The Abduction of Éomer, King of Rohan

Chapter 2

Once they had settled back in, my father and brothers resumed the running of Dol Amroth and suddenly I found myself with a lot of free time on my hands. At first I enjoyed catching up on my reading and being able to take Tuilin out whenever I wanted, but those pleasures soon palled on me. While I did not wish for the anxious times of the war to return, for once in my life I had felt truly needed. Compared to that, sitting in the garden reading a book soon got boring.

So it was with considerable excitement that I learnt that another celebration was planned at Cormallen, one year after the Dark Lord's downfall. And this time I would be able to attend, unlike the year before when I had been too busy organizing supplies to be shipped upriver. Everybody would be there as well: our new king and queen, Faramir and his bride, the King of Rohan and all the nobility of Gondor. Father seemed determined that the Dol Amroth party should outshine all the others and planned to take a large contingent of minstrels and musicians along. As for myself, he insisted that I had a whole chest of new gowns made up.

We took ship for Minas Tirith in the middle of March, and after spending a night in the White City travelled further upriver to Cormallen. Due to favourable winds we were actually one of the first parties to arrive and managed to secure the best place for our camp, right by the small river that flowed into the Anduin. And then, a couple of days later, the two kings arrived.

***

Eirien nudged my elbow in excitement. "Here they come!"

I craned my neck. Noble ladies weren't supposed to indulge their curiosity like the common folk, but I had talked my maid into slipping out of my tent and mixing with the crowd that gathered to watch the arrival of the King and Queen of Gondor and their royal guest. I would not be officially introduced to them until the celebrations commenced the next day, but I wanted to at least catch a glimpse of them first.

The sun was setting. It turned the fresh green leaves of the birch trees growing along the edge of the glade translucent and glinted off the spearheads of the guards. A cheer went up when King Elessar and Queen Arwen arrived and the king waved his hand in recognition as he dismounted. As for the queen, she seemed to gather in the remaining sunlight and spin it around her in a luminous sheen. A shiver of awe ran down my spine.

The rest of the party was in no particular order, Gondorian nobles and Rohirrim mixing freely and talking to each other. A fat merchant in front of me, keen to show off his knowledge, named all the important personages to his wife and I listened with half an ear.

"There's the Rohan king," he said.

Curious, I looked to see where he pointed. The man was huge! Built like a bear, with wide shoulders and a thick neck, he looked every inch the accomplished warrior. A reddish tinged beard bristled on his face and as he guffawed at something one of his companions said to him, his laugh rang across the clearing. I had imagined him younger, but apart from that he looked just as the stories from the war had painted him.

Then his companion leant forward and I got a shock. Tall, sitting his stallion with easy grace and surveying the glade as if he owned it: my courier. Quickly I ducked behind the merchant, although he was hardly likely to spot me. What was Léona doing talking to King Éomer? And he seemed to be on quite friendly terms, I saw, as I chanced another glance. But the crowd was dispersing, and I risked discovery if I lingered much longer.

Eirien seemed to think the same, for she was tugging my sleeve. "We have to go now, my lady."

Deep in thought, I let her escort me back to our encampment. I suppose I should have realized that I might meet Léona at Cormallen, but his presence at King Éomer's side still surprised me.