Author: Well, well, well. So you guys don't like it when I stop at places like that, hmm? Too bad. I have to keep you hooked somehow :P

A big THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed! And a question: why does everyone put "please read and review" in their story synopses here? Do people really review without actually reading the story first?

Eomer raced after Ria. He saw her duck into the stabled, and before he could reach her she was gone, fleeing into the night. Desperately, he ran to Wingfoot's stall. He knew this stable too well for the darkness to be a hindrance, going automatically to the place where his horse's saddle and tack hung. Reaching up, he tried to life the heavy leather saddle down from its hook.

Pain shot through his shoulder. The saddle fell to the ground as Eomer gripped his barely healed wound. Even in the blackness of the stable, he could see where a dark spot was growing between his spread finger. The wound was bleeding again. Not badly, but enough.

"My Lord!" Easa, the head groom, appeared at Eomer's side. Despite his preoccupation, the King wondered briefly if the man lived in the stable, since he was never seen anywhere else.

"Saddle Wingfoot, Easa." With a grimace, Eomer grabbed a nearby saddle blanket and began tearing it into strips.

"But sir…you're not well…"

"Just do it, Easa, or I'll be inclined to recall that it must have been you who had her horse ready and waiting for a midnight escape. And while you're at it--" He rattled off a list of items for Easa to bring to him. Eomer wound the torn cloth around his shoulder. The groom reluctantly fetched a saddlebag full of travel necessities, took the saddle and placed it on Wingfoot's back, then added a bridle.

Eomer winced and swung up onto the horse. In his condition, he wouldn't be able to travel fast enough to overtake Ria immediately. But Wingfoot could run three times as long as Gwen without a rest, which gave him the advantage over the wayward princess.

He would find her if he had to chase her all the way to the sea.

Had I done the right thing?

Of course! The part of my that sounded suspiciously like my father answered. It's your duty to go home and marry Kutheia, and you've been away too long already.

But you love him! Another part of my mind protested. You do and you know it. How can you marry one man when you heart belongs to another? Is that just?

Doubt and worry plagued my journey for three days. I rode nearly non-stop through the mountains, as swiftly as Gwen could carry me away from Rohan. On the third day of my travels, I cam across the first evidence that I was following a very large party. The ambassadors and my brothers, I thought, it must be them. They must be traveling very slowly, according to my father's wishes that they keep away from Dol Amroth as long as possible, as Eowyn had said.

I overtook them that night. The convoy had made camp in a small hollow between a couple of ridges that occurred naturally in the mountains. As I rode over the northeastern one, I could see many campfires spread out before me. Soldiers bearing the ship and swan of Dol Amroth mingled with those from the Kutheia's father's house, of Harad. Two great tents were pitched on opposite ends of the campsite, one blue and silver, one black and gold.

Looking down at the camp, I couldn't bring myself to join it. Something held me back. I told myself that I merely wanted to extend my adventure, and to arrive in Dol Amroth before Kutheia's family, but I knew what it really was. If my brothers, or the Haradrim, found out I was nearby, there would be no turning back. As quietly as I could, I crept back into the woods that covered the ridge. I was too far away for anyone in the camp to hear me, but they would have posted sentries and I had no desire to be caught by one. Famous last words.

"Well, well. What have we here?" The voice spoke in the language of Harad, which I understood, but the sword pointed at my throat would have been plain enough if I hadn't. Slowly, I turned to face the soldier. Blast! If I had to have been caught, why couldn't it have been by one of Dol Amroth's men?

"State your business. What brings a woman out riding alone at night in the mountains?" Now he spoke in the Common Tongue. The moonlight glinted off the metallic trimmings of his uniform. He bore two long knives at his belt in addition to a sword, with a bow and quiver of arrows on his back.

Oh, dear. "I am but a farmer's daughter, good soldier, out for a ride on my father's land. I saw your campfires near the road and was curious at who was traveling in the mountains."

The soldier looked me up and down, then slowly lowered his sword but kept it in his hand. I nervously shifted Gwen's reins to my left hand and felt the straps of my sheathed knife in my right sleeve. I had three choices: swing up on Gwen and hope the sentry didn't have mounted friends nearby, talk my way out of this, or fight.

"It was unwise to ride out alone, girl. There are many…unsavory men about who would prey upon your innocence." He took a step towards me.

I settled for talking. "But sir! What if I am not so innocent as I appear?" I said with a wink, trying to catch the soldier off guard.

He leered at me through the shadows and sheathed his sword. "Then perhaps you will not consider me so unsavory," The soldier reached for me. Satisfied, I reached for my knife and was about to hold it to his throat when out of nowhere a sword hilt descended on the soldier's head and he crumpled to the ground like a sail without wind.

"I told you not to ride alone outside the city."

It was Eomer. He stepped forward and spat on the motionless body at his feet.

"Eomer! What are you doing here?" Now that, I thought, was a stupid question. I should have known he would follow me.

"Saving your neck, apparently. What in Arda did you think you were doing, encouraging him like that? Why didn't you just tell him who you were?"

"I had the situation under control. I would have had him disarmed and tied up in no time if you hadn't arrived, for I have no wish to be dragged back to Dol Amroth like a prisoner in chains." I dropped to my knees and began searching the soldier for something to bind him with.

"What are you doing now?" Eomer whistled quietly and Wingfoot emerged from the trees.

Settling for his sword belt, I struggled to turn the soldier over onto his stomach. He was heavier than he looked. "I'm going to tie him up, of course. Otherwise he'll sound the alarm as soon as he wakes up and give a description of me to someone who will recognize it, and I shall be followed all the way home. This way I'll have a head start."

With a sigh, Eomer knelt beside me and easily flipped the soldier over. Wrenching the arms roughly out from under the man, Eomer bound his wrists tightly and started in on his ankles. My eyes fell on the quiver of arrows resting on the soldier's back.

"Eomer," I said quietly, taking one of the arrows out and holding it so it caught the moonlight, "Look!"

The pale beams of white light glanced off a polished black shaft and deadly sharp head. The arrow was fletched expertly with black feathers laced through with bright bronze wire.

"Whose soldier is this?" Eomer growled.

I was silent, staring in disbelief at the arrow.

"Lothiriel!" Eomer grabbed my shoulders and shook me gently. "You must tell me! Who commands this man?"

"No…it can't be." I muttered. "Father couldn't have known…I must tell him. He'll never make me…"

"Ria!" The King of Rohan held my face and forced me to look at him. "Who?"

"I can't believe it…it was Mutheia!"

"What? Who is Mutheia?" Eomer searched my face for an answer.

"Mutheia!" I practically shouted at him. "Mutheia, one of the most powerful men in Harad, father of Kutheia, ambassador to Dol Amroth and my fiancee!"