Fall of 2065 Part 2 of Thranduils coming to Rivendell
As the crisp call of the horn echoed through the glen Elenwe and the rest of the guard stumbled hastily down the stairs to the and found their small company surrounded by Elrond's soldiers and barred from their horses.
Fear washed over her, and she looked from Unede to the guard to Elladan and then at last her eyes fell to the King's Guard that glittered in the morning sun and cast a rainbow of light through the valley. When the shock of the arrival had past, chaos erupted around them, calls of panic filled the streets below. Childrens cries for mother came shrilly, and shouts for friends erupted. Doors slammed shut and families peaked through cracks in curtains. Then the drawing of swords rang in the air and the rattling of soldiers echoed off the canyon walls.
Yet the King sat upon his horse quietly and unmoving. His eyes scanning the high steps for the arrival of the Lord of this valley. Unede realized she had not taken a breath, but she gasped when a hand a strong hand took her arm and pulled her swiftly into the tight group of Rivendells guards, and before she could react she found herself surrounded, and being pulled towards the homely house.
Elenwe screamed, and Mahtan Let out a cry "Release her, you release her now." And he drew his sword swiftly and sprang toward them. But Unede called for him to stop.
"Go to the King, go now, make haste!" She spoke as the guards grip tightened around her arms and pulled her further from her own soldiers.
"This is your fault, you have informed your guard of our coming and stolen her from us. A curse be on your house Elladan son of Elrond." Mahran spat, and strode toward the young lord.
"I have done no such thing, I desired for her to go back home, to her people and her halls, and rule as she might." Elladan sprang forward and grabbed the collar of Mahtan's shirt. "I would not betray her, do not think me corrupt. Always you wood elves are distrustful of outsiders, and now look where it has led us. This will be another kinslaying before the setting of the sun."
Mahtan pushed Elladan hard "Always we are attacked." He pushed the young lord again, and Elladan stumbled. "Always we are mourning, and fearful. Always. Our Princess is as precious to us as the silmarils, and if there need be a kinslaying to have her again than so be it, she is worth any doom I will face from the valar." Then he drew the dagger from his belt and stepped forward.
Elenwe appeared suddenly between them, and slapped the dagger from Mahtan's hand, and it flashed in the morning sun as it bet the ground. "Do as she says, obey her highness, we go to the King. You are over hasty with your blade. You shame our people. Our rulers will know of your actions." She looked up towards the bridge where Thranduil sat upon his horse. "Let us go, get the horses, and we will meet the King on the bridge."
The Lord Elrond stood high on the steps, his guard silent around him. They watched the wood elves below them, staring darkly at the unannounced arrival of a host that the Lord was sure lay hidden all around him. He did not speak, and instead let the morning sun rise enough to fill the canyon, and many minutes went by with the two leaders watched each other and waited for the first move to be made in a dark game of chess.
But they did not have to wait. From the stairs below the platform where the King and his men sat on their mounts came the traveling company. The wood elves guided their horses up the stairs and heaved their thin packs as they scrambled quickly to the top. Elenwe breathed heavily but looked desperately to the King.
Lord Elrond spoke quickly though, before advice could come to Thranduil, and sought eagerly to ease any tension. "It seems we have been caught up, you and I, in misunderstanding between our folks." Thranduils frown deepened. "You brought aide to my people, and I sought only to keep your people safe from the winter winds. To offer them a homely house in the darkest of seasons. Yet I have been deceived. Now here we are, surrounded by your army, and I unarmed, and unready. Will you sack our great city, when already your people come to you freely without my restriction?" Elrond opened his hands wide and looked down at the dozen unkempt elves below him. Thranduil watched panic fill the eyes of his warriors, and sweat beaded down their necks.
"They took her, they took her from us as we fled." Beleg said.
But Elenwe cut in, trying to restrict the hot temper of the guardsman. "We all thought you would be day's away, we meant to flee while Lord Elrond slept and meet you on the road to prevent this siege your majesty." She bowed low, but the King did not look away from the Lord high above him.
"Where is Arinyaelen, where is our morning star?" He spoke at last over the crashing waters. By now the sun had risen high in the sky, and he grew impatient for words and toil. Lord Elrond shifted his weight, and sneered at the King and lifted his hand with its edge facing towards the King. Thranduils frown grew deeper, and his hand moved to the hilt of his blade at the Lords insult. His guard followed suit, and it seemed that the dull bending of bows could be heard from the cliffs that stood above the valley.
"Be on your way Thranduil, I have given you all you desire. I will keep my kin, for she has sins to answer for." He spoke.
The King rode forward briskly and his horses hooved clattered on the ancient stones and he stopped sharply at the edge of the stairway. "You have abandoned your kin, and banished your Princess from her own city. You have abandoned my Kingdom in our time of need when we faced doom in the south. And now you seek to imprison Arinyaelen for bringing you aide. Yet, she does not answer to you. She is of my forest. She is my kin, my child, my daughter, my charge to keep safe. Bring her forth, I do not wish have my house doomed as yours is, for the valar do not smile on me as they do on the Noldor, and they would not forgive me so willingly for spilling blood. Make no mistake steward, for readily will I risk my exile from valinor if you do not deliver her to me. Blood or no I shall have her returned."
"Child you say, daughter you say!" He whispered and looked to the healer who stood still next to the elven King. "You are not Aranel O Eryn Galen are you young healer." He said lifting his chin in an understanding.
She held a tight smile and crinkled her nose, and shook her head to the chagrin of the ancient Lord.
Then suddenly from behind Elrond and elf slipped through the crowd of Noldor that had begun to gather on the platform. He was weary and hunched and dressed still in his traveling clothes, with his cloak drawn about him in a shroud, and whispers of surprise spread at his arrival, and the realization of Unedes marriage whipped through the clan.
"She has twisted your mind Your Majesty. Can you not see the treachery that is plain before you?" Daeron hissed as he made is way down the steps. "She will steal from her family, usurp your throne, trick your son, murder mine."
Thranduil looked down at the dark elf that gazed up at him. Daeron stopped before the Kings horse and took a knee. "You must listen to my words." He whispered. "She is a traitor, she will bring ruin to Eryn Galen and Imladris alike. I beg you listen to me, heed my words."
The King watched him for a long moment, and the horseman bowed his head lower and trembled before the woodland ruler. "Listen you say…." He growled and dismounted his horse. "Listen to a traitor?" He put his hand on the golden hilt that rest on his hip and scowled at the elf before him.
"Surely King Thranduil." Elronds voice rang down from the stairs. "Surely you would listen to one who comes to me at the risk of his own doom. Let Lord Daeron plead his case, then perhaps, you will understand the lies that Itarilde has lay before you. Do not let her patience for a crown fool you. The blood of our house is to strong, she will bring ruin to any she leads, just as her forefathers did."
"Do not let Daeron speak." Elledan cried out running out onto the platform and raising a pointed hand toward the peredhel. "For his name should be Celeblambe for he has the tongue of a snake."
"I speak only my truth Majesty." Daeron pled desperately looking up at the King. He crawled forward and took the him of his cape in his hands and kissed it with dry lips. "I only desire peace for you Majesty, I only wish for you to see, see as I do. For am I not your councilor, was this not the job you appointed to me?"
"A position I no longer require." The King sneered at the evil that rested before him. "Nay, nay you are wrought with grief and anger and there is a hatred in your soul neither words nor ears can sooth."
"Let him speak!" Elrond cried out. "Let his words be heard and known- you must hear his plea and tale for yourself, you know not the danger that lies within your house!"
But a fire awoke in the Kings eyes, and he came forth from this horse and met lord Elrond on the stair and called loud enough for all to hear. "My people have called for the aide of the Noldor for two thousand years! Yet our requests have fallen on deaf ears, and our news has gone unheard and unheaded at your councils. I shall hear nothing from this traitors tongue!"
Daeron shrunk back, and stood on the edge of the platform watching the elves before him bicker, and a pale light came to his face and he felt his limbs grow cold and his heart hollow. How could they not see it, how could they not feel the evil in her. And his breaths grew desperate. But the lords seemed only to focus on each other and to have forgotten about the news and warnings he brought.
"Danger? In your halls, in your house? You have nothing to fear from a necromancer, no shadow no darkness- I am the one who has suffered. Suffered at your own greed- Suffered for you and King Amroth and my own kin deigned to steal the Elessar from my house, and from my people!"
"You accuse me of theft and conspiracy?" The King retorted. "You think that I conspired with my cousin? And for what end?"
"Because you were jealous." Elrond spat. "It consumes you- you were jealous that the Noldor were chosen to bear the rings of power for the elves, and that the Elessar given to Galadriel. You were not wise enough to see that your people deserve punishment for the deaths Orophir caused in Dagorlad. So you conspired, and you corrupt my niece so she would bring you the jewel."
"Then by your own words it is not she you should fear as evil, but I."
"There is more than one truth! Even the wise know this." Elrond shouted.
"I stole it, I stole the stone!" A voice cried out, and in a shuffle of movement Lord Elrond found Unede at his side. Her braids amiss, and her clothes wrinkled, she gripped her sword and pack tightly to her chest, and heaved her breaths. "Be silent in your fights and toil! For I looked into the Mirror, and I saw that a Shadow would fall onto my home, and I knew that it was unprotected, and I grew jealous that my people were not given one of the rings of power. I stole that stone from Grandmother. The Sindar Kings are not to blame, look to your own house for the descension that you seek, for it was I."
Elrond shook his head again, his hair falling in shadows about his face, and he knew this was not a fight that he would win. And with defeat he pushed her forward, his palm firmly on her back, and she took a stumbling step down the stairs, and caught herself before she fell. Then she turned and looked up at him, and Lord Elrond saw the spirit of fire in her and all the years of shadow she had faced in the wrinkles on her skin, and though she stood below him she seemed to grow taller and he felt her shadow fall onto him and she spoke.
"You should gather the White Council." She hissed. "If you will not listen to me, then listen to them. Call the White Council, Gandalf will show you that I speak only the truth. He will tell you what I saw."
Elrond shook his head. "I tried to keep you safe child." He looked down his nose and pressed his lips together. "I am your steward, and I tried to keep you safe. Safe in Lothlorien, hidden and protected by a ring of power. But how can I look upon your face when you remind me so much of those who sacked Beleriand? You have that same fire, and you will burn the Noldor to the ground if I let you."
"I was a child." She breathed. "A child that you stole away from her home."
"Yes, a child, and we tried to protect you, tried meld you into a High Queen, but you are too stubborn, to proud, to brash. We tried to teach you, and to calm the fire in your soul, but your fea is ill suited for the task. Alas, we all know that havoc a fea of fire will wreak on our people. It is my duty, Galadriels duty to protect the Noldor from that."
"You know me not Uncle. You know neither my fea, nor my purpose. The dark lord was in Eryn Galen, he will come back, he is not yet defeated. You must call a white council, you must listen to me! I am your superior."
"You were banished!" He hissed and a flame lit his dark eyes, and she that same revenge and despair in his soul as was in hers. "Banished for bringing harm to your people."
"Banished because you were to weak to look upon me Uncle, banished because I wanted peace and safety for all of my people, not just the Noldor. You should have given me the Elessar, but instead countless lives were lost in my Kingdom, when we could have been hale and whole. I have no love for jewels or bright things lest they serve me. And alas that stone serves no one in your hands." She shook her head and let him feel the sadness in her fea. "I will return to Greenwood and I will remain hidden there. Hidden from Sauron until the elves need a High Queen in Middle Earth."
She turned to leave but felt a dark flame fill her, and she let all the hurt her Uncle had caused wash over her and flow through her being. Here was an elf whose actions had harmed Eryn Galen, who had allowed lives to be lost all for jewels and power, under the guise of protecting the wandering Noldor. He was responsible for the losses and the hardship Eryn Galen had faced, and now he would keep her and deal her people another.
She turned to him and shook her head. Then spoke her final words to him for that age.
"One day Uncle, an age from now we will sail to Valinor. And King Finarfin will meet his Great-Grand Daughter, a Princess of Eryn Galen, a ruler in her own right, a uniter of eldar, of Noldor and Vanyar and Silvan Blood. A healer of old wounds between the Noldor and the Teleri. A great warrior who stood alone against the Dark Lord in his high tower when no others in our family would, all to protect an elven Kingdom that other Noldor shunned. And then he will see you, a half elf, not of his house, who hid in a valley with a magic ring, whilst his kin were slain in the woods. An elf who call's himself wise, and yet who's mind is twisted by the words of one who hates me because his son fell to protect me. So Then Uncle, then we shall see who shall rule the Noldor when Finarfin is weary of the task, for you and your kin were disinherited, and will forever be so. Let us pray that I have more mercy in those years, than I do now." She bowed to him, and walked down the stairs, and mounted her horse.
"Perhaps." She said looking up to the elves on the platform. "Perhaps I am some of what he says, for I do desire to lead, and to bring together the elves of Middle Earth, and to heal the wounds that my Kin have caused. But do not say that I am disloyal to my kin, nor that I love war, nor that I wish for revenge and blood and toil. I should hope we all find quiet, and unity. I should hope despite our rifts that we grow stronger together. I urge this of you Uncle, one final time. Call a meeting of the White Council." Then she looked to Daeron who coward before her and shook her head. "And you I banish from all elven lands. Go now, across the seas, or to dark caves, I care not, but let me not find you in my house or that of my Kin again."
But Elrond watched silently from atop the stairs, and searched his own mind for a reason things had come to such tensions between the elves. How could he distrust a whole Kingdom, how could he still hate his own Kin for the mistake of his youth. 'How indeed.' He muttered as he looked back on the age that had been so quiet for him in Rivendel. Unede was right, his own family was only a twisted history of death, and deceit, and a hunger for revenge. Even Galadriel was not without sin, nor his own family. And why shouldn't Unede desire to be High Queen when his own family was disinherited, why shouldn't she desire to be with her family in Eryn Galen. Perhaps instead of anger he should feel the same pride Celebrian does when she hears tell of her niece's deeds in the east.
Suddenly Lord Elrond's breath caught in his throat, and a fear filled his heart when his eyes fell onto the elf cowering at the Kings feet and he wondered; who was he really, what motivations did he have to come to his house, why would a silvan elf risk so much for petty revenge? The loss of a son was a great blow, but would it drive an ellon to treason and hate? The wise Lord hesitated, did he dare reach out, did he dare to touch the mind of the silvan elf? Elrond felt for his fea, and the Lords breath caught in his throat and suddenly the tendrils of the Deceivers dark whispers slithered around the edge of his thoughts. Had an evil penetrated into the hidden valley? Surely his niece was wrong, wrong about the Dark Lord, wrong about what lay in Dol Guldur. It was a necromancer in that old tower, as the White Wizard had said. What reason would Saruman have to lie?
Then he turned to his son, and in a whisper with a glaze over his eyes, muttered. "Call the White Council, call them as your Queen says."