"Lean on the bedpost, Aldric. I will not be at the long bed for any of this hour with you at the standing-and-not-leaning."
Tauriel said it at the half-hour past the fourth bell of the morning.
She said it from the long bed in the small careful steady inner voice of an Elven woman who had been at two births in this country and who was, by the small careful steady inner reading of her own body at the half-hour, at the small careful steady inner third birth in a count of years that no Sindar woman of her line had been at three births in. She said it in the small careful steady inner pattern she had been saying small steady careful inner things in at the long bed since the third hour of the morning, when Arethil had set her on the long bed and had set the kettle at the small inner table and had said, by the small careful steady inner reading at the foot of the bed, that the third was going to be — by the small careful steady inner pattern of the body — fast.
The third was, by Arethil's small careful steady inner reading at the foot of the bed, faster than the second.
Aldric set his weight against the bedpost.
He had been at the head of the bed at the third hour. He had been there for an hour and a half. He had been there at the small careful steady inner pattern of a husband who had been at the head of the bed at the second birth a count of years before, and who had — by the small careful steady inner work of standing at the head of the bed for an hour and a half on a leg that had been at the long inner crossing of two long fibres for the count of nine months — registered that the leg was, by the small careful steady inner reading at the half-hour past the fourth bell, no longer at the small careful steady inner level of standing for any further part of the hour.
He set his weight against the bedpost.
The bedpost took it.
He set his right hand against the carved upper rail of the bedpost — the rail the carpenter had cut for them in the spring of the year of Cael's birth at the small careful steady inner request of the keep women who had registered that the long bed was missing the small careful steady inner upper rail a long bed needed for a husband at a head of a bed in an Elven house — and he set the small careful steady inner registering of the rail under his right hand at the small careful steady inner inventory of this is the thing that is, for the next hour, holding the leg.
Tauriel registered the setting.
She did not — by her small careful steady inner reading at the long bed — comment on it.
She drew the slow inward breath of the closer wave.
She set the wave.
She let it pass.
Arethil at the foot of the bed said, in the small low voice: "My Lady — the next."
The next came.
It came at the small careful steady inner pace of a body that had been at the third work at the third birth at the small careful steady inner faster pattern of a third birth. The body did the small careful steady inner work in the small careful steady inner span of perhaps thirty seconds. Arethil at the foot of the bed registered the work in the small careful steady inner voice she had been registering small careful steady inner births for the better part of a thousand years.
She said: "A son, my Lady. A son, my lord."
The first sound came.
It was a louder first sound than Cael's had been at the cot.
It was a louder first sound than Lúthien's had been at the linen.
It was — by Aldric's small careful steady inner reading at the head of the bed, with his hand still on the upper rail of the bedpost and his weight still set against the post — the first sound of a third child who was, by the small careful steady inner reading at the first sound, more of a Mannish lung than either of the two before.
Arethil registered the first sound at the foot of the bed.
She did not, on registering, immediately name the second small careful steady inner reading she was doing at the first sound.
She wrapped the small bundle.
She brought it up.
She set it on Tauriel's chest.
Tauriel registered the bundle in the small careful steady inner pattern she had been registering small careful steady inner bundles at the long bed for the count of nine years.
She set her hand under the small head.
She bent her head over the linen.
She did not, this time, say a name in the inner Sindar of her own.
She had — by the small careful steady inner work of the long autumn — agreed with Aldric, at a long bench at a long window at some careful steady inner evening of the year past, that the third would be named by him. The naming-by-her had been the first two. The naming-by-him would be the third. The third was — by the small careful steady inner agreement — the third's. She did not, on the small careful steady inner setting of the small bundle at her chest, say the small careful steady inner naming.
She looked up at her husband across the long bed.
She inclined her head a fraction.
He registered the inclining.
He let go of the upper rail of the bedpost.
He came around the long bed at the small careful steady inner pace of a man whose leg, at the small careful steady inner reading at the half-hour, was at the small careful steady inner limit of the standing. He set himself at the long bed at her side. He sat — by the small careful steady inner permission of the small careful steady inner long-bed pattern — at the edge of the bed in the small careful steady inner small-bed pattern of a man who had not been at a long bed of a third birth before.
He bent over the linen.
He looked at the small face.
The small face was — by his small careful steady inner reading — more red than Lúthien's had been; the hair was lighter than Cael's; the small ear at the upper edge had the small careful steady inner Mannish curve, not the small careful steady inner upward lift of the Sindar. The eyes — when they opened, for one long beat, in the small careful steady inner pattern of a small careful steady inner thing not a quarter-hour into being a thing — were grey, in the small careful steady inner deeper grey of Aldric's own.
He registered the eyes.
He looked up at Arethil at the foot of the bed.
She inclined her head, in the small flat inner-channel acknowledgment.
She said, in the small low voice: "My lord. The third is — by the small careful steady inner reading at the first quarter-hour — more of the Mannish line than either of the two before. The ear is not at the lift. The hand is not at the slender. The eye is at the deeper grey of your own. The child — by the small careful steady inner reading of the same first quarter-hour at which I read Cael and Lúthien — is, in the small flat inner-channel naming, the most Mannish of the three. The work of the line is, in this child, at the lower count. The choice — by the small careful steady inner reading of the work of the line — will be at this child the smallest choice of the three. The body has — by the small careful steady inner work of the line — already taken the choice. The choice is your line, my lord. The boy is, by the small careful steady inner pattern of his body, a Mannish boy of the Dúnedain line. He will, by the small careful steady inner reading at the long count of years, live a man's life and die a man's death and not be set the small careful steady inner choice his older sister will be set."
She stopped.
She did not — by Aldric's small careful steady inner reading at the bed — set any further.
She inclined her head once.
She moved to the foot of the bed for the small careful steady inner work of the last small careful steady inner setting.
Aldric did not, for a long beat, speak.
He set his hand against the small dark head against Tauriel's chest.
He registered.
He registered, in the small flat private inward way of a man who had been at three births in this country in the count of nine years, that the third was — by Arethil's small careful steady inner reading — the small careful steady inner gift the line had given the family. The line had given Cael at the small careful steady inner middle. The line had given Lúthien at the small careful steady inner Elven side. The line had given the third, by the small careful steady inner work of the line's own balancing, at the small careful steady inner Mannish side. The three children were, by the small careful steady inner pattern, the small careful steady inner reading of the line's three answers to the small careful steady inner question of how the line of a Sindar mother and a Dúnedain father expressed itself at three different children.
Tauriel registered, at the long bed beside him, the small inner inventory.
She did not, by her small careful steady inner reading at the long bed, comment on it.
She set her hand against the side of his face.
He said, in the small low voice he had been preparing — by his small careful steady inner work of the long autumn — at long benches under long windows for the count of months: "Three to protect."
He said it under his breath.
He said it to the small face in the linen.
He said it not as a count, and not as a number, and not as a small careful steady inner inventory of the household: he said it as the small careful steady inner naming of the inner work he was, from this morning, at the head of.
Tauriel registered it.
She did not, on registering, set any further words.
She inclined her head against his.
He set his hand at the small careful steady inner upper curve of the small careful steady inner Mannish ear.
He said, in the same small low voice, for the chamber: "Hador."
The chamber registered.
Arethil at the foot of the bed inclined her head — the small flat inner-channel acknowledgment of an Elven healer to a Dúnedain father who had named his first Mannish son for the chieftain of the House of Hador of the Edain.
Tauriel said, in the small low voice: "Hador of Northwatch."
"Hador of Northwatch."
She set the small bundle a fraction higher against her shoulder.
She said: "Cael."
He inclined his head.
He stood, very slowly, from the edge of the bed.
He set his weight on the right leg first, in the small careful steady inner pattern he had been setting his weight on the right leg for the past nine months. He set the left leg under him at the small careful steady inner second pace. The leg held. He set the small careful steady inner pace of the small careful steady inner walking to the inner door of the chamber.
He opened the inner door.
Cael was at the corridor.
He had been at the corridor with Gorlim — Gorlim in the small wooden chair the carpenter had cut for him at the year of Lúthien's birth, the chair the keep women had begun setting in the corridor for the captain marshal at any small careful steady inner family event since the year of Lúthien's birth — and Gorlim had been teaching Cael, by the small careful steady inner pattern of his teaching of Cael for the past five years, the small careful steady inner Sindar numbers up to the count of twenty. They had been at the count of fifteen when Aldric had come down the long bed.
Cael was nine years old now.
He had — by the small careful steady inner reading at the door — been preparing the small careful steady inner thing he would say to his small careful steady inner brother for the count of perhaps four weeks. He had set out, at the small inner table of the family quarters at the seventh bell of the morning four weeks ago, the small folded paper Tauriel had cut for him at his asking, with the small careful steady inner words he would say written on it in his own small careful steady inner hand.
He did not, on his father's coming through the door, immediately come in.
He looked up at his father.
He said: "Mama is well."
"Mama is well."
"Sister."
"A brother, Cael."
He registered.
He inclined his small head a fraction.
He said: "All right."
He set the small folded paper inside the small inner pocket of his tunic.
He turned to Gorlim.
He said, in the small careful steady inner voice he had been using with Gorlim for some seasons: "Sixteen."
Gorlim, in the small wooden chair, did not, for a beat, register.
He registered.
He inclined his head, the smallest inclination.
He said, in the small dry voice: "Six-and-ten. Eneg-a-pae."
"Eneg-a-pae."
"That is the count, Cael."
"That is the count."
The boy set his small hand against Aldric's at the door, in the small careful steady inner pattern he had been setting his small hand against Aldric's at family-quarter doors for years.
He came in.
He crossed the chamber at the small careful steady inner pace he had been taught by his father.
He stopped at the bed.
He set his small hand on the long fold of the blanket at his mother's hip.
He looked at the small bundle.
He registered.
He said — and this was the rehearsed thing, the small careful steady inner words on the small folded paper that he had been carrying for four weeks — "Hello, brother. I am Cael. I will be the one who is at the door for you, for the count of all the years I am. You are a small careful steady inner thing. You will, in the years to come, be at the small careful steady inner work of your own being a thing. I will be at the door for that. You are — Hador — mine. You are also Mama's and Father's and Sister's. We are all of yours. I have said it. I will, by the small careful steady inner work of my count, not say it again. It is said. Welcome."
The chamber held the small careful steady inner words.
Tauriel registered them.
Aldric registered them.
Arethil at the foot of the bed registered them.
Lúthien — who had come up the long inner corridor at the small careful steady inner half-pace of a five-year-old, with Arethil's apprentice at her hand, and who had been at the door for the better part of the small careful steady inner rehearsed speech — came in.
She set her small hand on the long fold of the blanket at her mother's other hip.
She looked at the small bundle.
She said, in the small confident voice she had been building for five years: "Brother."
"Brother."
"Mine."
"Yours. And Cael's. And Mama's. And Father's. Ours."
"Ours."
She set her small flat stones — she had been carrying three small flat stones in her small inner pocket for the morning's wait at the long corridor — on the long fold of the blanket at the small careful steady inner edge of the linen, in the small careful steady inner gesture of a five-year-old who had decided that the small flat stones were the small careful steady inner gift she would set for her small careful steady inner brother at the small careful steady inner moment.
She did not, on the setting, take her small hand off the blanket.
She did not, on the setting, say more.
The four of them — Tauriel at the bed, Cael at her hip with his small hand on the blanket, Lúthien at her other hip with the small flat stones at the linen, Aldric at the edge of the bed with his right hand against the small wooden head-curve of the small dark Mannish ear — held the small careful steady inner first quarter-hour.
Arethil at the foot of the bed inclined her head, in the small flat private acknowledgment, and went out of the chamber by the small inner side door, in the small careful steady inner courtesy of the healer's hour for the family.
Gorlim, in the small wooden chair at the corridor, did not move from the chair.
He waited.
He waited at the small careful steady inner pattern of an old captain who had been at family doors at small careful steady inner family events for the better part of fifteen years and who would, at the small careful steady inner moment the chamber asked him in, come in.
The chamber held its hour.
The third was in the world.
The line had given its third answer.
The family was — at the small careful steady inner reading of the long bed at the half-hour past the fourth bell — complete.
⚜ ━━━━ ROYAL PROCLAMATION ━━━━ ⚜
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