The Green Dragon Inn - Part 4

[Elora]

"What is this worth to you", Silvanis asked. There were many answers. It was her past and her future. It could be her freedom or her slavery. It was all she had risked to find and so much more danger. Nightmares, it was, and also dreams of freedom so sweet that they ached within her.

Vanwe's eyes held her answers as she gazed at the pouch in Silvanis' hands. They tumbled about in the blue depths much as the candle flame flickered beside her. He had indicated that another was here, and that sent a shiver down her spine that she ignored. Stand, not flee. Her voice was soft and without doubt.

"Everything," she said plainly as her eyes rose to the Ranger's face. "It is worth everything I have and more."

But what did she have to give? Certainly there were 3 coppers in there and he could have them. She could survive without coin as she had proven before. She could carve and mend things. She was quiet and fast, and she could sense and heal things. But what were these humble gifts worth to one as accomplished as the Ranger before her? Vanwe well knew how little such things amounted to when set against the reckoning of the wide world.

"There is coin inside... three coppers... it is yours," she said earnestly. She stepped closer on a light foot, removing the battered sheath that held her belt knife and held that out to Silvanis also.

"And there is this... it has served me well," Vanwe added. It occured to her that a belt knife against Kaldir would be like a blade of grass against the storm.

"I can work too, and hard. I will offer you that freely, in any way I can serve," she said. Vanwe was all too familiar with hard labour, under thankless and harsh conditions furthermore. One Ranger could do no worse than a whole village of frightened and hate filled people. But there was another thing that Vanwe had, that possibly could be worth a great deal to Silvanis.

He watched her, and she knew that as she stood by the flickering light of the candle beneath the stars, he would likely recall that night in the south when she had defied her masters and lashed out against them by tampering with the stew at their feast. She knew he may also have looked in the pouch he still held, and made out her notes. Silvanis or Kaldir, could profit greatly from her name. Kaldir already had it in his grasp. Could it be any worse if Silvanis also did so?

What she sensed from Kaldir did not emanate from Silvanis. Vanwe let her senses brush past again as she steeled herself and gathered her courage.

"Last of all, there is my name. My true name," Vanwe said in a voice that sang of sadness and shame.

"And what use to me is a name," Silvanis asked closely, curiosity marked in his eyes. Vanwe sighed and choose to embrace her fate instead of struggle against it.

"When it is the name of Naiore Dannan's daughter, much can be gained from the one who brings her to the King's justice, or Harad."

A ripple of recognition danced across Silvanis' features, as would any who fought in the Wars.

"I am Vanwe Dannan, daughter of the First Ravenner of Mordor, reviled of the Free Peoples," Vanwe said with aching sadness for the stain of evil upon her mother. Her fair head drooped a little and she brushed her hand across her eyes before she raised it.

"Take the coppers, use my labour that I give you freely. I will not even flee nor fight you should you take my name and my freedom and use that to your profit or as your duty required.

But know this. Whether it is to be that I find myself in the jails of the King or the hell of that cursed village, there I will not remain for I have lived long enough in chains for the evils of my mother!

You can have it all, including that truth, for that is what it is worth to me. Seems to be fair, as already the other one has it."

Vanwe's voice had not risen, but it had become stronger and more like her mother's polished velvety timbre than Vanwe could know. But also, in her admission, more still of her heritage was revealed in that evening night. Young as she seemed, there was a timeless sense of strength that had enabled her to come so far alone and would enable her to continue with dignity and pride.

Silvanis studied her silently for a long moment, as if unsure what she would next say or do. Vanwe remained still, her knife held to him in her palm and her gaze steady upon his. Sensing his question, she met it with another of her own.

"What would you do to be free of the riddles of your past and to find your future unburdened by regret and sorrow? I risked everything for that, and do so now again, for my choice is made and I will see it through to whatever end it brings me with no complaint.

What you hold in that pouch are all the answers, all I have risked to get them, and the reason I walk forward and do not find a forgotten place to lie down and quit this life. I give you all I have in return.

You saved my life once before. You owe me no such thing now. Do as you will, Ranger. I will quarrel not. I am not strong enough for such feats."

A calm had settled upon Vanwe, a deep stillness. Much hung in the balance now. She was accustomed to the stakes, had lived with them for a long time now. The evening breeze caught in her hair and ruffled it against her cheek, cool. She patiently waited to see how the chips fell this time, all the while aware that another watched. That was another gamble she would have to make if she was to stand, and stand she would.