A Battle of Wits

Part 2 in 'The Honey Cake Series'

A/N: Today is my birthday, so like a good hobbit I give you all a present :3 Enjoy!

-o0o-

Stationing half a dozen guards outside the kitchen might have been a bit much, Erestor mused as he went over his plan once more. But on the other hand, it was Glorfindel who he was trying to keep out of the room, so maybe he should have added another ten. Not that it made much difference, if the seneschal actually made it past the guards, Erestor had other things prepared to keep him occupied. He just hoped it would prove to be enough.

With difficulty he tore his thoughts away from the looming question of whether or not he could protect Rivendell's stock of honey cakes from the golden haired menace that was Glorfindel, and refocused them on more important matters. Like the banquet this evening - the success of which depended on each of the honoured guests receiving a honey cake.

One of the very cakes that were threatened by that balrog-slaying, sugar-craving nuisance…

Erestor took a deep breath.

Clearly trying to focus on more important matters wasn't working. It was time that he had a look at the battle ground himself to reassure him that the golden treasure of the kitchen would be safe this day.

It was a pity that echuir had been so cold this year, few of the flowers in Rivendell's gardens had started to bloom and most of the bees were still in the sleep of rhîw. Their honey stores had depleted dangerously over the last few months and soon the cooks would be completely unable to prepare the favoured treat.

The only reason that they had prepared a generous batch of them today, was because the delegation that had arrived from Lothlôrien dearly loved the sweet dessert.

And now it fell to Erestor to make sure that they would indeed be the recipients of the efforts of the kitchen staff.

Rounding a final corner, the door to the kitchen came into view and the dark haired advisor was glad to see the guards still stationed outside. So far, it seemed, his treasure had not been stolen.

-oOo-

"It would seem that Erestor was serious when he said the honey cakes would be well guarded." Glorfindel murmured quietly, before turning around to face his young accomplice, "but that won't be a problem, will it, tithen pen?"

Estel gave him a toothy grin in reply. "No Glorfy – it will be a challenge."

"Exactly. Come."

Together, the golden haired elf and the boy with the dark curls crossed through the trees, silently making their way away from the kitchen's outside door and towards the side wall of the Last Homely House.

Gesturing for Estel to follow him up to the wall, Glorfindel bent down on one knee and laced his palms together to give the human boy a lift up to the low roof. It was a flat even roof top and Estel was sure footed, so Glorfindel had little concern about the child's ability to climb into the kitchen through the skylight.

"Careful now and exactly like we practiced." The Balrog-slayer cautioned as he followed Estel up to the roof. Despite his trust in Estel's skill, he was not about to take chances with the safety of his Lord's youngest son. But he needn't have worried. Estel was already carefully crouching down beside the window, eyes pinched almost close as he tried to pierce the dim lighting in the rooms below and see if someone was there. Glorfindel's teachings about the importance of reconnaissance were replaying in his mind and he was not about to disappoint his hero.

"It's empty", he whispered, his excitement making his words louder than he had intended them to be. His own voice sounded unexpectedly loud in the stillness around them and he hastily clamped his hands in front of his mouth.

Guiltily, he checked that the room below was still void of movement and let out a small sigh of relief when Glorfindel reached his side. The elf took another look at the kitchen below them, but he, too, could not make out any guards. It seemed the kitchen was indeed empty.

Still he hesitated. If Erestor was willing to place guards in front of all exits to the kitchen he must have accounted for Glorfindel finding a way inside – his old friend was too much a master of strategies to be satisfied with a single line of defence.

Knowing that they could not sit on the roof forever though, Glorfindel decided that they might as well see what Erestor had in store for them. Silently, he slid through the open window and landed on the smooth floor below with nary a sound. He looked up at Estel and caught the boy when he slid through the skylight after him.

Glorfindel placed one elegant finger against his lips to remind Estel that they must be perfectly silent now, then placed the child on the floor. Together they tip toed over the tiled floor into the corner that always held the racks of cooling cakes. Estel was about to reach for the sweets when Glorfindel snatched his hand back.

"It would appear that Erestor thinks he can fool us, Estel." Glorfindel said quietly, then picked up one of the treats in front of him and dropped it in Estel's hand.

The boy turned the cake over in his hands, it certainly looked like a honey cake. Maybe Glorfy was just getting too suspicious? He looked up at the elf questioningly.

"Smell it."

Estel held the small treat up to his nose. The flavour was sweet but there was a hint of an aroma that should not be there, something that tugged at the corners of his mind, teasing him. When he remembered where he knew the smell from Estel gasped and dropped the cake as if he had been burned.

"Ada's tea!"

In his haste to step away from the evil pastry Estel ran straight into a nearby chair. With a mighty clatter, the wooden stool fell over, taking a baking tray loaded with cookies down with it. Estel turned cold, they had to have been discovered now. Even the young boy could hear the sounds of feet shuffling in front of the doors. Of keys being hastily turned.

Glorfindel did not hesitate. He picked Estel up and with two purposeful strides rushed from the kitchen into the next door storage room – their best hope of finding a hiding place or a way out. As he set Estel back down he could already picture the smirk on Erestor's face if the guards did actually find him here. It was a distressing thought. No, he had to get out of here.

The Balrog slayer knew the kitchen like the back of his hand but rarely ventured into the storage rooms. Yet, he knew that there were entrances to the food cellars here that held most of Imladris' supplies.

And the underground passages were required to have two exits.

His mind made up he turned his head to look for the stairs that led down to the cellars, but froze solid when something moved in the corner of his vision.

"Lord Glorfindel, what a pleasant surprise."

-oOo-

Erestor had heard the sound of crashing metal just as clearly as the guards stationed in front of the inner kitchen door. There was no doubt, somehow Glorfindel had found his way inside without alerting the warriors.

If he was completely honest, though, Erestor had expected no less, after all the underground passages and some of the windows remained unguarded. The temptation of drugging Glorfindel with herb-laced honey cakes had been too strong to resist and he had purposefully left holes in his defence perimeter.

Impatiently waiting for the guards to turn the keys and open the kitchen doors, Erestor wondered if maybe the sound of falling metal had been caused by Glorfindel falling asleep after sampling his special cakes.

It was a lovely thought.

When the door opened though, Erestor was sorely disappointed.

The kitchen was empty.

-oOo-

Glorfindel released the breath he had been holding.

"Lady Feriel." He inclined his head in a polite greeting.

The young elf maiden blushed a pretty shade of pink, doubtlessly pleased that he remembered her name. Of course Glorfindel made a habit of knowing all the kitchen staff by name; it never hurt to be on good terms with the cooks, especially when in desperate need of a midnight snack or a fine bottle of his Lord's red wine.

"Did Lord Erestor send you to guard the honey cakes as well?"

Glorfindel could almost hear her roll her eyes at the absurdity of guarding a few pastries and could not belief his luck. Clearly, Erestor had failed to inform the elf maiden exactly what – or who - she was guarding the honey cakes from.

"Indeed he has." The golden-haired elf replied smoothly, "six of my best warriors are stationed outside the doors and I have come to check that everything is still in order here. How are you, Feriel?"

The young elleth sighed, "Dreadfully bored." She launched into a lengthy retelling of what had happened this day in the kitchen and just what she thought about the weird behaviour of Lord Elrond's chief advisor.

While she was occupied, Glorfindel looked around for his accomplice. Estel was still hiding behind some of the shelves and there was a good chance Feriel had not yet noticed him. Carefully, so as not to arouse Feriel's suspicion, Glorfindel tried to gesture Estel in the direction of the window.

There, near the back wall, were the real honey cakes, waiting for their great moment at the banquet later today.

Estel nodded. He was fiercely determined to get those cakes to make up for his earlier blunder with the chair. The thought of how someone could put Ada's herbs into a harmless cake still shook him but he forced himself to concentrate and snuck forward as silently as he could manage. As he neared the window sill, he ever so slowly reached out to grab two of the cakes and let them disappear in his pocket.

Glorfindel followed Estel's progress out of the corner of his eyes, holding his breath - dreadfully aware of the noises coming from the main kitchen hall. Noises that were coming closer.

"Such a shame that you have been assigned such a meaningless task, Feriel." He interrupted the young elf maiden, smoothly supporting her complains about her so called 'duties'. "Let us hope that Erestor will come to his senses soon."

That was something to hope for, indeed.

He turned towards the stairs leading to the cellar, giving Feriel an apologetic look as he did so, "I'm afraid, however, that I cannot keep you company any longer. I need to check the underground passages for any sign of honey-cake thieves." It wasn't difficult to make the last word sound ridiculous and as he had planned, it made Feriel laugh.

She waved him off to go down to the cellar good naturedly. "Thank you for your company, Lord Glorfindel."

With that, Glorfindel made his way down the stairs, his larger body easily hiding the small boy walking in front of him from view.

-oOo-

The kitchen, Erestor found, had been empty, and the two guards he had sent up through the suspiciously open skylight had found no trace of Glorfindel leaving the kitchen that way. The advisor tried not to dwell on the disappointment of having his herbal honey cake trap fail - with any luck at least the real cakes would still be save.

Purposefully ,the dark-haired elf strode over to the storage room where he had asked one of the kitchen maids to stand guard over the savoury treats.

"Lord Erestor." She greeted. "Can I leave this place yet? No one is going to steal these cakes." There was a hint of exasperation in her voice. "And sending Lord Glorfindel to keep a few cakes safe might be a bit extreme."

For a moment Erestor had to fight to keep his famous composure. Not trusting himself to speak, he left her behind and strode purposefully over to the pastries still standing innocently on the window sill.

Just as he had feared, two of his honey cakes had disappeared.

Sighing deeply, Erestor turned back around to face Feriel, "Yes, Feriel, you may go. I daresay that the remaining cakes will be safe now." He strode out of the room, leaving it up to the elf maiden to figure out that some of the cakes had disappeared on her watch.

"If you will excuse me, I have dessert assignments to redo."

-oOo-

In fact, maybe Glorfindel had done him a favour. Now that the fight for the honey cakes was lost, he could focus properly on the evening's banquet. The anger over the defeat served to supply him with additional energy to work out the seating arrangements, assign the serving staff to individual tables and even talk some sense into Lindir. The minstrel actually produced an appropriate list of songs and stories for the occasion – and, for once, in a timely fashion.

Just because he had lost this fight for the cakes did not, however, mean that the war was over. He might need some allies to fight for him, however.

A grin played around the corners of his lips as he crossed two names of the list of honey cake-recipients.

They would not be pleased to hear that Glorfindel had cost them the last honey cakes before the arrival of spring.

…

The End

…

Stay tune for part 3 of the honey cake series: An Unfair Advantage

-oOo-

echuir – awakening (a season in Rivendell that corresponds to early spring)

rhîw – winter

tithen pen – little one

elleth – elf maiden

Imladris – Rivendell

Disclaimer: None of the characters or locations are mine. I merely borrow the toys and play in the sandbox, but I put them back undamaged when I'm done, I promise.