Elrond and Glorfindel had other duties to attend to that day, and left Legolas under the care of the prince's friends. "I must send a message to King Thranduil," he said before leaving the room. "And review the list of our guards for likely traitors," he added darkly.

Katie and the twins remained the infirmary only until dinnertime, when they joined the others in the dining room. Cook had been ordered to bring the food from the kitchens himself and to keep an eye on it at all times. Indeed, he and his assistants were to take turns that evening standing watch in the kitchen so that no one could tamper with any of the food. Elladan sent Dorlarth to take a tray to Estel, who had no left his friend's side.

Katie seemed unusually subdued at dinner—but then, reflected Elrohir, so did everyone else. He hoped that she had stopped blaming herself for Legolas' plight after their conversation earlier that afternoon.

Before he went to bed that night, Elrohir made sure a cot was set up in the infirmary for his little brother.

"Thank you, Ro," Estel said, favoring the elf with one of his brilliant smiles.

Elrohir ruffled the young man's hair like he had when Estel was small. Usually this would have elicited a half-annoyed response, but this time Estel just grinned up at him. "Don't stay up all night," Elrohir warned him.

"Don't worry," the young human answered him with a yawn. "I won't."

000

A shout roused Katie from sleep. "What's going on?" she asked sleepily. No one answered her.

Dragging herself out of bed, Katie stumbled toward the door. With her hand on the doorknob, she heard a terrible cry that froze her blood. The memory of the body outside the library door jumped into her mind unbidden, and she slowly backed away from the door in terror.

The door flew open toward her with a rush of wind and Katie fell back with a cry, just as she had before. But she found she could not turn away from the terrible sight of the mangled body before her. And worse, this was not the body of some unknown servant—it was Legolas.

His once-beautiful blue eyes were widened in horror, and his white-blond hair was matted with blood. As Katie stared at the corpse, his mouth moved.

"You were supposed to save me," he rasped, his widened eyes never shifting from their frozen position. "Did you want me to die?"

"No!" Katie shot straight up in bed, breathing hard. Her heart was pounding in her throat and she felt like she was going to be sick. She clenched her shaking hands and tried to breathe deeply. But the horrible fear of the nightmare still held her in its grip, and she jumped out of bed. She flung open the door as fast as she could to get the moment over with and fled down the hall.

000

Estel had nodded off in his chair, but a noise woke him. He looked vaguely over at the door and was confronted with the sight of Katie standing there in her nightgown, breathing hard as if she'd run all the way from her own quarters.

He jumped to his feet in some alarm. "What is it? Are you alright?"

"Y-yes," she answered, stepping forward. "I just…" She gestured helplessly. "I feel so silly, now. I had a nightmare about… about Legolas, and I wanted to make sure he was okay." She managed a shaky laugh. "You must think I'm really childish."

"No, no," Estel said, pulling up a chair for her. "Not at all. It is hard to escape a dream. There is no change in him," he added, answering her unspoken question about Legolas.

They sat in silence for a moment. Even in the white moon- and starlight which lit his face, Legolas looked pale. "It is a full moon tonight," Estel commented quietly.

Katie rose and crossed to one of the large windows, which had been left open to allow the warm night air in. She leaned her head out the window and gazed at the sky. "My God," she whispered.

Estel came to stand beside her. The sky was brilliant the night—perfectly clear. The full moon poured down liquid light like a waterfall over the entire valley, and the stars were silver lamps in the sable fabric of the heavens. It was lovely—not the most stunning night Estel had ever witnessed, but quite beautiful, for all that.

Katie's eyes, however, were wide with wonder. "I've never seen such a sky in all my life," she said slowly, startled into eloquence.

"What do you mean?"

Katie seemed at a loss for words. "Where I'm from, the skies are never this clear, and the nights aren't so dark. This is more stars that I've ever seen in one sky."

"How do you mean, it is not so dark?" Estel asked, puzzled.

"We don't use candles," Katie answered, finally pulling herself away from the sight of the sky. "Our lights are electric." Seeing his expression, she tried to explain. "Electricity is the force in lightning."

"You use lightning for candles!"

"Not quite." She smiled a little. "Just the energy in it." She thought for a moment. "Have you ever put on a wool sweater in the winter, and it made your hair stand on end? Or you touch something metal and get a little shock?"

"Yes?" Estel didn't know what a sweater was, but he understood what she meant.

"Well, that's static electricity. Anyway, we light everything with it, and it makes lights that are much brighter than candlelight. And if you have enough of them, it actually dims out the sky."

Estel shook his head. He couldn't imagine anything being bright enough to outshine the eternal stars. If Legolas had heard that, he would have rolled his eyes in disbelief. The thought made him smile until he glanced over at his friend's unconscious form. With his elegant hands folded over his chest, one might believe he were only sleep—if one didn't know that healthy elves slept with their eyes open.

"Elves adore the stars, you know," Estel told her. "When the first elves were awakened in the far east, the sun and moon had not yet been set in the sky, and there were only the stars. They say that is why the elves give off a faint light. You see?" He held his hand up beside Legolas', and the contrast was visible in the moonlight. "His light is dimmed because he is ill." Katie's shoulder sunk a little at the mention of Legolas' health, so Estel returned the subject to the sky. "The Valië Yavanna made two magnificent trees in Aman called Laurelin and Telperion. Laurelin was gold, and Telperion silver. They lit the blessed land for many blissful years. They were the delight of all Valinor. But Morgoth and Ungoliant destroyed them, and Yavanna had no way to heal the trees.

"Telperion unfolded one last flower and Laurelin a last fruit. Both were made into lamps and carried into the sky by two of the Maiar. The moon rose and set thrice, and then the sun after. And as the sun rose for the first time, the race of men was awakened and saw the sun. That first time, the sun rose from Valinor in the west, and forever afterwards, men have been drawn westward, and long to travel into the west."

Katie had sat enthralled throughout this telling. "You know, a writer in our own world said the same thing—that people were drawn westward. Thoreau. But I've never heard of the sun rising in the west." Estel smiled interestedly, but yawned. "I'm keeping you awake," Katie realized. "I'm sorry. You need your sleep, and so do I."

"Don't worry about it," Estel answered courteously. "Will you be alright returning to your room alone?"

"Yeah," Katie answered positively, "I'll be fine."

000

"If we could only discover who was sending those notes," Elrohir said in frustration. "He probably carries the poison—or the antidote—on his person, and if we could capture him, we could administer the antidote before—" He had been going to say, "before it's too late," but he glanced over at Estel and then finished lamely, "before you could say Tom Bombadil."

They were sitting in Legolas' room, much as they had the day before. Katie had curled up and fallen asleep on the window seat, her head on a throw pillow. When Elladan had noticed this, he had covered her up with an extra sheet. Katie stirred long enough to glance up at him. "What're you doin'?" she asked, her voice a little slurred. Apparently, Estel thought, her hour awake chatting with him last night had made her more tired than she thought.

"I just thought you would like a blanket to sleep with," Elladan said gently, tucking it around her.

"Wasn't sleeping," she muttered. "I was inspecting the insides of my eyelids for light leaks." This elicited a laugh from everyone present.

Unfortunately, speaking apparently woke her up all the way, and Estel observed that although she lay there with her eyes closed, she was actually lazily listening to the low conversation around her. It was peaceful in the room just now, with a robin singing sweetly outside the window, and the smell of athelas on the air.

The peace was broken all too suddenly. There was the sound of cries from somewhere in the house, and then someone blew a warning blast on a horn. Katie sat straight up. Estel and the elves were on their feet in an instant, drawing their swords.

"That was Innon's horn!" Glorfindel cried, dashing into the corridor. "The traitors are attacking the door!"

There was a mad rush toward the hall, in which Estel only had time to call over his shoulder to Katie, "Stay with Legolas!" Then they all flew toward the fight.

Katie jumped out of her makeshift bed and leaned out the doorway. The few servants that remained in the house were all racing toward the front door, and though there was the sound of a scuffle and shouts from that direction, the rest of the building seemed suddenly very quiet.

Katie crossed to stand next to Legolas, and gazed down at him. She had always enjoyed watching people sleep, especially cute boys. There was something touching about the fact that they were entirely vulnerable. But she knew that this was more than the vulnerability of sleep, and the thought made her stomach clench.

A sound at the door made her turn quickly from her charge. Dorlarth stood in the doorway, two elves behind him. Katie thought she had seen them before—they were two of the guards.

"Did they catch him?" Katie asked quickly.

"Who, the murderer?" Dorlarth asked, and there was something in his tone of voice that didn't seem quite right. "No, they did not catch him. He is a bit too clever for the lords of Rivendell." He spat out the title as if it were sour milk.

Katie felt like her heart had stopped. "You," she whispered.

AN: Well, whaddya know. The butler did it.

Kudos to Saltwater for figuring it out!

Eyesofthewolf: Don't we all love elves? sighs happily

Gods-girl2004: Yep, I know that the common tongue isn't English. But that would have made everything a LOT more complicated than I wanted to deal with! I suppose having the common tongue be English is just one of those conventions. Like people in stories never having to use the bathroom. :) Actually, I think Westron was just the form of the common tongue that the hobbits used. But yeah, same idea. More invisible cookies for canon knowledge! I've got some sharp readers!

Aranel-DiSonne: Hee hee! Yes, the one of Legolas standing after hearing the name of the game is one of my particular favorites. And while I had planned to put in a couple of the other gags, that one just happened. Glad you enjoy!

ThoseRainyDays: Well, you were close with Lithorniel!

Saltwater: Wow, your reviews are so much fun to read! And you guessed! Good job! I was hoping someone would notice that the "something wicked" was Dorlarth himself! And maybe I did put in some pretty obvious stuff, but since you appear to have been the only one who noticed, I think I hid it pretty well. :) I was worried after that last chapter that everyone would think, "It has to be a servant! So it must be Dorlarth!" I'm sorry, but I find it amusing that you're so surprised that I thought you were British, as I (being a dumb American) consider British and Australian dialects to be rather similar. I know, there are big differences. But the fact that you wrong "mum" for "mom" and "whinging" for "whining" kinda tipped me off. Well, you may be Greek Australian, but here in Pennsylvania, we have AMISH! So I'm better than you! Hee hee. Well, Aragorn would have been Arwen's first cousin MANY times removed, and that's not incest. It's only first cousin or closer. I have a family member who married her first cousin once removed, so it's quite legal and fine. But yeah, having been brought up as a son of Elrond and then to marry Elrond's daughter might be slightly strange. But then, he didn't even meet her until he was twenty, and there was plenty of mixture in the bloodline to change the genepool. They didn't really develop a nice, loving relationship between Elrond and Aragorn in the movies, did they? pout… I'm rambling, aren't I? Don't stab me with a rusty spoon:)

Also thanks to Hermione at Heart, crazycatluver, Arami, and anyone else I missed. I love to see reviews in my inbox! Keep 'em comin'!