Where the stars are strange

“I have crossed many mountains and many rivers and trodden many plains even into the far countries of Rhûn and Harad where the stars are strange.” Aragorn

Chapter 9

In the morning, Eldarion leapt onto his horse, and helped Inzilbêth up. She thanked him, and then lapsed into silence. He guessed that she was just about as confused at the churning thoughts as he was. What the hell had he been thinking? And what happened now?

He sat moodily on his horse, barely taking stock of anything around him. A scout part rode past, sending up a cloud of dust. He was brought back to reality by Inzilbêth coughing. Reaching into the saddle bags, he pulled out one of the precious few water bottles.

He handed her the water and she drank deeply. As she handed it back, their hands touched. She looked at him with soulful dark eyes.

“They told me your people were evil,” she whispered. “And I believed them.”

Eldarion was staring into her serious face. “What did they say?”

She closed her eyes. “That you were coming south to our lands to take them. To take what is not rightfully yours. You were not satisfied to drive us into the desert, but always wanting more, fuelled by greed.”

“And now?” said Eldarion.

Her voice was soft. “Ever since that first night we spoke, I saw that you were not evil. So if not for greed, why do you come here?”

“Your people are attacking our coastlands. We fear an invasion of our lands. We come here to defend our land, not for our own purposes. Can you say the same?”

She turned away. There was more going on in her face then she was saying.

He spoke gently. “Do you still believe us to be evil?”

“I do not know what to believe.”

Inzilbêth sighed. Doubt now gnawed at her. What she had been reluctant to do in the first place, she merely carried out because she thought it was right. But now…

‘They are just people’, she thought miserably, ‘defending their homeland’. Now she wondered if she had been right in agreeing to this. But she had already set the wheels in motion. She had a duty to her own people. But who were her people? The Southrons, who were under command of her father? Or the people of Anadûnë, an age long enemy of the ‘faithfulÂ’? But now thinking of Eldarion, could she be neither?

Suddenly, whispering over the desert sands in the shifting wind, she heard the voice of her mother.

‘Who will you be, Inzilbêth?’

Â…

Eldarion watched her from the corner of his eye. Her thoughts were far away, but she appeared to be struggling with some internal conflict. She was not beautiful in the way of the delicate features of the Gondorian women. Her features were heavier, more rounded and earthy. He was aware that last night had only made things more complicated.

They were born enemies, but he found himself wondering if she could live in Gondor. Marriage? He thought weakly. He was in so deep there was no way of escape. Would she be happy in Gondor? But in his heart, he knew she belonged to this land. And he realised with a shock that he would give up everything, crown, city, home, everything he had known if it meant living here with her.

And he had to kill her people.

Desperately he tried to think of some other way, but there was nothing he could do. And her father was leading them. And Eldarion knew, he had no choice. He had led these men across the desert, lives had been lost. There was no turning back. This is what happens when you fall in love with the wrong person, he thought weakly.

He had to ask her something that had puzzled him, though.

“When we caught you,” he said. “You were with a scouting party. Why did your father send you out?”

Inzilbêth stiffened. There was a pause before she answered. “He trusts me.” She hesitated again. “My father does not really care about me. I was not he son he wanted. He does not value my life too highly.” ‘Except when he wants me to carry out his plans’, she thought wretchedly.

“He will not stop,” she said, looking at him seriously. “He wants everything: land, riches, power.”

“What about you?” said Eldarion in a low voice. “What do you want?”

She looked across the flat expanse of land shimmering in the haze to the far off horizon.

“Freedom,” she said.

Â…

Elessar stopped, shaking his head in disbelief. “They were definitely camped here,” he said to Imrahil and Éomer. “I asked them to stay until we returned.”

The king of Rohan looked around. “Perhaps they discovered news of something and decided not to tarry.”

“They may have been ambushed,” Imrahil said seriously. “We suspected that scouts and spies would be sent out. If that happened it would be unsafe for them to stay, they would have to keep moving.”

“Perhaps,” the king said. “But do you see any signs of battle? There is nothing, no evidence. Where are the weapons? The disturbed earth if the dead were buried? There are no bodies having been burned. No, they moved on of their own accord.”

Éomer shrugged. “Well, whatever their reasons, they are riding south to the Havens. All we can do is follow as fast as we can and hope we reach them before they start fighting.”

Â…

Faramir called Eldarion to his tent that night. “I am thinking,” he said in a low voice, “how best to reach the city. We will arrive in perhaps two days time if we travel at speed.”

Eldarion nodded. “Well they only have few men there,” he said.

Faramir stifled a yawn with his hand. “I think it would be best and safer if we sent one smaller force ahead to the city. We had originally planned to take it from two sides, but we do not know when Imrahil’s fleet will arrive. So I will lead the majority of the army southwest, to take them from the coast, so they cannot escape by water. And we can also have control of the ships. Eldarion…could you assail the city from the front? There will be fewer men with you, but the Southrons will still be outnumbered. If you draw their attention the front of the city, it will allow my force to trap them unnoticed.”

Eldarion agreed. His thinking was clearer now. He was a commander. He could not allow his emotions to cloud what was his duty. “I will see it done,” he said.

He left Faramir with a sinking feeling, knowing that every step brought them closer to Umbar.

(A/N Am updating as regularly as I can…but if you want to read the finished thing, go to www.fanfiction.net – and leave a review!)