Flare in the Darkness: Holwena Talnrë of Rothalon

Chapter Fifteen: Flare in the Darkness

There was a long, wailing silence after he said those words.

Then Holwena stirred, and said, "So. If you came up here, who is leading the men?"

"I gave charge of the army to my second. They are his now." He said no more, and they understood that in coming Edhar had made a choice that he would never be able to revoke. There was no going back into the city.

"Let him lead them well," said Holwena. "Edhar, gather all in this place who can lift sword and make ready for a defence of the castle."

Edhar nodded and strode from the room.

Holwena hesitated, and looked around as though for guidance. Then she drew up her shoulders and walked with an air of steadfast resoluteness out the door.

"Holwena!" Riharis came after her. "Where are you–"

She turned to face him, and tears unshed were in her eyes though her voice did not falter. "There will be but one end to this, Riharis. I will not face it hiding alone in the dark. Let me go out to my people."

Riharis had never questioned his wife's judgment. He did not do so now, and he too saw clearly what must be. Turning back into the chamber, he lifted his sword from its place on the wall and buckled it at his waist. "Holwena, ri-arhona, I will stand by your side till the end."

And Lord Galdeol stood upon her one side, and Riharis on the other, and so they went out into the lower halls.

In the great throne-room all the men of the noble houses were gathered, and many others who dwelt in the Serndol-Phar, armed as they had arms; and Edhar was walking among them.

"You are not leading them to the outer wall?" Holwena said to him.

"It is too late, Talnrë," he said simply. "There is not time to order them out there. Besides, the ugthoda would fly over the wall in a moment."

There was no talk in that room: men fingered their weapons silently and waited as the sounds of battle drew ever nearer. The high bird-shrieks of ugthoda sounded close now, grating on the ear with the noise of metal clashing on metal.

And so came the last battle of Serndol. The ugthoda battered down the gates of the Serndol-Phar and plunged into the tower and the throne-room where the remnant of Rothalon awaited them. It was a great noise and confusion, everywhere the black armour and dark feathered shapes of ugthoda in both forms. Holwena was in the midst of it all, near the rear of the room and untouched yet, with Riharis and Galdeol fighting valiantly as her armour. Glimpses she caught of Edhar, ever in the thick and the fore, fighting with stern and fierce strength. And then, as Riharis staggered with a spear in the shoulder and the one who had struck him down towered above Holwena with his sword, Edhar sprang before her and took the sword full in his chest. With his last strength he flung his own blade straight into the ugoth's pale smiling face.

Riharis stumbled to his feet and with a gesture of mounting rage and grief he tore the spear from his shoulder, and like an angered bull he stood before her and slew any who came near. And then he, too, fell, pierced with too many wounds to number. And then Galdeol alone strove on, and he fought with the grace and strength of a man who knows battle but is never touched by war-lust. Though he wearied, he did not waver.

But all at once a sword came flying out of the struggle, and clove him between neck and shoulder. And the one who had been like a father to the Talnrë of Rothalon, who had fought with such bravery so that it was remembered as being like the Fathers of Men of old, fell dead at Holwena's feet.

Holwena lifted her eyes from his body, and the place around her was clear, and a sudden stillness was over the room. And out of the circle about her came one whose thin features were cruel and noble, and his black hair was bound back from his forehead to fall in locks over his shoulders. She quivered before his coming, a small flower bowing before an oncoming storm.

Madiz strode towards the Talnrë of Rothalon, a long sword gleaming in his hand. But as those about them watched, her fear seemed to slowly leave her. She stood straight and proud, a gladness that none could see or understand lifting her countenance.

But Madiz cared not, and he walked forward smiling the dreadful smile that marked him in all his contempt and victory; and he lifted his sword over her head and thrust it straight down into her heart.

Her chest rose in a quick, sudden breath and she seemed to glow with unearthly light. Then the fire blazed in her eyes like the glory of the sun, and she cried aloud:

"Eo ruidaca eran, Madiz! Eda thraëlcin-lossë, colo ligonaeëth ugthoda talnvar ihar martus geanossa!"

Then she fell to the stones, and Madiz tore the crown of Rothalon from her head.