Ethel

Continued from A prelude to war - Part I

And so it would come at last to the village of Bancross; a battle borne on wicked feet, crowned with curved swords and jagged spears. A small but bitter taste of the on-going war reached this quiet gathering of homesteads on the plains not far from Edoras. 

“There is no rule that troubles only come to us one at a time,” I heard Northgyth say. “Indeed, we have troubles aplenty now. But Yllfa, ah, I must try and unravel the threads that seek to bind her if she is to emerge as the woman she needs to be.”

Related to A Midwinter Lullaby, by Yllfa

My eyes fluttered open to a comforting darkness, broken only by the light of one candle some distance from the bed upon which I lay. Someone sat there, watching me. 

“Waelden?” I whispered gruffly, the words tearing at my throat like the raking of claws.

Hertha still had little liking for Captain Denholm, but for her cousin Thilwend’s sake, for Bancross’ sake, she had put aside her plan to travel to Helm’s Deep, at least for the moment.