Aleks fell to the grass, hands clasping his side. He peeled them back long enough to get a better look at his injury.
I'm bleeding like a stuck pig. Bolg's strike had cut through skin and fat to graze muscle. Too close, Hunt. Another inch, and Bolg might have struck gold, seriously damaging vital organs. "Does the phrase 'nick of time' mean anything to you, Kili?"
Kili weaved on his feet like he'd had a pint or two too many, but he succeeded in circling the orc's body to Aleks. "Is that-?" Kili's eyes squinted at the corpse. "That's not Azog. I thought he was Azog, seeking to kill Uncle once again."
"No," Aleks agreed with a sigh. He seriously wanted to lay down and get some shut-eye. It'd be an idiot's move, but the temptation persisted. "Kili, meet Bolg, son of Azog. Bolg… Well, you're dead. Not like you care." Amazing how he liked the guy better already. From whatever hell the monster now inhabited, he imagined the sentiment was not reciprocated.
"Bolg?" Kili blinked down at the orc and Aleks in turn.
"How's the head?" Aleks asked. He allowed the satyr to bleed away, returning him to full-human guise.
Kili stumbled closer and collapsed a yard or so away from him, a confused look springing up on his face. Another series of blinks. "It hurts," he said simply. "Everything is dancing."
That wasn't good, was it?
"And you, Aleks? Are you well?" Kili asked in a pinched voice.
"He cut me." Aleks searched Kili's person and then the direction from which he'd come. "Did you bring our gear?"
"What gear?"
The dude looked seriously lost. Shaking his head, Aleks forced his feet under him. They had to retrieve their things and get outta Dodge before they ran into any other searchers.
Between the two of them, they did manage to orient themselves, but thanks to the terrain and their injuries, they had to concede and make camp when the moon rose. The night was warm, but neither was comfortable. Kili's disorientation worried Aleks a lot, as did his own wound after Kili blithely informed him that orcs liked to poison their weapons.
Thanks for the reassuring news flash, my man.
They spotted teams of orcs a handful of times. Aleks befriended a fox out of sheer desperation. He had little to offer the small animal, but they needed the extra set of eyes, especially when neither could remain awake any longer. Aleks fell asleep with the small animal curled up at his hip.
The next morning, it was more of the same, only this time, as wildlife grew more abundant, so did Aleks's helpers. Birds kept a sharp eye out for them, and the fox proved invaluable in determining paths that the two of them could actually traverse. (They'd learned fast that birds had no conception of passable versus impassible. Made sense, really.)
The sun had reached its zenith when Lake-town came into view. If not for the worry haunting him, Aleks would have rejoiced. He'd not forgotten his twin or the impression he'd received. Some men had tried to grab her. Was she alright? Had she been rescued? And did it mean the men of Lake-town were enemies, or was something else at work?
A quarter mile or so from the ramshackle gate, he halted Kili with a hand to his arm. "Listen. The Company might be in trouble."
Kili's head whipped around, then the dwarf closed his eyes in clear pain. "You tell me this now?"
Aleks ran a weary hand over his face, stroking his beard at the tail end. The faintest speck of amusement sparked on contact. He'd tease Kili about besting him in the facial-hair department later. "Look, all I know is I got this glimpse of a man trying to steal away my twin."
"How?" Kili frowned ferociously and tapped the pommel of his reclaimed sword. "Something from your satyr heritage?"
Aleks waved the question off. "I'll explain later. Now, do we-?"
"Is that Bofur?"
Kili's question had Aleks joining him in scanning the gate. There. He knew that hat, and the short stature confirmed it. Right behind him was a blond dwarf, one loaded with all kinds of blades.
"Fili!"
Kili was off like a shot, weaving in a stumbling lope towards his brother. Fili startled before streaking towards them, his face raw and stark. Behind him, Bofur trudged towards them with a heavier gait. Aleks frowned. That was not the dwarf he knew.
The brothers fell into each others' arms, hugging each other with desperate relief.
"I thought I'd lost you," Fili said, tears in his eyes. "What were you thinking, Kili, to take on that orc alone?"
Aleks passed the two and walked on until he met Bofur. Now, Aleks felt like the crud on the bottom of a well-used boot. But Bofur? No smile. No spark of amusement to be found on his haggard face anywhere. He looked like he'd lost…
"What happened?" Aleks demanded. "Has something happened to your brother? Your cousin? Thorin?"
Bofur's face aged before his eyes.
"Bofur?"
The toymaker's eyes filled with a sheen of tears, his hands fisting and relaxing repetitively at his sides. "The lass, Aleks," Bofur said in the most awfully hoarse voice. He took hold of Aleks by his shirt collar and slowly hauled him down to his level. Aleks winced at the abuse upon his wound, but the loss in Bofur's eyes was like someone pressing a mute button. Words eluded him.
"I failed you. It's your twin, Aleks. We lost my lass."
OoOoOo
A child's high-pitched giggle penetrated the the fog shrouding me.
"Josan, what did your father say about disturbing our guest?" a woman scolded, her voice low.
"Is she a dwarf?" A young boy's voice, filled with excitement. "I thought lady dwarves had beards." Disappointment.
"Well, the stories must not be true," the woman returned sensibly.
"And Papa fished her from the lake?" His voice hushed to the barest of whispers.
"Yes."
"And hid her from the Master's bullyboys." The kid was proud as punch. Even in my groggy state, I picked up on that.
"Yes, and hid her. Now off with you. Get back to your chores." Small feet scampered away, a miniature roll of thunder across the wooden floor.
I miss being around kids.
Bit by bit, things came to me. I was dry. Warm. The scent of thyme filled the air - a cooking pot nearby? Sounds of family in the next room, laughter, teasing. It was only as I tried to move that my body's condition became clear. Battered was too tame a word for the way every muscle group ached, and my head. It pounded like a solo percussionist trying to carry an entire marching band on his own.
Aleks?
Fear returned along with memory. Had all of the Company been attacked? Bofur. Urgency filled me. What had happened? I propped myself up on elbows, my breath hitching. I struggled to free myself from a blanket-turned-serpent's grasp, ready to seek out the Company if I had to crawl on hands and knees, when a young woman entered the tiny room.
"Oh." The woman hurried to the side of the bed, adding her nimble fingers to the effort. "No, don't— Yes, that way. You really should not be moving about, if I might say so."
"My friends," I panted, the effort to free myself leaving me wiped. I collapsed back against a crinkly pillow.
She reached over the bed to crack open the sole window's shutters, allowing sunlight into the room. "You are lucky to be alive. And," she stressed, "unencumbered." Satisfied with the window, she retreated to a side table maybe six inches from the bed, shaking out articles of clothing with sharp snaps before folding them and setting them aside.
Like most of the townsfolk, she was thin. Her hair was that rich dark brown that shamed chocolate, all coiled up in a neat braid atop her head. Dark eyes surveyed me with unabashed curiosity from within a face that was all sharp angles and impish humor.
"Unencumbered?" Maybe I was worse off than I'd thought, for her reference baffled me.
"Unencumbered," she reiterated, her thin brows arching. "You wear no braids."
And?
"Are the tales not so?" she asked, pausing her task to lean towards me, placing one hand on the foot-board of the bed. "The stories say dwarf ladies wear braids to signify status - one for courtship, two for betrothal, and the third added at marriage. Are you married then?"
Where was this coming from? I mean, the braid thing sounded plausible given the dwarves' reactions when Caranoran had tried to braid my hair, but… "Does it matter?"
A small frown crossed her lips, and her head tilted to one side. "You don't appreciate the situation here at all, do you?" Before I could answer, she waved a jerky hand and returned to her laundry. "Traveling with a gaggle of men when a lady is not married to one of them, well, it isn't done, do you understand? Put that to the side, and here you arrive with your fine king promising to reopen Erebor."
I struggled to shove the pillow behind me against the headboard, sighing as I at least achieved an upright seat. "Mistress… I'm sorry, what is your name?"
She blushed bright red, and I made up my mind, pegging her as close to seventeen years old. Eighteen at the most. "Me and my manners. Forgive me, Lady. Freija, at your service." A hesitant smile. "That is how one introduces herself, yes?"
"Among dwarves, very much so. But please, no 'lady'. My name is Daph— Er, Daphne, at your service."
"Daphne." She beamed. "Well, you see," she resumed, "you not being married and liable to become very wealthy once Erebor is reclaimed, you are considered quite a prize, no matter being a dwarf."
She set aside the overalls she'd been folding to place both hands on the foot-board. "And really, thought short, you are not unattractive, not by a man's standard. The people here are poor. I've heard some of the more desperate residents whispering in the markets. How if a man might managed to…compromise…such a woman, the dwarves would be certain to insist her honor be restored by marriage."
Say…what? Were they crazy? If I were a dwarf, the only thing a prospective groom might achieve was to lose that portion of his anatomy with which he'd hoped to claim his prize. Even should the guy succeed, I had a feeling – and not a little, tiny one – that the dwarves would not just frown upon such a dastardly deed, they'd outright kill the man who'd tried it.
"Is that not so?" she broached. "Is it acceptable for dwarf women to travel with so many men as you do?"
Aleks. Someone. Save me. Please.
"Freija, abducting anyone under a dwarf's protection is probably the most suicidal thing I've ever heard contemplated. If a body is looking for a way out of this life, there are easier ways to go about it than enraging a pack of hot-tempered dwarves." Then to her other question, "And my brother is part of the Company. I was not…" – frantic search for proper term – "unescorted."
"Oh." Her eyes widened to dark saucers. "Which one?" A gasp. "It was the poor scholarly one that was assaulted on Center Walk, wasn't it?"
"Is he okay?" I leaned forward myself on one elbow. "Freija, how is Ori?"
"The town guard fished him out of the lake fast enough," she reassured, reaching over to pat my hand. "So, he is your brother?"
"What? No, no. My brother was separated from the group the night before we arrived here. He's missing."
"But then…" She trailed off, her brow lined.
"Then…?"
"Why would the others leave if one of their number was missing?"
OoOoOo
"What?"
Aleks heard his exclamation echoed by Kili, the younger Durin looking in shock at Bofur. Kili's gaze flew to his brother.
"Aye," Fili said, gripping his brother's shoulder. "Two men attacked her while she was getting supplies with Ori."
"Why?" Kili burst. He gaze went from Fili to Bofur and back again. "What could possibly compel two men to attack a female half their size?"
That was what Aleks wanted to know. "Where is Thorin?"
"He left," Fili said in voice filled with bitter disappointment and confusion. "The Master of Lake-town told us he'd located the two who attacked Daphne, and Ori confirmed it was them. The Master had them hanged and brought us the bodies." Fili alternately drew and resheathed one weapon three times in agitated precision.
Aleks's mind was reeling from the blows. Thorin gone? He'd left before Aleks and Kili were safe? And Daphne - could he be wrong? Could she have died without Aleks knowing?
Not possible, every instinct growled in defiance. The satyr side remained confident. His twin lived. Where she was or how the dwarves had been convinced otherwise, he didn't know.
"Bofur," he said with low fervor. The dwarf's dulled eyes lifted to him. "We're being played."
Good. The abject defeat pouring off the dwarf eased back as something flickered in those dark eyes. He had his attention. Fili and Kili, he wasn't as concerned with at the moment. Bofur would hurt the most at the idea of Daph's death. Aleks felt the satyr slip to the surface as his temper fired. Whoever had orchestrated this had not just attacked Daph and snatched her, he'd made sure no one would come looking.
Didn't count on me, did you, loser?
"Played?" Fili demanded, his body going very still.
Aleks's gaze only flicked Fili's way before returning to Bofur. "Someone lied," he told Bofur. "Because Daph isn't dead. You see, someone went to a great deal of trouble to set the stage. If I was a betting man, I'd lay odds, however high you want to set, that no body was recovered. Am I right?"
Kili looked confused and Fili intent. Bofur began to straighten. "Aye," Bofur said, drawing out the word. His brow adopted a crease above his nose.
"Must have been a convincing show," Aleks said. "Because I know you. You would not have given up unless it looked like all the cards were in. But Bofur, they made one critical mistake. They thought Daphne was either a dwarf or a very short woman." A brittle pause, and Aleks's lips curled up unpleasantly. "But she's a naiad. Big mistake. Big."
Spinning upon one heel, he began to stomp towards Lake-town.
"Aleks?" Kili asked as heavier footsteps trailed behind him.
A strong hand clamped about Aleks's wrist and turned him about, the hold feeling as unbreakable as chains. Bofur stared up at him in silent demand. In the hardest voice he'd ever heard from the toymaker, Bofur asked, "Are ye sayin' my Daphne lives? For certain?"
OoOoOo
Bofur did not realize he'd begun to shake the lad until the satyr took his shoulders in a hard clasp. Only then did Bofur note the white of Aleks's skin and the pinch of his lips. Aleks was in pain, and here he was, shaking him.
Och, Bofur my lad, that was not well done of you. He'd promised the lass's shade, he had, that he'd see her brother protected, and here he was hurting him. What would the lass have to say about that? His hands dropped from the lad as if scalded.
"No, don't apologize," Aleks told him. "No apologies between brothers."
The label was an arrow through the chest. She was gone, slipping through his fingers whilst he'd bided his time…except the lad implied otherwise, as unbelievable as it seemed.
"She's alive, Bofur. When I said their mistake was not knowing what she was, I meant it. Look, there's a lot about naiads you don't know yet. I told you the most important bits when we met, but some of it didn't really matter at the time. Daph and I weren't even speaking, and when we were, things were still messed up."
Aleks's gaze turned to the Durins, including them. "So, naiad basics in a snapshot: our people have twins. Always. One boy, a satyr. One girl, the dryad. The only time that doesn't hold true is if one baby dies in the womb. You with me so far?"
Kili and Fili nodded, but Bofur felt his throat tightening. He could not lose her again. If she'd been alive all this while and was injured or slain because they did not find her in time, he'd not recover.
Aleks's green eyes, their shade the very match of Bofur's lass's, burned down at him. "We are linked at birth. Unless something happens to damage that bond, naiad twins can speak mind-to-mind. Distance isn't a huge factor. If my bond with Daph was whole and healthy, I could be in Rivendell and call for her in my mind…and she'd hear me even if she was in Erebor."
"You can speak with her?" Kili burst in.
But Bofur had caught the gist, and his mind froze upon Aleks's meaning. She lives. Certainty. He grabbed hold of that like Smaug with Erebor's gold. Alive. Relief was quickly followed by fear and anger. As Aleks had said, something or someone had squirreled her away, hiding her from him. Bofur's gaze narrowed on the town of men. I'll be finding you, my wee lass. Count on it. If he had to tear the town apart, plank by plank, then that is what he'd do.
"Not reliably," Aleks was saying. "I saw through her eyes when the lowlifes grabbed her. I haven't heard anything since, but our connection has restored enough – it doesn't matter how it was broken now, Kili – but I'd know. Get it? She's alive."
"Then we will find her," Fili said in a low voice, one both commanding and assured. He sounded so much like Thorin that Bofur checked himself. Aye, and he'd be making a fine king when his turn came, their Fili. A king Bofur would serve as freely as he did the uncle.
"Can you find her, Aleks?" Bofur asked.
She lived. Ye waited too long, Bofur my lad. She'd sought him out right frequently, and the small touches he'd initiated had all been welcomed. 'twas time to make his case. He wanted her safe by his side where he could keep an eye on her. The lass was made to be cherished by a dwarf, aye she was.
He immediately corrected himself. Not just any dwarf. Him.
Bofur inspected the lad's face. Aye, Aleks could find her. Before the lad spoke aloud, the answer was there upon his face.
The lad has grown. He's earned his warrior braids, if I'm any judge.
"Yes," Aleks told him with a cold little smile. "Yes, I can find her."
OoOoOo
"They left?"
No way was this happening. They couldn't have just…left. Maybe Thorin if he was losing himself to gold-lust, but Bofur? Bombur and Bifur?
Freija shook out another worn nightgown and bobbed her head, her young face wreathed with sympathy. "After the Master ordered the two men who assaulted you hanged in punishment."
Hanged?
"It did little to appease the fury of the dwarf king. When the deed was done, someone found the shredded remains of your dress in the water wheel and…" She busied herself folding the formless gown, her hands jerky. "Well, you see, Jarel – he's the one who found you – he knew those men were lackeys belonging to the Master and his senior henchmen. You wouldn't be safe unless they thought…"
"I was dead," I said a bit numbly.
"Exactly," she said, satisfied. Her movements returned to their graceful efficiency as she set aside the folded gown and fished a tunic out of the laundry pile and set to work on it. "Safer for the dwarves, too," she said.
Safer, but if they'd left thinking me dead…
"Two of them did remain behind." She leaned close again. "I heard that the Master promptly booted them out of the chancellor's estate the minute their king was gone."
"Who?" I demanded. "Who remained behind?"
She gave me an uncertain smile, scratching her nose. "I have not had the pleasure of an introduction. One is a young one-"
"Fili," I said, no doubt in my mind. "He wouldn't budge from here without proof of Kili's fate."
"The other is older. The one who wears the strange hat."
Bofur. "You have to tell him I'm alive," I said, almost pouncing upon her as I scrambled across the bed. "Can you send him a message?"
She sighed and seated herself next to me on the mattress. "Forgive me for asking, but can they be discreet?"
Bofur and Fili? At first glance, most would be jumping up and down, hands waving in the air to say, No way, where Bofur was concerned. I'd noticed, however, that while he was chattering away, joking and being silly, he never betrayed anything of substance. For such a chatterbox, he was amazingly private.
My answer didn't hold a shred of doubt. "You can trust them."
Freija nodded once and rose to her feet with a smoothness that reminded me of Caranoran and his people. A brief thought - was my favorite foster brother safe or had he, too, fallen prey to Thranduil's paranoia?
"Very well then." She tapped one slim finger against her lips, eyes on the ceiling. "Jarel already came into suspicion for being in the vicinity when you vanished. It wouldn't do to bring our family into notice." A sly, satisfied smile. "I believe I have the answer."
OoOoOo
Aleks sat upon a dock crowded with fishermen of all ages, stringing up a makeshift pole of his own using the supplies in his duffle. His animal spies had been sent off - rats, mostly, but also gulls, cats, and the occasional dog.
It was Bofur who pointed out the need to not draw any more attention than necessary. If Daph's abductors knew they were onto them, they might flee before he could root them out. The dwarves couldn't blend in, so they were noticed, but given the dramatic scene Fili had described in which the Master had evicted the two dwarves earlier, it wasn't unreasonable that they'd have to fend for themselves in the food department, too.
So, fishing.
The four of them sat in a row, the humans giving them a wide berth despite the jammed conditions along the rest of the dock.
"D'ye think we smell?" Bofur jested, his good humor and smile a front. The dwarf fairly reeked of threat, hence the wide berth the men gave them.
"They're afraid to be seen with us after the Master's performance," Fili pronounced with gravity. "How can that man live with himself? His people are terrified of him." Contempt dripped from his words.
Aleks couldn't have said it better himself. The Master here reminded him of the worst kind of dictator. Made him wonder if there was any way they could orchestrate events so that Smaug would have a nice, fat meal before being shot down.
Though to be fair, some of the fear their small party detected might have been due to the anger all four of them radiated.
A little girl came skipping down the boardwalk in their direction, a big flower held in one hand. She made a show of heading right for Fili and Bofur as she frowned at Kili and Aleks.
"Go away," she told them.
Aleks almost choked on a laugh. She really did look cross at the two of them, though he had no idea what he might have done to land on her bad side.
"Och, wee lassie, is that any way to speak to the injured?" Bofur asked with a wink and smile. There was not a trace of the menace of just seconds before.
Like magic, her frown disappeared, and she sidled closer to the toymaker. "But I've gots to talk to you," she said. "Or him." A pout as she turned to Fili.
"Weeell," Bofur drew out, "if you've gots to, then you've gots to." A private wink to Aleks as he crooked a finger and led the little girl a few paces away.
The little blond girl thrust the flower at Bofur, almost shoving it up his nose in her haste, and Aleks again chortled under his breath.
"We're sorry about your lady," she said.
Humor bled from Aleks, replaced by gratitude. This kid had to be the first person to genuinely express sympathy in a real way. Oh, the Master had waxed eloquent about the "tragedy" – or so Fili had told him – but it hadn't held a pinch of sincerity to the two dwarves who'd been present.
Bofur accepted the flower with a deep bow, squatting down to thank her.
That's when Aleks caught her next, soft words. "The lady says you should come get her. Men are watching the house, so you gots to sneak in tonight."