Maps by grey_gazania

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Chapter 6: Caranthir

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Makalaurë and I were the first to arrive after we received Nolofinwë's message. He had planned to go alone, but he didn't have it in him to refuse me when I asked to come. Not after all the help I'd given him these past few years. We went to their settlement unaccompanied. There wasn't any point in trying to make a show of force. Our resources may have been greater, but they had our brother; the power here all rested in Nolofinwë's hands, and there was no use in pretending otherwise.

 

Not that I believed he would try to do Maitimo any harm. Nolofinwë wasn't a cruel man, and hurting Maitimo would break Findekáno's heart to boot.

 

We met him at the entrance to his settlement, where he stood waiting for us with his arms crossed. "Just the pair of you?" he asked.

 

"We didn't want to overwhelm Maitimo," Makalaurë explained. "Thank you for caring for him."

 

"Hm. Come along, then."

 

We followed easily; we knew where things were in this settlement, since it was our people who had built it before we vacated to the other side of the lake. The walk was awkwardly silent, and the few people we passed looked at us with hard eyes.

 

"You won't overwhelm him," Nolofinwë said suddenly. "He hasn't woken yet. But Almarë assures me that he will live. She's waiting for you at the Houses of Healing. You're free to make your way there, Makalaurë. I'd like a brief word with Carnistir before he joins you."

 

"Surely whatever you wish to say can be said in front of me," Makalaurë said, but Nolofinwë waved Makalaurë off with a dismissive gesture.

 

"This is between Carnistir and me," he said. He beckoned for me to follow him down a side street, and I did, watching him closely. I'd always thought that if my father was fire, then Nolofinwë was water. But the anger lurking beneath his skin burned as much as any of my father's rages, a series of intense ripples of heat that he was clearly fighting to contain.

 

"You lied to me."

 

"Yes," I said, because it was true. "I lied to my brothers, too."

 

"Did you lie to Findekáno?" he asked.

 

"About what?"

 

"The burning of the ships."

 

I shook my head. "Ask anyone you like. Maitimo tried to stop Atto."

 

"But none of the rest of you decided to take his side?"

 

"Why bother?" I said with a shrug. "Even if every one of us had sided with Maitimo, do you really think that would have stopped Atto?"

 

I watched Nolofinwë grit his teeth. He couldn't argue with that, of course. Like I'd said to Findekáno, nothing had stopped Atto from doing what he wanted in a long, long time. Silence stretched between us, taut as a drawn bowstring, until he made a noise of disgust and said, "I won't pretend to understand how your mind works, but we're done here. Go to your brothers."

 

We didn't make you cross the ice, I nearly said, but I bit the words back; they'd only inflame the situation further. I had no desire to do that, if only for Maitimo's sake.

 

***********

Almarë was talking to Makalaurë when I arrived at the Houses of Healing. She was angry, too, her face wooden and her voice flat. That hurt a bit; she'd helped my family many times over the years, delivering Curufinwë and the twins and treating my wife's burns after an unfortunate kitchen accident. I'd always considered her a friend.

 

"--starvation, dehydration, exposure, pressure sores, infection, and various burns, lacerations, and abrasions," she was saying. "Many of which are injuries I became well-acquainted with on our crossing, so my techniques are not experimental."

 

"Amputation?" Makalaurë said, and I froze. "How? Why?"

 

"Yes. His right hand. And I don't know; he arrived with it cut off, and Findekáno hasn't given me much information about what happened."

 

"Findekáno—"

 

"You owe Findekáno, all of you, more than you can ever possibly repay," she said, her eyes hard as flint.

 

Makalaurë held up his hands in a placating gesture. "I wasn't going to say anything against Findekáno," he said. "But Findekáno is with Maitimo, is he not? May we see them now?"

 

She gestured towards the door to her right before turning her back on us and walking away.

 

I followed Makalaurë inside, and we let out twin gasps when we saw the bald, skeletal form lying in the bed. "Maitimo," Makalaurë breathed, rushing to his side without sparing so much as a word for Findekáno.

 

"You did it. You found him," I said softly, meeting Findekáno's eyes, and he nodded silently.

 

"What happened?" Makalaurë asked, his voice cracking.

 

"I found him chained to the cliffs outside Moringotto's stronghold," Findekáno said. "I don't know how long he'd been there, but judging from his condition I'd say it was a long time."

 

Makalaurë rested shaking fingers on the bandage covering what was left of Maitimo's right arm. "And his hand?"

 

Findekáno hesitated. "He was— He was shackled to the cliff. I couldn't loose the shackle, so I had to cut him free. It was the only way," he said.

 

"What?" In an instant Makalaurë was back on his feet, Findekáno quickly standing up to face him. "How could you?"

 

"Makalaurë," I said sharply. He whirled to face me, anger, grief, and guilt warring on his face. I shared the guilt and the grief, but not the anger, and I did my best to keep my voice level when I said, "He brought Maitimo back. Maybe not whole, but he brought him back. That's more than any of us did. Would you have preferred he leave him in Moringotto's clutches?"

 

He clenched his shaking hands into fists. "I need a moment," he managed to choke out, and then he was out of the room, the door swinging shut behind him.

 

"When did you become the voice of reason in the family?" Findekáno asked.

 

"Damned if I know. I have to say, I don't much care for the role."

 

That got a weak but genuine laugh out of him, and he sank back to his seat beside my brother. I hesitated a moment before walking over and wrapping my arms around his shoulders. "Thank you," I said. "Truly."

 

"You aren't angry?" he asked.

 

Silently, I pondered the question. "Not at you," I finally said, releasing him and taking a seat beside him. "You can be an idiot sometimes, but when it comes to Maitimo, I trust your judgement. If you say this was the only way to free him, then I believe you." It wasn't a lie. Findekáno loved Maitimo as deeply as any of us — though not in the same way. I don't think either of them knew that I knew they were lovers, as I'd kept my mouth shut about it, but it had always been plain to me.

 

"I'm angry at you," he confessed. "For all that happened when we crossed the ice. And for abandoning him to this." He gesturing to Maitimo's frail body with a sweeping wave of his hand.

 

"You can be as angry at me as you want," I said. "You brought my brother home. Like Almarë said, we owe you more than we can ever repay."