[Child of the 7th Age]

Loremaster caught Cami's eye at breakfast and beckoned her towards the passage indicating that she should follow. They quickly left the main cavern and made their way to a half-hidden nook outside the tombs. Here they could speak without guards hanging on every word.

"Ancalimon returned to the Star before dawn," Loremaster noted quietly. "I've asked Azra to come with me today. She and I will tell the hobbits about the river rescue and how the hobbrim will help them in the water."

"Do you have something I can do?" Cami asked.

Loremaster nodded. "For the next two days, I want you to work with the young children. Get to know them, so they'll feel comfortable with you. They need to learn to trust you and follow your orders during the rescue."

"It's not going to be easy," he continued. "Most of their parents will have gone off to fight. They'll probably be frightened. Some of them have no family left. They're orphans who've banded together in small groups to survive."

"Like the five boys Gamba and Phura take care of?"

He nodded towards Cami. "Yes. Some have been adopted by children barely a few years older than themselves. Others have been lucky to join families with real parents. We've tried to take care of them as best we could"

"How will the children get through the caves to the river?" It was one thing to talk strategy with Piosenniel and Mithadan on the Star. It was another to be sitting in the tombs, and actually plan how children of so many different ages could be conveyed to safety with guards on all sides. There were so many things that could go wrong.

Loremaster explained. "I'll be assembling and organizing the groups which will run the gauntlet."

Cami immediately interrupted, "Run the gauntlet? What's that?"

"Sorry. I keep forgetting you're from outside. We have our own words to describe the rescue," he laughed. "It means getting from the caverns down to the mouth of the river as fast as you can."

"We've even had games for the younger ones. The guards think they're childish play. But they're practice for the real thing."

He stopped a moment to assemble his thoughts. "I'll be organizing the groups, deciding who goes out and when. Those who are escorted to the river include the children, the ill or infirm, and mothers with young babies."

"What about the older hobbits, who aren't sick but who would have trouble racing through the caves at breakneck speed?"

Loremaster shook his head and sighed. "I'm afraid we have few of those left. So few that the children would probably have been the next to go to Gorthaur's temple. Some of the older hobbits will be escorted in groups. But there are some," and here Loremaster couldn't resist a smile, "who insist on being included among the fighting men and women."

"As far as your own duties, you'll deal only with the children."

Cami nodded, then inquired how many children would be running the gauntlet.

"If you include the mothers with babies, we'll have 14 to 15 groups, with about 15 or 16 children in each one."

"And the escorts?"

"That's where you come in. There'll be five escorts, fully armed. Each group will have an five escorts to get down to the river. Then the escorts come running back for the next group. Once you get everyone safely to the mouth of the river, you're free to board the ships yourself, or to stay and reinforce the fighters."

Then he added, "We're hoping to run the groups through the main corridor as quickly as we can. But we could encounter problems. Sometimes, we may need to send a single escort through with one or two children. We may have stragglers at the end, or the corridors might be so congested we can't push groups through. It's also possible there'll be times we rely more on deception and hiding than speed."

At this point, Loremaster handed Cami a large sling made of cloth.

"What's this?" she asked. She squinted down at the contraption. "I understand. For the littlest ones who'll have trouble making it by themselves." She threw the sling over her neck and tightened it to see how it fit.

"It's not going to be easy fighting with this on." Then she asked in an even voice, "What if some of the escorts are killed?"

"Then we'll send others to help," Loremaster responded. "Getting the children out is a must. They are the heart and soul of our people. If no one else makes it out of here, the children will."

"Like Beleriand?" Cami whispered, thinking and remembering.

Loremaster loked at her with gentle grey eyes and said yes.

"Anyway, we hope you'll be doing more running and escorting than fighting, but, yes, you may have to fight, sling or not."

"And Cami, there's one more thing. Ancalimon was insistent about this. He said you were to be in charge of counting the noses of the children who made it through so we'd know with certainty we had everyone out. Just in case."

"I must tell you truthfully. I thought one of the others should do that. You don't know these children as well as we do. But Ancalimon wouldn't hear of it. He said you could learn their faces and names in the next two days. Plus the others would help you. He was absolutely certain."

"And how many of them are there? The children, I mean." Cami countered.

"A total of 225."

Cami sat and thought a minute. So many children. Why would Ancalimon ask her to do this? Out loud, she said calmly, "If he believes I can do this, then I can."

"Good. And the other four escorts will help you. Starting right now, we're keeping the children together in one area of the caves. That's so we can move them out quickly on the night of the rescue. You'll be living with them day and night until they get out of the tombs. The guards won't pay much attention how we handle the young ones, as long as they get their work out of us. We are going to have the mothers come after dinner to tend the babies and spend the night. That way they'll be there when the rescue starts."

"It looks as if we're here." Loremaster pushed the door open. Cami gazed in amazement. She was greeted with the sight of well over two hundred children, ranging from tiny infants to about ten-years old. They were running and laughing in a state of disarray. Not a single guard was to be seen in the room. They obviously didn't consider it necessary to watch the children, as long as they kept out of the way of any serious work to be done.

She was suddenly surrounded by a swarm of little bodies, "Loremaster, Miss Cami," they squealed in delight. Miss Cami, however, could think of but one thing. How will I ever learn the faces of so many children in just two days?

[ October 28, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]