Part I

He could feel the stares of the crowd as he rode into the city on his black horse, a tall and lordly figure with golden bronze hair gleaming in the late sunlight, clad in simple brown riding clothes with a long grey cloak and high black boots. The King waved the people back as he stepped forward to greet the Elven sculptor who would create the monument to the two small heroes who had sacrificed their lives to save Middle-Earth.

And Annúnlanthir had never met either of them.

King Elessar looked much as the sculptor had envisioned him, in rich black tunic trimmed with silver embroidery and simple coronet, dark hair lightly streaked with grey, high-cheekboned face etched inexorably with sorrow. A fine subject for a statue he would have been, himself.

"So," he said with an attempt at a smile that only deepened the lines of sadness, "this is the son of the greatest sculptor on earth. I have seen much of your work, and I cannot imagine anyone more qualified for the task at hand. Not even your father.  His work is awe-inspiring, unparalleled in sheer grandeur.  But yours has such an intimacy about it.  Looking at your figures, I feel as if I know them.  That is the quality I would wish for this memorial.  Come, I shall show you to your rooms."

He asked a youth to look after the visitor's horse, then lifted Annúnlanthir's one bag himself instead of ordering his page to do so, much to the sculptor's surprise.  He was pleased that the rooms had large sunny windows and opened onto a small and private veranda overlooking magnificent gardens and providing a view of the chalky mountains in the west, which the setting sun was tingeing with coral red. Just four months it had been since the War had ended, and already much of the city was rebuilt and the gardens replanted.  He could hear court musicians playing on the second level.

There was everything he could need in the room: tools, cloths, cleaning equipment, and of course the clay. The only ornaments hanging on the walls were a fine tapestry and an impressive shield bearing an image of the White Tree. There was a narrow but comfortable looking bed, a large cushioned chair and a small table, a shelf of books, a bowl and pitcher, a bell he could ring for a servant. A door revealed a small room with a tub. Another door led into the hallway which led into the palace itself.

The King asked him if he found it to his liking and the sculptor said certainly. He felt glad of the simplicity of the apartment. And grateful to the King for not allowing the populace to overwhelm him.

He dined with the King and Queen that evening, along with a motley company consisting of a Dwarf, an Elf like himself, two very small youths and a very old fellow even smaller, and another royal couple who were introduced as Prince Faramir of Ithilien and his new bride Eowyn.  Annúnlanthir knew the Elf already: Legolas, who was a distant cousin and in fact had referred him to the King.  Legolas and the Dwarf, Gimli, appeared to be staunch friends, much to the sculptor's amazement. The two young Halflings, Meriadoc and Peregrin, known more fondly as Merry and Pippin, could hardly take their eyes off the stranger in their midst. He could hardly help but wonder what they must think of him.

Then there was the white-haired Wizard, the one the People called Mithrandir and the Halflings called Gandalf. Annúnlanthir tried not to look at him too steadily. He thought he had never seen so much naked sorrow distilled into one face before. It was rather frightening, even though the sculptor was no stranger to sorrow himself.

****

The main problem was obvious enough: how to capture the likenesses of two faces he had never seen, when there were no drawings to be had anywhere. Descriptions he heard in plenty. He could picture them in his mind, listening to the stories the others of their Fellowship told. But it was his impression only. Would the images he formed in his own mind satisfy their closest comrades?

Of course, the vast majority of those who would see the monument had never seen its subjects, and would not care one way or the other. He knew what his father would have done in such an instance: he would have searched in his memory for the most beautiful faces he could recall and fused them into his work. But Annúnlanthir hated the very idea. He wanted to reproduce the faces exactly as they had been in life, not impart an empty, decorous beauty that would be admired momentarily and then forgotten.  One's subject need not be beautiful in order to make a beautiful work of art.  And he was aware of the impossibility of the task at hand, and he felt as if the block of marble from which the monument would be carved were already laid upon his shoulders.  

The others would watch him draw sketch after sketch, offering hints:  "No, his nose was more like this...­no, the chin was more like so, the eyebrows...had a round face and, um, no, the eyes were deeper...."  Queen Arwen talked to him as he sketched with a stick of charcoal, sitting out on the sunny veranda. It was a beautiful late summer day, a light breeze wafting in myriad fragrances from the garden below, the sun turning the water that bubbled up from the fountain to innumerable diamonds. A peacock called from a nearby tree.  Hard to believe that sorrow could touch such a place. 

The little handmaiden who had accompanied the Queen gazed at him in wonderment, then blushed as he smiled at her and turned her eyes to the garden, then to the Queen, whom she plainly adored.  Small wonder, he thought.  He had already observed her kindness to her servants and would have greatly admired her for that alone, had she been only half as beautiful.

Then again, had she been only half as beautiful, she would still have been breathtaking.

"I met one of your daughters," she said with a smile.  "Orolindë, I believe?  It was a very long time ago, but she was hard to forget.  She had your eyes, as clear and dark and compassionate, but less sad.  Your hands also, shapely and graceful, yet strong."

He nodded with a bit of a smile.  "I have not seen her in a long time either.  She is the only one of my daughters who has never married and gone to the Undying Lands.  She has a wandering spirit."

"And an artist's soul," the Queen said.  Then she picked up one of the drawings and studied it.  "I can see him in my mind so clearly.  He had a face of uncommon beauty for his kind--I might have taken him for an Elf-child at first sight, but for the feet." 

She smiled sadly and the sculptor felt a disturbing flutter. Just as well he had not been commissioned to put her into marble.  He wrenched his eyes to the drawings and tried to concentrate on them instead of the moonbeam face and dusky eyes before him, the melodious voice that spoke so feelingly into the fragrance of the garden.

"But even more than that, he had a certain quality that stood out from the rest.  Like a little prince among them he was.  At times he became filled with a silvery inner radiance that literally shone out of him as if he had been dipped in starlight. It stirred a feeling in my heart like no other--not the same sort of love I have for my husband or for my father or brothers even, but powerful nonetheless. Sometimes I would see him looking at me as though he understood perfectly, and it was as the meeting of twin souls."

She sighed and the sculptor's mouth twitched. Twin souls indeed, he could not help thinking.  He picked up one of the drawings and held it up to the sunlight.

"I suppose this is not even close," he said. She looked at the sketch gravely.  The maidservant stole over to look too.  She was about thirteen or fourteen years old, with guileless brown eyes in a small sweet inquisitive face, and her plump hands fluttered on her bosom as she peered at the drawings.

"I like this one," she said picking up one of them.  "So pretty.  May I have it after you're done?" she asked the sculptor shyly. "I would like to copy it.  I don't draw nearly as well as you, but I would still like to try."

"You may have it now," he said smiling, and the Queen smiled also.  The girl held the sketch to her breast with an expression of pure delight.

"Your skill is astonishing," the Queen said, and he could tell she meant it, that she was not merely trying to be kind. "Yet..."

"Yet it is not right," he said, laying the parchment down on the table once more. She looked at him gently.

"No one expects you to capture their exact likeness," she said. "We all know you have never seen them. This we knew when we commissioned you."

"I know," he sighed. "Most people have never seen them either, and will be satisfied with what they get.  Indeed, it is my guess that most of them will forget about them soon anyway.  But still...I would not be content with merely producing a beautiful work of art. With all due modesty, I know I could do that. But I want...the truth. Not mere beauty. I want the reality, to render the true beauty that precipitated such an act as they performed."

She nodded. "I understand. I wish I had the skill for it myself. They paid a great price so that we could unite this Kingdom once more and reign in peace and prosperity. No monument that could ever be made could ever really do justice to such nobility of soul. We only expect you to do what you can."

She rose and went to stand at the rail of the veranda. The breeze molded her emerald-green gown to her body and stirred strands of her long dark hair into dancing plumes, until once again the sculptor found it necessary to avert his eyes to his pitiful parchments.

"And his poor servant," she said suddenly turning to look at him once more. "In all that time when they were at Imladris, I never saw him leave his master's side. They were always together."

Absently she plucked a purple flower that grew on a vine around the railing and twirled it in her long pale fingers for a few moments. Then she let it drop and turned abruptly, and started back inside.

"Come, Mikala," she said to the girl, who trotted along after her, with one backward glance at the sculptor, holding her drawing with tender reverence.

****

"I have endured many losses in my life," the Wizard said, "but these two were the very hardest of all.  And I fear the grief will remain as a cold blade wedged inside my breast for all eternity.  Sometimes I wish I could seek solace from the pain in death.  This comes of loving mortals, of course.   I've always known the danger of that, and yet it has never stopped me."  His voice trembled and he looked away abruptly toward the sinking sun.

Annúnlanthir nodded.  "I know that feeling all too well.  My wife was mortal."

"Was she?"  The Wizard looked at the sculptor again, raising bushy white eyebrows. 

"Yes.  It was almost four hundred years ago, and she lived a long time, by mortal reckoning.  Yet it seemed a mere day that we were together.  She had a terrible cancer that ate at her insides and gave her no rest, and all the concoctions I could prepare for her could only ease her suffering somewhat, until it came to the point where she virtually begged me to kill her.  I think I would have done so, but she spared me from the necessity herself.  She merely let go.  I have small solace even in memory, because of the horror of her pain.  I have never seen such--such devastation of one beautiful, helpless, brave soul and body who did nothing to deserve such torment." 

"I see you still feel the loss even after all this time," the Wizard said gently.  "Time is kinder to mortals.   When they suffer loss, their grief lessens with time, and eventually, they die themselves.  I have sometimes envied them this."

"So have I.  Sometimes I wish that my children had chosen mortality, so they would not be subjected to this.  Then again, that would mean that I would lose them, but I lost my two sons in battle anyway.  My father, who had such a horror of loving mortals, lost three of my brothers in war as well, and one of my sisters, who succumbed to grief at the loss of her husband and son.  Still, they lived a very long time, even so.  Mortals live the mere space of an eye-blink, by our reckoning."

He looked at the two masses of clay that were beginning to take shape under his hands.  Two weeks had passed since his conversation with the Queen, and he had decided it was time he started working the clay.   Dipping his hands in a bowl of water, he began kneading one of the masses until something resembling a head began to form.   The Wizard continued to stand at the rail with his back to the sculptor.  He had met Annúnlanthir's father and disliked him, even while acknowledging the greatness of his work.  An arrogant fellow, with a supercilious attitude toward ordinary human beings and icy intolerance of their weaknesses...­reminded him strangely of Saruman.

"My wife was not beautiful by the usual standards," Annúnlanthir said thoughtfully, as if to try to shake off the depressing subject of loss, "and I sometimes think that outraged my father even more than her mortality.  He would scarcely have anything to do with us, or even with our children.  But she had a face of such ineffable sweetness and humor and strength, with fine dark eyes that could flash with anger one moment and brim over with merriment the next, nearly closing when she laughed.  I would have changed nothing.  My father taunted me with the fact that even if she had been a beauty, her looks would have faded with age and I would be going about with a woman who appeared to be my grandmother, and we would look ridiculous.  I think he was appalled that a son of his, and one following in his footsteps at that, would do something that made him ridiculous.  But I could never understand why he could so completely fail, as a great artist himself, to look beyond surface appearances and see the true beauty within.  Then again, maybe that very beauty is what held him back.  For that sort of loveliness was inexorably linked to her mortality.  I can understand that.  As you say, loving a mortal exacts a heavy price.  And yet if I had it to do all over again, even knowing what I would suffer, I would do so without hesitation."

"As would I," the Wizard said softly.

In the next several days, Annúnlanthir found himself growing less interested in what his subjects looked like and more in what they had done.  He divined much in the stories the others told him, but their grief was still too fresh, they could tell only fragments before they would break down.   It went hard with him that he was putting them to such pain while trying to come to know his subjects.  Yet this knowledge was vital if he were to do justice to his work. 

The Prince of Ithilien, Faramir, was the one most willing to tell what he had seen.  He had known them only for a short time but had observed much.

"There was such a connection," he said as he sat in the large chair and watched the sculptor at his work.  "It was not like brothers exactly, although it was close to that, and not like lovers either, or the usual kind of friendship or relation between master and servant.  In some wise it was like all of those things, yet something more.  It was very like comrades in arms, which I know much about, and like parent and child, in other ways.  Nor was it all on one side.  I remember one day when the gardener was struck with a dreadful toothache.  That was when his master searched all around for the herbs to prepare the treatment for the impacted tooth.  He applied it himself, then sat beside him until he was better, then sang him to sleep.  I'll never forget it....I only wish I had written down the formula.  But I was too preoccupied with other things." 

A sad smile flickered over his handsome face as he reminisced.   "There was...such a lack of hesitation and nonsense to their connection.  A complete harmony.  It was perfection.  I know not how else to define it."

Annúnlanthir felt sorriest for the old one, who should have been able to tell him the most.  The sculptor had begun on the faces at last, the bodies being done almost to his satisfaction.  Except that he was not sure how to position them.  Side by side, of course.  But, should they be touching?  And if so, how?  Perhaps the old one could tell him. 

"How is this?" Annúnlanthir asked him, pointing out the face of the one that would represent the old one's nephew.  "I know it does not resemble him exactly, but is it anywhere close?"

The old Hobbit moved closer to the clay models and squinted.  They were life sized, seated on what was meant to be stone.  He reached out a wizened hand and almost touched the face of the one representing his nephew, then the fingers stopped short.  That small gesture said much to the sculptor.  It seemed his project was as doomed as the Ringbearers themselves.

"I am sorry," Annúnlanthir said after a long moment.  "I can see them in my mind, without even closing my eyes.  I can see exactly how I think they should look.  I would never be able to convey them to those who truly knew them."

He regretted the words as soon as he spoke them, for it seemed his despair transferred to the old Hobbit, who moved back a step or two and would have fallen if the sculptor had not jumped up and caught him. 

"My dear, dear lads," he murmured without taking his faded eyes away from the clay models.  "I shall be joining them soon.  Perhaps I will live long enough to see the monument complete, but then again ­I think not.  I think I cannot wait so long to be with my sweet boys again.  You know?"

The sculptor shut his eyes.  "I feel with you.  I lost both my sons.  When this project is completed, I will be sailing to the Undying Lands to join my daughters and their families.  That is all the comfort I have."

"Yes," the old one said, although he did not seem to have heard the sculptor's words.  "I think I will go to be with them soon.  I do not need to see marble likenesses of my dear lads.  I can see them clear as daylight.  Sometimes in dreams I can see them beckoning to me, laughing, teasing, asking me when am I going to quit this silly earth and come to where they are.  Where do you think they may be, eh?"

"I know not.  My father scorned the idea of an afterlife.  But as for myself, I have sometimes held out the hope that there is something after all.  If there truly are rewards after life, your lads are faring very well indeed."

"Ah," the old one said with a hint of a smile spreading the countless wrinkles of his tiny face, "thank you.  Yes, they are surely having a wonderful time, far better than most of us.  All the more reason to join them, I should think.  Can't let them have all the goodies and leave none over for poor old Bilbo, now can we?"

Legolas came to look at the work, after a few days.  He gazed thoughtfully at the two clay forms, as Annúnlanthir's large strong hands worked tried vainly to form them to his vision.

"What do you think?" the sculptor asked.  "You have an Elf's memory; perhaps you can convey more clearly to me how they should look?"  A spark of hope flared in him. 

"You come close," Legolas said.  "It is hardest to make the faces exact, I know that, even when one has seen them.  You have molded them beautifully.  I can see much of the souls of their models in them, even if the features are not quite like."

"Can you?" Annúnlanthir turned to the other Elf with lifted eyebrows. 

"Yes, it seems you are coming to know them, little by little.  You have begun to love them, and it shows.  A bit more and it will be ready for the stone.  There's just one thing..­." 

Legolas peered at the figures.  The Ringbearer's right hand was clutched to his chest where the Ring was supposed to be.  But his left hand--the sculptor was at a loss at how it should be.  It rested in his lap, but seemed not entirely at home there.

"It's the positioning," he said.  "It's not quite right somehow.  I am still not certain how it should be."

"Seat them closer," Legolas said.  "Like so...­do you mind if I tamper with your work a bit?"

"No, go ahead.  Show me."

The other Elf took the left hand of the Ringbearer and held it for a moment.  A look of wonder stole over his fair features. 

"It is warm," he said still gazing at the small clay hand that lay like a child's, trusting and vulnerable in his own. "Almost like human flesh.  It seems that it would move on its own in another moment."

He continued to look at it as though not quite sure what to do with it himself, as though expecting it to direct him....

Part II

"Pippin!  What's the matter?" cried Merry as a strange spasm seemed to grip his cousin.  The young Hobbits were getting ready for bed.  Pippin had only begun to unbutton his shirt when he clutched at his hair, his face contorted.

"Merryyyy! ­help meeee," he moaned, then his knees buckled and he doubled over on the floor, rocking himself back and forth.  Merry dropped down beside him, gripping his shoulder.

"Pippin!  What is it?  What's happening?"

"It's...­something! ­I..."  Pippin gnashed his teeth and shut his eyes.  "I...­it's like something--­invading me..."

"You mean like..."  Merry made a helpless gesture in the air. 

"It came in here..."  Pippin pointed with a quivering finger to his chest-- "and it's...gone into my head...­it wants...something...uhhhhh...."

"I'm going to get Gandalf," gasped Merry jumping to his feet. 

"No Merry­, don't leave me!" wailed Pippin, then suddenly went limp on the floor.  Merry stood for a horrified moment, then stooped down once more over his cousin.  The agonized expression was gone and Pippin's face was blank, then a most astonishing change came over it.

"Pippin?  Are you all right?" 

Pippin appeared now to be much more than all right.  He smiled almost beatifically.  "Ohhhhh," he breathed.  "Ohhhh...ohhhh...ohhhhh..."

His eyes closed and now he looked to be having the most wonderful dream imaginable, surrounded by mountains of fine food and drink and candies and pipe-weed and comely maidens and delicious music and who knew what else.  Merry could only think that his cousin was passing into the next world, and he sprang up and dashed from the room, shouting for Gandalf.

The Wizard came in with him to find Pippin asleep on the floor, still appearing to be in an utterly blissful dream.  He lifted the young Hobbit and laid him on the bed, shaking his white head.

"What has he been into this time?" he demanded.

"I--I don't know, honestly," Merry stammered.  "One moment he looked like he was being--twisted, then suddenly it went away and now..." 

Gandalf laid a hand on either side of Pippin's face.  "His skin feels normal.  I think maybe he had some sort of--of after-effect, episode, flashback, something from that damned palantir.  But I cannot imagine what is affecting him now.  Look at that smile."

"You don't think he's going to..."  Merry looked close to tears.

"No.  I think he'll be all right.  He certainly looks like he's enjoying himself, yes?  It would be a shame to wake him out of it, and I doubt he would love us for it.  But I'll stay here until morning."

All next day Pippin went about with a silly grin on his face.  He could not remember what his lovely dream had been about; he could only remember having it.  Yet when questioned about his attack the night before, he gave them only a blank stare. 

****

“I think it is ready,” said the King as he stood looking at the clay figures, after a long thoughtful gaze that misted his grey eyes. The sculptor thought once more what a fine subject for a statue he would have made.

“Is it?” he said. “I cannot help but feel that it is not right and at this point it never will be.”

“But I think it is,” the King said looking at the sculptor with indubitable sincerity. “The features are not exactly like. But the spirit shines out of them, just the same. I can feel them looking back at me as if they know me, as though they might speak to me. I feel almost an urge to bow to them, and to order the entire city to do so. I’ve seen that quality in your work before, as I told you, but I really think you have outdone yourself. This is wonderful work, and no amount of riches could possibly recompense you. I hardly know what else to say.”

“I must confess something,” the sculptor said after a long moment. “Yesterday I decided to try a technique I learned long ago, but have never used before, of penetrating the mind of one who knew the subjects very well, to extract a clear and precise vision of the originals. But it caused such torment that I had to stop it after a few moments. There is a counter-probe, if you will, that will put the subject into a dream so beautiful that he will not remember the suffering afterwards. But I cannot put anyone to that kind of torture, even if I can give them such bliss afterward that they will not remember it. Indeed, I am not so sure they would forget if the suffering was too prolonged, rather like an exceptionally hard birthing.”

“So that’s what…” The King put a hand to his bearded chin, frowning.

“Forgive me,” the sculptor said bowing his head. “If you really think this is ready for the marble…”

“I do.” The King gave him the saddest smile he had ever seen. “Do not worry about young Pippin; I assure you he has absolutely no memory of it. And think not badly of yourself. You have done a wonderful work. I think to do any more would be to diminish it--not that I am any expert on art, but I know what my heart tells me. The marble block will be delivered in a day or two. Wait until you see it—I think you are in for a pleasant surprise.”

He was indeed. The marble was of a sort found only in a certain part of the world, and was extremely costly and very rarely used. Even Annúnlanthir’s father had never used it but once, for the monument of a great king. It was of a moonlit white with an almost translucent quality a little like onyx or moonstone, a subtle rose-gold flame deep inside, and a sheen of palest blue-violet that eluded the eye, then appeared once more when one least expected it. At times it seemed to shimmer in the dark with a gold-silver radiance, as though a star were trying to work its way out.

Annúnlanthir stared in stunned silence as the block was born by twelve strong men and two powerful draught-horses into his studio. His heart twisted. Like his father before him, he always did his own stone-cutting. But how could he render his vision into this wondrous marble?

“No other stone is good enough,” the King said. “For that matter, neither is this. But it is the closest any could come.”

“I still believe my work is hardly worthy,” the sculptor said, rather lamely. The Queen, along with little Mikala, was looking at the clay work with soft eyes.

“You can feel proud and satisfied, I should think,” she said. “After all, a monument is just that. It is not the originals. One can hardly expect it to be so, but a tribute only.”

“I think it’s the prettiest thing I ever saw,” Mikala spoke up. “Don’t change anything!” She put out a hand to touch the figures, then jerked it back, shocked at her own temerity. The Queen laughed gently.

“When it is put into marble, then you may touch it,” she said laying a hand momentarily on the girl’s shoulder. The caress made her positively glow with delight.

It was almost three days before Annúnlanthir could bring himself to begin cutting the stone, but once he had begun, it was not so monumental a task as he had imagined. It was almost as if the stone were helping him along, aware of its privilege in having been chosen to immortalize the little heroes. It was encouraging to the sculptor. He hardly touched any food and drank only water, feeling that bodily nourishment would somehow diminish the purity of his work. He felt something akin to happiness as he worked day after day, night after night, week after week, a feeling he had not felt in so long that he had almost forgotten what it was.

He was interrupted only to be informed that the old one had passed in the night, and had gone to join “his dear lads.” Merry and Pippin had been with him, sitting by his bedside talking with him far into the evening and holding his hands, reminiscing, listening to him talk about what all they would do when he reached the Other Side. He went out with a smile on his face, they reported tearfully. Whatever monkeyshines you young scamps are about right now, you better not leave me out of it or you’ll catch it flying, were his last words. There was a funeral of course, and his body was sent to Rivendell, at his request. And then as always, life must go on….

Yet when Annúnlanthir finally laid the chisel aside and viewed the finished product, dissatisfaction and disappointment overtook him again. Yes, doubtless, to the eyes of many, it was a beautiful work of art. Perhaps the best thing he had ever done, aside from the statues of his sons, and he felt he had not entirely done them justice either, but they at least looked like his sons. With a heavy heart he summoned the King and Queen to view the monument. It was getting on for dusk when they appeared, along with the little maidservant, whose mouth dropped open in a silent wide O, her eyes widening to their limits.

“I hardly know what to say,” whispered the Queen. Her eyes filled with tears and looked even more beautiful than when dry.

The King swallowed twice. “It is…wonderful. I am at a loss for words also. This is beyond anything I could ever have expected, even from you.”

“Look,” Mikala said, “it’s…glowing.” She pointed at the marble work, and indeed, it was suffused with a faint radiance in the setting sun. “I’ve never seen a statue glow before. How does it do that?”

“It is a special property of this stone,” the sculptor explained kindly. He felt the weight that lay on his heart lift slightly. Perhaps it was more than just a property of the marble, after all.

“There are chips left?” Mikala said. “Um…can you make--jewelry of it?”

“Jewelry?” The Queen raised her eyebrows. The maiden blushed.

“N-not for me,” she stammered. “I want it as a gift for my mother, to console her for the loss of my father in the War? I know it won’t really make up for it, but still…”

“I will make her the loveliest necklace in all the land,” Annúnlanthir said smiling at her, in spite of the sudden tightness in his throat, and the King and Queen smiled also. “And although I doubt I can make it truly worthy of her and her husband and her daughter, I will certainly do my best.”

“Let me know what you need, and I will see that you have it,” the Queen told him. “Our little heroes are not the only ones who gave their lives for the rest of us, after all.”

****

It was the night before the unveiling . The sky was clear, the stars brilliant in the autumnal chill. Annúnlanthir felt restless. He went to the stables, saddled his horse, and went riding out on the plain, as he often did at night. He slowed his horse to a walk, taking deep breaths, trying to account for the melancholy that was seeping back into his being. Why could he not shake off this feeling of failure? It was approaching despair. Oh, he knew what some of it was. The monument was only part of it. He could not deny it: he had fallen in love with the Queen. He had fought against it, knowing nothing could ever come of it. But before him he could only see yawning blackness, and he felt a sudden craving for complete oblivion. What would it be like? Was there really nothing else, or would he perhaps be engulfed in a sweet dream that would make him forget the torment that was life?

Only one way to find out, he supposed….

He gazed up at the largest star in the sky, trying to fix his mind on it and block out everything else. He had found this technique to be comforting at times when his thoughts were very black, to focus entirely on a star and concentrate as hard as he could, until the star seemed to speak to him with a voice of council and music. This time it required all the mental strength he could muster, to put everything out of his mind except for this blue-white orb an inestimable distance away, and try to become one with it, to put himself inside the star and the star inside himself, until he hardly knew where he left off and the star began.

It was almost working…almost. And then, just as his concentration was about to break, he heard it. Something indeed was speaking to him.

Go back. Now.

He turned his horse back to the city and spurred him on, scarcely aware of how cold the night air was. He rode as fast as he could, stabled his horse and began the usual grooming, telling himself that whatever had compelled him to come back, his steed was still entitled to the best of care.

This done, he turned back to his quarters, pulling his cloak around him. As he came in sight of the veranda, he could see a light burning in the window. He had not left a lamp burning—he never did, since he could see his way in without it from the torches that burned at night around the ramparts of the city.

Someone was in the room.

Part III

Annúnlanthir had no weapon with him save for a small knife he always carried. Something told him it would not be necessary; still, cautiously he peered into the window. He told himself no thieves were likely to make off with his work, as well guarded as the palace was, and as heavy as was the monument itself….

There appeared to be a child sitting in the big chair, holding a lamp that burned fragrant oil. Its face was turned from him so all he could see was its curly brown hair and one arm in a white sleeve.

He drew his key from his pocket in puzzlement. There were no children about the palace and if there had been, they would surely have been in bed. It was not one of the Halflings either; how would they have got in and what would they be doing here? He fitted the key in the lock and turned it.

His visitor turned without the slightest sign of alarm and he saw it was no child, though by no means old either. Its large blue eyes, which seemed to have been made especially for laughter and merriment, were fairly brimming with mirth and delight as he halted.

“Hullo!” it spoke in a voice that might have done his heart good to hear under other circumstances, but it did not rise from the chair. “You're late--but no matter.  I am proud to meet you at last.”

It was not holding a lamp after all, yet it was swimming in radiance. Its white shirt and breeches emanated the same light that issued from its skin, yet there was neither lamp nor candle to be seen anywhere.

As if he had been dipped in starlight.

Annúnlanthir looked at its feet.

“I’d no idea I was so beautiful,” it said and it seemed about to burst into loud laughter. The sculptor sat on the edge of the bed. “I can only offer my thanks.”

“Indeed,” Annúnlanthir found himself smiling, much to his surprise. “Yet…it doesn’t really look like you, yes? Although I was not so far off as I supposed.”

“Oh but it looks so much better!” his visitor exclaimed, the radiance increasing twofold. “Sam is even more delighted. He was fretting over how awful he would look and I could not seem to persuade him otherwise. He has never been pleased with the way he looks.  But now he is convinced.”

“And why didn’t Sam come with you?” The sculptor lifted his eyebrows.

“He is shy. I think he was afraid he would get your name wrong. ‘It’s too much of a mouthful for the likes of me, begging your pardon, master,’—-for the afterlife of me, I never can get him to stop calling me ‘master’ somehow. ‘I can’t get past the idea of anybody doing a statue of the likes of me anyways,’ he said. ‘I think my old Gaffer wouldn’t approve. Statues and such. That’s not for us.’ That’s Sam for you.”

The sculptor was surprised to hear himself laugh out loud.

“Why didn’t you appear to me sooner?” he cried a moment later. “I could have captured your exact likeness if you had come before the cutting. It is too late now.”

“Because I was certain you could improve on me,” said the Spirit with a laugh that must have been quite infectious in life. “And so you have. I can hardly wait for the unveiling.”

“But I didn’t want to ‘improve’ on you.” The sculptor thought how silly this must sound. “I wanted to capture you just as you were, and I agonized over it for weeks. Besides, if I may be so bold as to say so, you scarcely need improvement.”

“I am sorry,” the Spirit said and the radiance diminished ever so slightly as it looked down at its clasped hands. “But the thing is…I think I was afraid that if I appeared to you before the cutting, your vision wouldn’t be true. Maybe you’d be too caught up in capturing our exact images to accomplish … What exactly were you trying to accomplish?” The blue eyes looked up once more with a self-reproachful beauty.

“I think I wished little more than to give comfort to those who had known and loved you best, and to capture your true essence,” said Annúnlanthir. “I knew it could not truly make up for their loss, but whatever I could possibly do to lighten their sorrow, I was willing. I have never known such good company. In this, I think I have failed.”

“You think?” The Spirit drew up its feet and blinked at the sculptor. “Do you think it would really have made such a difference if you had captured us exactly?”

“I always feel it would have. I suppose I am thinking of my own sons. I asked myself if someone who had never seen them and did not know them had carved their likenesses, but did not really recreate them exactly as they were, would it have satisfied me?”

“And would it? Would it make such a difference if the sculptor captured them exactly, if he did not infuse the soul of them and himself into the work? Would it not have been better for him to give his own vision to them?”

“Yes, of course. But…”

“But you would also have wanted them rendered as they truly looked.”

“Exactly.” The sculptor gazed at the shining figure, wondering if he could be dreaming. “Am I the first you have appeared to?”

The Spirit’s face creased again into merriment. “You are.”

“I am flattered.” The sculptor could hardly help but smile back.

“I met your wife,” the Spirit said. “A wonderful lady. I am quite in love with her.”

“Really?” Annúnlanthir stood upright suddenly.

“Not to worry,” the Spirit held up one hand as though to ward off a blow and he could see that it lacked a finger. “She is like a second mother to me. She is proud of your work and thinks it the very best you have ever done—even better than the statues of your sons, so she says. You can imagine what that does for my ego…such as it is.”

The sculptor sat down again, his head reeling.

“She is very, very happy, you know. But of course it would be impossible to impart that to you. Your sons are here also. I have been reunited with my parents, who drowned on the same day when I was a child, and also my dear old ‘uncle’ Bilbo, and Sam is with his mother. Yes, of course it’s sad for those left behind. Even if they believe they will be reunited with us again, still I can understand their feelings. Because, you see, long ago, when I was a boy, I was very ill once, and I saw this place. Well, only a pale shadow of it really, but to me, it was…well. I saw a dazzling light, like the sun but much brighter, and yet it did not hurt my eyes. I wanted nothing so much as to go to it. And as I approached it, I saw them. My mother and father. They stood smiling at me with their arms outstretched and I tried to run to them. I was surrounded by such love. I wanted to fly straight to their arms and just rest there. I heard music the like of which even you never heard before, and there were so many flowers, trees, fragrances I never knew existed, and an unspeakable brightness. I felt I could dance and sing and fly forever. But then….”

“They told you you must go back.”

“Yes. They said I had a mission to accomplish and I must fulfill it before I could join them, then I would return once it was done. I so did not want to go back! I fought and kicked and screamed and cried not to. But, go back I did, and there were Bilbo and Sam, weeping for joy to see I had returned. They had their hands full,  for I made no secret of the fact that I was not happy to be back. My poor old uncle, and dear sweet Sam—he was just a little lad then, but already far fonder of me than ever I deserved. I was horrid to them, to the point that Bilbo finally told me if I did not behave myself, I would go to the place where bad Hobbits were sent, where all the mushrooms were flavored like castor oil and would give me a dreadful stomach-ache. People speak of me now as if I were too good for this earth, but I could be a very naughty boy! Of course I felt pretty badly about the way I treated them. But it is of no consequence now. If the subject comes up at all, we laugh about it.”

The sculptor said nothing. He looked down at his hands, which were dangling between his knees, aware once more of the fragrance that filled the room. It was like something he had smelled before, and yet not. Like some sweet herb or leaf crushed and wetted as with rain or dew, then warmed in powerful sunlight.

“I like what you did with our feet,” the Spirit said. The sculptor caught himself laughing again. “It cannot be easy to sculpt foot hair. I dare say many mortals think we Hobbits have ugly feet, and ought to wear shoes. Did anyone advise you to put shoes on us?”

“Not a one,” Annúnlanthir smiled. “Of course, no one outside the Fellowship was allowed to see the work with the exception of a servant or two, but no one seems to have noticed the feet. I suppose that says something for my work. But still…”

“I understand,” the Spirit said, propping its chin on its clasped hands. “I know what it is to feel that you have failed at what you set out to do. I suppose no one but you will ever know the real story, unless you tell them, and I hope you find a way to do so. But, as you know, I was supposed to toss the Ring back into the fire and destroy it? I did not. Something happened…it took full possession of me, and I could not let it go. But for the creature they called Gollum, it would not have been destroyed at all, and the unthinkable would have happened.” He held up his right hand once more to show the missing finger. “I claimed it for my own. After that whole excruciating trek up there with my faithful Samwise,  I could not do what I had set out to do. I suppose, had I survived, I would have spent much time agonizing over my failure and all, but I know now that would have foolish. Because I had done what I could, and it is useless to berate oneself over what one can’t. Do you see what I mean?”

“I think so,” said the sculptor. “So, you are saying I should be content with knowing I did what I could, and not torment myself over what I could not?”

The Spirit nodded. “Exactly. You were true to your vision, and in my estimate, you accomplished what you set out to do. Could you not be at peace with yourself knowing that?”

“Perhaps.” Annúnlanthir was thoughtful. “Time will tell. But you—could you not tell me more of what happened? Or appear to the others? It might be a tremendous comfort if they knew you were in a place where you are happy and safe. Far more so than a hunk of chiseled rock, I should think.”

“They will see me,” said the Spirit with a sly secret glee. “I suppose someday a book will be written about us, although not for a very long time yet. And I imagine they will change our story so that we do not die, after all. How they will accomplish our rescue, I’ve no clue. Of course, in that instance, you would not be in it at all, my friend.”

“Ah!” said the sculptor. “And you would wish this? To have them change the true story so that you and your companion survived the cataclysm?”

“Well…” the Spirit looked up with a charmingly thoughtful air, laying a finger to its chin. “It would be nice to think that readers would become so fond of us they could not bear to have us die. And yes, I like to think they would have Sam go back home and marry his sweetheart and raise up a dozen children and become greatly esteemed of his people. I could accept that much deviation from the facts. But I wish them to tell the truth about me and the Ring, and not simply have me chuck it in and be the big hero and come marching home in a blaze of glory and so forth. I would have them tell it as it really happened.”

“I’ve a feeling they would not like that any more than having you die,” the sculptor said shaking his head. “Nor would they love me for telling it. But did you not say you hoped I would improve on you?”

“Art is one thing, deliberate lies are another.” The Spirit shrugged. “Many people prefer a lie, I suppose. You are not one of those, and that gives your art its greatness. It may not always show things exactly as they were, but it reaches the core of the truth and does not flinch from it. That is all I want for myself. To be the subject of great art and not of lies.” It drew up its knees and wrapped its arms around them in a childlike manner. “I am in the middle of pleading Sméagol’s case, you know. After all, he did save Middle-Earth, although such was not his intent, but he has suffered much for a very long time, and I would hate to think of him condemned to eat castor-oil flavored mushrooms for all eternity. They are still deliberating what to do with him.”

Annúnlanthir chuckled again. “Well, I wish you luck.” He glanced downward. “Your feet are not ugly at all. They are far comelier than any smooth, dainty fairy feet that never took a step on anyone else’s behalf. It would be a shame to hide them.”

“Thank you,” the Spirit said modestly. “I am so looking forward to the unveiling. I think I said that already.  I should leave, before I grow tiresome.”

“So am I. I feel better about my work now. But…I’m afraid I have fallen in love with the Queen.” The sculptor sighed, not really knowing why he had disclosed this, unless he thought maybe the Spirit could council him on the matter.

“That is fatally easy to do.” Compassionate eyes looked up at him. “I know.”

“Do you?” Annúnlanthir looked out the window. Some of the darkness seemed to be creeping back in.

“Go to your daughters,” the Spirit said gently. “I promise you will be happy. And try to forgive your father if you can. He is far unhappier than you. He has shunned the light much too long.”

“Happy. I have nearly forgotten what happiness is. So…will I see my sons someday too?”

The Spirit stood up and held out its left hand. Annúnlanthir took it hesitantly, as Legolas had done, and was surprised to find that it felt exactly like living flesh only much warmer.

“I cannot predict that far yet, but--I think so,” the Spirit said. “It was wonderful chatting with you. I feel honored that they allowed me the privilege, Annúnlanthir…did I say it right?”

“Precisely.” The sculptor’s large hand closed over the Spirit’s tiny one, very gently although he knew he could have squeezed it hard without hurting it at all. “The honor is all mine. And…do not feel unworthy of your friend. I think we deserve our friends. We may not always deserve our spouses, our parents, our children or siblings, but the love of our friends is not such a blind love. Perhaps it is the truest vision of all. We are none of us perfect, but I have heard it said that our friends are a reflection of ourselves.” It seemed absurd to be giving council to one who had passed to the Other Side, but the sculptor felt compelled to do so somehow. “So, please feel free to drop in again any time. And tell Sam I don’t care if he gets my name wrong…Frodo.”

With a smile of blinding brilliance, the Spirit vanished. But the fragrance remained, and before long it began to steep into Annúnlanthir’s senses, until peace found him and he floated in it as if in a warm bath full of lilies and light.

****

In the morning, Annúnlanthir told Merry and Pippin of his visitor, thinking it might comfort them. Somewhat to his dismay, Pippin just looked hurt and stricken.

“Why didn’t he appear to us?” he asked. “We’re his cousins and all. He didn’t even know you.”

“And it’s too late to change the statues,” Merry said. “Why did he wait so long to appear to you?”

The sculptor relayed as much of their conversation to them as he could remember, leaving out only the part about Gollum and the Ring. The Spirit had overestimated him, he thought, in his refusal to flinch from the truth, but he could find no way to tell it just now. But, was it really necessary for them to know?

“Can you not find some consolation knowing they are happy now and watching over you?” he asked them.

“Well…maybe,” Merry said dubiously, swallowing hard. “Maybe--sometime. I don’t know.”

“You are lucky to have known him,” the sculptor said. “He is a delightful fellow.”

“I know,” Pippin said, tears springing to his eyes. “I just wish…that maybe we had taken better care of him…or something.”

“You did what you could, I’m sure. And he knows it well.”

The Queen had brought the sculptor a royal robe to wear to the unveiling. It was of midnight blue velvet lined with scarlet silk, embroidered with gold and pearls around the edges and sleeves, very intricate and gorgeous, and he knew it for her work without being told. The oppressive ache the Queen’s presence pressed on his heart was much lessened. As he bathed and dressed he looked at the clay models and could have sworn he saw a soft shine about them, an air of sweet merriment and fun.

The veiled monument was set up before the White Tree. The musicians were playing softly. The royal pair wore their crowns and dark rich clothing, and the entire Fellowship was turned out as well, following the King and Queen in silence. The sculptor saw Mikala and her mother and sister all wearing the jewelry he had made them from the marble chips. Mikala’s mother looked at him with a gentle smile as she rested her hands on her daughters’ shoulders.  She was a solid, plain-looking servant woman, but the marble stones imparted a candlelight glow that made her face truly beautiful.  Mikala looked happy and excited, and from time to time she looked down at her new bracelet and stroked it with a plump forefinger.  Annúnlanthir had made much more jewelry with the chips, and members of the Fellowship had gone about selling it, and the proceeds had gone to build a new wing to the city orphanage and provide much needed facilities to it.  It was Mikala's idea, and the sculptor had let everyone know it. 

There was also the father of the Queen, Lord Elrond, along with his twin sons; Annúnlanthir had met them on one or two occasions before. There was also the King of Rohan, Eomer, Eowyn’s brother, with his fiancée and many of their entourage. There were a good many other Elves, some of which the sculptor had met and some which he had not.

Legolas looked at him with a tightlipped smile. The Hobbits stood by, nervously taking their hands in and out of their pockets and fidgeting with their brooches. Faramir and Eowyn nodded toward him and he took a deep breath.

At the stroke of noon the music stopped and some poetry was recited, a prayer said. Finally it was time for the unveiling. Annúnlanthir felt a strange warmth at his back although the sun was shining straight up in the sky and it was a cool day. Bells rang in the tower. The veil was pulled away, slowly at first, then with a quick jerk it was tossed aside.

A loud collective gasp went up from the Fellowship. Annúnlanthir looked toward them, and saw the Hobbits stagger a bit, caught by Gimli who stood behind them. Legolas’s eyes widened to their limit. Gandalf stared in unabashed amazement. The King and Queen looked like statues themselves.

Annúnlanthir heard a cry to the left of him. It came from Mikala.

“Why did you do that?” she squealed and her mother shushed her. Murmurs ensued from the crowd. The entire courtyard was buzzing.

“HOW did you do that?” Merry gasped. “You’d never seen them!”

The sculptor, who had not seen the monument in all the excitement, looked toward it then, and was struck totally dumb.

“Why did you change it?” Mikala demanded, and her mother spoke her name sharply. The sculptor could only stare as the murmurs grew ever louder.

“It’s them exactly,” Pippin marveled. “Why, it—it looks—it looks more like them than THEY did. They must have appeared to you long before last night, too? And you didn’t tell us?”

“Stars,” Legolas said softly. “It is a miracle.”

“Aye, that it is,” Gimli agreed, showing signs of getting royally choked up. Annúnlanthir felt the heat at his back grow even warmer. The King was visibly tearing, and soon, so was the Queen.

“How did you do it?” Faramir asked him. “For yes, it is the exact image, down to the positioning of their hands, the features, the expressions.... Their very spirit shines out of the marble as though someone had poured it in and set it alight. I fully expect them to speak. Yet you never saw them in life.”

“Well, he is an Elf, to be sure,” Eowyn said smiling. “Everyone knows they have powers beyond those of us ordinary mortals.”

“Ordinary?” Annúnlanthir said. “It was no Elf who slew the Witch-King of Angmar.”

“I thought they were prettier like they were before,” whispered Mikala. Her little sister sniffled, then giggled.

Annúnlanthir scarcely heard any more. He could not take his eyes off the creation before him. But it is not my work, he thought. So how came it to be?

It IS your work, he heard and was not sure if the voice had come from within him or from outside. No one could have accomplished it but you. So what if you had a bit of help from the Divine? We all need that, surely?

He had to smile then, for he knew very well to whom that voice belonged. He felt the warmth positively shivering along his back.  And there was the Fragrance again, like a spring night in the forest.  Only warmer.

Yes sir, it’s wonderful, said another voice, which he knew also, even though he had never heard it before. I just wish my dad could see it. He’d have a thing or two to say for sure.

Indeed, thought Annúnlanthir with a tightness in his throat.

“Wonderful, Father,” said yet another voice, and the sculptor started, turning to see his daughter Orolindë smiling at him, no sadness in her eyes at all. “I cannot tell you how proud I am!”

And behind her stood a tall figure with dark burnished hair and a truly commanding presence…no, it could not be….

“Yes, it is miraculous indeed…my son.”

The monument was not the only miracle unveiled that day……..

~*~Epilogue~*~

“I hope I have not worn you out beyond endurance,” said the Spirit as it lay crossways in the sculptor's chair, feet waving carelessly in the air.  “I promise you, this is the last of it.  Absolutely.  I will inflict no tedious epilogues on you, and I will spare you any profound meditations of mine on the nature of duty and sacrifice and what not.  It’s well that you are an Elf; I would not think of keeping any poor mortal awake all hours of the night writing down my story.”

Annúnlanthir chuckled and laid down the pen.  “Well, I did volunteer, after all,” he said.

“If I were among the living,” the Spirit said with mock solemnity, “I would tell you, never volunteer for anything!”

The sculptor laughed out loud.  The laughter came from deep inside and issued like a gust of sea-breeze.  He put out the lamp, since it was unnecessary now.

“The Other Side must surely be a brighter place for your presence, Elf-friend,” he said, “and I fear Middle-Earth is a darker one for your absence.”

The Spirit sat up, its light glowing with almost the brilliance of mid-day.  “I’m so glad I didn’t make you miss your boat.  You are greatly looking forward to your journey?”

“Very much so.  And I am at peace.  Although I will miss everyone I leave behind sorely, I am sure.”  Annúnlanthir straightened up the manuscript and tucked it carefully away in the drawer of his writing-desk and locked it.  Then he turned to look at the Spirit once more, and asked what had been on his mind for the past few days:  “Um…do you remember…death?  How it felt, or anything?”

“Yes,” the Spirit replied without hesitation, as if it had been expecting that question all along.  “I could forget, if I choose.  We have the option of choosing to forget certain things immediately, or of letting the bad memories fade with time, like scars.  I’ve chosen to let them fade.  I think that’s the better way.  And the bad memories have no more power over me now.”

“I think that’s wonderful of you,” the sculptor said with fond admiration.  “There are things you went through that I should think anyone would want to forget as soon as possible.”

“I couldn’t have told you my story if I had, however,” said the Spirit thoughtfully, but with a merry twinkle at the same time.

“But you can do so now?”

“Yes.  But I think I shall not, because in forgetting I think the good memories would lose much of their beauty and savor, and the colors of the Other Side would be less bright.  I did advise Sam to forget, but he insisted that he would choose as I did.  If either or both of us had decided to forget, we would have had to get to know each other all over again.  Although, I think we would still have been drawn to each other, just the same.”

“I think so too,” Annúnlanthir said with a wide smile. 

The Fragrance filling the room was like to that of a wheatfield after a summer rain, mingled with the cidery scent of trees that whisper to each other of the coming of autumn.

 *****

The horses were ready.  The goodbyes had been said already, but just as Annúnlanthir started to mount his steed, he heard quick footsteps on the paving-stones.  He turned and saw Mikala running toward the party with a large basket, from which a most pleasant and familiar scent issued. 

“Here is something else for your journey,” she said breathlessly.  She had already given him a farewell gift from herself:  a drawing she had made of him and his daughter standing together.  He had it rolled in a sheet of thin leather.  “I know these won’t keep as well as lembas bread,” she said with a little smile, despite the redness of her eyes, “but my mother and I wanted you to have some little extra, um, sustenance along the way.  There are five dozen of her famous tarts in there, fresh from the oven.  Enough for everyone to have an equal portion.”

At that, Merry and Pippin had to get down from their ponies and embrace her for the dozenth time that day.  She had become such a great favorite with them that they’d had an elven cloak like their own made for her.  She had been thrilled beyond words to receive such a gift.

Gandalf said with a twinkle, “I’ve a feeling they won’t last long enough to worry about whether or not they’ll keep.  And when it comes to equal portions, I have very serious doubts about that.”  He grinned both fondly and sadly in the direction of the hobbits.

Orolindë hugged her grandfather once more.  He was not yet worthy to go, he had said.  He would stay until his own work was done.  Someday he would carve the monument of the King himself, and of the same stone from which the Ringbearers’ memorial was chiseled.  Then, and only then, would he rejoin his son and granddaughters.

He and Gandalf had become quite good friends in the space of the month.

Annúnlanthir kissed Mikala’s forehead for the last time, then looked toward the Queen.  And he felt only the respect and liking he would for any beautiful and admirable woman who was his friend or sister, as well as contentment in the knowledge of her happiness.  He did gaze long at her at the last, as though memorizing the essence of her being, as she stood with the King, who held Annúnlanthir’s manuscript in one arm, the other encircling her waist.  The sculptor became aware of a pale-gold radiance enveloping the two of them in a shimmering bond that sealed their fate while bestowing untold blessing.

And his heart cracked a little as he saw the back of Lord Elrond’s head as he looked at his daughter one last time before mounting his horse.  It was as the stillness that comes immediately after a great storm.

*****

“What have you there?” Arwen asked her husband long after everyone else had gone about their business.  She nodded toward the sheaf of parchment he held.

“I suppose we shall soon find out,” Aragorn said with a wistful smile, clutching the bundle protectively against a sudden gust of cold wind.  “After supper, that is.  This should be most interesting.”

He was surprised to feel a sudden urge to cradle the manuscript to him as though it were a newborn child.

And they turned back toward the Hall of Kings, which had a rose-gold glow in the late autumn sunlight, and the two shining figures atop the marble pedestal out front of the White Tree smiled with mysterious delight as the royal couple walked arm in arm up the palace steps.

~*~Finis~*~

~*~The Dove~*~

Mikala gathered all the dead flowers that she and others had laid on the pedestal of the Monument and put them in a basket, then laid fresh ones before it. Then she knelt on a small stone block that had been placed before it, and looked up at the two small figures that glowed like misty moonlight in the noonday sun.

"Thank you for all you did," she whispered. "I am glad you are in a happy place where you will never have to be apart, get old and sick or hurt, or die. Please greet my father for me."

The figures seemed to smile down at her and she smiled back and blew two kisses to them.

"You seem on friendly terms with them," said a voice behind her, and she started with a little squeak. She turned and saw a man with scraggly long grey hair and a grizzled beard, dressed in old and ragged and rather dirty attire. "I am sorry, child. I did not mean to startle you."

"That's all right," she said, putting a hand to her fluttering heart. She noticed the man's right hand was bandaged. His face was scrawny and pinched looking, his eyes bloodshot and bleary, his nose large and hooked, his teeth bad. He appeared to be in pain--from the injury to his hand, she supposed. His appearance would once have made her jump and back away, but now he looked so sad and sick and lonely, she felt only a stirring of pity. "I've never met them, of course," she said. "Yet I feel as if I know them. I come here every day to take my lunch when the weather is good. Have you seen it before?"

"Many times, but not so close," the man said.

"I've a drawing the sculptor Annúnlanthir made before he carved it. At first I thought it was prettier. I guess it is, but I don't care any more. I like the way they look in the stone best now. It's how they really looked, according to those who knew them. I like that one best--" she indicated the plumper figure. "I love them both, but he's my favorite, although he's not as pretty as the other. I think it's because he was a servant like me. I am also caretaker for the Monument now. Look, here are their names...." She pointed with a plump forefinger at the carving on the pedestal. "Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee. When my sister and I first heard those names, we nearly died laughing, but no more. I would be angry if anyone did so now."

The man glanced at her wrist. She looked too, and saw that it was her bracelet that had caught his eye. She saw a flicker of horror cross his face, but was sure a moment later she had only imagined it. What could possibly be horrifying about her bracelet?

"This stone is the same sort the Monument is carved from," she said. "I know it's too fine for the likes of me, but I wear it in tribute to my father, who fell in the War. The sculptor made much jewelry from the chips and sold it all, and gave the money to the orphanage."

"Yes, I know all about that," said the man, glancing down at his bandaged hand. "I am sorry about your father."

She wanted to ask how he hurt his hand, but her mother had told her it wasn't polite to ask questions of strangers. Perhaps he would explain it himself if she gave him time.

"Annúnlanthir has sailed away to be with his daughters," she said by way of drawing him into conversation. "I miss him, although it has been several months ago. My mother said I should be glad he is finally happy with his daughters, and I am, because I could see he was very sad at times. But I miss him. He was so good to me, and gave me drawing lessons. He was an Elf."

"Drawing lessons?" the man smiled faintly in spite of his pained expression. "So you are a budding artist also?"

"Oh no. I only draw for fun. My mother would never allow it, anyway. She says it's not for people of our station in life. I am training to be a lady in waiting for the Queen, which is all I could really want." She picked up the basket of dead flowers and another, smaller basket covered with a linen napkin, rose, and went to sit on one of the benches that flanked the Monument. "Are you hungry? I've enough food for us both here."

"Ah, thank you my dear, but I am not hungry, and I would not take your lunch from you," he said, but she could see he was wavering. She took out a brown seeded roll stuffed with meat and cheese and held it out to him.

"This is very good," she said. "My mother made the bread and the cheese. She is a cook in the palace, and everyone says she is one of the finest. There's an herb and mushroom sauce on it also that is her own recipe, and it's excellent. Here, I've plenty, see?" She took out another roll, and finally he held out his uninjured hand for it.

"Thank you very much, dear child," he said and bit into the roll quite ravenously. She grinned with satisfaction and began to eat her own. "This is magnificent. Your mother is deserving of all the praise. And she raised a fine daughter on top of it."

Mikala giggled a little. She still wanted to ask about his hand. Instead she glanced upward at the Tree, whose white blossoms filled the spring air with a delightful fragrance. A white dove perched high in the branches, and it called softly.

"That's my bird," she said with a nod toward it. "My name means 'dove', you know. You can see Annúnlanthir carved the stone in my bracelet in the shape of a dove."

"You knew him well, did you?" the man asked. She saw he had nearly finished his roll. She fished in the basket and took out a fruit tart, broke it in half, and handed one piece to him. He acted as though he didn't want to take it at first, but soon he did, when his nose told him the pastry was not long out of the oven.

"Oh yes," she said with wistful pride. "We were great friends. My girl friends used to tease me about it, saying I fancied him." She looked thoughtfully at her roll.

"And did you?" the man asked gently, with a hint of smile. She blushed a little.

"Umm...no, I think not," she said. "Well, maybe a little. But only a little. Of course he would never fancy me back. After all, I am a mortal and much too young and silly for him and not very pretty. But he never treated me as if I were just a stupid child, and never minded even when I talked his ear off. Of course, the King is also a mortal and he is married to an Elf-woman who is thousands of years older than he. Did you know about that? She gave up her immortality to be with him. I think that's the most romantic thing I ever heard in my whole life."

The man chuckled with his mouth full. "Yes, I have heard."
 
"That sort of thing runs in her family. Her ancestress, Lúthien, did the same for the mortal man she loved. I would tell you the story, but it is long and I must get back soon. Some other time maybe. You will just die when you hear it."

The man laughed out loud, then the laughter turned to what sounded like a cry of pain. Mikala jumped to her feet.

"What is it?" she cried. "Are you in pain? Is it your hand?"

"Yes," he gasped, clutching it in the other, dropping the remainder of his fruit tart, his face wildly contorted. "I burned it badly. It was several months ago, but it has never healed. I do not believe it ever will, at this point."

"Let me go for the King," she said wincing. She had burned herself in the kitchen not long ago, and although it was not a severe burn, the memory of the pain was still with her. His must be agonizing. "He is a healer, you know. Have you seen him about it at all?"

"No, no, my child," he said and she could see he was trying not to whimper. "Do not go for him. You see...I did a very bad thing. There, it is passing. Not quite so terrible now...I should not have come here...."

"What did you do? I will not tell."

"Well...you see...that jewelry you spoke of? I tried to steal a piece with intent to pocket the money myself, and it burned me as though I had picked up a piece of red hot metal. I have not been free of pain ever since. Sometimes it's so bad that I feel like flinging myself to my death from the parapet, but I am too cowardly for that. I have too much fear of what may be waiting for the likes of me after death, that it might be even worse that what I suffer now. But other times...I feel that nothing could be worse."

He groaned, the pain flaring up again.

"The King would know, I'm sure," he said, unwrapping the wet bandage from his hand and opening his fingers to show her. She saw a burn mark that looked like raw meat, oozing and livid. She gasped and shuddered, feeling a little sick in her stomach. The mark was very much in the shape of a pendant, rather like her mother's. "And he would have me imprisoned or banished, certainly, as I deserve, but I do not know if I could endure it. Then again?"

Mikala felt her throat tighten. She had seen many people in pain, since the War, when sometimes the Queen took her with her visiting in the House of Healing. But rarely had she ever had to see the actual injuries.

"I think," she said, "if you go to him and confess what you have done, he will be merciful. He is like that. I can take you to him, since I am a maidservant to the Queen, and I can ask for mercy in your behalf if need be. Will you come with me? I will go and ask them, and take you around so you don't meet the Queen. She is with child, and may not want to be seen. I wouldn't, if I were all swollen so. I would look horrible, I'm sure. But she still looks very beautiful."

The man looked down miserably at his hand. "It is all the worse that the money was for the orphanage," he said in a low and wretched voice, "because, you see, I grew up in the orphanage myself. My mother was...not a good woman, and she didn't want to be burdened with the raising of me, so she left me there. They were not bad to me, on the whole. Well, some of the boys were, since I was small for my age and not at all fair to look upon. But the matrons were kind in the main, and I was often bad to them in return. I ran away when I was about your age, and took to thieving. I grew quite good at it, and soon I became proud of how good I was at it. But no more. No more." He shook his head slowly, awkwardly trying to re-bandage the hand. She saw that the cloth was stained with vile-looking matter. "The sculptor knew about it. I yelled loud enough to waken the dead, certainly, and so he caught me. He let me go, saying I was sufficiently punished and the scar in my hand would surely serve as a reminder for all my days. He applied cooling poultices to the burn, but said his skill as a healer was small and he, too, advised me to go to the King. But I could not find the courage, coward that I am. I have done too much bad. Worse things than stealing. I do not deserve to sit beside such a sweet child as you, let alone stand before the King. I deserve only death."

She sat down on the bench, tears welling in her eyes. "There has been so much death," she said in a low voice. "So many bodies, and people dying right before my eyes. At least, I didn't have to watch my father die. But I saw people killed in the streets. I wasn't supposed to look, but I couldn't help myself.  Sometimes I dream about it...."

He looked up at her in some surprise; she had seemed so untouched. She wiped her eyes and nose with her apron and looked toward the monument.

"So I come here every day," she said sniffling. "The Monument just has this...this virtue, that brings peace to my soul. And I feel better about myself afterward, and I don't feel like quarreling with my sister, or talking back to my mother, or saying bad things about people with my friends. Because you see, I want to be like them. Can you feel none of it?"

"I fear not," he whispered.

"I do not know if this is true," she smiled through her tears, "but I heard tell of a woman who had a little crippled boy, and she brought him here and held him up to the Monument so he could touch it, and now he can walk again. I have never seen him, and my mother said I should not believe all I hear. But it couldn't hurt to try, yes?"

"Perhaps it could not hurt a little, innocent child. But I could never touch this stone again," he said with a shudder.

"I think it will not hurt you if you don't touch it with evil intent," she said. "Annúnlanthir said it had Elf-magic in it. There was a sculptor, long ago, who tried to use it for his own glory, and he found he could not make the tiniest dent in it, although he was very strong. But Annúnlanthir said it was like carving in beeswax at times for him. And overnight it took the actual form of the Ringbearers. That much is true, for I saw it myself. Will you not try?"

Tears seeped out from the man's eyes. He stood up, walked over to the Monument and looked thoughtfully at it. Shyly, Mikala came to stand beside him.

"I miss the Fellowship," she said. "Gandalf the Wizard went with the sculptor to the Blessed Realm. Legolas the Elf and Gimli the Dwarf are still about, but they are in the service of the King and I don't see so much of them anymore. Merry and Pippin the Halflings have gone back to their homeland. I miss them the most. They were funny and nice, and told the most wonderful stories, although I suspect that some of them were a bit--made up. There was one about walking trees that was a little far fetched, in my opinion. But I liked it. And they weren't even so tall as my sister, who is only ten. Things just...change, you know?"

The man looked down at her, then up at the Monument. The sun was high above and made a dazzling glow in the stone, which seemed to extend to the young girl standing by his side. The throb in his hand had subsided somewhat. Could it be?

And then, seemingly of its own accord, his uninjured hand reached over slowly and found hers, cool and plump and very alive.

"Take me to your King," he whispered.

*****

"Thank you for all you did," she whispered as she cleared away the dead flowers and laid fresh ones on the pedestal. "I am glad you are in a happy place where you will never have to be apart, get old and sick or hurt, or die. Please greet my father for me."

"And thank you," said a voice behind her, and she started with a squeak.

She could hardly believe her eyes. It had been only two weeks since she had taken the man to the King, and she had not seen him since. At first she had supposed him to be the age of her grandfather. Now he looked closer to the age her father had been when he died, his hair as brown as her own, with only a few grey streaks here and there, his beard neatly trimmed, his skin a hundred times smoother, eyes clear and bright. His clothing was clean and neat, his hand no longer bandaged.

"I am sorry, little dove," he said with a smile. "I did not mean to startle you."

"How is your hand?" she asked with an effort to keep from skipping for joy.

"See for yourself," he said holding it out to her. The burn mark was still there, but looked far better. "It will take a while to heal completely, but it no longer keeps me awake at night. Your King is truly legendary."

He looked into her shining face, then at the Monument. "It is permitted to climb upon the pedestal?" he asked almost timidly.

"Yes. Many people do so," she said. He stepped upon the kneeling block, then after a long moment laid his injured hand over the clasped ones of the Ringbearers. He kept it there for a minute or two, then turned and stepped back down, taking her proffered hand in his good one.

"The King has made me caretaker of the Monument," he said with hesitancy. "I hope you do not mind terribly my taking over your job?"

"If it were anyone else, I would mind very much. But since it is you, I am happy to allow it." She decided not to tell him it had been her own suggestion.

"The Queen told me you would say just that," he smiled. "After my hand is better, I will be assigned to help with the rebuilding of the city, which is still going on as you surely know already. Perhaps then you may have your job back as I may not have time for it anymore....She is something beyond all believing, the Queen. And she did not mind my seeing her with child."

"Did you ever see anyone more beautiful?" Mikala beamed up at him with wide eyes.

"Only one." He looked down at her meaningly and she looked away in embarrassment. Then laying a hand on her shoulder, he led her back to the bench.

"And now, my dear," he said with a broad grin, "perhaps you could tell me that story?"

                                        ~*~Finis~*~