Disclaimer: I own none of Tolkien's creations and only lay claim to my own humble creatures.

Chapter Quote: "When you have lived as long as I have, death's cold touch nearly feels like a welcoming embrace."

Chapter Forty-Two

The Village

I awoke to a roaring fire and the distinct smell of fresh bread and roasting, salted pork that was perhaps not so fresh. I was cold despite the warmth of the fire and I found that I lacked the strength or will to move. Wow. I felt like crap. No...lower then crap. I felt like shit. I shivered and closed my eyes once more. The clearing...we had to get to the clearing...

"Shhh..." Said a voice suddenly. I tensed, who was it that would try to care for me? Who had ever cared? "Lie easy, Victoria, rest."

I recognized the firm, masculine voice of the elven prince as I opened my eyes and fought to remain conscious. His hand was on my brow, his silver eyes looking down into mine. "You've have a rough night." He said, and I wished then that I wasn't so confused about him. He was toying with my emotions, with everything that had kept me alive for so long, everything that was now failing me. And I realized that now, I was completely at his mercy...just as he had been in mine.

Damn him! How I hated him as I looked up into his expressionless face. And at the same time...how could I hate him? We had come so far now...I felt myself grow suddenly weary as I thought about Legolas and I also realized that I think I had just grown tired of hating him. I closed my eyes in exhaustion and I felt a cool cloth on my forehead.

"We should leave." I said softly. "To get there by nightfall."

I heard him dip the cloth into water and I felt him place it again on my forehead. "And just how do you propose we do that?" He asked at last.

I struggled to keep my voice even and loud enough for him to hear as I answered. "Did you find the road?"

"Yes."

"We just have to follow it now. With luck we'll get to Gilloth by dusk."

I heard him grunt and I felt the cloth move down as he began to gently press it against my neck. "Don't you mean what is left of Gilloth?" He asked quietly.

I forced my eyes open once more and I saw the harsh, accusing glare that I had grown accustomed to from so many, but nevertheless despised all the more. And it was suddenly important for him to understand that I hadn't killed them and that I wasn't a murderer. But I knew, as always, that my pleas would fall on deaf ears. I sighed, firming my resolve to solve the mystery of Gwenél and prove, somehow, once and for all my innocence- or let Legolas destroy me in the process.

"You hate me so much that you refuse to listen to the words that I speak to you." I said weakly. "Why bother to keep me alive? Why not leave me here to die?"

His face, emotionless as always, made no movement from a moment or two. But then his eyes flickered with some strange emotion that I had never seen before and he answered crisply, "Perhaps for the same reason that you saved me. You wanted something from me...didn't you?" To this accusation I had no answer and he smiled grimly. "I am growing weary of not knowing, Victoria. I want answers, answers you have thus far refused to give me. I do not know what you are seeking from me, but presently, it is in both our interests to survive this."

He was clever. Somehow, after everything that I had been through, I had assumed that the prince wasn't all too bright. He was more observant then I once thought. I nodded, meeting his eyes to show that I understood.

And in that quick glance that passed between us, I knew that I would never be able to kill Legolas, son of Thranduil...never.

She was silent for a while after this confrontation and he continued to press the cool compresses to her forehead, neck, and shoulders. She wasn't doing well, but he knew there was no going back now. Eventually her eyes opened again and with a look of fresh determination, she struggled to pull herself upright. Legolas shot out a steadying hand to guide her weak body into a sitting position as he already knew that it would be fruitless to try and stop her.

"We should go." She said breathlessly when she was finally sitting up.

"I won't argue with you." He began. "But do you plan to meet our stranger when you are too weak to even stand?"

She glanced back at him warily, pushing a stray lock of her brown hair behind her ear. "I don't see what other choice I have." She answered quietly. "If this stranger wants to kill me, that I am only helping her out."

Legolas shook his head. "Do you not even care anymore?"

She cocked her head, a movement that had become familiar when she was answering a question or thinking on something. "When you have lived as long as I have, death's cold touch feels more like a welcoming embrace. Think about it. If you haven't noticed, I have very little to lose."

"Your life means so little to you?" He asked curiously.

"My life should have ended a long time ago." She whispered in reply.

Images of her burning flet flickered briefly in his mind, recollections of her sobs as she wept in his arms. Was it insanity that drove her? Or was she really telling him the truth? Unfortunately for her, this second option was an impossibility. In his mind, the elf-slayer had to be on the verge of insanity. Visibly sighing, he stood and held out his hand. "Since there is no dissuading you then we'd best be on our way." Looking up first into his face and then into his eyes and then glancing at his hand, she took it and struggled to stand on her own before he finally slid his arms under her shoulders and around her waist and hoisted her up.

Already breathless from exhaustion, Victoria was limp in his arms as he pushed her onto the waiting form of Talorta, who had been standing next to Victoria's bed with his ears flicking back and forth. Legolas gathered up their meager belongings, put out the fire, then mounted behind Victoria who was now shaking with the effort of holding herself upright on Talorta for so long. She relaxed as he drew closer to her, too weary to put up a fight as she closed her eyes and gestured weakly to the road ahead.

"Follow it. We should be there by nightfall."

"You know how many times you've told me that?" He asked pointedly. He thought he saw a smile tug at the corners of her mouth as she leaned against he and he slid his arm about her waist.

"Just trying to get the point across." She replied.

"You really are insane...you know that right?"

But she had already drifted off to sleep- just as the snow began to fall.

The funny thing about star-trees is that they will shine and twinkle even in the heaviest of snows. The leaves never really fall and the buds left behind all twinkle like fireflies on a warm, summer night. The star-trees start to appear about a half-mile outside of the village...or what used to be the village, I remembered that much. It all came back to me in a rush of loss and sorrow when I woke up and saw the first of them, twinkling beneath the setting sun. Legolas had covered me with a blanket, and I shuddered and jerked violently as Talorta walked beneath those trees. I felt Legolas' grip around me tighten.

"Easy." He hissed in my ear, and I glanced back groggily...feeling a strange urge to explain.

"The star-trees begin here...see how they glitter? We're only a short way from the village." I said in a hurried, breathless voice.

"Or what's left of the village you mean." He said darkly.

I bit back a sharp retort as my old anger flooded my senses, instead posing a new question which had only just occurred to me. "What did they do with them? The bodies I mean?" I didn't look at him, but I could sense his slight surprise at this question.

"Buried them as far as I know."

I glared back at him accusingly. "As far as you know?"

"I've been away fighting in the war and rebuilding peace after its end." He replied tersely. "I only just returned home a few months ago."

I didn't reply, for, just then, we had entered the village. I swear, if Legolas hadn't been holding onto me I would have fainted dead away. Everything, every flet, even the fountain in the center of the village was still standing. That was what was so eerie about it. If I had only heard voices I would have thought things had never changed. The flets, though vastly in disarray and falling into ruin in some places, were silent testimonies as to what had happened here, what could never be changed. Talorta stopped when we reached the village square, and just a little to the left I could see the place where I had been presented...so many years ago. I could see Mirlaic's smiling face, frozen in time, and I could hear the applause of the villagers as I was welcomed into their midst. I could see Elenown, Ana, and little Turwithiel, my namesake. I could see Araviniel, clapping louder then all the rest- my best and dearest friend.

I had become a part of them, only now to have been left alone. And now all of them were gone. Legolas uttered not single word as I looked round the village, but I could feel his anger radiating from his body like flames. He wouldn't understand...none of them would ever understand...none of them ever had.

"Let's go." I said aloud, more to Talorta then to the raging prince behind me. Talorta started to walk on hesitantly, did he remember the bodies too? Could he see the blood lining the streets as I did now?

We took the eastern road from the village square which led out to the clearing where the ghost would be waiting for me. And there...just on the edges of town...was were I saw them. The graves.

They stretched from where the flets ended all the way back into the trees. Nameless, white plaques, all reminders of the innocence that had been slaughtered here. Lining the road, the graves continued, and I started shaking as Talorta walked on until he stopped. I looked about in confusion, wondering at the cause of his abrupt halt. And then I understood. Some of the plaques had names engraved on them and one, which was marked beneath the awes of a glittering star-tree, was a name with a face I could remember as well as if it had been yesterday.

I slid shakily from Talorta's back and Legolas did not try to stop me. I sank to my knees beside the plaque, and I cried. For the name engraved upon it read:

Mirlaic

Healer and Friend

A/N: And here is another chapter. :) I'm moving in two days so I won't have internet for a week or two, which means no updates until my parents get everything all settled in. So I hope most of you will be satisfied with this chapter until I do get to update once more, and I heartily thank everyone for their reviews which had enlightened me to update so quickly once more! And I thank Kiann, as always, for betaing:)

TO BE CONTINUED...