CHAPTER TWELVE - BETRAYAL
Fred sat with her head in her hands next to Chrissie, who was in much the same position. Something was going to happen; she could feel it. That electricity crackling in the air, the calm before the storm. All three of them had slept through the night, content that no one would try to cross the river overnight. They hoped.
They had talked long after waking that morning, every so often glancing anxiously into the treetops, expecting Kelly to put in an appearance sometime. She'd hadn't said much about her 'plan', but her lack of words only made them feel all the worse. But she hadn't appeared through out the morning and it was nearly late afternoon now. What worried them the most was that just because they couldn't see her, did not necessarily mean she wasn't there.
"Do you think she's ever going to come down from there?" Chrissie said impatiently, tapping her foot.
Fred sighed. "I don't think so. But I'll wager you anything she's come up with a plan in her absence and doesn't want to tell us about it. She probably thinks it's too dangerous and suicidal, which undoubtedly it is, but that's not the point."
Chrissie nodded. Kelly had always been good at chess, which was strange given her erratic nature. Yet the thing that worried her most was that she didn't know how expendable they were in the scheme of things.
Mark sat in silence. Ever since learning she had killed an Elf, he hadn't trusted her. He was scared of what she might do. He'd only seen her briefly since arriving and what he'd seen had scared him to death.
***
Kelly scooted around the clearing, carefully cutting large wedges from the bases of the trees around the clearing. Satisfied, she admired her work. Canetha would arrive any minute and she had one last thing to prepare before he did. She expected the sect to arrive soon after him and there was no time to lose.
***
Fred turned around first, hearing the slight whoosh of air as Kelly jumped down from one of the lower branches.
"Kelly, where have." She stopped in mid-sentence as she saw what Kelly was wearing. She was in assassin garb, the clothing tight and black for maximum movement and camouflage. It was the clothes of the brotherhood and also the clothes of battle. Her face and arms were tattooed with war paint and although she didn't understand the words, Fred had a feeling it wasn't poetry.
Kelly raised the bow she'd made from a slip of ash and pointed it towards Mark. She fired the arrow and hit him square in the centre of the head.
"I hope one day someone will understand the reasons for my actions." Kelly said quietly as she notched another arrow, this time pointing it at Chrissie. Fred noticed the way each arrow had a flattened point and had a large blob of something green and sticky on the end.
Kelly fired, trying not to see the betrayal in Fred's eyes.
"Kelly what's going on? What are you doing? The sect will be here soon and we'll be defenceless, they'll kill us." Fred stopped, seeing the expression on Kelly's face. The cold unreadable mask of calm; that was what she wanted to happen.
Fred stood as still as a statue as the final arrow hit, in the centre of her forehead, sending her to the ground.
Kelly walked towards the three unconscious bodies and dragged them one by one into the centre of the clearing. She tied them together with rope she found in one of the bags. It was a good deal stronger than the bindweed that she had been planning to use.
As she heard footsteps approach, she picked up several long stakes of wood from the ground and some tinder stones. She escaped into the trees and waited for her plans to bear fruit.
***
Duin-Shiel grunted as he felt torrential rain begin over his head. He'd only laid down to sleep several minutes ago and already it seemed like there would be no rest tonight. Upon arriving in Minas Tirith this afternoon, he had found no trace of any of them. He'd heard of a break out at the jail only a few days past and assumed it must have been them.
He turned tiredly around to find his horse, but was greeted with an arrow. Stepping back and quickly raising his hands, he tried to study his captor.
"I've been digging this hole all fricking afternoon and the least you can do Elf, is make use of it." The person shouted, the rain pouring down hard enough to even let him distinguish whether the person was male or female.
Slowly being pushed back by the point of the arrow, Duin-Shiel didn't realise what was happening until too late. Feeling the edge of the ground fall away beneath him, he fell down into the darkness.
Scrambling to his feet and looking up towards the single torch burning over him, he found a perspective of exactly how far he was down. Water ran in down the sides of the hole from the rainstorm, making it entirely impossible to climb out. The water level was slowly rising around him and although at first he thought the dirt raining down on him was merely the sides collapsing in on him, he soon realised otherwise.
He was in hole and someone was filling it in. He was being buried alive and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.
"I'm sorry I couldn't get to you, Chrissie," he mumbled as a large clod of earth hit him on the back of the head. He fell to the floor, barely conscious.
He could feel the weight on his chest mounting and the cold damp eating into his bones. He cried out in pain as another clod hit him across the stomach. He tried to raise his hands and push the dirt away, but his limbs just weren't responding to his commands. His mind was growing foggy and his vision blurred.
He opened his eyes in time to see a large clod of earth heading for his face, in time to see the sharp flints and stones embedded within the tightly packed ball. He saw it in time to whisper four final words before his impending death.
"I love you, Chrissie."
***
Chrissie woke up feeling extremely dizzy, although that feeling soon turned to fury when she realised where she was and who had put her there.
"Fred? Are you alright? Mark?" She twisted to try and see if they were okay, but as they tied together, it was very difficult.
The others grunted groggily in reply.
"So, you're awake now. That's useful." A deep voice said from the far side of the clearing.
They all struggled to turn and see where the voice was coming from, but as soon as one person moved the others moved in the opposite direction. When they realised he was concealed in the early evening shadows, they stopped fighting.
"Who are you?" Fred said in a wavering voice, trying to sound confident and unafraid. Unfortunately, she failed miserably and laughter seemed to echo from all directions.
"I think you know who I am already. Some people know me as Canetha."
Chrissie gasped at that name and panic rose up within her. They were trapped with a man of the sect, put there by the only person who might have had any chance against him. They were trapped there with a stranger who might well torture and kill them; and he knew how to kill Frodo.
***
Canetha looked at each one of them in turn, remembering Kelly's descriptions of their weaknesses and insecurities.
"Do you know who did this to you? Who captured you under your very noses? Who was above your suspicions?"
"Kelly." Chrissie hissed out under her breath. She couldn't believe Kelly could do this to them, after everything they'd been through.
"Yes. Did you really think someone could go through the selection process and retain their personality? Retain the person they were before they were changed? Retain any of their previous loyalties Did she tell you how we met? How I held her in my arms as she cried back in Edoras after her streaming and testing. How she told me everything she knew about Middle Earth without hesitation, even before she told Ordon. She was at her most vulnerable then and I took full advantage of that, tying her loyalty firmly to me."
Chrissie and Fred were completely overwhelmed. Did that mean that Kelly had been scheming with this man since near the beginning, the better part of five weeks scheming against them? But to what end?
Chrissie thought of that moment in jail in Minas Tirith when Kelly had opened her heart for a few moments and told her of her time at Edoras. Was that all just a lie to get them into captivity? Was everything that Kelly had said and done here a lie?
Fred thought back to when she'd first seen Kelly fighting for their freedom, the look of determination she'd seen on her face. The way she'd spun her blades around in sheer fury of what had been done to them. Had it all been an act? A ploy?
But even in that moment, Fred had suspicions. If all Kelly wanted was their deaths, or even torture, there had been numerous times in the past when she could have done it and none been there to stop her. Why the elaborate chase around Middle Earth?
"She knew you both back to front, knew how you would react to a situation. She said she'd fooled you many times back at your home, the place you call Earth and would have no trouble doing it again. It seems she was right. She knows your secrets, your strengths.and your weaknesses."
The man smirked at them, loving this opportunity to brag and gloat about his involvement.
The three captives were shocked beyond words.
"Did you think she'd changed? That she wasn't affected by her torture and had become a champion of the light? I can't believe you were so gullible. She'll never change, not ever."
He turned his stare to Chrissie. "And your Elf, this Duin-Shiel. She knew about him too and since he knew everything, he counted as a threat to us. He came back for you, you know. But she intercepted him only a few miles north-west of here. Middle Earth is free of one less Elf. Would you like to know how he screamed whilst we buried him alive, how he shouted in fury and cried like a baby? How he begged us to kill him if only we would spare you? Thought so."
He laughed until he thought his sides would fall apart, but still he laughed. He laughed at the irony of this situation and laughed at their gullibility. He laughed at the hysterical tears that washed down Chrissie's face and the ones threatening in Fred's. He laughed at the ferocity in Mark's face and his hopeless glances at the sack in the corner.
When he had quieted, he continued. "Dusk grows close and with it the sect of Minas Tirith. They were always famous for their cruelty, even compared to me. I wonder what they will do to you when they find you here, alone and vulnerable?"
Canetha walked away, the smile still plastered to his face. He turned away from them and watched the sunset. No doubt there would be a great feast celebrating their victory tonight. He expected Kelly was up in the trees somewhere, looking out for the sect. He was excited to see her, but he could wait. If things went to plan for them, they had the rest of their lives together.
***
Chrissie: I thought it was a great trick actually, just the kind of thing Kelly would do.
Tbiris: Yeah, poor Duin-Shiel. I mean he rides all across Middle Earth and they aren't even there and Chrissie still thought he was in the Undying Lands until about five minutes ago.
Hobbit-Eyes: Thanks, good to hear you're enjoying the story.
Freddie loves Frodo: You might take orders from me if it was for your own good and you knew it. Maybe. Like next century sometime. Chrissie's face would be like absolutely priceless.
Freddie loves Frodo: Maybe, maybe not, it depends on how much you bully me. Since you're kinda *tied up* at the moment (are you impressed with my pun?) it's not gonna be that soon.
Chrissie: You're obsessed with him, aren't you? If you cared about him that much and couldn't live without him, why did you send him away for pity's sake?
Hobbit-Eyes: I love Kelly too, she's great. She's so easy to write about since I just base everything about her on the real Kelly. Hey presto, one crazy and zany character.
Chrissie: You would so use Kelly as bait, you'd just love every minute of it. As for Fred, well she is a fellow torturer, so I'll bet she'd probably do it as well. Glad you like my suffering.
Tbiris: This is only the beginning.
Hobbit-Eyes: I know the feeling. At first you think the answer's obvious, three people vs. the entire population of Middle Earth. Then you sort of think, well, what if they had some important destiny to follow, some path they were meant to tread to change other events of a similar scale. The knock on affect could be huge, if you know what I mean.Damn I'm babbling again. Thanks anyway.
Fred sat with her head in her hands next to Chrissie, who was in much the same position. Something was going to happen; she could feel it. That electricity crackling in the air, the calm before the storm. All three of them had slept through the night, content that no one would try to cross the river overnight. They hoped.
They had talked long after waking that morning, every so often glancing anxiously into the treetops, expecting Kelly to put in an appearance sometime. She'd hadn't said much about her 'plan', but her lack of words only made them feel all the worse. But she hadn't appeared through out the morning and it was nearly late afternoon now. What worried them the most was that just because they couldn't see her, did not necessarily mean she wasn't there.
"Do you think she's ever going to come down from there?" Chrissie said impatiently, tapping her foot.
Fred sighed. "I don't think so. But I'll wager you anything she's come up with a plan in her absence and doesn't want to tell us about it. She probably thinks it's too dangerous and suicidal, which undoubtedly it is, but that's not the point."
Chrissie nodded. Kelly had always been good at chess, which was strange given her erratic nature. Yet the thing that worried her most was that she didn't know how expendable they were in the scheme of things.
Mark sat in silence. Ever since learning she had killed an Elf, he hadn't trusted her. He was scared of what she might do. He'd only seen her briefly since arriving and what he'd seen had scared him to death.
***
Kelly scooted around the clearing, carefully cutting large wedges from the bases of the trees around the clearing. Satisfied, she admired her work. Canetha would arrive any minute and she had one last thing to prepare before he did. She expected the sect to arrive soon after him and there was no time to lose.
***
Fred turned around first, hearing the slight whoosh of air as Kelly jumped down from one of the lower branches.
"Kelly, where have." She stopped in mid-sentence as she saw what Kelly was wearing. She was in assassin garb, the clothing tight and black for maximum movement and camouflage. It was the clothes of the brotherhood and also the clothes of battle. Her face and arms were tattooed with war paint and although she didn't understand the words, Fred had a feeling it wasn't poetry.
Kelly raised the bow she'd made from a slip of ash and pointed it towards Mark. She fired the arrow and hit him square in the centre of the head.
"I hope one day someone will understand the reasons for my actions." Kelly said quietly as she notched another arrow, this time pointing it at Chrissie. Fred noticed the way each arrow had a flattened point and had a large blob of something green and sticky on the end.
Kelly fired, trying not to see the betrayal in Fred's eyes.
"Kelly what's going on? What are you doing? The sect will be here soon and we'll be defenceless, they'll kill us." Fred stopped, seeing the expression on Kelly's face. The cold unreadable mask of calm; that was what she wanted to happen.
Fred stood as still as a statue as the final arrow hit, in the centre of her forehead, sending her to the ground.
Kelly walked towards the three unconscious bodies and dragged them one by one into the centre of the clearing. She tied them together with rope she found in one of the bags. It was a good deal stronger than the bindweed that she had been planning to use.
As she heard footsteps approach, she picked up several long stakes of wood from the ground and some tinder stones. She escaped into the trees and waited for her plans to bear fruit.
***
Duin-Shiel grunted as he felt torrential rain begin over his head. He'd only laid down to sleep several minutes ago and already it seemed like there would be no rest tonight. Upon arriving in Minas Tirith this afternoon, he had found no trace of any of them. He'd heard of a break out at the jail only a few days past and assumed it must have been them.
He turned tiredly around to find his horse, but was greeted with an arrow. Stepping back and quickly raising his hands, he tried to study his captor.
"I've been digging this hole all fricking afternoon and the least you can do Elf, is make use of it." The person shouted, the rain pouring down hard enough to even let him distinguish whether the person was male or female.
Slowly being pushed back by the point of the arrow, Duin-Shiel didn't realise what was happening until too late. Feeling the edge of the ground fall away beneath him, he fell down into the darkness.
Scrambling to his feet and looking up towards the single torch burning over him, he found a perspective of exactly how far he was down. Water ran in down the sides of the hole from the rainstorm, making it entirely impossible to climb out. The water level was slowly rising around him and although at first he thought the dirt raining down on him was merely the sides collapsing in on him, he soon realised otherwise.
He was in hole and someone was filling it in. He was being buried alive and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.
"I'm sorry I couldn't get to you, Chrissie," he mumbled as a large clod of earth hit him on the back of the head. He fell to the floor, barely conscious.
He could feel the weight on his chest mounting and the cold damp eating into his bones. He cried out in pain as another clod hit him across the stomach. He tried to raise his hands and push the dirt away, but his limbs just weren't responding to his commands. His mind was growing foggy and his vision blurred.
He opened his eyes in time to see a large clod of earth heading for his face, in time to see the sharp flints and stones embedded within the tightly packed ball. He saw it in time to whisper four final words before his impending death.
"I love you, Chrissie."
***
Chrissie woke up feeling extremely dizzy, although that feeling soon turned to fury when she realised where she was and who had put her there.
"Fred? Are you alright? Mark?" She twisted to try and see if they were okay, but as they tied together, it was very difficult.
The others grunted groggily in reply.
"So, you're awake now. That's useful." A deep voice said from the far side of the clearing.
They all struggled to turn and see where the voice was coming from, but as soon as one person moved the others moved in the opposite direction. When they realised he was concealed in the early evening shadows, they stopped fighting.
"Who are you?" Fred said in a wavering voice, trying to sound confident and unafraid. Unfortunately, she failed miserably and laughter seemed to echo from all directions.
"I think you know who I am already. Some people know me as Canetha."
Chrissie gasped at that name and panic rose up within her. They were trapped with a man of the sect, put there by the only person who might have had any chance against him. They were trapped there with a stranger who might well torture and kill them; and he knew how to kill Frodo.
***
Canetha looked at each one of them in turn, remembering Kelly's descriptions of their weaknesses and insecurities.
"Do you know who did this to you? Who captured you under your very noses? Who was above your suspicions?"
"Kelly." Chrissie hissed out under her breath. She couldn't believe Kelly could do this to them, after everything they'd been through.
"Yes. Did you really think someone could go through the selection process and retain their personality? Retain the person they were before they were changed? Retain any of their previous loyalties Did she tell you how we met? How I held her in my arms as she cried back in Edoras after her streaming and testing. How she told me everything she knew about Middle Earth without hesitation, even before she told Ordon. She was at her most vulnerable then and I took full advantage of that, tying her loyalty firmly to me."
Chrissie and Fred were completely overwhelmed. Did that mean that Kelly had been scheming with this man since near the beginning, the better part of five weeks scheming against them? But to what end?
Chrissie thought of that moment in jail in Minas Tirith when Kelly had opened her heart for a few moments and told her of her time at Edoras. Was that all just a lie to get them into captivity? Was everything that Kelly had said and done here a lie?
Fred thought back to when she'd first seen Kelly fighting for their freedom, the look of determination she'd seen on her face. The way she'd spun her blades around in sheer fury of what had been done to them. Had it all been an act? A ploy?
But even in that moment, Fred had suspicions. If all Kelly wanted was their deaths, or even torture, there had been numerous times in the past when she could have done it and none been there to stop her. Why the elaborate chase around Middle Earth?
"She knew you both back to front, knew how you would react to a situation. She said she'd fooled you many times back at your home, the place you call Earth and would have no trouble doing it again. It seems she was right. She knows your secrets, your strengths.and your weaknesses."
The man smirked at them, loving this opportunity to brag and gloat about his involvement.
The three captives were shocked beyond words.
"Did you think she'd changed? That she wasn't affected by her torture and had become a champion of the light? I can't believe you were so gullible. She'll never change, not ever."
He turned his stare to Chrissie. "And your Elf, this Duin-Shiel. She knew about him too and since he knew everything, he counted as a threat to us. He came back for you, you know. But she intercepted him only a few miles north-west of here. Middle Earth is free of one less Elf. Would you like to know how he screamed whilst we buried him alive, how he shouted in fury and cried like a baby? How he begged us to kill him if only we would spare you? Thought so."
He laughed until he thought his sides would fall apart, but still he laughed. He laughed at the irony of this situation and laughed at their gullibility. He laughed at the hysterical tears that washed down Chrissie's face and the ones threatening in Fred's. He laughed at the ferocity in Mark's face and his hopeless glances at the sack in the corner.
When he had quieted, he continued. "Dusk grows close and with it the sect of Minas Tirith. They were always famous for their cruelty, even compared to me. I wonder what they will do to you when they find you here, alone and vulnerable?"
Canetha walked away, the smile still plastered to his face. He turned away from them and watched the sunset. No doubt there would be a great feast celebrating their victory tonight. He expected Kelly was up in the trees somewhere, looking out for the sect. He was excited to see her, but he could wait. If things went to plan for them, they had the rest of their lives together.
***
Chrissie: I thought it was a great trick actually, just the kind of thing Kelly would do.
Tbiris: Yeah, poor Duin-Shiel. I mean he rides all across Middle Earth and they aren't even there and Chrissie still thought he was in the Undying Lands until about five minutes ago.
Hobbit-Eyes: Thanks, good to hear you're enjoying the story.
Freddie loves Frodo: You might take orders from me if it was for your own good and you knew it. Maybe. Like next century sometime. Chrissie's face would be like absolutely priceless.
Freddie loves Frodo: Maybe, maybe not, it depends on how much you bully me. Since you're kinda *tied up* at the moment (are you impressed with my pun?) it's not gonna be that soon.
Chrissie: You're obsessed with him, aren't you? If you cared about him that much and couldn't live without him, why did you send him away for pity's sake?
Hobbit-Eyes: I love Kelly too, she's great. She's so easy to write about since I just base everything about her on the real Kelly. Hey presto, one crazy and zany character.
Chrissie: You would so use Kelly as bait, you'd just love every minute of it. As for Fred, well she is a fellow torturer, so I'll bet she'd probably do it as well. Glad you like my suffering.
Tbiris: This is only the beginning.
Hobbit-Eyes: I know the feeling. At first you think the answer's obvious, three people vs. the entire population of Middle Earth. Then you sort of think, well, what if they had some important destiny to follow, some path they were meant to tread to change other events of a similar scale. The knock on affect could be huge, if you know what I mean.Damn I'm babbling again. Thanks anyway.