Daughter of Rohan [Lord of the Rings | Eomer]

Chapter 2

Hilde was curled up in a corner of the Main Hall of Meduseld, unable to stem the flow of hot tears streaming down her face.

Théodred was dead. The King hadn't even batted an eye.

The Théoden King she remembered loved his son more than anything. She still had memories, old and faint, of him swinging a small Théodred up in the air, smiling and laughing as the boy shrieked with joy, of him hugging a young Éowyn close in comfort to sooth her tears of grief, or patiently mentoring Éomer on the finer points of handling a sword with a proud glow on his face. That was not the King that sat upon the throne now; this new King was hunched and weak, his eyes clouded and white, his colourless hair and beard looking like little more than tangled cobwebs anddust.

She couldn't help feeling that Rohan was lost when she looked at their King.

But more than that her friend was dead. She had been there, at his side with his cold hand in hers when his laboured breathing went silent. Between one moment and the next he was gone. Éowyn had dozed off where she sat across the bed from Hilde, her cousin's other hand grasped tightly in her own even when in the clutches of sleep. Hilde hadn't had the heart to wake her; it was the first sleep she had gotten in days.

Across the Hall, her father stood at his post near the entrance of Meduseld, but he kept glancing over to Hilde, concern and sadness creasing his face. Hilde barely noticed. Théodred was the boy she had crossed wooden swords with as children, had chased around Edoras, had learned to ride beside. The boy who had tried to kiss her during the midwinter feasts when he was no longer quite a boy, and who had succeeded in kissing her and more when he'd been a man; the boy who many believed would try to marry her one day. Had he asked her, she wasn't even sure what she would have said anymore. She had loved him, yes, but as a friend. Perhaps it would have grown to love in time. But that didn't matter now.

Théodred was gone.

Éowyn had barely said a word since he died, only leaving her cousin's bedside to try and reach the King through whatever spell Grima Wormtongue had woven. The death of her cousin had crushed her. Théodred had been a second brother to her. Now he was gone and Éomer was banished.

Even as Hilde was thinking of her companion, a flash of white passed down the centre of the Hall. Before Hilde could move, Éowyn had fled the Hall, all but running into the sunlight. She didn't follow. Hilde understood the pressing need to get away, to be alone. Even once Éowyn had woken, Hilde had stayed at Théodred's side, keeping watch as Éowyn left to tell the King of his son's fate. But once she had returned, Hilde couldn't bear to stay. The clash of her memories, of Théodred warm and laughing, with the reality of him lying dead was tearing her apart. She couldn't reconcile the sight of him lying lifeless on his bed with him in life. Her mind rebelled painfully against it. Though she had loved him as nothing more than a dear friend, he had nevertheless been so much more than that; and thus she grieved.

It was several long minutes later before Rohan's White Lady walked sedately back inside, her face wet with tears to match Hilde's own as she made her way back into the depths of the Golden Hall. Hilde couldn't bring herself to move, though, or to wonder what had drawn Éowyn from her cousin's bedside. She was still caught up in her own grief.

She was only brought from her stupor by strange voices just outside the Hall conversing with her father. She could almost feel the disdain in his voice as he spoke of Grima's orders to disarm anyone who wished to see the King. Hastily she scrubbed the tears from her cheeks.

And then four strangers entered the Hall behind her father. Hilde's grief was nearly forgotten as the hairs on the back of her neck began to rise, suddenly very aware of the movements within the Hall. Many of Grima's thugs were moving along the aisles that ran along either side of the centre hall, moving to flank the newcomers.