Byl walked slowly back to the Uzbad's house. His shoulders slumped. He knew his duty and honour were at stake.
Byli, it seemed, had shirked his responsibility and run off.
"So then, this is how my tenure as Izbad ends: the Uzbad's daughter ruined, my son fled from his duty." He sighed and continued his mutterings. Folk greeted him in the street but he ignored them and walked on. "I will return to the Iron Hills and take the lass with me. I will adopt her and the babe when it comes."
Arriving at the door he just opened it and walked in; no knock or jingle of the bell.
In the parlour, Buhni was sitting listlessly darning a sock. Hanfrere was nowhere to be seen and there were thumping noises coming from Thrandili's room upstairs. "I bet she is packing he muttered to himself."
Byl took a deep breath. "Mistress Buhni, I researched the lore regarding adoption and there is only one way your lord husband can cast out his ward.
I fear the pair of lovers have gone too far and your daughter is with child!
Kandral is the wisest of us all in lore; he must have known the truth somehow and thus quite rightly rejected her because it says in the lore book that Procreation of a child out of wedlock is proper grounds for annulation of an adoption.
My son has fled like a coward not prepared to take responsibility for his actions and so I must act.
I will leave the halls by nightfall and return to the Iron Hills.
I will take the lass with me and in due course I will make her my ward and the child too when it arrives.
Please tell the Uzbad that it has been an honour being his deputy in Durin's Folk and that I shall ensure that no slur on HIS honour occurs."
With that, Byl removed his Izbad’s circlet and laid it gently on the table. A single tear dripped from his chin and landed on the circlet.
He looked up at Buhni who sat, shocked to her core, staring at Byl in incredulity.
In the doorway of the back bedroom, a looming figure leant heavily on the door frame and digested the words he had just heard from Byl's lips.
Thrandili had crept downstairs and was sitting on her usual step, third from the bottom.
She sat here because from it, in happier times she would watch Buhni singing in the kitchen and her Adad scribbling in his study.
Today she heard a statement from Lord Byl she didn't understand and both her parents were looking stunned at the words he had uttered.
=================
Hilfar followed Byli as he made its way through the many corridors of THorin's Halls. He often had to stop and search for the right track. A few hours later, Hilfar had already eaten half of his rations and they found themselves into more abandoned district "Can't say I have been here before" Hilfar muttered. Their long walk ended before a the door of a small stone cabin. "Are you sure we are on the right track, Byli?".
Byli nodded firmly. "It must be here," he said.
Hilfar inspected the house. "This looks abandoned..". Hilfar tried the door but it was locked. All the windows were blocked. "This does look very suspicious..". Hilfar rubbed his beard. "And now? Kick the door in?"
===============
Thrandili sat stunned on the step, the unbelievable implications of what the Izbad had said thundering in her heart. A child?? And Byli had fled?? But why would he flee? He knew this ridiculous accusation wasn't true! But why did his father think so? Her head started to hurt with all the conflicting questions and fears.
Never the patient decision maker, Thrandili jettisoned off the step like a firework, her little house axe raised. "How dare you say that! How dare you!" She danced around before Byl, waving her axe threateningly. "It was only a kiss! And just because it was in my bedroom doesn't mean - " She stopped suddenly. Her father stood in the doorway, and his face was hardly one she recognized.
==================
Byli looked under the ragged doormat and grinned, showing Hilfar the rusty key.
"Ever the obvious first, master."
He tried the key in the lock. Grudgingly it turned.
The door creaked open and Byli and Hilfar walked into the dim interior.
Hilfar walked around the table and kicked something with his boot.
Looking down he saw a ragged bundle on the floor. The geode? He bent to inspect the rags and felt something wet on his hand.
"Eugh! It's a body!" cried Hilfar feeling quite faint.
He looked at his hand. "Aaah, blood!" He fell to the floor in a dead faint and Byli rushed around the table to raise the fallen dwarf.
"STAND STILL!" yelled a voice Byli recognised. It was the guard captain and his men holding loaded crossbows and looking as if they were ready to use them.
"Don't move a muscle or you'll be as dead as that poor stiff there!"
He motioned to his men. "Put them both in chains and take them to the gaol. We'll see what the magistrate has to say to you two... The perpetrators returned to the scene of the crime just as I expected!"
The guard captain smiled grimly. His trap had worked perfectly.
Byli groaned to himself "Not again!"
==================
Buhni stood up and approached Byl... "Stupid dwarf!" she spat and smacked him hard first on one cheek then on the other.
"How can you be such an old fool?"
"But... But What else might have inspired the Uzbad to do such a thing to his Shuthrathur unless something cataclysmic had happened to sway him?”
"HE'S JUST HAD A HEART ATTACK FOOL!" Byl stepped back fearing another attack. "And with all the anxiety of his condition would YOU be in a right mind?"
Buhni wished she had her rolling pin with her right now; this old fool deserved a beating! She knew for a fact Thrandili had her moon blood just last week. Nothing could be so stupid as Byl's suggestion!
Kandral coughed and smiled. "Brother Augir has put me back on track Byl... However you are right from a lore perspective... The only way I could cast out my beautiful daughter was if she had breached one of the conditions of the adoption procedure and I assure you she has not!"
He held out his hand and Thrandili ran to his side. "Oh Adad, I get everything wrong!" She clutched his dressing gown tight and hugged him fiercely. "I haven't honestly" She pleaded looking him directly in the eye. "We did kiss, but only the once and I knocked him down the stairs with my house axe."
Byl coughed and looked the other way for a moment.
Kandral decided not to ask the obvious question at this point in time. His daughter was in his arms as was her place until some boy finally stole her from him.
Kandral looked up at Byl. "Put on your circlet, Master Brokenspear... Your tenure as Izbad isn't finished yet and I need you to guide the kinship whilst I recover from this trauma."
Byl wondered if he was talking of the illness or the emotions of the day... Best not to ask.
Byl took a deep breath. "Lord, Our negotiations were too short regarding the betrothal. I suggest we take up the discussion as if none of this has happened. I will take no advantage from the zurlûmadr and I expect for both our families sake and that of the future of our lines, to drive a hard bargain acceptable to both of us."
"One thing remains to consider however, Lord. Zurlûmadr counts as immediate betrothal and the expectation of marriage within the year!"
"This was in neither of our thoughts when we started this journey!"
"No, it was not.... ",spoke Kandral with a soft sigh. He paced for a bit, in his usual fashion, thinking and stroking his beard and then he stopped suddenly and turned to Byl and said: "The old laws stand.... YET there is a way we can postpone the marriage!", he continued. Thrandili looked up, fear in her eyes.
"Article 19, section 27 clearly mentions that the King of the clan holds the authority to lengthen the period of the betrothal". Kandral looked at Buhni and said in a determined voice: "get my coffers, and have a wagon prepared, wife dearest, I have to depart for Erebor at once... if the honour of this family is to be saved".
Not for a moment did Kandral consider that the rest of them were fine with the idea that a marriage would happen soon. Kandral was dead set to have it postponed another forty years.
Thrandili spun around, galvanized into action by her father's last words. "NO!" she screamed. "I made the zurlûmadr to save Byli and me from all this over-protective, misguided, STUPID stuff! Anyway -" She stopped and took a shaking breath. "You're still too sick to ride anywhere, and Erebor is far far far away!" She looked appealingly at Buhni, then at Byl. "Isn't he? Too sick??"
Healer Broinur had been sitting quietly in the corner, not butting into this family discussion, but at Kandral's words he stood up. "You, my dear dwarf, are going nowhere for at least a month!"
I need you to rest and drink your medication whilst your heart mends... you are better, but, YOU ARE NOT WELL YET! Mistress Buhni please get the Uzbad back to bed. He needs rest!”
=====================
Thrandili was afraid again. For a little while, back at Byli's house, she'd felt safe and strong, and desperately in love. But now...even if her father did have to rest for a month, that wasn't a year. And once he was better, he'd block this marriage with all the considerable power of his office. She'd never be with Byli if he had his way!
She stormed off upstairs and slammed her bedroom door. She had to think...she had to plan... Standing at the open window, with the summer smells of her mother's flowers floating up from the beds below, she channelled her frustration into lyrics. A song that would tell them all what she felt. Her father had often said that her songs moved him. Maybe this one would do the trick!
She sat down at her scratched old desk in the corner and started to write...
Song to Byli
Don't tell me who to love
Don't tell me how to live
Don't tell me what to do
My heart is mine to give
They say I'm too young for love
But you're old enough for war
If you're old enough to die
Then I'm old enough for love
Each of us has wounds to heal
What they said, they can't take back
Now our lives we have to steal
Trembling with their scars of love
Take, take me away
From these halls
To a place we'll call our own
I just can't stay
In these halls
Where our lives are not our own
Kiss, kiss me now
Set me free
From this pain! Oh make me feel
You, only you
Without you, I'm all alone
Just their empty duty's child
Without family, without home
Take me from this prison cell
Hold me, then I won't despair
Let me sleep here in your arms
Braid a love knot in my hair
While I dream of what might be
Take, take me away
From these halls
Where I'm drowning in their love
The song wasn't finished, but Thrandili couldn't write any more, for her eyes were too full of tears.
