Knowing about someone who might be able to solve their problem with Thorin and actually knowing where to find them is another matter entirely. Which, of course, is providing the twins were telling Billana the truth all those years ago and not telling tall tales.
"How did you come by this information?" Balin asks when they tell him everything.
"The twins," Billana admits and her father scoffs but gestures for her to continue. "They came to visit me not long before my mother died and they were telling me about their friend Glorfindel. They told me that he had lived in the First Age, fought against a Balrog and died, then been brought back by the Valar and sent here to help with the fight against The Enemy. Anyway, they were saying that being brought back had made him almost as powerful as the wizards that the Valar had sent after him. They mentioned five, but Gandalf doesn't talk about the others when I ask and the twins have only really had dealings with three of them. Not that it matters, they know a lot of things that they aren't really meant to and they told me that the wizards were servants of the Valar sent to be their eyes, ears and hands. But if Gandalf is a servant of the Valar-"
"-he may be able to help Thorin," Balin concludes, looking between the three of them. "It's thin, lass."
"It's all we have," Fili replies. "I don't much like it either, but if there's any chance of finding Gandalf and finding a way to help Thorin before Dain gets here we might have to send Billana and Kili to look for him."
"If what the ravens have told Billana is accurate, we've got three days," Kili sighs. "But Dain isn't the worst of it. Thranduil and most of the Men of the Lake are on their way here as well."
"There's no telling what sort of tales those two have told one another," Balin huffs, "especially if the Master is still determined to force a more lucrative alliance by getting his hands on Billana."
"You don't think he will have given up on that idea?" Fili asks. "His men heard Kili declare that they're courting."
"The Men don't allow as much freedom of choice to their lasses," Balin sighs. "We've never given them any reason to think differently, and as far as they're concerned Kili isn't anyone of any importance. The Master would be a better match." Her husbands move closer to her. "Fortunately, you've managed to place her well and truly out of his reach, which is one of the reasons I didn't object to the haste of the match. We still need to finalise those contracts before you two fly off."
"You think they should go?" Fili asks in surprise, his face crumpling, and Billana's stomach clenches as she remembers his fears in Mirkwood; that she would choose Kili over him or the pair of them would go somewhere he couldn't follow.
"I don't like it," Balin replies. "But I think they have to. With Thorin so obviously not himself we can't be too careful. None of the other dwarf lords agreed to aid him without the Arkenstone, it could be that they have just been waiting for an opportunity to take Erebor and her riches for themselves." The three of them exchange a long look. "You've had the same thought, then. And even if Dain doesn't decide that Thorin is an anvil short of a forge, your uncle already thinks that you three are planning to oust him. Won't take much for him to convince himself that it's either Dain that wants him out, or that our cousin has come to support you."
"Kili and I leaving isn't exactly going to convince him otherwise," Billana points out softly.
"Don't tell him," another voice says, Nori saunters into the room, "and learn to keep your voices down, our paranoid monarch is prowling around like a warg with an axe in it's snout." She leans against the wall by the door. "You two go and do what you can, no more than a day away mind, and I know that's a good distance for ravens, then get back here and report that Dain will be here in the next however many hours. Better if you do it from different directions and that Kili be the one to bring the news."
"It's sound," Balin agrees. "My father often had to manipulate Thror in a similar fashion."
"I don't like it," Kili shakes his head. "It's bad enough that we're going to have to conceal this information from him as it is, I don't like the thought that we're having to manage him like this."
"It may be the only way," Balin reminds him. "If Gandalf can't help us we have to prepare for the possibility of having another mad king on our hands. Better to put things in place now than scramble to it later when it's too late to hide just how far gone he is." He sighs. "The contracts are ready enough for signing, a little rough but that's understandable under the circumstances. Come with me to the library and we'll get it signed and get you pair on your way."
The matter of the contracts is dealt with quickly, with only a momentary interruption from Thorin who demands to know why they aren't dealing with the dragon carcass. Nori and Dwalin hover near him, having been declared his personal guards, and neither of them look comfortable with it. Nori, Billana knows, dislikes being in sight of others. She's a thief to her bones and she prefers to keep to the dark and hidden places. Thorin shrugs their answer off, bellowing at Nori and Dwalin to follow him when Balin is half way through explaining that the marriage contracts are finally ready for signing. The dwarf king looks even more ill than he had the previous day, Billana doubts that he has eaten or drunk anything in the last couple of days and while she knows that dwarves can endure a lack of food and water for far longer than a Man or hobbit might be able to, she wonders if their concerns about an insane king might not be taken care of by Thorin inadvertently killing himself.
Kili makes a point of telling Thorin that the two of them are going to see how close Dain is and to investigate some troubling reports from the ravens, although he doesn't give any indication about what they might have heard to cause them to investigate personally. Thorin waves it off, Billana isn't even entirely sure that he has heard what he's been told, and the pair of them rush to the battlements with Fili.
"We'll far speak you when we stop for the night," Kili promises. "We'll still be in range."
That doesn't seem to reassure Fili much, who crushes her against him so that he can kiss the breath from her, then grabs his brother to crush their foreheads together briefly. She doesn't hear what he says to his brother, although from Kili's expression it's something about keeping both of them safe, but Billana has already transformed by that point. She knows full well that if she doesn't do it now she won't do it at all. She hates the thought of flying off and leaving him to deal with Thorin for however many days, but she knows that it's a necessary evil and privately swears to herself that if it is in her power she will never go somewhere he can't follow again. She runs her beak through his hair briefly before she leaves, feels him reach up to smooth her feathers, then she leaps and follows Kili as he takes to the sky.
For the most part it is a dull flight. They don't play together as they did the first time that they flew like this, instead they strike out towards Mirkwood, coming across the army of Men and elves quickly. In truth they have little idea of where they might find Gandalf, their only clue is that he headed back west after leaving them at the entrance to Mirkwood. They turn in that direction once they have flown over the army, though she isn't sure what they might hope to find. It has been months since they separated, after all, and Gandalf could be anywhere.
The sun has long set when they finally find a secluded spot where they can land and rest. Kili's promise that they will far speak Fili weights heavily on her mind and he must see it because he doesn't insist that they find something to eat first. He simply settles against a tree and draws her back against him, wrapping his arms around her so that she doesn't feel the chill wind as much as he calls up a ball of his sparkling gift and calls his brother's name. A moment later the shimmers take on a golden glow and she hears Fili reply, though it is more distorted for her than it would be for Kili. They assure him, quickly, that they are perfectly well and about three days of hard march from the mountain with no sign of Gandalf, not that either of them had expected there to be. They'll fly slightly more north in the morning before turning back east to the mountain, but their chances of finding Gandalf are slim.
"We expected that," she hears Fili say. "Be careful and be watchful."
"We will," Kili assures him. "What of Thorin?"
Thorin hasn't even really noticed that they are gone. He seems to have even forgotten that they left the mountain at all. That can only be a good thing, Billana thinks, and the conversation only ends when her stomach reminds her that they haven't eaten yet. Her own senses tell her that there isn't much to be found in the area, some small game if she is lucky and as much as she hates using her magic to aid her when she hunts tonight it is necessary if they are to get some sleep before setting off again in the morning. She turns into an owl and manages to catch two rabbits, passing them to Kili to skin using another of the sharp stones that he appears to have a knack for finding when he needs them, although it's more likely that he uses his gift to sharpen them. Soon enough he has the rabbits skinned and placed on spits over the fire, and they doze together while they wait for the rabbits to cook.
Being alone so far from the mountain they agree that it would be best if they keep a watch over night, though neither expects to see anything, and Kili tells her to get some sleep. She curls up in his arms happily, enjoying his warmth as she always does, and slips into a fitful doze. Her dreams are troubled, even with the heat from her husband she finds herself shivering, and as the hours continue she finds them becoming more lucid as she dreams of running with the local wolves. They are nervous, displaced, angry. She hasn't dreamt of running with wolves for years, and this isn't the sort of dream that she would normally have where she is resting in the den or hunting. This isn't the simple domestic life of wolves, these wolves are angry and planning a war of their own kind. The kind that comes when another pack encroaches on their territory. It is a war that they know they cannot win, but the main pack has been cut off from their young and the old one left to watch them.
-Run, pack sister- The boss wolf tells her. -Warn your pack-
She wakes as a warg tears out the wolf's throat with a shrill scream of terror.
"We have to leave," she gasps as Kili pulls her against him with frantic hands, desperately trying to work out what has happened. "We have to go now! The orcs are coming."
A.N: Real life is kicking me at the moment. Somehow I need to cram everything in and nothing that I actually need to get done is getting done. My kids certainly aren't spending as much time learning as they should, but we're doing what we can. Both of them are young enough that I can't just leave them to their own studies, I have to guide it and help them. Chapters will slow down, I'm trying to cram 30 hours of my own study in as well!
