Kin Strife

"The girl is useless, Valacar." I retreat into the tapestry shadows. "She refuses to even touch a needle!"

"Vidumavi's people revere other skills, Mother. They teach their princesses to shoot three arrows into the same target at a gallop, and sing the deeds of their ancestors for fifteen generations. She will learn the ways of Gondor; only give her time."

I straighten my back and sweep forward. Let my husband try to appease his mother; I will show this seagull-shrieking woman that a daughter of the North is as proud as she.

Or I shall kill her, and return home.

[for Marta, who wanted "uncivilized" peoples' opinions of the more civilized]