Sword and Arrow

Chapter 42

Aragorn walked briskly along the walls as guards at the gate yelled for villagers to come through the halls to the guarded ravine at the back. "We'll place the reserves along the wall," he was saying. "They can support the archers from above the gate."

"Aragorn, you must rest," Legolas insisted, hurrying after the man. Though heavily injured, Aragorn walked straight and tall and held his head high. Legolas almost had to jog to keep up with his long strides.

"Aragorn!"

Aragorn paused mid-stride as he turned and looked toward the source of the sound. A blonde head was hurrying towards him through the crown. He groaned inwardly.

"I'm to be sent with the women into the caves," Éowyn said, slightly out of breath.

Aragorn bowed his head to the side. "That is an honorable charge," he said neutrally.

Éowyn grimaced. "To mind the children, to find food and bedding when the men return," the princess said with contempt, shaking her head. "What renown is there in that?"

"My lady," Aragorn began, "a time may come for valor without renown. Who then will your people look to in the last defense?"

"Let me stand at your side!" Éowyn begged.

Aragorn slowly shook his head, putting on an expression of grim neutrality. "It is not in my power to command it," he told her softly. Then he turned and began to walk after Legolas, who was waiting a few steps away.

"You do not command the others to stay!" Éowyn cried after him. "They fight beside you because they would not be parted from you." She took a pause, taking a deep breath. "Because they love you."

Aragorn stopped, stunned. Yes, he'd known, but it was more of a guess than actually knowing how she felt toward him. He turned to face her again, a look of surprise evident on his face.

Éowyn squeezed her eyes shut as Aragorn turned back to look at her. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, and quickly walked away.

"Where are Gimli and Ruth?" Aragorn asked Legolas as the two of them walked away.

Legolas gave him a look. You're just going to ignore Éowyn? "They're in the armories. Beruthiel wants a breastplate and Gimli wants some mail."

"Come, then," the Ranger said heavily. "Let us leave the siege to those who know this Deep."

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"Farmers, farriers, stable boys," Aragorn said to Legolas in an undertone. The armory they walked through was busy with weapons being handed out to new warriors. Everywhere he looked, Aragorn saw the face of a young boy, unprepared for the horrors that would follow, or the wrinkled face of an old man, in full knowing of what was to come, in full preparation to live through it again. "These are no soldiers."

"Most have seen too many winters!" Gimli exclaimed. Aragorn and Legolas had picked up Gimli and Beruthiel from where they had been helping with sharpening swords - it seemed that they had not been granted access to the armories yet.

"Or too few," Legolas added. "Look at them." He nodded in the direction of one boy, barely fifteen, holding a heavy sword with shaking hands. "They're frightened. I can see it in their eyes."

Perhaps he had said this a little too loudly, because the room went silent. The small bubble of privacy that the men usually gave them turned hard as people began to stare at the elf and the Dunedan.

"Boe a hyn neled herain... dan caer menig! (And they should be... three hundred against ten thousand!" Legolas added in Sindarin.

"Si beriathar hyn ammaeg na ned Edoras (They have a better chance defending themselves here than in Edoras),"Aragorn defended. It was true - there was nothing that the Rohirrim could possibly have done save retreat back to a place of greater strength.