The group rode onto the plain without further incident. Although the elves
were normally of a quiet nature, they did speak to one another in whispered
voices from time to time. Their hearing was so acute that they seldom spoke
above a whisper when conversing. But it was nothing that concerned Kizea,
who always rode out in front, away from the others. Happily, they followed
closely to the river Gladden almost until the foothills of the mountains.
There was plenty of water and fish from the river, though their supplies of
berries and lembas had dwindled to nearly nothing. Legolas noticed how
sullen Kizea had become as they drew nearer to the pass. He surmised,
correctly, that the Fendowan encampments were hidden somewhere within the
mountain range. It was another elven myth that gave rise to this
philosophy, that the stone contained such power as to hide the entire area
where it was hidden and guarded. But in actuality, the group was not
approaching the mountain of Goldorma, but the cliff where Kizea had lost
her brother, and first discovered Melune's treasonous intentions of the
stone. The very thought of passing through the same country depressed her
to the very depths of her heart. But it was a necessary evil. This
particular route happened to be the quickest way through the Misty
Mountains and to Isodor beyond. Her depression only served to renew her
resolve to find the stone and put an end to Melune.
Kizea had actually no intentions of making camp near the cliff that took her brother's life, but the night sky was widening above, and there was no moon. The path along the steep hillsides blended perfectly into the dimming color of the landscape. Further travel that night was impossible.
"Stay here we must," Tenmelion said aloud to the group, "For the path grows treacherous, and we cannot risk traversing further without the light of day."
Kerrinais dismounted and began to unpack his saddlebags, but Kizea looked off in the distance by the river. The falls echoes reverberated throughout the hills. She glanced over to Legolas, but he was dismounting Neonean as well. Feeling her gaze upon him, Legolas looked up expectantly at Kizea. By now she was staring off into the distance.
"We should camp here tonight," Legolas said louder, drawing Kizea's attentions from the falls. With one final glance backwards, she sighed, dismounted, and silently began untying her saddlebags. Kerrinais and Tenmelion volunteered to walk a perimeter, and guard the campsite that evening. Legolas stood lazily against a tree, listening to the quiet breeze. He thought to question Kizea about the man in the tavern, but her behavior was so oddly silent, that he decided against it. Kizea sat sullen, her arms wrapped around her knees, staring into the large campfire. As the night dwindled on, Legolas left the camp to find firewood and also to check on his companions from whom he had not heard in some hours. When he returned, Kizea was gone.
Normally, the elves slept little. This was especially true of those elves that wandered the wild lands in Middle-Earth, for there was little telling from where the next attack might come. Since Rakal's defeat, orcs still wandered in the countryside, causing havoc and general chaos wherever they may. But the road from the borders of Mirkwood had been long and hard. Tenmelion's horse had injured her leg in the muddy sludge of the Anduin. The crossing, slightly north of the river gladden at the height summer, became little more than a muddy roe until it filled once again with its sister river. Tenmelion walked beside the horse for several days until her tendon improved. Food and water had been scarce until they came to the village outside of Tuluth. The heat and blistering sun was taking its toll on everyone. That night, the cool mountain breeze was a welcome reprieve to everyone. Legolas actually thought to rest a bit before beginning the journey again the next day. He did. Leaning against a youngish tree, Legolas drifted off to sleep, and slept the better part of the night with his eyes open and his hand resting upon his Mirkwood longbow. It gave the appearance that he was armed and waiting for trouble. No one interrupted his rest.
He awoke sluggishly the following morning, just as the pink and gray rays of the sun were peeking over a distant horizon. He looked about the camp. Tenmelion was busily packing his saddle pack. The fire had gone cold sometime during the night, but no one had been there to tend it. Kerrinais and Kizea were nowhere in sight. Upon questioning Tenmelion, Legolas headed in the direction of the falls where Tenmelion had seen Kerrinais wandering earlier. But Tenmelion had not seen Kizea all night.
The nearer Legolas drew to the falls, the denser the foothill woods became, until it was nearly a forest, cut through the middle by the Gladden River. He approached quickly and silently until he saw Kerrinais peering around a well-aged tree with a thick, mossy trunk. He walked quickly to his friend. Kerrinais, in seeing Legolas, motioned his head towards the falls. Glancing over to where Kerrinais directed, he saw first the outline of three horses, standing still and silent. Moaanen, Kerrinais's own horse, had somehow loosened her reins and stood silently beside the rest, her reins dangling from her halter to the ground. On the edge of the cliff, was Kizea, on her knees, staring off into the distance.
"She's been there since last night," Kerrinais said quietly in elvish to his companion, "Look at this, the horses are following her like ducklings to their mother. I find it hard to fathom that they are taken to her as they have."
"It is time to leave," Legolas replied, "I'll retrieve her."
Kerrinais nodded and retreated back in the direction of the camp. Even though the sound of the falls crashed around them, Kizea turned her head as Legolas drew near. Then she stared off into the distance again.
"I know what you would say to me," she began, "That I am too quick to anger, and I should ignore the little offenses that men would bestow upon me. And perhaps you are right. By acknowledging their discourtesy I dishonor the Fendowan order and the stone, and I draw too much attention to our quest. And you would be right, Legolas. For my own reputation I vow I will no longer put us at peril."
Legolas walked up beside her and squatted down.
"No, that is not what I would say to you," Legolas replied gently. Kizea turned her head to stare at him. She had expected his reproach for her fight in the tavern for three days, yet it had never come. Seldom was Legolas so physically close to the girl. He looked into her eyes, beyond the mask and could perceive right away that she had been weeping. He gazed at the rim of her golden mask. All around it was pockmarked in the gold were the holes where Kizea had pried away gemstones with her daggers. He no longer wondered where she came by the stones that she gave to his father, King Thranduil, or the boy in the town, or the tavern keeper. She was spending the Fendowan wealth to gain information, and to help the impoverished. On the other side, her mask remained intact. The green jewels and pearls sparkled in the morning light. He quickly looked away out to the falls. The perpetual mist emanating from the falls refracted a magnificent rainbow in the morning sun.
"Look," he smiled pointing to the rainbow, "It reminds me of the waterfalls of Imladris. They are truly a sight to behold."
Kizea stared blankly at the multitude of colors.
"It reminds me only of death," she said bitterly. Legolas frowned.
"Something has happened, what is it?"
For some moments she did not speak. Off in the distance, she could hear Tenmelion whistling to the horses. All had returned to camp except Neonean, who remained stubbornly with Kizea and Legolas.
"On this precipice I lost my brother to Melune's treachery." she told him, "He was thrown from this cliff by one of her orcs and met his end on the jagged rocks below. Here her intentions of the sacred stone were made known to me, and all that I have lived for and vowed to protect was laid broken."
"Your brother?" Legolas said surprised, "But the Fendowan have no family. Or that is what I have heard."
"I only knew him as my brother because he told me as much," Kizea said softly, "He brought me to the stone and it revived me to its servitude. And the stone also accepted my brother, an honor to be sure, but he was not; I mean to say, it did not erase his mind as it did my own."
Legolas placed a thin, slender hand upon her shoulder.
"We will recover the Stone of Anor and we will find your brother's killer," he said intently.
Kizea looked back at him, tears welled in her eyes.
"It's not that," she whispered to him. Her voice began to break and she waited a moment to recover herself. She felt ashamed for what she was about to say.
"When I was brought to the stone's service it wiped away all knowledge of my previous life. And I had a life. I am sure of it. When my brother perished, it was as though the last vestiges of my existence were gone with him. Now I hold no hope of knowing who or what I was."
"And you would remember your previous life? Do you even care about such things and did your brother never reveal anything to you?" Legolas said sympathetically.
Kizea shut her eyes and smiled sadly. The elf's eyes drifted to Kizea's tunic, her fingers were gently stroking something beneath the rough cloth, but she did not produce the object.
"To be sure, there was a time when such matters did not hold so large a place in my heart. Valnin offered to disclose the details of my life and my..." her voice trailed off. She was quiet for some seconds before beginning anew.
"But it was I who would never hear of it. He spoke to me in such fragments as to confuse me entirely. Now that I am returned and am riding through the open land, and breathing the free air, I yearn to know the whole of it." Kizea stopped short. She breathed.
"I am seeing small bits and pieces, as though it is trying to come back to me, the well in that town. I knew it was there, but I have no memory of being there before."
"And the tavern keeper, did you remember him?" he asked. Kizea smiled weakly.
"No. When Valnin perished I bid the Fendowan who remained loyal to take him to Tuluth. They told the tavern keeper to expect me. Then they returned to the Fendowan encampments. At least they might find some peace living there. When I recover the stone I shall return to Tuluth and bring my brother to life again. Then he and I will return to the encampments together, and I will be content."
Legolas's eyes widened.
"You have sworn to bring the stone to my father!" he said suddenly. Kizea smiled, gently placing her hand on his. It was a tiny and seemingly frail hand. Her touch was soft and luxurious to him, and the feeling of it almost startled him.
"And so I shall," she replied, "But we must pass through Tuluth on the return journey, and I should like to see my brother alive again. That is the stone's blessing and disgrace, Legolas. It will bring to life any dead thing that touches it, from the highest wizard to the lowliest demon, but I bid you, fear not of my intentions, good elf. For I grow weary of this chase already. At this moment, if I could be relieved of this duty that was thrust upon me I would gladly give it up. I would deliver the stone to your father and let him be drawn into slavery in my place. Still, even you must agree, Legolas, that the only place for the Anor stone is where Melune may never again lay eyes on it. That is where I shall gladly relinquish it. The stone must be set in a place where it is rendered useless to her, for I do not believe there is a way to kill her. And she will always search for it. But here and now, I would only know who I was, and what became of me."
Legolas stared at her with pity in his eyes. Again, Tenmelion called out over the hills. Kizea turned her head and she knew their conversation must be cut short. But Legolas, filled with curiosity of what she had told him, thought to linger a moment longer, and he remained still.
"Do you remember anything else?" he asked Kizea. She remained pensive for a few minutes, and spoke.
"I don't know if you could call it remembering exactly," she told him, "Rather they are images in my mind. I see an older man, in fine robes sitting before a grand fireplace with me. I have seen a bit of jewelry in my mind, and a sword, and red eyes of terror. I have come to believe that I lived in Tuluth, and that when Rakal the Destroyer ransacked the city 10 years ago. That is how I met my end. And I even believe I must have married. Could you ever believe such an incredible thing?"
Legolas did not know what to say to her.
"You are living proof that the stone of Anor exists," Legolas smiled gazing at her, "Until now, it was merely myth to the wood elves. I can believe anything you would tell me. Do you know what became of your family? Did your brother tell you that much?"
Kizea slowly shook her head.
"I know nothing. My brother was sworn to the stone's service, as was I, and being such, neither of us thought of anything but the stone. All other considerations were insignificant and unnecessary to us. Perhaps he meant to spare me the knowledge of my family's fate. I have but one image that I return to over and over. My husband. The picture in my mind is so real that I cannot seem erase it from my thoughts. I can almost see him standing now before me..." her voice trailed off again as though she were in a trance.
"What do you see?"
"A man," she replied, "I see him standing in a stream, tall and noble. He is a being of the light and the earth. He is both handsomest and bravest at one time. The sun is shining behind his flaxen head in unparalleled beauty. The very rays of the sun stream from his head and we gaze at each other, and it overwhelms me, but then the image always fades from my mind. If only I could see his face once more! If only he knew I was alive again!"
"Perhaps your travels will take you to him someday," Legolas replied as he stood upright and looked back in the direction of the camp, "I do not think destiny would part two hearts that have managed to overcome even death."
Legolas's thoughtfulness and sympathy were comforting to her. Kizea stood and stretched her legs. They had become sore and quite stiff from sitting in one position all night.
"I thought you would laugh at me, my good elf," she smiled as she brushed her tunic with her left hand, "I suppose it is a woman's folly to hold onto love even after she is dead!"
Legolas began walking away from the cliff. He lightly patted Neonean on her flank as he passed by, and she obediently turned and followed him away from the river.
"I could never laugh at a love that death has parted," he said solemnly, "For even as love perceives no limitations, I can tell you truly, neither does grief. I am sure your betrothed, wherever he may be, grieves for you even now."
The two made their way through the forest back to the camp where Kerrinais and Tenmelion waited. All was packed and ready. Legolas grabbed hold of Neonean's flowing mane and hopped onto her back. But he saw how Kizea had trouble mounting her own horse. She pulled herself to her mount using only her left hand. Her right hand, which was covered with a linen bandage, betrayed only three red and swollen fingers underneath. Kizea was careful not to bump her hand on anything. But once she was astride her horse, Kizea kicked her heels and the animal's sides and the group was off again.
Kizea had actually no intentions of making camp near the cliff that took her brother's life, but the night sky was widening above, and there was no moon. The path along the steep hillsides blended perfectly into the dimming color of the landscape. Further travel that night was impossible.
"Stay here we must," Tenmelion said aloud to the group, "For the path grows treacherous, and we cannot risk traversing further without the light of day."
Kerrinais dismounted and began to unpack his saddlebags, but Kizea looked off in the distance by the river. The falls echoes reverberated throughout the hills. She glanced over to Legolas, but he was dismounting Neonean as well. Feeling her gaze upon him, Legolas looked up expectantly at Kizea. By now she was staring off into the distance.
"We should camp here tonight," Legolas said louder, drawing Kizea's attentions from the falls. With one final glance backwards, she sighed, dismounted, and silently began untying her saddlebags. Kerrinais and Tenmelion volunteered to walk a perimeter, and guard the campsite that evening. Legolas stood lazily against a tree, listening to the quiet breeze. He thought to question Kizea about the man in the tavern, but her behavior was so oddly silent, that he decided against it. Kizea sat sullen, her arms wrapped around her knees, staring into the large campfire. As the night dwindled on, Legolas left the camp to find firewood and also to check on his companions from whom he had not heard in some hours. When he returned, Kizea was gone.
Normally, the elves slept little. This was especially true of those elves that wandered the wild lands in Middle-Earth, for there was little telling from where the next attack might come. Since Rakal's defeat, orcs still wandered in the countryside, causing havoc and general chaos wherever they may. But the road from the borders of Mirkwood had been long and hard. Tenmelion's horse had injured her leg in the muddy sludge of the Anduin. The crossing, slightly north of the river gladden at the height summer, became little more than a muddy roe until it filled once again with its sister river. Tenmelion walked beside the horse for several days until her tendon improved. Food and water had been scarce until they came to the village outside of Tuluth. The heat and blistering sun was taking its toll on everyone. That night, the cool mountain breeze was a welcome reprieve to everyone. Legolas actually thought to rest a bit before beginning the journey again the next day. He did. Leaning against a youngish tree, Legolas drifted off to sleep, and slept the better part of the night with his eyes open and his hand resting upon his Mirkwood longbow. It gave the appearance that he was armed and waiting for trouble. No one interrupted his rest.
He awoke sluggishly the following morning, just as the pink and gray rays of the sun were peeking over a distant horizon. He looked about the camp. Tenmelion was busily packing his saddle pack. The fire had gone cold sometime during the night, but no one had been there to tend it. Kerrinais and Kizea were nowhere in sight. Upon questioning Tenmelion, Legolas headed in the direction of the falls where Tenmelion had seen Kerrinais wandering earlier. But Tenmelion had not seen Kizea all night.
The nearer Legolas drew to the falls, the denser the foothill woods became, until it was nearly a forest, cut through the middle by the Gladden River. He approached quickly and silently until he saw Kerrinais peering around a well-aged tree with a thick, mossy trunk. He walked quickly to his friend. Kerrinais, in seeing Legolas, motioned his head towards the falls. Glancing over to where Kerrinais directed, he saw first the outline of three horses, standing still and silent. Moaanen, Kerrinais's own horse, had somehow loosened her reins and stood silently beside the rest, her reins dangling from her halter to the ground. On the edge of the cliff, was Kizea, on her knees, staring off into the distance.
"She's been there since last night," Kerrinais said quietly in elvish to his companion, "Look at this, the horses are following her like ducklings to their mother. I find it hard to fathom that they are taken to her as they have."
"It is time to leave," Legolas replied, "I'll retrieve her."
Kerrinais nodded and retreated back in the direction of the camp. Even though the sound of the falls crashed around them, Kizea turned her head as Legolas drew near. Then she stared off into the distance again.
"I know what you would say to me," she began, "That I am too quick to anger, and I should ignore the little offenses that men would bestow upon me. And perhaps you are right. By acknowledging their discourtesy I dishonor the Fendowan order and the stone, and I draw too much attention to our quest. And you would be right, Legolas. For my own reputation I vow I will no longer put us at peril."
Legolas walked up beside her and squatted down.
"No, that is not what I would say to you," Legolas replied gently. Kizea turned her head to stare at him. She had expected his reproach for her fight in the tavern for three days, yet it had never come. Seldom was Legolas so physically close to the girl. He looked into her eyes, beyond the mask and could perceive right away that she had been weeping. He gazed at the rim of her golden mask. All around it was pockmarked in the gold were the holes where Kizea had pried away gemstones with her daggers. He no longer wondered where she came by the stones that she gave to his father, King Thranduil, or the boy in the town, or the tavern keeper. She was spending the Fendowan wealth to gain information, and to help the impoverished. On the other side, her mask remained intact. The green jewels and pearls sparkled in the morning light. He quickly looked away out to the falls. The perpetual mist emanating from the falls refracted a magnificent rainbow in the morning sun.
"Look," he smiled pointing to the rainbow, "It reminds me of the waterfalls of Imladris. They are truly a sight to behold."
Kizea stared blankly at the multitude of colors.
"It reminds me only of death," she said bitterly. Legolas frowned.
"Something has happened, what is it?"
For some moments she did not speak. Off in the distance, she could hear Tenmelion whistling to the horses. All had returned to camp except Neonean, who remained stubbornly with Kizea and Legolas.
"On this precipice I lost my brother to Melune's treachery." she told him, "He was thrown from this cliff by one of her orcs and met his end on the jagged rocks below. Here her intentions of the sacred stone were made known to me, and all that I have lived for and vowed to protect was laid broken."
"Your brother?" Legolas said surprised, "But the Fendowan have no family. Or that is what I have heard."
"I only knew him as my brother because he told me as much," Kizea said softly, "He brought me to the stone and it revived me to its servitude. And the stone also accepted my brother, an honor to be sure, but he was not; I mean to say, it did not erase his mind as it did my own."
Legolas placed a thin, slender hand upon her shoulder.
"We will recover the Stone of Anor and we will find your brother's killer," he said intently.
Kizea looked back at him, tears welled in her eyes.
"It's not that," she whispered to him. Her voice began to break and she waited a moment to recover herself. She felt ashamed for what she was about to say.
"When I was brought to the stone's service it wiped away all knowledge of my previous life. And I had a life. I am sure of it. When my brother perished, it was as though the last vestiges of my existence were gone with him. Now I hold no hope of knowing who or what I was."
"And you would remember your previous life? Do you even care about such things and did your brother never reveal anything to you?" Legolas said sympathetically.
Kizea shut her eyes and smiled sadly. The elf's eyes drifted to Kizea's tunic, her fingers were gently stroking something beneath the rough cloth, but she did not produce the object.
"To be sure, there was a time when such matters did not hold so large a place in my heart. Valnin offered to disclose the details of my life and my..." her voice trailed off. She was quiet for some seconds before beginning anew.
"But it was I who would never hear of it. He spoke to me in such fragments as to confuse me entirely. Now that I am returned and am riding through the open land, and breathing the free air, I yearn to know the whole of it." Kizea stopped short. She breathed.
"I am seeing small bits and pieces, as though it is trying to come back to me, the well in that town. I knew it was there, but I have no memory of being there before."
"And the tavern keeper, did you remember him?" he asked. Kizea smiled weakly.
"No. When Valnin perished I bid the Fendowan who remained loyal to take him to Tuluth. They told the tavern keeper to expect me. Then they returned to the Fendowan encampments. At least they might find some peace living there. When I recover the stone I shall return to Tuluth and bring my brother to life again. Then he and I will return to the encampments together, and I will be content."
Legolas's eyes widened.
"You have sworn to bring the stone to my father!" he said suddenly. Kizea smiled, gently placing her hand on his. It was a tiny and seemingly frail hand. Her touch was soft and luxurious to him, and the feeling of it almost startled him.
"And so I shall," she replied, "But we must pass through Tuluth on the return journey, and I should like to see my brother alive again. That is the stone's blessing and disgrace, Legolas. It will bring to life any dead thing that touches it, from the highest wizard to the lowliest demon, but I bid you, fear not of my intentions, good elf. For I grow weary of this chase already. At this moment, if I could be relieved of this duty that was thrust upon me I would gladly give it up. I would deliver the stone to your father and let him be drawn into slavery in my place. Still, even you must agree, Legolas, that the only place for the Anor stone is where Melune may never again lay eyes on it. That is where I shall gladly relinquish it. The stone must be set in a place where it is rendered useless to her, for I do not believe there is a way to kill her. And she will always search for it. But here and now, I would only know who I was, and what became of me."
Legolas stared at her with pity in his eyes. Again, Tenmelion called out over the hills. Kizea turned her head and she knew their conversation must be cut short. But Legolas, filled with curiosity of what she had told him, thought to linger a moment longer, and he remained still.
"Do you remember anything else?" he asked Kizea. She remained pensive for a few minutes, and spoke.
"I don't know if you could call it remembering exactly," she told him, "Rather they are images in my mind. I see an older man, in fine robes sitting before a grand fireplace with me. I have seen a bit of jewelry in my mind, and a sword, and red eyes of terror. I have come to believe that I lived in Tuluth, and that when Rakal the Destroyer ransacked the city 10 years ago. That is how I met my end. And I even believe I must have married. Could you ever believe such an incredible thing?"
Legolas did not know what to say to her.
"You are living proof that the stone of Anor exists," Legolas smiled gazing at her, "Until now, it was merely myth to the wood elves. I can believe anything you would tell me. Do you know what became of your family? Did your brother tell you that much?"
Kizea slowly shook her head.
"I know nothing. My brother was sworn to the stone's service, as was I, and being such, neither of us thought of anything but the stone. All other considerations were insignificant and unnecessary to us. Perhaps he meant to spare me the knowledge of my family's fate. I have but one image that I return to over and over. My husband. The picture in my mind is so real that I cannot seem erase it from my thoughts. I can almost see him standing now before me..." her voice trailed off again as though she were in a trance.
"What do you see?"
"A man," she replied, "I see him standing in a stream, tall and noble. He is a being of the light and the earth. He is both handsomest and bravest at one time. The sun is shining behind his flaxen head in unparalleled beauty. The very rays of the sun stream from his head and we gaze at each other, and it overwhelms me, but then the image always fades from my mind. If only I could see his face once more! If only he knew I was alive again!"
"Perhaps your travels will take you to him someday," Legolas replied as he stood upright and looked back in the direction of the camp, "I do not think destiny would part two hearts that have managed to overcome even death."
Legolas's thoughtfulness and sympathy were comforting to her. Kizea stood and stretched her legs. They had become sore and quite stiff from sitting in one position all night.
"I thought you would laugh at me, my good elf," she smiled as she brushed her tunic with her left hand, "I suppose it is a woman's folly to hold onto love even after she is dead!"
Legolas began walking away from the cliff. He lightly patted Neonean on her flank as he passed by, and she obediently turned and followed him away from the river.
"I could never laugh at a love that death has parted," he said solemnly, "For even as love perceives no limitations, I can tell you truly, neither does grief. I am sure your betrothed, wherever he may be, grieves for you even now."
The two made their way through the forest back to the camp where Kerrinais and Tenmelion waited. All was packed and ready. Legolas grabbed hold of Neonean's flowing mane and hopped onto her back. But he saw how Kizea had trouble mounting her own horse. She pulled herself to her mount using only her left hand. Her right hand, which was covered with a linen bandage, betrayed only three red and swollen fingers underneath. Kizea was careful not to bump her hand on anything. But once she was astride her horse, Kizea kicked her heels and the animal's sides and the group was off again.