Another slow update. I'm sorry, but all yesterday, I was at DTASC and singing and acting until my voice was hoarse. I saw some really great musical scenes and I can't believe that high school kids could come up with stuff like that! So, just to those that go to DTASC, great job everybody!
Now that I'm done advertising, I'd like to apologize for the slow updating again, but please keep reading!
Chapter 6
A Game of Chance
"A spy?" Orophin asked in Sindarin, his soft voice arrogant. One look at the woman should have answered his question, and as a custom of all the elves of the Golden Woods, it was only acceptable in society to be clean. More filth could be seen on her face than skin, and it appeared that she was dressed in a rough-clothed sack. Estel wanted to wrinkle his nose at the smell that rolled off of her, but then, he saw the sympathetic look in Cuiladan's eyes.
"More like a prisoner than anything," Lindir answered the elf in the same tongue so the woman could not understand. "And not likely to be a friend of the Orcs that have treated her that way." As the elves spoke, the woman stood her ground, arms folded in front of her, and stared back with narrowed, icy eyes, almost daring them to hurt her.
The boy could not help but wonder, What had the Orcs done to her?
Cuiladan was not looking at her with contempt, and he realized that he would be wrong to do so. This woman could not help looking the way she did. If she had been dressed in the ethereal, beautiful dresses of the elven maids, would he have looked at her differently?
Estel's gaze traveled down the length of her dirty arm, and only then did he see, knotted in with her dripping and ragged sleeves, were the remnants of a sturdy rope. The rain had swollen the material until it choked the woman's hands, and as he looked, he saw that her fingers were nearly purple from the loss of circulation and the cold.
"Whoever she is, we can question her after we get her into warm clothes and untie her," Cuiladan spoke up, almost echoing Estel's thoughts. "No doubt, she is wet and dying of hunger." Without another word, he walked over and began to work on the complex knots on her wrists with his dagger. "Estel," he said, as he seemed to remember something. "Run for Elladan and Elrohir. Tell them we have a prisoner."
After scouring the lands for any other traces of a battle, the elves and two men decided that they could travel no further with the oncoming night. The cold was already beginning to set in, and the horses could easily stumble and break a leg on the rocky and hilly terrain in the dark.
There were no rivers or ponds this close to the Misty Mountains for the woman to wash in, but the looming peaks creating puddles and valleys at their feet, where plenty of rainwater had been caught. Cuiladan offered some of his spare clothes fro the woman, but it was clear that he was too bulky for his clothing to fit on such a thing and scrawny figure. In the end, Ranien volunteered a shirt and Lindir a pair of leggings; both elves were willowy enough to nearly be the prisoner's size.
In broken Common and flurries of sign language, she had indicated that she was of Rohan and was a captive of some Orcs. Estel assumed that Orcs traded prisoners when it pleased them, and that was how she got the Hithaeglir in such a short period of time.
With pantomime and a few simple words, Cuiladan told her to wash and dress, and when she understood, at first with some disbelief, tears flood her eyes. In some words of Rohirrim and Common, she thanked him profusely and threw her arms around him. Estel guessed that she had not gotten a chance to bathe while in the captivity of the Orcs. It would explain the smell and dirt.
After disentangling himself from the dirty, and now weeping, slave, Cuiladan came to join the rest of the small band. They all huddled in a circle, afraid to light a fire, and many looked towards the blood red outlines of clouds in the west. It was impossible to find a dry spot after the thunderstorm, and Estel found, with distaste, that he had chosen to sit right on top of a marsh.
As a squelch emitted from the seat of his pants coming into contact with the watery island, he wrinkled his nose and tried to move his cloak under him. So busy was he with this that he did not notice the long silence that had fallen over the group.
"How is your arm, Lindir?" Cuiladan shifted uneasily and tried to strike up conversation. Estel gathered from his voice that he was preoccupied and his mind was elsewhere.
"I shall be able to aim and shoot in a few days," the elf answered. "It was only a knick of muscle and nerve. Wielding a sword may be more difficult." The boy winced, knowing how much it must hurt to inure a nerve. It explained the arm cast.
A resounding silence that even he noticed this time, again fell, and he looked back and for the between the elves' marble expressions and Cuiladan's look of…dreaminess. It was one Estel had never seen on his brother's face before and was strange, though pleasant to see. What was on his mind?
Cuiladan never daydreamed. If anything, he was always rooted to the earth. Perhaps—
"Cuiladan," Elladan's voice was hard as he spoke in the Common Tongue. "We will have to question and dispose of the slave."
The thin lines on the man's brow hardened. "Dispose?" he said, nearly spitting the word. "Why? Questioning, I can understand, but dispose? She is an innocent! She did not choose for this."
They wanted to kill her! Estel realized with horror. Elladan wants to kill her! He felt sick at the very thought and could not imagine how his brother could do such a thing.
"It was not her choice to begin with," the oldest elf spoke again. "She knows were we are. We cannot just let her leave. She will remember our faces. She will remember your face, Cuiladan, and it is not so different from your father's that someone smart could not put two and two together."
Cuiladan rubbed a hand over his beard, but his face was grim. "She is a slave. Slaves don't know." Elladan opened his mouth, but Elrohir cut in.
"I think you are overreacting, gwador," he said quietly. "She is only a Rohirrim, slave, as Cuiladan said before. Question her and let her go. What are the chances she will remember and say anything?"
Elldan's mouth remained firm, and his eyes narrowed slightly. "And if she were not a slave? What if she was a spy, an agent, an assassin sent to murder us?"
Gildor, who had been translating the conversation into quiet Sindarin for Orophin, shot his head up. For a moment, he looked as a great elf lord should, even in exile: proud, venerable… arrogant. Then, his features relaxed and he spoke the Silver Tongue with his High Elven accent, "Think, Elladan. What are the chances of that?"
"She is of Rohan, Gildor!" the other elf interjected, as if that explained everything. "Have you forgotten?"
"What are the chances?" Estel finally found his voice. "If she was, how could she rely on Orcs to bring her to us? More importantly, how did she know of us?"
His oldest brother shook his head. "She is of Rohan. I do not trust that land," he said bitterly. The others sat, motionless, except the older man, who was still biting his lower lip and stroking his beard. The sun had gone, and darkness had settled. "Thengel, their king has always longed for more power than he has, and that is a dangerous thing. We cannot underestimate him."
Estel's furrowed his brows, and the argument continued. But, not even Elladan could further his point with Gildor, Cuiladan, and Elrohir against him. In the end, he gave in, but not willingly. The woman would travel with them, and, if there was time, they would send her back to Rohan, if they were still permitted to enter that land, for Thengel had not been on friendly relations with Elrond.
"Well, she is coming back, anyway," Elladan said, his features harder than marble. Indeed, he was correct. A dark form could be seen against the stars and the outline of the mountain as the slave drew near, clean, from her makeshift bath. "You shall see what will happen. Remember. I was against this. You shall see. And you will regret."
TBC..
Well, another chapter done. Thank you viggomaniac and Syen for leaving such long reviews! They're always fun to read, and I love the feedback. If there's anything I should know or be aware of, please tell me! Keep reviewing please!
