A/N: Thank you everybody who left a word or two on last chapter, you make all the effort worth it!
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"Siggie! Siggie!"
Sigrid hurried to open the bedchamber door, dizzy from sleep.
"Hush, what…" Her sister's red eyes left no doubt there was trouble, and woke her to full awareness faster than a blast of a horn of Rohan could do. "Come in, the baby is asleep."
Tilda rushed in and into her sister's arms, sobbing like a child.
"Hush, Tilda, what's going on? What happened?"
"Siggie, it's terrible, it's so terrible, Siggie!"
"Calm down, calm down… Sit here with me and tell me what's so terrible, will ya?"
Hushing her sister like she did when they were children and their mother was no more, Sigrid brought Tilda to her bed and made her to sit. Rocking her back and forth and humming an old song, the older sister slowly made the younger one calm enough to speak.
"Siggie, I want to die!"
"No, this I'm sure you don't. Now, tell me what happened."
"Nothing happened, not yet, but I will… No, I cannot, I cannot…"
"Cannot what, Til?"
"I cannot marry! Not him!"
"What?"
"I don1t want to marry that man in a fortnight, Siggie, Da cannot be doing this to me!"
"What man? Tilda, breath, breath, breath again and then you tell me, I cannot understand what you're talking about!"
Tilda did as she was told to, slowly recovering the ability to talk coherently.
"Da wants to marry me to an old man. I overheard him talking to Bain, he didn't tell me yet because the man is so old Da didn't know if he'd make it to Dale, but he did. Now this man in here and Da wants me to marry him in a fortnight!"
Sigrid frowned at the absurd of Tilda's revelations.
"An old man? Who's this old man, Tilda, for heaven's sake?"
Tilda noticed she didn't have a plain answer to this.
"I don't know! Da and Bain just talked about him, Da said everything was prepared, mentioned he's rich, but I couldn't get a name. But he's old, Sigrid, he's so very old! I respect elderly people, you know, but I don't want to marry one! I can even get old along my husband, but not have a decrepit man to begin with! It's not fair!"
Sigrid took a swaddle to wipe the fresh outburst of tears.
"How do you know he's old if you don't even know who this man is?"
"Da told it. Bain Asked how old the man is and Da said he's eighty-eight. This is almost ninety, Sigrid, this is old, on any account!"
"Oh, Tilda!" Sigrid could only embrace her sister and pity her. Her marriage arrangement to Dunwine had been almost in the dark, but he had come to live in Dale and serve in her father's guard for a year before they wed. Now, what was planned for Tilda…
"I wanna die, Siggie, what else could I do?"
Sigrid rocked her sister back and forth again, trying to find some comforting words or an idea to save her from such a terrible fate.
"Maybe his age can be an advantage, Tilda; he'll probably die in a few years and…"
The sobbing grew stronger, making it clear the idea was not a good one. Maybe a dirtier one…
"Perhaps you can maintain a façade with him and have an affair with someone younger, maybe even a son of his."
"Sigrid! This would be cheating!" Even abhorring the idea of marrying that man, the idea of betrayal was not an acceptable one. "And it would more likely be a grandson, considering his age. Anyway, he doesn't have sons, it's his first marriage."
Sigrid found it strange.
"First marriage at this age? What's wrong with this man?"
"Everything! Everything is wrong with this man, and I will not marry him!"
For the first time Tilda was having an assertive posture, and Sigrid hoped it put the idea of wanting to die well away from her sister's mind.
"So, this is decided and I completely agree. Now what will we do?"
Swift as it came, Tilda's boldness left.
"Ah… What… What will we do, Siggie? What will I do?" Tears found their way back to her eyes. "If I only could escape this fate…"
"Escape…" Sigrid repeated the word, eyes far away, thinking. "Escape…" She suddenly lifted her head. "Tilda, I think you can escape! I'm not sure it's still possible, but I think I know of a way for you to escape!"
"What? How?"
Hope was in their voices again as Sigrid explained her plan to Tilda.
"When me and Dunwine were engaged, after some months we begun to want to meet more time than it was allowed by custom. You know Dale was being rebuilt, but there were still several gaps and holes in the walls. We found one of those passageways that none had fixed yet, and we used it to go outside Dale and… well, there's a chance the hole is still there."
Tilda's eyes shone with hope.
"Aye, it may! People are working more on repairing houses and workshops and silos than worrying about the walls, at least since that last raid two years before you wed, when the ravens gave alarm and the orcs were dead before they reached the outskirts of the Mountain, do you remember?"
"Aye, I do! And this is your hope!" Her mind raced. "I have a saddlebag here with Sigwine's things. I'll empty it so you can put some food and clothes. Don't forget some tools like a fire kit and a knife, and a sleeping roll. Our horses are outside, they don't stand stone stables like we have here, I'll go outside with you, I introduced you to my horse already, didn't I?"
"Aye, that big hazelnut one, isn't it?"
"That's it. Broda will take you anywhere you want to and never let you fall, I assure you. What makes me wonder…"
"What?"
"Where will you go to?"
Tilda's eyes lost a bit of their light at the question.
"Where do you live?"
"In Gondor, but I can't hide you there, Da would find out."
"Dorvinion has commerce with us, this rules it out; Rohan has good relations, too. I don't know where else, Sigrid, what do you think?"
"Hmm. There are towns more to the south than Gondor, and from Rohan you can take the old Green Way north and reach Bree, it's a place with all kind of folk. But all these places are too far away, I don't know how far you'd be able to go on your own, Tilda."
What little light her eyes held was soon lost, but she refused to give up hope.
"The Halfling came from far away, too…"
"Aye, further than Bree."
"The elves of the forest would send me back as soon as I set foot there."
"Long time commercial fellows. With the dwarves of the Iron Hills there's no hope, their chieftain is Thorin's cousin, and Thorin is…"
"… Ass and pants with Da, I know. Maybe… Maybe the wood people, those who live between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains?"
"This is closer, aye. They're a rude people, I've heard."
"Any rude woodsman will be better than an eighty-eight years old parchment skinned fellow, I deem."
Sigrid looked into Tilda's eyes and saw resolution there.
"So be it. Go fetch your things, I'll find some traveling food, then I'll find you at your rooms, in one hour."
-xxx-
All colour left Kíli1s face in a blink.
"My… what?"
"Your coronation. Your crowning."
"No, the other part! Thorin, what did you say?"
His voice was really angry, leaving no doubt he understood the words quite well.
"The new king of the Blue Mountains is expected to wed a princess of one of our most important allied realms. Just like the new king of Erebor will wed the daughter of the Chieftain of the Iron Hills."
"Uncle, I don't think it was a wise move…" Fíli tried to reason, but Kíli was outraged.
"Expected to wed? You never wed! Why should I…"
"The Council imposed it…"
"To Mordor with the Council! I will not wed! There was only one woman in this world I'd wed, and she lies in our very catacombs!"
Kíli left the studio banging the door behind him, leaving behind a brother that understood him and an uncle that did his best. But politics could easily go beyond the best one was able to do.
"Would… would you be able to talk to him?" Asked Thorin, almost begging with his eyes. Fíli ignored the look with a humpf.
"Now? Now that you pulled his heart out with a spoon and hit it with a flaming hammer?"
"Fíli, the whole Council agrees it will be better for Kíli if he has someone beside him when he takes on the whole responsibilities of kingship, someone to share his anguishes, to ease his worries… It's been ten years, it's time for him to move on!"
"Is it?" Fíli questioned, scowling. "What do you know, or, in this case, what does the Council know about losing someone the way he did? Has anyone of them married after losing his One?"
"Not all royalty marries out of love, Fíli. You know it."
"Aye, I know, in theory. But Amad married out of love, I am marrying out of love, why do you think Kíli – Kíli, of all dwarves you know – will accept to marry out of… of… politics?"
The blond prince all but spat the last word and left the studio banging the door behind him.
Thorin bowed his head and run his fingers through his hair.
Someone would have to fix those hinges soon, probably.