Movement IV: A
Song of Passage
It was Malron who finally shook her from her battle
rage.
She had been killing, reveling in the sound of
screaming, dying orcs, reveling in the blood spilled. Blood for blood,
life for
life. And they died so easily. They died until there were no orcs left
around
her, and she went to search for more.
“Haleth!” Malron shouted as he stopped her from
searching for more orcs to kill, shaking her roughly. “Haleth!”
She did not recognize him, and she was tempted to
kill him as well. Who was he to stop her from killing these orcs?
Then reason returned and she gasped, dropping her
sword.
“Haleth! Take the command!” He made his way to her
and protected her from an orc with a huge battleax. “The men are
beginning to
discover Haldar’s death! Someone must lead us!”
She nodded and shouted, “Haladin! Stand fast!
Haldad and Haldar have fallen this day, but I
remain! Stand fast and do your duty fighting the orcs!” She let out an
enormous
sigh of relief when the Haladin roared back and fought, if not with
renewed
vigor, then with skill. But her eyes narrowed when she saw a slight
figure in
white run out into the field, bearing a long pole, and her heart almost
stopped
when she recognized Janya’s clear voice.
“Haladin!” she cried, and then revealed what she
held in her hand.
It was a banner of a hound bearing a shield.
Tears stung Haleth’s eyes. Haldad’s name had meant
“watchdog”.
“Thank you, Janya,” she whispered. How long had she
spent working on that?
She seemed to have asked that aloud, for Malron
replied, “Weeks. Janya and I intended to give it to Haldad before the
battle,
but we never found the time.”
She nodded abstractedly, absorbed in watching
Janya’s
progress across the field as she drew near.
“Do you think she knows?”
“Of what?” Malron seemed to be as distracted as she
was.
“Haldar’s death.”
“Oh.” A pause as an orc drew closer to loot the
bodies, saw Haleth with blood in her hair and more smeared all over her
sword,
then fled for safer victims. “No.”
Gelvar, too, was making his way towards Haleth, and
she surged through the empty field. She saw with a curious detachment
that
there were nothing but dead orcs all around her.
I never knew
that I was this violent… but then, I never knew that Haldad and Haldar
would
die here today.
She hardened her heart and settled her stomach.
Walking
on, she ignored the mutilated bodies and lifted her chin in defiance.
She did,
however, have to admit that she didn’t quite know who she was defying.
An orc attacked Janya, and she awkwardly pushed him
away with the banner pole. However, she was clearly in trouble, and
Gelvar
rushed to her aid.
“Get her off the field!” Haleth screamed. Malron
got there in time to take the standard, and Gelvar prepared to haul
Janya away.
But it was too late. The orcs had cut them off from
the keep.
She ran to Gelvar and whispered, “Take her from
here and guard her as best you can. See if you can make it to the
Eldar, and
protect her!” Gelvar nodded and whispered to Janya, and the two of them
ran
towards the nearest stand of trees.
Haleth attempted to give Malron a smile, but failed
miserably. “Well, brother, it looks like it’s up to us to hide their
escape.”
Malron grinned fiercely in reply, and struck the standard in the soft
earth.
“Let them come,” he said, then ran to Haldad’s
body. He knelt and rose, then ran back to Haleth. He was holding
Haldad’s
elf-crafted sword. “Give me your sword,” he said, and when she handed
it to
him, he buckled Haldad’s sword about her waist.
“This is Father’s sword.”
He shook his head. “Now yours. He was going to give
it to you anyway.” Before she could object, he laid her sword on the
ground. “We’ll
come back for it later.”
“Here, we make our stand!” Haleth called. “Haladin,
to me!”
Slowly, agonizingly, both men and women of the
Haladin made their way towards Haleth, breaking off private wars. Again
she
felt tears at her eyes when she saw that the Haladin’s number had been
greatly
reduced. At least a third of the brave women she had led here were not
present.
And I, I
alone, am responsible for this… for if I had not done this, they would
yet
live. My fault, mine, and no one else’s… my fault that they will no
longer live
and exult in living, my fault that they are lost to a darkness far
beyond my
sight, my fault that their spirits have fled this world… She would
have
screamed, and perhaps she did in her heart and mind. But she was
Haldad’s
daughter, leader of the Haladin, and she would lead the remainder of
her people
to glory and honor, at least, if she could not lead them to safety.
What matters
glory and honor against life? Ah, Eru, I was foolish to once think that
glory
and honor were the most important things in life… for glory leads to a
sort of
immortality, does it not? Oh, I was foolish to strive for immortality
above all
else. What matters renown when I no longer live? What matters my own
glory
against my people’s lives?
Nothing.
When all those who could come had gathered, she
raised her hand in greeting. “To the gates,” she shouted. The orcs were
massing
again, and the Haladin had a brief moment of respite. If Janya and
Gelvar had not
escaped by now, they were not likely to.
“My lady Haleth,” she heard, and she became taut
with worry when she recognized Kellan’s voice. “I beg leave to carry
home the
lords Haldad and Haldar’s bodies.”
Tears stung her eyes again. How could she have
forgotten?
“My thanks to you, Kellan,” she said.
“I’ll help.” Cullan joined his son, and each hefted
a body on broad shoulders.
“In the center,” she ordered. “We march as a
column. Try to make it to the gates. Best of luck to you, brothers and
sisters,
and may the Valar watch over us all.”
There was nothing else to say, and she breathed
deeply before signaling Malron to her side. She drew Haldad’s—her—sword and saluted her people with
it.
Then she lifted her voice in song and led the
column into the midst of the orcs.
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