Okay! Obviously, I just check my e-mail... : ) Thanks everyone! I got more reviews for the last chapter than any other! But, only one with a ton of questions...

astalder27: Um... most questions I'm not answering because that would ruin the suspense. I will say, however, that Nenya does avoid the elves because of the spider blood.

Dareklien sighed as he shook his hand, trying to dislodge the sticky spider threat that clung to his fingers. He finally scraped it against a tree as Ertelen managed to effectively free himself unassisted.

Legolas shook his head at them and helped them both finish getting completely loose. Miranol and Oleydya were released next. They all looked at him suspiciously.

"What?"

"How come you're almost never caught?"

"I'm just better than all of you." With a laugh he dodged the spider string they three at him. "They probably feel sorry for me," he admitted, recalling how horribly stuck he had been when Nenya first explained her blood bond with the spiders. A few weeks later he had asked about the wolves, and she had admitted that she was bound to them as well. She still wouldn't say what held them apart, though, saying merely that it wasn't her secret to tell.

"Where is she?" Oleydya asked, looking around after pulling the piece of cloth from her head. Spider thread was nearly impossible to get out of hair, as Nenya had warned them and they had discovered. Spider saliva was, in fact, the only way to remove it. The stickiness washed out of clothing eventually, wore off the skin, but it combined with hair in such a way it wouldn't come out unless you had a friendly spider willing to spit on you, and unless the spit came soon enough after getting sticky. Dareklien's hair was a bit shorter than it used to be…

"Nya!" Legolas called.

Soft laughter came from above them, echoing around the trees in such a way they couldn't pinpoint her. "I see they bested you again."

"They've had a lot more experience with elves than we have with spiders," he countered.

"True," she agreed from wherever she was.

"Nya? Can I come up?" he asked, seeing Zetea land outside the flet she slept in.

Silence was all heard for a moment. "Very well."

He climbed up quickly, though he had to search for the branch to leave the flets and get to hers. He stepped into the empty flet. "Nya?"

"Come on up," she murmured softly.

He glanced up to see her sitting on some of the branches that would serve as support for the roof if she were to put it up. He found a way up and settled carefully beside her. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for Argile," she answered absently.

"What's been happening?"

"Four spider attacks since you escaped the palace. Only one reached the elves."

He pulled her to his side, kissing her temple as she leaned against him without comment. "I'm sorry," he murmured. A few of her white spiders had died fighting back the black spiders before they could reach the villages. He knew, because their bodies had been brought to Nenya.

She sighed softly and shook her head. "When will it end? When will he be satisfied?"

"He?"

She shrugged, glancing off in another direction.

"I don't buy that, Nenya."

She straightened slightly. "It doesn't matter what I suspect as long as I have no proof."

"You try to find some, I assume?"

"Of course. I have been trying since Thranduil called me to the palace." She frowned and slowly shook her head. "It is difficult to do it this way."

"What would you like to do?"

"Go hunting," she declared, her eyes hardening, going cold, distant. Slowly she shook her head again. "I cannot."

"Why not?"

"I cannot leave you here, vulnerable."

"Here is where you feel safest."

"Here is where I am safest, Legolas. You are not truly safe anywhere. While I and my friends are here, you are as close to safe as you shall be for a while, I'm afraid. But to learn the truth, I must either accept the passing of time, or leaving you alone."

"I am not exactly helpless."

She smiled faintly at his annoyed declaration, fixing her eyes back on the North. "Of course not," she soothed. He scowled. She chuckled. "You simply don't know what you could be up against."

"I would if you would tell me."

"I have not even told Thranduil what I suspect. I cannot tell the son before the father."

"Why not?" he asked crossly. "It's my life you seem to think is in danger."

"Seem to think? Was I dreaming when a certain prince was poisoned three separate times?"

He frowned at her. "No, and you know it. I'm just not sure I believe I'm as helpless as you seem to think."

"I don't think you're helpless," she mused, "just innocent."

"Watch how you speak to your elders, she-elf," he growled softly.

She laughed lightly. "You see all people in the light of possible friends. I've always seen it the other way. People have to earn my trust, while yours is freely given. You believe no one in a trusted position would hurt you, but how many have that position? How many could have poisoned you? How many would have reason to do so?" She smiled sadly, as if seeing a child cheerfully announcing his intent to join as war, being just old enough to do so. As if she could clearly see him walking naïvely to his death. "I bet you never consider I could have been the one to poison you."

He hesitated. "I may have, for an instant, when the spiders were binding me." He shook his head, trying to dislodge the dark memory. "You were not the Nenya I knew at the time. Your eyes were emotionless, cold, hard. You were confronted with the possible death of someone dear to you, where there was little you could do… but I saw only the coldness, and never dreamed the rest."

"But even in that instant, you dismissed the idea."

He inclined his head slightly in agreement. "Though I had some doubts about what I thought I knew about you."

"Naturally," she agreed. "But that's my point. You had been given no reason to trust me. Given the fact that I am considered a 'spider specialist' and that you were poisoned by spider venom, many would have looked to me as the culprit. You never thought about it at the time."

"Because you saved my life."

"And I just happened to be there in time, happened to figure it out, and happened to be there the other times as well?"

He frowned at her. "Are you trying to convince me you did poison me?"

She smiled slightly and shook her head. "I didn't. But I could have. You would never have guessed. Thranduil wouldn't have considered me in a thousand years. You're too trusting for any of royal blood."

"You're calling the King naïve, now?"

"No. Never him. He knows more about this whole business than you do, more of the intricate details than I ever shall. He knows that the debt I own him is an extension of my blood. Something I can no more cross than the bond you and I share."

"Which is…"

"Don't hold your breath," she muttered, shaking her head with a smile. She ran a hand through her hair, readjusting the relatively short strands.

Legolas sighed and leaned back on his elbows, watching the horizon. "Where has Argile gone?"

"To see your father, of course."

Legolas frowned, and then shook his head with a faint smile. "First day of spring." He shook his head. "What a year. Definitely one that shall stick out in my memory for the rest of my life."

"Only if things to come don't overshadow it," she countered absently. She shaded her eyes with one hand, smiling slowly. With a click of her tongue she roused Zetea, who sped off to greet her mate. When Argile landed Nenya took the letter with an affectionate rub to the falcon's head before she descended to her flet to read it. "Three elves died in the latest attack."

Legolas closed his eyes before dropping to her side. "You have to do something, Nenya. You're the only one with a clue what's going on, what to do. My father sent for you so you could do it."

She nodded slowly. "I know." She looked down at the letter for a long moment, leaving her flet for a moment before returning wearing a hooded cloak. "Come on. We must be quick about it."

"About what?"

"No time, elf. Follow me!" She called to Zetea, who called the wolves to them. Leaving the other four confused elves behind, Nenya and Legolas ran into the dark forest, two wolves running ahead, two behind.