A/N: AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! DIE CHAPTER DIE!!!!!!! Isn't this the suckiest thing you've ever read??? AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! These were VERY important moments and I feel like I just blew them... AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DDDDIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! Kdçslo~fdçjsoiaºpafm4dlhlaui´rf!!!!!!!!! Don't you just hate it?... Oh, well... hmm... Did I mention I was in a bad mood? Well, YEP!! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I guess it DID affect my writing after all... *sigh* - Warning: All raise their "Poor Elrohir!" flags! And, yes, I know I promised torture, but right now was not the time for me to do it... I just couldn't. If you'd like for it to be written, though, let me know, and when I revise this stuff (or perhaps even right now) I'll add it. Please, let me know of what you think!!
szhismine: Ok, if you insist, I'll continue to answer! Can't say I don't enjoy it either! =) I know, but like I said before, I'm barely in control of this story now! So, even if I *really* did want to hurt Legolas, it would be very hard to convince this monster here... *kicks computer*... to cooperate!... But who knows what the future may bring? *winks* ROTFL!! Thanks for taking me to Ellie! I'm feeling much better now! *jumps around* OUCH! Though, I'm still kinda sour... ;) And thanks for turning on that spotlight, mellon! That corner was definitely too murky! Unfortunately, there will always be places like that... Here's another chapter (I hurried - *points* - see?)! And the only reason why I'm not dedicating it to you is because I want to save that for any eventual 'Leggy-torture-chapter' that might come... and because I personally believe that no one deserves to have something this bad dedicated to him/ her... *sigh* THANX!!
Lossie Alqua: eeks! SORRY, SORRY!! Don't kill me, mellon, please!!! ^_^' After I'm done with Elrohir here, I'll be sure to send him over to your house to spend some very nice, long vacations away from authors like me and to help you retype your chapters! ;) The weird thing is: I love him too!! *sniff* ;D Thanks for everything!!
To everyone else: thanks for reading!!! You brighten my day!!!
But, for some reason, all the clouds come back when I think of what I STILL have to write... AÏE!! ;) LOL, and now, ladies and gentlemen, without further delay, I give you...
...
...
... the light of Eärendil (read "Éréndil")?
???
OO!!! *ahem!* ;)
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Chapter XV – Special Guests
A grand room presented itself, decorated with dark-red velvets, hanging from the walls in rich and elegant shapes. Others had tapestries too, but these had been eaten through by moths, and time had stolen their colours. It must have been designed to bear hundreds of men, for it was extremely large and there were many tables pulled against the sides of the room.
What most quickly made its presence known to the eye, however, was neither the wonderful, exquisite paintings, nor the tables that were set and ready to feed the hungry men, but only a single chair placed on a central and higher position. That chair, and the man on it.
His chin was held up high and his bearing was tall, even though some frailty was evident. His face was pale, and one of his eyes, milky white. He was an old man, but not so very different from the others in that place, apart only from his imponent look. He bore a long brown cape, adorned with furs by his shoulders, that stretched itself all the way to his feet, and there a portion of it lay. He was an imposing and arrogant figure in every way, and, by sitting on that throne, the feelings only gained in intensity. Elrohir was not overly affected by it, but his courage and confidence did quiver somewhat.
The two guards took him before their King, dropped the elf on the floor and kept a booted foot on his back, to make sure he stayed bent low and honoured their Lord's higher authority. The old man had a wicked glint in his eyes and, slowly, a matching grin spread throughout his features. Even though Elrohir could not see him, he felt his wandering gaze upon him. The man addressed the captive elf in a dangerous tone.
"An elf. It has been years since I've last seen one of your kind. In truth, it has been long since I've seen any outsiders, because of your kind. Speak! Who are you, and what business brought you to pursue my men?!"
Elrohir complied not, and not only due to a captive's stubbornness in resisting to please in any possible way those who have him, but also because he was truly tired and his mind was having a hard time processing everything that was going on. The boot on his back hurt him even more when the guard gave him a shove, urging him to respond. A gasp escaped his lips and Elrohir raised his head to try to look at the inquiring man.
"Speak! My patience seems to grow thinner with the passing of time, and your presence has hastened it further! Speak! Who are you?!"
"Edhel… o Imladris… [An elf of Imladris]"
"That I can see! Stubborn, are we?... Though, your name matters not, for your treatment shall be the same. Tell me, what were you doing following my men? Never before have the elves learnt of our presence, and now shall not be that time either. Were there any others with you?"
Darkness was tempting Elrohir with its bliss. He could feel it tugging at his mind, pulling and invading and covering reality with its sweet and warm veil. Another shove from the guards drove it back a little, though, and so the elf looked back at the King, whose face had turned to a menacing snarl. He spoke with disdain.
"Get him out of my sight! Show him what he earns by disobedience and bring him back when his spirit is more... open to dialogue. See if you can make him say anything in the meanwhile. And have a message be sent out, to inform our friends that an unexpected visitor has come to our house earlier than we thought. Tell them that we shall be waiting for their arrival soon. Understood?"
"Yes, my King."
"Good. Go and take your time with that elf, but I want him alive and whole afterwards, do you hear me?"
"Yes, my King."
"Just one more thing. What about our other special guest? Has he awoken yet? Where are you keeping him?"
"No, my King, the child still sleeps. We are holding him in one of the dungeons."
"When he awakes, no- in the morning, bring him to me... and the elf as well. Now get out of here, I wish to be at peace for the rest of the evening! Do not disturb me further!"
The guards bowed and, with mechanical movements, grabbed the elf and took him out of the room. Outside, they smiled evilly at each other and traded comments as they walked through the hallways once again. Their next orders were much more pleasant to carry out and they were more than happy to fulfil them. The message would have to wait till morning, for the hour was already late, but they found no problem with that. Most likely, they'd be too busy with the elf to go send it anyway.
Elrohir was trying to pull himself back together. He was much more lucid now, but his body still ached everywhere. He realised they had stopped walking and there was a noise, from pieces of metal clashing together. Keys, yes, that's what it was. He looked up and the sight of a terrible black door greeted him, smiling with a nasty grin of steel bars. To his side, another man was unlocking it, using a great set of many keys attached to his belt. He opened it and looked at Elrohir. Upon finding him staring back, he laughed in an insane fashion.
"Have fun, little elf. No need to look like that! Who knows, maybe you'll enjoy it!" The two laughed as well, but stopped the keeper of the keys nonetheless, when he tried to enter and join them. He left growling and muttering under his breath, and no one doubted he was cursing them all. But the guards would have their fun alone and would not share it with anyone else.
It was a dark division, and Elrohir wondered if there was possibly anything in that place that was not. It had a distinct smell, one that was most troubling, for the elf recognised it as that of rotten flesh and blood. One of the guards entered first, after picking up a torch from the corridor, and started lighting those inside of the room.
If the door was terrible, then what lay beyond it was even worse. One by one, wicked instruments displayed themselves to the elf's eyes. Spikes and whips, tables and some sort of strange sets with restraints, all foul with blood and other kinds of dirt. The now more conscious elf, felt his legs falter again, and desperately tried to fight the men. They just laughed and their eyes sparkled with gleeful malice.
"What is it? Don't you like it?" Laughs and laughs echoed in the chamber. Elrohir was too weak to cause any bother, and thus the men easily got him to one of the tables and started tying him to it. "Now, we have all this here just for you and this is how you thank us? Well, your little friend didn't like it either." Rage flowed through the elf's veins, and a surge of new strength came to him.
"Estel?! What did you do to him?!" Before the man could secure his right leg, Elrohir kicked out and hit him across the face. The other laughed and made no effort to help him, but only held Elrohir and finished what the other had started.
"My nose! I think he broke my nose! Oh, I'll make him pay for that!"
"Ah! Silence already! You deserved it, you idiot. Lets just get started, shall we? I like these elves as much as you do."
~*~
Elrohir was no longer sure he was awake, for he no longer controlled himself entirely. His body didn't feel like his own and his mind drifted with an uncertain course. He was sure he'd been unconscious for more than once already, but right now he could not tell if whether he was or not. His body was numb, he had lost the ability to feel any more pain, and his throat was dry. What he could tell was that he was being taken somewhere. Several voices floated somewhere near him, but he could not make out what was being said.
"What's he saying?"
"I don't know. Lets just show him the brat and get this done with. Tomorrow will be a busy day."
The guards roughly shoved Elrohir into a cell and he was grateful for just lying on solid and cold ground. The difference of temperatures helped him recompose himself and he left his body to relax and rest. Though, as he came to, so did the pain strike back, and he tried to settle himself in the most comfortable position he could find. He'd moan sometimes, and when he felt he was lying in the least paining way, he let out a long breath and calmed himself down.
The darkness was not usually pleasant to the elves, for they were creatures of Light, but Elrohir found that, at that time, it was not so disturbing. It left room in his mind to dream of fair glades and crystalline streams flowing, and of the sounds of merry birds singing in the warm sun. But his dreams did not include growlings, and those he heard quite plainly. He remained as silent as he could, only listening.
Outside, the guards had heard it too and decided it was time to end the visit. They would take the elf to his own cell now and leave.
Inside, stayed a very frightened youth.
~*~
The next morning, the same two men walked around the castle. One went up, and the other went down.
The first one was in charge of sending a message to an orc patrol that had set up camp somewhere to the North, so he went up to the roof to send out a carrier bird. They had been planning for a while now on how to capture the heir of Isildur, but never imagined this opportunity would come. They didn't even know where he was being kept hidden, although spies were everywhere looking for the child. It had been an unexpected blow of good fortune to have found and taken him so easily.
This capture would give these northern men the chance to prove themselves to Sauron and gain his trust and support. They would rise again, and subdue both the Rangers to the West and the Elves to the East. They would gain dominion of the North and reunite it once more, like in the old realm of Arnor. Only this time, they would not worship the distant Valar, nor the cold and unresponding Eru Ilúvatar, but Sauron alone, the dark Maia from Mordor.
The second's task was very different. He was to get the elf and Aragorn back to the King, as had been his command the night before, for he wished to further interrogate them.
Estel was still in the same corner of his cell, sleeping. He'd cried himself to sleep the night before and his head felt heavy. He was growing more and more despaired, and the bright light in his eyes had faded to dullness by now. Even fear seemed to have little place in his heart, for he had completely convinced himself that there was nothing that could possibly change his fate. Crying was useless, for he was sure that there were no more tears to spill and no more reasons to do so. The child did not even lift his head, he stared at the ground with half open eyes and obediently followed the guard when he arrived.
There was nothing he could do, nothing to be done, but follow the man. And no more did he care about what happened. No one would find him and no one would come for him, he was sure of that. He half listened to some other door opening, but did not bother to look. Whatever it was, it didn't matter. He was lost.
Strong arms held him suddenly, though, and softly whispered words came to his ears, words that spoke of love and comfort. Estel felt his heart boost, as if finally awaking from a very bad dream and finding out that everything was well. That sweet smell, it was an elf! Estel looked and found one of the twins. He trembled and shyly got his arms around him as well. He had felt so lonely that now that he was back to those he knew, he felt like there was nothing more he needed, and all of his emotions resurfaced. He started weeping and sobbing uncontrollably on the elf's shoulder, taking strength from him and easing his fear.
"Shh... easy, little one, it's me, Elrohir. It's all right now. Nothing more to worry about, I'm here. Everything is going to be fine, trust me." By now, tears too had gone to Elrohir's eyes. He didn't expect to find the youngling like this. In truth, he didn't know what he expected.
"I… I thought... I... Oh! I missed everyone so much!"
"Touching. Unfortunately, we have to go. Now!" The guard spoke dryly. He had just finished closing back the door and left them no room for themselves. "Come. Our King is waiting!"