When tears tried to fill Aragorn's eyes at Tarisilya's relieving statement, he hid his face firmly against Arwen's hair. That had been damn close. He didn't need any special powers to know that.
And the situation didn't only wreck Arwen and him. He hoped that Tarisilya would immediately tell the other healers and the citizens, too, that nothing was wrong with the child. First rumors were surely going around already.
Aragorn himself just wanted to make sure for the moment that Arwen had overcome the shock.
Because she was still miles away from that. When he just shifted his weight a little, her hand clenched in his red-colored tunic immediately. "Aragorn …"
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." He breathed a tender kiss to her forehead. "Rest a little now, alright? You both need that right now."
"From now on, you should stay in bed anyway," Tarisilya warned Arwen strongly. "Your body needs as much time to recover as possible."
Arwen just nodded silently. No matter how horrible it had used to be for her when she'd not been able to leave her room, she would doubtlessly bare this fate just too gladly for her baby's safety.
Only there was no guarantee for that here either. That was the real problem right now. Arwen was instinctively reaching for a cup of water standing next to her bed already but put it down again immediately. The servants had been brought that water together with the food in the morning. "Aragorn, we need to …"
"Yes." Aragorn cursed soundlessly because he'd been too upset to think of this himself so far. Anything edible needed to be removed from these chambers immediately. And no matter what people would serve them in the foreseeable future: Until that bastard was finally behind bars who was out to get them, Aragorn would personally make sure that no wrong person had had a chance to get their dirty hands on it.
"I'll tell Ranír to make something fresh for you to eat herself and get you water from the well outside. We need a chain of confidants."
He looked at Tarisilya, disheartened. "Do you know anything about this poison?"
The she-elf's lips tightened. "One of the most painful ways to kill someone. Thet stuff can only come from the book that Erestor brought with him to Gondor from Imladris back then." She paused only for a moment, shivering, rubbing her arms. "The Stewardaides' man in the Citadel seems to have it now, just like Erestor suspected. That makes sense; it has to be same guy who provided the enemies in Emyn Arnen with that poison for Faramir for so long."
Using the bedpost, she pulled herself upright with a quiet groan. "I have to look up a few things. I'll come back once I know more."
Aragorn nodded briefly. "Ioreth will have to fill in for you. Let her know. And send Verilas here, please. He's surely waiting in the hallway already, completely upset. I have to make plans with him, about how the search for this bastard shall proceed who comes and goes around here as he wishes."
Once Tarisilya had left the room, Aragorn eyed his wife questioningly. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm tired … and cold." Arwen reached for the cover but grimaced then. "I should change clothes, and the bed needs clean sheets." She reached out her hand to Aragorn so that he would help her up, but she had to hold on to him immediately because she felt dizzy.
"I'll tell the handmaidens." He led her to the soft armchair in the corner, helped her get as comfortable as she could right now, and then started to turn away already.
A single look at her expression that already started to look very absent again changed his mind.
Arwen would never have said something, not even now. She clung to the rest of her self-control that she'd only just regained with all she had. She didn't need to be a healer like him to know that she would have unintentionally harmed her baby if she'd got too upset right now. So she locked her emotions away, in the most deeply hidden corner of her soul as she so often did, especially in battle, with a control trained for centuries. And this was a battle. Only the façade of serenity that she had used to put on in addition to this suppressing, failed her today.
She needed him right now.
Aragorn got the cover from the bed and sat down next to his wife, pulling her close to him to wrap the soft downs around both of them. "We'll just wait for Verilas to come here. He'll arrange everything."
Arwen just nodded. She rested her face against his neck while her hand remained on her belly.
Aragorn could only hope that the child's still so young, innocent mind had not even unconsciously felt some of that danger it just had been in. This child … His child … Suddenly it became unbearable, still thinking about the little one in such an impersonal way.
He gently grabbed Arwen's chin to make her look up. "How do you like 'Eldarion' for a boy? Or 'Eldariel' if it's a girl?"
"We couldn't find anything fitting them better. What made you think of that right now?" Arwen instinctively reached for his hand and guided it next to hers, finally smiling again.
"With its strength and resilience, it takes after you already." Aragorn kissed her tenderly, hoping to keep this kind of look on her lovely face that had become so rare, at least for a little while.
For a few minutes, it worked.
"What are you doing here?" Tarisilya turned her head to the door in surprise when she heard characteristic steps out in the hallway that she would have recognized anywhere immediately.
Legolas had apparently hoped to be able to cheer her up a little by sneaking in here unseen and pouted a little. "I'd just been in Emyn Arnen for a meeting with the Steward. I rode here immediately when we got the message."
"The child is doing alright for now," Tarisilya answered his most urgent question before he had even asked it.
"Of course it is. The little one's parents are the most stubborn beings on all of Middle-earth. It will always bounce back." Legolas bent down to her for a quick kiss that she returned just as briefly but lovingly.
"And now?" He was visibly not comfortable with that thought that Tarisilya, too, could be exposed to further attacks by these madman. Attacks that this time, they wouldn't even be able to see coming.
Tarisilya soothingly wrapped her hands around his. "Aragorn is already working on plans to provide for safe food provisions for all of us. Until then, I'll eat in the Houses of Healing, and the King and Queen will get their meals straight from Arwen's handmaiden."
Legolas nodded shortly, at least a little calmer, and sat down next to her chair with his legs crossed. "That can't be a durable solution though."
"Of course not. We need to find these people. I'll do for that what I can. And I finally need to hold this damn book of poisons in my hands so that I know what to fight in case of emergency. Once I know the ingredients, I can also try to teach Arwen's dog how to sniff out possible harmful substances in the food before it is even on the table."
With an apologetic shrug, Tarisilya turned back to her book, Erestor's old book that she had been skimming for hours. She was honestly happy that Legolas was already taking some time for her again, the timing just was extremely inconvenient.
"If he doesn't eat the stuff himself by accident. Did you ever see the kind of things that beast is devouring without batting a lid?"
Legolas still kept on doing his best to try and improve her mood. It was only because Tarisilya used to spend more time in the Houses of Healing than here in the Citadel anyway and because she never left the house without her Mithril top, that at this point, the two of them could still be certain, Minas Tirith was the safest place to wait for the birth, in spite of everything. But the tension remained.
Tarisilya nuzzled against Legolas' hand gratefully when he gently put it on her neck, and closed her eyes for a moment. Exhaustion was tugging on her mind. There had been a time when she'd have had no problem, working for nights at a stretch. While they told you often enough that elvish pregnancies were harder than it was the case for Men, Dwarves, or Hobbits, the first euphoria made you quickly suppress what was really ahead of you. Since her return to Minas Tirith, it became worse by the week. She felt nauseous for one half of the day and dizzy for the other because she could hardly eat anything. A delicate elvish body could only accept rapid changes with difficulty. Ignoring her belly, she had hardly put on weight. The child was being pressed harder against her chest by the day; sometimes, breathing was hard.
Therefore, she was all the happier that Legolas had not broken his promise to visit her every week so far. Being with him always made her forget even all that for a while. And today he'd just quit such an important meeting, just to make sure that everything was alright with her and the royal couple …
Considering that, reading could wait for a few minutes. After all, there was something she wanted to give to her husband …
"Thank you for coming." She kissed Legolas' hand and looked down with a chuckle when he pulled out some strands of her hair and put something on them.
"Already?" Feeling the hair clip in confusion, she recognized the characteristic semicircular shape immediately.
She hoped that neither the King nor her husband would begrudge her for not using these beautiful clips everyday. Running around with such flamboyant jewelry in Minas Tirith would have caused envy; she wouldn't be comfortable with that. And later, in Ithilien, between watering the flowers, sewing wounds, and changing diapers, there would also be rarely time to do her hair. But for a special occasion every now and then she would gladly doll up, to prove to her husband alone how happy those repeated gestures of attention during her pregnancy had really made her - even if so far, they had always had something to do with Legolas' good-bye.
"But you've only just arrived. Will you leave again right …?"
"No, don't worry. I just want to make sure that you have them all by the time of the birth," he assured her sweetly. "Ada has found a few more of them and sent them to me. Only the best for my enchanting wife."
"I'm not enchanting. I move like a Mûmak," Tarisilya grumbled, still grumpy in spite of the continued generosity of her father-in-law.
Legolas didn't lose his smile for even a second. He tenderly put a hand on her belly. "You're having our child inside of you. Nothing could be more beautiful for me to look at."
"Well, you're not the one in pain," she answered dryly.
"Did it get even worse?"
When she just nodded, he caressed her cheek with a sigh. "Then please try to sleep more, Ilya. Didn't Ioreth say, that would do you better than working nonstop? We were so happy … Please try to not let the child know that it makes you feel bad."
"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who has to give birth." It slipped out before she could stop herself. Of course, she was looking forward to this just like he was. She finally wanted to hold her baby in her arms, to see them, to feel them … to give them all the love she had in her for this being ever since she knew that she was pregnant again. She just wanted this day to come fast.
"Does it still scare you so much?"
Tarisilya wished once more that she'd never have told Legolas this story, after hesitating for centuries. Arwen's determined words before her wedding in Imladris back then, after Tarisilya had described the death of her mother and her grandmother to her, had helped her to live without fear only for a while. Now that her body was starting to all but rebel against her condition more and more, the last thing she needed was the corny phrases about unfounded fears that Legolas could mostly come up with when it came to this.
"I don't want to talk about this anymore, elwen. Please accept that. I just want to forget it until the day comes." She turned to her readings again, slightly harsh.
Legolas rolled his eyes for a moment but remained surprisingly silent which had her raise an impressed eyebrow at him. "We see each other too little to argue unnecessarily on top when we do. Don't get me wrong, elwen, but you're a little irritable right now."
"I'm not …" Again, her lips were talking before she had even thought about it, but this time, she could stop herself right away. Who did she think she was fooling? Even the patients came to see her only reluctantly anymore. But was she not allowed to be in a bad mood for once?
"I don't blame you." It fascinated her how fast Legolas had learned to read her face and especially her state of mind again in the last few months. Life in Ithilien made him thrive, now that it was finally proceeding without problems. The biggest part of his heart belonged to Tarisilya again now, and via their slowly stronger growing marriage bond, they could feel what was going on in the other with increased regularity.
"If you can't take it anymore, I'll move here immediately. Once he's back, Thondrar can substitute for me for a while without a problem. And until then, Camhanar will be there."
"Thank you. I'll let you know if it gets worse." That offer meant far more than any jewelry.
And it was about high time that she finally gave something back to her partner in the shape of such a symbolic gesture. That she let him know that she, too, understood and accepted him with even the difficult aspects of his life and wanted to support him in them. "By the way, there's something you lost in Ithilien in January."
Under Legolas' confused glance, she pushed herself up from her chair and got a soft, dark cloak with a characteristic clasp in the shape of a mellyrn leaf from the top cupboard shelf. In the months since this one visit of her husband in September at which he'd revealed to her that he had finally brought himself to send a certain letter to his father, Tarisilya had mended and cleaned the piece of clothing with a lot of effort, fine handiwork, and a couple of songs to keep the magic of her old home woven into it intact. Just three very thin bright lines now told about the attack of those wargs on Legolas' settlement back then, easy to overlook.
Legolas, in any case, didn't seem to mind the little taint, given how speechless he stared at the little gift, one of which every member of the Fellowship of the Ring had got one in Lórien back then. For a change, not even one of his lighthearted quips was on his mind. Until now, he had probably thought that this very special memory had been lost forever, and Tarisilya had not wanted to say anything before she had not been able to be sure that even the last camouflage spell had been cast effectively.
"A late begetting day gift. It was about high time." Tarisilya sealed Legolas' lips with a tender kiss for good and thrust the cloak firmly into his hands. "When this was made for the first time, my hands did not have the strength to do it myself. I hope, when you are facing a wild beast in our new home next, my thoughts will protect you this time as well, elwen."
"I do not doubt it at all. Thank you, moon-queen."
Only after another long, light kiss to her lips, Legolas let her return to her desk reluctantly, his thoughts still at the security gaps in the Citadell after all, just like hers. "Are you looking for something in particular?" He was audibly confused because she'd opened the last entries of the book though she'd only just started to read the monstrous work.
"I'm skimming the notes written after Arwen's kidnapping. That was the first time that Stewardaides have been killed in battle."
Legolas' eyes darkened immediately. These men had fallen victim to his arrows and Aragorn's sword back then, long before he had flatly demanded the death of these people. And not long before that, as they knew now, Erestor had started to spy on the Stewardaides. "Any new names?"
"Only those of the dead. This is not helping." Frustrated, Tarisilya closed the book. "I doubt that he wrote down the names of family members. I want to find out who was a relative of them back then. Maybe one of them is working here." She rubbed her forehead with a sigh and noticed without surprise that her skin was heated. She'd already been sitting here for far too long.
"You think the man acts out of revenge?" Legolas' voice trembled for a moment. Now the fake merriment was gone for good. If that turned out to be true, not only did it surely mean, in his opinion, that Aragorn and he would indirectly have been responsible for today's assassination attempt. It also brought it home to Legolas once more, how much could have happened if he hadn't realized in time that vengeance was the wrong way.
"We knew, this could happen sooner or later. Becoming a murderer is a decision, each person makes on their own. It's not your responsibility." Now it was Tarisilya who caressed his cheek, trying to comfort him, and his forehead where the drop-shaped, green gem of his circlet lay. "By the way, you're no longer on a realm visit, my Prince."
"What? Oh, yes." Lost in thought, he let his fingertips graze the jewel's silver, leaf-shaped frame. "I rarely ever put it down. Aldalíen's warmth feels good when I'm yearning for you."
"It won't be long now before we'll finally move in together." She forced herself to smile, though the delivery still wasn't something she could look forward to. The prospect at least remained that soon afterward, that last separation from her husband would be over, and hopefully for a very long time then.
"Can you come with me to the library? Since there's nothing else I can do right now, I want at least to try and find out whom we're dealing with."
"Even more books and stuffy rooms? Some fresh air would be better for you two."
Legolas' enthusiasm was limited but since the unwanted advice had Tarisilya already put her hands on her hips again, she was only being regarded with another eye-roll before he followed her.
"Is everything to your satisfaction, Your Majesty?" After the extensive tour through the Citadel and especially the long assessment of the kitchen, Verilas waited for Aragorn's judgment, noticeably nervously. After all, his chief advisor hadn't been doing anything but organizing it so that every available soldier was guarding the buildings.
Every employer in the kitchen was being closely watched by the men; on its way to the chambers of the King and Queen, the food was not being let out of sight for even a second. Besides, thorough investigations regarding everyone who had access to the seventh level were being conducted. There was still a lack of clues. On most days, there was just going on too much around here to control everything and everyone.
"As well as it can be." Aragorn walked along the long, wooden sideboards and stopped at the spice rack. He took out a few jars and pulverized some of their contents between his fingertips to see if these ingredients had also been renewed. Satisfied about finding only fresh herbs, he stepped back.
It almost drove him crazy that there was no way to tell how the poison had exactly been put into the bread. The possibilities were endless, and technically, it could happen again anytime because the food might already be altered before it even reached the Citadel. Which was why they were never shopping at the same farmer or merchant twice right now to minimize at least that risk. "Keep on switching suppliers until I give different instructions." It was mostly himself he was trying to calm once again.
"You will excuse me now. It's been a long day." But Aragorn quickly realized, his advisor had something else on his mind. "Speak, please."
Verilas hesitated for a moment, as usual when something wasn't about the government but about the King's private life. He ran a hand through his long grey hair in slight agitation. "I know how much the current situation is burdening you, but there's still so endlessly much to do, Your Majesty. Not only reconstruction. We've been receiving messages from the South, again and again, that imply, the hostile folks there are yearning for peace. We shouldn't make these people wait. But it's just as important for you to be there for your family, to protect the heir of Kings. Therefore, I urgently advise you to appoint the Steward in your place, just for the time until birth. Prince Faramir already offered, as you know."
"And for how long? Until the child can take care of themselves? There'll always be situations when my family needs me more than usual, Verilas. If I retired from work now, it would signal the people and also the Stewardaid performing that assassination attempt that my weakness has been found. Then it would definitely happen again. I can't ask Faramir to cover for me randomly just because my office feels too exhausting every now and then. You know exactly that especially folks in the South would never negotiate with a substitute. It's in my child's best interest, too, that the future of Gondor and Arnor is peace. It's bad enough, my life was an everlasting battle."
His advisor was still about to object but Aragorn pleadingly raised his hand. "Thank you for trying to go easy on me but I can still deal with all this quite well, and it's distracting me."
Verilas followed him to the Citadel's courtyard where Aragorn headed for the view, as so often, and joined him when he stared into the distance of the white-covered plains outside the city gates. Side by side, bracing themselves on the wall, they tried to let the day's heaviness melt away from them, to let the cold wind out here fill their minds with clarity, with calmness.
"So, how is the Queen?"
"Well, what do you think? Let us better thank the Valar every day that us men, we're usually spared that kind of fate."
But joking didn't really come easy right now. "While the Princess of Eryn Lasgalen can take Arwen's occasional pain from her, my wife is learning how to hate her chambers right now. She wants to take her dog at least for a short walk or see her horse, but the healers have warned her about any kind of exercise. Even someone with an elf's stoic mind gets to the end of their nerves at some point."
Verilas looked back at the King's House. "If the other advisors or I can do anything …"
"You're already keeping all kinds of problems away from me though you'd never say anything about it. I'm really grateful for that." Aragorn put a hand on the man's shoulder before saying goodbye, later than planned. The sun was getting low already.
He hoped that Arwen had at least been able to sleep some in the last few hours. By now, there seemed to be hardly any words left that could give her comfort.
Since there wasn't much they could do for Arwen right now, Ioreth had now allowed Tarisilya to care for her after all, especially since the other healers were busy enough, taking care of the many patients coming down with a cold. What the Queen needed most was the assurance that her child was still doing well that only the other she-elf could give her.
Instead, every day, Tarisilya had to listen to Ioreth now telling her all the things she needed to heed and that she should call reinforcements immediately if necessary. How was that supposed not to make you paranoid at some point? By now, she almost wished the birth would start soon just so that none of them would have to deal with this tension anymore. But it still was far too early for that. And in spite of all burden on her nerves, she better prayed that she would be able to delay the whole thing as long as possible.
"Arwen? Did something happen?"
On this evening, the tightness of her bedroom that grew smaller by the day seemed to burden her friend very much once again. It was the first time in weeks for Tarisilya to see her cry. "Other than me feeling like a prisoner with a stitching pillow?" Probably mostly angry with herself, Arwen clenched the hand not cradling her belly around her blanket. "If I would at least feel that it was helping. Right now, it's more like the weakness is growing every day."
Tarisilya's alarmed frown did nothing to ease her mind. More restless by the second, she endured the following examination, trembling visibly when she saw the cluelessness in Tarisilya's eyes grow stronger.
"It's probably because I can hardly keep any food down. What happens if it doesn't get better, Ilya? Childbirth is dangerous, you always said so yourself …"
For seconds, awkward silence prevailed. At last, Tarisilya took Arwen's hands and treated her with what little inner calmness she possessed herself right now as well as she could. Usually one of her easiest tricks, but in some cases, not even the aura of experience that another elvish life radiated could work miracles, or a few gently whispered words in their common language.
An answer, she could not give Arwen. She didn't think, her friend needed one either. And she wouldn't lie to her, that wouldn't have been fair. Suddenly, Tarisilya wished she'd never burdened her friend with that talk about difficult deliveries because Arwen might now indeed be at the risk of one. No wonder she was driving herself crazy. This was Tarisilya's fault …
"You have all the help you can get here," she finally explained, choked. "I promised you, I would everything in my power to help you and the child. You're not alone with your fear."
Arwen sniffed quietly. "Forgive me, I … I also just can't get rid of the thought that my baby could be sick. We still don't know what the Stewardaides gave me at the kidnapping back then. Maybe that's harmed the baby already, or the shock because of the poisoned food did. The healers all think I'm overreacting, and the court ladies would be appalled about me not waiting for the birth radiant with joy. I didn't want to feed your own fear."
"You did not, don't worry." Tarisilya decided not to tell Arwen that in this stage of her pregnancy, no one could scare her even more than she already was.
"We've talked about that sleeping draught back then often enough. We can only tell for sure when the child is there, though I am almost a hundred percent certain that a brew of this kind has no influence on a baby. But the assassination definitely did not leave a trace. You need to believe me, Arwen. You shouldn't be alone so much though. Isn't Aragorn supposed to be sitting here right now?"
Tarisilya looked at the position of the sun with a frown. At this time, there should actually not be any regular meeting taking place in the White Tower. More problems outside the normal range?
Arwen fidgeted with the hem of her sleeve, more embarrassed than Tarisilya had ever seen her. "I … I threw a few stupid things in his face earlier. Though I know, of course, that it would only make things worse: Part of me wishes he would accept Faramir's offer to take over for him. I just lost control for a moment. At some point, he just left … I'm usually not like this, you know that."
"Yes. And I'm sure that he knows it too. And that in our condition, it is normal that sometimes we're no longer in control of ourselves." With a bad conscience, Tarisilya thought back to the last few months, the number of irritated conversations she'd had with her own husband that she'd apologized for more than once afterward.
She admired Legolas' quite durable patience that probably partly came from Thranduil telling his son in a letter or two that in spite of his impressive age, he could still remember very well being in this situation with his own wife. If Tarisilya had got that right, the advice, friendly as usual, had been to withdraw to the next best treetop with a carafe of wine when Tarisilya's moods became unbearable once more and to bring her breakfast in bed the morning after.
And the worst was: So far, the tactic had even been mostly successful. Maybe she should propose it to Aragorn at some point, too.
"I'll talk to him if you want me to. Or Legolas could, from one fellow sufferer to another."
"Oh no. When I actually manage to scare off my own husband, it's my job to apologize for that myself. I mean, I can even understand why he left. I would be unnerved by myself too." Arwen dramatically rolled her eyes.
"He'll be standing here again soon enough, believe me. If he's even half as addicted to staring at your belly as His Highness of Cair Andros is with mine, I give him but another hour."
Tarisilya pushed herself to her swollen feet with some effort. "I need to get back to the library. Call me if you need me." She briefly caressed her friend's hair and left her alone then, not without sending Ranír to Arwen though so that she would at least have someone to talk to for a while.