Vinyalonde

To the forges I went, and there I did find several people of the House of Vanimar waiting, Master Elloen among them, who was also taking his Oath.

“Sit down!” Rainith told Parnard. “If you keep hopping up and down, you will be worn out before we reach our destination.”

In a few days I shall mount my horse and depart for the Greenwood with the Lady Danel, Rainith, and Belegos; and being anxious to write a few lines before my departure in order that my lord be acquainted with the exact state of affairs, I beg l

I went to the Hall of Fire and sat, and drank a bottle or two of wine. Sogadan told me how Lord Belegos is angry with his friend Estarfin. I said I was not surprised in the least; I had just come from that fell warrior’s home and his face was smeared with blood. It seems he spares no one in his wrath, not even himself.

It had begun as a day full of such promise. A snatched meeting, a kiss stolen under the gaze of the rising sun. She had never felt so beautiful as on that quiet morning, when Aranto had laughed at the flowers woven into her hair, and then claimed one for himself, pinned inside his tunic. He had grumbled again about their secrecy, and they had finally accepted the inevitable: he would tell his friends, his brothers, after the feast, and then they would go to Maltariel's parents and tell them.

Continued from: A Letter to the Lords Anglachelm and Veryacano; An Errand Unto Thee; A Hard Lesson; Unexpected Aid; The Shifting Paths; A Display of Character

Continued from A Hard Lesson

“And that is what I heard happened to the Lady Danel. It was a training lesson, that is all, nothing more, nothing less,” Sogadan finished.

Continued from Letter to Anglachelm and Veryacano: esteemed Lords of Bar-en-Vanimar

“So what will you do with him?”

I shrug, inadvertently jostling my hand so that Maltariel’s neat strapping falls loose. She gives me a reproachful look and reaches for the ends of the cloth, her deft hands tying it up again with quick, sure movements. Although it is only bruised, my wrist is stiff and sore still when I come to lift a sword, and she has decreed that it must be strapped, for now, until it is recovered. While she reties the cloth, I look up across the river, enjoying the peace for a moment.