Crippled Prize
by Mizalaye
Note: I have never claimed to be very fluent in Elvish…=o) If somebody reading this is, and my Elvish is wrong, please let me know – I'd be very happy to fix it! Many thanks to Key for helping me find the Elvish translations for this chapter!!!
Chapter Seven: Desperate Tears and Desperate Plans
Into the darkness, the slightest of whimpers escaped, seeming to echo in the eerie silence.
Instantly, Dómiel sat up a bit straighter, listening. When no footsteps reached her ears, she relaxed her shoulders – but only slightly. What if someone had heard? she scolded herself. You would have brought that nasty guard back here… An involuntary shudder racked her spine, stemming from more than just the cold damp air. The last time the guard had found cause to approach her cell door, he had spent more than twenty minutes hurling curses at her before finally leaving. She had no wish to repeat that particular experience.
Casting yet another look about the cell, the princess curled up once more on her dirty straw pallet. I must look a fright, Dómiel thought to herself. The slightest of smiles touched her lips as she realized how shallow the statement sounded, even to her. However, anything that occupied her mind, even for a brief second, was welcome in this place. Dómiel could not tell how long she had lain in her tiny stone cell, without light or air; down in that hole, lit only by far-away torches, night and day blended together in a hazy twilight of sleep and alertness. Her only measure of time was when a hunk of bread and a tiny skin of water would be tossed through the opening in the door – she could not bring herself to call it a window. When this happened, Dómiel would drag her sore and protesting body across the stone floor, eat her meager meal, toss the water skin back out into the corridor, and crawl back to her pallet. She had been tempted many a time to hold onto the water skin in order to fling it into her guards face, but, the first time she had been fed, the guard threatened to come into the cell and beat her if she failed to return the skin. Helpless, Dómiel obeyed.
Now, however, the princess could do nothing save sleep. And so, she closed her eyes against the terrifying sight of the close, dark, stone walls and willed her mind to rest. As blessed unconsciousness – her only source of peace – descended upon her, her battered mind sent up a fleeting prayer.
Let them come…or let me die.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
"No."
"Strider…"
"No! It is too dangerous, my friend."
"And what other choice do we have, Aragorn?" Legolas asked.
Aragorn looked away. "None…"
"You see?"
Aragorn glared at the elf. "None…that we have discovered," he finished.
Knowing all too well the level of the human's stubbornness, Legolas resorted to different, and somewhat crueler, tactics. "And would you have us waste any further time in a search?"
Pain flickered into Aragorn's gray eyes, but he finally nodded. "You are right, my friend. We have no other choice."
"Than let us go now," Legolas said, sliding his bow from his back and handing it to the man beside him. "We must waste no further time."
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
A sound invaded the thick haze in Dómiel's mind, causing her to spring to full alertness in a mere fraction of a second. Remaining perfectly still, she strained her half-Elvish hearing toward the corridor beyond her heavy iron door. No sounds broke the dull, oppressive silence.
With a sigh, Dómiel returned her head to the pallet. A horrible thought pierced into her mind – What if I am going insane? Normally, she would have instantly dismissed such a ludicrous thought instantly. Now, however, her mind latched onto the new thought with the rabid desperation of a bored and overactive imagination. She knew of no elves in all of history who had gone insane; in fact, the only being in all Middle Earth she had heard of who had gone insane was Faramir's father, Denethor. Her tutors had told her the story – Denethor leaping up atop his own deathbed, threatening to light both himself and his still-living son aflame.
As Dómiel's mind edged closer and closer to sleep, a horrific vision sprang into being within her half-dreaming imagination. She was seated on one of the pallets within the Houses of the Dead, sticks piled around her, as she held a flaming torch aloft. In front of her, wavering and indistinct, stood her family and friends. Her father and mother were both there – Father in his Ranger garb, and Mother in her robes, the two making an odd match. Eldarion stood beside Gilraen, his hand laid protectively on his younger sister's shoulder. There, too, stood Legolas the elf beside Gimli the dwarf, as well as her maids and Vandor.
Not one of the figures who stood before her moved to stop her as she waved the torch closer and closer to the oil-soaked wood. Not even her own emotions could stop her arm. Her body had left her control – closer and closer the torch came…
"Tarien?" ( "Princess?")
The voice snapped Dómiel into full consciousness. Slowly, silently, she raised herself to a sitting position, ears straining. The voice did not come again. I truly am going insane, she told herself, panic rising in her heart. Now I hear voices that cannot be there.
Suddenly, the voice came again; this time, Dómiel could not ignore the soft, whispered voice, speaking in clear Elvish.
"Estel tula, Tarien!"
Desperate hope rose in tears from Dómiel's eyes. Hope comes, she translated instinctively. It took her dulled and unused mind several long moments to connect the elvish word to the man it named. "Estel!" she whispered desperately, "Father!"
No other sound came, so Dómiel fell back into silence. This time, however, all thoughts of her own insanity had fled, and a smile flickered both about her lips and within her soft gray eyes.
The echo of the elvish voice within her mind chased away all shadows that haunted her. "Estel tula."
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Shifting position restlessly, Aragorn swept the surrounding landscape with his sharp gaze. Here in these mountains, no life stirred. All was still and quiet. Too quiet, to Aragorn's mind. The waiting – though necessary – chafed horribly at his spirit. His entire being longed for action. Had he had his way, he would charge the main entrance of the cavern and force his way through to his beloved daughter.
If Dómiel is here, he reminded himself sternly.
His heart rebelled against that thought – to have come so far in pursuit, and yet fail now when he was so close was unthinkable! And yet he knew he must at least consider the possibility that he had been misled. He knew nothing of Telithar's character – the Mayor could have easily led him astray. Or she might have been here once… "No!" Aragorn whispered. He refused to believe that she was dead. Nor will I until I see her body myself, he vowed.
Aragorn forced his mind from the horrible thoughts playing through it and made what seemed like his thousandth visual sweep of the area. This time, however, a flash of light caught his eye. Instinctively, he crouched down a bit further behind the boulder that hid him and focused his gaze on the patch of ground several feet down the hill.
Amidst the brown grass and rocks, a round-ish patch of brilliant yellow-white had appeared. Aragorn risked raising himself a bit higher, mystified by this strange object.
Then, the light moved.
Aragorn dropped back down behind the rock.
And then the familiar head of Legolas the elf appeared above the ground, his bright blonde hair waving lightly in the soft breeze.
Aragorn's shoulders relaxed, and he rolled his eyes. That is what worrying does to a man, he scolded himself. What good are the so-called skills of a Ranger when I cannot even recognize an elf?
By this time, Legolas had both hands atop the edge of the vertical tunnel he was crawling out of. Suddenly, a noise like a snapping twig – though far louder – shot through the air, and Legolas vanished again. Only the elf's fingertips could be seen, still clutching the edge.
Aragorn leapt out from his hiding place and hurried down to the tunnel's entrance. By the time he got there, Legolas had found new footing below. The man grabbed his friend's hand and hauled him free from the tunnel.
Neither man nor elf spoke a single sound as they crept down and around the hillside. As they walked, Aragorn's movements grew more and more agitated, enough so that he failed to notice that the usually graceful Legolas was now moving with a slight limp.
The instant the two warriors reached the horses, Aragorn turned to the elf beside him. "Did you find her?"
Legolas sat down on a small boulder. "Yes," he said simply.
"And?"
The slightest hint of a smile touched the elf's face. "I was only able to get a glimpse, but she seemed to be well. If nothing else, she is alive and still capable of speech."
Relief broke onto Aragorn's heart, and he dropped down beside the elf. "We have found her," he repeated slowly, as if attempting to convince himself.
"Indeed. And, she knows we are here," Legolas added.
"How?"
"I was able to whisper a few words to her," the elf replied. "She understood them, though no one else could have."
Nodding absently, Aragorn laid a hand on Legolas' shoulder. "Thank you, my friend." He sat for a long moment, gray eyes focused on thin air. Then, suddenly, he leapt to his feet. "Now, we must only figure out how to free her."
"Far more easily spoken than done," Legolas responded. "The passages are crawling with guards, and the door to her cell is made of iron and locked firmly. Only the chief guard carries the keys."
"Any other entrances?" Aragorn asked.
Legolas shook his head. "Only the main entrance, which is far too heavily guarded, and the air vent I climbed down, which is too narrow for you and far too narrow for Dómiel to be lifted up."
"Then we are no better off than we have been since this began!" Aragorn exclaimed in despair.
"We know she is alive, Strider."
Silence fell upon the clearing. For a long moment, the two warriors merely stared at each other, communicating without words.
Then, Aragorn spoke. "I have an idea."
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
"I still do not like this, Strider. It is too dangerous!"
"I seem to remember telling you that before you slid down that air shaft," Aragorn retorted.
Legolas sighed. "That held far less danger than this idea!"
"Yes, but I won't slip," Aragorn's voice held a note of clear teasing.
Legolas sighed. "Are you planning on holding that slight…miscalculation…over my head for the rest of this journey?"
Aragorn considered this for a moment. "No - longer."
Suddenly, a teasing light slipped into the elf's eyes, as well. "If it were not for the fact that you shall need all your strength in the coming hours, I would be forced to give you yet another lesson on the superiority of elvish coordination."
"Fortunately for me, you have more sense than that." Aragorn knew all too well that Legolas would have no problems whatsoever in "teaching him a lesson."
"Be careful, Aragorn." Legolas' eyes held no merriment now. "A slip now on your part will bring far more than a mere twisted ankle."
It will bring all our deaths.
Neither said the words; they rang within both minds.
Without another word, Aragorn strode away back up the hill.
Legolas' sharp eyes followed the man until he disappeared behind the outcropping. As he limped over to the horses to prepare for his part in the desperate plan, he whispered to the air, "He shall either succeed, or never walk this world again, and I shall be by his side. For on him rests now the fate of many."
More Notes: Here we go!!! I will let you in on a little bit of a secret…this story is not nearly over yet! After all, if things actually went according to plan, this fic would be really boring. And I can't let that happen, now can I? =o) Anyways, thank you for reading…and could you please, please review? Please? Especially if you liked it? And even if you hated it? (Can you tell I just want reviews?) =o) Thank you!!!
Pepper VL – Well, you guessed wrong. =o) But, don't worry…we're not finished yet! Hope you liked this chapter.
Sabercrazy – Thank you so much for your review! I hope you liked this chapter, as well.
Littlefish – Thank you for your continuing reviews! I hope I have satisfied your curiosity a bit more…
Artemisa – Thank you for the encouraging review!!! (Sorry, I'm getting into a bit of a rut with the comments here…)