Thorin and Gandalf caught up to Captain Hadurq and his mercenary sailors before nightfall, coming only close enough to spot them.
"That was the Orc on the ship! He is chasing down my kin." Thorin was certain of that, just not certain if the Orc was pursuing the Dwarves of the Company and Rhavaniel, or looking for Kili's ghost.
"We must keep our distance." Gandalf warned, "Whatever sorcery he has been given, he may be able to see you now, where he could not before. We know he has the ability to hurt you. And he can certainly hurt me - that is a big Orc."
"The one advantage to my condition is gone." Thorin lamented. "There is so much I do not understand about my existence here, and now it changes."
He paused, struggling with a subject he did not want to broach, but no longer dared to ignore.
"Gandalf, did Bilbo tell you anything about the night the wild Wargs attacked?"
"Tell me what? I know he lost Smudge for a bit. Does that still trouble him?"
"Strange things happened that night, Gandalf. I thought I saw things disappear and reappear. If Bilbo said nothing...Now, I think it must have been me who disappeared and came back."
Gandalf looked at Thorin with troubled eyes.
"There is more... I saw a burning red light with a black core."
"You saw Sauron?" Gandalf queried.
"No, I did not see a man."
"Sauron is not a man, not anymore. There is nothing of his original form left. Why did the others not mention it?"
"The others did not look up, so intent on finding the baby. I thought Bilbo saw it, but I must be wrong. I think I was the only one who was meant to see it. It was a symptom of what is happening to me, that something was coming to claim me if I did not return to the Halls of the Mountain Kings."
(****************)
The Dwarves gathered around the fire beside the shed. They had used old apple baskets for firewood, making more room for the ponies. Bâhâl the Warg was snoring lightly, exhausted. Bofur and Bifur were curled up beside him, snoring less lightly. Ori and Dori slept nearer the ponies, and Balin and Dwalin patrolled the campsite.
"You should sleep, Bilbo." Rhavaniel said, rocking Smudge. "The Dwarves will take watch in pairs, and I do not need sleep tonight."
"I am worried about Thorin." he replied. "He did not say goodbye to me when we parted ways today. That is not like him. He always lets me know when he is around."
"Unless he is spying." she remarked bitterly.
"Well, special circumstances and all. He would have faced you, if he could have." Bilbo said.
"I would have been a more honest person, if I could have. I lied constantly for two years, living in Dale. Kili would have been very disappointed in me."
"You hardly had a choice." Bilbo assured her.
"It started long before then, since I was small. I don't know if Thorin ever told you what a liar I am. Thorin knows people - he figured that out about me early." Rhavaniel quietly confessed.
Bilbo was silent. He recalled Thorin's rant against the girl when the Dwarves were all together in Erebor, before the Battle of Five Armies. Even after he sent Rhavaniel away, Thorin wanted Kili to put the idea of ever see her again out of his head. Lying and stealing were mentioned prominently.
"I tried to teach Kili how to lie. I told him that it has to be something the person wants to hear for it to work well. Now I realize how much I have been lying to myself, a victim of my own skill. I convinced myself that Kili came back looking for me. That never happened. My mother's family wanted a slave, and they stole him away from his peaceful afterlife and fought over him like dogs over a bone." she said sadly.
"But you are not responsible for that. You are still with us, looking for him." Bilbo remarked.
"I owe him that. It is still my fault Kili is lost." she said. "Maybe my boy will not have to pay for our family's sins if I can set this right."
