Yours to Command

Tokens

That was not what he had meant. But before he could utter a protest, Lady Wilwarin had taken his other arm. "I've heard so much about the fabulous skill of the Rohirrim on horseback. How exciting to see them for myself, at last!"

His sister gave him a hard look, but linked her arms with Lothíriel and Faramir. When they turned to go, Éomer felt strangely regretful. However, soon he was too busy greeting the rest of his guests to spare any further thought on it.

Éomer had put up the prize for the archery contest himself, a fine gelding from the royal herd at Edoras and he was curious to see how the famous bowmen of Gondor would fare on horseback, compared to the Rohirrim. An oblong area had been marked off and straw butts put up at one end. The rules were simple: the contestants had to canter across the field, shooting three arrows at the butts, which would be moved ten paces further back after each round.

Anybody had the right to take part and the afternoon dragged on as the hopeless archers were gradually weeded out. His men had to catch no less than three horses that threw their riders and bolted. Éomer could only shake his head when one man could not even get his nag to move into a canter. At least his own riders did not disappoint him, the best of them quite plainly astonishing the crowd with the ease with which they placed their arrows dead centre. Even so, he could see some of Faramir's rangers and the men of the Tower Guard would not be easily defeated.

Lady Wilwarin handed out the prizes for the races, silver cups engraved with stylised horses. Éomer had to admit she did it very prettily, yet he found his attention wandering after a while, searching the crowd for Éowyn and Lothíriel. Unfortunately, with the popularity of his riders there were rather a lot of blond and black haired couples. Loud cheering and laughter drifted over from the other enclosures and he had the niggling suspicion that they were enjoying themselves rather better than he was.

Éomer felt some relief when after a while Aragorn and Imrahil joined him. Aragorn winced when he saw a young soldier ride by, wobbling dangerously in the saddle and missing the target completely.

"How is the contest going?" he asked.

Éomer shrugged. "That was the last of them. Twenty-three Rohirrim have made it to the second round and thirty-one Gondorians."

After a polite bow to Lady Wilwarin, Imrahil looked round searchingly. "Where is my daughter?"

"She's having a look around with Éowyn. Faramir is with them."

Imrahil frowned. "When your sister picked her up this morning, I did not realize she meant Lothíriel to accompany her the whole day."

Éomer put on his blandest face. "A regretful misunderstanding. I think my sister is very pleased to have made a new friend in Lothíriel."

Imrahil gave a stiff bow. "We're honoured, of course."

Aragorn held a twinkle in his eye. "I think I can see them now, they're making their way through the crowd."

Éomer turned round quickly and spotted the two women almost at once. He also noticed that Cadda had joined the group as well. The women were laughing at something the bard said and he gave Lothíriel a hand ascending the steps leading up to the wooden platform, from which the guests could observe the archery contest.

Imrahil stepped forward. "Lothíriel!"

The princess stumbled slightly, but caught herself quickly. "Father? Have you been here long?"

"No, I only just arrived. I've been looking for you."

Lothíriel gave a vague wave at the crowd. "Éowyn showed me around." She smoothed down her hair. Éomer suddenly spotted a blue, satiny ribbon twined around the long plait she wore falling down her back. A quick glance at his sister showed a similar green one woven into her blond hair. Then he remembered Éowyn buying a whole bunch of them at the fair.