A CONSPIRACY UNMASKED
By : mirkwood-elf-2931


CHAPTER 9


At least another day or more passed, where neither of the servants had shown back up to the little room they were using as a makeshift cell for the goody-two-shoes captain and her nosey companions.

"Why haven't they come back?"

"I think they're leaving us for dead in here." Whispered Evanyne as lowly as possible, but she knew Landailyn had to have heard.

"But Wingdun, he said he wanted us to see that their plan would work..."

"Maybe it's taking longer than they thought...or maybe it just hasn't been as long as we think."

Nylaro nodded, his eyes going to the floor in front of them, but his look soon reverted up to the elder she-Elf across the room. Ever since she had found that the only way out would not open for them, she had been extremely quiet and barely moving from the spot she had claimed soon after, near the door itself. "Captain? What about our friends? Do you think Wingdun and Rembaryn will...?"

"Please, I don't know...but I wish I did, so I could put a stop to all of this!" Her voice rose slightly, as she held the left side of her head. These persistent, grating headaches, coming at least every other day, were putting her in bad moods, so she had chosen not to speak at all to the other two, but she couldn't just not answer. Laianna had warned her of these signs; that they could continue from a few days up to a few weeks after the event of her concussion. She hoped they wouldn't last quite that long, it had not even been a week yet. "I'm sorry," She rested her forehead against her palm.

"It's all right, Captain, we know you care very much for the prince and his father." Evanyne tried to soothe. "You have every right to be hurt and angry."

Landailyn rose, the beginning of a pace around the average sized chamber. "No," She sighed. "I don't. I think I have a feeling though that..."

Cutting her off, a sudden formidable cracking and splintering resounded throughout the room and into their ears. All Evanyne and Nylaro were able to do was watch where they sat, as she sunk sideways into the floor.

"Captain!" Subconsciously, they were on their feet and ready to help in seconds.

Having stepped on a large trap door, no one had actually truly seen in the darkness below the far back wall, Landailyn's left leg, up to her waist, was now dangling in the space underneath it, wherever that happened to be. Her 'secret passage way' suggestion the day before had been a good one after all; too bad it hadn't been acted on, instead of simply being dismissed.

The younger Elves were nearly upon the extent of the weakened wood, when their captain held out a cautioning hand to ward off their idea. No matter how good their intentions, she didn't need the two getting themselves hurt, as regained hope now filled her in knowing that this could be their only way out and at least one or both of them, if it was possible, needed to go for help. "Wait," She warned. "Don't step on it. It could cave all the way." Then using both hands, Landailyn lifted herself carefully and slowly from the jagged hole and slid backward to the safety of the sturdy stone that laid out the rest of the room's flooring.

"Are you okay?" Evanyne asked, immediately on the other side of the rotting panel and kneeling down next to her, while Nylaro stayed behind, leaning over as far as he dared to examine down into the hole.

Landailyn smiled, rubbing her leg. For once she was actually going to tell the truth, this time she had no serious injury, she couldn't even see where she had a single tear in the material of her pant leg. "I'm fine, thank you...but why couldn't one of us found this days ago?" Some luck I've ever had, she thought to herself. "Well, let us see where it leads us."

"It doesn't look far down, perhaps six feet at the most. And hopefully it won't lead to another locked room." The young male Elf expressed everyone's obvious thoughts and hopes, as the three worked to pull away the broken boards and make another hole big enough to fit the diameter of their entire bodies.

Landailyn looked up at them, as she lowered herself into the blackness first, making sure the rest of the wood was stable enough to hold onto before dropping down. "Aye, let us pray not for that."

Nylaro had been correct in judging the distance downward and they easily landed on the bottom, looking around. It was still pitch black, though they were certainly used to the darkness by now, after being subjected to it for hours upon hours.

But it appeared they were in a narrow, sloping tunnel, and could see that behind them was a solid wall. So in light footing, they went onward up in a direction that was never realized as north, and soon came to another doorway, the tunnel never branching.

It revealed yet another storage room, nearly identical to the other in contents and with all depending hope it too wasn't fastened shut, but there was only one way to find out. Her hands clamped tightly around the metal ring of the handle, Landailyn tugged on the heavy entrance, then pushed.

Locked, so much for getting their hopes up. Some time or another, Wingdun and Rembaryn were going to come looking for them, when their 'escape' was discovered.

As Landailyn was turning back toward her warriors, holding for them a dour expression, an exclamation burst from one of them. A female voice.

"Look!" Evanyne was pointing upward overhead. "Another one! Another trap door!"

Sure enough, a faint outline of light shown in the cracks of the sealed off square in the ceiling. Possibly the surface, as by this time they knew they were in a secret passage underground.

"Here, this should hold us!"

Landailyn and Evanyne turned to see the boy trying to move one of many wooden crates in the room, taller and wider than he was. They smiled and went to aid him in pushing it under the high door.

Now they could only hope that this opening was either weakened by age as the one Landailyn had fallen through, or that it was not also somehow being held shut by something unseen on the other side.

Climbing the crate and finding it was easily reachable, they would soon know one way or the other.


~*~*~~*~~*~*~


Appearing in the hallway outside of his room, the prince leaned wearily back against the closed double doors, before getting ready to start searching again on his own. It was growing late on the third day and still no evidence of the guard captain or the pair of new recruits who were most likely presently with her.

Earlier that afternoon, even after all their protesting, Echorren and Alathyn were sent home to get some rest, along with a slightly assertive Deyinar.

Legolas had also caught a few hours of sleep after they had taken leave, just so he could keep going. For giving up in any way, unless it couldn't be helped like lack of bodily rest, was something he promised himself would never happen. However long this took he would not stop until he found proof that Landailyn and her warriors were alive somewhere. And the alternative of those findings he refused to even think of, although sometimes when they did slip into his thoughts it almost made him dread their searching entirely.

But he had to believe that this wouldn't turn out like the end of he and Thalawen's friendship had, whose death still weighed heavily on the minds of he and his friends. If he lost Landailyn that way as well, he absolutely did not know what he would do or what his future would be like. He didn't know how he would break it to her parents, or to the parents and close friends of the younger Elves, if something had also happened to endanger their lives.

"My lord?"

Legolas' head snapped to the right. He had had his eyes closed in his deep thinking and had nearly jumped, when none of his other senses knew that this Elf had come down the hall toward him.

"Are you all right...?"

It was Selihar; Thranduil's advisor and most trusted member of the palace staff, and before that, a short time, but loyal friend of Legolas' grandfather.

Of course, right now the prince didn't feel all right. He was tired and full of well-hidden anxiety over the disappearance of the woman he loved and two of his kingdom's younger generation. "I'm...fine, Selihar, thank you..."

The much older Elf nodded, with a sad smile to form on his lips. Over the past several centuries as they grew into adulthood, he had watched how Legolas and Landailyn were when together. And before they had exposed their true feelings the year before, he had felt at times like shouting it at them and telling them that anyone could see the two were meant for each other. But he had kept his quiet and was relieved to eventually hear that they finally knew what the other felt, even though they still remained friends, for the time being anyway.

"Worry not, young prince. She has been through much already in her life, as you have, and has always come through in any given condition. You are lucky to have one another as you do."

Before Legolas could respond, the elder man was rounding the corner at the end of the corridor where he had originally come from.


~*~*~~*~~*~*~


Three pairs of eyes were hardly able to remain open, as the first moment of brightness hit them full force.

"We're out!" Cried Evanyne. Her sight's adjustment with the lighting change was slow, but so happy she was, she forgot any need to be silent, once up through the unlocked trap door and into an unfamiliar, but vacant hallway.

"Yes! Finally!"

Landailyn turned back to her warriors swiftly, holding up her hand and motioning it downward. "Keep it quiet. Do you want them to hear that we're out? Because I don't think that next time they will be so 'lenient' toward us. Now, go before we do get caught again." She rose, preparing to leave them with that simple command, but she knew the hope she had had that they would carry it out with no further word was for naught, when Nylaro caught her arm.

"Wait, we're coming with you! Those two must be shown the consequences of betraying their own people!"

"No," Landailyn shook her head, squatting back down. She could see their longing for some kind of exploit or adventure, but could not allow them to live it as long as she was in charge. "I'm merely glad for the fact that neither of you were hurt, and as your captain I order you to go home to your families before anything else happens. I will handle them." They looked as though they would object, but she silenced them. "Go. Please, I'll send news to you later."

With displeased, but understanding faces, they turned toward a nearby open window; speaking to one another as though she couldn't hear them.

"When are any of us ever going to get to do anything exciting? Something like this rarely happens and now we cannot be involved!" These were Nylaro's fading complaints; secretly envying how many 'adventures' the captain had been on and how she always got to have all the 'fun'.

Well certainly none of it had ever been fun to Landailyn. Young ones, she thought, chuckling. Though she had to admit to herself she used to feel much the same way. But they would grow up soon enough to realize and better understand the perils and danger that came with the yearning for dare and excitement in one's life.

Glancing back, behind her where the trap door lay, was another dead end, so the only direction she could go was forward, which was due west. And now to find out the answer to her dreaded question; she could hardly bear to think of what she may find in searching the palace, but cautiously, she crept about the corridors.

She was not about to be caught outside her 'cell'.

Peaking around at least the tenth corner, she spotted two people with their backs turned. The fact that there were two of them made her quickly duck out of their sight, before any detail was registered about the pair. However, they were speaking, so she listened and listened hard. Coming to find a few seconds later, that she wasn't quite sure she recognized one of the voices, but the other was a definite bell ringer. That soft, beautiful voice, untouched by age, to her was like no other. Could it be? Was he still alive?

With only one eye, she chanced another look. The familiar man was alone now and going out of her vision; it was now or never. Who knew where the disloyal servants could be.

"Legolas?!"

The figure stopped, spinning quickly to face the person from behind. He too knew the voice that spoke his name, and there she was now simply standing behind him after all his searching. "Landailyn!" The prince's facial features displayed astonishment, not even having the time to wonder why her eyes were even wider than his own, for she sped as fast as it was immortally possible straight to him. "Where have you been?!" He questioned, his 'beautiful' voice now wavering tenuously, as he put his arms tightly around her, relieved he was not just seeing and hearing things for as much as he wanted her to be back. "I have been looking everywhere I could think of for you and your recruits for nearly three days straight! What happened to you? Are you hurt?"

She didn't say a word, just hugged him as tight and as long as she could. Small, streaming teardrops of joy ran down her cheeks and she almost laughed aloud in her happiness, but managed to refrain, silently thanking the Valar his planned fate had been forsaken.

However, the prince could tell by her breathing that she was letting this particular emotion out. "Landailyn?"

"I thought you were dead."

Her whispered words shocked him just as much as her sudden appearance had. "What?"

"Legolas, where is your father?" She suddenly jerked back from him to look into his eyes; her voice filled with desperation. She had found one royal, but what of the other? Being the king, he would most likely be the first to go, and just because Legolas was still here didn't mean Thranduil would be for long.

"I'm not sure, why?"

"We have to get to him now! I must tell him what has happened! Come on!" Grabbing his hand, she pulled him in the direction of Thranduil's study, ridding herself all trace of tears as they went.


TBC ...

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mirkwood-elf-2931 :
I brought up another past character, did ya see? LOL Selihar was in the 4th chapter of 'Shadow in the Trees'! And I don't believe I introduce any more new characters, I think I mention maybe one more name toward the end, but my three stories combined have had 32 new characters I have put in! Which all includes Elves, horses, a weapon and a Human name! And with the last chapter of this story, I will add a list of my own pronunciations to all those names that I created and found off the net!
Wow, I do have new reviewers! A big thank you goes out to them too! I'm glad you guys really like the story! And to take care of your wonderings in the review you left, Kelsey, this is the third story to the other two fanfics on my profile. 'Shadow in the Trees' is the first one, and 'An Unexpected Journey' is the second. Where this one is only authored by me alone, those two were written by both my friend Kenna (a.k.a. Thala, as she has a profile too) and I. Anyway, they will reveal about Legolas and Landailyn's relationship and past, and who Thalawen is and what happened to her. And be sure to read our author's notes too, they explain stuff sometimes, just like what I say on here does. I would have had some sort of warning on the first chapter of this story to read the other two first so that this third sequel would make sense, but I just never did put one! Sorry about that! I think I need to repost it now! LOL