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Uldor got up quickly as soon as the word of dismissal came. When Ulfang said he wanted something finished, the thing was finished. The meeting was over and there would be no reason to stay and burden himself with the company of the two elves. Besides, he suspected they would find his company burdening also. As he exited the room and crossed the court, his face twisted in a sneer.
“Follow him out of love,” he scoffed to himself. “Out of love! The sort of half-witted love a dog gives his master, I presume. I wouldn’t doubt that’s how the great Caranthir views us. His dog. He’ll find this one may bite after all, though. What do you want?” he nearly snarled as someone grasped his sleeve from behind. “Pardon me,” he said, hardly less fiercely, as his eyes lit on Ulwarth. “What is it?”
Ulwarth’s mirthless grin held even less humor than usual. “I want a word with you, that’s all. You have time for that, don’t you?”
“Hardly, brother,” Uldor said, trying to act gentle. He laid his hand on Ulwarth’s and tried to disentangle his sleeve from his grip. “I have to go out and think.”
“Think about what?” Ulwarth demanded as he tightened his grasping fingers. “Come, come, Uldor, surely you’re not uncertain of what you should do? Our father trusts your judgement! You’re mind, your wit is so quick all of the time! Surely you know how you should act?”
Uldor gripped Ulwarth’s wrist and twisted his hand away from the sleeve. He stepped out of Ulwarth’s reach. “Seven thousand lives of men is a great deal to give away lightly, Ulwarth, and without thought. Even you must understand that.”
“He didn’t say we were to give them,” Ulwarth said, lifting his eyelids a little more. Uldor caught a brief flash of intelligence in those dark eyes. “He said he would take them. You don’t have a choice, Uldor. Not unless...unless you want to fight them.”
Uldor frowned and took another step back. “We can’t refuse them. They would never accept it. We’d be crushed.” Ulwarth shrugged, and once more his eyes were veiled.
“I was suggesting nothing,” he said, turning away. “I wanted only to know what you thought. I am sorry to see you so stubbornly silent. I only try to help.”
Uldor watched him until he disappeared through one of the doors. Then he turned and went his own way, walking quickly towards the outdoors. His eyebrows drew together in thought. His mind was thick with dark and heavy thoughts. Ulwarth - the fool, the halfwit - had suggested to fight them. Ulwarth himself. So quiet, so calm, so apparently content in this house of peace where he was never questioned or threatened. Fight them? As though Ulwarth knew anything of fighting!
And yet what was that idea lurking at the back of his own mind? Uldor put one hand up to his forehead to try to clear away the cobwebs. What were those promises that he kept thinking of? Promises that he thought he had heard but could never remember where or when or why they would even be given.
His mind leaped about in a crazy fashion. Without looking up, he passed out from the city gates into the open, wind whipped plain. Even when his cloak flew up and twisted away from his body, and his hand reached out to pull it back down under control, his thoughts still strayed.
Certainly Morgoth would be a more powerful ally than even these elves, his mind told him. Morgoth, if he ever asked for men to fight for him, would not tell them that it was a payment of debt. No, he would pay them for their help. He had promised.
“What do we really owe the elves?” Uldor grumbled to himself. “What have they done for us that puts us in debt? Claimed to protect us? From what?” His feet stopped at the crest of a hill and he turned and looked back at the settlement behind him. “But we can not refuse,” he said allowed. “My father has sworn allegiance and to that allegiance, we must hold.”
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