Disclaimer: I own nothing except Eva. Please don't sue, not making any money.
AN: Apologies for the longer wait. Writing this chapter took longer than I thought it would. Happy reading.
Warnings: Language.
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Chapter 11 - To Be Mahalmarkhel
Even though most of the dwarves were keen to explore the troll cave, Thorin had insisted on seeing what efforts Eva had gone to in order to pack up the camp that they had left her in while the trolls had preoccupied the Company. As put out as she was, Eva fell into step beside Nori as they made their way back. Upon coming to their clearing and seeing their packs and the remaining ponies secure, Thorin raised an eyebrow and was silent for a very long moment.
"It'll do." he grunted.
Eva rolled her eyes behind Thorin's back.
"Grab your packs and the ponies!" Thorin called "Move out!"
Eva huffed, knowing her pony was one of the ones that had been taken in the troll debacle. Her sigh was silent as she clipped the bright orange pack to her back and adjusted the straps. She was about to fall into step at the back of the line when Bilbo called quietly.
"Miss Eva, come take my pony…."
Eva shook her head as she took hold of Bilbo's reins. "I'll overburden your pony. Let me walk."
The ponies fell into line and Bilbo was cut off from his protests. Eva trudged along and up the hill to the troll cave. She was ever grateful to her Liam for keeping the entire family an active on as the climb was easy on pony, and decidedly harder on foot. She was wiping the sweat from her brow when Oin, of all khazad, turned back in concern.
"Where's yer pony, Eva lass?"
She quirked her brow in a depreciating fashion "Trolls."
"Ye walked?" Oin exclaimed, gaining the attention of the rest of the Company.
Now she was annoyed "Well, I couldn't very well ride, now could I? Bloody pony's been eaten, hasn't it? I'd over-burden the ones we already have."
Oin muttered darkly to his brother as the whispers around her increased. Then the smell hit her.
"Fuckin' 'ell! What went rancid?!" she moaned as she covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve.
"My sense of proprietary…." Bilbo muttered. Eva shot him a look, but smiled behind her arm. She took heart in the fact that she saw him smile ruefully in return. Movement from the entrance of the troll hoard peaked her interest, but she did not turn until she heard her name.
"Miss Eva?" came the deep rumble of Dwalin's voice.
What the… "Master Dwalin?" Eva began as she rose to meet the skin-headed dwarf. "What is it?"
His face was stern, but she swore she could hear a small hint of pride in his voice. "Won't do to have ye defenseless." And the gruff dwarf handed her something wrapped in rough cloth. What she saw made her gasp.
Rose and silver glinted back at her in the sunlight. She had never before seen such beautiful weapons in her life. The pair of daggers were thin bladed, likely of Elvish make, but as she pushed testingly on the blade, she found that the blades themselves were strong. The hilt was marbled with a rosy-coloured metal. Copper maybe?
"Aye." came the calm and gentle tone of Balin "T'is copper. But only on the hilt. The blades themselves are mithril." Balin paused here and chuckled a little "You're unfortunately a wee bit small to go wielding a set of Dwarven daggers. They are designed to be much heavier."
Eva nodded absently as she turned the blades over in her grasp. She looked up, unaware that Dwalin had been studying her the entire time "They're beautiful! Thank you, Master Dwalin." she murmured quietly.
Balin spluttered from beside her and Eva dropped the blades to move beside the older dwarf "Master Balin, are you quite well?"
She saw Balin giving his brother a sharp look, his eyes narrowing "Aye, lass. Nothing that won't wait." He gave his brother another dark look before turning his attention back to the woman. She was carefully wrapping the daggers up again, handling them carefully as she stowed them away in her own pack.
"Master Balin?" She began again.
"Aye, lass?"
There was a moment of silence before Balin turned his attention fully over to Eva. Unlike previous times on their journey where the questions (the never-ending questions) were easy to come, she seemed hesitant this time "Can I ask you something?"
Balin leaned towards her, showing her that she had his full attention "What troubles you, Miss Eva?"
Her fingers were fidgeting as she asked slowly but bluntly "What does Mahal's Shield mean to the Khazad?"
Balin blinked, momentarily confused by the question. Unfortunately, Eva took this silence the wrong way and began to ramble nervously.
"I mean, I know that we were meant to be protectors of some sort, but … well… I wasn't told a lot about how I need to be … and I know I can't really be much of anything at the moment-"
"Lass, stop." Balin said firmly. She looked up, and for the first time, Balin saw in her face that she was afraid - likely of the answer that he would give. How was he going to explain this to a woman?
"What you must understand first," Balin began slowly "is that those who have borne the title of Mahal's Shield, Mahalmarkhel, have previously been exclusively male."
"Until me." Eva muttered defeatly.
"Until you." Balin agreed quietly "In our written history, there have only been two incidents that have been recorded, but our aural history is far longer, and they tell of the many great deeds that Mahalmarkhel have performed to ensure the continuation and endurance of our race."
Eva moved to sit in front of Balin, much like a student would with a teacher, her obsidian eyes trained on his face. She didn't notice that the others were coming out of the cave as Balin continued on.
"Oftentimes, Mahalmarkhel have been khazad. Most of our aural history refers to how they gave support in a military fashion. Many of the early bearers of this title, at least to my memory, were highly lethal fighters. Warriors in their own right."
He paused, considering the woman in front of him. She was drinking in his words; considering them carefully "Then there are some that have carried the wounded off great battlefields, often losing their lives in the process. I have heard of one that foiled many an assasination attempt on the rulers of Ered Luin…. A very long time ago.
"The two that were written in our history are the most recent." Balin continued "While records of the first are short, it is your predecessor that is of worthy note.
"Bran, son of Brun, was of the race of Man. He was a small thing, much like you, Miss Eva. But he was a very sharp-minded individual. He was meticulous in his attention to detail and rather intelligent for being of the Men. His mind was so sharp that his knowledge helped him through the ranks of the guards to the King. Well, his King at first.
"On a routine outing, there was a scuffle off the path they were travelling on. Bran was key to helping the King Under the Mountain at that time escape a very well planned ambush. I don't know what happened immediately after that, but Bran was invited to Erebor to be part of the King's Guard."
It was Ori's voice that interjected here "Rumour says that the King fell in love with him, that they had been destined. But jealousy was ripe in the Mountain and there were many khazad that would have been happier to see the King dead. Bran was part of the Royal Guard for some years before the target of the dwarves changed from the King to Bran.
"Dissenters had tried to overthrow the King for a long time, but they knew that if they had Bran, then maybe they could gain leverage in persuading the King to abdicate." Ori continued. Eva nodded slowly, encouraging him to continue even though she knew the story would not end well. "So they captured him, which was a difficult thing to do in the first place as he had been very well trained by that point. Bran knew that he had limited time, so he wrote to the King in secret, asking him not to come to his aid."
"The captors arranged a meeting with the King, knowing that they would have to harm Bran to get his attention…."
Balin continued on "The King, on Bran's request, did not move, not matter how badly they brutalised him-"
"He died, didn't he." Eva said quietly. It was more of a statement than a question.
"Aye, lassie, that he did." Balin confirmed "His last words were: I would sacrifice my own life so that others would live. Would you?"
Eva smiled in grim understanding "So in most instances, Mahal's Shield means to be a physical shield for the khazad…."
"But not necessarily for you." Gloin interjected. Eva's head shot up in confusion, finding it strange that he should be the one speaking "Another thing that you must understand is that only one in three of our kind are born female."
"One in … ohhh…" Eva began in a daze.
"Aye, Miss Eva." Gloin shot back, tugging his fiery red beard in frustration at the cultural barrier that she represented for him. "It is deeply ingrained in the khazad to protect our dams. Bombur and I are the only ones wed, and blessed enough to have pebbles of our own."
"Pebbles … Oh! Children!" Eva was now beginning to understand a part of why most of the elder dwarrow were uncomfortable around her.
"Aye, Miss Eva." Gloin replied gruffly "It goes against a deeply ingrained rule in our culture that you are here with us at all!"
She made a noise of understanding as the puzzle that was the dwarves' behaviour towards her were now beginning to fit into place. Glancing over to Bilbo, she saw that he was worriedly holding a very short sword in his trembling hands. Sensing eyes on him, he looked over and gave a wry smile before stifling a yawn. Seeing Bilbo yawn caused Eva to yawn, and subsequently the rest of the Company.
"We will rest for the moment here." Thorin declared. "Mahal knows we need it after last night."
Within minutes of Eva taking out her bedroll and sliding into it, she was asleep, unaware that Dwalin was keeping a careful eye on her until he saw her breathing even out.
"What are you playing at, nadad?" Balin hissed once he saw that Eva was asleep "You know well that she has no idea of the significance of those daggers!"
"Aye," Dwalin grunted as he turned to Balin "and it is well that she does not ken. All she needs to know is that the daggers are hers because she's training with 'em. Nothin' more. There's still a lot to think on. Has Thorin spoken to yeh?"
Balin glanced over to Eva, seeing her raven black hair peeking out from under her bedroll. "Aye, we've spoken. But nothing more can be done until these dreams you are having have become more frequent."
"D'yeh think-" Dwalin asked slowly, allowing hope to creep into his voice for the first time in many decades.
"I don't know, nadad. We need to wait and see."
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"Eva, child." came the voice of a woman that she knew well. "We do not have much time."
Eva's eyes snapped open as she realised who was addressing her "Lady Yavanna?"
"Yes, child." came the ever-gentle voice of the Green Lady, though the urgency in it was something new and slightly alarming "Come."
Eva looked about her quickly and realised that the setting was very familiar. In fact, she was in the very room that she had been in when the two Valar had spoken to her before her Jump. Scrambling out of the bed sheets, she sat up on the bed and gave over her full attention.
"Your Company is in grave danger, Eva." Yavanna began. Eva sat up straighter "Do you remember what comes next?"
Eva swallowed "The chase to Rivendell…' she stuttered out.
Yavanna cast her a long, calculating look. "You need to be ready, Eva. Orcs are coming, and the scouts are nearly upon you. You are not as enduring as the dwarrow are, so you must be careful!"
"Oh God…" Eva moaned "Lady-"
"Time's up. Wake UP!" Yavanna yelled.
Eva's woke with a jerk and she ripped the blanket off her bedroll with such force she nearly toppled over. Her mind was racing as she hurriedly rolled up her bedroll, drawing the attention of the Company.
"Miss Eva?-" Bilbo began
"No time, Bilbo!" Eva called back, the alarm in her voice now drawing the attention of all present. "Yavanna's visited! We need to move!"
"What?!" Bilbo squawked. The rest of the Company began to hurriedly pack .
"What did she say?" Thorin asked urgently, his tone demanding an answer.
"We need to get outta here!" Eva said as she haphazardly strapped her bedroll to her pack.
A rustling and breaking of branches caught their attention and the whole Company bristled, some beginning to draw their weapons.
"Something's coming!"
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Mahalmarkhel - (Mahal-markhel) - Mahal/Lord Aule, Shield of all Shields. Hence this is a somewhat sloppy joining of two words that I would like to mean the 'shield of all shields for Mahal' and by extension, his people.
nadad - brother
AN: I know that I promised the chase scene, but this chapter needed to be written as I felt that there were some loose ends from previous chapters. I wanted to make sure that there could be sense in some of the things that were occurring.
