Flare in the Darkness: Holwena Talnrë of Rothalon

Chapter Fourteen: Without Hope

General Edhar came, and Rothalon fought desperately to make war against the advancing ugthoda. But this was not a war; this was a rampage. The enemy had struck too quickly, too harshly, and nothing could halt their relentless onslaught. At last General Edhar in a message to Holwena begged her to let him withdraw his men. Too many were dying. "In Serndol at least," he wrote, "we may hope to stave them off. Here they only fight for you and die because they will not retreat. Let them fight with a shield."

"Go to Gaonra, that city by Tir Sern Hator," Holwena pleaded with him in her answer. "Try to hold them from there."

But the ugthoda took Gaonra, burned it to the ground and slew the entire city. Edhar led half his men alive out of the ruin. Then Holwena yielded, and the army came back to Serndol just before the first snows of winter, with the ugthoda close behind. And with the barring of the gates behind them, they were safe – safe, and trapped.

The ugthoda knew this. They did not yet set about their siege in earnest, but roamed over the land with bands of one hundred and two hundred to kill and plunder whatever they chose. They took the harvested grain for their own troops, and fields that had not yet been scythed they burned, and the smoke of many burnings was seen from the walls of Serndol. At last, as the snow grew heavier and great white drifts of midwinter lay under grey skies, they turned their attention to the lone towered city, the last thing that stood between Madiz and his goal.

"Look," said Edhar, having summoned Holwena to the walls one afternoon. "See what they are about down there."

"They are coming near the city," she said, leaning out amid the wisping vapours of their breath.

"Two months ago they laid that circle about us, to keep us locked in our own gates. Now they are tightening it."

She looked up at him, hearing the grim despair in his tone. His lean face was hard and strained, and his eyes were old with the many deaths that lay upon his shoulders.

"So it is the end's beginning," she said simply.

"Do not say that, Talnrë." His voice broke and he turned away from her.

She touched his shoulder and pulled it gently to face him. "Man of Rothalon, do not hide from the truth. Face your fear and put it aside. You will lead my men yet, and if it be not to victory, that is no shame; it is grief, yes, but not something to pretend away. Face it unafraid."

"My Talnrë," he said quietly, and tears glistened in the corners of his eyes. He knelt and kissed her hand, and walked a little ways down the rampart, and there he halted, gazing over the pale plains into the ripping wind.

Holwena did not follow him. It was his need to be alone.

~

"Holwena." The voice spoke into a sea of darkness that was racking her body with tremors. "Sleep, ri-arhona."

"I cannot sleep," she whispered in answer.

"Holwena, you must sleep." She could hear the concern in his voice, the puzzlement. "You are more weary every day."

"But there is so much," she murmured, "so much to manage and fret over – and when I sleep the dreams come..."

He held her closely and said nothing.

"All day I am telling men not to fear, Riharis, but I am so afraid... and the dreams are worse than fears, they are like visions."

"It is nothing, Holwena. They are but dreams. Rest easy."

She relaxed a little under his soothing touch and words. Then she heard him shift and get up, walking around the bed, and something warm and small sank down next to her. Tilon stirred but did not wake.