East of Khand. June 6, SA 722

MAIRON tried. But his lips quivered upward. He took a breath to keep his face serene. It was good that Kemik's head touched the floor, and could not see him.

"Keep him asleep."

"My lord, what shall I do if he wakes?"

"He shall not. As long as you keep that bracelet on him, he will sleep. Make haste, Kemik. Bring him to me. I will leave for the temple at the mountains south of the Sea of Rhun. And bring those Grim brothers with you. Only those two and none of their men."

"Great One?" Kemik looked up. Frown sat on his sunbaked forehead. "The brothers are honorable warriors. It is thanks to them I was able to seize the elf."

Mairon narrowed his eyes. Kemik's golden eyes were as clear and bright as the embers at his forge. Heat smoldered within, devotion and admiration warring within their depth. Mairon sat back. Kemik was an excellent warrior and a devoted follower, but he was not like others. Others feared Mairon; but Kemik did not. Those who follow out of fear dared not question his command or think for themselves. But those who were devoted required neither fear nor coercion, and the bond he shared with them was difficult to break. Once they belonged to him, they belonged to him completely, willingly, and fervently. To them, he was their savior, their water in the desert and food in their empty stomach.

Some among them even went further: complete and utter blindness to all else but their master. The devoted created and filled in any flaw in their master with their own imagination and made him complete all on their own.

At one time, Mairon had not been different although that was many thousands of years ago. His old master, Vala Aule, and his lady, Yavanna, had been Mairon's world. Those two Valar could do no wrong in his eyes even while his eyes were wide open, and he knew all there was to know. Men, on the other hand, were born blind and ignorant, Kemik less so than others.

"Do you not trust my judgment, Kemik?"

"Without question, Great One," Kemik bent down low, his head to the floor again. "You are the wisdom itself and the light of my life. Command me and I shall obey."

"Have the brothers escort you. And allow the elf to sleep undisturbed. He need not eat or drink while he sleeps, so keep moving. Stop only when necessary until you reach our meeting place."

"As you command, Great One."

Kemik's form dissolved. Mairon stepped onto the balcony.

"Now, I have you, son of Fëanor."

Mairon laughed out aloud. But immediately calmed himself. It was too soon to celebrate. Kemik captured Maglor, but Mairon knew the Noldo was not be taken lightly. If a mere Green Elf could fight against the influence of his gold collar, Maglor, born under the light of Aman, would have the strength to wrench it off even though Mairon had spent more blood on that bracelet than others.

But as long as the Noldo was unconscious, the bracelet would have the time to work on him. The longer Maglor wore the bracelet, the more influence it will have. And when the time came to feed the dragon blood to the Feanor's son, the Noldo would find that he would be powerless to resist.

Mairon got up from his throne and fingered the crystal on his neck. He needed Thranduil sooner than later, preferrably before Maglor arrived. The longer it took for them to come to him, the more chance there was that something could go wrong.

With his Maiarian ability, Mairon could, if he willed, travel from one space to another in less time than it took to yawn. But unlike in Aman where a physical form was like a raiment to an Ainu and had no limitation on his powers, here in the mortal lands, every time he used his ability as a Maia, it taxed his physical body. Some cost very little. He can, with a song of power, command the storm clouds, move several feet of space like a flash of lightning, or raise a tower out of stones. But moving his physical body several hundred miles, to appear as if from thin air, would cost him his strength, which required time to recover. Unless, of course, he did so in his true form and leave his physical body behind which would be meaningless as he needed it to interact with the prisoners. Besides, there was no one he could trust in this world with his body. His experience at the Dwarven ruin assured him of that.

He cracked his neck this way and that. He can be patient. He had waited too long to lose his advantage by being impatient now.

He called the chieftain. "Prepare my fastest horses and seven riders. We ride out tonight."

It would take Kemik about two moons to get to the underground temple where Mairon conducted most of his experiments. He hoped Dernwulf would deliver Thranduil by then. By his own report, Grimshod's men were poised to take the Sinda any day. Along with Thranduil, Dernwulf had promised to bring him the Elves. Mairon wanted to experiment how much he could push a pair when they wore the bracelet. That would make a more accurate measure of the power of the device.

He had already conducted enough tests on the humans. But through Kemik's eyes, Mairon saw the Grim brothers seemed especially attached to each other. And the younger brother seemed to have connected with Maglor. Mairon's experiences at Lindon had shown him how much value the Elves placed on these small connections they make with others. And the human could be used for that little push Maglor may need.

"Maglor. Kanafinwë. Kano."

He had learned much from Maedhros about his younger brother. It was Maglor that Maedhros called out when he was being tortured at Angband.

"Kano, sing for me… Kano, tell me stories. Kano, remember when the twins broke that vase." "Kano, it hurts… Kano…" and sometimes, "Findekano."

At first, everybody thought the Noldo was just mumbling nonsense as the pain dulled the lights in his eyes. For thirty years, the Noldo bore all manners of torture until Melkor hung him on the mountain out of frustration. But whenever the pain became unbearable, the Noldo would mumble to himself. And Mairon had taken the time to sit and listen. Not inside the torture chamber. Mairon could not stomach the gruesome scene. He hated the perfect symmetry of the elf's body being broken and twisted into an ugly mess. But torture was necessary, and sometimes, effective. And through it all, Mairon saw Maedhros find the strength to go on living as he talked to Maglor as if his brother were sitting next to him. The Maia had marveled then at the Noldo's resilience as the elf went through the day-to-day torture, revealing nothing of value to them. And it had made Mairon wonder what kind of person Maedhros' younger brother was and how deep was their brotherly bond.

Even now, Mairon could feel the Noldo. The strength of the Noldo's mind was such that Mairon could not see clearly unless he dug in. And despite the temptation to do so, Mairon refrained. It was too good of a chance for him to waste it by being impatient. No. Not yet. Not while the bracelet was so freshly placed on the Noldo. He will bide his time.

Mairon ordered his servants to prepare for departure. There was much on his mind. In the south shores, there was a report of a sighting of ships.

At first, he had feared that Valar had come with the Elves to take him back to Aman, but he had seen through the eyes of his crows that these tall men with hardy ships were none other than the descendants of the Edain. And more reports had come that these men not only landed near Harad but were in touch with the Elves in Lindon.

Bad news all around.

If these men were to side with the Elves against him, he would be in a bind. He will need to have more gold. When the men were of the type he could not bind, gold worked wonders.

As he turned, a flock of crows appeared in the sky to the west. They cawed loudly as they swarm around him.

"Celebrimbor have started building at Eriador beneath the Misty Mountains?"

Mairon was unsure how he should take that yet. It was good that Noldor separated into different groups. He had hoped to separate Celebrimbor and Gil-galad, but to have the Noldor so near to him. It meant that Mairon had to think about their defenses. The Eriador was still several hundred miles from him, but Mairon felt exposed in this wide-open land of sand and grass.

"But Celebrimbor is nearer to me than that child-king. That is something."

Mairon paused at the wide stairs. He had rather enjoyed working with Celebrimbor at Lindon. He rubbed at his fingers, remembering the feel of the fire and the smell of melted metal. Working with Celebrimbor had been surprisingly pleasant. To have someone to talk with who knew smithing reasonably well, Mairon had not had that feeling since he lost his master to the Valar's army.

Having someone who understood him without barely a word spoken, to appreciate the amount of work went into creating, the joy of having something you only thought of in your mind taking shape before your eyes… There was no one in Arda now who understood or appreciated what he could do with his hands.

Southeast of Dark Mountains. June 6, SA 722

THRANDUIL frowned as he counted five. Three footfalls were heavy. Either they were Dwarves or heavily armed men. The other two stepped lightly, one lighter than the other.

"Cover us, please," he asked the pine tree. The tree rearranged the branches over the top of the chamber, forming a ceiling like before.

The young woman looked up wide-eyed.

"Did you just ask the tree to do that?"

"Untie me." He lowered his voice, his ears focused on the sounds above and calculating the distance. "Where are my daggers?"

The girl pointed up with her finger.

"Go get them. No. Cut this rope first!"

The girl hesitated. She pulled at her lower lip, then looked up at the ceiling then down at him.

"Can you not hear the heavy gait? That is not one of our people." He glared at the girl. "Have you not heard about the humans in this forest? They are responsible for the disappearance of some Elves."

"That is just a rumor. Not all of them disappeared. Some were just away. But those missing Elves returned home."

"Where have you heard that?"

"Everybody knows that. Humans in the forest abducting Elves is what mothers tell to their children when they don't want them roaming too far in the forest."

"But Puck threatened to give me to them, did he not?"

The girl pulled at her lower lip again. "It was just a talk. He didn't mean what he said."

"Damn it," Thranduil hissed. "They are too close. Cut this rope or we both will find out soon enough whether or not they are men."

The young woman's face darkened, a deep frown running across her forehead. She hesitated again, but took out a dagger and sawed through the thick rope.

"Don't you have something sharper?"

The girl only had a hand dagger. Although sharp, it cut through the rope one line at a time, and they had a lot of rope around him.

"Get my long daggers instead."

The girl scrambled up the tree, then came back down.

"They are too close." The girl jumped down the rest of the way, then fell to cutting the rope with vigor.

Thranduil moved his arms to loosen the surrounding rope.

"Cut the one on my wrists," Thranduil whispered when he heard the footsteps above him. They were walking around the ground above.

"I can't," she whispered as she pulled at the rope that went around Thranduil's arms. Although slackened, a lot of the rope still bound him. "That is a special rope. My dagger won't cut through it. It must be untied."

"Then untie it!"

As the rope around his shoulders came loose, Thranduil moved his wrist up and down. He needed his hands as much as his arms.

"One thing at a time or we will run out of time to do both," she hissed back. "Don't forget I can just leave you here."

"Shhhh, quiet."

The tree branches trembled lightly as heavy feet walked over to the edge of the chamber. Lighter feet joined him.

"They were here," a voice said. "They burned fire through the night. If they left, only recently."

"Spread out." A booming voice commanded the others. "We just need him alive. Handle as roughly as you like as long as he breathes."

The booming voice and the light feet moved away.

Thranduil cursed under his breath. His instincts told him that these men were looking for him. The girl looked at him wide-eyed as she worked on the rope around his hands and wrists.

"You understand what they are saying?" she whispered. "What did they say?"

"Nothing important. Just untie me. Quickly."

"This is Nell's knot. Hers is the hardest to unravel."

"I don't care. Just do it."

The booming voice spoke again a few feet away now. "Are you sure he came here?"

"Not here, but he said three young ones brought him here. He watched for an entire night and half a day and heard the younglings could not wake the elf. One of them left to get something to wake him, so he came to get me."

"What is this place?"

"He said it's a Dwarf storage."

"Why do they have storage in a forest?"

"I dunno. Didn't ask him that."

"So where exactly is this storage?"

"Not sure. But he said the younglings planned to scare the elf, so I am certain the elf is here somewhere."

"Why didn't he stay? Dammit. We could have found the elf and left already."

"He didn't want to be anywhere near where we will be. That's what."

"We better hurry and get out of here. Grimshod will have my hide if we don't succeed, and I don't want to face that other elf again. Is the boat ready?"

"Aye. But how about the younglings? They'll talk if they see us. He said there were three with the elf."

"We risked our necks getting here. If we grab them, more boon for us."

"But we gave him our word that we won't hurt the young ones."

"We will not see him once we leave."

"But…"

"Just find the elf, damn you!"

Thranduil turned to the girl who was still struggling to untie the thinner rope around his wrist. "Go hide."

"Excuse me? I am not leaving you like this. I am almost done."

"Listen to me."

"And where am I going to hide?" She gestured toward the chamber which was a narrow strip of space with nothing to break the sight. "The cliff is too steep. The only way to get out of here is up through the pine tree. As long as we remain quiet, we'll be all right. This place is carved by the Dwarves. It's difficult to see from the outside. Not easy to find." She helped Thranduil out of the loosened thicker rope around him and went back to work on the knot of the thinner rope around his wrists and hands.

Thranduil's heart thumped. He didn't like it. He could hear the men moving about. He looked around. The girl was right. There was no place to hide. Once the branches were pushed away, they would be exposed. The bushes and plants that grew in the chamber were too scant and too short for anyone to hide.

"We didn't find anything," the light feet spoke.

The heavy feet walked near the edge of the stone chamber.

"Why is this pine tree grow'in so low?" the heavy feet asked.

Thranduil cursed softly then, getting up from where he sat, whispered to the girl. "Do you know how to tree-walk?"

The girl nodded.

"If they find us, I am going to throw you up onto the ground. You run. Understand? When you see a tall tree, climb, then tree-walk as far from here as possible. You don't look back, and you don't stop until you find the people who can help you. Understand?"

"But…"

"Run as fast as…."

He did not finish speaking when the tree screamed and the branch overhead split and fell. Thranduil and the girl and jumped away from the fallen branch.

"Here! They are here!" someone shouted from above.

Thranduil crouched down, offering his bound hands to the young woman. But the girl grabbed his hands instead of stepping on them.

"I am almost done. I just need to get this—"

Thranduil took his hands away as the two men climbed down the tree.

"Get on my hands, damn you!" If he had his hands, he would have grabbed her and threw her up there whether she willed or not, but he could not do that with his bound hands.

The two men jumped down onto the chamber floor. The girl brandished her dagger in front of her. Thranduil rushed in, crashing into one man when he made to grab the girl.

The man was heavily armed, but limber. He grabbed Thranduil and smashed him down on the ground.

Sinda rolled and got up, ignoring the pain in his back. He glanced at the girl. Her small dagger was hardly a threat to the man with the thick armor, but she was quick on her feet and evaded the man who tried to grab her.

"Climb up the tree!" Thranduil shouted, then kicked the man behind his legs.

The man screamed, then fell to his knees. Not wasting the momentum, Thranduil spun around, sending another kick to the fallen man's face, knocking him down. The other man took out his ax, raising his weapon high in his right hand. Stepping back to avoid the strike, as soon as the man's arm fell forward, Thranduil ran forward, rolled over the man's back to right himself on the man's left. Then struck him with his double fist down the man's neck. The man swerved and lost his footing.

The girl, instead of doing as he bid, rushed over to him and grabbed Thranduil's hand.

"I told you…"

"Just one more knot," she said as she pulled at the rope.

Something whistled through the air.

Thranduil turned, shoving the girl away at the same time. He was thrown back against the wall, his shoulder burned as if fire sizzled there. An arrow had torn through his shoulder.

The girl gasped her hands to her mouth.

Thranduil glared up at the edge of the chamber. A muscular man with thick iron armor stood there and next to him were two archers. One of them nocked the arrow and aimed it at the girl while the other archer aimed an arrow at Thranduil.

"Tell him to stop fight'in or we'll just shoot him and the girl," the man said to one of the archers.

The girl moved over to stand before Thranduil, with her back to the men on the ground above them.

"Stop. No move. We arrow," said the archer in heavily accented Silvan.

The young woman grabbed Thranduil's hands and pulled out the end of the rope. The rope came unraveled like a lock opened with a key. She tied her dagger to the end of the rope as she glanced at the two fallen men who were getting up groaning. She looked up at Thranduil as she slipped the rope and the dagger into his hands.

"Where's mine?" He spoke under his breath.

"Tree branch. Above the tallest boulder." Her voice sounded calm, but Thranduil detected a slight tremor in them.

Thranduil moved his eyes to the pine tree next to him.

The girl nodded just as the two fallen men got up and picked up their axes, cursing all the while.

"On three," Thranduil whispered, wrapping the end of the rope around his one hand and holding onto the dagger with the other. "One. Two. THREE!"

Thranduil jumped away from the girl and threw the dagger to the archer whose bow aimed at the girl.

The dagger cut through the air with deadly precision and struck the archer's thigh.

The man screamed, dropping the nocked arrow as he fell onto his injured leg. Thranduil, holding onto the end of the rope, climbed up the wall as an arrow shot past him.

"Get him!" The big man roared.

Thranduil reached the ground, rolled over to the fallen archer, pulled out the dagger, and smashed his fist into the wound. The archer screamed and fell forward, grabbing his thigh.

Thranduil whirled around and threw the dagger at the other archer. But the iron-clad man blocked the path. The dagger hit the man's thick armor and fell with a dull clang.

Thranduil took a breath, then pulled at the dagger, but the heavily clad man stepped on it, then grabbing it, yanked.

Thranduil fell forward at the sudden pull as the rope was wounded around his hand. Instinct compelled him to roll as he was dragged. An arrow shot past him, barely missing his head.

"Don't kill him. Injure him," the armored man shouted.

The man pulled at the rope and ran toward Thranduil at the same time, shortening the distance between them. When near, his foot came crashing down. Thranduil saw it but could not avoid it entirely as he rolled the other way. Pain shattered across his other shoulder, but Thranduil ignored it as he righted himself, pulling the rope off his hand.

The heavily armored man lumbered over to Thranduil, swinging his ax. Sinda jumped back away from the man, putting the distance between them. At the same time, he scanned the area for the remaining archer. He could deal with the ones in armor, but the archers were a danger when he had no armor or a shield to protect him.

The archer had moved further away while Thranduil and the heavily armored man fought. And he was nocking another arrow on his bow.

Thranduil ran toward a boulder to his right, sliding behind it as another arrow shot past him.

When he looked out, his heart fell. The two men who were down in the chamber had climbed up to the surface and now were spread out, along with the heavily armored man. The archer stood behind a tree several feet from the boulder. Even the injured archer had dragged himself and his bow behind another boulder.

Thranduil sighed with relief when he did not see the girl amongst them.

"My people will be alerted. They will come and you will be sorry that you entered our forest."

"Ah, so you speak our tongue. Good. Then listen well, you wretched boy. We have you surrounded. You have nowhere to go. Look around you."

Thranduil looked around, then could not help groaning. Behind him was a cliff. He had not known when he jumped behind the boulder that he would place himself in a corner.

"And we are armed, as you could see, and you are not. Think about it, boy. I am guess'in you have some smarts, so you know what you can and cannot do against three well-armed men with archers. Don't you? As to your brethren, how long will it take for them to come here, eh? Even if that girl were to get them, it takes more than half a day for her to get to yer father's camp. And another half a day for them to get here. You know my meaning?"

Thranduil's heart hammered. Did these men know who his father is? How? It was now clear to him that these men targeted him. But why?

Thranduil looked up at the sky, then saw the branch above him. There was a pine tree next to the boulder. Unfortunately, the tree was standing too far from the other trees for him to jump to another from up there. Then he remembered what the girl said. He looked through the branches, hoping against hope. Was it possible that this was the tree she was talking about?

Ignoring the men slowly approaching the boulder, Thranduil scanned the branches. If he could only have his daggers. But it was too much coincidence even for the Valar to handle. His daggers were nowhere to be seen. A sinking feeling settled into his stomach. Why were there so many coincidences when they were against him, but none when he needed them?

"Come out, boy. We could do this easy way or the hard way, and you will not like our hard way, boy."

Thranduil looked about, trying to find a way out. But he was cornered. The only way to escape was down.

"Come out. If you make it easy for us, we'll make it easy for you, but if you want to go the hard way, be prepared to lose a limb. We only have to deliver you breathing. You get my meaning, boy?"

Thranduil got up from behind the boulder and moved toward the edge of the cliff.

"If you want to jump, go ahead. I have a boat down there with more men. Easier for us if you jump." The man laughed out loud.

Maglor is the second son of Feanor. Sindarized version of Makalaure, his Quenya mother name. His father name is Kanafinwe and his brothers called him Kano. Also referred to as the Minstrel for his beautiful voice. At the end of the First Age, he was the only known surviving son of Feanor. It is believed that he still roams the shores singing the sad story of the Noldor's downfall.

Findekano is the Quenya father name of Fingon, Fingolfin's eldest son and Gil-galad's father (in Silmarilion and my story). He is known to have been great friends with Maedhros, Feanor's eldest son.

Ainu (Q. Holy one. Plural is Ainur) refers to the Valar and the Maiar, the first beings created by Eru out of his thought