The Book of Short Tales by Lyra

B2MeM '12 - N41 - Fatal Errors

Written for the "Sons of Fëanor" prompt, "the cruel servants of Celegorm..."

Two of Celegorm's servants face Maedhros, who is Not Amused.

Fatal Errors

Whatever Orgalad and Hatharan had expected, it had not been Maedhros' wrath. Nonetheless they stood like errant schoolboys while he towered before them, the heat of his rage almost tangible.
"What were you thinking?" he said, his voice all the more terrifying because he did not raise it. "They are children!"
"Their father killed our lord!" Hatharan exclaimed. "Your brother!"
Maedhros looked at him directly. The fell gleam in his eyes shone harsher than usual; Hatharan quailed visibly.
"For that, Dior died, as did Nimloth," Maedhros said, still in that eerily quiet voice. "One should think that is quite enough."

"Your brother..." Hatharan began. Orgalad interrupted him. "Please, my lord Maedhros, we did not think it would anger you. They are your enemies, after all..."
He, too, seemed to shrink under Maedhros' glare.
"Did they withhold the Silmaril?" Maedhros said softly. "Did they threaten my brother? Did they raise arms against you?" He did not wait for a reply. "Then they are not my enemies." He took a deep breath. "Orgalad and Hatharan, you are banished forthwith. I will ride in an hour: By that time you will have left our camp."
Orgalad closed his eyes in dismay, but Hatharan protested. "My lord! It is winter! What are we to do? How are we to survive?"

Maedhros' hand had clenched around the handle of his great sword. It was trembling as though Maedhros just barely kept it from taking the blade to his late brother's servants.
"That is no concern of mine," he said coldly. "I daresay you will have a better chance than those children, and you did not ask what they were to do." His voice trembled during his last words; the raw quality of it made Orgalad and Hatharan shiver.
"Now go," Maedhros said in a deadly whisper, "before I forget myself! If I ever see you again, I will cut you to pieces."
They fled, helter-skelter, before the fire of his fury.
An hour later Maedhros rode out, and searched the woods for weeks on end. He came back empty-handed.