[Elora]

Uien

Uien smiled at Lira, grateful for the other's words. The killings were done and she could not undo death. She had tried that before, and woe came of that. Uien looked across to where Falowik spoke with Thoromir some distance away. She watched the pair, her gaze resting on Falowik for a time.

"I would not undo them, yet death sits heavy on this place as it does me. You feel it also." Lira nodded and sent a troubled gaze to the stones that stood around them. Uien tried not to think of them, their insistent urges and tugs. Eswen neared and added, "As do I."

Uien's gaze returned to Falowik and a love made real in the darkness of Fornost. They were dragged into that darkness and the only way free of it was to push through it. Drawing a measure of strength from the man she watched, Uien spoke in a low voice to the two Elves that stood near her.

"A terrible secret lies in this place and the stones will keep it no longer. Feel how they push at us." Lira and Eswen murmured their assent, Eswen stroking Corn's sleek feathers that shone blue black with the morning light. Nearby, the prisoner moaned.

"There is new evil here, and the stones have yielded it to us. Rumour of terrible sorcery. We cannot move on, surely, until we know what it is we move on to. I fear this has much to do with Eodwine."

Lira frowned at the dewy turf and Eswen grimly stared at the blinded man that lay across a horse.

"We have the means to come to the bottom of this," she said. The prisoner would know of this evil if it was linked to Eodwine. Uien and Lira nodded.

Lira looked up and back to the stones with some reluctance. "We should not dally here. The day is passing."

"Yes," Uien said, "and it would be best if we come to this secret in daylight." Her shoulder throbbed but worse was the prospect of returning to the stones. Yet it had to be and she would bear it. She would bear a great deal for the man who had surely saved her in the night. Uien turned to the bandaged prisoner.

"It would be best if he guided us, rather than the stones. I will see to him if you can gather up the others," she said. To that end, Uien moved towards the man to do what she could. She had just laid her hand on the man's brow and was inspecting the bandages around his now empty eyes when Falco Boffin materialised, arms crossed and face red.

"What are you doing," he demanded.
"What do you think," Uien returned tersely, little disposed to entertain the Shirriff's antagonism.
"I think you're fraternising with our enemy and your ally," Falco announced, pleased to have an invitation to express his suspicions. Uien sighed and pushed back a harsh comment on the Shirriff's mental prowess.

"I am trying to heal what I can."
"Where is your pack then." Falco looked across to where it lay on the grass.
"What herbs would have eyes to re-grow Shirriff? I would be interested to know!" Falco's face darkened further.
"The you admit that you cannot be healing him," he pounced, voice rising an octave.

Uien's patience snapped, audibly it seemed to her at that moment. With an external calm that she did not feel, she spoke with icy anger that rained over the Hobbit who quivered before her, uncaring who listened or what they thought.

"Is it a great crime, Shirriff, to ease a prisoner's pain and discomfort so that he is better able to communicate with us? Are you such a heathen you would deny him that basic care? Are such a blind fool that you would have him die of shock or loss of blood before you could speak to him?

No, I am not attempting to heal his loss of sight. It is impossible. I am healer, not sorceress. You are a Shirrif, not a healer. Do not presume to instruct me on the proper application of healing for be certain that I shall not educate you on your laws. They seem cold and indecent to me, and I would have nothing of them!"

Falco had in that time moved from red, to purple and now was pale with shock and dismay. Uien closed her mouth and then in silence turned back to the prisoner. After an uncomfortable stretched moment, Falco strode off and Uien sighed again, this time in disappointment. Words spoken in anger and haste, no matter the provocation, were rarely of any merit but they could not be unsaid now.

Uien checked the prisoner's bandages, adjusting slightly and offering water. The man was in considerable pain but remained oburately silent beneath her touch. Whe he made no reply, Uien asked again if he wished water.

"You'll get nothin' from me, witch," he grated with some effort.

"Then I will have nothing. Still, I will not have you suffer needlessly. I will return with water," Uien replied. She winced at the strain on her shoulder as she stepped back and lowered her hands. Holding it, she walked back towards her pack and bent, retrieving water bottle and a packet of herbs that would dull the pain.

A high, clear hobbit voice sounded at her shoulder as she gathered what she wanted.

"Eswen says that there is something we should see in the ruins. Must we?" The uncertain waver of fear touched her heart for she felt it herself. She looked up into Anson's face from where she crouched and smiled gently.

"It is important, I think, Anson. Had I choice, I would not go in there. But I cannot turn aside, for Eodwine's sake... and our own. I will go back in there, though I hope not alone."

Anson nodded and sighed, staring at the forbidding stones, and said nothing of whether he would accompany them. Lira and Eswen were moving through the camp, speaking in turn with each about the need to venture into Fornost. Falco sat on a boulder, arms crossed and fuming. He glared at any who approached and sent particularly displeased glances in Uien's and Falowik's direction at every opportunity.

"Of course I'm going" he announced sourly. "I'm not letting either one of those two out of my sight!"

Uien poured out some water into a wooden cup, crushed the herbs and sprinkled them into the water. The scent was soothing and pleasant and she breathed it in as she rose to her feet and returned to where the prisoner was.

"Drink this," she said, guiding the vessel into his bound hands. His fingers closed around it and he lifted it to his mouth with all the desperation of a thirsty man, despite his earlier rejections. At his first taste of the herbed water, he paused and spat it out.

"Witch," he snarled.
"As you wish," Uien returned. "It will soothe your pain, but if you prefer to suffer then I will not gainsay you that." Uien turned her back on the man and walked towards the gathering group. The wooden cup sailed over her shoulder and landed on a bare patch of earth nearby. She bent and scooped it up, looking back to where the prisoner hunched on horseback. The cup had been drained.

Lumiel was nearest to her when Uien rejoined the group, Thoromir and Falco still speaking with each other.

"What was that about," she inquired as she looked at the cup in Uien's hands.

"A battle of thirst over stubborn pride," Uien said with a small smile. Perhaps now their prisoner would tell of the darkness in Fornost and release her from the burden of speaking for the stones. Lumiel frowned at the riddle of Uien's reply and set it aside.

"Are we moving out," she asked instead.
"I hope so. I do not wish to be within Fornost come nightfall," Uien replied with heartfelt conviction.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 12:14 AM January 13, 2004: Message edited by: piosenniel ]