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'Alas, not me, lord!' she said. 'Shadow lies on my still. Look not to me for healing! I am a shieldmaiden and my hand is ungentle.'
Faramir was not discouraged by �owyn's response and instead determined to find out all he could about her. He asked the Warden and the hobbit Merry to tell him about the lady, and he learned more about her sorrows and began to understand her grief. The next morning, and for the next several days, Faramir and �owyn walked together in the gardens or sat together in the shade of a tree talking. They both grew in strength and on the fifth day they stood together on the walls of the city.
They were clad in warm raiment and heavy cloaks, and over all the Lady �owyn wore a great blue mantle of the coulour of deep summer-night, and it was set with silver stars about the hem and throat. Faramir had sent for this robe and had wrapped it about her; and he thought that she looked fair and queenly indeed as she stood there at his side. The mantle was wrought for his mother, Finduilas of Dol Amroth, who died untimely, and was to him but a memory of loveliness in far days and of his first grief; and her robe seems to him raiment fitting for the beauty and sadness of �owyn.
As they are stood on the walls, looking eastward and shivering with darkened hearts, Faramir said
'But think not ill of me, if I say to you: they have brought me both a joy and a pain that I never thought to know. Joy to see you; but pain, because now the fear and doubt of this evil time are grown dark indeed. �owyn, I would not have this world end now, nor lose so soon what I have found.'
"Lose what you have found, lord?' she answered; but she looked at him gravely and her eyes were kind. 'I know not what in these days you have found that you could lose. But come, my friend, let us not speak of it! Let us not speak at all! I stand upon some dreadful brink, and it is utterly dark in the abyss before my feet, but whether there is any light behind me I cannot tell. For I cannot turn yet. I wait for some stroke of doom.'
�owyn could not yet admit her feelings for Faramir, and the urgency of the moment drowned out all other thoughts. Suddenly it seemed that all wind and sound died that that time halted.
And as they stood so, their hands met and clasped, though they did not know it.
At that moment the darkness rose like a tower from Mordor and 'their hearts beat suddenly again.'
'It reminds me of N�menor,' said Faramir, and wonder to hear himself speak.
'Of N�menor?" said �owyn.
'Yes,' said Faramir, 'of the land of Westernesse that foundered, and of the great dark wave climbing over the green lands and above the hills, and coming on, darkness unescapable. I often dream of it.'
'Then you think that the Darkness is coming?' said �owyn. 'Darkness Unescapable?' And suddenly she drew close to him.
'No,' said Faramir, looking into her face. 'It was but a picture in my mind. I do not know what is happening. The reason of my waking mind tells me that great evil has befallen and we stand at the end of days. But my heart says nay; and all my limbs are light, and a hope and joy are come to me that no reason can deny. �owyn, �owyn, White Lady of Rohan, in this hour I do not believe that any darkness will endure!' And he stopped and kissed her brow.
And so they stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air.
Then �owyn and Faramir learned of the fall of Sauron and the victory before the Black Gates. Faramir assumed his duties as the Steward of the City, and Merry departed for Ithilien, but �owyn lingered in the Houses of Healing...
And �owyn did not go, though her brother sent word begging her to come to the field of Cormallen. And Faramir wondered at this, but he saw her seldom, being bust with many matters; and she dwelt still in the Houses of Healing and walked alone in the garden, and her face grew pale again, and it seemed that in the City she only was ailing and sorrowful. And the Warden of the Houses was troubled, and he spoke to Faramir.
Then Faramir came and sought her, and once more they stood on the walls together; and he said to her: '�owyn, why do you tarry here, and do not go to the rejoicing in Cormallen beyond Cair Andros, where your brother awaits you?'
And she said: 'Do you not know?'
But he answered: 'Two reasons there may be, but which is true, I do not know.'
And she said: 'I do not wish to play at riddles. Speak plainer!'
'Then if you will have it so, lady,' he said: 'you do not go, because only your brother called for you, and to look on the Lord Aragorn, Elendil's heir, in his triumph would now bring you no joy. Or because I do not go, and you desire still to be near me. And maybe for both these reasons, and you yourself cannot choose between them. �owyn, do you not love me, or will you not?'
'I wished to be loved by another,' she answered. 'But I desire no man's pity.'
'That I know,' he said. 'You desired to have the love of the Lord Aragorn. Because he was high and puissant, and you wished to have renown and glory and to be lifted far above the mean things that crawl on the earth. And as a great captain may to young soldier he seemed to you admirable. For so he is, a lord among men, the greatest that now is. But when he gave you only understanding and pity, then you desired to have nothing, unless a brave death in battle. Look at me, �owyn!'
And �owyn looked at Faramir long and steadily; and Faramir said: 'Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart, �owyn! But I do not offer you my pity, For you are a lady high and valiant and have yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten; and you are a lady beautiful, I deem, beyond even the words of the Elven-tongue to tell. And I love you. Once I pitied your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, were you the blissful Queen of Gondor, still I would love you. �owyn do you not love me?'
Then the heart of �owyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her.
'I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,' she said; 'and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.' And again she looked at Faramir. 'No longer do I desire to be a queen,' she said.
Then Faramir laughed merrily. 'That is well,' he said; 'for I am not a king. Yet I will wed with the White Lady of Rohan, if it be her will. And if she will, then let us cross the River and in happier days let us dwell in fair Ithilien and there make a garden. All things will grow with joy there, if the White Lady comes.'
'Then must I leave my own people, man of Gondor?' she said. 'And would you have your proud folk say of you: "There goes a lord who tamed a wild shieldmaiden of the North! Was there no woman of the race of N�menor to choose?"'
'I would,' said Faramir. And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many. And many indeed saw them and light that shone about them as they came down from the walls and went hand in hand to the Houses of Healing.
And to the Warden of the Houses Faramir said: 'Here is the Lady �owyn of Rohan, and now she is healed.'
And the Warden said: 'Then I release her from my charge and bid her farewell, and may she suffer never hurt nor sickness again. I commend her to the care of the Steward of the City, until her brother returns.'
But �owyn said: 'Yet now that I have leave to depart, I would remain. For this House has become to me of all dwellings the most blessed.' And she remain there until King �omer came.
Faramir was given the Princedom of Ithilien and retained the title of Steward when Aragorn was crowned. Then �omer and �owyn departed for Rohan to bury King Th�oden.
And �owyn said to Faramir: 'Now I must go back to my own land and look on it once again, and help my brother in his labour; but when one whom I long loved as father is laid at last to rest, I will return.'
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