There was a beggar woman standing in a garden called Egalmoth’s Green in the Third Circle of Minas Tirith, begging for coin from passers-by, holding a dirty child in her arms. Only a few stopped to drop a lead coin on her outstretched palm. Her face was dirty and her head was covered with a dirty, black shawl. Her eyes were dark and apparently pained, but it was merely a trick of her trade. The beggar woman had learned it from her mother and she in turn would teach it to the child she was now holding in time. She was very poor and such was the way life had always been for her and all the other beggars in Minas Tirith. While most beggars in the city were found in the First and Second Circles, some occasionally managed to slip by the guards to the Third and sometimes even Fourth Circles of the city, where residents were better-off and sometimes more generous with their coin. But it was also more challenging because of the constant harassment and coercion from the guards. Begging was not tolerated in the higher Circles.
Radawen walked by the beggar without a glance, then stopped, turned back and dropped a coin on her hand. The grief on the beggar’s face remained unchanged; it did not lessen nor did it become greater. Radawen turned away and walked across the garden. He was late, she was lonely and afraid.
Radawen had put up the hood of her golden brown cloak. It was bitingly cold and wet, but the gray sky had not granted rain since the previous night. She walked from one archway of columns to the next, turned around and tried another one. The garden was not very large, but there were a lot of archways and columns and statues and perhaps she had not noticed the man lurking in the shadows somewhere.
She could not shake her gloomy thoughts, and each time she was thinking about them she became nauseous until she felt trapped in this dirty, gray world.
She did not see Delioron until he was standing right beside her. She grabbed him by his arm and buried her face in his chest. Delioron held her in his arms by the great fountain in the middle of Egalmoth’s Green and noticed that she was shaking. After a while she tore herself away from him and looked at him.
”What do we do now?” she asked. ”Did the meeting go well?”
”Not really”, he said with a voice as leaden and gloomy as the sky.
They stood apart by the fountain in the quiet garden with no other visitors.
”What happened?” Radawen asked.
I refused to kill a dwarf, he thought, but said nothing in a while. ”I cannot leave my duties for Gondor just yet.”
”Damn you!” Radawen said. ”Damn you!”
”I was…” he was searching for the right word. ”…forced. To stay a while longer.”
”They cannot force you to do anything. This is Gondor, a land of free men…”
”It is not. Merely a bigger prison”, he said, remembering Krarli’s words.
”What do we do now?”
”I do not know, Radawen.”
”You said you loved me.”
”I did”, he said, softly as if to confirm a truth too heavy to speak of but in whispers.
”Oh Delioron! What do we do?”
”You are safe. I made them promise. Nothing has changed. You can go back to your work in the Houses of Lore and…”
”…and we can have a few days together whenever you happen to be back from your journeys abroad, is that it?” Radawen clenched her fists. Her face was glowing and her slightly crooked front teeth were suddenly clearly visible.
”No”, he said, softly again.
”No? Then what did you have in mind for me? You have used me to clean up this mess and now it is time to kiss me goodbye, huh? Or were you planning to take me to your home in the Cape of Belfalas for a short vacation first?”
”Shut up, Radawen”, he said. His words were colorless, toneless.
”Damn you, Delioron, I love you and I would do anything for you. Did I not tell you already – I have lied and covered up for you…”
”And I will do it for you”, Delioron finally said.
”What?”
”Remain useful to the throne. It would not be safe any other way…”
”Why would it not?”
”I cannot explain it. Something was expected of me and I would not do it, so the only way to make sure you are safe is to remain useful to the throne…”
”What would you not do for me? What?”
”Murder.”
For a moment it was so quiet in the garden that neither could even breathe in fear of breaking the silence. All the color disappeared from Radawen’s face and she was shaking again. She stepped to Delioron and embraced him fiercely, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face on his chest. There was nothing more to say and they both knew it. Grief wrapped itself around them like silence.
