Chapter 10: A Secret on Their Lips
The Year 1900 of the Third Age
They found no sleep that night. The chilly night air sat still, and silent on the skin of the elves. They were high in the trees of the Southern Forest and hidden in the branches that held the talans for the warriors of Mirkwood.
A sliver of a moon bathed the forest in darkness, and far in the south could be seen the flickering of fires upon a hill. The necromancer had raised his fortress, and his growing army glittered in the distance. Even now they knew the forest around Dol Guldur swam with orcs. Though the night brought with it a risk of death, it was the orcs boldness that made the young Prince's bones grow cold.
Legolas sought refuge alone for many hours that night high in the branches of the tree. He watched the lights flickering in the distance, as the hordes moved about the hill. Though his comrades found peace in company and wine on the flets below, he could not shake the fear from his heart.
It was a deliberate footstep that pulled him from this vantage, and in the dim light of the stars, he saw the golden hair of his companion. Wordlessly, she sat beside him and offered him a leather cup of wine. He smiled and took it from her.
She settled beside him on the branch and followed his gaze to the hill of sorcery. For a thousand years they had trained for tomorrow night. They would travel in the trees and slay their enemies. They would draw the sorcerer from his halls and smite him, freeing their forest from darkness.
Unede's gaze fell to Legolas. His hair and skin milky in the starlight. His jovial spirit quieted to the harden warrior he had become. She wondered if this was the beginning of their last day together. Her heart quickened, and her tongue stilled. How cruel it had been that her fea sang for him, and what hurt more: the secret or the truth? She had not seen this in the mirror all those years ago. Perhaps she would come back to this place, reborn to seek him out if he would have her. Unede held in a sigh, and felt weak, an Ellon was not what she had come for. Revenge, she reminded herself. She would avenge the death of her Father. She would free her people from the darkness that resided in the southern forests.
"You're very quiet." He said, interrupting her thought.
"My mind is so full I must still my tongue." She said at last into the darkness.
He laughed at her words "You have always thought and thought, it is a wise thing you do melda."
"I looked into her mirror once." She spoke again. Legolas watched her intently, as the quiet of the night settled around them. He dared not move or speak, lest he feared she would be silent again. "I am going to die tomorrow." His chest tightened, as her lips stilled, but he could not bring himself to speak. "And though my better judgement has stilled my tongue for a thousand years, I will say an unwise thing now, and I will hope that you answer in sooth." She quieted again, and the seconds passed by like days as the Prince sat frozen. He could not find his breath, and he could not look away from her as the tension stilled his body. "If you desire, I shall petition Manwe and return to Middle Earth."
Legolas's tongue held in his mouth, already he felt his body falling away from him, and grief settling in his chest. She was not even his mate and yet his very breath was a struggle without her fea near his. He took her hand and gripped it in quiet desperation. Finally, when his panic had passed, he spoke.
"If you die tomorrow, there is no need to petition Manwe." He said "For I will meet you in the Halls of Mandos not long after."
They sat silently in the bows of the tree as the moon moved silently across the sky and they watched the doom of their love flicker in the distance.
"I would take you as my mate tonight if you would have me." Legolas whispered to her. He brought his hand to her face and rested his forehead on hers.
"That would be foolish thing for us to do." She whispered, as he brought her face closer.
There in the bow's their lips met for the first time, and in the furry of their kiss, Unede reached for the clasps on his jerkin and began to undo them.
But a moment later, their passions were interrupted by the clinking of rusted armor and heavy footsteps far beneath them, and before they could think the pair was moving down the branches to the flet below.
They landed quietly on the wooden boards, and found the soldiers crouching along the edges with their bows drawn.
"Captains" One breathed moving away from the edge to meet them at the trunk. Legolas recognized he messenger he had worked with many times before. "The hoard will be here soon, a great company of orcs moves towards Dol Guldur from the west."
"What are their numbers." Unede whispered hastily. She moved to the edge far below her their armor glittered in the starlight.
"Five thousand at least by our estimates." He answered, unfolding the map he held in his hands.
"And archers?" Legolas asked, trying to judge if they had enough arrows.
"A few hundred, our flets are likely out of range." He pulled a map hastily from his pockets. "we have half their numbers, but soon they will be below us, and surrounded." He pointed to the flets on the map. He was right, the army would be encircled by their talans, and under many of them. The orcs were unprepared, and in the darkness would not find the elves with ease.
"The necromancer may leave his halls if we let them continue. He may meet them when they arrive in Dol Guldur. He would be out in the open, we could slay him where he stands." The dark haired elf before her said hastily.
"No," Legolas said "We will never pass his army, if these reinforcements reach Dol Guldur their walls will be too well protected. We can not meet them in the open with the numbers we have."
They studied the map silently, calculating if they would risk forsaking their siege.
"If we slay them here." Legolas said pointing to the map "word will reach the necromancer it may draw him out, he and his armies may meet us in the forest. We could defeat them from the treetops."
But Unede shook her head "No, he would not be so foolish as to leave his strong hold. If we stay here it will be our doom, the orc's will burn the trees we hide in, and slay us where we stand." Legolas knew she was right. Their plan was forsaken, they should kill as many as they can, and retreat to the mountains.
"Signal the other talans to attack on our word. Slay as many as you can, and retreat North when the battle is done." Legolas said. The elf before him nodded and bowed.
"I shall give word to the others" Then he slipped away silently into the darkness of the branches, no more than a shadow of a branch in the night.
As they filled their quiver's with arrows and strung their bows, Unede smiled shyly at Legolas. Below her breath she whispered "We may yet live to see another day." He smiled unabashedly at her, and they readied themselves for the battle below.