That night, as Ix had predicted, a great storm rolled in. To the Lossoth, this was no more than they were used to, but the brothers were trapped inside with Betta while the snow fell thick on the ground and filled the air. Kili was eager to go out and have a look at the storm, but he made it only as far as the long, narrow doorway before a gust of cold wind drove him back. Ix had been outside making preparations and he followed Kili back into the hut, laughing at the Dwarf for his curiosity.

"It is too cold for that thin coat," he said, as he took off his heavy, wool cloak. "And you would not get five feet from the door before you were lost to the wind."

While they ate, Ix explained that the long ropes that the dwarves had seen tied from hut to hut and hung with blankets and meat had another purpose. The Lossoth would use the ropes to find their way when the snow blew hard and they could not see. Fili and Kili did not know the complicated network of rope and fence that would lead them through the village and would have lost themselves. Even with the rope to guide them, in was not unheard of for a Lossoth man or woman to be lost in hard winter storms – sometimes for a days, sometimes until the next thaw uncovered their frozen body.

After that, Kili was content to enjoy the warmth and protection of Ix's large hut. The thick snow-walls were built to withstand the harshest winds the Forodwaith could throw at them. There were three "rooms" though there were no doors inside and the walls were built of thin, animal-hide curtains hung across supporting rods. Both brothers and Betta felt uncomfortable with so little privacy between them and Ix's family, but he had sent his children to stay with Mino's sister's family, and so there was more room in the hut than would otherwise have been.

On the second day of the storm, the wind had lessened and Ix went out to check on his neighbors and tend to his other chores. Kili went with him, eager to learn and to see all the sights of the place. Only a few of the Lossoth knew the Westron tongue, and even they could speak only a few words and phrases, but Kili made do; his friendly smile and honest ways won friends and opened doors to him that might otherwise have been closed. Even Ix was surprised at how quickly his folk took to Kili, but Fili did not leave the hut. He stayed with Betta and did what he could to keep her entertained. Elm had not yet given her leave to go outside and, though her arm was healing well, the cuts were soft and there was yet the risk of infection.

With little to do indoors once the others went out, Fili and Betta spoke to each other, and he learned more about her that he had not known before. And yet, though she spoke freely about the past, about her own family and even regarding the early days of her quest when she walked alone through Dunland and Enedwaith, she would shy away from him when he spoke of the future. Not wanting to cause her trouble while she was still weak, Fili did not press her on it and he would allow her to change the subject, but it worried him that she had not yet decided which way her road would go from here. He hoped it would go south.

Most of the time, they were not left alone; Mino was with them in the hut. She had many chores to do: sewing, cleaning, and preparing their food; but Fili guessed that she was also there as a guard to watch over Betta and see that she did not strain her wounds. She was a kind woman, but very strict and quick to click her tongue at Fili if he did too much that Betta might do for herself… or if he did not stop her doing more than her injury allowed. Even with two screens between them, Mino always seemed to know when Betta overreached her limits, and Fili learned to fear that tongue-click as if it were the crack of the schoolmaster's rod on his back, reminding him of his duty.

Evening came, and Kili returned, ready to regale them both with tales of where he had gone and what he had seen. He described with eagerness the various weeds that the Lossoth harvested from the sea. There were so many different kinds that he could not name them all, and each one had its own best use. Also, there were whole barnyards made of whale's bones that fenced in many long-haired animals, some like goats, some like deer, and the Lossoth kept them for their meat and their thick wool, but also to drink their milk and their blood.

Kili made a face when he said this, and Ix laughed at him. Mino smiled and handed him a deep bowl of fish that was soaking in a dark, salty broth. Fili covered his smile with his hand, but Betta did not bother to hide her amusement.

Hunger was a good motivator, however, and Kili did not ask what was in his bowl before he ate it. He talked on and on, and Betta was glad to listen to all he had to say, but Fili's thoughts were on other things. Though he smiled and nodded at his brother's words, his eyes were on Betta, measuring the color in her cheeks and the steadiness of her hand. She fed herself easily by now and had no trouble bringing her spoon to her mouth, but he saw how she struggled to cut the tougher meat in her bowl and the reflexive movements of her shoulder. Now that she was used to the pain of her arm, she would forget sometimes that it was missing its hand.

He had no doubt that Ix saw these things, too, and the shadow that still lay over her heart, but he said nothing. Fili did not feel right in suggesting that Ix ask his uncle to speak with Betta, but he thought it would do her good to meet another injured hunter.

On the fourth morning of their stay in the Lossoth village, the day dawned clear and the sky was blue. Fili was beginning to feel the closeness of the walls and the tension of long captivity, but he did not like to abandon Betta, and she could not go outside. Although he tried to hide his restlessness, eventually his fidgeting and fussing were too much for Betta to bear and she ordered him out.

"I cannot leave you alone," he said. "What will you do with yourself?"

"I will rest and recover from your constant questions," she said, smiling. "Now, go! Find Kili and see what mischief he has got himself into today. Did he not say something about following the children out onto the ice? Imagine your brother trying to slide with bone-shards strapped to his boots! He will hurt himself if you are not there to shame him back onto solid ground."

"I will go," Fili relented finally, "but only because Mino is here to look after you. If you need me for anything…"

"Go!" she cried, laughing. "And if I see you again before dinner, I will be very angry with you."

He stood up and bowed to her and then went out of the hut. He would look for his brother as she had ordered him to do, but he was determined to be back as soon as the evening sun touched the horizon.

Once Fili had gone, Betta's smile faded. She was still trapped inside and it had taken much of her strength to pretend her good mood while Fili had been around to see it. She lay back on the thick furs of her bed and stared up at the roof of the hut. She sighed.

"You are sad," Mino said, stepping out from behind one of the screens. She carried a heavy basket of rope and along, blunt needle. The basket she set down beside Betta. The needle she kept to herself as she pulled up a stool and sat down.

"I have many reasons to be sad," Betta replied.

"You wish to be outside," Mino said. She took one end of the rope and passed it through Betta's hand, nodding for her to feed the line out slowly as she woke. "Tomorrow will be warm. You will go out and see the sky."

"That will be good," Betta said, watching Mino weave her needle through the thick rope, tying knots. "I wish to be outside, but that will come in time. That is not what makes me sad."

"What more?"

Betta frowned, but she had lived for four days with Mino's almost constant presence, and she was glad to have another woman to speak with. "Tomorrow, I will go outside," she said, drawing out another length of rope and passing it along, "but what of the day after? For years I have seen only as far as the end of my quest. Now, I cannot see past tomorrow. My quest is over. What shall I do with my life?"

Mino shook her head. "I do not know your words very much," she said. "What does this mean, 'do with life'? How do you 'do with life'? Life is."

"Yes, and I have it, but what shall I do with it, with mine?" Betta asked.

Again, Mino shook her head. "You have life," she said. "Life is. We are given life. We live it. If we are lucky, when we are old, we grow tired and we give life back. If we are unlucky, when we are young, life is taken from us and we die. We do not do with life. Life does with us."

Betta laughed sadly. "I suppose that it does, and perhaps I would like to have done with it now." She sighed and Mino looked at her with worry on her face. She pressed her hand to Betta's forehead.

"No, do not worry. I am not ill," she said. "I only wish to know, where should I go next? Do I stay in this village? Fili and Kili mean to go south and return to their uncle. Should I go with them?"

Mino put down the net she was weaving and her brow knit together with concern. "You do not wish to follow husband?" she asked.

Betta sat up and stared at her with surprise. "Husband? No, Fili is not my husband!"

Mino leaned back in her chair with an amused sparkle in her eye and Betta realized what rumors Fili must have been spreading. She would have a few sharp words to say to him when she saw him next, but the look in Mino's eyes made her wonder whether she had not been unkind herself to lead him on, always denying him her straightforward answer.

"No, he is not my husband," she said, "though he has asked me more than once."

"Ah," Mino said, nodding. "It is questions of the heart…"

"No." Betta shook her head. "I do not question that. My heart is the only part of me of which I am certain. My question is: do I go south, or do I go… anywhere else? If south, then I go with Fili and Kili. If not south, then I go alone. But what is there for me in either place? I had my quest for many years, and now I have nothing." She looked down at her only hand and watched the rope pass through her loose fingers.

"You have life," Mino said, reaching down to take hold of Betta's hand. She looked her in the eye and told her, "If you wish to do with life, then you should not stay here. Here, we do not do with life. Life does to us, and we live it. That is enough, but perhaps it is different in the south."

"No," Betta said, leaning back on her pillows. "No, it is not different there. Life has done to me for many years, and I have not fought or questioned it. I do not know what I will do next, but I think that I know which way I must go."

Mino smiled and went back to tying her knots. The net was growing larger between her two hands and Betta watched the movements of her needle. After a while, Mino passed both net and needle to Betta and taught her to tie the knots herself. It was a struggle to manage the long needle with only one hand, but Mino was determined and pressed on when Betta would have given up. After an hour, Mino said that they had done enough and ordered her to rest, but Betta knew that most of the work would have to be untied and redone by a more skillful Lossoth hand.

.

Fili left Ix's hut and stepped out into the open air. He breathed in deep the scent of the sea and looked west toward the ice-sheet. It was the first time that he had seen it clearly without the setting sun gleaming over its glasslike surface. He frowned and was not much impressed; it looked a great deal like the flat plains of Forodwaith, white and featureless, except far away where he could see the deeper blue and white-capped waves of the sea.

He looked around at the huts, realizing for the first time that he had had to climb up to step out onto ground level. The Lossoth huts were not dug down into the ground. The snow that had fallen over three days had been shoveled away from the more important roads and yards, but around the house and along the foot-paths, it was not moved but pressed down by the passage of many boots. Near Ix's hut, too, he could see this method and guessed that when the walls were first built, there was no step between outside and inside. Over the many years, the ground had risen while the floor remained the same.

Fili wondered whether the Lossoth's homes would one day be buried completely underground, but he guessed that they would have moved on before that happened. Elm had said, in answer to one of Kili's many questions, that he had not been born in this place. At the time, Fili thought only that the old healer had come from some other village, but now, he wondered whether the whole village had not once been built somewhere else.

Shaking away the thought, Fili once more looked around. More than a few men and women were out and at work, but he saw no sign of his brother. Not that he worried about Kili. There were few places here where he might cause trouble and from what he had heard, his brother had already made friends with nearly every child in the village and their mothers.

Turning his face westward once more, Fili walked that way at a leisurely pace. He was in no hurry but thought that he would like a closer look at the sea.

The road he was on was wide and smooth and ran past the large house where he and Kili had first met Chief Tanu. In the open square before that place, a large fire had been built and many Lossoth were at work with skins and tubs of water full of strange dyes. The droplets had colored the white snow in many places, red and orange and green, but Fili did not stop to look. He followed the road farther, down toward the shore.

The village had been built only a mile uphill from the water, but he wished to be closer, to see and smell the ocean's waves. It was strange, for a Dwarf, to be eager for the sea, but without mountains to tempt him, there was little else in the snow-covered north, and he knew that Betta loved it.

Fili reached the last hut that marked the boundary of the village and was only a few yards down the hill when he heard his name called and turned back. He recognized the man that stood calling to him and remembered that Kili had named him Anam. The man was making signs that Fili was wanted, and he sighed. With one last look back at the shore, Fili sighed and made his way back up the hill, signing for the man to lead the way. The sea would wait; it was not going anywhere.

Anam led Fili back into the village and down a long side-road toward a cluster of white huts and fencing. He recognized Kili's description of the barnyards, but his brother's words did not do justice to the surprise and amazement that Fili felt to see the tall rib bones stuck into the snow and the roof of the pen was built with the hollowed-out skull of a sea-creature that he could not name.

Most of the structures, however, were built of the same mud and weed as the Lossoth's chimneys. Sled dogs were kept there, and many of the goat-like animals that Kili had described. They were thick with curly hair and Fili guessed that this was where the Lossoth found the wool that they wove into the few linen garments and bandages that they used. Ix was there, speaking with the stable boys and an old man who seemed to be in charge of the rest. Fili waited patiently, marveling at the ingenuity of the bone-fencing.

After Ix had finished, the other Lossoth went away, and he turned to Fili with a smile. "I am glad to see you outside of my house," he said, putting his hand on Fili's shoulder. "Mino keeps me under close guard. There are things I would say that Betta is not ready to hear."

"What are they?" Fili asked with a wary frown.

"Nothing so terrible as that," Ix said. "See, is this not a fine animal?" He put his hand through the slats in the wall and touched the nose of the largest goat who had shouldered up to the fence while they had been speaking. The beast's great, curling horns were larger than Fili's head, and its thick hair hung in heavy, tangled locks the same blue-grey color of the snow under its hooves.

"He will make a fine coat," Ix said, "but we cannot shear them until the weather is warm again."

"He would not do well in the heat of the south," Fili said, thinking how uncomfortable that fur would become, and how easily the poor, white creature would be to spot in the green grasslands.

Ix laughed. "No, I suppose that he would not," he agreed. "And somehow you strike at the same mark that I would hit upon. Do you and your brother still mean to go south? Do not think that I would drive you off; though, if you mean to stay long, it would be better to build you a hut of your own."

Fili shook his head. "No, we cannot stay here. We must return to our uncle. You have been more than kind to us, master Ix, but my brother and I are needed elsewhere. Indeed, I should have spoken to you before now…"

"You have other cares to draw you away," Ix said, nodding, "that I know, but what are your plans now? You say that you and your brother must go, but what of Betta? Does she go with you?"

Fili felt his chest tighten. "That is for her to decide," he said. "I would have her with me… if she would agree."

"Ah."

Fili saw understanding in Ix's eyes and was glad that he did not need to explain himself. "Our plans must be made, however,' he said, "and I would be glad for your advice in this. If it is only my brother and I, then perhaps some of your people might drive us down to the snowline on their sleds. From there, we might walk, if we were well supplied. Or, there must be some way that I might send word to my uncle. He would send ponies or a wagon. It must be done quickly. We have been on this journey for nearly two months now, and it is longer than I had thought to be gone."

"What help I am able to offer is yours," Ix said. "And more that may be useful to you. Though the storm has delayed them, there is a large party of traders come from the south and they are camped some few miles from here at another village that is friendly with us. Such people do not often ride far north, but I have sent my invitation to them. We have many things to trade now, and you might buy passage with the caravan when they return south." He saw Fili's surprise at how soon they might go, and added, "Or, if you are not yet ready to leave us, then you may send word by them to your uncle."

Fili swallowed the lump in his throat and shook his head. "No, if there is room with them, then we must go. I only wonder whether Betta will be strong enough to travel…"

"That is for Elm to decide," Ix said. "But here is your brother. You might share your good news. And, see, he brings with him my son. Vedu! Where have you been? Your uncle spoils you and makes you too soft."

A young lad, no more than five years old, ran up to them and Ix took him up in his arms. The boy spoke to his father in the Lossoth tongue and then pointed to Kili. Ix frowned and looked at the brothers with concern. Before Fili could ask what had been said, Kili's cheeks flushed red and he held up his hands in protest.

"I only let him touch the handle of my axe," he explained quickly. "The lad did no more than lay a finger on the hilt. He did not hold it or swing it. I know better than that!"

Fili shook his head at his brother, and Ix sighed and put his son down again. "Yes, well, take care. You are lucky that it was my son and not another man who would be angry with you. Remember, our children know only spears and arrows, long weapons with small blades. An axe is a strange thing to them, and young hands should not hold what they do not understand."

Kili bowed to Ix and shook his finger at the boy. Vedu buried his face in his father's leg and smiled.

"He is a fine lad," Fili said, but his heart was troubled and he remembered the distant dream he had had when he thought Betta dead. He thought of the children that he could not have with her. "I am sorry that we have put you to so much trouble," he said. "Surely you would rather have your children under your own roof."

Ix shrugged his shoulders. "Men must take offence very easily where you are from if you apologize so often for so many little things. I see my children as often as need be, but they are safe in this village. There are many eyes to look after them and many more voices to scold them than mine. It is good."

Fili nodded, but Kili broke out in a grin. "Fili, I have only just heard, and I came to tell you, they mean to uncurse the pearl!" he said. "Out on the ice-sheet, tomorrow! We must go there and see."

"They mean to what?"

"It is a simple ceremony, a minor detail," Ix explained. "Tomorrow is the last day of our year, and soon the ice will begin to draw back to the shore. Chief Tanu has decided that it is a good time to deal with the Dragon's Stone. He will go and I with him, and our holy men, also, Elm and his wife and brothers. Many men and woman will observe as they return the stone to the King of the Sea. You and your brother are welcome to join us."

"I do not like to leave Betta alone for so long…" Fili said.

"It is not long, but you need not come. Not all of our people will be there. I only go as my uncle's heir. I am satisfied with my part in this tale."

"Well, I mean to go," Kili said. I would see this journey through to the end."

"You are welcome," Ix told him, and then he turned his eyes back to Fili. "Think on what else I have told you. You have much to decide, and I have many things yet to do this day, but I will see you again at the evening meal. Good day." He bowed to both brothers and then walked away, taking his young son with him.

Kili watched them go. "These are good people, Fili," he said, turning back to his brother. "But what is this news? What has Ix told you?"

The brothers followed the trail back into the village, and Fili told Kili all that he knew of the coming caravan from the south and the ways in which they might travel or send word by them. They had reached Ix's hut before he finished and stood outside for a while where they would not be overheard.

"That is good," Kili said. "Betta will be glad to hear it."

"Will she?" Fili asked.

Kili frowned. "What do you mean, brother?"

"Only that we do not yet know whether Betta means to journey south with us. She may wish to stay here with these people. They are, after all, the descendants of her ancestors. And Ix would not turn her away."

"Of course she will come with us," Kili insisted. "She would not let you leave her behind!"

Fili only shook his head. He did not have an answer. He knew Betta well enough by now to know that even with one hand gone, she might go anywhere or nowhere, and she was just stubborn enough to insist on wandering once more alone in the wild, probably where she would catch some minor infection and die without anyone to look after her.

He was thinking these and other dark thoughts when the door to Ix's hut was pushed back and, to his surprise, a large, broad-shouldered man stepped out onto the road. It was Chief Tanu, though his amputated arm was hidden under the heavy cloak he wore. The Chief appeared less imposing without his retinue of guards and advisors around him, but even a stranger who had not been introduced would have guessed that this was a man of consequences – and a dangerous man to challenge.

Chief Tanu glanced at the brothers who stood nearby, but he made no sign to them and turned his back. Fili watched the Chief stride swiftly away.

"Well," Kili said, once the Chief had gone, "I wonder what he had to say to her."

"Whatever it was, I hope that she heard," Fili answered, "but we shall not know until tonight. Betta has ordered me out of the house for the day, and we must find some other entertainment until then."

Kili grinned. "Well, why did you not say so, brother?" He took Fili by the arm and steered him back toward the shore. Though Fili had not seen it before, there was a wharf built upon the ice with many canoes nearby and a group of Lossoth who were gathered there to mend and prepare the fishing gear in anticipation of the coming spring.

.

Kili kept his brother so busy that Fili almost did not realize that the sun was beginning to set until the sky was nearly dark. They returned to Ix's hut and found the man already there and the evening meal laid out. Betta was quiet and thoughtful, saying very little, but Kili waited anxiously for his brother to bring up the topic of their leaving.

He did not.

The evening passed. Betta beat them each at a game of stones, and then went to her bed early. Fili had his own bundle of blankets that he had taken to laying out next to hers. Betta's left side was against the wall, and so they might lay close together. Kili had woken each morning to see his brother's arm around their guide.

Ix and Mino slept in another room with a screen between them and their guests. They fell asleep not long after Betta and the brothers lay down, but it was two hours before Kili sat up again, confident that the whole house was deep in dreams. He woke his brother quietly and drew him into a corner near the door where they shivered away from the fire but might speak without waking the others.

"What is it now, Kili?" Fili asked, rubbing his eyes and not at all happy to be taken from Betta's warm side.

"You did not tell her that we will be leaving," Kili said, not the least bit bothered by his brother's annoyed glance. If Fili had spoken up at dinner, they would not be whispering together now.

Fili frowned and did not answer. He moved as if he meant to go back to bed, but Kili caught his arm.

"I have something to show you," he said. "Perhaps this will encourage you to speak up." He took up the heavy sack that he had guarded so carefully upon their ride west. Ix knew of it, and he had helped Kili to conceal it in the hut, but he brought it out now and opened it to show Fili what he had found.

Inside the sack were many large lumps of raw gold, freshly chipped from the mountainside. The metal was almost pure with only a few thin veins of common stone threaded through. The bullion would need to be processed and purified before it could be sold, but even the smallest nugget was still larger than an acorn, and the largest was so heavy that Fili gasped to hold it in his hand.

"Kili! Where did you find this!?" he cried, and Kili had to clap his hand over his brother's mouth to keep his loud voice from waking the others. "How did you find gold in that mountain?" Fili demanded, his voice now a whisper.

"Our first night in the Lossoth camp, after you had run off and left me alone with Ix, he and I spoke together and he told me many things," Kili explained. "He guessed already that if Betta meant to go south – or in any direction – she would need more than good luck to keep her safe. He told me of the cave then, and the day after, while you sat with Betta and thought that I was at work chopping wood in the hills, well…" he shrugged sheepishly.

"Ix knows where to find this?" Fili asked in amazement. He would never have guessed from their primitive appearance that the Lossoth tribe guarded such wealth.

"His people know of it, but they do not mine it," Kili said. "It is sacred to them, I think. Ix said that his payment to us was settled, but he felt Betta should be compensated for all that she has suffered. He could not go himself, of course. No Lossoth could, but a Dwarf might mine gold from an unclaimed cave… And Fili, oh! The cave! You should have seen it. A whole wall laced with golden veins, shining in the light of my torch! It was beautiful to behold. The treasury of Erebor could not be more marvelous! But the bare walls were painted with such strange devices, and a design like the mark of Betta's tattoo…"

"Hush!" Fili held up his hand. He had seen Betta turn in her sleep, but her breath was steady. He could never guess whether she were awake or asleep, but he thought it was sleep this time. "You are a sneak, Kili," he whispered. "After this journey, I shall never let you out of my sight again. But why did you not say something? I might have gone with you."

"You would not have left Betta's side," Kili told him, "and you would have ordered me to stay behind also. Besides, Ix swore me to secrecy. They are good people, but superstitious. Ix knows what I have done, and he has told his uncle, but none of the rest of their folk can know of it. They would not be pleased to hear that Dwarven hands have cut into their hills."

"Where was the cave? Could you find it again?" Fili asked.

Kili shook his head. "I will not speak of it, and you must not either. If word got out among the Dwarves, the mountains of Angmar would be crawling with them."

"That is true." Fili looked into the shadows where he knew Ix and Mino lay and knew that his brother was right. It would be a betrayal of their hosts to go back there and, what was more, Fili had no desire to return to those hills even if the whole range were built of solid gold.

"Well, Fili, will you accept this from me?" Kili asked, smiling and handing his brother the sack.

"Accept it?" Fili echoed, not understanding.

Kili's smile widened into a broad grin and he placed a gold nugget onto his brother's palm. "Consider this my wedding gift to you, and to Betta. Even if she cannot make an honest man out of you, at least she should be taken care of."

Fili stared at his brother, and then he threw his arms around Kili's neck. "Accept it! Of course I shall accept it!" he said, struggling to keep his voice low. He kissed his brother and the tears in his eyes were both sad and joyful. "We shall get a fair price for it somehow, and Nan and Gilon will take care of her…"

He shook his head. "Kili, I shall never be able to repay you for the risk that you have taken. Thank you, brother! A thousand times, thank you!"

Kili laughed. "I only took the risk that you could not," he said. "You were needed elsewhere. And this is my gift to Betta also. She is my friend and does not only belong to you."

"I suppose that I must accept that as well," Fili said, smiling. He closed the sack and gave it back to his brother. "Hide this again, wherever you had it before, for I had forgotten all about it. It must be a secret, but Betta should know. Perhaps it will help her to make her choice…"

In his heart, Fili wondered whether it would not be easier on them both if Betta did choose to stay behind with the Lossoth. They might both bury their hearts beneath the snow and forget. And it would save him the cruel confrontation that he knew must come when Thorin learned that he had taken a human for a wife.

.

The next day, when Elm arrived to examine Betta's arm, he declared her a most miraculous case, and he was only partly exaggerating. Her arm had healed well and, though the cuts were soft and there was yet the danger of infection, he declared that if she were careful and did not strain the arm, she might leave her bed and even go outside of the hut. She had many months of weary work before she would be fully healed of the wound, but Elm's optimism and the encouragement of the Chief of the tribe had done much to renew her faith in herself and to strengthen her resolve.

Kili cheered her on and thanked the healer, but Fili was not fooled. He believed Betta when she said that she was determined, but he saw that the deeper shadows yet covered her heart. She had tasted death on her tongue and it would take time for her to fully grasp how much her life was changed.

The shadows would wait, however. The day was bright and the sun was warm. Fili set a stool beside Ix's hut and he sat beside her on a mat on the ground with his head resting on her knee. They watched the Lossoth men and women with their painted faces pass by them on their way down to the sea. Kili had already gone on ahead to watch the ceremony.

Fili explained to Betta that the pearl would be returned to the sea today, but she had little interest in it and said that the stone had gone beyond them now.

Once most of the Lossoth had gone away and they were left alone, Betta told Fili of her meeting with Chief Tanu. She did not reveal all that was said between them, and kept to herself much of the advice he had given her, but she did tell Fili – quietly – how, as a young man, Chief Tanu had once led the same hunting party that Ix now led, and how one year when the winter was very cold and the herds very thin, he had taken a few men up into the hills where they had been attacked by large and hungry wolves.

Tanu had not been Chief then, but he had fought well. He had seen the largest wolf about to spring upon one of his hunters and had thrown himself between the man and the animal. His arm had been caught in the beast's crushing jaws, and the shaft of his spear was broken, but he thrust the spearhead into the wolf's eye, killing it and driving off what was left of the pack.

Tanu's own journey back to health and strength had been much longer than Betta's and more difficult, but the amputation and field-craft of Elm had saved his life.

"He says that the loss of his arm is what made him Chief. He was proud before, proud of his strong arm, yet after losing it, he learned to pity weakness in others and to respect strength of mind as well as strength in body." Betta looked down at her own missing arm thoughtfully.

The wound was bandaged, and Mino had fashioned a glove of sorts out of sleek seal skin that wrapped about the cloth and prevented the salt of the sea air and the damp of the snow from soaking it. A strong sling held her arm close to her chest, and Fili could almost believe that her hand was only tucked into some secret pocket, not far away and burned to ash, scattered among the remains of the Lossoth's campfires beneath the gloomy feet of Angmar.

Fili took Betta's remaining hand in his. "I must admit that I have often hoped for a little less strength from your mind," he said. "Your stubbornness has been quite the match for my own upon this journey."

She smiled, but he did not look up at her. "I have not yet asked, for I am afraid to hear your answer, but I must know now… Betta, do you mean to go south with us? I know that I have only a little time to offer you before I must go east after my uncle, but I had hoped that when I returned from that quest… that I shall have something worth returning to."

"You will have your brother," Betta said. He felt her hand tighten around his, but still he did not look up.

"Kili will go east with me," he said. "And he, too, would like to return to Ered Luin and find his friend waiting for him." Fili put his hand into his pocket where he carried the nugget of gold that Kili had given him. "If it will help you to decide…" he began, but at that moment the Lossoth men and women arrived, returning from the sea along the road before them. Fili remembered Kili's warning that the gold must be kept secret and he left the nugget hidden in his pocket.

Kili returned with the Lossoth, and he saw them sitting grim-faced before the hut, but he said nothing and sat down beside his brother with a solemn look upon his face. It was several moments before Fili interrupted his brother's silence and asked, "Well? Was it as strange a ceremony as you thought it would be?"

Kili frowned and shook his head. "I do not understand this people," he said. "Cursed or not, the pearl had some value. It deserved more than to be dropped into the water." He shook his head again. "There was not even any ceremony involved. They chipped a hole in the ice half a mile from the shore. The Chief said a few words, and then Ix dropped the thing though the hole… and then they all started back for the village."

Fili raised an eyebrow. "That was all?"

"That was all."

Kili was bitterly disappointed, and Fili was confused, but Betta laughed out loud and they both stared at her in surprise. "That is all," she said, laughing. "After all my years of searching, of struggling… after this!" She could not lift her arm, but she shrugged her right shoulder. "After all that just to cast the thing into the sea! I might have done that long ago without ever opening the box."

Kili frowned, a little insulted by her laughter, but he could not long be angry. He shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose that it is theirs to do with as they please," he said. "I hope that Ix has earned all the blessings that he thought to get from it, but it seems like a lot of work for nothing."

"Not for nothing," Betta said, but what she meant by that she did not say. She was thinking of the ancient face that she had seen in the waters of the falls beneath Angmar and the voice that had spoken to her there. The Lossoth believed that the pearl had once belonged to their Sea King, and the sailors of Lebennin spoke often of the Lord of the Sea. Perhaps that was what her quest was about, returning to him his own. "Perhaps it belongs in the sea," she murmured.

Fili kissed her fingers. "For my part," he said, "I care little for the sea except that I know the sight of it makes you glad. I would rather see the mountains again, but only capped with snow and not covered head to foot with the stuff. I would see my uncle again and show him how tall his two nephews have grown."

He waited anxiously, but Betta did not answer. Finally, he came out and said it. "We must get word to Thorin. I will ask him to send up a wagon to carry you south…"

Betta shook her head. "I need no wagon," she said, and his heart fell. She saw his sad face and smiled. "I need no wagon because I will ride. I am not the reluctant horsewoman that I once was."

Fili stared at her, speechless, but Kili laughed. "Only a fool would call you reluctant," he said, "but you are no horsewoman. You could barely keep your saddle with two hands to hold the reins, how do you expect to ride now!"

Fili winced at his brother's words, but Betta winked at him. "You are being clever again, Kili. You only wish for me to ride behind your brother so that you might laugh at us both without turning your head. Well, I will let you have your fun, if Fili will make room for me."

"Then you mean to go south with us?" Fili asked, not daring to hope.

Betta sighed. "Yes, I will go south," she said. "I do not think that I would last long in this cold land. You may wish for the mountains, but I would like to see the trees again and feel the grass beneath my feet."

Fili smiled and rose up on his knees to kiss her. Kili made a face at them both.

That day, they made their preparations, and that night Fili told Ix their plans. The man was sorry to see his new friends leave but agreed that it was well that they did. Though the traders were not expected to arrive for several days, the next morning as Fili once more sat outside with Betta, a horn was sounded far south of the village and when they looked up, they could see horses and wagons forcing their way through the snow.

Kili ran down to be the first to investigate, but many of the Lossoth were going that way as well. It was not often that visitors came so far north.

Not ten minutes later, Kili came racing back to the hut and collapsed gasping in front of his brother. "Fili! You will not believe it," he said, laughing.

"What? What did you see?" Fili demanded, but Kili shook his head.

"You will not believe it, and so I will not tell you, but there are Dwarves among the merchants there!"

"Impossible!" Fili said, jumping to his feet and looking toward the crowd as if he thought that he could make out their faces at such a distance.

"I said you would not believe me," Kili said, sitting up. "Go and see for yourself. I will sit with our guide."

Fili hesitated, but he was too eager to know. He hurried down the road. Kili sat, still laughing and grinning wide enough that it was a marvel his face did not split in two.

"What do you laugh at?" Betta asked. "It is more than just dwarves."

"It is," Kili said. "It is Gloin!"

"Gloin? You know him?"

He nodded. "He is our cousin, a stubborn, tight-pursed fellow, but loyal in a pinch. I only wish that I could see Fili's face when they meet here in the middle of nowhere! When my brother journeyed into Northern Eriador long ago – up to that stone bridge, you remember – it was Gloin that led him. He often trades to the east and south, but I had not heard that he came so far north."

He looked up and saw that Betta's face was worried. He did not know that she was thinking of how their relationship would change when the brothers were back among their own kind, how she would be once more scorned for her race and whether Fili would forget his love when he was surrounded by Dwarf women. Kili smiled at her and assured her, "This is good news, Betta. Gloin will have to give us a place on his wagon and take us south again without charge. We are going home! And if that is not enough to lift your spirits, I have better news for you."

"What better?" she asked.

He grinned. "Among the horses of the caravan, I saw three shorter heads… Gloin has found our missing ponies!"