To the Reviewers:
Sparx – What did we do? Well that's easy, we wrote a chapter and posted it…you thought that one was evil? Just wait…you sure you want to read this? Hehe, and exactly…what will happen?
Rhonda – Evil? Us? People keep telling us that. As for continuing, I guess we could bang out a few more chapters here and there, dunno, depends on the plot bunny infestation…
Kar – Not a cliffie Kar? Gee, we're sorry, don't think this one is either, but maybe the content will make up for the ending of it. And as for them getting caught, glad you knew that they were going to be, cuz I sure didn't when it was written…lol…
Cathy – Aww, Cathy, you didn't think we'd make it better that quickly did you? And as for Aragorn and Kao…well, I'm sure he'll try his best, but Noor may not like that idea so much…
Wannabe – Yes she's back with the others, and as for how long it will last, well I guess that depends on how soon they get rid of Noor, doesn't it?
Eleni – Yeah Eleni, what's up with the not reviewing…lol…you'd think you didn't like the story or something like that…
Chapter 15
As the first stroke fell, Kaolith flinched. She didn't know what to do. Having been thrown unceremoniously to her knees, she struggled back to standing, swaying unsteadily when she gained her feet. She felt her friends standing behind her, ready to catch her if she fell. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block it all out, but as each stroke fell, she felt as though they were falling on her own back, and something finally snapped.
"Stop it! Leave her alone!" Kaolith stumbled forward and grabbed the tail of the whip before it could finish its path. She took no notice as it cut deeply into her hand, and would not let go. Seeing the hesitation, Kaolith pushed the Man to the ground and swayed protectively in front of Selinde. "You leave her alone."
"Kao…don't." Selinde was resigned to her fate, but would not drag the child back into her fight. She did not want to see the Ranger hurt, and knew that her defiance would only be taken out more severely on her back, and later.
"Selinde…" Kaolith didn't understand her friend's defeat. There was still hope, so why had she given up? The two watched as Noor stood once again, backhanding the child that had stood up to him, sending her crashing to the forest floor.
"I see that I did not break you when I had the chance, young one. She needs to pay for what she has done, and I will not see that punishment go unchecked."
"You leave her alone, she hasn't done anything to you."
"Kao, go back to Strider and the others. Please little one, go now."
The Ranger turned, hurt in her eyes, and still did not understand. "But why? Why won't you let me help? You've been there for me, why won't you let me protect you this time?"
"Kaolith go. Now." She watched as the child jumped at the vehemence in her voice, and Noor picked up on the connection.
"So you want to protect her, do you Kaolith? Would you take her beating for her?"
"Of course I would." Kao responded bravely. Selinde groaned from where she was tied. And there was a collective groan from the males.
"Dammit Kao! Can't you learn to keep your mouth shut?" Selinde's voice was hard like a slap across Kao's face. It was then that Kao realized her mistake. She had once again leapt without thinking first. And she realized that her sister was just trying to protect her. She dropped to her knees in astonishment.
"Why would you do this for me?" She begged an answer.
Selinde, tied to the tree with her back raw and bleeding, stood there with tears in her eyes. "Because I love you little one."
"How touching," Noor sarcastically spat out. "I know I said I would let her travel without harm," he hissed in Selinde's ear as he ran his fingers down her cheek. "But she said she would take them for you. Who am I to turn that down?"
If Selinde could have dropped to her knees she would have.
"No dammit, you promised." Selinde screamed back at him.
Noor grabbed her hair and pulled back her head. "You dare speak to me that way Lindy. How many years did it take my grandfather's to break you? Would you like to start that process over?"
Defeated, Selinde shook her head, and was cuffed for it.
"No master. I will do what you ask."
Noor just smiled. *Yep,* he thought to himself. *This is gonna be fun.*
"Fynn!"
"Yes sir."
"Tie the girl up next to her friend." The way Noor said it; he made friend sound like a bad thing.
Selinde wanted to speak, but new better. The tears however, streamed down her face.
The rest of the group watched in pain as Kao was strung up next to Selinde.
"Stop it." Strider finally interrupted. "Leave them be. Any one of us would take their places." He looked around and Legolas and the twins were nodding in agreement.
"Yes, I'm sure you would." Noor said to the ranger. "But you see, I have other plans for you. I didn't recognize you at first, but now that my Lindy is back, I remember you vividly." Noor spoke in a deadly calm voice. "Yes, I have much planned for you and your friends." He then turned his attention back to the females, motioning for more guards on the males.
"Now Kaolith, how old are you?" Noor asked. When Kao didn't answer, he had Fynn slap her. "I will not touch you little one, but he will. Now how old are you?"
"Eighteen," she spat back.
"Fine," he said. "You will take a lash for each year of your life. For every time you scream out, Lindy will take two."
Kaolith hung her head and clenched her teeth, begging her mind to be strong enough; she could not cry out. She wrapped her fingers tightly around the ropes that held her up and concentrated on the blood that was trickling down her wrists. And as the first line of fire found her back, she almost lost her resolve to keep silent. Her back arched, her shoulders tensed immensely, she bit her lip, and dropped her forehead against the trunk. Kaolith squeezed her eyes shut, staving off tears, and forced herself to breathe. Just when she had relaxed as the pain became bearable; another strike fell, this time ripping open new skin, just below the first slice.
Shaking as the third and fourth fell, the young Ranger felt one of her back teeth shatter under the pressure. She heard Aragorn and his brothers struggling against the guards, and knew that, though he was silent, Legolas was fighting as well. She concentrated on them, remembering how she had come to meet each of them, and tried to think her way through the pain. She failed horribly, and a very small squeak escaped her lips, causing her to tense just seconds before the sixth stroke, and that was very nearly her undoing, as the whip cut through the contracted muscle in her shoulder, sending burning pain all the way up her numbing left arm and down her side. She suddenly found blood in her mouth as she bit her tongue, but found solace in the fact that Noor hadn't heard her sound.
Tears leaked down her face as the next four strokes fell, and she did not know how much longer she could remain conscious without screaming. At the eleventh, her eyes closed, and she slumped against the trunk, her friends breathing sighs of relief as she found release from the pain that was ripping through her and in turn through them. Selinde was slumped against her own whipping post, guilt plaguing her as she heard each stroke fall. She looked up in time to see Fynn reach for a flask of ale and pour it down her 'partner in crime's' back. The girl woke immediately, stifling yet another scream.
Aragorn watched as the next strokes fell, held by five guards, and still struggling valiantly against them. He, too, had forgotten the man that he had rescued Selinde from, and cursed himself for not finishing the Man when he had had the chance. The guards finally wrestled him to the ground, pinning him on his stomach, facing so that he could no longer see Kaolith, but could hear her torture. It was at the seventeenth stroke that he finally heard her break, gasping as the whip wrapped itself around her side as well as her back.
Selinde heard the gasp, and prepared herself for the blows, steeling herself from doing anything to further injure the child. They came and went, and she somehow did not feel the two blows nearly as much as the ones she had heard. She did notice, however, the pause before Kaolith's last lash fell, and looked up in time to see Fynn grab a more sinister looking whip, one with at least six tails and barbs, and snapped it a few times, moving to the child and showing off what would be her most painful stroke. Laughing, he stepped back, rearing back and sending the weapon flying towards Kaolith's back. He pulled back at the last possible instant, watching with glee as the Ranger tensed against the pain that did not come. He tortured her mentally for a few more minutes, and then, when she had tensed one last time, he sent the whip flying, digging into muscle and bone, and dragged in slowly across and out of her back.
Kaolith's breathing was coming in ragged spurts, and she could feel nothing else but the pain. Knowing that it was finally over, she collapsed against her bonds, willing darkness to claim her, and then felt the new pain of being cut down and dropped on her back. She barely heard when Noor called for the guards to release Aragorn to claim her, and did not even feel herself being lifted and hugged close. Shivering, she let the adrenaline level fall, and finally passed out.
Kao was drug over to her friends, and they immediately set to work on the young girl. They were really not surprised when they were presented with the supplies they needed. Fynn did not want his prize to die before he got the chance to claim her.
"We have to get her out of here." Aragorn stated the obvious, but no one disagreed. "She is human, she cannot take much more of this." He winced as Kao cried out. He knew that what he did would hurt her, but he wanted to do his best. He needed to limit the scaring if he could.
"How do you propose we do it? And what about Selinde?" He was asked in return.
Legolas answered for his friend. "Selinde put herself in that position, for us to get Kao out. If we can accomplish that, then we can come back in force to rescue her."
It was at this moment that Tan remembered something important. "We had two Elves with us when we found you. Selinde sent them back to tell Lord Elrond that we were headed to Rhun."
The four looked at Tanad and thanked him for the information. They all knew that their fathers would stop at nothing to see them safe. So they started making plans for the six of them. Hoping that Selinde would be safe until they could return.
Selinde had also been cut down and dragged back into the Noor's tent. Her wounds were tended to, like she knew they would be. And unlike Kao, her Elven abilities would ensure no scars. They only stayed there for another day, and then started out for Rhun again.
After a couple of days, Selinde's wounds were much better, Kao had yet to wake up. Selinde hated to show her subservience while her friends were watching, but she swallowed her pride, hoping they understood.
"Master?" She approached Noor and bowed before him.
"Yes Lindy." Noor had a pretty good guess what she wanted, but would make her pay dearly for it.
"Please, may I see my friend?" She groveled at his feet, and could feel the stares of those she cared for.
"I will give you leave to spend thirty minutes a day with your friends my Lindy, on one condition."
Selinde also knew him well, and knew what he wanted in return. She also knew how to play the game.
"Yes my Lord. However you wish me to serve." Was her reply.
"Fine," he said. He was a little disappointed that she gave in so easily. "You will start sharing my bed again tonight."
"I promise to please you my Lord. Thank you. You are more than generous and my life has a purpose again, now that I'm home."
Noor walked away, planning what he would do to the conniving Elf.
Selinde got up and walked over to her friends. They parted for her to enter. None of them knew quite what to say.
Silently, she took up vigil next to her friend, willing the tears to remain at bay. She needed to be strong, and sought to drive the guilt from her mind; she couldn't. *Oh, please little one, find your strength and wake up for me. I know that you will forgive me, as I would you if our roles were reversed, but I cannot bear to see you like this, thel nin.* She could not form the words in her voice box, and so thought them instead, willing her sister to hear them. She turned to her friends behind her, finally finding the strength to speak to their own guilt-ridden faces. They were loath to allow this to continue.
"Please, forgive me for what I am doing, and if you get the chance, get Kao away from here, away from Noor and Fynn. Do not think about me, and send help when you have seen to her safety." She knew what was in their minds, and could only hope that her words would ease them.
She sat, watching Kaolith's chest rise and fall evenly, only hitching every so often when the pain managed to spike and invade her unconsciousness. More than anything, everyone who was watching wanted to see the Ranger's eyes flutter open, but they knew that the longer she was unconscious, the less pain she was in, and the less trouble she could get into. Lost in her thoughts, Selinde did not notice the passage of time until she heard Noor's call. Bowing her head, she shifted Kaolith's head back into Aragorn's lap, and stood slowly.
"I must go to him now, I will come to you tomorrow." The haunting look in her eyes pierced Aragorn's heart, as he had seen her the last time she had been in the Man's clutches. "It is not your fault, Strider, please don't carry the weight of my situation so heavily on your shoulders, you have another to care for now. Watch over her, she will not understand when she wakes. Help her to forget, if you get her away from here; she will learn in time how to cope." The finality in her words struck them all, and they silently vowed to free her and kill the monster that was causing the females so much pain. "Strider, think of her first, all of you do that. She is still young, and needs your help to grow up. I have had my time."
The words ripped through everyone, as they caught her implication, and swore that it would not come to that. When they heard Noor call once again, more threateningly, they nodded their heads, knowing that she would not move until she knew that Kaolith would be in good hands. "Strider, please, take her away from here before she sees me like this." With one last glimpse at the child, she could only thank Illuvitar that the Ranger was asleep and had not heard.
When they were alone once more, Legolas turned to them. "What are we going to do?"
"We aren't going to leave her here, that's for sure." Elrohir watched the she-Elf disappear into the tent.
"You heard what she said though."
"I know."
"But do you want to be the one that tells Kao that we abandoned Selinde to that monster?" Elladan looked at the young Ranger, watching her shift for the first time without pain on her face.
"Well, no, but…"
"Legolas, mellon nin, think of Kao. We don't know what he did to her when he was alone, but she does. Selinde is the only one who can help her heal if Noor…" he too looked down at the girl in his lap. "As much as I know we need to get her away from him, it would be worse to do so without Selinde. Our fathers are bound to be coming soon, we will stall until then, or until we reach Rhun. It is too heavily guarded now, we wouldn't make it half a league."
"But you heard what she said."
"Prince Legolas, if you leave, I'm not going with you. I'm going to stay and help Selinde."
"Tan, please don't call me 'Prince', especially not here." He looked up at the determined faces. "And I won't leave her either."
