//Your angels speak with jilted tongues//
"What keeps waking you in the night?"
That question had repeated itself over and over again, frustratingly echoing inside my head since Legolas had escorted me back to my room. A shadow of the answer had been looming in my mind, and I could not help but feel a lingering doubt. Something was missing.
I stayed up all through the night, sitting on my balcony watching the misty moon cast her pale light onto my skin as the translucent light eventually broke into dawn. The hours that I had spent awake took their toll as I glanced at my face through the mirror, shadowed rings under my eyes as proof of my lack of sleep. I stumbled tiredly out the door, my mind too preoccupied to noticed where my feet were leading me.
Not noticing the bright sunlight unusually filtering away to dimness, I sleepily took the nearest set of staircases that I found. A narrow flight of steps wound down, occasional gaps in the stone wall allowing light to flow through. Padding down the steps, my eyes began to adjust to the change in light in the restricted stairwell as I followed the winding steps. Eventually, the gaps in the wall stopped, and flamed torches hung on the walls, giving off an eerie glow of light. Just as my head was beginning to awaken, and uncertainty filled my mind about where the stairs were leading, a large metal gate loomed at the end of the passageway. Beyond it lay a straight path, leading into darkness where the light from the torches could not reach.
Lightly touching the cold bars, I noticed that it hung slightly open. Just as my hand lingered to push the gate open, a small gold plaque caught my eye at the head of the stone wall.
A baby's cry may be heard,
But pay no heed to the child's words.
Beware the dungeon of foul play,
For you may not see the light of day.
Suddenly a shrill wail pierced the silence, a baby's cry that echoed through from inside the gate that sent an alarming chill up my spine, making me quiver slightly. I glanced uneasily at the plaque, unsure whether or not to venture forward. Flicking my head back, I checked to make sure that no one was behind me. That sudden urge of wariness sent a bolt of suspicion through me but before my mind could protest, I had removed a torch from the wall and extended a steady hand, pushing the black gate open. It swung back with a heavy groan, hitting the wall with a loud clang, immediately silencing the strident cries.
The hazy glow from the torch only reached a few feet in front, leaving me to walk with caution through the winding passages that started to grow increasingly cooler. With one hand against the wall, the other extending the torch in front of me, I continued deeper and started to feel moisture on the wall that my hand was skimming against. Soon my hand was completely wet and a dank smell emerged from the ever-continuing tunnel. Several puddles of water lay about the uneven floor, shimmering off reflections of yellow light in their small ripples.
Suddenly, just as the gate had emerged out of the gloom as before, a branch in the tunnel appeared, one leading straight into a continuing gloomy darkness, and the other up a roughly cut flight of stairs. Pausing at the fork, I frowned at the two courses of direction. Just as I was contemplating sending orbs out, a tiny whisper of melodious humming came drifting through the cavern, echoing off the walls. I shut my eyes, concentrating on the direction from which the soft music had wafted from, letting my feet //saviour of the light// guide me. As I shuffled forward, eyes still scrunched close, I could hear the humming grow ever so slightly louder, until I my feet hit the bottom of a stair, sending me tumbling forward.
I landed on a hard-edged stair with a loud grunt. I was now in complete darkness as I had let go of my torch in the fall and it had rolled into one of the puddles in the ground. From where I sat on the stair, I could hear the last faint hisses of the flame in water. A strong trepidation started to beat from my heart, and I started to regret my foolishness for venturing so deeply into the castle. But my streak of curiousity had not been put out so easily like the torch in the puddle, and I carefully stood, palms bracing the sides of the wall.
Using an orb had occurred to me, but I decided not to risk it. Some of the Lady's wisdom had rubbed off on me; I knew that I had not the power to carry an orb, no matter the size or power for a long period of time, and I did not particularly wish to be stranded in a dank tunnel until my strength returned. So I slowly made my way up the gravelly stairs, hesitating at each step to find my footing.
The stairs continued up and up, and my breath had started to grow shorter as the air grew tighter around me. Just as before, the stairs abruptly ended at a bend in the stairwell and my eyes adjusted to white light glowing in the centre of a large room. Surprised that I had not seen the light from the stairs, I was even more dumbfounded at the sight of a little girl sitting by herself on a wooden stool, her hands daintily crossed on her lap, on which lay a pair of worn ballet slippers. She was dressed in a white performance ensemble, her sleeveless leotard meeting the same impeccable white skirt at her waist that was fringed with a layer of tulle.
The child's slightly streaked blonde hair was pulled back into a tight bun high on her head, wrapped in a black hairnet, her back rim rod straight with perfect posture as she sat with her ankles crossed on the stool. She had icy blue eyes that stared straight ahead at an unknown spot in the stone wall in front and around her, her lips pressed into a thin line.
I warily stepped forward from the edge of the stairs towards the little girl. Without even a flicker of her eyes, the child extended a hand from her lap and a crystal-clear orb formed in the palm of her small hand. Then it dawned on me.
I stepped forward and knelt on the ground, reaching eye contact with the girl with the orb between us. Not breaking the gaze of her azure eyes pass my face, she opened her mouth to speak. A twist of Elvish and English came out, the two alternating between a whispering echo and a normal voice. Both seemed to be that of the little girl's.
"Laire Carn, daughter of Pallando, one of the Ithryn Luin of the Istari, blood of the Immortal, possessor of the Orbs of Nessa, I greet you."
Looking past the clear orb that lay still in her hand, I gazed at the little girl sitting in the stool, the ballet slippers still sitting steadily in her lap, cushioned by the layers of her tutu.
"Who are you?" I asked, though I already had an inkling of the answer.
For the first time, her piercing eyes reached mine and a slight look of mockery settled in her startling sharp eyes.
"You already know," she replied, "Need you hear it out loud, Everlasting One?"
I did not answer, merely fixating my eyes more firmly on her slightly intimidating ones.
Her face still as neutral as ever, she said,
"I'm you."
A/N: My latest update!! I will be leaving the previous Author's Note up for a while for those who may have missed it or not been on ff.net lately.
As I said, the story has taken a different route and some of you may have noticed that I have finally figured out how to include my Word formatting onto ff.net, so if you have been confused with some of Summer's thoughts or lyrics included in the story, I suggest you flip back through the chapters because bold/italics has been added.
So here's a long chappy for those I have nastily neglected in almost 2 or 3 months…I apologise profusely again. Btw, the names that the Child greets Summer by when she meets her are actually researched notes that I picked up from The Encyclopaedia of Arda, a very good site for bground info on everything to do with Middle Earth. Interesting fact: Nessa (one of the Valar) who I said that Summer possessed the Orbs of, actually liked dancing on the lawns of Valimar. Coincidence? I think not!
Thanks to all who have reviewed and please keep them coming!!