The sight that greeted Estel's eyes as he rode into the clearing frightened him. It was not that Dorlarth's fortress was particularly imposing—a modest stronghold, two storey high and constructed of stone. What disturbed him was the labor, time and resources such a building project would have required. Had Dorlarth really built up that large an organization, that would have been able to construct such a thing and keep it secret from all the rest of Rivendell? His father's questioning of Glawar had not revealed that many insurgents, but Glawar had been the first to admit that he didn't know who all was involved in the plot.

The other members of the party were filing into the clearing behind him. He heard shocked murmurs.

"How could we have known nothing about this?" Elrohir asked quietly from beside him.

Estel shook his head. But he knew how. The elves of Rivendell had always trusted one another—they had trusted his father, and his father had trusted them. There had been no reason for him to be suspicious. And why had Dorlarth changed toward him?

"Let us parley with him," Elrohir said firmly. "We should give him a chance to give himself up before we attack."

It was agreed upon, and he, Estel and Legolas rode forward to the large front door of the building. Estel moved to dismount and pound on it, but Dorlarth himself obviated the need.

"Come to surrender it to me?" he called mockingly from an upper window, causing them all to look up. There was no need for him to clarify what it was. "Ah, I see you are looking well, Your Highness," he added to Legolas, who stared back silent and stony-faced. "That paramour of yours is quite clever—for a human."

"Dorlarth Dolenion," Elrohir called up again, ignoring these taunts and the intimation against Katie's character, "do you surrender your person to our lord's justice?"

"Justice?" Dorlarth feigned astonishment. "He is acquainted with such a thing?"

Estel gritted his teeth in anger, but Elrohir kept his cool. "I repeat. Do you surrender your person to our lord's justice?"

"I object to your use of the word 'our', my dear boy. That usurper is not my lord. Come to think of it, he's not your companion's, either," he added, gesturing to Legolas. "Your father, he spat out, "is not fit to rule over any freeborn elf! We refuse to be slaves."

Estel shifted as if he were going to shout back, but Elrohir held up a hand to stop him. As calmly as ever, he called, "This is the last chance we will offer to surrender to justice with dignity or the slightest shred of honor. Refuse third time, and you will be taken to Lord Elrond in chains and in the utmost humiliation and dishonor. I ask you: do you surrender your person to our lord's justice?"

Dorlarth spat. It barely missed Elrohir's head. Calmly, the twin turned his horse and rode back toward the search party, the other two following suit. Suddenly, one of their number shouted a warning, and an arrow whistled through the air toward them, slicing through Estel's sleeve and nicking his shoulder. Dorlarth's contingent was firing at them! The three emissaries galloped out into the edge of the forest, where the trees provided some measure of cover. The search party was already nocking their arrows.

The fight was on.

000

Eregdos led his band of hunters through the forest, scanning the ground for signs of their quarry. Both of the two remaining bands of orcs appeared to have come this direction—his elves had slain all the rest on the way here from Mirkwood. The orcs, on foot with their short legs, had been at a disadvantage. Eregos's company all rode: bareback, in the way of the Sylvan elves. They had been tracking these foul creatures for quite some time now, and Eregdos was gratified that they were nearing their ravin.

As he and his elves emerged from a particularly thick clump of trees and underbrush, he suddenly pulled his horse up short and stared in amazement at the scene before him.

The corpses of one of the bands of orcs littered the ground about two still-living figures. One was unidentifiable, crumpled on the ground. A young human girl crouched over him brandishing a knife, apparently trying to defend her companion from him and his hunters. She was wearing elvish clothing—male elvish clothing!—and the knife she held was elvish, as well.

"Who are you?" she said in the Common Tongue. There was certainly fear in her voice, but boldness, as well. Eregdos could not help but admire her courage. It was obvious from the way she held the knife that she had no idea how to fight, but was determined to stay by her friend, nonetheless. He noticed for the first time that she was simultaneously trying to slow the other's bleeding from a rather dangerous-looking wound.

It seemed harmless enough to tell her the truth; she was alone and he had many elven warriors with him. "I am Eregdos of Mirkwood," he said gravely. "And who are you?"

She didn't answer his question immediately. "Mirkwood? You're Legolas's people?" Eregdos nodded. "Oh, thank God!" She dropped the knife and gestured to the figure of her companion. "This is Lord Elladan, son of Elrond. He is gravely wounded. Please, can you help him?"

Lord Elladan? "Quick," he commanded smartly, and two of their number who were skilled at healing dismounted and took the girl's place by the side of the elf lord. The girl backed out of the way and stood watching the healers, looking very concerned and a bit stunned. Eregdos and his second-in-command took her aside. "What happened here? I take it Lord Elladan slew these orcs."

The girl nodded and moved to speak, but at that moment one of Eregdos's scouts arrived. "The other band we were hunting lies dead nearby around the door to a stairway," he reported to his captain. "The door is locked."

"It's the door to Dorlarth's cells," the girl explained in her unusual accent. They all turned to look at her in puzzlement.

"Start at the beginning," Eregdos commanded, not unkindly. "Who are you?"

"Katie Johanson," the girl answered. "I'm a guest at Rivendell. Dorlarth, one of the servants, began blackmailing Lord Elrond, and even murdered someone. Then he kidnapped Prince Legolas and me, but we escaped. Now the search party from Rivendell is heading to Dorlarth's hideout to try and capture him and his followers. Lord Elladan stayed behind to protect me, and we were attacked by orcs." She stopped. "That's all," she finished lamely.

The elves' expressions were a sight to behold. They changed from shock at the news from Rivendell to outrage at the treatment their prince had received at the hands of the blackmailer to absolute puzzlement at the entire story. "Where is the prince now?" one of the elves asked Katie.

"With the others, trying to find Dorlarth." She turned back to see how Elladan was doing. The healers worked fast; they had already stopped the bleeding and were stitching him up. One of them glanced up and saw her worried expression. "He will be fine," the elf said reassuringly. Katie merely nodded.

Eregdos, meanwhile, held a quick conference with his second-in-command. The rest of the company had taken to clearing the dead orcs from the area, dragging them all into the clearing with the other band.

The healers had made Elladan more comfortable, putting something under his head and laying a cloak over him. When they had finished bandaging him up, one of them relinquished his place to Katie with a kindly smile. She thanked him and sat down next to Elladan.

His expression was slack and pained, and his face was very pale against his black hair and lashes. She took his hand in hers and swallowed hard.

Eregdos broke off his conversation to watch this Katie Johanson. Her accent and way of speaking were like nothing he had heard before, and her name was quite unusual. She was a guest in the First Homely House—but where was she from? She was obviously close to Lord Elladan, and she had been captured with Prince Legolas. It was quite a puzzle.

Katie was oblivious of their scrutiny; her friend appeared to be coming to. He shifted a bit and groaned quietly.

"Dan?" Katie said gently.

He opened his eyes and blinked a few times. "What happened?" he asked blearily.

"You passed out," Katie reminded him as he took in his surroundings. "Luckily, these guys showed up." She gestured to the hunting party.

Eregdos came over and knelt on Elladan's other side. "Well met, my lord," he said, saluting the twin.

"Well met indeed!" Elladan exclaimed quietly with a smile, weakly clasping the captain's shoulder. "What brings you and your warriors out west?"

"We were hunting orcs from Dol Guldor," Eregdos answered. "There were two bands left—but it seems they have already been taken care of!"

Elladan chuckled, then winced. "Ow," he said quietly, one hand going to his side.

"We ride on now to assist your brother and our prince," Eregdos continued. "Two of our number will stay behind to protect the two of you."

"Hannon le," Elladan thanked him, saluting again as the captain stood.

"Glassen," Eregdos responded, returning the gesture. "Stay well, my lord."

000

The search party eventually gave up on the arrows. Both sides were too well sheltered—Dorlarth's elves, in the upper-storey rooms, and the search party in the trees—to make their elven bows at all effective. The fight was made even more difficult by the search party's delicate position. They wanted to bring these elves to justice, not kill them. They needed to find out how deeply Dol Guldor was enmeshed in this plot, and whether the Necromancer knew about Elrond possessing one of the elven Rings of Power. When the search party slowly began to cease fire, Estel turned to Legolas and Elrohir.

"How do we get them out of there?" he asked the other two, exasperated. "Wasting our arrows is not going to help."

"Perhaps we could smoke them out," Elrohir mused. "If we set the building on fire, they will surely flee, thinking that our numbers are too small to catch them all."

"There is only one problem with that plan," Legolas said glumly. "Our numbers are too small to catch them all."

"Shh," Elrohir said, holding up a hand and listening. "A ride approaches."

Two of their number went off to see who the newcomer was. In a minute, they came back, beaming.

"It is Captain Eregdos and a band of hunters from Mirkwood, my lord," he informed Elrohir. "They have come to lend their aid!"

"Eregdos!" Legolas said joyfully and went to meet the newcomer. The other two followed him.

The elf captain came soon into view, sitting barebacked on his horse. "Well met, Your Highness," he said, grinning as he slipped off his mount.

Legolas laughed and clasped his shoulder. "You have come just in time, Captain."

TBC

AN: Wow, that was kinda hard to write. I think it's the fight-scene thing. You notice I managed to pretty much skip over the fighting so I didn't have to write it... :) Sorry it was a long while between updates!

Couple of corrections: I called Mirkwood "Lasgalen" in the last chapter. It was only given that name after the War of the Ring. Oops. Ashley needs to do her research a little better…

Secondly, EresseElrondiel is quite right; Sauron went to Barad-dûr in Mordor, not Minas Morgul. I knew I was getting that wrong, but I could NOT think of the name!

Oh, BTW. I put the link to my drawing of Elladan on my bio page. I'd love any feedback about what you think!

werewolflemming: Thanks! Yep, looks like he's gonna be okay… For now…. (hee hee). Yeah, I was kind of impressed with how brave Katie acted. I know I myself would certainly be considering fleeing in terror.

crazycatluver: Yeah, and you won't get that question answered for awhile yet! –grins evilly—

ThoseRainyDays: Yeah, I think we're all anxious to see what Glawar's up to! It will be interesting, I can assure you that.

Madd Hatter: They are hard to write!

RenegadeKitsune: I heart that chapter too. :) Yay! People are using my terminology! The B.M.! lol

EresseElrondiel: See? He's fine. I love Dan too much to kill him. Mmm… Crying on Elrohir's shoulder… Now that sounds like fun... :) Yeah, I'm obsessed. Anyway. Thanks for the correction! And one can never spend too much time reading the appendices. :)

Saltwater: Umm… Kangaroo meat, huh? Can't say I've ever tried that… ps: have you ever seen a real live wombat? I've only ever seen pictures. I think they're adorable. I did my biology project in 9th grade on the Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat because I thought the name was hilarious.

Boz Casina: Sorry! Can't promise I won't do any more, but… You had a reprieve this time!

Thanks also to faeriekitty306animelover!

Okay, guys! Time to hit the pretty purple button! Hugs to you all! Please review!