Disclaimer: Not mine.

Author's Note: Here it is. Things are settling down a bit at work, so hopefully the next chapter will be up sooner.

Part IV

Saeldur made certain he reached the training field well before dawn. He was unsurprised to find Legolas there already. In Legolas' position, he would not have risked being late, either. Bregolien was ready enough to find fault with everyone, without giving him additional cause.

Since Bregolien had not yet arrived, Saeldur took the risk of saying, "What happened yesterday? It was unlike you."

Legolas shrugged, looking rueful. "The Men were… unexpected… in many ways. They think about things… well, not as we do. But I cannot blame them. It was my fault. I should not have let them affect me. Battles, if they come, will be worse."

"You found the Men unexpected?" Saeldur said. "And you know more of Men than any of the rest of us! What did they do?"

To Saeldur's surprise, Legolas flushed and turned away.

"Did… did Candnaur and your mother say nothing?"

"I have hardly had time to speak to them. Besides…" Saeldur hesitated; but, after all, they had been friends once. "I am not curious, Legolas. I do not wish to pry. But if you ever want to speak of it…" He trailed off. Bregolien had appeared around the corner of the stables. "This is hardly the time, though."

By the time Bregolien reached them, Saeldur and Legolas had readied their quivers.

Bregolien glanced at Saeldur and shrugged. "I see you elected to join your friend. Very well. Stay if you wish. You could all do with more practice." He stepped around Saeldur, standing precisely between him and Legolas, and went on, "But, before we begin, we must establish what is at stake. After all, you are not training merely to compete in the archery trials twice a year."

Saeldur managed to keep himself from reacting to the ominous sound of that. Bregolien pointed at the two targets hanging from a birch tree at the far end of the range.

It was a windy morning. Delightful.

Of course, Saeldur did not say that aloud.

"Imagine this," Bregolien said, his voice an unnerving imitation of friendliness. "You are in the midst of a battle – such a battle as I have seen, in darker times. You are woefully outnumbered by… any enemy of your choice. Orcs. Dwarves, such as those who slew your kinsman Thingol. Men." The last word was full of malice. "Your only advantage – your only hope – is the superior skill of Elven archers. Shoot."

Saeldur, startled by the order, was slower on the draw than Legolas, but they both made clean shots.

"Good," Bregolien said. "But that is only one Orc, and there are more than you can count. One of them is threatening the life of one of your fellow warriors. The sword is about to fall, unless you can kill the Orc first. Shoot."

Legolas made another clean, easy shot, but Saeldur knew his hand was unsteady. It was pure luck that his second arrow edged in beside his first.

"It is not just any warrior in danger," Bregolien went on. "It is one you call a friend. An Elven life depends on your precision. Shoot."

Saeldur, drawing his bow, loosed his arrow too soon. It hit the second ring outside the centre.

"A non-fatal shot," Bregolien said. "Your friend is dead."

Saeldur shivered.

Bregolien laughed, short, sharp and malicious.

"Try again," he said. "We will see if anybody who has the misfortune to serve with you has the slightest chance of surviving."

Candnaur caught up to Rochendilwen as she was making her way to the training fields after breakfast. She heard him calling her and turned, and was unable to hold back her amusement at the sight of him running across the courtyard with his formal robes hitched up above his knees.

"Be careful," she said. "It rained in the night."

"I know," Candnaur said, coming to a halt, holding his robes fastidiously out of the mud. "I only need a moment. I will not keep you from your duties. Rochendilwen, you know I have no desire to interfere with weapons training. It is certainly not my business –"

"What are you talking about?"

"Was it truly necessary to call Legolas in at dawn?"

"How did you know about that? Saeldur, I suppose." Rochendilwen shrugged. "You are right, Candnaur, it is not your business. Certainly nobody asked Saeldur to come. He came of his own volition. He could have stayed at home."

"I know it is not my business. I am not questioning you. Or Bregolien." Rochendilwen's mouth tightened. She knew her brother was not much liked, and it unfailingly made her angry. "Rochendilwen, it is only that… I just… we. My mother and Lord Norgalad and I, we need Legolas to be himself. With the Men. It will not help anyone if he is too tired to pay attention in court. Can you not excuse him from training for this week?"

Rochendilwen sighed. "Bregolien thinks it is important to have continuity at this stage of Legolas' training. It is Bregolien's decision to make, not mine. I suggest you discuss it with him… or with Master Bainion, although, quite frankly, I do not think Legolas will thank you for it."

She shouldered her bow and turned to continue on her way, but Candnaur said, "Rochendilwen, wait."

Rochendilwen paused.

"Legolas did not ask me to come and speak to you."

"I did not for a moment suppose that he did," said Rochendilwen. "He hardly knows you well enough. I doubt he would ask anyone to speak for him. I will say that that is one thing Bregolien is mistaken about – Legolas never tries to abuse his privilege."

"Just as it is not my business how Bregolien conducts his training," Candnaur said calmly, "it is neither his business nor yours what I ask of anybody in court. But since, partly at my request, one of your students is attending court this week, I think it is incumbent on me to say this much: I know the Men who are visiting Eryn Galen. I know them very well. Legolas is not going to have an easy time of it while they are here. Out of ordinary kindness, you might want to try not to make this week harder for him."

Rochendilwen let out a breath. "I will see what I can do."

Legolas managed to slide into his seat only moments before the King arrived. His mother, already there, smiled at him, which did much to lift his spirits.

Unfortunately, the seating arrangement had been altered to allow the Men to sit amongst the Elves instead of at the opposite end of the table, and Legolas found that Brynn was beside him. Candnaur cast him an apologetic glance, but there was nothing to be done. Legolas simply had to make the best of it.

He nodded politely at Brynn, who inclined his head, almost bowing in his seat, with such elaborate courtesy that Legolas felt momentarily apprehensive.

"I am so delighted that you could join us again this morning, my lord prince," said Brynn. "I feared that your other duties would prevent us from enjoying the pleasure of your company."

"The pleasure is mine," Legolas said, uncomfortable with the formality of Brynn's address but unable, in the circumstances, to address it. "I hope you passed a comfortable night."

"My grandfather told me," Brynn said, "that when he was a child, his own grandfather told him of your birth. There was celebration in your father's realm, of course, but the joy extended even to Dale. An heir to the woodland throne… though I believe Elves do not look at these things as we do. You might never inherit your father's crown."

"I hope I never do," Legolas said fervently, and then it struck him that the remark might give offence. "I did not mean – naturally, the ways of Men are different –"

"Naturally," Brynn agreed. "Armad wept when our father died, but had he been asked if he were willing never to take our father's place… to be always only the heir and never the head of his house…" Brynn trailed off when the door opened again to admit Thranduil. "We must continue our conversation later," he said as, along with the others, he and Legolas got to their feet.

Legolas hoped not.

"How terrible was your early archery lesson?" Arahael said, as he and Saeldur replaced their training swords in the rack.

Fortunately for them – particularly for Saeldur – the day was going to be devoted to sword training. Lord Maeglad was a hard taskmaster, but he did not go out of his way to be unpleasant.

"Terrible enough," Saeldur said shortly.

He glanced at Lord Maeglad, expecting to be called to order for talking, but the Sword Master was deep in conversation with another Elf, who had come with a message from the King.

All the same, Saeldur had no desire to discuss the morning's events. His performance had been dismal. The worse he had done, the more frustrated Bregolien had become, and the more vicious his tongue had grown. He could just about bear that Legolas had seen his shooting that morning – they might not truly be friends anymore, but he trusted Legolas not to laugh at him or discuss his performance with anyone else.

It was a shame, Saeldur thought, suddenly angry, that Legolas was unwilling to place the same degree of trust in Saeldur.

In fairness to Legolas, Saeldur had to admit that there had been no time for Legolas to speak to him after training. The sun had been well up, and Legolas had had to run to change into a formal tunic before his appearance in court. Saeldur suspected that Bregolien had deliberately kept them until the last possible moment.

"You need not have let yourself in for it," said Arahael. "I certainly would not put myself out of the way if Eredhion was foolish enough to draw Bregolien's attention."

Saeldur held his tongue. He knew Legolas well enough to know that something had caused his inability to concentrate the previous day. He had tried asking Candnaur, who had only said that, yes, the day had been difficult, and the rest of the week was likely to be as well, and perhaps, since Saeldur resisted every attempt to make him attend court, he should concentrate on his training instead of idle chatter.

That had stung. Saeldur had had no desire to gossip. He had only wanted to help… and perhaps to understand why exactly Legolas no longer seemed to trust him.

He realized that Arahael was looking at him expectantly, apparently waiting for a response to some remark.

"Exactly," he said hastily. "I completely agree."

Arahael scoffed. "If you do not pay more attention, you will find yourself with extra footwork drills as well… I confess, I do understand why you want to spend more time with Legolas."

"You do?" Saeldur said, caught off-guard. He had always had the impression that Arahael disliked Legolas.

"Naturally," Arahael said easily. "He is the son of the King. As time goes by he will take his place in the realm. I cannot deny that it would be useful to be on good terms with him. Unfortunately, I doubt I could dissemble enough to manage it."

Useful? Was that what Legolas thought Saeldur was doing as well? Surely not – Legolas must know him better than that.

Of course, it appeared that Arahael did not.

"And perhaps you will be a good influence on him," Arahael went on. "My father is a little concerned about the Queen's –"

Arahael stopped abruptly as a small group of warriors came to take practice swords from the rack. Saeldur was grateful. Arahael was good company, but he had an unfortunate tendency to complain that, thanks to the Queen's influence, Eryn Galen no longer had a real Sindarin court. That must come from his father; Arahael himself was only a year older than Saeldur and had never known Menegroth or Doriath.

"You can go," Lord Maeglad called suddenly to the younger students, Saeldur and Arahael among them. "Some of the Men want to watch Elven warriors sparring. It is best that you stay out of the way while that is happening. You have the afternoon to yourselves."

Not unwilling to be let off early, Saeldur and Arahael hurried off the field before he could change his mind.

Refusing Arahael's suggestion of a ride in the forest, Saeldur decided to go and look for Candnaur. Candnaur might have a better idea if Legolas really thought Saeldur held the same view about his potential usefulness as Arahael did.

He made his way to the council chamber. Before he found his brother, he met Legolas himself, standing outside the room having a whispered conversation with Eredhion. They both fell silent when they saw him. For a second Saeldur wondered – absurdly – if they had been speaking of him, but then Legolas smiled merrily.

"Has your mother finally persuaded you to attend court?" he asked.

Saeldur laughed. "She would not want me to attend court for the first time when it is full of Men I might offend. Lord Maeglad released us for the afternoon and I thought I might…"

Saeldur trailed off.

Fortunately, Legolas did not pursue the matter.

"I did not have time to speak to you this morning," he said, sounding genuinely regretful. "Saeldur, I am grateful to you – early morning drills are far more bearable with company – but truly, there is no need for you to suffer through them."

Saeldur managed an answering smile.

"From this morning, it would seem that I need the practice more than you do."

Legolas shrugged. "You were no worse than I was yesterday. Under the circumstances, I think it is understandable."

Saeldur wanted to say something in response, although he was not entirely certain what, and Eredhion's presence made things awkward.

After a moment, Legolas said reluctantly, "I had best go back. I managed to steal a few minutes, but any more will be noticed. Lord Norgalad will be furious enough as it is."

Saeldur and Eredhion watched Legolas slip back into the council chamber and shut the door behind him. Although Saeldur and Eredhion were not on bad terms, they had never particularly been friends. Saeldur cast around for something to say.

"Legolas trusts you, you know," Eredhion said abruptly.

Saeldur wondered if this was going to be the day for awkward conversations. "Does he?"

Eredhion glanced at him as though surprised by his response. "He did as a child, and Legolas does not stop trusting, although he may think he does. Surely you know that."

Legolas found that dancing with the ladies who had accompanied Lord Armad had a dual advantage. It delighted them to be dancing with the Elven-prince, which, in turn, pleased Lord Armad. And it kept Legolas away from Brynn, who seemed intent on seizing every opportunity to speak to him and ask uncomfortable questions about his position.

Lord Armad's sister, Lady Aesa, ventured to say to Legolas as he led her to the floor for the second time that evening, "You must not mind my brother Brynn, Prince Legolas. He means no harm."

"Of course, my lady," Legolas said automatically.

"When we were children, he was different. He was the best elder brother I could hope for. He is five years older than Armad, you know – seven years older than I – and he was kind. Kinder than Armad. Gentle. Merry. But also valiant. He taught me how to ride a horse, and helped me with my letters. He was never cross."

"He must have been the perfect elder brother," Legolas said, smiling despite himself.

"Indeed he was. You know why he is not Lord of Dale."

"It has been explained to me," Legolas said, feeling himself flush. Surely this was not an appropriate subject to discuss with a lady.

Lady Aesa seemed to have no such qualms.

"You may not think it, now, but Brynn was a fine swordsman, a fine archer – indeed, it has been many months since I saw him enjoy himself as much as he did this afternoon, watching your warriors. Brynn knew he could not be Lord of Dale, but he expected to be commander of my father's soldiers. An expectation, I should say, that my father encouraged."

"My lady," Legolas said, "perhaps you should not be telling me all this."

"Someone must," Lady Aesa said. "My brothers will not. That leaves me. I would not have you think that we of Dale do not know the meaning of courtesy." She smiled at him, a little sadly. "Brynn was brave, strong, compassionate, a great leader. Some began to whisper that, be his mother who she was, Brynn was my father's firstborn son. And so… Brynn was not appointed commander. My father gave him a position in court, which was much less suited to his talents and temperament. The result… well, you see the result."

"It must have been difficult for him," Legolas said. "I do see that. I will make allowances for him, my lady, if that is what you are asking."

"It is." As the music ended, Lady Aesa laughed and stepped away from him. "If I claim another dance from you before my cousin Halla has had a second, she will hate me forever."

"I would not bring that upon you," Legolas said, laughing, with a half-bow.

As Legolas went to ask Halla to dance, he felt Brynn's eyes on him. He would probably be able to evade him successfully tonight… but tomorrow, with no dancing planned for the evening, was going to be more difficult.

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