CHAPTER THIRTEEN - VISITOR
Kelly watched from her perch in trees as he tormented Chrissie, Fred and Mark. She could see the sect coming if she turned her head east. They were perhaps five minutes away.
Tears filled her eyes as he talked. She hadn't known that Canetha was him, she'd known him only as Damien, just another candidate preparing for their testing. Tears fell as he spoke to them, but sure enough, anger soon filled what space they had left. There was some truth in his words, she had indeed met him in Edoras and had a fling with him, but no more. She hadn't seen him since he'd gone for his testing and had presumed him dead. She'd mourned him and what could have been, but that had been nearly two months ago. It hurt her now that he could lie like that to her friends, and have them believe him.
She had changed and had regretted her decision. She remembered little of her torture and had not known she'd spilled the beans so early. Otherwise it wouldn't have been so hard for her to tell Ordon. She hated the way they seemed to believe him when he told them she had been planning their demise for weeks. Anger boiled inside when he spoke of Duin-Shiel. She certainly hadn't killed him, for that moment she would savour for many years. She hadn't forgotten her vow to Karth, just postponed it.
She could hear the sect coming through the woods now and soon enough they entered the clearing as well and quickly circled the captives. They began taunting them, taking several knives from the belts and boots. They made small cuts across elbows and knees, cheekbones and arms. But enough was enough. If they had to die today, then they would, but not like that.
Kelly climbed down into the lower branches and began the final stages of her plan. She hoped someday someone might understand what it was she was doing, because right now forgiveness seemed like too much to wish for.
She cut through the final sections of the first tree, and gave it a shove. Sure enough, it creaked a bit then fell forwards onto the next tree, pushing it enough in turn to topple over and so on.
Soon the sect, Canetha and her friends were trapped within a fifteen foot high wall of wood. She was lucky they'd chosen an island with trees on it that had really thick trunks.
She struck her tinder stones together and lit her torch. Surprisingly for an island, the wood here was incredibly dry. She stepped up onto the outer ring of wood, high above the faces of those that soon heard the burning sound of her torch.
She saw the look of betrayal on her friend's faces and the look of shock on the members of the sect. Canetha's face was a mix of emotions, but then again he always was unreadable. If he was expecting her to pity him, to remember the times they'd shared together, he was looking in the wrong place. All she felt was fury and hate for him.
She touched her torch against one of the smaller branches entwined around a trunk. It sparked a little then flared. She walked around the circle, every so often lighting a stick or branch. Soon enough, everyone was trapped in an inferno, the air growing hotter by the minute.
"I'm sorry, but it has to end here. This rein of terror has to finish. The Fellowship cannot be allowed to die." She mouthed softly to her friends. She sat in one of higher branches of a nearby tree to watch their final minutes. She'd been born a pyrotechnic and couldn't bear to miss what might be the finest of her life. She could have escaped from that island then and been a free person, but thinking on it, she had nothing to go back to. Her entire life purpose was here.
Her friends started shouting, saying that it didn't have to be this way. It did she answered silently. She had to get rid of those who threatened the Fellowship. She couldn't let anything happen to the Fellowship who she'd so easily threatened, so long ago.
The smoke floated up through the branches and she was not surprised when random images began appearing before her eyes, thinking it smoke inhalation. However, when Lady Galadriel appeared, she nearly fell out of the tree. If she was dreaming, she would not be dreaming of her.
"You've done a very brave thing here, something not many people would or could have done. But Kelly, not everyone here deserves to die."
Kelly nodded, trying to comprehend how exactly Galadriel had managed to project herself here, if indeed it was her and not some projection of her conscience.
"I know. I would have used myself as bait but I didn't think I could hold them there and cut down the trees. I didn't want it to be this way but I had no choice. The Fellowship cannot be massacred."
Galadriel smiled. "I'm glad you think that. But those innocents down there; your friends have other destinies to follow, other paths to tread. You can save them Kelly, if you are prepared to try."
Tears filled Kelly's eyes. "But I might survive then and I don't deserve that after everything I've done. I've killed; and enjoyed the thrill of doing it. I might keep doing it. How can I live with myself knowing what I've done?"
"Because you have to. And right now there are people down there who need your help. Go. Now." Galadriel's voice had a tone of command to it, clearly leaving no space for questions.
Kelly wiped her eyes and climbed slowly down into the smoke. She still had several coils of rope with her. She looked down into the mists. She couldn't see a damned thing.
Tearing her cloak into four strips, she tied one over her own mouth and nose and stuffed the others in her pocket. She had work to do.
Tying one end of the rope to a high tree branch, she shimmied down quietly and tied one of the strips around what looked like Fred's face. Untying her bonds, she span her around quickly, whilst holding a finger to her mouth. Luckily, Fred seemed to understand.
Kelly leaned by her ear. "Climb up the rope and into the trees. Head away from the setting sun."
For a moment they just looked at each other. Would Fred trust Kelly after all that had happened?
Fred looked into Kelly's eyes and tried to tell if this was another betrayal. She found what she was looking for: hope.
Fred grasped the rope and started trying to pull herself up. Kelly turned away and started looking for Chrissie and Mark. She tied a strip around Chrissie and Mark's heads, then tried to tell them the same thing. Kelly thought they might not believe her until she pointed at Fred already half way up.
"Hurry, they're going to see sooner or later."
Mark went up after Fred, obviously more used to climbing rope than the others as he made quick work of it and was soon at the top. Chrissie went up next, not completely sure she should be trusting Kelly, but choosing between that and the fire, it wasn't that hard to choose.
Kelly was about to follow when she felt a knife at her throat. Turning slowly and feeling the knife retain it's position, she wasn't surprised at all to see Damien. For a moment they just looked at each other, neither knowing what to say.
"I should just kill you now after your betrayal." Damien/Canetha said in a whisper, wary of the other sect members wandering blindly around.
Kelly tried to hate him, she really did. She thought of what he'd done to her friends, how he'd teased them unmercifully and what he'd said about Duin-Shiel. Which knowing him was undoubtedly a lie.
Kelly looked into his eyes, willing him to do it. She didn't want to survive this, she'd told Galadriel as much and she'd meant it. "You know why I did it." She said, watching as he lower the knife. She glanced back at the rope.
It was getting seriously hot in here and Kelly's eyes were beginning to blur, even under her temporary tie. They wouldn't survive here much longer.
"Up the rope, now. I'll deal with you myself." He ushered her towards the rope and gave her a shove to go first. She took a handful of the rope and pulled herself up, wary of the weight beneath her. She wasn't sure whether he was going to stab her in the back.
She sat up on the top branch and looked around. She was glad to see the others had heeded her words and stayed near the river.
She looked down to see Damien climbing up the rope steadily, but she also saw a stray branch set alight the rope at the bottom. She began to pull up the rope and noticed Damien was looking up at her. She had another choice to make. On one hand, she could cut the rope now, cutting off any danger there might be of the fire spreading up the rope and into the surrounding forest. On the other hand, she could let him climb up, let him live, even after his previous actions.
She tried to steel her resolve. The whole reason she'd come here in the first place was to kill him and if he survived, the Fellowship would never be safe. But, she asked herself, would she ever find anyone else like him? The times they'd shared in Edoras flashed through her mind, he'd looked after her when she'd needed it, even though she doubted she'd ever admit that to anyone. Could she really add him to her list of victims? Would she be alone all her life?
Cursing herself for being so stupid and gullible, she began pulling up the rope faster and shouted down for him to climb quicker. She pulled him over the edge as he began cursing about his hot feet. When they were both sat on the branch together, she grabbed him by the shoulders.
"Those people down there by the river are my friends. Do you hear me? Lay one finger on them and I will personally ensure that your organs are removed one by one! Don't make me regret my choice to keep you alive, but understand you are on probation. Put a foot wrong and I'll gladly rectify the situation." She shook him hard as she talked, trying to shake some sense into him, and hopefully herself as well.
Unfortunately, they ended up hugging.
"I thought you were dead." Kelly mumbled.
"Don't make me regret my decision either." He said to her quietly. "But I love it when you threaten me." He said with a grin on his face.
"You!" Kelly gave him a shove and almost pushed him out the tree. "Men, you are all so."
"Irresistible, charming and attractive?" He answered for her.
Kelly smiled slightly. "Well, we'll see about that. You have a lot of explaining to do when we get down from here. You owe me for not letting your arse burn down there."
Kelly swung down from the top branch and soon landed softly on the ground. She felt a warm heat on her back and discovered her stitches had broken again. Damn those things.
Fred, Chrissie and Mark were stood together by the water, almost smiling at her.
When Damien landed behind her, they were not smiling anymore.
"So it's true." Fred breathed softly.
Kelly gulped. "It's true that we met whilst I was in Edoras, but it's not true that we're been conspiring ever since. I left the sect for a reason and that was to leave behind all that black torture and deceit. I did not know that Damien was also known as Canetha."
Chrissie felt somewhat sympathetic for Kelly. If she were in her position, she might well have saved Duin-Shiel, whatever he had done.
"Is Duin-Shiel really dead?" She asked.
Kelly looked blankly at Damien. "I haven't done anything to Duin-Shiel, as much as I might have liked to." She glanced to Damien for confirmation. "We have no idea where he is."
Chrissie looked at them suspiciously. "Why did you tell us all those things?"
Kelly poked the silent Damien in the ribs. "Come on speak up, you foul excuse for a corpse. You owe them an explanation and your apologies. "
Damien smiled slightly. "I did exaggerate somewhat about things that I knew would upset you. It's true Kelly did say rather more than she'd thought back in Edoras, but I haven't actually spoke to her since. Ordon sent me to trail her, but I didn't arrange anything I said I did.
It was just a bit of verbal torture, the conspiracy theory I think you call it. It's just the adrenaline rush you get when you know you've got someone completely under your control, that you can do anything with them and they can't stop you. Right Kelly?"
Kelly glared at him and punched him sharply on the arm.
Chrissie looked at Fred, then at Mark. "Do you honestly expect us to believe that? You tried to kill us."
"But how many times have other things tried to kill you? I don't think I'm quite up there with the amount of times orcs have tried to kill you, or spiders or goblins." Kelly answered smoothly.
"How do we know you won't try it again?" Fred asked, still seeming intimidated by the situation.
"Well he's all words, just a load of hot air. He'd never actually carry out any of his threats, he's just a fledgling. As for me, well you never know what circumstances might require." Kelly smiled mischeviously.
Fred seemed to consider that.
Damien frowned. "Alright my ego just hit rock bottom." He muttered to himself.
"So what are we going to do now?" Mark asked impatiently. He wasn't even going to consider forgiving Kelly, let alone that Canetha/Damien guy, so he wasn't even going to think about it.
Kelly looked up at him and saw the distrust in his eyes. "Well I think our best hope of getting home is in Lothlorien, with the Council of the Elves. They are the wisest in Middle Earth and if anyone knows, it would be them."
Fred and Chrissie exchanged glances. "Is he coming?"
Kelly shrugged and turned to him. He motioned towards the western shore.
Kelly looked back at Chrissie and Fred. "Maybe, he has yet to redeem himself. In the mean time, we should get off this island. I don't really want to be here when the vultures start picking their bodies."
She looked downriver. There were no guards on the western bank and that was where they needed to be if they were going to Lothlorien. She stepped into the waters and dived straight under, knowing if she stopped and thought about it, she'd never go through with it.
Within minutes she was on the west bank, gasping for breath again as usual. She sat and watched Damien then Mark, Chrissie and Fred clear the water. She also noticed that they'd brought their horses with them.
They all settled down, making it obvious they were going to camp now, not wanting to go any further tonight.
Kelly got up and dragged Damien away from the others.
"We have a lot to talk about. Now." She made it clear he had no choice about this.
She waved to Fred and Chrissie, not even glancing at Mark. She didn't want to know what he thought of her at the moment, she had enough trouble in thinking about what she thought of herself.
When she'd gone what seemed a suitable distance from the others, she slapped him hard across the face and grabbed him by the throat.
"How could you do that to me, Damien? Trail after me whilst you did nothing. Do I mean that little to you, that you could let me think you dead? Did those nights in Edoras mean nothing?" Kelly was visibly fuming. She hadn't thought he'd survived his own trials, since his had been directly after hers.
"Aren't you going to say something?" She yelled at him. He gasped and mumbled something, then she realised why he couldn't say anything. She dropped him and watched with a slight sadistic pleasure as he led breathless on the floor.
"I.was ordered.not to intercept you.To watch you.and see if you were indeed worthy. After I heard about your trials in.Minas Tirith, I decided to find you and tell you the truth. By the time I reached it, you'd already left. I was only playing with your friends, I never would have hurt them. Although you certainly had me going for a while, I thought you really meant to kill all of us."
Kelly stared into his eyes, just looking for any sign of lying or excuse to kill him, but found none. She was seriously considering forgiving him for everything, for once just trusting in someone without suspicion or limitations.
"I did." She murmured as he stood up before her.
"So why didn't you? Nothing was stopping you." He answered.
She glanced off into the night. "Because she asked me not to." Seeing his puzzled expression, she added, "Lady Galadriel."
"When did you see her? Here? I don't understand." Damien looked extremely puzzled.
"Neither do I, mellon nin, neither do I." Kelly cursed under her breath the way she seemed to slip into Elvish when she thought of the Elves.
Damien seemed to sense that she wasn't going to elaborate any further.
"Kelly, you do know we can't go into Lothlorien don't you?"
Kelly smiled. "Do you even want to go? I mean why would you want to got there of all places? You have your whole life ahead of you. Swear to me you'll never mention anything we talked about again and I just might believe you. You can leave anytime you choose."
Damien moved a little closer, still slightly wary she might attack him at any moment. But then again, any healthy relationship had a relative amount of fear in it, so he wasn't too worried.
"I'm only leaving with you, I think perhaps I still need to work on that left hook with you." He smiled and wrapped his arms around her. "When you helped me up back there, nobody's ever done that before, you know, look out for me. Even after I threatened you with the knife and had a go at your friends."
Kelly smiled. "Yeah but did you really think you had a chance of hurting me with poor excuse for a blade? I think not somehow, I was just playing along."
Damien laughed, at least things were back to some shred of normalcy.
***
Damien smiled as they hugged. He'd thought he would lose her after telling her the truth, but he hadn't. He didn't know why she liked him, but at the end of the day, he didn't care.
Kelly tensed at the sound at the sound of a twig snapping.
"We'd better get back to camp. I want to be well away from this place as soon as possible."
They walked back to camp, trying not to be too silent so as not to disturb their companions. Kelly tensed again as she felt another stitch loosen. Kelly swore at the thing and glared at Damien for daring to be amused at her swearing.
She added another bandage on top of the first, just hoping for the best mainly. She lay down to sleep, not really surprised when Damien led down next to her. She was neither surprised by the fact that the others led down some distance from them.
She wondered if that were just distance from him, or distance from her as well. Tonight she had shown that she still thought like an assassin, still acted liked one and lived as one. Damien had been right when he'd said nobody could go through the selection unchanged, but she decided he was wrong in saying that you didn't retain your personality.
You were always different afterwards, but you were still the same person. She wondered if they hated her, feared her or just didn't understand her. She snuggled deeper down into what was left of her cloak and realised she would probably never find out.
Kelly watched from her perch in trees as he tormented Chrissie, Fred and Mark. She could see the sect coming if she turned her head east. They were perhaps five minutes away.
Tears filled her eyes as he talked. She hadn't known that Canetha was him, she'd known him only as Damien, just another candidate preparing for their testing. Tears fell as he spoke to them, but sure enough, anger soon filled what space they had left. There was some truth in his words, she had indeed met him in Edoras and had a fling with him, but no more. She hadn't seen him since he'd gone for his testing and had presumed him dead. She'd mourned him and what could have been, but that had been nearly two months ago. It hurt her now that he could lie like that to her friends, and have them believe him.
She had changed and had regretted her decision. She remembered little of her torture and had not known she'd spilled the beans so early. Otherwise it wouldn't have been so hard for her to tell Ordon. She hated the way they seemed to believe him when he told them she had been planning their demise for weeks. Anger boiled inside when he spoke of Duin-Shiel. She certainly hadn't killed him, for that moment she would savour for many years. She hadn't forgotten her vow to Karth, just postponed it.
She could hear the sect coming through the woods now and soon enough they entered the clearing as well and quickly circled the captives. They began taunting them, taking several knives from the belts and boots. They made small cuts across elbows and knees, cheekbones and arms. But enough was enough. If they had to die today, then they would, but not like that.
Kelly climbed down into the lower branches and began the final stages of her plan. She hoped someday someone might understand what it was she was doing, because right now forgiveness seemed like too much to wish for.
She cut through the final sections of the first tree, and gave it a shove. Sure enough, it creaked a bit then fell forwards onto the next tree, pushing it enough in turn to topple over and so on.
Soon the sect, Canetha and her friends were trapped within a fifteen foot high wall of wood. She was lucky they'd chosen an island with trees on it that had really thick trunks.
She struck her tinder stones together and lit her torch. Surprisingly for an island, the wood here was incredibly dry. She stepped up onto the outer ring of wood, high above the faces of those that soon heard the burning sound of her torch.
She saw the look of betrayal on her friend's faces and the look of shock on the members of the sect. Canetha's face was a mix of emotions, but then again he always was unreadable. If he was expecting her to pity him, to remember the times they'd shared together, he was looking in the wrong place. All she felt was fury and hate for him.
She touched her torch against one of the smaller branches entwined around a trunk. It sparked a little then flared. She walked around the circle, every so often lighting a stick or branch. Soon enough, everyone was trapped in an inferno, the air growing hotter by the minute.
"I'm sorry, but it has to end here. This rein of terror has to finish. The Fellowship cannot be allowed to die." She mouthed softly to her friends. She sat in one of higher branches of a nearby tree to watch their final minutes. She'd been born a pyrotechnic and couldn't bear to miss what might be the finest of her life. She could have escaped from that island then and been a free person, but thinking on it, she had nothing to go back to. Her entire life purpose was here.
Her friends started shouting, saying that it didn't have to be this way. It did she answered silently. She had to get rid of those who threatened the Fellowship. She couldn't let anything happen to the Fellowship who she'd so easily threatened, so long ago.
The smoke floated up through the branches and she was not surprised when random images began appearing before her eyes, thinking it smoke inhalation. However, when Lady Galadriel appeared, she nearly fell out of the tree. If she was dreaming, she would not be dreaming of her.
"You've done a very brave thing here, something not many people would or could have done. But Kelly, not everyone here deserves to die."
Kelly nodded, trying to comprehend how exactly Galadriel had managed to project herself here, if indeed it was her and not some projection of her conscience.
"I know. I would have used myself as bait but I didn't think I could hold them there and cut down the trees. I didn't want it to be this way but I had no choice. The Fellowship cannot be massacred."
Galadriel smiled. "I'm glad you think that. But those innocents down there; your friends have other destinies to follow, other paths to tread. You can save them Kelly, if you are prepared to try."
Tears filled Kelly's eyes. "But I might survive then and I don't deserve that after everything I've done. I've killed; and enjoyed the thrill of doing it. I might keep doing it. How can I live with myself knowing what I've done?"
"Because you have to. And right now there are people down there who need your help. Go. Now." Galadriel's voice had a tone of command to it, clearly leaving no space for questions.
Kelly wiped her eyes and climbed slowly down into the smoke. She still had several coils of rope with her. She looked down into the mists. She couldn't see a damned thing.
Tearing her cloak into four strips, she tied one over her own mouth and nose and stuffed the others in her pocket. She had work to do.
Tying one end of the rope to a high tree branch, she shimmied down quietly and tied one of the strips around what looked like Fred's face. Untying her bonds, she span her around quickly, whilst holding a finger to her mouth. Luckily, Fred seemed to understand.
Kelly leaned by her ear. "Climb up the rope and into the trees. Head away from the setting sun."
For a moment they just looked at each other. Would Fred trust Kelly after all that had happened?
Fred looked into Kelly's eyes and tried to tell if this was another betrayal. She found what she was looking for: hope.
Fred grasped the rope and started trying to pull herself up. Kelly turned away and started looking for Chrissie and Mark. She tied a strip around Chrissie and Mark's heads, then tried to tell them the same thing. Kelly thought they might not believe her until she pointed at Fred already half way up.
"Hurry, they're going to see sooner or later."
Mark went up after Fred, obviously more used to climbing rope than the others as he made quick work of it and was soon at the top. Chrissie went up next, not completely sure she should be trusting Kelly, but choosing between that and the fire, it wasn't that hard to choose.
Kelly was about to follow when she felt a knife at her throat. Turning slowly and feeling the knife retain it's position, she wasn't surprised at all to see Damien. For a moment they just looked at each other, neither knowing what to say.
"I should just kill you now after your betrayal." Damien/Canetha said in a whisper, wary of the other sect members wandering blindly around.
Kelly tried to hate him, she really did. She thought of what he'd done to her friends, how he'd teased them unmercifully and what he'd said about Duin-Shiel. Which knowing him was undoubtedly a lie.
Kelly looked into his eyes, willing him to do it. She didn't want to survive this, she'd told Galadriel as much and she'd meant it. "You know why I did it." She said, watching as he lower the knife. She glanced back at the rope.
It was getting seriously hot in here and Kelly's eyes were beginning to blur, even under her temporary tie. They wouldn't survive here much longer.
"Up the rope, now. I'll deal with you myself." He ushered her towards the rope and gave her a shove to go first. She took a handful of the rope and pulled herself up, wary of the weight beneath her. She wasn't sure whether he was going to stab her in the back.
She sat up on the top branch and looked around. She was glad to see the others had heeded her words and stayed near the river.
She looked down to see Damien climbing up the rope steadily, but she also saw a stray branch set alight the rope at the bottom. She began to pull up the rope and noticed Damien was looking up at her. She had another choice to make. On one hand, she could cut the rope now, cutting off any danger there might be of the fire spreading up the rope and into the surrounding forest. On the other hand, she could let him climb up, let him live, even after his previous actions.
She tried to steel her resolve. The whole reason she'd come here in the first place was to kill him and if he survived, the Fellowship would never be safe. But, she asked herself, would she ever find anyone else like him? The times they'd shared in Edoras flashed through her mind, he'd looked after her when she'd needed it, even though she doubted she'd ever admit that to anyone. Could she really add him to her list of victims? Would she be alone all her life?
Cursing herself for being so stupid and gullible, she began pulling up the rope faster and shouted down for him to climb quicker. She pulled him over the edge as he began cursing about his hot feet. When they were both sat on the branch together, she grabbed him by the shoulders.
"Those people down there by the river are my friends. Do you hear me? Lay one finger on them and I will personally ensure that your organs are removed one by one! Don't make me regret my choice to keep you alive, but understand you are on probation. Put a foot wrong and I'll gladly rectify the situation." She shook him hard as she talked, trying to shake some sense into him, and hopefully herself as well.
Unfortunately, they ended up hugging.
"I thought you were dead." Kelly mumbled.
"Don't make me regret my decision either." He said to her quietly. "But I love it when you threaten me." He said with a grin on his face.
"You!" Kelly gave him a shove and almost pushed him out the tree. "Men, you are all so."
"Irresistible, charming and attractive?" He answered for her.
Kelly smiled slightly. "Well, we'll see about that. You have a lot of explaining to do when we get down from here. You owe me for not letting your arse burn down there."
Kelly swung down from the top branch and soon landed softly on the ground. She felt a warm heat on her back and discovered her stitches had broken again. Damn those things.
Fred, Chrissie and Mark were stood together by the water, almost smiling at her.
When Damien landed behind her, they were not smiling anymore.
"So it's true." Fred breathed softly.
Kelly gulped. "It's true that we met whilst I was in Edoras, but it's not true that we're been conspiring ever since. I left the sect for a reason and that was to leave behind all that black torture and deceit. I did not know that Damien was also known as Canetha."
Chrissie felt somewhat sympathetic for Kelly. If she were in her position, she might well have saved Duin-Shiel, whatever he had done.
"Is Duin-Shiel really dead?" She asked.
Kelly looked blankly at Damien. "I haven't done anything to Duin-Shiel, as much as I might have liked to." She glanced to Damien for confirmation. "We have no idea where he is."
Chrissie looked at them suspiciously. "Why did you tell us all those things?"
Kelly poked the silent Damien in the ribs. "Come on speak up, you foul excuse for a corpse. You owe them an explanation and your apologies. "
Damien smiled slightly. "I did exaggerate somewhat about things that I knew would upset you. It's true Kelly did say rather more than she'd thought back in Edoras, but I haven't actually spoke to her since. Ordon sent me to trail her, but I didn't arrange anything I said I did.
It was just a bit of verbal torture, the conspiracy theory I think you call it. It's just the adrenaline rush you get when you know you've got someone completely under your control, that you can do anything with them and they can't stop you. Right Kelly?"
Kelly glared at him and punched him sharply on the arm.
Chrissie looked at Fred, then at Mark. "Do you honestly expect us to believe that? You tried to kill us."
"But how many times have other things tried to kill you? I don't think I'm quite up there with the amount of times orcs have tried to kill you, or spiders or goblins." Kelly answered smoothly.
"How do we know you won't try it again?" Fred asked, still seeming intimidated by the situation.
"Well he's all words, just a load of hot air. He'd never actually carry out any of his threats, he's just a fledgling. As for me, well you never know what circumstances might require." Kelly smiled mischeviously.
Fred seemed to consider that.
Damien frowned. "Alright my ego just hit rock bottom." He muttered to himself.
"So what are we going to do now?" Mark asked impatiently. He wasn't even going to consider forgiving Kelly, let alone that Canetha/Damien guy, so he wasn't even going to think about it.
Kelly looked up at him and saw the distrust in his eyes. "Well I think our best hope of getting home is in Lothlorien, with the Council of the Elves. They are the wisest in Middle Earth and if anyone knows, it would be them."
Fred and Chrissie exchanged glances. "Is he coming?"
Kelly shrugged and turned to him. He motioned towards the western shore.
Kelly looked back at Chrissie and Fred. "Maybe, he has yet to redeem himself. In the mean time, we should get off this island. I don't really want to be here when the vultures start picking their bodies."
She looked downriver. There were no guards on the western bank and that was where they needed to be if they were going to Lothlorien. She stepped into the waters and dived straight under, knowing if she stopped and thought about it, she'd never go through with it.
Within minutes she was on the west bank, gasping for breath again as usual. She sat and watched Damien then Mark, Chrissie and Fred clear the water. She also noticed that they'd brought their horses with them.
They all settled down, making it obvious they were going to camp now, not wanting to go any further tonight.
Kelly got up and dragged Damien away from the others.
"We have a lot to talk about. Now." She made it clear he had no choice about this.
She waved to Fred and Chrissie, not even glancing at Mark. She didn't want to know what he thought of her at the moment, she had enough trouble in thinking about what she thought of herself.
When she'd gone what seemed a suitable distance from the others, she slapped him hard across the face and grabbed him by the throat.
"How could you do that to me, Damien? Trail after me whilst you did nothing. Do I mean that little to you, that you could let me think you dead? Did those nights in Edoras mean nothing?" Kelly was visibly fuming. She hadn't thought he'd survived his own trials, since his had been directly after hers.
"Aren't you going to say something?" She yelled at him. He gasped and mumbled something, then she realised why he couldn't say anything. She dropped him and watched with a slight sadistic pleasure as he led breathless on the floor.
"I.was ordered.not to intercept you.To watch you.and see if you were indeed worthy. After I heard about your trials in.Minas Tirith, I decided to find you and tell you the truth. By the time I reached it, you'd already left. I was only playing with your friends, I never would have hurt them. Although you certainly had me going for a while, I thought you really meant to kill all of us."
Kelly stared into his eyes, just looking for any sign of lying or excuse to kill him, but found none. She was seriously considering forgiving him for everything, for once just trusting in someone without suspicion or limitations.
"I did." She murmured as he stood up before her.
"So why didn't you? Nothing was stopping you." He answered.
She glanced off into the night. "Because she asked me not to." Seeing his puzzled expression, she added, "Lady Galadriel."
"When did you see her? Here? I don't understand." Damien looked extremely puzzled.
"Neither do I, mellon nin, neither do I." Kelly cursed under her breath the way she seemed to slip into Elvish when she thought of the Elves.
Damien seemed to sense that she wasn't going to elaborate any further.
"Kelly, you do know we can't go into Lothlorien don't you?"
Kelly smiled. "Do you even want to go? I mean why would you want to got there of all places? You have your whole life ahead of you. Swear to me you'll never mention anything we talked about again and I just might believe you. You can leave anytime you choose."
Damien moved a little closer, still slightly wary she might attack him at any moment. But then again, any healthy relationship had a relative amount of fear in it, so he wasn't too worried.
"I'm only leaving with you, I think perhaps I still need to work on that left hook with you." He smiled and wrapped his arms around her. "When you helped me up back there, nobody's ever done that before, you know, look out for me. Even after I threatened you with the knife and had a go at your friends."
Kelly smiled. "Yeah but did you really think you had a chance of hurting me with poor excuse for a blade? I think not somehow, I was just playing along."
Damien laughed, at least things were back to some shred of normalcy.
***
Damien smiled as they hugged. He'd thought he would lose her after telling her the truth, but he hadn't. He didn't know why she liked him, but at the end of the day, he didn't care.
Kelly tensed at the sound at the sound of a twig snapping.
"We'd better get back to camp. I want to be well away from this place as soon as possible."
They walked back to camp, trying not to be too silent so as not to disturb their companions. Kelly tensed again as she felt another stitch loosen. Kelly swore at the thing and glared at Damien for daring to be amused at her swearing.
She added another bandage on top of the first, just hoping for the best mainly. She lay down to sleep, not really surprised when Damien led down next to her. She was neither surprised by the fact that the others led down some distance from them.
She wondered if that were just distance from him, or distance from her as well. Tonight she had shown that she still thought like an assassin, still acted liked one and lived as one. Damien had been right when he'd said nobody could go through the selection unchanged, but she decided he was wrong in saying that you didn't retain your personality.
You were always different afterwards, but you were still the same person. She wondered if they hated her, feared her or just didn't understand her. She snuggled deeper down into what was left of her cloak and realised she would probably never find out.