Disclaimer: I don't own these characters and I make no money from this writing.

It is truly a scant few minutes before I wake Halbarad. The folly of waiting at all appals me but they are both exhausted. A few minutes' sleep may enable them to continue for a few more hours. They must remain alert.

"Halbarad," I whisper, nudging the boy. "Where are your people?"

He comes slowly awake and, in moving his arm to rub his eyes, disturbs Estel. "Tharbad," Halbarad says. "Many of my people are there."

"Was it not destroyed in the flood?" I ask, reaching across him to reassure Estel, who is looking at me as if he no longer knows where he is.

"We have been salvaging what we can. My father says that much that was lost will be found, though I'm not sure whether he means the city or our Chieftain." He looks at Estel, who is still sleepy enough to simply grunt a response.

"Well, we must go there, though it is far further than I had intended we should travel," I say, standing, and pouring water onto the fire. I stamp it out carefully while the boys stand and gather any other remnants of our feast. "Go down to the boat. Wash in the river, quickly – you will both be ill if you do not keep yourselves clean."

They go, close together now, Halbarad very slightly ahead of my brother, and I envy them the way they have shrugged off the dangers and horrors around them. Estel trails his good hand through the long grasses and I am reminded to go and gather comfrey. I must check and rebind his arm before we go on – I am afraid it will not knot quickly if I do not treat it.

So we are delayed again, as I make Estel sit on a river stone and unbind the wrappings on his arm. Halbarad watches with interest. The arm is deeply bruised but not displaced, and the swelling is less than it was. I should boil the leaves but that would have taken yet more time, and I do not like the way the place has become almost silent apart from the steady rush of the river. I put the leaves straight onto the skin, hoping that at least some of their goodness will help, and I re wrap his arm carefully. Both boys are watching me now, and I take extra care but Estel is biting his bottom lip.

"Does it hurt?" Halbarad asks.

"Yes," Estel says. "But my brother always makes it better for me." He looks at me with such shining trust that I try even harder to be gentle.

"He's your brother?" Halbarad says, glancing at me dubiously.

I slip the sling back round my brother's neck and help him to settle his arm again. I wait for Estel to answer.

"He's my foster-brother," he says, as if this is the most natural thing in the world.

I urge both boys into the boat and they settle themselves on the front thwart again. I pass the spare paddle to Halbarad and he is soon contributing his strength to our journey downstream. I am pleased that we are moving. I feel evil was close but it is now slipping behind us again.

Immediate danger lies not in whatever follows us but in this boy, who knows so much more than Estel about his people. We have protected Estel for seven years now and Father judges we must do that for much longer, keeping secrets of great importance from him. Secrets about his own family. It suddenly seems unfair that we must do that to him, so that he will only be able to tell his new friend half-truths. My only comfort is that he does not tell them knowingly.

"There is a girl I know. Her parents died. She was taken in by another family. But I didn't know the elves took in edain children. I'm sorry, sir," he says, looking round at me. "I don't mean you shouldn't have taken him."

Estel knows the truth, so there is no harm in repeating the story of the way he was brought to us, and that passes the time. Estel grins at some of the stories I tell, especially the ones where he managed to escape us, or outwit us, which I always tell if he is unhappy.

Halbarad begins to laugh at the story of Estel and the frog. It is the first time I have seen the boy smile and it changes him. He is like Estel in some ways, dark-haired, sharp-featured, but he has green eyes. He is tall and very thin. He seems to grow as I watch him, his clothes already a little too small on him. Now that he smiles, I see that he has humour in him and I begin to trust him a little.

"Do you know the story of the king?" he says abruptly. "Our king, the one who will come one day and lead us all back to the days of glory?"

"No," Estel says. "Elladan told me once about the kings that were, in the old days, but I know nothing about a future king. Tell me."

"All I know is what I have said," the boy admits, and I breathe again. At what point to intervene, I had been thinking. If too many clues are dropped I will have a long story to tell my brother, and a great deal of explaining to do when Father finds out. "Maybe it's you!" Halbarad suddenly says.

Estel looks straight at him, mouth a little open. Then he laughs, loudly. "Me! Elrohir, did you hear what he said! Me, as king!"

"Don't you want to be king?" I say, looking around for somewhere we can beach the boat and rest for the night. The light is already beginning to fade.

"No!" he says, suddenly losing his smile. "No! Think how many men would have to live or die by my word."

We fall silent. It is an extraordinary thought for a nine year old, but then, he is an extraordinary boy, and he has just learnt a hard lesson. What can I say to such reasoning? Halbarad seems somehow disappointed, his joke fallen flat, and at my command he helps steer the boat to the shore.

It is the work of a moment. Halbarad catches his paddle in an underwater obstruction and it pulls him back suddenly. The boat is unbalanced and I move to right it but Estel, trying to help Halbarad, forgets his injury and as he reaches out, I shout to him to beware. We are sideways on to the flow of the water now, and further than I intended to be – soon we must reach the cold, fast-flowing waters of Mitheithel. I do not know which boy to help first – one must surely fall in now, but if I can just manoeuvre the boat this way, I can bring them both safely to shore.

I don't know when our luck deserted us. Halbarad falls and is dragged under almost immediately. Before I can reach him Estel has jumped into the freezing water, and the boat is rocked by his movement. It quickly floods and I must take to the water too, holding onto the boat and calling, calling to the boys. All I hear is the water and all I can see is a dark head, floating too fast away from me.

tbc

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