Chapter 10: Battle at their Feet
"Wake up!" Gailien jolts, awoken by Thorin's deep call which echoes through the chamber. "All of you! Now!"
Her head feels full of heavy metal, her eyes drooping down as she slowly pulls herself up. "That was the worst sleep I've gotten in a while," she mutters, pulling on her shin and arm guards.
"You kept kicking me," Fili grunts, also putting on his armour.
"You're telling me," Kili grumbles, appearing on her other side. Gailien glances at him briefly but her eyes quickly return to a mark on his face. He runs his fingers over the spot and they both wince.
"Was that from me?" she gasps, reaching over. She pushes his fingers away, tracing over it herself. It isn't anything overly painful looking, just a scratch but it shouldn't be there, nonetheless. "Remind me to sleep further away tonight."
Once they are fully suited up, Thorin calls for them to gather on the battlement. The sun has barely risen but it seems everybody within a hundred leagues is already awake. Lined in front of them is Thranduil's forces, their golden armour taunting her past. And her future.
Would it be by one of their hands? Or maybe one of Lake-town's people. Gailien finds a spot next to Balin and she quietly notes Bilbo's return with him. Her left hand rests ready on the hilt of one her blades, as though ready to attack from where she stands. Her bow is strung across her back, the quiver strapped with it.
She knows that the only reason they have yet to attack is because of the new bargaining tool they have been so graciously offered by their resident burglar.
Gazing over at Thorin she hopes to find him in one of his better moments but the expression on his face says otherwise. She looks past him to Bilbo who catches her eye, giving her the smallest of nods.
Fourteen against hundreds. The odds are not in their favour.
Thranduil, mounted on his elk and accompanied by Bard slowly make their way through the Elven army who orderly move out of the way as the two steeds and their master travel through. Thorin loads his own bow, taking aim but he doesn't shoot until Thranduil and Bard have reached the foot of the mountain.
The arrow flies, bouncing off the ground in front of the Elk's hoof.
"I'm going to hope that was a warning shot and not just bad aim," she glowers to Balin.
Thranduil glances down to the spot the arrow hit then back up to Thorin and his company. "I will put the next one between your eyes." The Dwarves begin to cheer, throwing insults over the wall. Gailien doesn't join in, only eyeing Thranduil, waiting for his move.
With a slight tilt of his head, the archers of the army move as one, pulling arrows from their quiver and aiming it up at the mountain. All the Dwarves duck, leaving Thorin as the lone stander, even Bilbo and Gailien moving behind a rock. If she is going to die, it is not going to be because of two King's pettiness.
They don't move back up until they clearly hear the arrows being put back in their quivers.
"We've come to tell you payment of your debt has been offered and accepted," Thranduil announces, watching Thorin's reaction carefully.
"What payment?" Thorin growls. "I gave you nothing. You have nothing."
Bard reaches into his jacket and pulls out the Arkenstone, holding it high. Even from her spot the beauty and etherealness is overwhelming, the spiral of colours shimmering against the morning sun. "We have this."
"They have the Arkenstone," Kili cries. "Thieves!" Gailien sucks her cheeks, holding her head low. "How cam you by the heirloom of our house? That stone belongs to the king!"
It's for the good of all of them, she tells herself.
"The King may have it, with your goodwill." Bard places the stone back in his pocket. "But first he must honour his word."
Thorin shakes his head. "They're taking us for fools." Gailien slowly walks closer, her instinct driving her. "This is a ruse, and a filthy lie. The Arkenstone is in this Mountain, it is a trick!"
"I-it's no trick." Bilbo steps forward. "The stone is real. I gave it to them."
Thorin turns to Bilbo, shock and betrayal clearly planted on his face. "You?"
"I took it as my fourteenth share," the Hobbit explains.
"You would steal from me?" Thorin growls in a whisper.
"Steal from you? No, no. I may be a burglar, but I like to think I'm an honest one," he jests, trying to keep himself calm. "I'm willing to let it stand against my claim."
"Against your claim?" Thorin questions. He chuckles maniacally. "Your claim? You have no claim over me, you miserable rat!"
"I was going to give it to you. Many times I wanted to, but…" Bilbo glances over at Gailien who stands behind Thorin, watching carefully and silently.
"But what, thief?"
"You are changed, Thorin," Bilbo states. "The Dwarf I met in Bag End would never have gone back on his word, would never have doubted the loyalty of his kin."
"Do not speak to me of loyalty." He turns around to the rest of the Dwarves. "Throw him from the rampart."
"No!" Gailien cries, stepping forward. "You will do no such thing!" She walks backwards until she feels Bilbo by her back and grasps his arms. "He did it in hopes that you would see reason! That we would not have to go to war!"
"You knew?" The tension in her face drops, growing instead in her stomach. She doesn't answer, her grip on the Hobbit not faltering but her feet dig into the ground. "You have betrayed me."
If he was angry before, he is beyond furious now. The Dwarven king marches forward and his hands lock around the chainmail and blouse, pulling her forward and away from Bilbo. Gailien grips his wrists, trying to keep her footing as he drags her away from Bilbo.
"Thorin! Stop!" Fili moves forward but Thorin shoves an elbow back.
"She didn't know!" Bilbo cries out. "Only I did!
"I can't believe anything you say, thief," Thorin hisses over her shoulder. Gailien's chest heaves and her hands shake, still tightly gripped around his wrists.
"Please," she begs. "We're doing this for you."
"For me," he scoffs, a mirthless smile on his lips. "You lie. You always have and you always will." Thorin shoves her backwards, letting go of her clothes and armour. But her back doesn't find the ground. She watches as Thorin disappears over the edge of the stone.
"Gailien!"
Her back hits the stone stairs and she gasps in pain, bending backwards as she tumbles down a few more until her momentum runs out. Kili runs down the stairs as Fili and the others try to stop Thorin throwing Bilbo over the edge.
"I'm…okay," she breathes out, her tongue pushing against the back of her teeth as she tries to let the pain drift away. Kili doesn't touch her, not wanting to move her after she has hurt her back. This is a moment to be strong. "Help me up."
Kili hesitantly holds out a hand which she takes and slowly lifts herself off the stairs. Another groan passes her lips involuntarily as she stretches. But nothing is too bad, she can still walk, and most importantly; still fight.
Slowly they make it back up to the battlements, but the brunette prince keeps Gailien off to the side, out of Thorin's focus and she doesn't argue. She looks around for Bilbo, but he isn't there and dread begins to settle in until she notices that the rope has be unfurled once more.
"Are we resolved? The return of the Arkenstone for what was promised?" A single raven lands on the wall of the battlement, catching Thorin's attention. "Give us your answer. Will you have peace or war?"
"I will have war," Thorin declares. Gailien's head drops to Kili's shoulder, feeling like everything from the past few days has been a waste. Her death becoming a certainty. But on the horizon, a new army emerges. Gailien's head lifts again as her and Kili walk closer to the edge, looking at the new arrivals.
"Are those Dwarves?" she questions.
"Dain," Kili answers. The Dwarves begin to cheer, and she can't help but feel a little relief that they now have more numbers to their side. They have come prepared for war, led by Dain, Lord of the Iron Hills, on his pig-looking mount while the Dwarves march behind him, armed with spears and other Dwarvish weapons.
Thranduil sends his army new orders and the Elves turn, march towards the oncoming Dwarves. Both armies stop yards away, the small human army between the Elves. Dain rides forward, calling out "Good morning! How are we all? I have a wee proposition if you wouldn't mind giving me a few moments of your time. Would you consider…Just sodding off!"
The human army takes a few fearful steps backwards, but the Elves stand fierce, bracing their weapons. "Stand fast," Bard orders them.
"I like him," Gailien whispers to Kili. He's straight to the point and does it with attitude.
"I think he would like you too," Kili grins back, a newfound excitement now that the rest of his kin have come. His kin. She isn't his kin, not really. No label is going to change that.
There seems to be a conversation between Dain and Gandalf which she cannot hear until Dain yells clearly, "I will not stand down before any Elf. Not least this faithless woodland sprite (to which Gailien snorts at). He wishes nothing but ill upon my people. If he chooses to stand between me and my kin, I'll split his pretty head open! See if he's still smirking then!"
The Dwarves cheer, holding their weapons high in support.
"He's clearly mad, like his cousin," is Thranduil's coolly reply.
"You hear that, lads? We're on! Let's give these bastards a good hammering!" Dain rallies his troops in preparation with Dwarvish war chants. The Elves also prepare themselves, the archers moving behind those with shields and spears, but their attention is taken by a loud rumbling that comes from the earth below their feet.
They wait in anticipation, the tension growing thick until large worm creatures burst through the surrounding hills. "Are they were-worms?" Gailien gasps, leaning forward to see more. The creatures come out of different spots, sending stone flying in all directions or being crushed in their round taloned mouths.
But it is not the were-worms that they are facing. The creatures dive back into their holes and an extraordinarily loud horn is blown that belongs to none of the armies currently at the mountain.
What she is not expecting today, is for hundreds of Orcs to start piling out of the mountain, sprinting towards Erebor and Dale. They wouldn't just be fighting the Elves and humans. Or maybe they won't have a chance to fight them and be too occupied with the other enemy. Maybe it is one of those filthy creatures that kill her.
"The Hordes of Hell are upon us! To battle! To battle, sons of Durin!"
Dain leads half of his army around the Elves, heading to the side of Dale to meet the Orcs in battle. "I'm going over the wall, who's coming with me?" Kili exclaims.
The company cheers. "Come on, let's go!" Fili says and they begin to move but they are halted by a higher authority.
"Stand down," Thorin orders. At least he hasn't thrown her over, she thinks morbidly.
"What?" Fili gapes. "Are we to do nothing?"
"I said stand down!" He turns to her, marching forward with a raised finger. And what are they to do? They have seen what he will do in anger and none dare go against him, but all hold their tongues.
Gailien takes a small step backwards but runs into somebody behind her so her shoulders tense. An arm curves out along the air in front of her stomach. Thorin breathes heavily, his eyes seeming to pierce her skull. "I'll be watching your every move," he warns. "Next time, I'll throw you off the other side."
Thorin storms off to an unknown location, leaving the Dwarves to stand helpless behind the stone fortress. The arm in front of her drops and Gailien glances to Kili silently, nodding in thanks. She knows that she should be out there fighting, but she can't bring herself to go over without them. They have been by her side so long, that it would feel unnatural to not have them there. But somehow they go out there, unless she is to die by Thorin's hand.
They begin to take off their armour, tossing it to the ground but Gailien stands there numbly.