First Light of Evenstar
By Joanna
Chapter Two: The Laws of The World
Aragorn, with Legolas ever behind him, pushed hard through many nights and days, taking roads known to few, even the elves. On the tenth night they galloped by the keen eyes of the elivish horses and the silver light of a waxing moon encircled with a reddish haze.
"Blood on the moon. It is an ill omen." Legolas called to Aragorn, and Aragorn too had noticed it but felt his chest tighten in dread to hear such words given voice.
They had left all the others far behind. Aragorn had been given a young, swift horse from the stables of Rivendell, but Legolas' mount was of long stride and noble heart and would not be outpaced. Aragorn often wondered if some magic of the elves kept the horses running so strong. Had he asked, Legolas might have told him that it was love for the Lady that gave the steeds such fire and will.
With respect growing with the days of hard riding at each other's elbows, Legolas and Aragorn said little but went forth with grim determination and common purpose.
Aragorn chanced another look at the red light ringing the moon and quietly commanded his stallion, "noro lim!" The horse flattened his ears and stretched his neck out further.
Here is a strange one, thought Legolas and not for the first time. This ranger who called himself Strider looked as a vagrant, sounded as a scholar, and rode as a king. It was only in hearing him command his mount in the tongue of elves that Legolas began to see the rulers of old in the young man and began to wonder why he walked the woods alone, with none in his keeping.
He had been a well-kept secret of Rivendell, Legolas suspected. And with good reason. Many would not welcome the arrival of Isildur's heir.
Dawn was breaking on the eleventh morning when they reached the foot of the jagged mountains that stood between them and the passage to Mordor. The sun was new on the highest peaks, a scarlet wash of light crowning them, but the rays had not yet warmed the two on horseback far below.
"I will go over the mountain. They've a good lead on us, but I must try to head them off and meet them in the wet meadows!" Aragorn told Legolas, pointing to a narrow pass which snaked up the rocky face of the mountain. "If they pass into Mordor, all is lost."
"You cannot take a horse over these rocks!" Legolas cried out, scorn heavy in his words. "Have you led us to this, young fool! An end in the trail?"
"Nay. I will go on foot," Aragorn countered.
"Do you know what place this is? It is Emyn Muil! It is bewitched by the power of Mordor and in it lay the bones of many. Men have oft died there, wandering in impossible mazes until they starved or were driven to madness and broke themselves upon the rocks. The very earth slashes flesh as blades. There is no returning from the Eastern side of this pass. Only the dark ones know the way."
"I know the way," Aragorn said very quietly, meeting the elf's eyes.
Legolas first felt suspicion close in around him, for a man of the light did not so easily traverse the path ahead of them. He contemplated whether Aragorn was a braggart or perhaps an enemy to him for a moment, though the man's gaze spoke of neither possibility.
Still, Legolas parted his lips to argue against the chosen way, but then remembered the hope that Elrond had placed in the Ranger, the hope that he had been named for as a child. Though it was not his nature to trust so quickly, or so blindly, the young man's gaze did not waver and nor had his strength or will in the last long days.
"As you wish, Estel. I shall go with you then, if it is the quickest way."
"No! We will need the horses for escape on the other side, and the trail is dangerous and unsure. I have not failed here before, but it is a hard way. You must go around, meet with your kinsmen and ride hard to the valley of the Black Gate. If I falter on my way, you will then be there to stop them from taking the Lady into Mordor. She must have hope of help from both directions, the swift and unsure, as well as the sure and slow."
"Nay, it is folly! The others can go around. I will not leave you to do this alone! What chance have you against a company of orcs? She is my kinswoman and has been a dear friend to me for many hundreds of years! You have never rested your eyes upon her! Would you even know her if you passed her on that narrow trail?"
"I will know her," Aragorn said with sudden vehemence and such certainty that Legolas was nearly silenced but for a new thought.
"But will she know you? Will she trust in you? And should she? I must go with you. She will know I bring her aid."
"Legolas, listen!" Aragorn's voice had gone hard as the rocks he would run across, and just as sharp. "You must take the horses and meet me on the other side of this mountain. Trust in me, though it is not your nature to trust in men. We are wasting the daylight that may be our only hope against the orcs!"
"No, Ranger, I will not! Do not speak to me as if I were some mindless servant to you, for I am ages longer on this earth! You speak of trust, yet I know your man's pride is cause for you to seek the glory of the rescue. I shall not let Arwen be risked-"
At that moment, a voice in Legolas' mind rang out, in fear and in fury, and he knew it to be Arwen's. Amidst her cries, Legolas felt her speak to him clearly. "I cannot escape them and they move quickly. Estel must come."
Aragorn watched the elf-prince's expression of annoyance with him change quickly to one of wrath and helplessness as he turned inward towards his thoughts. When he shook himself out of them again, his air had changed to one of reluctant acceptance.
Aragorn wondered what dragged the fight from Legolas, but it was not his nature to pry into the affairs of others, and had it been, time was short enough without questions.
"Forgive me. I shall not waste the daylight any longer. I will ride around and meet you with horses and with arrows."
Aragorn nodded, gathered his small bag of belongings and slung it across his shoulders. With his hand resting as easily on the hilt of his sword as if it were some extension of his natural body, he bent his dark head into the wind and began climbing the steep path in long, sure leaps.
"Aragorn!" Legolas called out when the ranger was some distance above. When the tall man paused and turned, setting his foot upon a rock and looking down impatiently, Legolas called, "you know the minds of these dark men better than I. Will they harm her? She is the greatest beauty of all the days of Middle Earth."
"They may mark her with their hands if she struggles, but she will be otherwise untouched. Even the Wild Men know the laws of this world. To force themselves into an Elven-woman's embrace is to have all the darkness of the world since the dawn of the elves to descend upon their minds. It would drive a man quickly to madness and death."
Legolas held his gaze. "That gives me some hope, but the laws of the world work against her as well. If one of them should take her, he shall steal her light from her, her immortality."
Aragorn knew the laws of the elf as well as the laws of man, and he chafed at the need to be gone to Lady Arwen's aid. Still, he tried to give comfort to Legolas. "I do not think she will come to any harm from them. I imagine they fear her, nearly so much as they fear their master."
Legolas seemed to find some small relief in these tidings. "As well they should fear her. But they shall fear me more when they meet me. Go then, Aragorn. Go and do not fail her. We shall come by way of horse as quickly as we may."
~*~
To Be Continued…
*Note: The laws I speak of at the end of the chapter are my own creation. I do not think that it conflicts with anything Tolkien wrote, but I would appreciate someone letting me know if I am wrong.
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