The Shadow over Rhudaur Part II. Intrigues and Sorcery.

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Broggha's Estate near Cameth Brin, afternoon of October 20
Written by Angmar
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Captain Griss had spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon looking for Heggr. The man had not been present for roll call that morning, and when Griss asked the other bodyguards about him, none of them had seen him. Griss paused in the hallway, thinking, and decided to go out and look around the stable area.

He paused and watched some grooms lead away the horses they had just exercised in the courtyard.

"Move back!" he heard the frantic voice of the head ostler. "Clear the way!"

Griss had barely time to jump back against the walls of the courtyard when a gigantic horse, chugging and blowing, with four grooms frantically clinging to the lines in its halter, came charging from the stable into the courtyard. Jarl Broggha's new mount had just been delivered that day, and as Griss watched the desperate struggles to control the beast, he could see what an apt name the huge beast possessed - "Destroyer."

Standing eighteen hands at the withers, weighing 2,500 pounds, it was said that it took twenty-five inches of iron to make just one shoe for the giant animal.

"He is in a foul mood today!" the ostler cried. Griss did not question that statement one bit as he sidled along the wall and made quickly for the stables. All the gold in King Tarnendur's treasuries would not be nearly enough to persuade Griss to mount that tawny devil's back.

Walking into the dark, pleasant interior of the barn, which was lighted by a few lanterns hung from hooks, Griss enjoyed hearing the sounds of the horses munching their hay and grain. He was not there that afternoon to admire the horseflesh, though. He was there to find Heggr.

"Heggr? You in here?" he shouted. Peering over the door into one unoccupied stall, he thought he saw a mound lying in the straw bedding upon the floor. He heard a slight moaning sound and opened the door and walked in.

"Heggr, you drunken fool! Is this where you have been all day?"

His answer was a snatch from a bawdy tavern song.

"Oh, I had no alarms when I tested her charms..."

"Be quiet! You're drunk!"

Through bleary eyes, Heggr looked up. "I drank only a few nips," he slurred.

Griss shook him roughly by the shoulders, but could get no sensible reply. Walking outside the stall, he spied a leather bucket and made his way to the watering trough in the courtyard. Scooping up a whole bucket of cold water, he walked back into the stable and upturned the contents on Heggr's hungover head.

"What? What?" Heggr sputtered. "You trying to freeze me? I will catch my death of cold!" His rotting teeth started chattering, one snag rapidly hitting on top the other. "Oh, my jaw!" he moaned.

Griss pulled him up by his shoulder and shook him roughly. "Sober up! I need to talk to you!"

"Please don't ever do that again, Griss! You nearly scared me to death, and now I'm freezing!" It was difficult to understand him through the chattering of his teeth.

Griss stopped shaking him and supported him by his shoulders. "You lifted a few items from the Lady Gimilbeth's rooms yesterday. What have you done with them? Did you give them to that woman you've been seeing down at the tavern?"

"Griss, I was planning to do that very thing." Heggr's whole body was shaking now. "But my teeth were killing me during the night because of the cold. I was desperate for something to ease them!"

"What does that have to do with the things you stole?"

"I opened this fine jeweled jar and found what I took to be a remedy of some kind. It was all I had, Griss! The only thing I could find. The ale and wine weren't doing me any good."

"So what did you do?"

"I - I put some of it in my mouth, hoping that green stuff would soothe my aching teeth. I never tasted anything like it in my life and spat most of it out! It tasted horrible!"

"Did it help the pain in your teeth?"

"I don't know if it did or not, Griss," Heggr was blubbering like a baby now as he held onto Griss' arms to support himself. "I drank the rest of the wine after that, and I didn't know anything until you woke me up just now. What time is it?"

"About two o'clock in the afternoon."

A look of shock and fear went over Griss' face. "Tell me you don't mean it!" He clung tighter to Griss' arms. "I missed my appointment with my lady last night! Ohhh," Heggr put his hands on his head and groaned.

"What about the lady's fluffy night dress? Do you still have that?"

"Of course, I do! Did you not hear me? I never got to see her last night!" Great tears were falling down Heggr's cheeks and drool ran from the corners of his mouth.

Griss sighed, exhaling in relief. "Good, good!"

"There is nothing good about it! I missed my appointment! She will hate me!" Then Heggr's expression brightened. "I still have the gown and the jar, and there is a little of the green goo left inside. She will be thrilled when I give it and the gown to her tonight!"

"You're giving her nothing, Heggr, nothing at all!"

"What?!" He grasped Griss' shoulders in a death grip.

"I'm confiscating them, Heggr. Someone else wants them!"

"Who, who?" Griss cried. "You have to tell me!"

"Don't ask so many questions, Heggr. Someone important wants them and you don't need to know his name. As a matter of fact, it might be dangerous for you if you did. Now tell me where they are."

"They are right over there in that sack in the corner of the stall, wrapped up in a piece of red velvet I took from the lady's room. But please, Griss, please don't take them! I had promised Fainwen that I would take her something fine, such as she had never seen before!"

Griss released Heggr and gathered up the sack in the corner and began striding towards the barn opening. Heggr, sobbing and crying, followed him and tried to wrestle the sack from his hands.

"I've taken a little too much from you today, Heggr!" Griss exclaimed angerily as he grabbed the man by the back of his tunic and the seat of his breeches and hurled him into the water fountain, much to the mirth of the stable boys. The splash startled the stallion Destroyer, and in a royal bad humor, he dragged the four protesting stable boys behind him as he tore after Heggr, who was just crawling out of the water trough.

His eyes rolling as he viciously tossed his great head back and forth, he shook the four boys loose and narrowed the distance between Heggr and himself. Heggr could feel the horse's hot breath close upon his back. He screamed in pure terror as he felt the horse's powerful teeth grip his backside. The horse began to shake him, but fortunately for Heggr, the material ripped, and he was free, with only his pride and his backside injured.

Griss looked over his back and laughed to see the stable boys scurrying about, trying to capture the horse. Griss walked away from the stable and across the King's Road and entered the alley behind the Hare and Thistle Inn near the Cameth River. A man in a nondescript brown-hooded cloak turned to face him.

"Do you have it?" the man's gravely voice asked.

"Aye, here it is." Griss extracted the sack from beneath his cloak and handed it to the man, then walked out of the alley without another look and headed back onto the road.



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Belzagar's house, Cameth Brin, late afternoon of October 20
Written by Angmar
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"My Lord Belzagar, the boy is here from the tailor with your new cloak," Authon, one of Belzagar's assistants, informed him in his private chamber.

"By all means, show the lad in!"

The boy walked in and bowed respectfully.

"Place the parcel on the table, boy. I will settle up with your employer later." He looked towards his assistant. "Authon, give the boy something for his trouble. Now, lad, go out to the antechamber and wait. I have some more work for your master."

Belzagar watched as the boy left the room. "Now, what do we have here, Authon?" Belzagar opened the sack. "A jar of some sort of green ointment, foul looking stuff!" He wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Now what is this?" He looked with interest into the sack and drew out a frothy, feminine negligee. "I never thought I would see this!" he exclaimed.

"Master, I cannot help wondering how the princess would look when she was wearing it." Authon flushed slightly.

"Neither one of us will ever have that good fortune! Now we must inspect over the garment! Look for dark hairs or flakes of skin. Hair of any other shade or color is to be thrown into the fireplace and burnt."

After a long time spent inspecting every fiber of the gown, the two men found three long black hairs.

"Those must be the princess'!" Authon exclaimed.

Belzagar dipped his quill into the ink pot and penned a letter in code. Then taking the three hairs, he tightly rolled the parchment around them and inserted the missive into a silver cylinder.

He quickly set to work writing another coded letter. "My dear tailor," it read, "see that this gown goes to the Fox, who will make certain that it travels to its appointed destination." Wrapping the gown in the velvet cloth, he put it and the letter in the sack.

"Authon, take the package now to the boy. Inform him that he is to tell his employer that my new shirt needs a repair, and he is to complete the job as soon as possible. Pry out the jewels on the ointment jar and put them in my vault. Destroy the rest of the vessel. While you are doing that, I will be up at the bird cot. One of our black messengers needs to take a flight this afternoon."

In less than an hour, the business was completed. The package containing Gimilbeth's gown was delivered into the hands of Griss, who reported its arrival to Broggha. The parcel was then transferred into the hands of one of Broggha's two messengers, who placed it in his saddle bag. No letters were to be exchanged by the receiver or sender, and only this brief, droll verbal message was to be committed to memory and delivered by the riders:

"Your Majesty, perhaps the owner of this will be reunited with it as soon as possible."


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October 19, in the woods by the road, North of Cameth Brin
Written by Rian
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Golden light, green shadows ... golden light, green shadows ...

The rich colors alternated back and forth in Caelen's weary eyes, lulling her to sleep.

Callon looked down at his sister, then caught Eryndil's eye and mouthed a "Shhh!" Eryndil nodded, and the word passed around his men to keep voices as low as possible. This was hardly necessary, as they were already travelling as quietly as possible, but every little bit helped.

Callon brushed a gentle kiss on top of his sister's head and breathed a sigh of relief. To his knowledge, Caelen hadn't slept at all the last two nights, ever since they left Eryndil's family home. The first night, she alternated pacing the floor and staring out of the window of their little room, until she saw that she was keeping Callon up. Then she lay down on her bed, but every time Callon looked over at her, she was in the same position, and he could see the glimmer of her eyes, wide open in the dark. She had managed to nap a little during their rest stops the next day, but hadn't been able to sleep last night at the Crossroads Inn, either.

"Maybe we should have just stayed at Ostinand," he mused, but really, they couldn't stay there forever, and this seemed as good as conditions as they would ever have for travelling.

Yesterday, she had ridden her mare and Callon their gelding, but today, Callon rode double with her in front of him - she was so tired that he was worried about her falling off and injuring herself.

Caelen's eyelashes fluttered momentarily, but the golden lights and green shadows lulled her back to sleep, and Callon released the breath he had been holding.

It was quiet - very quiet, and warm, with just a gentle breeze starting up.

Suddenly, the mare's ears flicked back. She turned her head slightly to one side, widening her nostrils and slowing down ever so slightly. Callon turned his head to where she was looking, careful to not jostle his sister, but he could see nothing. The mare swung her head back around and twitched her ear to shake a fly off, and Callon forgot about the incident as his sister woke up with a faint cry.

"Everything's fine, Caelie, go back to sleep," he said softly, and she smiled up at his familiar face framed by the tree branches as she drifted back to sleep.


***
That evening they made camp in a little glade surrounded by trees. Caelen walked quietly around the outskirts of the camp, unable to sleep. She had stayed with her brother until he had finally nodded off, then had slowly and carefully stood up and walked off without waking him.

She walked past several more sleeping men, as well as some awake and on guard, until she heard Eryndil's voice and peered through the darkness to see his friendly face.

"Can't sleep?" he asked. His eyes caught hers momentarily with a sympathetic look, then returned to scanning the dark woods.

"No," she said slowly. Then not wanting to appear unfriendly, she added, "I really miss your sister! She was a lot of fun."

Caelen could see the smile cross Eryndil's face at the mention of his sister, although his eyes didn't leave the woods. "Yes, you two seemed to be having a lot of fun - especially at the expense of your poor brothers!"

Caelen smiled back. "Oh, you men - you need teasing, you know, or you get too full of yourselves! That's what sisters ..."

She stopped suddenly as Eryndil placed his hand on her arm in a warning gesture. They remained quiet as Eryndil peered through the darkness, then turned to catch the eye of the guard to his right. They exchanged some signals, then Eryndil turned to Caelen.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"Oh, nothing," she said, shrugging her shoulders, not in the mood to talk anymore. She felt weary, yet restless. "Can I walk around for a bit? I just can't seem to settle down."

Eryndil looked undecided, then said reluctantly, "Just stay within my guards, and please be as quiet as you can." Caelen nodded, and Eryndil added, unable to hide his concern, "Try and get some rest after that, though - all right?"

"All right," agreed Caelen, and getting up, she started walking slowly around the camp. She let her fingers brush against the tree trunks as she walked, smelling the night air and gazing at the frosty stars twinklng down on her through the tree branches. Eryndil's eyes lingered on her for a brief moment before returning to his watch.

Caelen reached her mare and stroked the silky nose that she offered to her mistress. "Hwesta, my sweet, how are you?" Caelen crooned to her mare, and Hwesta put her head on Caelen's shoulder and nuzzled her ear. The mare's breath was warm on Caelen's face, and her familiar smell was comforting. Enjoying the sensation, Caelen felt that she might be able to get some sleep tonight after all. She reached up and scratched behind Hwesta's ear, and laughed softly as the mare arched her neck in pleasure. Finally, with a parting kiss on the mare's soft nose, Caelen quietly walked away, heading around the edge of the camp so as to not disturb the sleepers nearby.

The mare's ears suddenly flicked forward, and she stared into the woods with dilated nostrils, pulling back on her line. Caelen, hearing the mare's movement, turned her head to look at her. Hwsta threw back her head in alarm, her nostrils flaring wide, and spooked, pulling back hard against the line. As Caelen turned back to see what the mare was spooking at, suddenly everything turned into a wild mixture of movement and sounds, and something with rough fur hit her hard and knocked her over. She could hear the men yelling and the horses neighing, and suddenly it was over and the heavy weight was off of her. She sat up, blinking in confusion and breathing hard.


***

Tyaron looked over towards the girl. She was going to be fine, he could tell, although she (understandably!) looked rather confused and breathless. One of the men (brother? husband?) was attending closely to her. He turned his head back towards the captain of the group of Dunedain, who was speaking to his friend.

"Marvellous shot!" said Eryndil admiringly. "You saved her life! I thank you!"

"I wanted to stop him before he had time to get in a little taste of the meal he was going after," said Tyaron's friend Alagos, the archer responsible for the shot into the spine of the warg that had caused him to immediately lose all ability to move right in mid-jump, turning certain death for Caelen into merely bumps, bruises and a scare. He caressed his bow lovingly and looked critically at his arrow imbedded in the warg - yes, rather good shot, that ...

"How long have you been following us?" asked Eryndil, slightly miffed that they had gone undetected, even though he knew the wood-craft of elves was beyond the skill of his men, good as they were.

"Ask the mare over there," said Tyaron, the taller of the two elves, nodding his head towards Hwesta. "You sensed us this morning; didn't you, cousin?" he finished, speaking to Hwesta, who was stretching her nose out towards the two elves. Alagos smiled and went over to her, unable to resist the mare's pleading look. Hwesta half-closed her large, dark eyes in pleasure as Alagos' fingers found her favorite scratching place - that difficult-to-reach area behind her ears.

"What are you doing here?" continued Eryndil, trying to get the situation under control and gather all the information he could.

Tyaron raised an eyebrow. "And what are you doing here?" he queried in his turn.

An exasperated sound came from the direction of the mare. "Don't mind him; he gets cranky whenever I prove that I'm a better archer than he is!" Alagos said to Eryndil as he gave Hwesta a parting scratch and rejoined the group. He put a hand on Tyaron's shulder and spoke to him in a language with which Eryndil was unfamiliar, but which had a music and a depth to it that was very pleasing to his ear. A smile was finally extorted out of Tyaron, and he bowed to Eryndil in apology.

"What were we doing? We were watching," said Tyaron. "First, the wide world; then you; then the warg; then the warg watching you. And when the warg decided to stop watching you and start eating you, that's when we decided to step in."

"And for that, I thank you with all my heart," said Callon, who had joined the group, supporting a shaky Caelen. Caelen stared up at the tall elves, her eyes wide.

The elves smiled their "don't mention it!"s, their bright eyes shining in the dark.