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An odd silence fell into the Great Hall as Dwalin resumed his seat and glanced, it almost seemed a bit worriedly, at his brother. Haenir glanced around him at those gathered and did as he had done for forty years – kept his peace. There was much he could have said, had it occurred to him. Forests and marsh? That’s not the place for Dwarves, he thought. Earth and stone, rock and bone: that’s what we should bother ourselves with Still, where the hand of Aule pointed him, he would follow.
The silence stretched taut like a wire being hammered into airy thinness by the smiths, and still no one spoke. Dwalin and Bali looked at one another nervously and somebody in the crowd cleared his throat but the stillness remained like the Arkenstone itself, inviolate and impenetrable. Haenir shifted his muscles beneath his armour. It was a habit he had picked up from the older Dwarves among the King’s Men, to keep the body supple and loose beneath its second skin of plate and chain-mail. He looked about him at the other people there and wondered at such an odd assortment. Most were armoured but there was a variety of skill and wealth on display in that area: all were armed with axes. He knew most of the Dwarves there by name and face, but had never really spoken with any of them, unless it had been to relay a message from his lord, or to usher them into the Royal Presence.
The silence was becoming uncomfortable even for Haenir, who had spent long hours of his life standing silently before doors or off to the side of chambers, ever ready to answer the call of his King. Finally, driven mad by the indecision of those about him, Haenir spoke. “It would seem,” he began slowly, choosing his words – as he always did – with great care, “that there’s none here as wish to discuss the matter any more than we already have. You have a map; it shows the way. Where there’s a clear road, let’s follow.”
“Aye,” another Dwarf replied, “but a road to what? Danger and death, or riches and reward?”
It was Dwalin who replied first. “Maybe all those things. Maybe none, we will only see by going.”
“Aye,” Haenir muttered, almost under his breath, “and that we won’t do standing about here in idle talk.”
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