Chapter 17

Enemies Abroad

Author's Note: Rejoice! I've updated this fic before the end of the month! So exciting :)! ALSO! I am posting a link to the first four chapters of my original story, Elf-Beast! If you guys want to begin reading it go right ahead and head to my profile and start reading away!

Hecate had gone into labor months before her original time. Daenith had not been allowed into the birthing chamber by Aries or Hades and both stayed in the waiting hall to keep her as far away from the last rites her coven-sister intended to cast in order to solidify the body for The Dark Lord. Sauron, himself, attended her and by the sorceress' unearthly screams Daenith knew he was not being kind to her. Hades stood near the window of Sauron's tower staring out into the desolate landscape of Mordor. His arms were crossed over his chest and the back of his head faced both her and Aries.

"We will need my niece soon, the closer Sauron's man-child grows into maturity," he said.

"My little niece will eventually be in my grasp. I intend to dispatch Daenith to Isengard tomorrow morning. She will join Nyx and Erebus in their hunt for her," Aries replied.

Hades shook his head, "No, don't send Daenith on those excursions. Keep her in Isengard where she can cast the necessary curses when our niece passes close. I want her preserved for as long as possible until she can infect Aracasse."

Daenith fought against a violent shudder when Hecate released a shriek of such pain and suffering she was certain her sister-witch had died soon after. When her mutterings filled the room beyond once more she clenched her jaw again.

When will this be over? She wondered.

"I look forward to sharing my bed with her. Those likenesses Mab had shown me are quite enticing," Aries remarked thickly.

Daenith pulled a face. It seemed as if Aries was as much of a pig as Hecate and Nyx remembered. Hades turned to him, lips pulled into a smirk, and stepped up to his eldest nephew. A low, dark laugh left his throat and Daenith swallowed.

"Of course, nephew, she will be yours, but I call her maidenhead, you know this. As her eldest living relative I must make sure she is pure," he purred.

Aries' lips thinned and Daenith watched his hands clench at his side. She understood the anger. Hades was establishing dominance over the situation and he was taking away the triumph of his nephew. Aries, as far as Hades was concerned, was a pawn in his game. She glanced at the younger knight elven prince and wondered what it would have been like to serve him as the ellon who would bring them glory and defeat the forces of The Triune once and for all. It was a pity that Sauron proved to be the most competent and powerful of the two.

And it is with Sauron I will be able to avenge Hecate, she thought.

A final wail pierced the tower and fell just as quickly into silence. Daenith held her breath. When she heard nothing else she bowed her head in silent respect. Hecate, her blood-sister, had died in a more worthy cause than the ones of Hades and Aries. Her sacrifice would be remembered.

The door opened and a dark clad vampiress stepped through the door and nodded to them. Followed closely was a sorceress - one of Hecate's acolytes - who held a wrapped bundle that was larger than the average newborn child. Its head turned to them and Daenith's eyes grew wide. The eyes gleamed a bright red-orange and the face was not one of a child's.

Her knees felt weak as the sorceress brought the child forward and set it on the ground upright. The Dark Lord Sauron began to speak in a raspy bass voice that sent shimmers of heat and malice into the air. The body morphed and grew until the child was the size of an eight-year-old. He struggled to his feet and sent a nod to Hades and Aries.

"We will begin the process of maintaining this body," a deep voice that didn't fit the child's body told them.

Her heart stopped. Hecate had poured every ounce of her power in accelerating the process. She succeeded and had created what was possibly her most terrifying child to date.

Her last work for the cause, she thought.

Hades stepped forward, "I've prepared baths to help keep the body from rejecting you. Once a day should keep up with the need to rejuvenate the power."

The Dark Lord nodded and looked to the sorceress and the vampiress. The command he issued them was silent and they obeyed him instantly as they jumped to attention and helped the diminished being out of the birthing chambers and into the halls beyond. Hades turned and fixed her with a hard stare. Daenith met his gaze with equal intensity.

"Go," he said, "prepare for your pending journey. My nephew and I will take care of the sorceress' body."

Unable to voice an objection and bound to what Hades and Aries decreed, Daenith dipped into a partial bow before whirling around and sauntering as calmly as she could manage out of their sights. None of them deserved her loyalty! Hecate was her coven-sister, a once strong and noble person, and they all contributed to her demise. She would not forget this. There would be a reckoning.

Brianna felt as much of a robot as the outward mask she presented. After the heavily implied understanding that passed between she and Aragorn a sickness of the heart had settled. In some moments when the company stopped for a brief break she caught herself staring forlornly into a bush or past a tree. The nights they elected to sleep were worse. Nightmares plagued her and every thought and action grew in abject horror as the horrific memories she relived replaced Alyan, Judah, and sometimes Allyson with a beaten, battered, and bloody ranger. While Brianna knew for a fact that she didn't move or speak when she slept and dreamed there were moments when she'd wake cold and sweating with Arwen or Glorfindel watching her grimly.

These weren't useful feelings to be experiencing at the present time. Brianna needed a calm heart and a clear mind so she could be better prepared to deal with her enemies when they chose to reveal themselves. Their absence, by no means, meant they had lost interest in her or the ring, so she took one night and compartmentalized her emotions and locked them away. It was a temporary bit of mind magic and relieved her of the feelings of love and loss regarding Aragorn, but the end result turned her slightly more cold and calculating than she typically was when focused on a mission.

Of course her companions noticed. Arwen went so far as to inquire after her mental health to which Brianna took great pains to assure her that she was fine and slight change in attitude was temporary until they reached Lorien. The elleth's expression, as her mind connected the reasons for why Brianna would purposefully block certain emotions, was far too understanding for her comfort.

They ascended into the old mountain roads a week after they left Imladris. Glorfindel took the lead at that point as he had been the one to search for hidden passages over the mountains. Arwen followed closely behind him with Elrohir and Elladan spread wide keeping watch for signs of the enemy. Brianna's mind separated its focus. Her physical sense kept its attention on her little group while her subconscious searched for danger in the air and ground.

"We will try and reach the Small Pass by tomorrow," Glorfindel said, "once there we shall rest and scale the pass in the morning."

Brianna nodded and used the wind to search for this Small Pass the elder elf had mentioned. A few moments passed while her mind rode the wind prodding chilled mountain peeks and damp caves. Then a break in the chain of mountains sucked the wind through. Her subconscious went with it and followed the pass' length. An hour later, as her physical body and present self scaled a patch of loose shale, the wind reached the end of the pass and blew out into the hills beyond.

She felt them immediately, lurking to the south at a river that wound through the mountains, and then directly to the north. She audibly gasped and froze in place as she took everything in. Vaguely, she saw her companions stop and look at her with varying expressions of alarm painted on their faces. Brianna ignored them and inspected her enemies looking for any leaders that might lurk among them. One immediately stood out.

Erebus.

With that she pulled back into herself and separated from the wind and earth. As the elements faded into the background of her mind she blinked and focused, once again, on her companions. They were silent and watched her as still as statues.

"They're waiting for us to cross the mountains. My enemies haven't found the Small Pass as of yet, but they will find us once we cross through," she said

"That is troubling," Glorfindel said calmly.

"What can we do? They're likely searching for us at all likely paths," Elladan said.

Brianna crossed her arms and looked at the pool of loose rubble she stood on. What could they do? Was there a way to avoid the enemy? She was leaning toward a strong negative.

"We can… possibly move right through them," she said. "They were still leagues away from the pass and will probably be so when we actually arrive on the other side."

"They will use spies," Elrohir said.

She nodded, "I can do something about it, but not enough. We'll have to risk it. If we don't then we might as well turn around."

Glorfindel interrupted the debate and said with an air of finality, "We will proceed to the pass and plan from there."

Brianna frowned at him, but didn't say anything. His arm was around Arwen's shoulders. She understood. They all had a stake in reaching Lorien alive. Glorfindel was the eldest among them and, consequently, had the most to lose.

"You're the leader. I trust your judgment. I'll keep an eye out for aerial spies and attacks," she conceded.

They resumed the trek up the mountain slope. Brianna was on edge, all memory of her inner struggles gone for the time being, as the immediate danger of her situation took root. Underneath that paranoia was the bubbling urge to fight off and destroy her enemies so they never harmed another being again.

Aragorn had chosen Legolas as his tracking companion as they swept south searching for the best route over the mountains. They'd settled on crossing the Mountains at Eregion as the best course south and later riding the Anduin into Rohan. That was about as far as the two of them could figure into Gandalf's plans and they reserved their judgment on whether the wizard would pass through Gondor, or the highlands and marshes. Their journey back to Rivendell was just as uneventful as their journey out and it made Aragorn uneasy. Despite attempts at keeping his thoughts to himself, the elf was astute.

"You are worried, my friend, that worry is a cloak you wear and can't quite seem to release the clasp," Legolas remarked.

"You're observation is accurate, my friend," Aragorn replied after a moment as he moved through the brush, "there is no enemy on this side of the mountain. Their presence hasn't been felt by the land for nearly a fortnight and I am unsettled by this fact."

His elf friend slipped under a low hanging branch and held it out of Aragorn's way as he passed. When they focused on scaling a particularly steep bouldering hill Legolas made his thoughts on the matter known.

"You fear they wait for The Queen's company on the other side of the mountains?" He asked.

Aragorn grunted a confirmation and allowed silence to descend between them broken only by their soft steps carefully along each rock. He was distracted by the possibilities and the likelihood of Brianna meeting danger on the road. There was little doubt that her enemies would hunt her if they knew what she intended to do.

"Do not let their plight distract you, Strider," Legolas said after a while with a tint of admonishment laced in his tone.

"I know," Aragorn replied softly.

As they reached the top of the steep hill Legolas turned to him, eyes filled with pity and understanding, "I know it is difficult to be parted from the one you love, but if you let it consume you our quest will be in peril. We must be of use to Frodo. The ring is a priority and I suspect Brianna knows that."

"My friend," Aragorn said a little sharper than intended.

He checked himself, quelling the anger and frustration churning inside of him, and released it as best he could. It didn't work as well as he would have liked, but it enabled him to refrain from responding harshly to his friend's sound advice.

"Forgive me, I grieve for her loss and worry for her safety. Yet, there's no time for it and pushing it from my mind is difficult," he said.

Legolas placed a comforting hand on Aragorn's shoulder and replied, "My friend, to love and lose is no small plight, but it is one you must put aside for now. If we don't focus on guiding Frodo to the evil realm then we will all die."

Aragorn swallowed and nodded, feeling his youth relative to his friend's. Legolas was nine hundred years older than he - a child to many of his people - but still kept the wisdom of centuries near his heart. One, in particular, Aragorn recalled being told shortly after the fiasco concerning him and Arwen. It had left him with a certain understanding of why she would have rejected a human. Lingering on for hundreds of years after one's mortal spouse had died was difficult; this especially so, when said human could choose immortality and wouldn't.

I would for her, he thought. I don't know how I can do it, but for Aracasse I would live for as long as she walked the realms.

Brianna kept watch every night. Sometimes she'd let the others take over for an hour or two when she felt exhausted. Those were few for her and even when she tried to rest the elements called to her with every step her little company took towards the danger. It shook her blood and bone to the atom and Brianna found that sleep eluded her more often than not.

I need coffee. A lot of coffee, she thought one night with no small amount of regret.

Arda was so backwards in comparison to earth! It felt strange to her to never hear the whine of a car engine and the sound of wheels hastily moving across the pavement. She found that she missed the smell of the pungent petroleum and the sounds of electrical undercurrents buzzing around her. Most of all, Brianna found that she missed hotels. Where once she would leave on a job and stay the night in a furnished, conditioned, and watered hotel surrounded by restaurants in her 2005 Camry she now had to contend with moving about on foot or horseback.

Brianna liked horses. She liked walking. She did not like the traveling situation she'd been forced to deal with for the past two and a half months. Rivendell was nice - of course it was nice - but it didn't have access to her laptop, kindle, or phone. The fact that she missed her car was another nail to the joint. Then there was the fact that the elves in Arda were woefully behind technologically speaking.

This is what happens when you let the enemy run around for so long, she thought. Fighting them gets in the way of scientific progression.

It saddened her that technology her people had during the rise of Egypt's Middle Kingdom was nowhere to be seen in Arda. How did a people who lived so long for so many years neglect to guide the world into a better life as her people had done?

It took three days for Glorfindel to successfully lead them to the pass. They had a number of moments where both he and Brianna recognized spies from the enemy high in the sky. They took measures to deal with them the first day one was spotted by working in tandem to kill it. Then Brianna had used the ink and brush to paint runes on their arms to make them blend into their surroundings from an aerial viewpoint. The runic equation for that feat required exact calculations to work. Brianna had mastered runes long ago when it wasn't obvious she had any sort of ability to manipulate the elements. It had become her trump card in every battle she fought when her enemies believed they had the upper hand.

They'd passed through the rest of the way without incident and arrived at the mouth of the pass. The sides of the pass loomed over them and stretched toward the mid-morning November sun. Blue sky opened its wide arms to hug the earth below. The three mountain peeks Closest to them were high. They seemed to reach for the sky like jagged lancets and thick, white, glaciers capped them for a good thousand feet. Even where they stood Brianna felt the chill of the mountain air as the lower mountains met the higher slopes.

One thing's for sure, she thought, there's no way we can scale that.

"I haven't seen these peeks for five hundred years," Arwen breathed.

"Are they as spectacular as you remember?" Glorfindel asked.

"Very."

Brianna met Elrohir and Elladan's eyes and noticed they had purposefully looked anywhere but at their sister and fellow elf lord. She decided not to say anything. After all, not only were they going to lose their beloved sister to the dangers of Arda, but Brianna had given her permission to accompany them on a very dangerous quest. If anyone had a right to feel a little irritated it was them.

"What now?" Elrohir asked. "How are we to deal with the presence of the enemy?"

Brianna exchanged a look with Arwen. The irritation was certainly transparent.

"We have no choice but to go through the pass,"'Glorfindel began, "but how we are to avoid the enemy on the other side is beyond me."

Brianna stepped forward and slipped her pack off of her back and pulled out a thin bundle of cylinders made from parchment strung together with twine. She untied the twine and rolled out the thick bundle of paper to reveal ten hand drawn maps. Elladan released a whistle.

"However did you fit that in your pack?" He asked.

Brianna smiled, "Runes."

She leafed through each map until she found the one that outlined the path from Imladris to the Small Pass. She held it out to Glorfindel whose fingers closed carefully around it.

"I doubt you have to worry about breaking it," she chided with a grin.

He laughed, "I simply don't wish to break such a masterfully drawn visual such as this."

Brianna rolled her eyes and tapped the labeled Small Pass icon on the map, "Where are we supposed to go after we pass through?"

Glorfindel glanced at her, brow raised, but gave his answer anyway, "We are to take the path to the river, Anduin, and follow it down to where Lorien lies. That path may not be open to us; however, if the enemy reaches us before we manage to get there. Even then our path isn't guaranteed to be undisturbed."

Brianna nodded. Her plan would work so long as she wrote the runes down correctly. Arwen leaned over the map and then raised her gaze to Brianna. A light of understanding flickered within.

"You have a plan," she stated.

"Yes," Brianna replied, "I have a plan and if we play our cards right, we might just not die."