[Child of the 7th Age]

Luindal stared somberly at the table in front of him, carefully masking his feelings and averting his eyes from Rôg's. His head reeled with pain as he heard his friend recount the tale of disaster that had befallen the escort sent out with Hilde. Luindal found his thoughts racing desperately in two different directions: deep sadness and horror on hearing about the death of innocent folk who had done nothing more than follow his orders, and a growing sense that he was into something for which he had no experience or stomach, and that his own shortsightedness had caused innocent folk to lose their lives. Just as soberly, what was he doing sitting on the ship while his men were battling and losing their lives? He should never have put Andtuariel in this dangerous situation: he should have led the raid himself.

For a moment, he thought of going off on his own to contact Cirdan, begging the old Elf to relieve him from command of this mission for which he was obviously so ill suited. Yet he knew the answer he would receive even before he raised the question: I am sorry Luindal, but there are too few of us left. And we do bear some responsibility for this situation, since the Stones were our inventions. You are the best we have. If you can not do it, then the Stones will ultimately fall into evil hands and the old, bad days return. Only this time there will be no Gandalf or Galadriel to tip the scale against the forces of evil, and the dominion of Man will begin not with the even hand of Gondor but with Harad, an empire bent on dominion and might. He could not sit here and mope or reflect. Something had to be done, and fast.

Luindal reached out and placed his hands on his friend's shoulder, "Rôg, your words bring sadness. To hear of the death of innocent folk is no joy, and Cârrandu worst of all! Let us pray his brother survives. But if we stop here, we will do no honor to their memory and sacrifice."

Luindal began to speak again, but was interrupted by a sudden noise and commotion coming from the hallway. Someone was pushing hurriedly through the crowd of onlookers who were gathering in greater numbers outside the open door. Instantly, one of the Lossoth thrust the door fully open, raced inside and approached the table where Luindal sat, blurting out the latest news. "The small boat has returned. Annû and his companion live, but the boat holds no more than these. Marreth has taken the Elf and threatens not to return her till he has the Stones in his grasp. If we discover the palantari and sail home with them, he says she will die in the manner of the pirates: by being forced out onto the plank."

"Was Marreth the one who did this thing?" Luindal growled.

One of the Elves in the hallway shook his head, "Yes and no. Marreth was willing to take advantage of the situation, but it was not he who put the blade to Andtuariel's throat. It was another..... the oily looking Corsair with the evil face who calls himself Jynne."

The Lossoth who shared the original news quickly added, "Marreth was not so pleased with Jynne's actions, I think. For he had harsh words with him as we stood there and waited, in front of the whole company of Corsairs. Jynne would have had the two of us killed, and seemed to be pushing the Corsair captain to do that. In fact, I think he would have slit Andtuariel's throat without a second glance. But Marreth put him in his place. He berated him for carrying a poisoned blade when he himself had not been told of Jynne's intentions. I do not know what is happening, but there is bad blood between those two."

Luindal nodded in understanding. It sounded as if Marreth had his hands full on more than one front. He turned to address his companions who now stood clustered in the hallway, spilling over into his cabin, "We will rest and mourn our dead for one day. Then we will do what should have been done in the beginning. The Lossoth are a good people, but they are largely tied to the shore without large ships of their own. They do not think in terms of the water. We will take this thing to sea. The Stones were lost at sea and they will be found there. We may have a trick for Master Marreth up our sleeve." He glanced over at Rôg and gave him a knowing look.

"But what of Andtuariel?" a voice from the crowd cried out.

"Leave that to me. I have something in mind....something that is best left unsaid for the time being. I have not forgotten her. But for the moment, let us honor our dead and bind our wounds, for the morning after next we will go in the smaller boats and locate the Stones on the bottom of the Bay. I can promise you that."

With that, he said goodbye to the men, but beckoned Rôg privately forward. "I must speak with you for a moment in private. We can not leave Andtuariel with no protection. Yet for the moment I think she is safe. This Marreth has tipped his hand by telling us that he will have her walk the plank. No one walks the plank while his ship is moored to the dock, yet this is exactly where he is."

"But can we trust him at his word? He is a pirate." queried Rôg.

"A pirate, yes. But also a man who has to keep Jynne in his place. He has said this thing publicly in front of all the assembled Corsairs about keeping the Elf alive till he gets the Stones. He is using her as a bargaining chip. As long as she has value, he will not harm her. Plus, Marreth can not give in to Jynne's demand and immediately skewer her, or he will look foolish, having said something otherwise to his men. No, he will do exactly what he said. "

Luindal added as an afterthought, "Unlike this Jynne, Marreth has at least that much honor. But still, I do not trust the Corsairs."

Luindal glanced over at Rôg and then plunged in. "I have a proposition for you. We need to keep an eye on the situation over there. It seems to me that as a Hobbit friend of mine once said: what's good for the goose is good for the gander. I could have a Lossoth sent over and find some pretext for him or her to serve on shipboard. But I have a better idea. You can get in and out of places very quickly and get back to me with great speed. I do need you here, especially now that we will be diving down into the Bay. But might you be able to do a surveillance flight or two just to keep an eye on things, and get some word through to Andtuariel to let her know that we have not forgotten her?"

..................

The candle had burned low, with only a small stub still remaining, by the time that Luindal and Rôg had finished their conversation. In the course of the evening, they had touched upon many different matters and had come up with a plan to search for the Stones in the Bay. "We are agreed then," Luindal nodded at his friend. "We will begin our search the morning after next. You will dive into the deep waters, using whatever guise you choose, while I will help you in the water as best I can after taking up the air bladders and putting on a protective suit smeared over with a thick layer of whale grease. We will take a small armed guard with us, but leave a goodly contingent of men on the Spirit to stand guard, for we would be foolish to trust the Corsairs any further." With a shake of the hand the two parted for the night. Luindal vowed privately that he would speak with Annû concerning his brother sometime the next day.