[littlemanpoet]

"Papa," Cerveth said, her voice weak and breathless, "I go-" her voice caught. Mabalar hushed her. She shook her head. Her eyes clearing, she held his with hers. "I will wait for you," she whispered, "beyond the walls of the world." Her eyes stared and her tongue clove to the roof of her mouth.

"Cerveth!" Mabalar held her close. Lothlómë fell upon her husband and her child's body, and wept. Mabalar took her into his embrace. They stayed so for a time.

At last, they laid their daughter's body down and folded her arms beneath her breast, and wiped the last stains from her mouth and brow, and closed her eyes and mouth, and rose, holding each other close.

"She is beautiful," Lothlómë said.

"She always was," Mabalar replied.

A footfall was heard behind them on the stairs. They turned. It was Tirú.

"Kâthâaní?"

"She has passed," Mabalar said.

Tirú lost his legs. Catching himself on the rail, he sat on the nearest step. Tears streamed from his eyes. "I will miss her."

Mabalar went to his servant and raising him, too him to his daughter. Tirú knelt beside her and looked upon her face.

"She is at peace," he said, and looked at Mabalar with pleading in his eyes.

"May it be so," Mabalar nodded.

Tirú rose. "Forgive me, lord. I bear news. Lord Elendil requests your presence as soon as you may be disturbed, as he put it."

"Go," Lothlómë said."

******************

On deck, Elendil waited for Mabalar amongst a small crowd. Elendil gestured for him to come forward. When he had done so, before him stood Herugor, bound at hand and foot.

"We have a stowaway," Elendil understated.

"He is a traitor and a murderer!" Mabalar declared hotly.

"What have you to say, Herugor?"

"I repent of my deeds," Herugor said, looking carefully from eye to eye. "I see now that my former master led all of us astray, and would have allowed my life to be ended the deeps along with all others. The Faithful have been vindicated. I would be counted as one of you."

"A moving speech," said Isildur, "and a lying tongue that speaks it. See the calculation in his eyes. He must be put to death!"

"Nay!" said Elendil. "I will have none of my folk to bear the stain of this man's blood. He shall remain captive while we are on ship, and shall be set free when we land." He turned to Herugor. "But mark you, traitor, for traitor I still hold you: if ever again you have a hand in the murder of one of my folk, you shall surely die."

Herugor looked at his feet and said no word.

****************************

The winds howled from out of the West. The waves churned from behind them and threatened to overcome them, but ever were they borne on the waves toward Middle Earth, like strewn litter floating on a tidal wave. Yet safely did they arrive and were not all shipwrecked, and they made new homes, and set the mearas free to roam and gallop over the plains of Middle Earth. And the seven palantirí were rescued from the threat of the sea.

And Mabalar and Lothlómë and their household settled near the shores of Middle Earth, far to the west of what would come to be called Gondor. That settlement has long since fallen to ruin, and little is known what became of that house. Yet the tale persists of how the mearas and the last of the palantíri were saved from ruin by the chance imprisonment of one Mabalar Mellothroch, whose life was bought by the loyalty of his beloved daughter.