Manadhlaer sinks into her meditation position with great effort tonight. Anyone spying on her chambers would see her on her knees this night, having changed bodily arrangement in the hopes of changing her seemingly unstoppable visions.
I see us together as we were that night. Melinyel, I told him. I love you. He lay in his sick-bed, with the stink of Angmar yet on him, but I crawled under the furs to warm him. And we clasped together in a marvellous way. And he swore me tell no one, and said we would not share a bed again until Tûr had said the right words. But how he cried out so softly, not with pain but with joy.
He is carrying me through the snow. Why is he carrying me? Put me down! I am not ill! And the storm rages, and my sweet betrothed slips. We tumble down together. Nae, is he hurt? He swears he is not hurt, yet he is frosted head to toe with the terrible ice-drops.
And then he raises himself on his elbow, and he is my father. Atya! Atya!
Atya's face is so stern, like iron. I plead with him. What is happening, my sweet father? Can you not build us a swan-ship to leave this place?
O, my little daughter, he says, You cannot leave such a place in a ship.
Ammë comes too, so gentle. Darling daughter, she says, my dear flowing song like the water rushing at the shore. You cannot play my harp, dearest. It is not good any more. You must play the harp you have been given for your own. And she looks so terribly grieved, as she did when she kissed me good-bye and hid me under an upturned ship-hull.
And she says, Nai Themodir hiruva estë Mandostessë. May Themodir find peace...
And I stop her and say, Ammë, what nonsense are you saying now! Do you mean you cannot come to my wedding, and give my love a beautiful shell?
And Atya says, O daughter, you shall have your wedding, but your peace has fled.
But Atya!
Hurry, daughter, they say as one. Hurry and lift him from the snow.
Manadhlaer's eyes flicker. The moon is waning now and gives only a little light, but it would be enough for someone peering in to see her face so glazed with tears that it looks icy. She crosses her arms and shivers uncontrollably.
