A/N: Translations are in the footnotes!
Chapter 9
Kili enjoyed nothing better than a Shire banquet hosted by hobbits. While the feast in this Westfarthing barn could not rival that infamous Dwarf Raid on Bag End so many years ago, the ham and bacon were definitely up to snuff. There were no Dwarf songs to stir their hearts, but hobbit chatter and the inevitable toasting songs of Merry and Pippin did the job.
Even Elladan laughed and banged ale flagons with Kili this evening.
But as all meals come to an end, platters were emptied. Tuilind and Yanu returned to their tasks, tending the wounded man Kenelm and making random patrols of the area. Gunz served as steward to clear the dinnerware, refill flagons, and then leave the three hobbits with Kili, Elladan, and Halden as they shared pipeweed and leaned back to savor their ale along with fine Longbottom Leaf.
Kili saw Halden raise his flagon in salute.
"This is a hearty dinner, my friends," Halden said. "I thank you. It makes me regret that I leave before the sun rises."
"There is foodstuff packed for you take along," Sam replied, using his pipe to point toward the makeshift kitchen.
"My thanks, Mr. Gamgee."
"Is before dawn really necessary?" Merry asked.
"Yes. I would prefer early breakfast first," Pippin grinned. "Though second breakfast on the road is acceptable."
"With regret," Halden said. "I can not allow you to travel with us. We are heading into the wilds beyond the borders of the Shire."
Kili saw Pippin and Merry look at each other.
"Of course we're going," Merry said, turning back to the group. "Since that's where our quarry is hiding."
Elladan cleared his throat. "Our Lord Dunedain is correct. This is not a mission for Shire folk."
Merry and Pippin looked at Sam (who ignored them by lifting his ale for a drink), then at Kili.
Kili knew they wanted him to support their cause, but he kept his expression still as stone.
He saw Merry fold his arms across his chest. "I don't see why you're all being so stubborn," the hobbit said.
Pippin sat taller as if refusing to give up hope. "And you'll be needing seasoned members of the Fellowship along…"
Sam put his mug down with a thump. "If Mr. Gandalf were still here, he'd tell you to find some sense."
Kili could see that Pippin wasn't backing down. "We," Pippin said, putting one hand to his chest, fingers splayed. "Are talking about the defense of the Shire." He nodded as if this changed everything. "Is that not why Gandalf sent us home?"
Silence.
Kili looked at Pippin, not without sympathy. "But," he said as gently as he could. "In this, I think, my Lord Took…yours is the Erebor role."
Kili saw everyone at the table turn to look at him.
Merry's brows were drawn together. "Erebor…?"
"…Stayed home," Kili said. "During the War of the Ring. As much as we wanted to ride out and join the battles, we had agreed to stay put and hard as it was, we did."
Pippin looked from Kili to Merry, then back to Kili. "I don't understand."
It was Sam who answered. "I do." He paused to take a puff on his pipe. After a moment, he went on. "Sauron always wondered if the Ring was in the dragon hoard. As long as he thought it was really in Erebor, he didn't suspect the Shire."
Halden spoke up. "And he looked in the Shire, as you well know…and didn't find it."
Kili nodded. "When Erebor stayed home, it increased his suspicion that my brother guarded it. We, too saw black riders on our lands that autumn."
Elladan looked at the hobbits. "That allowed Frodo and Sam," he nodded to Sam. "To make it to Bree…"
From there, they all knew, Aragorn had guarded them in that desperate flight to Rivendell.
"From then on, Sauron was guessing," Halden said. "Was it in Erebor? Rivendell? Orthanc? Who had it?"
Kili nodded. "And all the while we sat tight in Erebor, warding it with the deep magic of Durin's folk…far older than that of Sauron."
Elladan nodded. "Sauron sensed it and it made him uncertain. We elves knew he tried many ways to infiltrate Erebor in hopes of controlling those inside." He nodded at Kili. "My father was not unaware of your struggles to prevent that."
Kili and Elladan regarded each other. No one needs to know that it was me he tried to control… Kili thought. And I for one am glad he did not succeed.
Elladan nodded to him, hand on heart. "Durin's folk knew they must endure."
Kili returned the gesture. We did at that.
Sam pinned his fellow hobbits with a stern eye. "So you stay home and we pretend nothing is going on."
Halden nodded. "Yes. The dwarves will stay west of the Lune as if making a routine circuit of their borders, the Dunedain will ride back to Arnor…and you hobbits carry on like nothing has happened." He looked at the faces around the table. "This ruse of normalcy will embolden Shadowback into moving forward."
"…And fall into our trap," Kili smiled.
Pippin looked unhappy and shook his curly head. "Unless we have a palantir no one knows about, we'll never manage things on opposite sides of the river."
Next to him, Merry fidgeted with his pipe. "We don't need a palantir, Pip."
Pippin raised an eyebrow, obviously trying to work out Merry's meaning.
Sam smiled. "Because we," he said. "Have two dwarves who are Sons of Durin."
Gunnar was born a Prince of Erebor. He was born into in the bloodline of Durin, and while he would never rule as King in his father's place (Mahal willing,) he had already endeavored to follow his Lady Grandmother's footsteps in the ways of the stonespellers.
He could sense old magic in the stone of Middle Earth—even in the gravel under his boots in this Shire barnyard as he followed Tuilind the Elf to his Uncle's tent.
"My lord?" Tuilind's voice was quiet at the tent flap to the King's makeshift quarters.
"Come!"
She held back the tent flap and Gunnar stepped inside with respect, hand on heart. Inside, embers burned in a hanging brazier, and his Uncle Kili, bent over a table with a map, looked up. In the corner, Corax grumbled from his roost on a piece of dead wood.
His uncle stood straight and nodded for Tuilind to leave them. She bowed and ducked out of the tent.
Gunz stood silent. He trusted his uncle and was patient.
"Gunnar. You will not be returning to Ered Luin with me..." Kili paused.
Gunz couldn't help looking up in alarm. What? Leaving me behind…?
"I am sending you east," his uncle said. "With the Dunedain."
Gunz blinked at this unexpected news as his uncle continued. "I will keep Ered Luin's forces on the west bank of the river.''
Gunz's mind whirled. The Dunedain? "Why...?" he began, then stopped.
His uncle smiled (sadly, Gunz thought) and stepped slowly closer. "Because you are a Son of Durin, lad," he said.
For the briefest moment, Gunz wavered—as if he wanted to fold his arms and demand he stay with his Uncle.
But he did not. Something in his Durin blood was solid in his core and bade him wait.
Kili took a deep breath. "These creatures we track are not unknown to us," he said in his deep, quiet voice. "You know there is an alliance of dwarves, elves, men, and hobbits seeking to track them and put an end to this incursion before summer. What you do not know," he paused. "And will keep secret," he emphasized. "Is that our Lord Aragorn is making a royal visit to his northern lands at midsummer…"
Gunz met his Uncle's gaze at this news. He understood now. This was what had brought Kili out of Khelethur.
"But these old remnants of Saruman are scattered. It takes too long for us to share news of them. They strike and flee and hide, and we can only track them."
Gunz took a deep breath and rocked back a bit. "You send me as ravenspeaker," he guessed. That was the logical solution to coordinating the search.
He was rewarded with his uncle's mischievous smile. "Yes," he confirmed.
Gunz didn't quite know what else to say. The silence seemed to stretch, and then his uncle reached out and put one hand on his shoulder.
"You will be well guarded," he finally murmured. "You are good with your weapons. The ravens know you."
Gunz nodded, blinking.
Then his uncle slowly pulled him into a familiar embrace, cupped his jaw, and leaned forward to touch foreheads.
"I have known you all your life," he said in a whisper. "My trust rides with you, Gunnar of Erebor. You are a little unsteady...I recognize this. But I also trust your skill and talent, and everything that you are, Son of Durin."
Am I worthy of this trust? Gunz wondered…and looked down.
"Stand tall with the Dunedain, Gunnar," his uncle went on. "Focus on the task. When you see your father again—you will be warrior to warrior."
Gunnar looked up sharply at this, and they looked at each other, nephew and uncle. Eye to eye, silent and still.
My father… Gunnar felt that horrible hollowness yet again at the memory his father, completely unreachable and remote. He wanted to step back.
But his uncle's hand stayed firm on his shoulder. "The Dunedain will travel hard and fight harder. Learn to fight alongside them." Then he let his voice go deeper.
"Endure...and find your way, Gunnar."
Gunz was still for several long moments. He understood this was a directive from a King to a Prince. And what good was being a Prince if he could not do his part? He nodded. "Sugùl ma, uncle."
Kili smiled.
Then they both heard new voices outside, touched foreheads again in the time-honored Durin way, and stepped apart.
"Come!" Kili called again.
Tuilind was back, holding the tent flap aside as a tall, rugged Dunedain ducked inside. Gunnar stepped out of the way, standing to the side of his uncle, as a page would do.
"Halden of the Dunedain," Gunz heard Kili greeting the man. Dunedain and Dwarf King nodded to each other, hands on hearts. "How is your man, Kenelm?"
"He will live. Our Lord Elladan has tended him."
"That is happy news," Kili nodded.
"We will leave in the morning," Halden said. "Make for the North Moors."
Gunz felt his uncle's hand on his shoulder again. "This is the son of my brother Fili, King of Erebor."
Gunnar made a hand-on-heart bow. "Gunnar…at your service."
The man returned the hand-on-heart gesture.
"He is honored to serve beside you," his uncle announced. "As warrior and ravenspeaker."
Zêl, guard-tutor to the Princess Iri, stood patiently behind the princess in her study, hands folded in front of her. I can almost see fine wisps of smoke rising from the young lass's sunny curls, she thought.
Granted, Zêl admitted, this calculation is a real challenge. And indeed she herself had been brooding about this for hours (and nights) during the last days.
Old tomes from Erebor's library lay piled up on the big desk, along with loose parchments with endless columns of figures and half-spread scrolls. Zêl was always impressed by the calculations of the ancient scholars of Erebor and the knowledge behind them. All the more, she had set herself to take over the task of treasuring this knowledge and passing it on to the next generation.
Iri stood in front of a large slate wall and had already covered it with long rows of formulas and endless columns of numbers. As so often when she was pondering a truly difficult calculations, she held the piece of chalk she used for writing and tapped her nose, leaving it powdered slightly white.
"Well?" Zêl asked.
"So..." Iri traced several long columns of numbers on slate wall, using the chalk as a pointer. Finally she drew a line under the calculation and added her result.
Zêl tilted her head (she'd make the same mistake at the beginning of her own calculations—the missing detail was really damn easily to overlook. No point in mentioning this.) ''So when will the next lunar eclipse take place?'' she asked.
Iri frowned, looked at her calculations again, then lowered her hand with the chalk. '' It takes place in the night. sixteen days before midsummer's eve—but it will be partial, six and a half tenths, '' Iri said and her frown smoothed out slightly.
Zêl stepped forward and stood next to Iri. "You are very close," she said calmly, pointing at a column of numbers on the left edge of the board with her hand. They had transferred those from one of the oldest scrolls. ''See ... here.''
''Gah.'' Iri stared at the corresponding numbers, then hung her head and the hand holding the chalk smacked her forehead, leaving more white marks on her face. "Of course," she exclaimed, and picking up the cloth on the tray, she wiped out the result and made a revision. ''This is a year of correction, otherwise the calendar does not work. The eclipse takes place a day later!" She turned to her teacher with a pleased expression.
''Exactly!'' Zêl beamed. ''And now check the numbers again, thoroughly.''
Iri looked confused. ''What ...?'' Closely she studied all the steps that covered the slate wall until she caught sight of the column with the numbers for the sun's position. Her eyes widened. ''The nodes...,'' Iri whispered. ''It's a pair. Moon and Sun orbit in a way that pass two consecutive nodes at the same time. Two weeks later a solar eclipse will take place!''
Zêl felt a profound joy about the fruits of her intensive lessons with the daughter of her King. The lass was a swift shieldmaid and skilled with her sword, but equally effortlessly her sharp mind saw through the complicated processes of the Celestial Apparitions. King Fili was justifiably proud of his older daughter.
''Yes,'' Zêl smiled widely. ''Very good!''
Iri set down the chalk and from the young Princess' expression Zêl could tell that the lass was thoroughly reconsidering this extraordinary phenomenon. ''That's really remarkable," Iri murmured. "And given the cryptic message he sent at the last eclipse, who knows what Thranduil will make of it this time."
Zêl nodded and involuntarily grimaced. She didn't sympathize with people who were scenting obscure omens from a natural phenomenon, or worse, using it as a justification to provoke quarrels, war, and resentment. Or (in the Elf-King's case) worrying the neighbors with unintelligible clues. And she especially made no pretense of her opinion about the esoteric Elves.
"That was also my thinking," she grumbled. ''Do you know—it's said that moon runes, no matter at what phase of the moon or time of the year they were written, are always revealed during a partial eclipse that belongs to a pair? Our dear friend Thranduil will go mad from this. Superstitions will be breeding all over Middle-earth." She shook her head.
"And it's almost midsummer," Iri added.
''What happens at midsummer?''
A new voice made them both turn to look at Fili striding into the room. Zêl bowed her head politely, hand on heart. The sight of her King immediately released her grudge on superstitious individuals, and she smiled to herself. It warmed her heart to see him doing better in the last few days. He seemed 'lighter' and some springiness was in his steps again.
Fili looked at Iri's work on the slate wall. ''Another lunar eclipse?" He guessed. ''Very nice.''
Iri grinned. ''Da! You recognize the Útreikningur?"
Zêl watched the warm smile spread across Fili's face. ''Of course,'' he said. "Balin used to do them. In regards to the moon, of course."
Fili held out an arm out to Iri for a quick embrace. Zêl folded her hands and stepped aside.
"You," Iri said, leaning back to look at him. "Have been ravenspeaking again this morning?" She smiled, plucking a small black feather from the trim on his collar. She took the feather and added it to the end of one of her braids.
''And you, my child," Fili smirked and wiped chalk dust from Iri's nose with his thumb. ''Have performed very complicated calculations again.'' Then he became solemn. "Raven from your uncle," Fili said. "With another update about your brother. Apparently they have both left Khelethur and are patrolling along the Lune.''
Zêl glanced at her king first, then to Iri. Neither spoke. She waited to see if Fili would add any more detail about the why of this, why King Kili and Prince Gunnar of Erebor had left the Blue Mountains, but he didn't say much more. "Besides," he added, "I'm way too late for the sword training with the cadets." He quickly planted a kiss on his daughter's forehead, nodded to Zêl, and then he rushed out of the room again. ''Keep up the good work," he called as he walked.
Iri watched him go. ''What do you think that is about?''
Zêl frowned. She had no inclination to speculate. The fact that Gunnar had stayed in Ered Luin for so long burdened the Royal Family and she did not want to add fuel to the fire. ''I can't say… Maybe we'll learn more when your brother finally returns. Come on, let's add the path of the eclipse to the map.'' Lost in thought, Iri nodded and stepped in front of a large map on the wall, showing the lunar orbits.
As Zêl set Iri to chart the path of the solar eclipse, she noticed three mistakes in the first three minutes of Iri's work, but said nothing, recognizing Iri's distraction and allowing the lass to find and correct her own errors. When her brother Gunz was mentioned, the lass' focus was done.
"We will not be able to see that one here in Erebor," Iri said sadly. ''Pity, it runs from the southwest coast of Eriador through the Shire, and then north into Arnor.''
''That's right.'' Zêl also regretted not seeing this event. Eriador… she had never traveled there. And Arnor...and old land of deep knowledge, that was for sure. But the thought of that old realm of men made her stomach lurch.
At the sound of three strikes on the King's bell, they both turned. Zel recognized the bell as the official royal summons.
"Come!" Iri called out.
''Princess Iri?'' The doors swung open. One of Fili's personal chamberlains entered the room and made a deep bow, his hand on his heart.
''Yes, Lord Chamberlain?'' Iri turned to the gray-haired dwarf, who wore a plethora of intricate braids in his long gray beard.
"The King requests your presence in his Hall, my Lady. An envoy has arrived." With that, the chamberlain withdraws.
Zêl understood. Such a request did not allow any delay. Not even for the elder daughter of the King. Hastily she looked left and right — where did Iri leave her cloak? Iri grabbed it from a chair and Zêl took it, shaking it out and then carefully draping it around the lass' shoulders and fluffing the wide fur collar. They both knew that it did not matter that she was wearing trousers underneath.
Zêl turned to the door, but Iri did not follow. Zêl frowned. Keeping the King waiting was not an option.
"Wait!" Iri called, opening three drawers at her desk and finally finding a silver hair clip stashed there for such need. She handed it to Zêl.
Zêl rolled her eyes, but quickly walked back, gathered some of the princess's braids, coiled them into an elaborate knot and fixed it with the clasp. She nodded in satisfaction. "Quick now, princess," she said, taking Iri's arm and ushering her to the door, down a corridor, and into the King's chamber. A warrior could appear in ragged armor before the king, but a princess? No.
Together, they entered the hall just in time to see the envoy, dressed in a black robe, kneeling before Fili, King of Erebor. Iri proceeded calmly and with a straight back. As Iri stopped beside her father, they head Fili's voice.
''Welcome to Erebor, Cuindel of Gondor.''
Zêl stopped dead in her tracks. She had somehow assumed the envoy would be elven, delivering yet another enigmatic message from King Thranduil.
But that was…A man of Gondor!
She forced herself to stand still, hoping with all her heart to avoid notice even though she would rather turn around and flee into the depths of her Princesses' rooms.
Translations:
Sugùl ma = yes, no question. (source: the Dwarrow Scholar)
Útreikningur = mathematical calculation (based on Icelandic)
A/N: THANK YOU for reading and apologies that it's been awhile since the last chapter. I do have a full-time day job...and there's another BIG PROJECT I've been working on...announcement about that will be soon! A huge shout out to Jessie152, who is writing the Zêl point-of-view scenes in this story (based on my bare-bones sketches.) She's also translating this story and simul-posting on the site in German. An extra shout-out to AstroChief, who double-checked Iri's conclusions to be sure they were in line with actual astronomical phenomena. Yay!
And a third shout-out to Nenithiel, who met up with me at San Diego Comic-Con for The One program about their history as a fan site-we were lucky to see the amazing Sir Richard Taylor (WETA) talking about the night he won his first two Academy Awards for FotR. What a gentleman. Also...news of the new Second Age LotR series on Amazon Prime is coming out in tiny bits...very interested in this and I hope it revives the fandom a bit!
As always, please drop a quick note and let me know that you're reading along. And apologies for the long time between chapters.
Hand on heart to you,
Summer
