Ten
Escape From Edoras
"Celeborn."
Avaanta kicked the toe of his soft leather boot into the sleeping Celeborn's ribs. He did not bother to lower his voice to a hush, what did it matter if the other servants woke. They would see nothing out of the ordinary.
Celeborn stirred slightly in his sleep, mumbled quietly and then settled back down. Avaanta heaved a sigh and kicked the sleeping Elf harder.
This time Celeborn doubled over and groaned loudly, waking a few of the other servants who observed for a moment before settling back to sleep. Celeborn meanwhile was still doubled over, clutching at his bruised ribs and moaning loudly.
"Quit your whinging Celeborn and get up." Avaanta grumbled as he gripped the other Elf by the collar of the black cloak he had spared him and hauled him to his feet.
Celeborn's legs could barely hold his weight and were it not for Avaanta holding him up by the scruff of the neck he would have collapsed back to the floor. He blinked tired eyes open to find an impatient Avaanta staring back at him Faintly he could hear a soft booted foot tapping on the stone floor. He uncurled his body as the throbbing in his side subsided and he tugged himself free of Avaanta's grip as he stood under his own power.
"To what do I owe this unexpected visit Avaanta" he teased before adding with a quiet hiss "I thought you said you would expect me to meet you in your quarters just before dawn."
"I did but there's been a change of plan."
The younger Elf glanced about the room, searching carefully for signs that any of the other servants were listening but all appeared to have gone back to sleep or simply weren't interested.
"Come with me."
Avaanta said nothing more as he padded quietly through the disarray of sleeping servants spread out across the floor. Celeborn didn't follow immediately but as soon as his legs caught up with his brain he was quickly off on Avaanta's heal.
"Avaanta!" He hissed out into the dark corridor.
"Hurry along Celeborn. I tire of your delays." Avaanta called out from some distance ahead with little regard for the sleeping occupants of the Golden Hall.
Celeborn ran on bare feet silently down the corridor until he caught up with Avaanta whose long purposeful strides were carrying him speedily through the maze of corridors and on towards his destination, the King's throne room.
"Where are we going Avaanta?" The older Elf asked as he drew up alongside his younger companion.
"I am going to relieve the King of Rohan of his Palantir, you are coming with me to get rid of the guards."
"Oh and how do you propose we do that, completely unarmed I might add?"
Avaanta flashed him a smirk that made him feel unusually uneasy.
"You don't need to worry about a thing Celeborn. Just act like the slave you've been trained to be and follow my lead."
Celeborn stopped dead mid-stride and waited for Avaanta to halt his steps and turn to face him, to witness the hateful glare he was directing at him. Avaanta arched an eyebrow and watched as the hateful look on Celeborn's face refused to leave.
"I have a feeling I know what you want from me and it's not going to happen Avaanta. Forget it!"
"I want nothing from you Celeborn." He was upon him so fast he didn't know it until he felt his back crash up hard against the wall and a hand clasped tightly about his throat. "You think I want that from you! Wrong Celeborn, wrong!" He hissed in his face.
"Then what?" Celeborn gasped out, his windpipe severely restricted.
"An act, that's all I need. The guards will clear out as soon as they catch on, they wouldn't dare to insult the King's guest. Just an act. Do this and you are free to join me in the rest of my travels, safe from the clutches of Men."
Celeborn looked away from Avaanta but quickly turned back.
"Fine, let's get this done so we can get out of here."
Avaanta released him from the wall and continued down the hall with not so much as a glance backwards. Celeborn raised a hand tentatively to his neck to gently massage the already red skin there. After recovering from the initial shock of being almost strangled by the younger Avaanta he followed him quickly down the hall once again.
The throne room was bathed in shadows, lit only by a few flickering torches mounted on the wall. Avaanta threw a shadow up behind him as he entered the room. The three guards who were on duty for the night looked up at the sound of approaching footfalls but averted their eyes as the bizarre masked stranger the King had invited in as a guest entered.
Celeborn quickly hurried in after Avaanta and blushed terribly as soon as he saw the three guards; each one was smirking secretively to themselves and it made him terribly uneasy.
Avaanta cast his eyes discretely over the floor of the throne room until he spotted a red patterned rug with a slight bulge a third of the way along it. He smirked. That had to be where the trapdoor in the floor was located. Now he only had to get rid of the guards and bide some time to open it up and pillage its contents.
He called Celeborn to him with a crooked finger, his back to the three guards. Celeborn stood before him and Avaanta leaned into him so that he could whisper in his ear.
"Can you see the guards?"
"Yes." Celeborn whispered back
"Good. Kneel on the floor and tell me a soon as they leave the room."
"What?" Celeborn sounded surprised.
"Think of how it will look from their angle, they'll be out of here before your knees even hit the floor if you sink slowly enough."
Celeborn glared hotly at him but followed the younger Elf's advice and took his decent to the floor as slowly as possible. Avaanta had to bite back a bout of laughter that threatened to erupt at the sight of Celeborn sinking to the floor, all the while giving him the most icy look he had ever received from another being.
Celeborn's knees hit the floor and he peered around Avaanta in the direction of the three guards.
"They're gone." He whispered as he quickly got to his feet again.
Avaanta allowed a chuckle to escape and Celeborn gave him a hateful look before disappearing quickly round the corner to check that the guards were long gone. Avaanta meanwhile had taken the liberty to throw off the rug that had been covering the trapdoor and smirked in pleasure as the small door in the floor was bared to his greedy blue eyes.
He bent down and pulled open the hatch, a thin flight of stone stairs was revealed to him as he peered down into the gloom. It was too dark to see beyond the seventh or so step but it would seem that Celeborn was thinking much along the same line as he appeared behind him with a lit torch in hand.
A quick glance over his shoulder as he began his decent to check that Celeborn was following and the two descended slowly into the gloom. The torch threw a small pool of light about them in the narrow stairwell but they couldn't see for more than a few steps ahead of them.
The stairway was not long or step and they quickly reached the bottom where the light from the torch split over the floor and bled up the walls. The room itself was tiny at best but there in its centre beneath a musty black cloth was the unmistakeable form of a Palantir.
Avaanta wasted no time scooping the shrouded stone up into his arms. He felt oddly comforted by its weigh, like his propose was once again restored.
"Meet me in my room." He instructed Celeborn as he breezed past.
The other Elf took a moment to let Avaanta to get ahead of him before he too retreated back up the stairs, closing the hatch behind him and returning the rug to its rightful spot on the floor, once again hiding the trapdoor from the prying eyes of those who did not know of its existence. He glanced wearily about for the guards, making sure that no one was present to witness him covering up their theft.
His bare feet carried him swiftly across the stone floor and out of the throne room into a hall, where he almost collided with the group of three returning guards. They smirked and snickered at him as he regained his composure and breezed on past them. One of them whistled after him but he hunched his shoulders and quickened his pace, their laughter following him down the hall.
He was more than grateful when he reached Avaanta's room and was emitted after only one stiff knock on the heavy wooden door. What greeted him on the other side however was something he wished he had never seen.
The bed was a mess of blood stained sheets, never had Celeborn seen such a sight and he had seen violent war. The daughter of Rohan's King lay across the bed with her head at an angel that couldn't possibly be natural. Celeborn, mouth wide open, his whole body trembling, took a few steps further into the room. He barely heard the door click shut as Avaanta closed it casually behind him he was too busy gaping at the contents of her neck, bared to him in a clotted bloody mess by the angle at which her severed head fell back.
He suddenly lurched over, his shoulder colliding hard with the wall as he heaved up the contents of his stomach onto the floor.
Avaanta chuckled to himself as he took the corner of one of the bed sheets and threw it over the dead body, hiding it from view though the sheet itself was stained with her blood.
Celeborn looked up at Avaanta and wiped his mouth.
"Why?"
"She guessed too much."
Celeborn stepped up and away from the vomit that was now pooled on to floor by his feet and decided it wasn't worth questioning Avaanta further.
When he turned to face the other Elf he found him completely dressed, bow, knives and quiver slung over his back and the Palantir in its black cloth tucked under his arm.
"Keep the cloak on. It's still dark outside but the moon is shinning brightly and it will aid to conceal you."
Avaanta strode past Celeborn as he sneered at him before following on his heel. He really didn't have a choice though. Now that Elfwine's daughter was dead it was worlds safer to leave with the other Elf than to stay.
Avaanta was certainly right about it being bright under the pale moonlight, the satellite was full and reflected light brilliantly down onto the earth. The moon's rays lit up the pale skin of his torso before he wrapped the cloak tightly around himself to hide him from its piercing glare.
Avaanta quickly retrieved his horse and a stolen horse for Celeborn.
"You'll have soldiers sent out after you for steeling a horse." Celeborn said as he mounted the animal and turned it quietly towards the gates to the city.
Avaanta only laughed in response.
"Yes, well I suppose you'll be wanted for murder in a few hours."
Avaanta nodded solemnly and turned his horse along with Celeborn.
"We go to Mordor."
Celeborn looked at him in shock and Avaanta shook his head in confirmation.
"That's where the sixth Palantir lies, buried amongst the rubble."
"It was lost when Barad-Dur fell."
"That's right, and I need your help to find it."
"What?"
Suddenly it dawned on Celeborn why Avaanta had come to Rohan in the first place.
"You came looking for me didn't you? Avaanta!"
But the other Elf had taken off, his horse galloping full speed through the gates of Edoras and out into the open plains of Rohan's lands. Celeborn shook his head and charged his horse after him.
He had a sneaking suspicion all along that Avaanta wanted his help for a reason but he also had a feeling the younger Elf wasn't going to tell him what it was he wanted until he wanted.
"Hurry Celeborn! We need to be long gone before dawn."
Celeborn caught his horse up and the two rode in silence until they were well outside the boundaries of Rohan's lands. The only problem being that Avaanta, or an Elf matching Avaanta's description was wanted in Gondor, over whose lands they were now riding.
They had to rest their horses and they had to rest them soon or they were going to collapse from exhaustion.
Finally after several hours of riding and no sign of a cave or forest they could hide in Avaanta and Celeborn stopped under the overhang of a small cliff to try and hide themselves. The horses took the opportunity to eat, drink from a small pool of water, from which Celeborn and Avaanta also took a drink, and sleep.
The two Elves took it turns to rest while the other watched out for roaming bands of soldiers from either Rohan or Gondor. They could not afford to be caught, not now. The price on their heads would be huge, Celeborn an escaped slave and Avaanta a murdering thief.
The blond Elf who kept his mutilated face half hidden behind a silver mask had changed greatly, he was no longer the kind, honourable, princely Elf he once was. Celeborn, however, was convinced that somewhere beneath that silver mask, the black cloak, this obsession with the Palantiri and all he had done recently Legolas still existed, and he vowed to bring him back.