The Melody of Swords
Disclaimer: Please don't sue me.
Chapter Three
Ri struggled against the strong arms that were holding her.
"Let go of me!" she shouted angrily, trying to twist her way out of her captor's grasp.
"Who are you and how did you get in here," said the man holding her in a commanding voice, he sounded young.
"I'm Ri and I got in through the door! Get off me!" she shouted back crossly, it was rapidly getting more difficult for her to breathe with the bag round her face.
"What's going on?" asked a different voice from a small distance away, again a man's voice and Ri thought it was somewhat familiar but she wasn't sure. She could hear the owner of the voice walking towards her across the wooden floor. His heavy footsteps stopped in front of her.
"She says she got in through the side door," explained the man holding her.
"And what's so wrong with going through a door?" asked Ri indignantly. "How do you generally enter places? Through the walls?" she asked sarcastically. This comment defiantly did not endear her to the man holding her. She was pushed violently up against the stone wall, knocking the air out of her and causing pain to shoot up her back, she still had bruises from landing on her floor a few days ago.
"What business," said her captor in dangerous tone of voice "have you got entering the palace uninvited little thief?"
"It seems you've answered your own question," said Ri in small voice, breathing heavily.
"I asked you a question!" shouted the man, hitting her up against the wall again. Ri winced in pain.
"That's enough Brenin," said the other man firmly.
"I…only…" said Ri between breaths "wanted to find…" she whispered, trying to stop thinking about the pain in her back.
"What? The palace silver?" jeered the guard.
"The piano…" said Ri at last. Her captor dropped her and she would have hit ground if the other man hadn't walked up to her quickly and caught her. The man pulled the sack off her head and Ri took deep gasp.
"Ri?" asked the man in shock. When the black dots eventually cleared Ri was able to look up into the man's face. Of course his voice had been familiar, it was Lord Boromir. "Leave us Brenin," he said to his guard whom Ri heard begin to walk away.
"No!" said Ri quickly. "My lute and… my bag," she said looking at the guard who seemed to be in his twenties, with short fair hair and brown eyes. He was dressed in an immaculate uniform with the tree of Gondor on his chest. He gave the instrument and Ri's bag to Boromir. Boromir took them both with his free hand, his other hand was still holding Ri's arm.
"Are you ok?" asked Boromir as soon as the guard began to walk away.
"Umm, my back hurts," said Ri, tentatively prodding her back with her hand.
"I'll take you my rooms, you can sit down there." said Boromir
"Thank you." said Ri gratefully. "My lute, it isn't broken is it?" she asked worriedly as Boromir lead her down the passage.
"Not as far as I can see," said Boromir, taking a quick look at it.
"I'm…I'm sorry, I had no idea I would cause so such trouble, I just found a door and walked through it, I was trying to find the piano." she said in a small voice.
"Don't worry about it, I'm sorry you got such an unfriendly welcome to the palace, I shall have to tell Brenin that thieves do not generally carry lutes with them," said Boromir. They walked through countless richly decorated corridors and went up two flights of stairs before Boromir eventually lead Ri into a large white room full of tables and couches.
"You should lie down," suggested Boromir sitting her down on a couch. "That is at least if you want to walk tomorrow". Ri took his advice and found that despite its rather austere look, the red couch was surprisingly comfortable.
"I'm sorry I can't do much apart from recommend you rest," said Boromir, sitting on a straight-backed wooden chair beside her. "I can't apologise enough for the rough treatment. Brenin believed you were a thief, we have had a lot of silverware go missing recently and I fear he took out the frustration of not being able to catch the culprit on you, even though I dare say we are hardly lacking in silver," he said
"You have given me the use of your very comfortable couch that is quite enough my lord," said Ri smiling.
"Well I'm glad it meets with your approval," said Boromir sitting back. Lying where she was Ri was in a perfect position to admire the ceiling. It was perfectly white and carved with leaves all shaped with precise detail with stems and veins. They all overlapped each other and twisted and turned round each other. Ri thought it must have taken months of work to complete.
"Lovely ceiling as well," commented Ri.
"The ceiling is the same in all my rooms, you get sick of it after awhile. Then again on the other hand, it could have been worse, Faramir has roses on all of his ceilings." said Boromir and Ri laughed.
"Very manly," she said.
"Quite,"
"How many rooms have you got then?" asked Ri turning her head sideways to look at him.
"Around twenty I'd say," said Boromir in a matter-of-fact tone. Ri eyes widened.
"Twenty? All for you?" she asked incredulously, quite unable to comprehend what anyone could possibly do with twenty rooms
"All for me," Boromir replied.
"Perks of the job I suppose," said Ri settling back to look at the ceiling again.
"Well some of them are requirements of the job, for entertaining guests and having meetings with my commanders, but I also have separate private quarters,"
"How many rooms in your private quarters?" asked Ri.
"Three or four, they merge into each other," explained Boromir.
"So, where's the piano?" asked Ri before sitting up "Oww!" she said as she propped herself up on the couch. Boromir looked amused. "Do you think my pain amusing?" asked Ri glowering at him.
"Nay, I think the fact that you try to sit up so soon after being hit against a wall repeatedly amusing, you should stay lying down,"
"I did not walk all the way to the top of the city, have a bag thrown over my head, be accused of thievery and get thrown against wall just to sit on a nice couch my lord," said Ri firmly.
"I suppose you did not, very well, I shall show you the piano but don't hold me accountable if you can't walk tomorrow," said Boromir.
"If I cannot walk tomorrow I will be incapable of getting myself up to the palace to complain anyway so you needn't worry," said Ri with a smile, picking up her lute and bag.
"Very well," said Boromir helping her up from the couch and out of the room and back onto the corridor.
"Can I ask something?" asked Ri, looking round the corridor.
"You just did," said Boromir.
"Are all corridors here the same?" she asked. Boromir chuckled.
"Yes actually, although there are very subtle differences, it's designed to stop intruders as it is so easy to get lost, I still do,"
"Maybe it was a good thing your guard found me then, I could have been trapped here for days!"
"Unlikely but possible, in here," said Boromir leading her into yet another whitewashed room. Again leaves adorned the ceiling but the main feature of the room was the grand piano in the middle. It was long and made of a dark wood. The wing of the piano was up revealing a luxurious golden interior. Ri rushed over to it, the pain in her back totally forgotten.
Sure enough, above where the lid was closed over the keyboard the word 'GLOKNER' was inscribed in gold letters. Ri ran her fingers over the letters in silent awe.
"I take it that this is what you were looking for?" asked Boromir. Ri simply nodded with a far off look on her face if I had a copper coin for every musician who wishes they were where I am now… I could buy the palace she thought. She put her lute and bag down next to her and then sat on the long duet stool that was in front of the piano. It was just the right height for her and had a covering of red leather. But Ri of course, was not thinking about the stool.
She slowly and reverently opened the lid to reveal a dusty keyboard. She blew some of the dust away, the keys had lost some of their original shine but it was still obvious that they were very well made. Taking a deep breath she reached out and pressed a key that should have been a C. However years of neglect meant that it was now verging on E but the quality of the piano was still very apparent, it sounded like no other piano Ri had ever, nor did she expect it to.
"Just as I thought," said Ri, almost to herself.
"What did you think?" asked Boromir who had taken a seat near her.
"It's out of tune," explained Ri. "Seriously so,"
"I didn't notice, I suppose it would be, it hasn't been tuned for many years," said Boromir. Ri selected the notes of the chord of D major and played them. She looked at Boromir and he winced.
"You can hear that's out of tune then I take it?" she asked laughing.
"Yes I can hear that… I shall find someone to tune it as soon as possible, I'm sorry you came all this way for an out-of-tune instrument," said Boromir. Ri reached down for her leather bag.
"I came prepared," she said taking out the spanners and ginning happily. "If you don't mind me tuning it of course,"
"No, no go ahead, it would save me the trouble of finding someone," said Boromir. Ri got up and walked to the left of the piano and put a spanner around the screw for the lowest note. She played the note and began to twist the spanner, tightening the string and making the note go a little higher in pitch. She continued this process until she was satisfied with the note and then moved on to the next note up.
"If you can tune pianos why don't you do that for a living?" asked Boromir as he watched her tune "it must be a more stable source of income then relying on the generosity of passers by?"
"Hmm it would be," replied Ri as she moved on to another note "but it's a very boring task tuning pianos, apart from this one of course, which is a honour to tune…"
"So you would rather live with only just enough money to get by and enjoy what you do than do something that is slightly boring but guarantees you a good salary?" he asked curiously.
"Of course!" answered Ri "wouldn't you?"
"I don't have a lot of choice." said Boromir, looking out of the window to the city beyond.
"I don't suppose you do," said Ri apologetically "Listen to this!" she said suddenly whilst playing two notes, eight notes apart "That my lord, is the sound of a beautifully in tune octave… wonderful piano," she said. She went on to play with all the different chords she could play with the only in-tune octave that was available to her. "The bottom notes are always the test of a piano's quality," she explained to Boromir, even though he hadn't asked, "can you hear that deep mellow sound? Only a Glokner could produce that," she said and then sighed "I'm unbelievably lucky…"
"Well I certainly don't think I could have found anyone more passionate about it to tune it than you," commented Boromir. Ri just smiled as she continued to tune. There was a knock at the door.
"Come in," he called automatically.
"My lord your presence is required in the hall, Lord Alderin is giving details on the new building," said the man that walked in. Boromir swore and Ri raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry Ri, I have to go, I shouldn't be long, you may stay as long as you like and if anyone throws you against any more walls tell them they can talk to me first," said Boromir. Ri nodded.
Boromir left the room and followed his servant down the hall to listen to the speech. Lord Alderin, a respected noble was giving plans for an extension to the palace however Boromir's mind wasn't really on the speech at all as he sat in the hall. All he was thinking about was Ri's face, so deep in thought as she tuned the piano. Her face was picture of concentration and she seemed to be oblivious to the world around her, lost in her own musical world, and the simple delight on her face when she had tuned an octave and heard the notes work together. Suddenly everyone around him was applauding and Boromir joined in. After the speech as the son of the Steward, Boromir was required to stay in the hall for a while greeting various Lord and Ladies and discussing the plans for the building which he did with his usual grace and honour albeit with slightly false enthusiasm.
It was two hours before Boromir was climbing the stairs to his rooms again. As he got nearer he became more aware of music coming from the piano room. The music meandered along without break modulating from minor to major, from mournful to joyful getting softer and louder, sometimes in many parts and sometimes in a single beautiful tune. Ri didn't notice Boromir as he stood watching her in the doorway. She had only just finished tuning the piano and was reaping the rewards, totally lost in her music.
At last she heard Boromir approach and she brought her music to closing bright chord which she sustained for a moment before taking her hands off the piano and sighing.
"It's a beautiful instrument, you're very lucky," she said to Boromir.
"Aye, it is a beautiful instrument but it would be nothing without your talent," he replied.
"Everyone has to be good at something," said Ri.
"Such a ladylike display of modesty," said Boromir sarcastically.
"I'm not a court lady," replied Ri "I think I play well, or I wouldn't play at all,"
"What would you do?" asked Boromir.
"I would do whatever else I was good at, or spend the rest of my life searching for it I suppose," said Ri. Boromir looked at Ri for what seemed for ever. Ri noticed that it was something he did a lot, just stood at looked properly at you, she didn't know if liked it or not. On the one hand it was flattering to be worthy of such attention but on the other it made her feel exposed and vulnerable.
"So I take you've decided to take up the post of court musician?" said Boromir at length.
"Huh?" asked Ri, looking up in surprise "I umm, no I haven't," she said apologetically.
"How do you know you would hate it if you've never tried?" he asked, knowing her reason. "You would brighten the palace," he said.
"I couldn't…" Ri said, looking down the piano keys.
"Why don't you try this afternoon? The speech I just attended was just prelude I'm afraid, there's even more to come, it would be lovely to have you play at end or at the start….or even any time between. Whenever you want," The invitation hung in the air for a while. "By the time it finishes it would probably be to dark for you too go back so I'll have you put up in a room here, you could play the piano for as long as you like, all night if you want," he said smiling. Ri looked at him then dropped her gaze back to the piano she was sitting at.
"And I would have no obligations stay or do anything past this afternoon?"
"None whatsoever," he assured her.
"Deal," she said offering her hand. Boromir shook it, paused, and then lightly kissed her hand.
"Thank you," he said softly.
"Thank you for liking my music," she replied.
"It's not hard to," he replied. "My apologies, I must go to the barracks now, duty calls," he said getting up.
"Of course," she said and watched as Boromir walked to the door.
"I'll come and find you later," he said before leaving her alone in the room.
Ri filled an hour or two enjoying the sound of the piano and doing some fine-tuning. When Boromir returned she was adjusting one last string of the piano that she had decided was still a little flat.
"Are you ready to be a lady of the court?" he asked, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
"As ready as I'll ever be," she said replacing her spanner and picking up her lute. As she followed Boromir out of the door she strummed in lightly in anticipation. It was then that she noticed it wasn't just her that had been roughly treated that morning. Her lute must have dropped on the floor because it had gone totally out of tune and some of the strings were loose.
"Oh no," she muttered.
"What is it?" asked Boromir, stopping and looking back at her.
"It's nothing, just my lute is out of tune, your guard must have bashed it about a bit."
"Do you need to stop and tune it?"
"No, don't worry I can tune it as I walk, carry on walking," she said. Then she realised that she had just given the Captain of Gondor an order "I mean, if you want to, carry on walking, if you don't just stay here and…I mean, I'm not trying to tell you what to do, I'm sorry,"
"Ri," said Boromir, walking to stand in front of her "listen to me, some people were born and brought up to be modest and polite with immaculate behaviour, you were not and it doesn't work for you so please, promise me you won't try?" Ri smiled sheepishly.
"I promise, carry on walking," she said gesturing for him to lead the way. Boromir chuckled and did so. Tuning a lute while walking is difficult but tuning a lute while walking around a strange place with identical corridors is impossible and more than once Ri had felt Boromir's guiding hand on her back steering her in the right direction as she had failed to turn a corner or turned a corner when she needed to walk straight on. It was only when they had rounded the last bend towards the hall that Ri was entirely satisfied with the pitch of her instrument.
The hall was long and wide. There were neat rows of sturdy wooden chairs covering most of its length and there was a podium and the far end. The room was bustling with people, mostly nobles and a few servants. They were all talking and laughing in small groups.
"Am I going to play up there?" she asked Boromir, gesturing to the podium.
"Yes," answered Boromir simply smiling at her anxiety.
"And were do I sit?"
"I would recommend the middle, I would also recommend sitting next to the old man in the dark cloak who's currently standing next to the lady in pink if you don't want to have to make up opinions about the new building, he'll sleep through the whole thing, I promise." Ri nodded having caught sight of the man Boromir was referring to "I need go now, have fun!" he said winking.
Boromir walked to the front of the hall where he greeted his father. At that moment a bell rung and people moved to their seats. Ri walked slowly until she had seen the old man sit down and took a place next to him at the end of the row, putting her lute on the floor in front of her.
Sure enough the old man was asleep by the middle of the first speech and Ri didn't blame him. The speech was on the virtues of the food from a particular farm a few miles from Minas Tirith and Ri had a sneaking suspicion the speech maker was the owner of the farm , or at least had a rather large share of its profits. The next speech was on Gondor's expansion south and why it was a good thing, however the speaker than tried to balance out his speech by suggesting the negative effects of expanding south which only served to make it sound like he was very confused. After that Ri lost track of the speeches and began to look round the room.
There were people of all ages, from about fifteen years to about seventy years. All were dressed smartly and all looked uncomfortable in what they were wearing. Half were drifting off to sleep and the other half already were. The room itself was made of stone and marble and had a high ceiling, although not as high as the throne room. Ri judged that although a marble room could provide some of the worst acoustics possible, the sheer number of people wrapped in miles of fabric should be easily enough to compensate, all in all, not a bad hall for music.
A few people woke up when Boromir began to speak. He had an easy command of the audience and it was obvious what he said was well respected. Ri tried to listen but soon realised that she didn't understand half of his references and he may as well have been talking in another language. She was just contemplating how awful life would be if she had to do this every day when she heard Boromir say:
"And now I would like to present a lutist who will perform for us to complete our evening," Ri swallowed. She picked up her lute and got up from where she was sitting, the man next to her grunted and looked around sleepily. Ri made her way to the podium. You could have heard a pin drop. All that was in her mind as she walked up the isle was one question: what possessed me to do this?
"What are you going to play?" Boromir whispered to her kindly.
"Umm… I'm going to improvise, is that ok?" she whispered back. He just smiled.
"Riana will be playing a piece of her own composition," he announced to the hall before leaving her to it on the stage. For some reason she felt a little abandoned. Ri sat down nervously on the single unfriendly wooden chair, hating the silence. Most of the time she played in front of an audience was either in the street or a party with lots of noise, the silence was suffocating at least someone cough! She thought desperately. She looked up at her audience, all the best of Minas Tirith were gathered here, these were the people that had no need to work. The audience looked back at her expectantly and in complete silence.
Eventually she began to strum. She chose to play a lullaby of sorts as the day was fast drawing to a close. She looked up at the audience every now and again with interest, most of them did look sleepy but whether it was due to her song or the time day, she didn't know. Considering it further she realised that even if the audience looked sleepy because of her song, it could be both good and bad, they could be sleepy because of the soporific nature of her music, or they could just be bored of her song. She mentally scolded herself for worrying so much, she never had done before, after all, this would be a one off performance. After a few minutes she slowed her music and it got softer and sounded more distant until one single chord hung on and reverberated around the hall. There were a few seconds of silence after the song ended before applause started. She curtsied and went back to her place.
Lord Denethor assumed the podium next and said a few last words to draw the evening to an end. At last everyone was getting up to go.
"Lovely music Riana," said the old man whom Ri was sitting beside as she got up.
"Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it," she said. She turned around and was immediately face to face with a woman of about her age, in her twenties. Her arm was linked to a slightly older, grim looking man with a moustache.
"Are you of the Balderlear musical family?" she asked in a cold tone.
"No, I am not," answered Ri "although I would love to meet them sometime," she said smiling.
"Darling I do believe the Balderlears have all passed away," said the man on her arm.
"How reckless of me not to have noticed, well at least they have replacement now," she said and walked off with her husband. Ri sighed and headed for the door but was stopped yet again.
"Beautiful music you played, I congratulate you," said a bearded old man who seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"Than-"
"You must come and play at one of our dinners one day, my son has an excellent taste in both music and young ladies," he said and winked at her. Ri didn't quite know how to respond to this so she just smiled and walked on. She was just looking around for the exit when she saw Lord Denethor walking towards her.
"Riana I believe?" he said in an imposing voice. Rather like his eldest the Steward of the city had a unique aura that command respect from everyone. Ri got the impression that every second he spent looking at her he was learning more about her, learning or guessing she wasn't quite sure but it made her uncomfortable.
"Yes my lord," she said, doing a little curtsey and feeling a little nervous, after all it isn't everyday that one is personally addressed by one's Steward (even if one's Steward isn't using one's usual name).
"Good music, I hope you play again," he said before moving on to speak with the various dignitaries in the hall. Ri eventually made her way out of the hall into the open air and she was surprised to find it was now very late. There was cool breeze in the air that gently ruffled the skirt of her dress. She walked between the buildings until she came to the front of palace and the Royal court yard with the withered white tree. It occurred to Ri that she had never been in this area of the city at this time of the day before. The tree had an eerie glow caused by the moonlight reflecting of the white bark. Aside from a few guards there was no one in the courtyard.
Ri walked up to the tree. So this was what the city was about, this was the single symbol painted on every flag, carved into every door and embossed on every suit of armour. It was the symbol of Minas Tirith, of the whole of Gondor, one dying tree, both flowerless and beautiful in the moonlight. Inside Ri's head the Gondorian anthem was being played on trumpets and she experienced an odd sense of patriotism that she had never felt before, she was proud to be a part of the city.
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