Flare in the Darkness: Holwena Talnrë of Rothalon

Chapter Thirteen: Shattered Peace

A light, respectful knock lingered in the morning air.

"Come in, Tialer," Holwena answered softly. Riharis and Tilon were asleep.

Her maidservant entered, and shook her head as she saw that Holwena was already half-dressed. "Talnrë, surely you can wait for me?"

Holwena gave her a smile and let Tialer fasten the blue gown at her shoulders. "I woke early and had naught to do, Tialer."

"Far be it from me that I should object to my Talnrë's wishes," murmured Tialer as she pulled the skirt out wide and let it fall back in unaffected folds. "But she will take all my duties from me in the end."

"I will never be done needing you, Tialer," said Holwena with a simple gravity. "You are one of the people who can bring the sun into my life."

The girl was silent, her cheeks warm with the praise under her dark braids. "I do not make you laugh, Talnrë," she answered, bringing Holwena's hair back beneath the coronet.

"Nay, Tialer; but you make me loved." Holwena's earnest smile faded into other thought. "There, Tialer, we are finished," she said finally, recollecting herself. "Take Tilon for now."

"Shall I keep him till evening?"

"You can bring him to me whenever you wish after noon; it is not a full day." Holwena turned aside and bent over Tilon's cradle, rubbing her fingers over his head. He stirred and rolled over onto his stomach, and then onto his back again, and blinked sleepily up at her. "Come now, calaor," she said, lifting him out and cuddling him a moment or two in her arms before she deposited him in the other girl's.

He was seven months old now, winsome, precocious, and quite plump. Holwena was his mother all she could be – Holwena he unquestionably loved; but he loved Tialer as well, and it was to Tialer, her faithful maid, that Holwena gave his care.

At evening they sat together on the terrace as they were wont to do – the three of them: Holwena, Riharis, and Tilon.

"It will soon be too cold to do this much longer," said Riharis, holding out one hand as though to better feel the breeze that caressed them. "Autumn is all but come."

"Aye," agreed Holwena; "and the harvest is almost ready to be gathered. It will be full."

"Good," said Riharis.

They sat in silence thoughtfully for awhile longer, and suddenly Riharis drew something out and gave it to her. "This was delivered earlier; I had forgotten about it."

"A letter from Gleda!" exclaimed Holwena gladly and opened the seal.

Hior ladrieë,

I hope that you are well, and your husband. I am so glad to hear of your little one! For myself, I fear that I will never bear a child; but though I grieve, I have Barin, and he is a comfort at all times.

I long so much to see you, sister. It has been more than two years. Barin thinks it may be arranged that we can travel thither this autumn, before the snows come, and perhaps even stay the winter. Oh, my sister, the hope makes me almost giddy with joy.

Yours always, Gleda of Edel Barin

"To think that I may soon see her again!" Holwena said, wonderingly. Memories washed over her, bittersweet memories of the time before, and Gleda's eager preparations for her cithar-edel.

She stared down at the small paper. So much there was to handle in a letter – so much joy, so much sadness. But this time the strain that sang out the loudest was joy.

To see my sister again.

~

"Nothing has been left undone, my lord Madiz. You may strike at your lesiure and they will be like a herd of weak deer before you." Lord Roharon spread his hands dramatically.

"Do not run ahead of yourself, ghinik-moz. They will still fight back, and you need not think I fear the fight. Nay; I will relish it. To see the light leave face after face of men... hriss iz kidiz khassa-raik..." His curved, evil beak closed viciously on the words as he slipped into the vengeance of his own language.

He turned on Lord Roharon again in the form of man. "You may count your service finished."

Lord Roharon bent his head. "And my recompense..."

"You will receive your recompense, ghinik-moz, when I am master of Serndol and the crown of Rothalon is under my feet."

Lord Roharon nodded, turned, and disappeared into the darkness.

~

Holwena sat in the huge carven chair at the head of the council table now so familiar, the dust-motes dancing in their place of the slanting sunlight. Lord Galdeol described in the requisite detail the progress of the Ral-Phar, and the scattered, pitiful sallies from the ugthoda that had been easily rebuffed.

Holwena's attention drifted away, which was unusual in the council chamber; she struggled always to be aware and active in her role there. But it had suddenly become very important to her, she knew not why, to remember something her father had said long ago: something about "suddenness" and "changes"–

"When your strong enemy becomes weak, then beware."

She had only just remembered, had not yet understood why she remembered them, when the door opened and the guard announced an urgent message. And the words slipped away again to the back of her mind.

"Send him in," she said with a nod.

The messenger entered. He was staggering with exhaustion and his tunic was bloody, and there was a horror in his eyes that Holwena had not seen for two years.

"I come from the south, my lady Talnrë," he said, approaching her at once and kneeling swiftly. "The ugthoda have returned."

An awful weight slammed into her like a blow, so that the world teetered and dimmed. "Say on," she said quietly in a voice that spoke despite her daze.

"They come in divisions of thousands, too many divisions to number. They entered at Barhadis and razed it, and they are coming north pillaging and burning. The dead lie behind them like an uncovered burying ground."

"Barhadis eha," whispered Holwena soberly. "Eha Rothalon."

Then she turned a face cold and stern to the lords of the council. "Send a messenger to the north for General Edhar in Galtha Relua."

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eha: Alas

hriss iz kidiz khassa-raik: A line from an old werevulture saying, beginning, "Let the moon be darkened..."

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A/N: I said there would be three more chapters, but I changed my mind because this was a good spot to end. NOW there's three more chapters.