Chapter 5
"Dear Legolas"
"Four words, prince. Just four simple words! I. Love. You. Too. See? Easy."
Legolas lay still and silent, still curled in on himself, protecting his body as best he could from the merciless abuse.
"You can do it, Lindo," Mornaeg insisted coaxingly, and undercurrent of malicious delight easily detectable. "Say: 'I love you too, Tiro-Lim'."
Legolas hated himself all ready.
Mornaeg had so far gotten him to say 'mellon-nin', 'seas dartho' and 'ea Lindo im'.
/my friend , please stop , I am Lindo/
He was breaking down the prince's defenses one at a time, and Legolas knew it. This was a particularly low blow, though. I love you too? Legolas couldn't do it. He couldn't! Had it been the sentence alone, he was sure his pride would have crumbled yet again, and he'd have said it. But it wasn't just that. Those words were not only words. They were the last words Legolas had spoken to Edren, and they were for Edren alone. Not his murderer.
Legolas gasped hoarsely as a metal-plated boot made harsh contact with his chest yet again. "Say it, Lindo, I'm getting tired of waiting, you know."
Legolas stared blearily up in the direction he was pretty sure Mornaeg was standing, before ducking his head tight against the floor, and shaking it quickly. "No," he whispered, "I'll not give those precious words to you, um-pen." And he hugged himself tighter, waiting for the impact. It didn't come.
/evil one./
"He was ready, you know."
Leoglas' eyes opened, though he kept staring across the floor. "Who?"
"Arasen. He was ready to tell you everything, if he'd only had the chance."
Legolas looked up at the elf towering over him, and realized he must have gone to the wooden chest at some point. He was holding a leather-bound book in his hand, his eyes sparkling with impending victory. "There's maybe five or six more in the chest," Mornaeg continued, as he walked aimlessly towards the window, cracking the book open, and beginning to read aloud.
"Dear Legolas, today we walked and played in the woods together. You saw a tree, and froze still, saying you recognized it. I said it was our favorite climbing tree, but that wasn't true. It was Bioren's tree, Legolas, the one he so loved to-" Mornaeg's voice cut for a moment of what could only be translated as sadness. But when he turned to face Legolas again, all trace of it was gone. He was smirking.
"He wrote letters to you, Legolas, letters to fill you in on your lifetime, if ever he turned around and told you the truth. He was ready to make it right all along." Mornaeg's smirk widened to a smile. "And yet again you chose your selfish pain over apologizing to him for what you said."
How does he know that? was the first question in Legolas' head, quickly erased by a stronger emotion which escaped his throat in a whisper. "It's all there?"
"All of it!" Mornaeg sang, closing the book with a jubilant smack, and turning to the chest to retrieve two more. Opening the one on top, he read, "Dear Legolas, You had another nightmare tonight, and I held you all night long. I don't think either one of us slept at all."
"Don't," Legolas murmured, shaking his head. "I don't- I don't want to hear it, Mornaeg."
Mornaeg froze a second, and then snapped the book shut smilingly. "Four words, Lindo."
Legolas' jaw set itself, and he closed his eyes tightly. Here we go again…
He could hear a new book being cracked open, and wished that his hands were not bound so he could cover his ears, as Mornaeg began to read again.
"Dear Legolas, I was looking over my account of the Worthy Heroes that I wrote for you, and I realized; I forgot to mention Suuleth! Your father was part of our games too, Legolas."
"Mornaeg-" Legolas sat up halfway, his eyes on fire. What's wrong with you? What's the POINT of all this?
"We called him 'Suuleth'," Mornaeg continued in a louder voice, "because he was 'the wind' in our games. The one that simply wafted in and out of the Worthy Heroes' world. He always gave us our new passwords too, so no one else could join the Heroes without it."
"Mornaeg, just-"
"Four words, Lindo, just four words…"
"I won't!" Legolas cried, sitting up the rest of the way. "I will not, I cannot, and I refuse to speak what is falsehood! Why can you not-"
"DEAR Legolas," -his volume rose another notch- "You were talking in your sleep about 'Naneth'. I hope through all my lies I never make you forget a thing about her, but it's hard, because she loved our little game, and I want so badly to leave those details in, but I can't."
"Mornaeg-"
"Dear Legolas! You laughed today, it was good to hear, mellon-nin."
"I won't say it!"
"Dear Legolas, I can't wait till you've forgotten everything, then maybe, someday, I'll tell it all to you."
"Edren- Meleth im hon!"
/Edren- I love him/
"I'll see that look in your eyes, my friend, and you'll be so surprised that I let you bury your pain, that you'll forgive me all my lies."
"Mornaeg!"
"And you'll hug me tight, I know it, Legolas, and then I can give you these journals."
"What do you want?"
"I want four words!" Mornaeg shouted almost gleefully, as he threw the journal over his shoulder, and cracked the last one open instead. "I want to hear them, Lindo, I want to hear them now."
"If I said them, I would not mean them, Mornaeg!" he spat. "You killed Edren, I cannot love you with my love for him, I won't, I am incapable of it!"
"You are incapable of loving me, my little friend?"
"Yes!" the word was out before he thought it over. It was such an obvious answer, really. Then why did the reply make Legolas' heart real so? His emotions staggered back a pace, as though to say: but- Legolas, is that really true? And why shouldn't it be?
Silence ensued for a moment. All this time trying not to think about Edren seemed to make screaming about him Legolas hurt all the more. But Mornaeg didn't care, so why should he? What there had been of the friend in him seemed utterly gone, to Legolas. He couldn't make him care anymore.
"Dear Legolas," Morneag said, gracefully paging to the back of the book he held.
And "Mornaeg…" was all he could respond.
"Today I told you everything. The truth. I can't believe it. I don't need to recount it all to you, you know what happened after that. I'm sitting here on Thernad's and my guest-bed, trying to think of the thousands of excuses I've devised and just how I can write them so you'll believe them as I convinced myself to. But I don't want to make anymore excuses. I'm tired of them. I'm fed up with working around the truth, and so instead I want to say I'm sorry, Legolas. I am to blame for your hurt, for your confusion. I did little if anything to soothe your pain, really. I'm sorry for lying to you, my friend."
"L-golas…I'm s-rry I lie- lied to you…there is no pe-eace in lies, Legolas, I- Suuleth was right I should have known that and- and peace is…ea-"
Mornaeg's voice broke harshly into Legolas' memory of Edren's death. "Suuleth was right, Legolas. I should have known that he was right. Peace- real peace is only in truth. Ea er ranimar."
"Meleth le im, Edren," Legolas whispered, shutting his eyes again.
/I love you, Edren/
"I shouldn't have lied to you, and I cannot ask your forgiveness."
"U-moe edvad, Edren…"
/there is nothing to forgive, Edren…/
"You didn't laugh like I wished you could have. Pushed away, and been simply relieved to know what before you did not know. I so wish it was far enough behind you that you could see why I did it, but that is no excuse for me."
"Mornaeg-"
"Legolas, I hate myself."
"Mornaeg!"
"And I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry. Know that'd I'd do anything for you, my friend."
"Tiro-Lim!"
"I'd die for you, if that's what it would take to show how I always cared, Legolas, I'd. die. for. you."
"I love you, all right, I love you!"
Legolas felt sick. His body trembled from head to toe, and his head swam nauseatingly. He wasn't crying, yet something inside him was making his chest feel tight with one emotion or another, and causing his breath to shake with sobs all the same.
"I'm sorry, Lindo. What did you say…?" Mornaeg's voice was predictably malicious, but the expectancy of it didn't take away any of the sting at hearing it.
Legolas' breath hitched. "I love you too, Tiro-Lim," he whispered, shutting his eyes tightly. "If that's really what you want to hear…but I-" his eyes slid open again, allowing Mornaeg to look into his glance's silver fire. "I love Edren, really. Edren and Estel they- they are actually my friends Mornaeg, my life-time friends. They've never turned on me, unlike you. And you can't fix that."
"Friends, hm?" Mornaeg mused, sitting down on the floor beside the prince, and cupping his hands around his knees in a ridiculously childish fashion. "Tell me, Legolas, do you recall when I was your friend?
"Yes, Mornaeg, I do. But you are he no longer. You've become a monster you cannot control, and you know it." Legolas shook his head, fixing the elf with a quiet, almost pitying stare.
"I don't know what has driven you so far over the edge that you do these things to me, but I cannot hold but contempt for you now. You've destroyed something dear to me yet again, and this time he cannot return. You failed to steal Estel and so you take Edren away forever." Legolas' voice wavered on the verge of steadiness, as he concluded quietly, "Even if you asked for forgiveness of me, I disgrace myself that I could not give it to you. And I show my character lacking desperately, that I cannot love you anymore."
Mornaeg's jaw was tight, as for the longest moment, his unnaturally green eyes stared deep into Legolas' gaze. It felt to the prince as though he'd left a window wide open, and in so doing, allowed a robber to enter. But he did not close the window. He welcomed the intrusion. He had to prove something- to himself or Mornaeg.
"You try to steal from me, Mornaeg. But my treasure is not yours, and you therefore don't know what to take."
"You try to hide from me," Mornaeg retorted quietly. "Hide in your own fear, that I might leave you alone, and you therefore make a grave mistake." He did not smile at his playful rhyme, but gazed back harshly. "Because I don't take pity on you anymore, Lindo. You are not a little, innocent child, you are a warrior. One who has killed. Killed my beloved."
"I did not kill your brother-"
"LIAR!" Mornaeg screamed, jumping off the floor, and standing before Legolas like a great tower. "You lie to me, Lindo, you- killed Minaeg, and I know you did, I know it, you know it!"
"I-" Legolas said numbly, as Mornaeg's abrupt gestures and jarringly-loud shouts blurred in his vision. He was wearing down all ready? Legolas found himself wishing that he and Aragorn both had rested, when they'd had a chance. His fatigue was making everything turn hazy.
"Mornaeg, I swear I-"
"No. No! You can make no promise to me, Lindo, not anymore. Sa-" Mornaeg's eyes flashed, as though an idea occurred to him. "Say it!"
"Say what." Legolas demanded coldly.
Mornaeg stooped down, gripping the prince's chin tightly between his thumb and forefinger. "Say you killed Minaeg."
Legolas was helpless to do anything but stare back at the swirling green of rage in the other's eyes, as his mind worked furiously. They're just words, Legolas. Just say what he wants!
No… Leoglas' heart fought back. No, they're NOT just words! To him, I mean them. To his crazed sense, my words will be true, and I-
What about Aragorn? his mind demanded. Is he worth that?
Aragorn would not have me lie. I haven't come this far to give in now- I can't say it, I won't say it! It's not true- "No."
"What…?"
"N…no, Mornaeg, I didn't kill Minaeg." Legolas' throat was all ready trembling, making his words shaky. Now what? What's next? Make the next second come and go quickly, Legolas pleaded inwardly.
Mornaeg straitened up slowly. "You lie to me again, Lindo."
And Legolas suddenly doubled over, as a metal-plated kick landed unexpectedly in his stomach.
Aragorn shoved yet another root into his coat pocket, placing the now-doomed plant back into the ground. It was becoming smoother all the time, his slicing and hiding of the roots. He couldn't help glancing nervously down the row he'd done earlier that day, however…the baby plants were all ready turning wilty.
Wouldn't Mornaeg seek out the culprit, when he found out someone was killing his plants? Aragorn couldn't be afraid for himself, he was in too stressful a predicament to put up with it. But what if Mornaeg split him and Legolas up? What would become of his friend, with no one there to repair the damage?
Aragorn found himself shoving back the determined waves of nausea once more, for his friend's sake. He was feeling sicker and sicker, getting more and more fatigued by the second, true, but how could he give up on Legolas like that? Who else was there for the elf to lean on? No one.
Still, he knew he couldn't hold out this way long, his body wouldn't permit it, and he wished yet again that Anorc would come back. But the dwarf, it seemed, had disappeared. Aragorn wasn't sure how he did it, but he was certainly nowhere in the Bengwiil tent anymore.
The human inhaled deeply, wishing that the air were a little clearer. This green-tinged moist he was breathing in constantly seemed to make his head spin quicker. Even now, his eyes were dancing aimlessly in front of him without his go-ahead. His body wasn't taking very many commands from him, not even the emotionally-stirring insistence, hold on for Legolas, if nothing else!
His mind was taking his resolve away without asking his heart first. It was all Bengwiil's doing, all of it, and he was sick of it. So SICK of it!…but he was also tired of fighting it.
Yet he continued to pick, slice and transplant the baby Bengwiil, even as his head began to spin so fast that he couldn't see very well anymore. Something told him if he lost his momentum now, he'd never get started again. He couldn't afford the complications of sickness!
His head reeled, as he forced himself to keep working. Every color came into sharp contrast, and then seemed to switch to black and white only. He found himself panting hard, and trying to think straight yet again.
"Legolas," Aragorn called in a whisper, as though he thought his friend would hear him. "Legolas, where are you…"
The human tumbled to the side, landing in the loose dirt. His body had been trembling for so long, it had gotten tired of holding him up. His eyes flicked back and forth over the sky above him aimlessly, as his skin burned with the heavy fever. Numbly, he rocked back and forth on the ground while his limp fingers tugged the heavy overcoat off of him.
Cool air rippled his sweat-soaked shirt for a moment, and he closed his eyes in relief. But as a drop of cold sweat slid down his forehead and then behind his ear, his body convulsed in rejection of the temperature around him.
Aragorn's eyes shut, and he panted quietly, as he blindly pulled his overcoat to him again, and draped it over his shivering shoulders. How could his skin burn so unbearably hot, but his body feel so cold?
As he lay there, shivering to fend the cold, panting to fight the heat, Aragorn realized just how deeply hurtful Bengwiil had become to him. He wasn't fighting the poison anymore, the poison was making him fight himself.
His resolve was fighting his fear, his mind fighting his heart, and now it seemed even his own body was at war with itself.
Weakly, he dragged the coat off of him again, trying to make his chest and arms cool down, and then abruptly pulled it back over, as his breath rasped into him at the shock of cold. His arms and his forehead felt as though they were on fire, and yet his shoulders shook with cold, and his fingers felt like ice.
The sky above him was gray, and the trees touching it twisted and swayed, turning from lush green to scraggly black. Dead trees in a dead world. Everything was living dead, burning cold. A frighteningly contradictory world.
"Legolas…" he whispered again, closing his eyes, and trying to see his friend's face in the dark. "I c-can't keep doing this…where…I n-eed you, Legolas. I need you- t-to come help me." He clenched his vibrating jaw tight for a second, and then added between chattering teeth, "Please."
"Come on you, get up!" A rough hand tugged the overcoat away, and hauled Aragorn up by the shirt-front. The human was afraid to open his eyes, but blearily, he did, and saw two large orcs on either side of him; one tugging him forward by his shirt, the other grabbing him by his sweaty hair.
"What's wrong?" Aragorn murmured feverishly, as he numbly felt his wrists being tied behind him. "Where's Leoglas-" His words were cut off as he was shoved forward by a powerful hand, stumbling into the orc just in front of him.
Aragorn wasn't sure exactly what happened after that, but he dimly recalled being pushed over by the second orc, hitting the ground full-force, and then being jerked to his feet again.
"I n- need to see Legolas," he tried to whisper, as he was jostled roughly out of the Bengwiil tent. But neither orc answered him, and he was left to wonder instead, as the two beasts shoved him towards their unknown destination by his still-shaking shoulders.
Legolas landed hard for the umpteenth time, catching himself on his wrists. He inhaled sharply, his chest and stomach aching in protest as he did. Mornaeg had drawn no weapon the whole while, but kicked, thrown and hit the prince all over the room for several everlasting minutes.
"I'll have those words from you, Lindo, if you die in the process," Mornaeg told him in mock-tenderness. "Say you did it. Say, 'I killed Minaeg'. Is it really worthy dying not to tell me the truth?"
"It would not be the truth," Legolas objected hoarsely, "it would only be what you want to hear!"
"I demand the truth!" Mornaeg shouted, his act falling away as he lunged towards Legoals.
"Then I did not-" Legolas rolled over twice, once with the impact of Mornaeg's kick, once to avoid a second one. But the second kick came anyway, landing directly in the small of his back.
Legolas' body arched, and he choked in pain, twisting his wrists unwittingly, in desperation to get away. He coughed, and saw blood hit the floor in front of him in a small pool surrounded by even smaller dots. The red circles danced in his vision, inverting into black-blue and then back again. His head spun crazily, and his body complained loudly as he tried to rise to his hands and knees again.
Mornaeg's boot caught him in the stomach once more, forcing him to the floor, where he lay still. The elf came to stand over his fallen pray, his green eyes glittering with both victory and malice. "The truth, Lindo. Now."
"I could easily say what you want to hear, but it would not be true!" Legolas gasped, spitting crimson from his bleeding gums, over which a second split lip rested. "I did not kill your brother, I did all I could for Minaeg, I told you he was dying, and you did not come!" he cried, wiping his mouth with the rope binding his wrists. "Sen na thenin, this is truth!"
Something in Mornaeg's eyes backed up a step for just the briefest second. It seemed every once in awhile, Legolas would see a spark of misgiving behind the elf's evil, that shone and then went out like a candle, as it did now. It made Legolas honestly wonder what was going on in Mornaeg's head these days.
"Well, I cannot seem to beat the truth out of you," Mornaeg admitted, backing away from Legolas abruptly, and turning to speak to the two orcs in the doorway instead. "Get it now, saes." They nodded, and left.
"Mornaeg-" Legolas murmured, trying not to think what 'it' was, and how Mornaeg would torture the 'truth' out of him now. "Please, I don't understand why you do this to me. I don't understand- why you hurt Aragorn with Minaeg's wounds. I just-"
"You killed Minaeg, and your human friend was the only way I could show you just how much you hurt me through your foolish actions, Lindo," Mornaeg interrupted smoothly. "I'm disappointed you didn't learn that lesson."
"I-" Legolas forced himself into a kneeling position, despite his body's screaming. "If I did anything to you, if you honestly believe I've done you wrong, then I- I ask your forgiveness. Morneag?" He tried to make eye-contact with his former-friend, but the elf determinedly kept his eyes away from the prince.
"I can never forgive you the pain you've caused me, Lindo, never. Y-you took what meant the most to me, and what's more, you will not take the blame! So I'll force upon you that blame, I'll have you hurt for this hurt, and I shall never, never, NEVER forgive you, do you understand!"
"I will not admit to something I did not do!" the prince screamed in answer, and then ducked to shield himself from the blow Mornaeg's fist was raising.
But it didn't come.
The room's door banged open, and both elves looked up to see the orcs standing in the doorway with the 'it' Mornaeg had them fetch braced between them. Legolas' breath plummeted. Aragorn.
Mornaeg tugged his knife from his belt, and motioned the two orcs over to him. "I know you'll selflessly endure anything for your friend, but how much will you have him endure for you, Lindo?" Mornaeg asked conversationally, as the orcs forced Aragorn to his knees, grabbing him by the shoulders, arms and hair.
The human's face was sweaty and pale, and his frightened eyes roved over the room around him feverishly.
"Mornaeg no wait-" Legolas chocked, the words coming stunned from his throat, as his heart froze in his chest. Valar, no, no, not this time, not again, I won't let it happen again!
"I want to hear those words, Lindo, admit to what is your fault." Mornaeg raised his knife, and pressed it against Aragorn's throat. The human's breath rasped in and out of his mouth, and he choked as the metal touched his skin.
"Legolas…" he whispered, his eyes searching the ceiling for his friend. "Don't…don't do it, I…be fine. Just sick…"
Legolas shook his head in anguish. The human had no idea what was at steak. Legolas wasn't even certain where his friend's mind was right now. "Estel-"
"I'll give you to nelde," Mornaeg said. "Er…"
"Wait-" Legolas was on his feet, staggering towards the human as far as his tether would allow.
"Atta…"
"I killed Minaeg!"
The room rang for a second. It wasn't the words that made Legolas' heart wrench, it was the look of triumph on Mornaeg's face, and the way Aragorn closed his eyes in regret.
"What?" Mornaeg pressed, his green eyes glowing.
"I killed Minaeg," Legolas repeated without hesitation.
"Louder, Lindo."
"I killed Minaeg!"
"Say-" the elf's mind probed furiously. "Say you're glad you killed him!"
"What…?"
Mornaeg's eyes flashed, and he reached behind Aragorn, slicing the human's bonds, and pulled one of his hands out from behind him. Aragorn started, but the orcs on either side of him, pinned his arms back, as Mornaeg's knife-point pressed against the human's unprotected wrist.
"I'm glad I killed him!" Legolas cried, riddled with fear. Aragorn was so vulnerable, so sick, so near to danger…and Legolas couldn't even protect him. It was nothing short of nightmarish. Legolas felt as though he were trying to dangle gold over a cliff with only a piece of thread. Moving gently, afraid of losing what was dear, and yet so afraid, it was hard to be gentle. And the gold was getting heavier by the second.
"Say you'd do it again if you could!" Mornaeg shouted, smacking Aragorn's side with his knee in emphasis, and causing the human to attempt to double over, only to be yanked back upright by the orcs.
"I'd do it again if I could, Mornaeg, all right? I killed him, all right, please ju-" Legolas throat closed in an overflow of emotion he could not control. "Just let him go, please."
Mornaeg's grip tightened on Aragorn's wrist. "You will know the pain I feel, Lindo," he whispered, running his knife tauntingly over Aragorn's throat. "I want you to tell me- that you killed Edren." His eyes met Legolas', and the silver gaze looking back at him was desolate.
"No…" Legolas whispered, before he could stop himself.
Aragorn's scream of pain reached Legolas' awareness, before the sight of blood did. Mornaeg's knife had ripped in a lightening move across the human's wrist, splitting three major blood veins, and sending a crimson trickle cascading down Aragorn's arm.
"Ilúvatar faeles! Mornaeg, your fight is with me!" Legolas cried, panic forcing a tear down his face.
/Ilúvatar's mercy/
"Say it, Lindo!" Mornaeg cried, pulling Aragorn's bleeding wrist further up, putting his knife against it again. The human was gasping, his eyes shut.
In the second of silence, Legolas could hear Aragorn whispering desperately, his voice fogged by pain and fever…"Legolas…gwend al-car- car rinc na gwaew…pl-plea…please don't cry…"
/friendship does not- not waver at a wind…/
Legolas couldn't bear it. He didn't know whether the human was speaking to him, or was lost in that distant memory when the prince had first told Aragorn those elven words of comfort. Either way…he wasn't ready.
Edren, forgive me…I can't let Tiro-Lim hurt Estel, just as you did not let him hurt me.
"Say it!"
"I-I killed Edren," Legolas stuttered, before he could think.
"What…?" Mornaeg insisted tauntingly.
"I- I killed…" the sound of a sob caught in Legolas' throat, when he realized what he said.
"Louder, Lindo!"
"I-" he tried again, shaking his head, and moving unsteadily from one foot to the other. The room started to spin…
"Louder!" Mornaeg shouted, tugging on Aragorn's blood-stained arm, and making the human cry out. "Louder, Lindo, lou-"
"I KILLED EDREN!" the prince cried, slipping to his knees as bodily and emotional fatigue finally wrapped around him.
"And you're glad."
"I'm glad," Legolas repeated quietly.
"He did everything for you, and you betrayed him by your own weakness," Mornaeg shot back.
"H-he did everything for me…I betrayed him," was all Legoals could reply.
"He would never forgive you for it."
"Yes."
"You hate him."
"No," he whispered, more to himself than Mornaeg.
The knife raked across Aragorn's all ready bleeding wrist a second time, in the same place. The human gasped in pain, whispering "Saes, mellon-nin…" and Legolas' heart nearly tore in two.
"MORNAEG, NO! Please, please- please leave him alone!" he begged. "He can't-"
"SAY it, Lindo!"
"You'll kill 'im!" Legolas sobbed. "y-you'll k-"
"Now!"
"I-"
"Lindo…"
"I hate him!"
"Who!" Mornaeg insisted, pulling on Aragorn's arm, and making the human sob raggedly, as his tired body slackened all-the-more in the orcs' grasp.
"EDREN!" Legolas screamed. "I hate Edren, I killed him, and I'm glad! Is that what you want?" His chest heaved as the words came spilling from between his split lips. "I killed him, I didn't kill him, what does it matter? He's DEAD! I hate him or I love him! What difference does it make! He'll never hear me say either one! He left! He left me with a life-debt he gave up everything for me, and I never even- I never got the chance t-I-I hate him for it- I…I hate him I hate him I HATE him I-…"
There was a second of a silence.
A moment of still.
And then Legolas whispered, "oh Valar…" and covered his face with his shaking hands.
His words stung more than a hundred of Mornaeg's. His own desperation had driven him beyond what even Mornaeg had said to say. Beyond to things he didn't want to say, but what he knew were in his own heart. The same disease that attacked Mornaeg's heart; sorrow turned to bitterness.
It hurt, it hurt so badly. He felt tears forming in his throat again, and his chest ached to keep them from reaching the surface.
At that moment, his hands were pulled roughly away from his face, and he found Mornaeg untying the two ropes from his wrists. Avoiding eye-contact with the former-friend, Legolas crawled immediately to Aragorn, knowing at the back of his drained mind that it was the only important thing he could do.
Upon his approach, the orcs let go of the human, who knelt for just a second, and then toppled over, where Legolas caught him. The elf wrapped his arms protectively around Aragorn, and felt the human's body shudder feverishly. His heart seemed to break all over again, dragging every emotion down with it, and leaving only pain, regret, fault…
He tore a piece of fabric from his tunic, and hastily tied it tightly around the human's torn wrist to staunch the bleeding, wishing for the healing of Lord Elrond, like a child wishes for the adult who makes everything better.
"Legolas…" Aragorn whispered, his uninjured hand reaching gingerly up to the elf's shoulder. "I'm sorry I…I-I'm getting in the way again."
No you're not…Don't listen to Mornaeg…I said those words, but they're not true, we both know that…Don't worry about it, Estel…Shh…
Any one of these would have come naturally, but Legolas couldn't make himself say anything. Because yes, Aragorn had gotten in the way. Legolas couldn't let his friend be hurt, so he'd given a victory over to Mornaeg instead. The difference was, it wasn't Aragorn's fault.
"You try to steal from me, Mornaeg. But my treasure is not yours, and you therefore don't know what to take."
But Mornaeg did know what to take. If he took Aragorn, he knew full-well that it would break Legolas completely. And if his eventual plan was to make Legolas regret 'killing Minaeg', to make him feel the same pain…Aragorn would surely be killed, sooner or later.
Legolas pulled Aragorn's trembling body tightly against his own, as though to keep someone from stealing the human away. The prince couldn't help the tears forming in his eyes anymore, and as Aragorn wavered halfway out of consciousness, he realized he'd lost all will to hold the salty tide back.
"I can't keep losing you like this, Aragorn, I can't do it…" he cried, and pressed his sweating forehead against Aragorn's cold one.
"I was wrong, Lindo," Mornaeg's voice crooned from somewhere above the two friends. "You are just a child still."
But Legolas didn't look up.
"Take them to their room, mellyn-nin." He threw down the sack he'd apparently packed Edren's journals into. They hit the floor with a sickening thud that made Legolas flinch.
Mornaeg smiled. "And take that with you, Lindo. A present from a friend in the Great Halls."