The downpour ended, though the clouds were still spitting on the travelers. With relief, Morwen saw the thatched roof of Bar-en-Ferin through a break in the trees. Her sore back seemed to ache twice as hard at the sight of home. She had to swallow back her longing to jump out of the saddle and waddle the rest of the way. Strawberry, sensing their arrival, began to trot past Rochagar down the road, eager for the oats awaiting him. Just as eager, Morwen allowed the gelding to set the pace.
But Strawberry's quest was delayed again in the yard. Thengel caught up to them as they rode through a sea of men milling around in the dooryard. Her eyes burned and only then did she realize how badly she wished that Halmir and all his folk had chosen to vanish in her absence. But here they stood, staring at her with strange expressions on their faces; none of them choosing to make room for her or for Thengel. They formed a physical wall but Morwen sensed another layer, a will that didn't want want them there.
But the wall broke apart when the rest of Morwen's traveling companions rode into the yard. Though only six in number, most of her party consisted of Rohirric warriors and were, therefore, unknown quantities in the minds of these Lossarnach men who hadn't traveled much further beyond their own farms. This gave Morwen's folk a momentary advantage.
"Lady Morwen — ow — you've returned!"
"Gundor?"
Morwen dismounted as the boy dashed toward her as best he could. Gasps and exclamations of pain punctuated his progress through the crowd. She saw for herself as a disembodied elbow popped out and jostled him in the side. Thengel had also dismounted and handed the reins to Thurstan so he could step further into the cluster with a look that dared anyone else to harass the boy.
When Gundor reached them, he bent over, breathless. Morwen touched his shoulder while he gulped air.
"I thought I saw you coming down the road," he said between gasps. "Guthere made me keep watch. We didn't know when you'd come back."
Morwen knelt down and spoke softly, "What's going on here?"
"It's bad." Gundor wiped his nose on his sleeve. "They've locked men in the barn."
Morwen shot up to full height. "What!"
Behind Gundor, the crowd shuffled on their feet as she reacted, like an erratic breeze rattling the long grass. Their individual faces held no meaning for her, but she could sense their collective mood as they gauged hers. Uneasiness and hostility filled the yard like a fog.
"Tell us what happened," Thengel murmured.
Gundor cringed as if he feared to say more, but he didn't dare ignore a command. "They wouldn't take Halmir's part and now they're in the barn."
Shocked, Morwen looked to Thengel to gauge his reaction, but she couldn't read it. Whatever he felt, he guarded. For herself, she heard the words but her mind wouldn't absorb their meaning.
"Show us," she told Gundor.
"Hold a moment." Thengel untethered the wrapped object from his saddle, ordering Gladhon and Thurstan to mind the horses. Though bound, Morwen shivered at the potential contained within the sword.
What had they come home to?
When Thurstan and Gladhon led the horses away toward the paddock, Thengel's fingers brushed her arm.
"Let's go."
…
More than one fellow turned toward the house as Morwen followed Gundor. With her senses bent on the strangers around her, she felt barely aware of Thengel's presence at her side. Cenhelm and Wynflaed came behind, silent but for the crunch of gravel beneath their boots. The crowd split for them and few lingered near the barn.
She also noticed the chain and lock, which bound the wide doors. Two men were posted there, each bearing makeshift cudgels. The sentinels shifted uneasily in their boots as Morwen approached. She noticed them whispering to one another, perhaps taking counsel about what to do. Their indecision reassured Morwen.
"What is your business here?" she asked them.
They glanced at one another. The guard on the left looked younger than she did!
"We have orders from Lord Halmir to guard these prisoners until he can hand them over to the proper authorities so that justice may be done to them," the guard on the right answered.
"Justice?" Morwen hissed. "This is a barn, not a dungeon. What right does Lord Halmir have to imprison anyone here? What are these men charged with?"
"Well, he said…"
"Unbolt the door and stand down."
The guards looked at one another, uncertain. Thengel had been quietly unwrapping his sword all the while and the two sentinels had taken notice of the weapon. Their cudgels looked paltry in comparison, especially when Lady Morwen's other companions were also armed.
"Do as Lady Morwen has bidden you," he said softly.
The guards decided to listen to Prince Thengel and Morwen felt a tug of irritation as they scrambled to unlock the barn door. Did she need a sword to assert her authority in her own home?
When the doors opened, though, she forgot her irritation.
"I'm not going in there," she heard Gundor say.
"Then wait out here with Halmir's friends," she snapped.
Gundor gulped and followed her into the shadows. The barn reeked of stale urine and filthy bodies, which puzzled and alarmed her. Morwen had never kept animals in this barn, because they stored the harvest here until it could be carried to markets in Arnach and Minas Tirith. Her eyes had to adjust to the difference in light before she saw that the reek came from a circle of men on the floor. Each lay bound by the hands and feet, left to wallow in their own filth. Morwen fought to hide the suddenly revulsion pulsing through her.
One of them she recognized immediately. With a cry, she ran forward to Beldir's side, careful of the leg protruding straight before him, stiff and dirty in the splint and wrappings Adan had used on the day he broke the limb.
"Morwen, don't come near me." He raised his bound arms, as if he could ward her off that way. "The mess…"
"As if I cared about that," she hissed as she supported his shoulders so he could sit up. "Are you hurt?"
Beldir grunted something but wouldn't meet her eye. He swayed as the blood rushed to his head. He cradled his head in his palms, his face twisted in pain. Morwen could see his temples throb, so she continued to hold him until he steadied, breathing through her mouth as she tried to ignore the body odor.
Silently, Wynflaed dropped on her knee beside Morwen, offering her a knife to cut Beldir's bonds. Cenhelm and Thengel busied themselves around the circle doing the same. She wanted to linger over Beldir, who looked even more gaunt than usual; but Wynflaed spoke in her ear, reminding her that others were in the same bad shape and needed her help. So she left him in order to free the next man, another Arnach soldier she didn't know. He mumbled his thanks as he grubbed his mangled wrists, but wouldn't look up. Anger seared in her chest. Why should these men be ashamed to be seen by her in such a state when Halmir had mistreated them? It was Halmir's shame, not theirs.
"Beleg!" she heard Thengel growl in surprise and anger, as she moved to the last bound man. She watched him kneel by his friend and carefully help him up. "What happened here?"
Morwen recognized the man from Lossemeren whom Thengel had introduced to her, the one who had limped all the way from Arnach on Halmir's orders.
"We tried to stop them," Beleg croaked in a hushed tone, as if speaking for Thengel's ears only, "but they were too many. Lord Halmir ordered them to locked us in here."
"How long?"
Beleg shook his head. "I don't know."
"Four days ago," Gundor told them, looking over his shoulder to see if any of Halmir's men overheard him. "Mama wanted to bring them food and water, but Lord Halmir wouldn't let her."
"You've had nothing in all that time?" Morwen gasped.
No one would answer her. Her eyes met Thengel's and she could see he looked as enraged as she felt. So, they'd been left to mess themselves and slowly die of dehydration and hunger. How could Halmir allow such a thing to happen? In Imloth Melui no less.
"Gundor, bring water from the well. Now."
He ran off to obey while they finished freeing the last of the prisoners and inspected their wounds. When the boy returned, Morwen took the bucket to share out the water, starting with Beleg. She knelt down and handed him the dipper. His hands cupped its simple wooden bowl as if it were a golden goblet.
"What did you try to stop?" Morwen asked him while he drank deeply of the cool water.
Beleg flinched away from her gaze and returned the dipper. She offered the water to his neighbor, but didn't move, waiting for a reply.
"Go on, Beleg," Thengel said gently.
Beleg grimaced down at the hands in his lap. "It's the trees, Lady Morwen."
She stood up slowly. "What about them?"
"I'm sorry," he said, shaking his head. "Lord Halmir ordered them cut down the morning after he found out you'd left with Adan."
"My trees?" Morwen's mind darted back down the greenway to the sound she'd heard drifting toward them like an echo. "Where?"
Beldir grimaced but said nothing.
"Where are they cutting down trees?" she repeated. "Beldir."
The overseer bowed his head. "They started at the top of the orchard first."
Someone caught the bucket as it slipped from her arms. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Thengel reaching for her and she recoiled from the contact.
"Morwen, wait!" he called after her.
But she had already picked up her riding skirts to run.
…
Careless of everything around her, men had to jump out of Morwen's way as she sprinted through the yard. She heard the sound that had carried through the forest earlier and recognized it for what it was. The thunk of metal biting wood felt like a blow that landed in her own chest.
Several more of Halmir's men loitered around the orchard gates but they made no attempt to stop her. She slipped on the wet grass near the dais, scrambling on her knees before getting to her feet again. Her knee throbbed where it had landed on a stone.
None of the cherry trees were harmed and she met no one until she began to crest the hill. There, Morwen's imagination had done little justice compared to the reality of Halmir's treachery.
At the top of the orchard, the ground looked like a stubble field under a magnifying glass. Dark stumps stared nakedly at the overcast sky where a quarter of the apple trees had fallen in the exact spot where Halmir's blueprints had indicated for his future guesthouse. The grass around the stumps lay trodden down in the mud along with a cover of small shredded leaves where the ceaseless traffic of men's boots and dragged tree trunks had carved crooked paths in the soft earth.
Morwen's lifeless legs gave out and she sank onto her knees in the mud. Her breath seemed to hitch on her ribs before reaching her throat, stopping the air and any sound. The trees might as well have been people, for the rush of horror and grief she felt. Beautiful, healthy trees that had grown tall in the valley, felled for no other purpose than one man's profit. Tears stung the back of her eyes. Her throat burned with rising bile.
Then she heard voices nearer the wall and one she recognized. She stumbled toward them until she found the owners of the voices near a pile of green branches and trunks that lay smoldering and smoking on the damp earth. One man bent over it, trying impotently to coax the fire into a blaze.
A half-naked man with straggly hair and a wandering beard stood locked with two others in a fierce argument. Their tools were fortunately propped up against another pile of unshorn tree trunks and not in their hands, else the artist might also have come to grief.
The axemen's voices were punctuated with the swing and strike of several more men who were busying themselves by stripping the fallen trees of their branches with handsaws or splitting down the trunks with axes.
Seeing Teitherion somehow gave Morwen renewed strength as she stumbled into the scene. At least someone in the valley had the courage to fight for the orchard. Where was the miller or any of the families that had shared the Lossemeren meal with her just last month?
Morwen didn't care that they were working on trees that had already fallen. She rushed foolishly at the nearest axeman, reaching to stop the fall of his axe. He saw her just in time to avoid bringing the handle down on her head.
"Stupid girl," he cursed, yanking the handle out of her grip and throwing her to the ground. "Watch it or you'll get the blade instead of the shaft next time."
Teitherion noticed her then and a look of horror crossed his wrinkled face. One of the men pushed him away before grabbing his own axe and striding toward her with menace in his eyes. Then just as suddenly, he stopped and backed away.
Morwen felt herself being scooped up from the ground, then left to totter till she found her feet again. Thengel plucked the axe out of the first man's hand, sinking its blade into the dirt. He grabbed the man's tunic.
"That's Lady Morwen, you fool," he growled. "Show some respect."
Her assailant's arms wheeled to maintain his balance when Thengel let him go with a shove, but even so he fell and scuttled away as quickly as he could.
Morwen stared at Thengel in amazement as Wynflaed and Cenhelm and Gundor appeared by her side. She could see a vein pulsing along his throat and his eyes blazed like a lion's. His sword hung by his side now and one hand brushed the hilt. Here stood Ecthelion's lieutenant, she thought, and his anger filled the arbor.
"The lot of you, clear off," he ordered. "There's nothing to do here."
The other axemen who had ignored the initial scuffle with Teitherion, lowered their axes and handsaws, but didn't move from their spots.
Thengel eyes them with contempt. "Landaer, is that you?" he said. One of them flinched and hung his head. "Megoron, too?" One by one, Thengel called out the names of the men he recognized, Ithilien soldiers who had served Hardang. A terrible chill threaded his voice as he asked them, "What have you done here?"
"We're under orders from Lord Halmir to clear this acre of trees before the week's out," one of the more belligerent of the men ventured. He had been the second arguing with Teitherion.
"You have new orders, if you value your skulls," said Thengel with deadly certitude that promised unpleasant things. "Halmir isn't the Lord of Lossarnach and he has no claim to this land."
The authority in his tone compelled the soldiers. They were the first to clear out of the arbor. Deserted by their comrades, the others loyal to Halmir soon followed.
When they were alone, Morwen sank down onto one of the stumps.
"It's a sorry welcome, your ladyship."
"Oh Teitherion," she moaned, staring around her in dismay.
"When Gildis sent word to me that they bound Beldir I tried to stop them. I have been here every day this week," Teitherion said, voice laden with self-reproach. "But what are a dozen against so many?"
She noticed the bruises on his face then and she wondered how badly they had beaten him over the week. That Halmir didn't fear him, she knew, or she would have found him in the barn as well.
"You could do nothing," she told him. "This is my punishment for leaving."
Teitherion nodded. "I fear that may be true."
Thengel plucked the axe out of Gundor's hand, which the boy had picked up after its owner abandoned it. With a growl he buried its head into the dirt. Somewhat relieved he turned to Morwen.
"Halmir has to answer for this."
"Yes, but how?"
Some of the fire left his eyes and he looked away. Neither of them had the answer. Morwen bit the inside of her cheek until the blood came, warm and metallic. She would not cry here, if she could just breathe for a moment and think. Wynflaed and Cenhelm wandered around, looking at the extent of the damage and her eyes followed them without seeing much. Her knee throbbed and she focused on it instead of the ache in her heart. Mud and debris covered her skirts and she found more than one tear in the fabric.
She felt the warm pressure of Thengel's hand on her shoulder before he knelt down beside her. Lines of worry creased the corners of his eyes. "Morwen, you're wet through," he said, taking her hand. "Come, there's nothing left to do here tonight. Beldir and the others still need to be cared for."
"You left them alone?" she heard herself say, as if through a tunnel.
Thengel shook his head. "Thurstan and Gladhon are with them, but they'll need help moving the men into the house."
Morwen nodded, willing herself to rise. When the resolve came, she welcomed it with a shiver.
…