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CHAPTER 14
Adindel stared at his brother in pure undiluted shock.
"She's dead, then?" he asked his older brother blankly, though he knew the Thranduil knew no more than he did. The elder Elf nodded mutely at his younger brother.
"Legolas is going to be devastated, you know." Adindel nodded, knowing that his brother was hiding his own grief for an elleth he genuinely was fond of.
"Miriel and the Lady Virginia will not be taking it any better, probably worse in some ways; they have been around her since she arrived and the Dawnstar is Gin-Virginia's only connection to her own world..." Adindel trailed off, wondering why the Adan girl had even entered his mind in any more than a passing reference. Thranduil had an eyebrow raised as well and had clearly noticed that his brother seemed to be taking a surprising interest in the human he professed to hate.
XXX
Adindel was very quiet over the next few days, as was his brother, who threw himself into his work with gusto. Adindel was familiar with his brother's coping techniques and working himself silly. Slightly under a week later, another letter arrived which seemed a routine diplomatic correspondence considering the present War, remarkable only in the fact that they had only recently received correspondence from Lorien.
The other remarkable thing was the fact that, just occasionally, instead of writing out numbers, they wrote the actual characters and the 'R' and 'I' in Galadriel's name were double written over as if a slight mistake had been made. Thranduil knew that neither of these were actually mistakes at all. The numbers were a code and the two letters were telling him which letters would be coded. The whole point of the dispatch was to conceal that a letter with confidential information would soon be sent to him, and that letter would be from Rivendell. 'R' – Rivendell, 'I' –Imladris, to translate that bit of coding. The letter would be very carefully worded to hide the message. Thranduil wondered what was so sensitive for that particular subterfuge to be used. It was difficult and elaborate and there were generally easier ways to send messages confidentially. Only something one of the realms wanted to keep really secret justified this particular method.
XXX
The crucial message arrived with little ceremony and it was clear the messenger knew nothing of its significance. Thranduil carefully did nothing with it while there was any chance of anyone finding out. That evening, he carefully made sure that the letter was well mixed in with many like it and as inconspicuous as possible. Everything he did seemed totally innocuous to even the not-so-casual and highly suspicious observer.
The next day, he went about things like normal; well, beside the bit where he got the hidden message translated. At that point, he had to close his eyes and sigh in relief, though he only allowed himself those small signs of outward emotion. He could not give away what he had learned, not matter how relieved he was at the news.
With that weight off his shoulders, Thranduil was free to observe how his brother was behaving. Since the news of the Dawnstar being taken by Orcs, Adindel had been out of sorts. As far as Thranduil was concerned, though, Adindel had been little more than civil with the Noldor Princess. Then Thranduil remembered what his little brother's first thoughts had been when he heard about Eleanor: the Lady Virginia, the human he protested to hate above all others.
What was the phrase Virginia had used when Eleanor had been pretending not to be interested in Legolas (largely to ward off teasing)? Oh yes, 'The lady protested too much', well it appeared that so did the Prince.
In a highly unkingly way, Thranduil sniggered. He felt a certain amount of pity for his brother, who apparently loved a mortal, who genuinely hated him back, even if that hatred was Adindel's own damn fault. But Thranduil couldn't help but find it funny as well. Adindel had the most amazingly bad tastes when it came to females, and never seemed to get the ones he loved. This was beginning to sound more and more like one of those tragedies that the human occasionally told his daughter.
XXX
Upon hearing the news that his nephew's beloved was dead by Orcs, Adindel had been more than slightly shocked and the first thing that had entered his mind was a beautiful, pale-faced Adan with that usually mild countenance now twisted in grief for her friend. He wondered how she faired suffering from the loss, not only of a friend, but also her last link to her home. He suddenly felt doubly guilty for tearing her from her home. He then (metaphorically) hit himself over the head. Why did he care about a human? They lost people all the time anyway.
XXX
A couple of weeks after the missive had arrived, Thranduil's grieving countenance, a cool emotionless look that he put on to hide his emotions from the world, changed slightly. Few people could spot all that much of a difference, but Adindel was Thranduil's brother and had been 'Thranduil watching' for many millennia. Something had changed.
The King no longer seemed unhappy as he had before and he suddenly seemed to be watching Adindel closely. The watching confused and worried Adindel. Thankfully, the preparations for the incipient battle against Dol Guldur took precedence over what in Angamar his brother was thinking and why on Arda he had suddenly gained the tendency to get a twinkle in his eye when surveying his younger brother, like there was something suddenly very funny about Adindel. Simply to escape his brother's strange behaviour, surely the first signs of incipient madness, Adindel threw himself into the battle preparations with extra passion.
XXX
About halfway through March, the forces of Dol Guldur attacked Mirkwood, and all forces, thoughts and resources of the Woodland Realm were totally focussed upon the repelling of the Dark Forces, which had darkened the forest for so long.
First the Elves mounted the highly costly – for Sauron anyway – fall back attacks where they attacked the Orcs and appeared to fall back, surrounding the monsters in a trap and with many little surprises waiting for them on the forest floor. Strangely enough, the Elves were staying in the trees.
After many of the Orcs had been caught in a range of nasty animal-traps hidden beneath the leaves, they began to burn the forest. This served the enemy a twofold purpose, it generally cleared away any traps (which were mostly wood and poison) and also every Elf in the forest could hear the trees scream in agony, but there was very little they could do to help.
Once every delaying action possible had been used on the foul spawn of Mordor, the Elves fell back into their underground stronghold and holed up there, ready for a siege. Well, mostly siege tactics were in use. Most besieged buildings did not have routes out for surprise attacks on the enemy. It meant that they could kill rather more enemies than most stronghold defenders.
XXX
Something changed around 25th March, however. No-one in Mirkwood knew what it was at first; simply that the Orcs had left and lifted the siege, which, of course, was taken full advantage of by the Elves to commit extensive slaughter. Eventually, they found out why the monsters had upped and left. The little Pereniath had done it, he had destroyed the Ring. Sauron had finally been destroyed and so his minions had withdrawn.
Once they were sure of the safety of the Realm, Thranduil sent his brother back to the palace to look after the general populace. The brothers were sad to be separated and needed for such a task when both simply wanted to heal their damaged Wood.
XXX
On 6th April, Thranduil met up with Celeborn for negotiating about the new boundaries created by the destruction of the Ring. Eventually, they came to a conclusion, more improved by the recent visit to Lorien to see the Dawnstar. Once they had finished, Celeborn took Thranduil to the side, away from the hearing of any curious Elves.
"I take it that you got my wife's message, convoluted as the sending was?" Thranduil nodded, smiling slightly. "So you know that, for her own protection, we faked the Dawnstar's death?"
TBC.