In My End Is My Beginning by Lilith

The Old Grey Widow-Maker

Amandil and the King’s Prisoner take ship for Numenor.

This work features a female version of Sauron.
The prompt was Frank Bramley’s “A Hopeless Dawn.”
The verse recited at the beginning is from Kipling’s “Harp Song of the Dane Women.

Text

“What is a woman that you forsake her
And the hearth fire and the home acre
to go with the old grey Widow-maker?”

Hearing those words, Amandil turned in surprise and looked at the King’s prisoner. She stood behind him at the dock, staring out at the grey sea.

“Have you not been at sea, lady?”

“Not in many years,” she answered. “I respect the sea, its power, its ever-changing nature, but I do not like it.”

“Why not?” he asked.

She smiled slightly before she answered. “I was born of fire,” she said softly. “I have no sway at sea."