[Envinyatar]

‘I have no idea where they might be trapped.’ Orëmir crouched down near the little fire they’d built to drive away the coming chill of night. ‘But . . .’ He picked up a stick and began scratching a series of lines on the dirt. With a snort of disgust he scuffed the lines away with his fingers and began again.

‘There was a plan in place, in case the fortress was taken, for those not critical to the defense to leave.’ He looked up at his brother who had come to see what he was scrawling. ‘You remember, don’t you, Endamir?’ Orëmir stood up, the tip of the stick pointing down to the diagram. ‘It didn’t really involve us; we were away on patrol so often. But the troops garrisoned here spoke of it sometimes. How they were to take their positions along the walls, depending upon the direction of the attack, while some of them were to open the hidden entryways to the tunnels delved beneath the living quarters.’

Orëmir snapped the stick in two and threw it into the fire. ‘Did you ever wonder, if we had stayed to fight, if we had been here, there might have been more that got away?’ He rubbed out the drawing he had made, watching the dust swirl about and settle on the toe of his boot. ‘An over inflated sense of our importance no doubt.’ He looked westward, where Vingilot floated above the rim of the world. ‘Brave men, they were, who stayed and faced the foul corruption that o’erflowed from Dor Daedeloth.

A bit of verse came unbidden to his lips. And he murmured it softly, recalling a captain of the lancers who had spoke it so long ago. A fierce opponent in battle, his face set grim and hard in battle. Yet he best remembered him at rest in a rough camp. His eyes had flashed in the fire’s light, and a ready smile had put his men at ease. They had come from one of many skirmishes against the Orc foe. And they had been victorious, but at a cost of a number of their fellows’ lives. Sindar and Green Elves had been some of those counted among the dead. The Noldorin captain had honored them with drink and the remembrances of their comrades. And had offered his own words in a voice husky with mingled sorrow and pride.

These, in the day when heaven was falling,
The hour when Earth's foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.

Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and earth's foundations stay;
What Valar abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay.

Orëmir put away the old images and words and refocused on the task that was now before him and his three companions. ‘I think I recall where one of the entryways was hidden. Let’s bring some lit brands with us as well as some extra should our search be a long one.’ He picked two torches and started toward where the family quarters had been located. ‘Let me know if the pace is too quick for your ankle, Lindir. The passages will be there whether we go quickly to them or slower.’