Tolkien Fan Fiction
| 22 |
| Chapter Twenty Two |
| Lothíriel and Gallend studied each other a long while. ‘You have some questions for me, my Lady?’ Gallend finally broke the silence. Lothíriel smiled hesitantly. ‘When we were in the barn in Elbrond, you told me you wouldn’t stand by and let one you cared for have his heart broken a second time. At the time I had thought you meant Finglor, well Maglor as he really is, but you didn’t, did you. You meant Éomer. Genting explained to me part of your story when we returned to Edoras. It’s not that I have any doubts of Éomer’s love for me. I have none at all, any more than I have doubts of my love for him, but it will help me to understand him better if I am told of this part of his past. It will help me understand you better too, if you feel you can trust me with this?’ she asked. Gallend shown no emotion on hearing her request. This she discovered on greater acquaintance was usually a sign that he was thinking hard. Eventually he looked up with a wry smile and said, ‘I did think at the time I had betrayed too much and hoped you would only make the connection with Maglor. I suppose Théodred confided more in Genting than I would have liked, and I can see how you and he are very close, so I should not be so surprised.’ He went to sit down on the corner of the bench where they had left Alfrind’s body and motioned for her to take the one stool in the tent if she wished to sit. ‘My wife, Sigulla, was Leofric’s cousin. She was the only child of the last King of Dunland before Leofric himself took that title from the southern chief whose tenure was somewhat short... Leofric is the son of her father’s sister, who married the Chieftain of the Northern counties. My father had taken Sigulla as a hostage after inflicting a serious defeat on the Dunlendings over thirty years ago. She was only about five when she came to live with us and I barely noticed her presence. My relationship with my father, which was never good, had been non-existent since I was about fourteen when to prevent either of us from killing each other, Erkenbrand intervened and had me sent to Edoras to be with Théodred, my cousin. Théodred’s mother was my father’s sister. Théodred and I were roughly the same age and we became inseparable, more like brothers. I stayed away from Elbrond for almost fifteen years and only saw my father when he came to Edoras and even then, I avoided him.’ Lothíriel interrupted him. ‘Why was that? I believe I know the answer, but I would prefer to hear what you yourself believe.’ ‘What I believe although I cannot prove it, is no secret, my Lady. I am sure that my father murdered my mother. The next question is naturally why did he kill her.’ Lothíriel nodded. ‘Because he doesn’t believe you are his son,’ she suggested. ‘My hair colour alone betrayed her to him in his eyes. It was much darker as a child. I was far too Dunlending-looking for him to accept. His own mother had left his father for a Dunlending and he believed my mother to have had a lover before she was forced to marry him. I do not know if she did or she didn’t, I do not care. She was so kind and gentle, and he such a brute. I truly hope she had found love with someone else. But there was no doubt that she did try to leave him, and she was found with a man from Dunland on her way there. Found dead, stabbed brutally with such ferocity it could only have been personal. The man found with her had only one fatal wound and one defensive wound. I know this because it was me who found them.’ Gallend said almost flippantly, but his tone changed rapidly, betraying the deep emotions he was trying so hard to mask. ‘I will confess to you now, my Lady, had Genting and Trondig not been with me when I arrested him, I am not sure I could have controlled myself enough not to have killed him then and there. I tried to kill him when I came back having discovered her body and I might have succeeded had Erkenbrand not prevented me. My uncle forcibly strapped me to a horse and took me himself to Edoras to place me under Théoden’s care. But of his treason to the King, I have incontrovertible proof and I will be there when they execute him for it, and gladly,’ he said through gritted teeth, his fists rolled tight, his eyes flashing with a deep fire of vengeance. Lothíriel stood up to calmly put a hand on his arm in sympathy. ‘And I will be with there with you if I can be.’ He looked touched but simply nodded and continued his story. ‘I first met Éomer when he was a withdrawn, gawky twelve-year-old, all arms and legs, very mature for his age though, almost taller than me already. Poor lad. It broke Théodred’s heart that he felt he should have been able to save his mother after his father had been killed. He had the burden of the world on his shoulders. Together we loved him and did all we could to erase the sadness from him. He came everywhere with us despite his young age.’ Gallend smiled at the memory of those days. ‘He must have been about seventeen when he joined me and Théodred for an extended visit to Elbrond. I was now Théodred’s second in command of the West-mark and therefore had to accompany him. Reluctantly I turned up in Elbrond about three weeks after Théodred and Éomer, as Théodred had thoughtfully sent me to The Wold on business to lessen my stay in Elbrond.’ He paused to collect himself before continuing. ‘I had no idea that during those three weeks, Éomer had fallen in love for the first time.’ He noted that a surprised Lothíriel had looked at him questioningly. ‘Ah, you know the story of him and Frea perhaps, or at least you think you do. I say the first time, as his escapade with his cousin was fully instigated by her, the little minx, I suspect to avoid being married off to Théodred, a fate he dreaded as much as she did! Éomer had always been fond of her as children and as a naïve boy on the cusp of manhood as he was, and she being so mightily attractive as she undoubtedly still is, you could only expect him to be a willing, if unwitting, participant to her game! But he was a child then, it was not the same in Elbrond. No, he was truly in love with Sigulla, and she did confess to me later that had I not shown up, she would have happily married Éomer had that been allowed. But I did arrive in Elbrond, and everything changed.’ He shifted from the bench and began to pace the room. ‘When I left Elbrond after Mother was killed, Sigulla had still been a child, now she was a truly beautiful woman of twenty. I was utterly dumbstruck when I saw her. The repercussions of that moment were catastrophic. I should have had more control of myself not to display such emotion so openly. She couldn’t hide her attraction to me either. The way we looked at each other when I rode in the courtyard to be greeted by Théodred, Éomer and my father was open for all to see. I was oblivious to anything else but her. I missed the look of desperate concern on Éomer’s face, which would have made me realise he too had fallen in love with her; I missed the spasm of pain on Théodred’s face which might have forced me to accept what already I knew deep down, that his love for me was not quite the same as mine for him; and I missed the look of outright hatred in my father’s face at the prospect of his heir falling in love with a Dunlending. All of this I saw but didn’t see.’ He shook his head at his wilful naivety and closed his eyes in annoyance at his stupidity. ‘She was due to be sent back to her people as soon as she became of age and married off to a man not of her choosing. Lothíriel, she had grown up as one of us, she barely knew Dunland, she was terrified at the prospect. She was to be returned in a few months’ time and another young hostage sent to replace her, but as our love became openly expressed between us, I feared that my father would have other plans for her. Within a week, we had eloped. I left Théodred a long letter explaining that I believed my father would have her killed on her way back to Dunland and I had to take her back there myself. I told him we would marry and to keep her safe I would settle in Dunland, but I would ever be his friend and true to Rohan. I would like to say that I took this course of action without knowing how much it would hurt both Éomer and Théodred, but I have no such excuse. Within only a few days Théodred had come to me to warn me of Éomer’s feelings for Sigulla and how she had openly encouraged him. This I knew, she had already told me that she feared she had done him wrong, however inadvertently, and that he would be hurt. She cared for him greatly, as did I, but our passion was too intense for us to deny. Even more painfully Théodred finally confessed his love for me. He had always thought that I was not interested in women as he had never seen me pursuing any. Well, even then I was adept at hiding my private life and as I suspected that Théodred preferred the company of men, out of respect to him I conducted my affairs discreetly, in front of him at least. And then he tried to kiss me, to convince me that I could love him in that way. To my shame I’m afraid I did not react well. He had caught me completely off guard... Sigulla and I eloped the next day. I don’t think Éomer has ever forgiven me and I don’t blame him. He had to pick up the pieces of Théodred’s rejection as well as his own. Théodred had taken it far worse than I had ever thought possible or intended. He was already struggling with what he was. My insensitivity was unconscionable.’ Gallend sighed in deep regret. Lothíriel took up the tale. ‘Only you didn’t take her back to Dunland, you took her to the cottage in Fangorn close to Isengard. I had cause to rummage around. There were signs that a woman had lived there with you, and a child, a daughter. I am sorry to pry. I asked you only to tell of Éomer’s part in this story, but there is more. Genting told me that Théodred and Éomer were blamed for failing to protect her, which he knew was not true. They did everything they could to reach you in time, but they had been betrayed in the intelligence they received and arrived too late. Genting was with them, I don’t know if you knew that. He told me that he first realised how much he loved Théodred when he saw his grief at the loss you had suffered and his guilt at not reaching you in time to save her for you.’ Gallend was struggling to keep his emotions in check. He laughed to relieve the tension, ‘Yes indeed, Finglor, oh dammit, Maglor, bellowed with laughter at the idea that you had gone off to the nearest village to buy supplies to cook for us and the men. It seems your cooking skills, or lack of them, are legendary. I have never seen him laugh like that. Well played. I had noticed that you must have gone through some cupboards and found those things I could not bring myself to throw away. We hid there for five years, five amazing, glorious years. Sigulla wrote to her father begging him to understand. I wrote again to Théodred and my uncles, Erkenbrand, Wulfran and King Théoden. I knew there was no point in writing to my father. All correspondence was through strategic villages in Dunland to keep our location a secret. It was on one such mission that I met Maglor. He had been observing us since we took up residence in the forest. He knew exactly who we were of course. He had seen the lengths I went to to protect us and decided I could be useful. Which I most certainly was. I was born for this role. I became his eyes in southern Dunland, even though we never lived there. But then news came to us that Sigulla’s father was sick and likely to die. She begged me if I would let her see him with his only grandchildren, our two daughters, to say goodbye. I should have known. I should have known that my father had spies in her father’s court, and I should have realised he would send men to kill us. I accompanied her and the children of course, and we were able to receive her father’s forgiveness and blessing. It meant everything to her. We met her cousin Leofric, whom I liked instantly and trust to this day. He was not expected to become Chieftain of the northern shires. He had a less sophisticated, violent-tempered elder brother, Aefric, and it was Aefric my father manipulated through his spies to threaten us. We stayed almost a month as the old king was failing but Leofric warned us urgently to leave before the King died. Aefric had already inherited the northern shires and was one of the contenders for the kingship. We left immediately by routes they would not have expected us to take, which proved unnecessary as Aefric already knew where he would find us. Our eldest daughter was almost five, such a bright little thing, she looked just like her mother but with my reddish hair. She was always too trusting; she was only a child. We should never have let her out of our sight. Leofric found out later that one of my father’s spies had pretended to play with her and she had told him enough of where we lived for my father to find our hideaway in Fangorn while we were in Dunland. And my father had this spy pass on to Aefric instructions where to find us if he failed to kill us on our way back. You see, Sigulla shouldn’t even have been travelling. She was heavily with child, and this had been the cause of her cousin’s determination to eliminate us. My father’s spies had persuaded Aefric that were it to be a boy, my son would be considered the rightful heir in his stead. I cannot forgive myself for my lack of foresight. We never had any intention of even living in Dunland. I think Maglor had a suspicion of the risk I had put us in. Before leaving Fangorn for Dunland I had sent word to Maglor in the North that we would visit the dying King, having been assured of our protection, but he was with you in Dol Amroth, as I found out later and the message took some time to reach him. It was only because he was riding Maela that he was able to reach us as we were attacked, just not in time to save my family. He slew Aefric himself and most of those with him. I managed only a modest few, but my family were gone. There had been too many of them for me. You should know, Lothíriel, that this is the reason Maglor was not with you that evening when Vandan was killed. He had been watching over you from afar with increasing concern, but as soon as he received word I had gone to Dunland with Sigulla, he left fearing the worst. He, at least, had an astute understanding of Aefric’s temperament. Théodred and Éomer arrived many hours later, even though they could easily have reached us in time had they been properly directed by my father’s men. Maglor convinced me that I could be more effective in seeking my revenge were I to pretend to blame them both, to let my father think he had succeeded in destroying me, and my friendship with Théodred. Maglor felt it might stop him from trying to kill me. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, knowing how much pain I caused both Théodred and Éomer a second time. Éomer’s distress at losing Sigulla was as deep as my own. To play the part of hating him for it… well, you can imagine. That I was able to make amends with Théodred before he died saved me from a lifetime of regret. Genting has been aware of my activities for years, but Éomer, he is too straightforward and disinclined to deceit. The three of us decided to keep him out of this. So now, you know.’ He ended the tale of his past, before adding with determination, ‘Maglor has told me most of the plan for Sennebar. I will be coming with you, as I know that Éomer cannot and I have promised him I will bring you back. I must bring you back. It is the only thing I can do to make amends for the hurt I have caused him. He is my brother, he is my King, and you will be his Queen.’ |