Hello readers!

So, I did have some of you worry about what's happening with Siviel, huh? :D How evil I am to make you wait a week. But it's the way it is, for all my stories. :) I'm trying not to put too much pressure on my shoulders, with school and all...

Okay, enough rambling, here's your cahpter for today! :)

Enjoy,

Kaya

Chapter 35

What they found…

Legolas rode as hard as his horse allowed, as queen Arwen suggested. He followed Siviel's voice as she kept singing this heart wrenching song. Whenever he would try to look at the sky to find her, she would disappear between the clouds. He kept his pace, not even noticing where he was going. It was when he reached the river that he had to stop to take the ship. Siviel was going to her lake in Ithilien. What if…

The elf-prince paid the captain of the ship handsomely with many gold coins and they quickly reached the opposite shore. Legolas hurried, Siviel was an hour or so ahead of him, and he certainly did not want her to be on her own in her state of distress.

It was almost dusk and he pushed his horse with elven words and the animal listened to his soft orders, quickening its pace, galloping until they arrived at the edge of the woods. Legolas did not want to stop there, he could not. He walked his horse though the trees at a moderate pace until they reached the clearing where was resting the crystalline lake where he first met Siviel.

The eagle was there, standing closer to the trees, head bowed. Legolas left his horse and approaches the lake. There she was, his wife, crouched beside another form…which was of the purest white. The elf-prince gasped in horror when he realized Siviel was crying over the dead body of her master. Nen, the water creature, the master Secret Speaker, was no more.

Kneeling beside his beloved wife, Legolas gathered her into his strong arms. She was crying and shaking violently. She was producing sounds, filled with pain, probably of the secret language. Looking down, Legolas saw there were black arrows, planted in Nen's sides. He counted six… Orcs…

-"Siviel, my love, we cannot linger here…" He whispered gently, but she shook her head in protest

-"I cannot leave him like this…" She sobbed

Legolas nodded, knowing she needed to do something, even though he did not know what. He pulled away, but not before he could kiss her tears away. Siviel sat on her haunches and caressed her dead master's head. She could not bear the thought she would never see him again. Father… Yes, he had always been like a father to her and even though he wasn't, she always thought of him as such.

Slowly, with as much care as she could muster with her shaking hands, Siviel removed the arrows. One by one, she let the arrows fall on her sides, intending to burn them later. As she pulled out the last one, she began to think. Why the other speakers did not protect him? The trees should have closed upon the attackers and the wildness should have reacted. The only solution to this equation was that the orcs must have arrived from the lake…maybe with another secret speaker…

Siviel cleaned her master's body as she began singing the last blessings. She never sang them, only hearing them on rare occasions in the wind, but she knew she needed to sing these sad words in the secret language for her master. She owed him as much.

Legolas returned to her as she rose back on her feet, touching her quivering shoulders tentatively. She was grateful for his presence. She just could not imagine living this alone, even though she did not tell anyone when she left. She had been too shocked by the cry of pain she heard from her master. She thought that if she was quick enough, she would save him. But Siviel arrived too late.

The young she-elf knew what she had to do next. She had to give Nen's body back to the lake where he was born. She went to push her dead master back into the water when she received the help of her husband. Nen slowly disappeared into the depths of the lake, never to be seen again by any soul.

This was more than what Siviel could bear. Darkness enveloped her in its possessive cloak of despair. She was barely aware of the fact her legs were giving up on her and of her husband's arms around her as she fell into unconsciousness.