Birdie wiped her nose on her sleeve (she was glad The Lady Idril was not around to see that!) and tried to concentrate on what she was doing.
She had been relieved when Idril had assured her that Rose had not died in the sea. But then even more upset to hear that the little halfling ("silly twit" as Birdie thought of her now) was also in the hands of the Blue Wizards.
And Mith! What were they to do about Mith? Birdie had fought against the specter of Maeglin with little compunction. But Mith was family! OK, a sometimes overbearing, snobbish member of the family, but family none the less. Could she really draw a weapon against him?
Everyone on board was waiting to hear the results of the Lady and Child's meeting with the Ringbearers. Birdie had no doubt that they would accept the roles of pawns in order to lure the Blue Wizards into the "trap". She just doubted more and more that the trap could possibly work. "Cockamamie!" her ol' Beorning foster-mum would have called the whole thing.
"Cockamamie," Birdie whispered to herself. She was beginning to wish she had never repeated to the others what the Mer-Man had told her.
Birdie tightened a endless series of rigging for the twentieth time, and vowed she would never go to sea again on a vessel that was not fully manned. The work was tedious and exacting, and her hands were blistered. Bird was learning more and more about how to keep a vessel under full sail - and hating every minute of it.
"What wouldst thou have me do with these?"
Meneli halloed from her ship.
"Play them a hornpipe!" Birdie muttered under her breath. Then with a sigh, she turned to Meneli and her kin and halloed back. "Prepare to set sail! We go to the Inner Seas!"
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