"You would fare better my lady if you ate a little more," Adrahil walked beside her slowly matching his pace to her more sluggish and waddling gait.
"I cannot eat much these days without feeling it repeat on me," she confessed. "But this sea breeze and the view from here is truly spectacular."
Dol Amroth turned out to be something of a mix in architecture between the fine stone archways and climbing stairways of Imladris, as well as the turrets and battlements of Minas Tirith.
But what truly made it a wonderous place was its location by the sea!
With most of it built on a cliff edge, the city loomed tall and lean, not unlike her citizens. However, they had ingeniously built several tunneled passageways to the sea several different levels. And so similarly they had built terraces on the sides of the buildings facing the sea, which is where she found herself that evening watching the sunset with the Prince of Dol Amroth.
"Why were you journeying to the Woodland realm, my lady?" Adrahil asked gently. Their conversations had grown more open over the last few days since her arrival.
"What would you do if you became convinced that you had darkness dwelling within you?" She suddenly asked in reply. "I mean real darkness, the type that you never knew of, which may even destroy lives and perhaps the whole world as we know it?"
"Then I would tell you that we ALL have darkness within us." He spoke softly, as though it was a genuine confession. "Once while patrolling the borders of our lands, we found a pack of orc that had raided a local village, they had pillaged and killed almost everyone when we arrived, and found some of them taunting the young children that had survived for sport. For even these scum had been unable to bring themselves to kill the young. We killed them all but a few who had been mortally wounded, and lay there dying. At first some of my men who were gathering the bodies of the dead began to dispatch those orc that were mortally wounded, showing their foul lives mercy. But when I found young children not much older that infants had been tormented with hot irons, I stopped them from offering mercy and instead piles even those orc who were still alive around with the dead and had them all set alight..."
He looked away from her into the beautiful sunset, a stark contrast to the pain he had inflicted and then down at his hands.
"If we had no darkness, we would have no light, my lady." He finally concluded still unable to look at her after describing his act of brutality. "That was not the first act of cruelty I had committed, and I imagine it will not be my last..."
"Did the children survive?"
"By the grace of Iluvatar, they all grew up happy and healthy, under the watch of my mother, here in our very palace." He carried on watching the sunset, finding something soothing in the confession he made to her. "I learned that day that if we allow it, darkness from beyond us can affect that which dwells within. And if we act upon it, we let it grow."
She listened silently.
"What is it that you fear?" He looked at her directly this time and waited for her to answer.
"This will sound crazy but I think I might be related to Sauron," she paused and then looked at him, only to find his green eyes observing her with curiosity rather than judgement. And so she carried on. "I keep having dreams - well they stopped after I stayed with Ghul and Ghia. But my dreams suggested that I would have Thorins army and others if I took my place by his side..."
"Do you think that you might be Saurons daughter?" Adrahil indicated realising what Gandalf was searching for.
"If I said yes would you think I had lost touch with my sanity?" She laughed bitterly. "The truth is there are things about my childhood that I clearly ignored as a child that now make me wonder..."
"I would not think you insane. The Dark one is powerful, and who knows what magics may be woven. I am not so narrow minded to believe there are no other worlds beyond ours, nor that such a powerful being could not traverse between these." He spoke honestly. "But perhaps my question was not the right one. What I meant to ask you was; would it truly matter whether he was your father or not? You do not need to follow in his steps..."
"No I guess not, but what if my child does?"
"With you as his mother, I cannot believe this would become his fate." Adrahil thought again for a moment. "Importantly if you believe the dreams are connected - do you believe the Dark Lord is returned in some way?"
"Yes!" She looked up at him finally feeling heard. Everyone else had dismissed her warnings. "I have been trying to tell Gandalf -"
"In truth, my lady, he was here not long ago searching our archives for something from the ancient scrolls." He confessed wondering about her. "There is something about you - rather that you do not seem as though you are from any land in the south or the East. And yet you do not seem to be from the West either."
She remained silent, worried that telling him the full story would lead him to believe she was indeed mad!
He watched her with great curiosity and then realising that she would not be forthcoming with an answer politely changed the subject.
"I have sent a messenger to Erebor. But I fear the journey will take some time. He is to remain out of sight and take care with the message." Adrahil explained carefully. "I have also sent out riders to find the Grey Pilgrim, requesting that he returns as soon as possible. In the meantime I have arranged that you are under the constant care of our best midwives and healers for when the time comes. And I have prepared quarters close to you for Ghia and Ghul to stay. I expect as your labour nears she will want to check on you daily."
"Oh - that's very kind..."
"You are our Royal Guest, and it is our honour to take care of you at such a time." He smiled genuinely. "I am to be married next year. It was reluctantly that I first accepted to see the many fine ladies that had been selected as possible brides - but in truth, my good fortune led me to Lalana, my new bride. And I could not be happier. She is still young, and so I will wait for her to decide that she would like us to have children, but when the time comes should she ever find herself in the same predicament, I could only hope she would be treated in the same way."
"I think Lalana will be far more sensible and intelligent than I and not make the mistake of taking such troubling journeys while so pregnant." She finally laughed at her own foolishness that had led her to this.
"Let us have you returned to your room now to rest before you join us for supper..."
...
The large black bird, which they both recognised as one of the oldest ravens that lived in the mountain, circled high above them once before coming to land. It perched carefully on Thorins shoulder before bobbing his head low.
"Roac what news do you bring us?" Thorin inquired gently stroking the large bird.
It held out a clawed foot onto which a note was tied.
"Prince Fili!" It squawked.
"Well done, old lad." Thorin gently removed the tiny piece of parchment. "You have flown far to find us."
Dwalin who had just packed their things away after their brief pause for lunch walked back to his pony and rummaged in a small saddlebag to find a handkerchief used to tie up some bread and cured meat, which he broke off several pieces and held out in his palm as the raven gladly hopped over to him and began to gently peck at the food.
"What is it Thorin?" Dwalin asked frowning, as their king read the note.
Initially his face, unreadable appeared confused, and Dwalin watched anxiously as Thorin seemed re-read the note several times further.
Then finally he crumpled the note as if it were poison and threw it on the ground before stomping off.
"Thorin...?" Dwalin frowned at his friend and then looked at the note where it lay on the ground. Then he looked back at Thorin, who initially stood staring into the distance. "Thorin...? Baheluh...?"
Abruptly, Thorin turned, his face now clearly angry as he ran at his pony, and pulled off the blankets, saddle and bags he had been carefully positioning in preparation for their next day of tireless searching.
He roared in what could only be considered pain, as he picked up a nearby boulder, far too heavy to be treated in that manner and threw it at the fire sending hot embers flying everywhere, making the ponies neigh and whinny in fright themselves.
Dwalin rushed to the animals attempting to calm them as Thorin, wildly began to pummel a nearby tree.
"Stop! Thorin! Stop!" Dwalin shouted reaching him, only to have Thorin turn on him. "I told ya Baheluh! Calm yeself or I will hit ye back!"
Thorin growled in anger again lashing out at Dwalin who attempted to defend himself and hold their king back.
"You are spooking the ponies, Thorin." Dwalin attempted in his calmest voice as he glanced at the animal straining against the ropes used to tie them to a nearby sheltered tree.
"What use is it?! What use is anything!" Thorin fought off Dwalin. "Let me go!"
"Thorin, calm yeself and talk to me!" Dwalin shouted. His struggle was like the attempt to restrain a mad man. "Donnae behave like a witless fool!"
Suddenly Thorin kicked Dwalin hard enough to pull his hands away from his friend. But Dwalin was quick, fearing what enraged bahviour Thorin might engage in next, he did the only thing he felt would make their king stop.
"Witless! YOU are the witless one -" Thorin felt a sharp pain to his face and no further words came out. It was painful enough to make him see stars momentarily, after all he had not been fighting as he would normally, and so hadn't anticipated it. However, it should have been neither unexpected nor undeserved given their tussle!
He staggered back a few times and blinked, realising that Dwalin had just punched him in the face!
Finally he sat down on one of the fallen logs nearby. His whole world was in pain now, from his face to his heart.
Dwalin watched in shock and sadness as tears silently fell down Thorins face. Then he turned to spot the note fallen on the ground, connecting the two.
It had to be bad news, but what? The girl?
He walked over and picked the piece of parchment up, reading it carefully:
Uncle, news that she was seen in White Mountains by travellers.
They sold her hair to wigmaker in Dale.
We have inspected, has been cut off her body.
Need guide or too dangerous without - go to Edoras. They may have heard more.
Dwalin read it again a few times over himself, for he too couldnt believe what he was reading.
"She...is..." Dwalin was unable to get the words past the lump forming in his throat, realising what Thorin had imagined.
Thorin did not answer. He merely lowered his head into his hands where he sat.
For the first time in life, after struggling to secure the safety and comfort for his people and their families, he finally dared to dream of the same for himself. SHE had made him feel that. Something which had been withered and dead within him for so long, had been revived. And it had all come alive because of her.
Now all hope was gone. He was exhausted and broken.
He didn't want to go to claim the bodies of his wife and child.
He didn't want to go home.
He just wanted to disappear.
"No. It cannae be." Dwalin reiterated, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. "The lass is strong."
Dwalin spoke the words again quieter, but clearer. It was as though repeating them would will this to be the truth.
"It cannae be. No." He sat down himself and reread it again and again.
The suddenly he stood up.
"Wait! Thorin! Nowhere does it say she was dead!" He wiped his eyes again and blinked, rereading the note.
"Her hair! Dwalin!"
"Och Thorin! Is that the reason you thought.."
"Aye." Thorin too blinked and looked up at Dwalin for a moment desperate for his friend to explain why his interpretation was not true.
"Thorin! We are talking of the lass! It is the sort of crazy thing the lass would do! Perhaps she traded her hair for something?" Dwalin managed a weak smile, desperate for his thoughts to be true, himself. "Either way we have to see whether she is there. The lass may be well and perhaps the hair was her trade in exchange for the delivery of her message to Erebor?"
Thorin stood up feeling a little less despondant.
"Very well, let us journey to Edoras. Perhaps they might have more information." Thorin was less certain of his decision. He only wanted to find her alive. He certainly had no desire whatsoever to see her lifeless body.
...
"My lady, was supper to your liking?" A maid asked gently as she finally collected her plate from their grand table.
"Yes thank you. It was delicious." She replied, but the truth was that her appetite had been slowly deteriorating for the last few weeks since she had been growing in her final trimester.
Frankly everything had become difficult now, be it walking, sleeping, sitting or anything.
That night to her releif dinner was now over and everyone slowly standing from the table, after the ruling Prince Angelimir and stood from his place at the head of the table. He was old, but still quite agile.
Looking at most of the people of Dol Amroth, it was easy to believe that they were descended from the union between numenoreans and elves. They were certainly as tall as the elves and even their features and build resembled them!
"My Lady, you merely pushed your food about your plate," a tall, elegant lady she had been seated beside spoke gently. "But it gets like that in the final months of being with child."
"It pales in comparison to the pains of childbirth." Another older woman spoke as she walked over, narrowing her eyes. "In all honesty, I have never heard of a woman giving birth to a dwarf child. Dwarves are wide and large, not like babes of men. Your labours are likely to be far greater."
"Mother, you are scaring our guest!" The lady who sat beside her gently countered. "I have had two children, and my husband very tall for our kind, and I cannot say I suffered so greatly. Besides which any pain is far forgotten when you hold your sweet babe in your arms."
"You have had two children, Miriel, and you believe you know all there is to childbirth?" The woman stood closer, looking down at Shobha, clearly suppressing a scowl. "I gave birth to seven babes, only three survived. Two died at birth and two succumbed to ill health as babes. Women bear the hardest task of all giving life to this world, while male kind and their warring take it away."
Shobha looked up at the woman moved by her thoughts.
"Mother preaches to all, take no notice-"
"My dear, I do not know how you came to wed this dwarf, but we met his grandfather on an occasion, and found him greedy, uncompassionate to others plight, and mostly suspicious." It was clear now that this was the Princess, married to Prince Angelimir, the ruling Prince of Dol Amroth. "I know of his stock, and I know of the great war your very King brought upon the lands when he reclaimed his kingdom. And I cannot say I care for either much. What I do care for is my own people. And should anything happen to you during childbirth or otherwise, then you will rapidly go from being our guest to being our liability in the eyes of the Dwarf King. This will no doubt bring about war, to our very doorstep..."
"Your Majesty," Shobha finally struggled to stand in order to show her respect, and bowed her head, for any other type of bowing was not possible with her body. "I can promise you, there is a darkness that is coming for us all, whether we like it or not. An old enemy is returning. And the only chance we will have is if we all stand together. My travels that led me here are beyond imagination, but I knew of the risks and so did my husband. The truth is that he couldn't have stopped me taking this journey even if he had shackled me to our bed. So you can rest assured that Thorin will not blame you, other than to be grateful for your care for me."
The matriarch stood watching her carefully, and then tilted her head in consideration of Shobha's words.
"Very well, but we have called upon Lord Theobald from Rohan, whom you met earlier, my dear."
"Ah Mother, it cannot always be politics and matters of state," Adrahil had quickly joined in, attempting to make any conversation more polite than political. "Lady Shobha is our guest. And it is a great honour for we have never hosted anyone from the northern kingdom."
"For good reason son." Princess Liliana dismissed her son. "My son maybe the crowne Prince, but he lacks the depth of experience to understand these things. He will see a pretty young woman in distress, and he will wish to help her. But he does not understand the implications of such a deed, however good."
"Mother, it is what I would want if my own bride were in such a situation."
"But you cannot see all the consequences of your actions..."
"Your Majesty," Shobha quietly interrupted again. "I was not lost, nor was I escaping from my husband in any way, if that is what you fear. Rather we were attacked by a pack of orc who knew where we would cross between the borders of Rivendell and Lothlorien. They were not a stray group but rather organised. And it is not just me. Lord Theobald informs me that the Westfold sees increasing raids from the Dunlendings."
"That is a very clever of you to have gathered such information," Adrahil gave his mother a satisfied smile. "We too noticed on our patrols an increased number of orc around Ered Nimrais and the forest land. They fear the Drug, but Gondor suffers from this plight too even if Lord Ecthelion does not openly admit it."
Liliana observed her with new found curiosity.
"In fact where I come from there is a saying: the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing -"
But she was interrupted by a commanding voice.
"Then perhaps there is hope yet for King Thorin and the dwarven Kingdoms..." Prince Angelimir stood by the group, prompting them all to bow and make way for their patriarch. "Perhaps our part in this story is to protect this girl from the grasp of a common foe..."
Angelimir observed her as though he was inspecting some sort of unusual beast in a cage.
"I have written to Ecthelion of your arrival here. Gondor and Rohan are our closest allies, and will come to our aid should we find an army at our gates demanding you." He glanced at Adrahil again. "And we must ask the Grey Pilgrim also -"
"I have sent riders to locate the Grey Wizard as quietly as possible." Adrahil looked worried at his father. "But can you trust that Ecthelion will not reveal all to Saruman?"
"Yes I believe we can, given the problems they have been suffering also." The older Prince confirmed. "They have had far too many orc packs crossing their lands freely for it to be ignored."
A sharp pain that gripped and tightened at her stomach, made her double over.
"Shobha?" Miriel took her hand worried.
But just as rapidly as it arrived, the pain also seemed to disappear.
"I think I'm okay..." She straightened up slowly.
"These may be signs of your labours nearing." Liliana looked from her daughter to her son. "We should alert the royal midwives and healers."
"Very well mother." Miriel agreed without question, now looking worried herself.
"Good. Well, wife, let us retire," Angelimir held his hand out to Liliana, who didn't hesitate to join him. "Come my dear. This is the business of young people."
They strolled away leaving Shobha and Adrahil standing there. He scanned her form again looking for any signs that she might be in pain.
"I will take you to your room," Adrahil took her hand from his sister who was quickly away. "Ghia too will be worried since you have not returned on time after supper. She will be waiting to check on you before bed."
They hadn't taken more than a few steps further, before another wave of pain rippled through her stomach again.
"That is not just an ache." Adrahil supported her again as she came to stand up clutching hold of her swollen belly. "Let me carry you."
She attempted to raise her hand to protest but before she could even speak, he had gently cradled her up into his arms and was on his way.
"I apologise if you feel any pain, I shall try to keep my movements as smooth as possible." He explained, keeping his eyes on his footing, so as not to stumble. "Dol Amroth, may be the most beautiful city in all of Arda, but as you can see there are far too many steps for a woman so late in gestation."
He gently placed her on her bed.
"Let me fetch Ghia," he began, when yet another wave of pain ripped through her lower body.
Unable to bear this wave, she grabbed his hand, keeping him back.
"Please can you wait a moment." She spoke the words through tightened lips, as the pain crescendoed.
Adrahil knelt down beside her.
"I swear to you my lady, that I shall not leave your side once I have brought Ghia here. But I must fetch her, for I cannot deliver a child myself," he smiled gently to hide his genuine anxiety. "And nor would you wish me to."
She nodded quickly as the pain began to die away once more, and slowly let go of his hand.
"I shall be back in a moment." He disappeared out of the room fast.
It had been a long while since she had delivered a baby, and this did not feel right.
Another wave of pain tightened at her, and curling up on the bed, her head began to swim.
...
Dear All
Thank you for patiently reading and sorry for the long gaps between chapters.
Do let me know your thoughts; she is going into labour. It doesnt look good, but will any of them make it in time…?
KyloRen'sgirl - thank you so much for your post. you inspired me to get back to this ❤️ i hope you enjoy this chapter.
