a bit too high and mighty for your old friends these days?" a familiar and much-missed voice grumped. "'Tis a sad state of affairs when the only way I can track you down is to wait until you're bedridden!"
"Well, 'tis a sad state of affairs when I have to find out from the Captain that you're getting married!" I retorted. "Get in here, Mablung!" He did so, smiling, and I noted that he was carrying a bottle.
"What's that?" I asked suspiciously.
"Medicine," he replied in a matter-of-fact manner. "That is, if your healer allows it."
"The question never came up. He knows very little about the sort of company I keep." That statement drew a harrumph from him, and at the familiar, homey sound I grinned and beckoned that he should sit in the chair beside the bed.
"You have any cups in this fancy room of yours?" he asked.
"Look in that cupboard over there. No, not that one, that's the wardrobe. The other one. There are sheets and towels, and I think I saw a couple of goblets on the top shelf." He found them, retrieved them, uncorked the bottle with his long knife without getting too much cork into the wine, and poured half a cup for each of us.
"Ranger tea," he declared, giving me mine, and I grinned again. "To fallen comrades," came his solemn toast, and I answered in kind, finding that the wine was actually reasonably good. Then came my toast.
"To love, and marriage. And letting your friends know about it." Mablung grimaced.
"I would have told you, Heth, had you been here, right along with the Captain. The Valar know I didn't tell the others until I had to! They have been insufferable--the endless jokes and jibes, and wanting to drag me off every single night to go drinking till dawn! Not to mention taking up a collection to buy me a wench! As if I'd be capable of anything of the sort, should Delyth find out about it!"
I smiled, amused. "Faramir said that she was pretty. Do you truly love her, Mablung?" His weather-beaten face reddened, much to my delight, and he cleared his throat more than once before he answered, but he was straightforward enough when he did.
"Yes, that I do, lass. So the Captain says she's pretty?" That seemed to please him.
"Indeed. He also said that she'd have no trouble keeping you in line."
"There's some truth to that," he sighed. "You'd think that after growing up with my sisters, I'd choose a meek woman, someone biddable and sweet, but no. Delyth is no frail flower."
"You couldn't live with a meek woman and you know it. Your sisters aside, you spent too much time with me."
"Oh, you had your meek moments, in the beginning at least. Wouldn't say boo to a goose. Then things changed, somehow....." His voice trailed off in mock puzzlement, and I grinned.
"I became corrupted, and a Ranger."
"That will do it every time," he agreed, and then gave me a serious look, gesturing at the bed. "What is all this about, Heth? I heard some story about you taking down a bunch of orcs on the Road, but you looked well enough at the wedding. Did you get out of bed too soon?"
I shook my head. "I'm quite recovered from that, Mablung." And I was--whatever Lord Elrond had done to heal my insides had also mended my hand and the last of the soreness from the battle at Min-rimmon. I'd also noticed to my amazement that my scars seemed much reduced in appearance as well. They were not gone by any means, they simply looked as if the fading process that had taken place over the last four years had been accelerated, and were a fainter, white-silver that was not so obvious. The only thing I could still complain of was the ache in my belly, and a weary feeling.
"Lord Elrond is a very great healer and the Prince talked to him and got him to agree to try to heal me."
"Heal the injuries you got in that fight?"
"Nay--he healed what the orcs did to me. Made it so that I can have children." Mablung stared at me for a moment, astounded. His face reddened slightly again, as he probably considered what that healing might entail. Then he shook himself, and a big smile spread slowly across his face.
"Oh, Heth! Lass. That is wonderful! I am very glad for you!" His sword and bow-callused hand reached out and clasped mine, and I squeezed it, blinking a bit.
"Thank you, Mablung. I am rather happy right now myself."
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "You'll have to be careful now, lass. Have an eye to that elf lord! He's liable to try to trick you into his bed, from the looks of him. Make you earn that bow he gave you."
"It's a little late to be worrying about that, Mablung!" I laughed. His face darkened, he frowned, and I moved swiftly to reassure him. "We are lovers, 'tis true, but he asked, and I agreed. And it wasn't for the bow. We've been pretty close as friends for a while now. And you needn't worry about any unintended children--elves don't have children unless they wish to."
"Lovers, heh? I'm not sure I like that idea much, Heth," he grumbled. "Nothing against the Queen, or her kindred, but they are an uncanny lot."
"Mablung," I replied gently, "you and the other Rangers are the reason that this happened." And I finally explained to him what had happened the night he brought Elladan and Elrohir to my bedside in the Houses of Healing. His eyes widened in disbelief at my description of the Grey Lands, and his brow furrowed as I explained about the bond between Elrohir and myself.
"It sounds as if you're near married to that fellow already! All this business about being able to talk to each other in your heads......it's strange, Heth, and that's a fact! I wish I'd never brought the two of them to you now."
"If you had not, I would have died. They were the only people who could have saved me, besides possibly the King, and they seemed to think that even he could not have done what they did. You were only looking out for me, like you always have. There is no harm done."
"So you say now. But does he intend to marry you, or just keep dallying? Because if he doesn't do right by you, he and I could find ourselves having a little shooting contest, elf-lord or no."
I smiled ruefully at my friend's fierce protectiveness. "He'd win, Mablung. He's had nearly three thousand years to practice." Mablung blinked as that soaked in. "And I will not marry him. He is a Peredhil, a half-elf. Mortal blood runs in his veins. If he chose to wed with me, he would lose his immortality, grow old and die, even as the Queen will because she married the King. I cannot do that to him."
Mablung looked surprised, and then thoughtful. "The Queen will.......I wondered how that was going to work out! How did you find out about all of this?"
"The King, and Elrohir of course. I've learned quite a bit about Elves over the last couple of months."
He took another gulp of his wine suddenly, shaking his head as he did so. "So it seems, so it seems.......Are you just going to keep on fooling around with this fellow, then?" There was a faint tinge of disapproval in his voice, and I blushed a bit.
"Do you see the men of Gondor lining up to make an honest woman of me? It is true that I received three proposals of marriage during the wedding festivities: from a boy of seventeen, whose father put him up to it because I was the King's kinswoman; an old codger who said I could sleep with whomever I wished so long as I gave him access to the King; and from a fat merchant who wanted trade concessions. Would you have me make such a marriage, and live miserable the rest of my life for my so-called 'reputation's' sake? I have it on good authority that I have no reputation, Mablung--I was running around in the wilderness for four years with two hundred men!"
He bristled indignantly at that. "We none of us ever laid a hand upon you in that way, Heth! Aside from the danger of battle, you were as safe with us as if you'd been on your own farm!" I sighed wearily.
"I know that Mablung, you know it, the Captain knows it, and every Ranger in the troop knows it. But no one else believes it! It seems impossible to them that men could remain decent and good in the face of temptation--even if I were never that much of a temptation!" He harrumphed. "Why it should be so hard to believe, given recent events, I don't know, but there you have it." The Prince's words, I decided, would serve perfectly well for the next part of my explanation. "So I have a choice--I can live my own life to please myself, or spend the rest of it dancing to other peoples' tunes in a futile effort to please them. I have decided to please myself. And right now, it pleases me to be lovers with Elrohir ." Draining my own glass in one long draught, I plopped back against my pillows.
Mablung gave me a troubled look. "What do you think the Captain would say about that, Heth?"
"The Captain," I replied tersely, "is no longer my commander, or my liege, for that matter. He is not my kinsman, that I must apply to him for permission to marry or indulge in a dalliance. The King has given me dominion over my own house. And any other claim Faramir might have had upon me died the day he plighted troth with Eowyn of Rohan."
My friend raised his eyebrows at my vehemence. "I am sorry about that, lass." I stared at the goblet in my hands, running my thumbs over the pretty carvings.
"It obviously wasn't meant to be, Mablung. All the things that would have kept me from him have been resolved, they've just been resolved too late. If I had known three months ago that this," and I waved a hand over my belly, "could be mended, I'd have given Eowyn quite the fight over him, even if I'd still thought myself a commoner."
"I have no doubt that you would have. And I know who my money would have been on." I wrinkled my nose, considered in many circles a fearsome sight.
"That's kind of you, but the smart money would be on her. From the moment he first saw her, I had no chance. Though I would have tried, I really would have tried."
He nodded acknowledgment, then frowned worriedly. "Heth? You're not with Lord Elrohir because you want to make Faramir jealous, are you?" The Captain of the South Ithilien Rangers looked as if the question left a bad taste in his mouth, but he asked it nonetheless.
I did not take offense. "It does look that way, doesn't it? On the surface of things? But I'm not. Elrohir would know if I were using him in that way. Not that he might not play along, just for mischief--he doesn't much care for Faramir at all!" I set the goblet upon the table beside the bed, and Mablung, after an inquiring glance at me, filled it again.
"No, we are together right now because it suits us to be so. He is much grieved over losing his sister, and you know what I am grieved over. We are very close friends--that is the best description, I guess."
"Very close friends who just happen to sleep together?" he asked dryly, refilling his own cup. I nodded, and took mine up once more.
"And I'm grateful for it. As far as I've come, for a long time after the orcs, I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to do that, allow myself to be touched in that way. The Captain was the one person I thought could help me, and the time was never right to ask him. Elrohir is probably the only other person who could have done it. In his way, he has done as much to heal me as his father has."
Mablung studied me for a long moment, then gave an abrupt nod. "All right then. If you say he helps you, and does no harm, I'll keep my nose out of it and try to like him for your sake." I chuckled.
"Yes, father!" He promptly turned beet red. "You needn't worry much in any event--he will be returning North with his father soon. I doubt I'll see him again for a long time, unless I too go North with my grandfather, as he wishes." A pang of sadness suddenly smote me at the prospect of Elrohir's absence.
"Your grandfather?" Mablung interjected, surprised. "You've found some kin?"
Grinning, I exclaimed, "We are behind the times, aren't we? You don't know about my family, and I certainly don't know anything about this young lady you are marrying! And after all the questioning you've just given me about my lover, you had better believe I want to know everything about yours!"
We then exchanged information, me telling him about how I'd come to know Litharel, and he finally disclosing how he'd met the redoubtable Delyth upon a visit to her family's shop to collect some quivers for the Rangers. It was great fun to watch him talk about her--he was obviously smitten, and afraid of being ridiculed about it by his fellow Rangers. He was also terrified of the upcoming ceremony that loomed upon the horizon like a great dark cloud that he would have to pass through to reach the rainbow beyond, though there were certain aspects about it that pleased him.
"Did you know that all the nobles have been petitioning the King to let them hold their marriages in the Court of the Tree? And he hasn't been letting them do it. But he told me that was where my wedding was being held, whether I liked it or not. And me just a mere captain!" He had by now finished off his half of the wine bottle, and was slightly flushed with it. I had but sipped my refilled goblet, but was feeling relaxed and happy nonetheless.
"You are hardly a mere Captain, Mablung! You've been Faramir's right hand in Ithilien for years now, and you did all that wonderful fighting at the Black Gate, and that extremely clever ambush on the way there. The King is a Ranger paying respects to another really good Ranger." I pondered thoughtfully for a moment, then continued. "I think he also wants the Ithilien Rangers to stop confusing him with Sauron."
Mablung chuckled. "He'll get his wish then--he's donating a couple of fine bullocks and a wagon-load of beer to the festivities!"
"That will certainly do it!" I agreed, and we both laughed. The conversation meandered pleasantly after that until right before dinner time, when he bade me farewell, saying he was to take dinner with Delyth and her family that night.
"Tonight is just the family, but two nights hence, they have asked me to bring some of my friends over. If you are well enough to come, would you?"
"I would very much like to meet your lady! And Lord Elrond said that I would be feeling better by then. Shall I bring anything?" He shrugged.
"You don't have to. You may if you like. I'll stop by here, and walk you over." Arrangements made, he had hugged me tightly, and departed, whistling, while I chuckled fondly about my smitten friend.
My own supper that night was quiet. Felith came in after dinner to help me with a bath and washing my hair, and when she was done I found myself more than content to return to bed. Hoping that more of my energy would return on the morrow, I read for a time by the glow of the bedside lamp, then settled down to rest, pondering the mysteries of love and marriage, and feeling rather lonely because of the cold and empty space at my side.