Kalin jumped up from his seat upon the ground. Already pale, Legolas' visage was apparitionally white, his already wide, startlingly blue eyes now seemed to take up the entire upper half of his face, and if Kalin were not mistaken, the young Elf trembled with fear. Mouthing the words so not to be overheard by Ninan, the sentry told his charge, "Be calm, my Prince. Let me speak to him."
I hope Ninan heard none of it. Without waiting for an answer from Legolas, Kalin fled to the door, thinking as he opened it, If I have to, I will bribe, beat, or blackmail Ninan into holding his tongue about what the Prince has said.
Ninan was unsurprised to see Kalin at the door, of course, for Ninan had heard the sentry and Prince speaking, just as Kalin feared. Although the sentry tried to keep the portal only slightly ajar so his superior could not see within, Ninan attempted to step inside, only to be stopped when Kalin did not move from the way. A scowl forming upon his face, the captain paced back a few steps and gave his underling his fiercest glower.
"Where is the Prince?" the captain rudely, gruffly asked his underling. "I have a message for him from the King."
From Ninan's wrathful demeanor, Kalin assumed the captain heard at least some of what Legolas had said of his father – of their King. Loyal to Thranduil above all else, Ninan was thoroughly incensed at the Prince's criticism.
Kalin cast a glance back into the room, where Legolas now stood beside the dim, circular windows. It seemed to Kalin in the moment that if the windows had been operable or bigger, the young Silvan might have been tempted to open or break one and flee, so great was the blatant panic upon his face. As he turned back to Ninan, Kalin prayed to any Valar who might be listening, Please, just let Ninan have heard only the last bit, if he heard any of it at all. Do not let him have heard Legolas say he wished his father had died rather than the Queen. But better yet, let him have heard none of it. Let his anger be for me, for anything or anyone but Legolas.
Too long in answering Ninan, Kalin floundered at the door, thinking of how best to ameliorate the potentially precarious situation. Finally, Kalin managed to prevaricate, "The Prince is resting. What is the message for him? I will pass it along."
If at all possible, Ninan's face grew even dourer, for he could see through Kalin's lie and did not appreciate being kept from his task of speaking to the Prince. But thinking the Prince was the cause for Kalin's mendacity, the captain did not press the issue as he could hardly fault Kalin for following his Prince's orders, nor could he overstep his bounds and demand to see Legolas. Instead, he told his underling, "Fine. Our King sent me here to relay a message, one he forgot to tell his Highness in person during their meeting. Tell Prince Legolas the King desires his company for the evening meal tonight. He has a guest coming whom he would like for Legolas to meet. The King requests the Prince dress appropriate to his station."
Thranduil must have known Legolas would end up back in his rooms, since he's now too bruised to do anything else without the whole realm knowing he is injured, Kalin surmised resentfully. He likely sent Ninan here to check to see his handiwork was effective in intimidating Legolas, rather than to give this simple message anyone could have brought to the Prince. Aloud, however, Kalin was careful not to evince his acrimony.
"I shall tell him, and see he does," Kalin told Ninan, who nodded curtly. As the captain of the Mirkwood guard began away, his obligation completed, Kalin slipped outside the door, shut it behind him, and shadowed Ninan down the hall. Noting he was being followed, Ninan stopped just at the top of the stairwell, turned, and waited for Kalin to speak. He asked his superior without preamble, "You were at the door. How much of Legolas' outburst did you overhear?"
Ninan was not vindictive or a gossipmonger, nor did he hold some grudge against Legolas. As the Prince had only just told Kalin, the servants and guards of the Greenwood were obeisant to their King above all others – as well they should be, of course, though it often worked to Legolas' detriment, for in placing the King above all others they oftentimes unknowingly caused unnecessary suffering for the Prince. Kalin did not want to see this happen now. Already, after the Queen's death, Legolas was withdrawn, unhappy, and grief-ridden on the best of days. On the worst of days, Kalin often feared the young Wood-Elf's sorrow might cause Legolas' faer to abscond his rhaw so he could be with his Naneth.
Ninan stared at Kalin for a few moments, perhaps gauging his fellow sentry's intentions. Bluntly and quietly, the captain replied, "I heard our Prince call our King selfish, cruel, and mean." Ninan looked back to the shut door to Legolas' bedchamber, wherein the Prince in question remained sequestered in fright. When Ninan returned his gaze to Kalin, the captain glared at his underling as if it were Kalin's fault for Legolas berating his father. In an even lower voice, Ninan added so softly none could have overheard lest they were standing in the corridor with them, "And I heard our Prince say he wished our King was dead."
He was quite sure his heart was beating so hard and fast it might gallop right out of his chest. "He is merely upset. He and the King had an argument," the sentry explained, though he amended quickly, "well, Thranduil shouted and Legolas took it with grace, as usual. Do not make more of his churlish, irresponsible wishes than his merely being distraught."
Ninan crossed his arms over his wide chest. Astute and not one to tiptoe around something when candor was a quicker route – a trait he shared with or had learnt from the Elvenking – Ninan inquired, "What are you asking of me, Kalin? Prince Legolas bordered on treason just now, though it will be King Thranduil's place to decide whether it is or not. And I will not lie to our King or pretend I did not hear it."
"I do not ask you to lie. I only ask you not to offer the information. Can you not see how Legolas suffers? King Thranduil grieves, this I know, but he takes his anger out and heaps his sorrow upon the Prince," Kalin tried to reason with Ninan, knowing he bordered upon treason himself in questioning their King's state of mind. In fact, he could see the admonishment forming upon Ninan's lips, though Kalin continued quickly to stave off the imminent lecture, "Since you heard Legolas say those things, you also heard him beg me not to tell Thranduil. You heard his fear and regret for saying them. He is young and he has just lost his mother. His father, our King, treats him with little regard, so caught up in his own grief is he, and understandably so, perhaps, but the same could be said for the Prince, as well. Please," Kalin begged shamelessly on behalf of Legolas, "do as he has asked of me and say nothing to Thranduil. I would not have Legolas beaten or locked in his rooms over what amounts to little more than the besorrowed outburst of a grieving child. The Prince did not mean it, but Thranduil will not care, and the King will only become ever more embittered towards Legolas should he hear of it."
Ninan's severity eased. With the practiced motions of someone who has lived millennia and thus braided his hair innumerable times, Ninan pulled free one loosening, chestnut braid and plaited it again in aggravation. Had not Kalin known his captain better, he might have thought Ninan was stalling to consider before he gave his answer.
"You are too close to him. I do not like it. Do not forget he is the Prince, not the King," his superior warned him with what sounded to be friendly concern for Kalin. Stepping closer to Kalin, Ninan took hold of his fellow guard's arm, telling him as if he were trying to be of aid to Kalin or talk some sense into him, "Prince Legolas is not your friend. He is your charge; remember this. You can do your duty for Legolas but Thranduil is your sovereign. Your loyalty lies with the King first and foremost."
Before Ninan even finished speaking, Kalin was shaking his head in negation of the captain's assertion. Yanking his arm free from his captain's hold, Kalin boldly and perhaps unwisely argued at once, "You are wrong. I spoke my oath to the Queen, to the Prince, and to the King the day I became Legolas' guard, making a vow before Ilúvatar to protect the Prince with all I am, Ninan, and putting his welfare above all others. And this oath is what I am trying now to uphold – the vow I made to protect my Prince."
A stern scowl crossed the captain's face and he opened his mouth to argue, but at realizing Kalin's unwavering adamancy on the matter – evident in how Kalin argued with his captain when normally the obedient sentry would never do so – Ninan began to doubt his intention to relate to the King what he had heard. The captain stepped back and crossly folded his arms back over his chest. Ninan was not quite convinced, but Kalin could tell his elder was coming around; yet still, the captain told his underling, "The Prince cannot say such things and expect no reprimand."
Saying aloud what everyone suspected, but that which no one talked about to each other, Kalin drove home his point by telling Ninan, "And do you realize what kind of reprimand he receives for the most harmless jokes? Today, the King threw the Prince against his desk, bruising if not cracking his ribs. He is hurt – enough so he could not go practice his archery with his friends, which as you know is truly his only enjoyment these days. The King injured the Prince over a little prank involving ink in a teacup, Ninan. If you tell the King what the Prince has said, what do you think might happen to Legolas?" he questioned heatedly.
The captain shifted where he stood with palpable unease and looked away from his underling, unable to admit aloud the veracity of Kalin's claims. Kalin did not believe for a moment that Ninan was unaware of Thranduil's tendency to direct violence towards Legolas – willfully uninvolved, yes, but not oblivious. Kalin was tempted to tell Ninan he knew the captain was the reason for Thranduil hearing of the prank, but his attempt to guilt Ninan might only irritate his captain and thus make him less amenable to his pleas. However, even without his telling Ninan he knew the captain was the one to tattle on the Prince, Kalin could see the remorseful sympathy for Legolas as it overtook Ninan's dour face.
"Please," he beseeched his superior, while considering dropping to his knees in supplication if it would avail Ninan's understanding of the depths of Kalin's desperation to keep his Prince from harm, "I will speak to Legolas. I will explain to him how he cannot speak so recklessly – even in juvenile anger as any other Elfling might and be able to get away with it. I am not asking you to lie," he reiterated, "I am merely asking you not to make worse an already volatile situation by offering the information without being asked for it. Please, Ninan. I want only to do my duty and protect the Prince."
Ninan did not like it, Kalin could see. He could also see his captain would agree to this. Ninan plainly did not appreciate being forced into an awkward situation where his loyalty to Thranduil placed second behind his want for the Prince to be safe and well. However, despite his allegiances lying first with the King, Ninan did love his young Prince, as did all the guards, servants, and the populace of the Greenwood, and he no more wanted for Legolas to be maltreated than would anyone else.
"Fine," Ninan groused, "unless he asks me specifically, and only because I doubt he will ever have reason to, I will say nothing of this. However, if somehow the King hears of this and I am implicated in keeping it from him, I will cleave your fool head from your shoulders," Ninan warned Kalin, poking the younger Silvan with one finger to his chest in a remarkably painful jab.
The captain was not one to make bombastic or aggrandizing threats – if Ninan promised he would make Kalin one head shorter, then he damn well meant it, Kalin knew.
"And make certain the Prince understands the ramifications of speaking ill of our King," Ninan hissed, giving Kalin another painful jab. Portentously, his words cutting through Kalin's chest as easily as if they were a well-honed dagger, Ninan warned his underling, "He is young but he is a Prince – he must learn to fend for himself. You will not always be there to protect him."
To himself, the sentry said, No, you are wrong. I will always be here to protect Legolas, if I have my way, though to Ninan he oathed while nodding eagerly his agreement, "I will, I promise."
At this point, short of murder, he would have been willing to do or agree to anything Ninan asked of him to gain his captain's compliance. Kalin would gladly take every ranting and beating Thranduil handed out to the Prince, he would take all the blame for every wrong Legolas was accused of committing, and he would bear all of the Prince's sorrow if he could. His love for his charge was nearly irrational, so great was it, and almost obsessional, so much did it consume him; however, without doubt, Kalin knew his own life and life's purpose was tied to the young Woodland Prince. If tomorrow Legolas were to fade from grief, Kalin would willingly follow his Prince into the Halls of Awaiting, where even there he would spend his eternity watching over Legolas until his Prince was re-embodied to live in Valinor or the world was unmade and Ilúvatar's second song begun.
Whatever it takes, he told himself as he watched Ninan sprint away, down the stairs and back to Thranduil. Ninan did not give his word lightly, so Kalin knew the captain would keep it. Sighing deeply with relief, Kalin held a hand out to the wall of the corridor, his mind reeling and his heart finally slowing its fretful beating as his fear for Legolas lessened. Whatever it takes to keep you safe, my Prince.