Chapter Eleven

The snows came and still they waited. The tears stopped soon enough as they all fell back into their daily routines and Valandil was noticeably less haughty in the schoolroom. The valley was threatened with complete closure and the days marched on towards Yarna's name day with regularity and still they waited for Glorfindel. He had only a day in which to arrive before he had broken his promise.

"He promised he would come back in time!" Lindir was helping her build a snow fort near the training ground whilst Edweniel and Valandil gathered legions of missiles for their impending fight.

"Oh hush, he will be," Lindir snapped at her. She frowned, wondering why she deserved that reaction. He turned his back on her as he built the wall up higher.

"Lindir?" He was angry at her and no one had been angry with her since she arrived in Imladris. Somehow despite the trouble she had been in she had not seen anger yet, even in the tiny line from Lindir. He sighed, sitting down on the snow with his back against the wall he had built.

"I am sorry, tithen pen. He will come back soon, I promise." She crawled across to sit next to him. "Come on, we shall build a fort he could defend himself before he comes home." She recognised the smile Lindir gave her, Gandir used to give it to her as well, to distract her from being upset over their absent parents.

Edweniel mounted a surprise attack, pelting them with snow balls.

"Bar the gates!" Lindir yelled at her and she threw a bucket full of snow over Valandil as he stormed their gate as a substitute for boiling pitch. She screamed as Edweniel hit her from behind and they were overrun.

"Yield!" Edweniel demanded as their wall came crashing down thanks to the sled Valandil had turned into a battering ram.

"We yield!" Lindir answered and got a fistful of snow down his tunic. "We yield!" Yarna joined in to stop the deluge of white powder on her head courtesy of Valandil.

"Alright, children." Erestor dragged Lindir up out of the snow. "That is enough. Come in and get dry." Valandil had gone blue around the lips and all were soaked through. To four different cries of protest Erestor was deaf and poked Lindir into movement, the others following their leader. Yarna thought it was not fair to be pulled inside so early, it was hardly dark and they were not that cold. Erestor, however, was not listening to her complaints and she was in the bath and warming up before he acknowledged her voice. "Valandil cannot keep up with you three in the cold."

"So why do we have to come in?" He sighed and she thought he looked very worn, a frown stuck on his face as if it was part of his skin.

"Because it is dark and almost time for bed." She kept quiet, sitting by the fire to dry her hair in silence. She watched him sit by the candle and scribble away with his quill for a while until he gave up and met her eye.

"Have you heard something bad, uncle?" she asked him softly. She was well aware that some things might be kept from her when people used their adult voices. Erestor shook his head, holding out his arms for her to climb up to his lap.

"No. We have not heard anything yet." He crinkled his nose as she lay her head against his shoulder. "Go back and dry your hair, you are just as wet as when I fetched you in." She huffed and was sent back to the fire. "They reached Arnor safely, but in the wilds there are no messengers."

"Lindir says he will come back." She smiled brightly at him, firmly believing it if they had reached Arnor then all was well.

"Of course." Erestor was no longer looking at her, staring at the flames as if she was not there at all.

"Uncle?" He snapped out of it, smiling at her but it did not reach his eyes, they stayed a dull brown that glistened in the firelight. Erestor sat down with her on the floor, moving the screen aside so that the heat could reach them more easily. He did not get up when there was a rap at the door, merely looking over as Lindir came in.

"There was a rider," he said quietly. "Elrond would not let me hear her speak." The three of them sat down, arms around each other quietly.

"He will come soon." Whether Erestor meant Elrond and the messenger or Glorfindel, neither of them knew. Lindir took his harp down from the shelf, where it lived despite it not being his room. For a while he picked at it before settling on a tune to play and Yarna curled up, her hair suitably dry, under Erestor's arm as he hummed along, the old words of songs that had never been written down little more than low murmurings in the chest beside her head. Vaguely she knew the words, mumbling along occasionally. Her Naneth's voice had been so different it was hard to reconcile it with what she was hearing. Gradually she slipped into the haze that came before sleep and the sound of the harp wandered further away.

"That is a welcome sight to come home to," a voice said from the doorway. She could not be sure if she was asleep or not when she looked up at the golden figure standing there. The surface under her moved slightly as the figure sat down next to them.

"You are very nearly late," the voice under her head answered. She made a small noise of protest at being disturbed and felt herself lifted up into warm arms.

"Come along, tithen pen. To bed you go." Glorfindel tucked her in and she was jolted half awake.

"Uncle?" He smiled, kissing her forehead. "Are you home?"

"Yes, tithen pen. Home and safe." She nodded and pulled the covers up a little further so that she was cocooned in blankets. She was asleep before he had even shut the door.