She found herself in a glade... where exactly she knew not as she had simply flown as quickly and with as much fury as possible. Tears clouded her visit and righteous anger fueled her flight, only the growing ache in her wings forced her to land.
There, she gently laid Nightshade out on the grass, watching as the wolf labored with each breath. Blood still slowly leaked from the cruel wound, but only the fell arrow itself kept Nightshade in this half place between life and death. The wolf's breaths were slowing, her chest rose and fell with greater effort each time, and her eyes rolled listlessly in their sockets. With each exhale, Evelyn saw life fading from Nightshade's body... soon the wolf's soul would be gone.
Evelyn wept, tears poured forth from her eyes and she caved over, arms encircling the great wolf's head. Nightshade was her last and only friend... the only creature in all of Middle Earth who never betrayed her, who always loved her, who always believed her... the only companion she had left. She had lost everything, she continued to loose any spark of hope that she dared to belive in. Now, she was loosing Nightshade too. The wolf was her last light, her final protection against the world and shadows of dreams... she was fading from life. Evelyn thought that she should soon follow.
Evelyn wept so deeply, so filled with grief, her years of caution and apprehension faded away. She was completely unaware of her surroundings as the sun fell from the sky, as the moon rose up, and as the stars took their place up high. She was so wrapped in grief that she failed to notice the oncoming cold and the creeping sense of dread as she was approached.
All at once it was upon her, a icy chill, a dreaded darkness so black that it shut out the moon and stars, she could feel the evil like a suffocating force, clenching around her heart.
She did not move though.
If some evil has come... let it end me before I must watch Nightshade die...
She wanted, needed the darkness to take her first.
She didn't think that her heart could survive another loss.
So Evelyn waited, still bent forth over Nightshade, she waited for a hiss of steel, the sharp whistle of a dagger, or perhaps even the brutal pounding of a club upon her exposed back.
But nothing came.
Finally, a voice of utter juxtaposition to the cold dread, as smooth as silk and rich as velvet, whispered behind her.
"You weep?" It was a question, not a statement. A moment of curiosity as the voice seemed to echo all around Evelyn.
"Yes," she barely managed to whisper, her voice cold.
"An elvish arrow has pierced your beast's heart. The elves are cruel, are they not?"
"Yes," the choked sob was cut off as she contemplated those words. The elves... it's always the elves.
"You care for the wolf?"
"More than you could understand."
"It is dying."
"Yes," she gasped as she felt Nightshade growing colder beneath her hands. The wolf still breathed, but her life was fading rapidly.
"And if you could save her?"
Evelyn whipped around at that, pausing for a half moment in shock as she saw a shadowy figure, cloaked in a raggedly torn cape as dark as the night, a cloud of swirling darkness surrounded it. It was tall, broad of shoulder, and seemed to be made half of shadow, half of mist... almost as if it weren't really there.
"Who are you?"
"I am known by many names... many titles. Some have even called me Lord of the Wolves."
Sauron!
"Kill me or leave me be, Sauron," she turned back to her vigil over her fallen friend. "I have neither quarrel nor care for you."
"Ah, see that is what I find most fascinating. You despise the elves?"
"With every fiber of my being," she hissed, grief was already giving way to despair as the watched the brightness of Nightshade's eyes, the eyes that always shined with life... fading.
"Then perhaps... we may have an understanding," the voice of Sauron did not emanate from his shadowy figure, but instead floated about, gently caressing its way across Evelyn's ears.
"I will not become a servant or slave. I have not interest in choosing sides in this coming war. If you are victorious or destroyed I care not. Either kill me or let me be."
"Oh, but I have slaves and servants aplenty," the shadowy form moved across from Evelyn where she was forced to look upon the blackness which engulfed the glade. "What I offer you is not a place in my employment... but rather a... temporary arrangement... a deal."
"I don't want-"
"I know how to save your wolf's life."
Evelyn's head shot up, her glowing eyes burning into the dark form before her. She could not see his face, held no gauge for the truth of his words... he is the deceiver... he will lie.
"You trust me not... I understand... and so in good faith, I will tell you how to save your creature first, then you will complete one... simple task."
"You truly know how she can be saved?" Evelyn's heart was filling with dangerous hope... deceiver be damned, if Nightshade was alive then Evelyn could endure whatever was asked. She had no ties, no people to protect, no side to care on who wins or who dies, she had no gods to appease. Her life was her and Nightshade against all of Middle Earth... she would do anything to keep her.
"Yes."
"I agree to your terms. How?"
Although she could see no face, Evelyn swore that she felt Sauron smile.
"The power is not mine, but yours little child." The cloaked figure cocked his head to the side, curiosity evident in his tone as he continued. "I know not what you are, but I can sense the power in you. The Peredhel hid much from you... you have power that he could not believe, that he was afraid of. You can save her."
"How?" Evelyn cried in despair, every second that they wasted, Nightshade was slipping fourth and further from life.
All at once, the shadow surged forward, blackness and dark threatened to engulf Evelyn, but she did not falter, she did not shy away. The gentle caress of words was back, the soft whisper of intent as Sauron instructed her in magic that he swore lied dormant inside of her.
"Place one hand near the wound, the other on the shaft, and close your eyes," the voice ordered her and Evelyn obeyed. She would do whatever it took, make any dark promise, commit any deed to save Nightshade. "Good," Sauron's voice rumbled like a purr as he continued with his orders. "Now you must find your power... reach deep within yourself. I know you've used it... I felt the surge of energy from the Peredhel's little home. Find that power, find light and seize it in a fist like iron."
Evelyn's breathing slowed as she grasped for the power, that ball of light that she found buried at the bottom of her chest, but she couldn't, her mind was clouded with grief and she could not quite reach the light. Images of Nightshade running through the woods, images of them curled up together near a campfire, memories of the many nights where she clutched Nightshade like a lifeline, staving off memories of dark. She was drowning in them, drowning in her sorrow and despair.
"Focus!" Sauron hissed in her other ear. "If you dwell on memories you will let her die." She felt the swirling blackness move around her, circling her as it went. "You've used your powers once... you can do it again. Use raw emotions if you must, find what drove you to your gift before and seize it!"
She thought back to the halls in Imladris, the way she pushed back the elves in one burst of brilliant light. She thought back to how she wielded magic that she didn't even know she had. Rage had propelled her. Raw, unhinged flames of rage and grief propelled her strength. She did it once... for Nightshade's sake, she could do it again.
Breathing deeply to calm herself, Evelyn recalled every wrong done to her: every time she was seized, every false accusation, every disbelieving and contemptuous glare, every mocking word spat in a language she knew not, every elf that demanded answers they had no right to, every time her happiness was torn from her, and every single nightmare where she was forced to relive it all over and over again.
And she found it!
Suddenly, she felt that light, that shining ball of pure energy which long had laid buried within her- she had it in her grasp. Sauron must have sensed it too for she could feel the excitement pouring from him.
"Now, you have one chance. Pull the shaft and push that power into your wolf, use all your power, all your might. Fill the arrow wound with that energy with all the power you hold in your breast."
And Evelyn did.
With a cry of pain as if she pulled the arrow from her own breast, she yanked the shaft from Nightshade. Ignoring the blood which gushed forth from the wound, Evelyn forced every bit of that light into the cavity in Nightshade's chest and watched with shock and amazement as the wound closed itself.
As the wound closed, Nightshade's breaths became easier, her panting seized and her eyes stopped rolling- they stopped their motion and cleared. Suddenly... she was there. Alive, whole, and fully cognizant of the world. Evelyn wept tears of joy as Nightshade launched herself at her girl, an embrace of two, steadily beating hearts, warm bodies, fur and skin. Evelyn's tears were lapped away by the tongue of the massive wolf as it greeted her with yips of joy.
"I think my end of our bargain complete," Sauron spoke suddenly, breaking the momentary bliss of the reunion.
Evelyn dried her eyes, wiping away tears and the remains of Nightshade's joy with the hem of her dress... a piece of elvish make which now seemed to burn at the touch. She stood up on legs which hardly trembled, Nightshade rising to stand by her side. Placing a steadying hand on her wolf's back, she stood at her full height, shoulders squared and looked at the place where Sauron's eyes should've been.
"What is your request."
"One that you will complete gladly, I think," again, she could hear a smirk in his voice. "You hate the elves... those of Mirkwood most."
"Yes."
"They have something I want... and I need someone to get it for me."
Evelyn's heart pounded in fear. That place...
Darkness
Cold
Walls closing in around
"I am not sending you in alone," he spoke after seeing the obvious fear in Evelyn's eyes. "I want you to lead an army."
"I hate orcs."
"As do I... but do you hate elves more?"
"Yes."
"Then lead my troops, just this once. Lead them in and raze Mirkwood as you wish... kill as many elves as your heart desires... and retrieve the being who I want."
"Gollum?!" Evelyn suddenly realized where in he story she was... exactly what Sauron wanted from her. He needed Gollum... he need to know where his ring lied. He had yet to discover that it was with the hobbits... he didn't know yet. The war was coming.
"Ah... so I've heard you know of many things... no matter. I will not ask you questions for I know you will not answer. I want the creature."
Evelyn hesitated. She hated the elves, she hated the elves of Mirkwood. The entire race of elves had proven to be treacherous, the kindest and supposedly best of them all showed their truth. If those elves... if Elrond, Glorfindel... if the ones who were supposedly greatest proved themselves to be so vile... then their entire are was hopeless. Plus, why should Evelyn care? She had no allegiance to either side, and she knew that Sauron would succeed in obtaining Gollum eventually... what was to stop her?
"Did you know," Sauron continued with his easy drawl. "That they treat that wretched creature with more kindness then they ever did you? They take him out, let him climb trees and feel the breeze on his face."
Evelyn's mind wandered back to that cell in Mirkwood, her hands tightening their hold on Nightshade's fur as she recalled the cold, the dark, the stale air and bland gruel. The way sunlight almost blinded her when she found herself beneath it for the first time in years. She remembered the crippling loneliness, the way that she would hear false voices, whispers and illusions as she swore that she was going mad. She remembered the sneers of the guards, the haughty questions and condemnations of Thranduil, and the cruel deception of Legolas... she remembered it all and fire grew in her heart.
"When do we go?"
"Not now," Sauron whispered, his shadowed form already falling back, half evaporating as he left. "The time is not yet ripe. You must train. Learn to master your power, use your rage to fuel your fire. When you are ready... go to Dol Guldur... you will find your army and your orders. Burn what you will... kill who you must... but bring me the creature alive... do why my Nazgul cannot and bring me the creature alive and your debt will be paid."
Evelyn nodded and Sauron's shadowy form dissipated in the night. She felt his presence leave as the air around her seemed to warm, to return to its natural state as the stars and moon shone again.
Acting on instinct alone, Evelyn swung herself onto Nightshade's back and slumped forward in exhaustion. Using her power left her drained, she felt the strength slipping from her bones as Nightshade led them to find shelter for the night.
She was bone tired, cold, and felt completely drained... but she was happy.
Against all odds, she and Nightshade had come out on top... just as it always should be.
Now, she had a purpose. The grief, pain, and fear that had long festered in her heart was now kindling a flame of anger and rage. The elves took everything from her: her freedom, her innocence, her trust, and years of her life. She gave everything to save them, to protect them, and was ready to give them the keys to winning the war with fewer lives lost... and they betrayed her yet again.
Now... she would do as she promised.
She would burn Mirkwood to the ground.