Disclaimer: I do not own the Hobbit, everything belongs to Tolkien and this story is not for profit.
A/N: Thank you to all of the people who followed/favorited/read the last chapter and all the chapters before! And a special thanks to ABottleOfWine and xxyangxx2006 for their kind reviews last chapter.
Chapter 8
We came out of the White Mountains colder, hungrier, and even more sullen.
But luckily, no ghosts thought it worthwhile to spook us, because we passed through the mountains undisturbed by spirits.
I pointed out as much to Aeiliel as we were stumbling out of the unforgiving mountains and onto the green turf of Northern Gondor.
"It's too bad we don't have any really scary ghost stories to tell your family when we get to Rohan." I teased.
She scowled.
I laughed, something I had not done for weeks. "I mean it's really a shame. You were so sure the mountains were haunted. And we didn't even get a good "boo".
Her voice was bleak when she answered my taunts. "Maybe we died back in the mountains, and we are the ghosts now." She started walking faster.
I paused watching her. "What an awful thing to say."
I ran back up to her, my boots squishing in the mud with every step that I took. It was a beautiful windy day, and the only sound to be heard was the rustling of the trees and the crying of the birds. The morning was not particularly warm, but it felt so it us after our long trip through the snowy mountains.
"What now, do you think?" I said walking beside her and matching her quick pace.
"They will be delayed for quite a bit after taking their horses through the mountains, but after that I assume they will find us again rather quickly."
"I agree." I said.
"The only question now is which way would be best to take. I'm not really sure, and I'm also not familiar with this area of Gondor."
"Well, I am a little. And I believe that we aren't in Gondor anymore. Nearby is the city of Edoras, on the river Snowbourne, the capital city of Rohan."
She looked up, surprised. "Really?"
"Really, really." I said looking ahead.
"Well that's incredible! We can ask the King and Queen of Rohan for aid! They have soldiers and an army."
I looked away somewhat awkwardly. "I'm not sure that going to the King and Queen is the best idea. I don't want to turn this into a huge affair between our two nations. I think it might be better for us to continue to stay as inconspicuous as possible."
Aeiliel let out a snort of disbelief. "Are you joking? We're a few miles away from one of the most powerful people in the world, and you don't want to ask for help? What is the matter with you?"
"Well, we don't even know if we can trust them." I said.
She rolled her eyes. "We can trust them."
"I just think it might be safer to try to stay away from the public eye. I don't want to start a war here."
She put a hand on my shoulder and stopped our walk. She stood there, looking me in the eye. "No, that's not it. There's a reason why you don't want to ask the rulers of Rohan for help. What is it?"
"I just said. I don't want to start a war, and I'm not sure if I can trust them."
I tried to shrug her off but instead she just grabbed my other shoulder with her other hand, so we were facing each other with both of her hands on my shoulders.
"Tell me." She said calmly.
"I just don't really think that…Rohan… and their rulers are...well…trustworthy. I mean, we don't think so in Gondor."
Her mouth dropped open. "Oh my goodness. Is this about the about the rivalry between Gondor and Rohan? It is, isn't it! That is so ridiculous."
This time she let me shrug her off and I started walking away from her.
She ran after me, saying as she caught up with me, "I hope you aren't seriously considering putting us in unnecessary danger by refusing to accept help from the King and Queen of my homeland."
I jumped onto a stone in the middle of a creek and glanced back at her. "Well I hope you aren't actually asking me that when you already know the answer."
I smiled and jumped to the other side of the stream, ignoring her glare.
…
I agreed to at least go through the city (which was more like a town by Gondor's standards) as long as Aeiliel agreed not to send word of our presence to the king and queen of Rohan.
"If it had been I who was the Governor's daughter, and you the stableman's daughter who must obey, this little journey of ours would have gone very differently. We would probably be sitting back in your family castle with your cousin in the dungeons by now. I just want you to know that." She hissed at me.
We turned a corner through the busy street. "You hardly ever 'obey' me, and we would be dead by now if we only took your advice." I responded a little loudly.
She put a finger over her mouth, reminding me to be quiet. After taking a glance around she discreetly pulled her hood even farther down over her blond hair.
"Give me one of your coins. I'm going to go buy us some provisions. You go find us a room at one of the inns."
I reached into my cloak and put one of the golden coins into her out-stretched hand.
"Are you sure it's a good idea that we separate?"
She rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly. I'll be fine, and I'll find you."
"Alright," I muttered, walking away.
…..
I was tending to the fire with a poker later that evening when the door to the room flew open.
I jumped back dropping the poker and saw Aeiliel pressed against the door she had just slammed shut, pressing a package to her chest and starting at me with huge, scared eyes.
"They're here."
"What?" I asked, still trying to get my heart to start working again.
"You heard me!" She whispered, throwing the package on the floor on peeking through the curtains in the room. "The men who have been chasing us are here!"
"What? They're here in the city?" I asked.
"They are here in this inn!" She said throwing a tortured glance back at me.
I came and started peering out the window with her. "But how can that be?"
"I don't know." She whispered.
Looking out the window all I could see was the dark street of the town, some nearby buildings, and a few stragglers still wandering about.
"Over there." She said pointing.
I could just barely make out, from where I was standing at the window, black horses in the stables of our inn, ones that I would recognize anywhere.
"Oh no. Do you think that they know we are staying in the same inn?"
She looked at me like I had just asked her if there were any orcs in Mordor. "Of course not! I doubt we would be alive if they did." She looked over at me and our eyes met. "What are we going to do?"
I thought for a minute. "Don't worry, I have another plan."
"Great." She said under her breath.
…
When I returned and hurriedly sneaked back into our room, Aeiliel was pacing the room. It looked as if she hadn't even sat down since I had left.
"Where were you? You said you would be gone for only a few minutes!" she hissed.
"I know, but I walked extra slow to make sure I wasn't spotted by any of them."
"Well I don't think you have to worry about that. They are probably all in the common room having a drink." She looked over at the package I was carrying. "What did you get?"
"You'll see." I said. "Did you pack all of our things like I asked?"
She held up our two small leather bags in answer.
"Good. Now I need you to trust me, because we are going into the stables."
She only said three things in disagreement as we snuck over to the stables, to my happiness.
As we approached our pursuers' horses, I told Aeiliel to stand watch over the door while I took out the things that I had just bought.
She stood and opened the door a little; glancing back every now and then to peek at what I was doing.
"What are you doing?' She asked.
I was opening a sack of herbs at the moment, and using a horsewhip I had swiped off the wall to stir the herbs into a pail of water. "These are sleeping herbs I bought from an apothecary. I'm making a drought to put their horses to sleep. I saw my elder brother do this once when my parents were going to Minas Tirith and refused to take him along. Our horses drank just a bit of this stuff, and afterwards were too dozy to go anywhere for two days, and then when they could travel they were dizzy and disoriented, losing their way and traveling in circles. I'm hoping that this will hinder our chasers long enough to buy us some time to get to your family's home."
She nodded and turned back to the door.
Once the drought was sufficiently diffused, I heaved the pale over to the first of their horses. I may not have been a stableman's daughter like Aeiliel, but I knew enough to recognize that these horses were thirsty; even so, the first horse would not even sniff the water. I tried the second, and the third, the fourth, and the fifth. All the same. They would not take it.
"How is it going?" Aeiliel whispered from the door.
I set down the pail in frustration. "Awfully. They won't take any. I can't understand why."
"Here," she said coming quickly away from the door and pushing me towards it, "you keep watch for a bit and I'll try to see what is the matter."
I stared out across the street to the inn, chancing a glance back at Aeiliel only every so often.
"I see the problem," she said, "these horses are too well trained. They will take no food or orders from any but their masters." She sounded awed. "These horses are worth a fortune. It takes years to brake a horse this well."
"That's wonderful, Aeiliel. The horses are special. Now what are we going to do?" I said, agitated.
"Go very quickly into the other room and see if you can find the keys to their stalls. Maybe we can find a way to spook them out of here."
I ran quickly to the back of the stable and turned a corner into the room where the equipment was held.
I took the knife that had been in my saddlebag out of my belt and held it out-ready to use it to threaten a stableman if I had to. Lucky for me, he was sleeping on a pile of hay besides the door to the room. And all of the keys were hanging on the wall beside him.
Turning on the heel of my boot, I quickly and quietly ran back to the stalls holding the keys in one hand and my knife still in the other.
I froze as I came into the main stalls.
Walking as slowly and deftly as a lion hunting its prey, one of the men, one of the fiends who had been chasing us for so long, was walking up to Aeiliel, who was turned away petting the nose of one of their horses. He was dressed in all black, and had his sword in both hands, gripping it tightly to his side, getting ready to swing for her head.
Like a dream, like a mirage, like it was someone else in my body doing it, I ran up behind the man and thrust my knife through his back.
Aeiliel jumped back when she heard his body THUMP to the ground and turned to look.
I can imagine the sight she must have seen; a grown man lying dead in a pool of his own blood, and little old me, with eyes that were probably as wide as hers were at the moment, hardly believing what I had just done.
"You killed him, Laurwen."
"Yes." I whispered.
She looked from me to him, and then to me again.
"You killed a man."
My voice was too choked up to answer her at the moment.
"You saved my life." Now she was scowling, no doubt thinking I would never, for as long as we both lived, let her hear the end of it.
I let out hysterical bark of a laugh. "I did."
"Quick!" She grabbed the knife that I still had a death grip on out of my hand and went over to the water pail and cleaned it before giving it back to me.
"We need to clean this up and get rid of the body." She walked around looking for something to clean the blood up with.
First I took the keys and unlocked all five of the horses stalls. I tried to kick them or move them out, but none would budge.
Seeing it was fruitless, I saw five dark cloaks hanging on the walls, and brought two over to help clean up the blood.
As I threw one of the cloaks over to Aeiliel, the horses gave a start.
Her eyes widened in excitement. "Of course!" She said coming over to me. "These are blind horses! That's part of the reason these men have been able to always track us so carefully. These horses were trained to use their sense of smell to guide them." She smiled at me. "I bet when you threw these cloaks over to me, the animals recognized their master's scent. If we put on these cloaks, I bet they would obey us."
"It is worth a try." I said, still a little too shocked at what I had done to be as excited as she was.
As we were tying on our cloaks, the door to the stables flew open. The four remaining chasers all stood in the doorway, starting at us, at their horses, and at their dead companion on the floor.
Everyone in the room was too surprised for a moment to move, until one of the men stepped forward.
I could tell by the way he carried himself that he was the leader, and I felt a chill go down my spine as his cruel eyes met mine.
He quickly unsheathed his sword.
But Aeiliel was quicker.
She snatched my knife out of my hand and with it stabbed one of the horses that had come out of the stall. The horse gave a horrifying shrill cry and reared up, kicking its two legs in the air and running through the men.
"Let's go!" She shouted to me as the men struggled to get up and act in the confusion.
Following her lead we each jumped onto one of their horses, grabbing their manes and kicking them. The horses, smelling their masters from the cloaks we were wearing, obeyed our command, and we bolted through the men and out of the stable.
….
I had a strange experience when I awoke the next morning. I woke up in my clean, white bed in my lovely bedroom, feeling absolutely awful. I knew that something awful had happened, but I couldn't remember what. It was only a few minutes later, as I sat in front of my mirror coming out my thick black hair, that I remembered. Oh yes. I was being chased, and still am, and have brought horrible danger upon everyone that has so kindly taken me in. I have put my King in danger…
And I now had the very unpleasant task of trying to fix all of this.
I sighed, looking down at Carotene's face. The fox was sitting on my lap as I brushed my hair out. "If only you could tell me what do."
My fox didn't respond; instead he just blinked his remaining eye and then curled back up into a slumbering ball.
I refused Galessel's help this morning with my dressing and my hair. I was not really in the mood to speak to anyone today. After I braided my hair into its rope, I tied up my tall leather boots and put on a dark blue dress with a matching hood in cape, and carefully went out of the king's halls with Carotene and into the woods for a morning walk.
I was casually strolling by a wide stream, playing the occasional game of fetch with Carotene; that is, throwing him a pinecone every now and then before he ran it back to me, and trying to think out my problem.
I had always thought, in my heart, that by now my brother would have tried to reclaim our homeland from Baldrick. My brother Fiske was a man grown now and not a fool, he would wait until he was sure of support from Lebennin and the surrounding provinces before he challenged our cousin, but it had been more than three years. Surely he would have been ready by now to fight Baldrick? Did he not care that the man still had our two younger brothers in his custody? That they were in danger? That I was in danger?
And now we were not the only ones being affected. I knew that it could mean trouble for the woodland elves if they continued to give me shelter. The king's stark defense of me the night before was proof that things could get dangerous… and yet the way he had stood up and demanded that they could not take me gave me a deep, selfish pleasure.
But if returning to my cousin was the only way to ensure the safety of all of the people that I had come to love so much, maybe it was the best way. Esteldes, Padhrion, Galessel, Carfon, Hatholben, the King…I could not risk a hair on any of their heads. Indeed, even Coruven did not deserve to be in danger for my sake.
I was pulled out of my thoughts for a moment as Carotene unexpectedly sprinted away.
"I am afraid your fox does not like me."
I turned and saw the King approaching me.
I gave a nervous little laugh. "I believe he remembers that time you locked him up, and he has just not forgiven you yet." I curtsied low in front of him as he came up to me. "You will excuse me, my lord. I did not hear you approach. I did not mean to intrude upon you."
"You did not intrude. I came here with the intent of finding you." On my puzzled expression, he added, "I wished to speak with you."
I bowed my head. "Your presence honors me, your grace."
He frowned.
"Do you know, I think I prefer it when you are being insolent, because then at least you are being honest. Please, let's try this again."
"Your presence worries and pleases me, your grace."
He shot me his signature slight upturn at the side of his mouth. "Much better." He offered me his arm and tucked it into the crook of his shoulder as we began to walk together along the Forest River. It seemed to me as we strolled through the ancient trees and along the rushing water that I was almost a girl again, so tall was he that my arm was practically reaching into his robed elbow.
"Do you come here very often?" he said.
"When I can." I answered. "Enjoying the scenery is a pleasant way to fill one's time, is it not?"
He didn't answer. After a few moments, he asked me, "May I ask how you spent most of your time when you used to live in Pelargir?"
I was flattered and confused, that he would wish to know these things about me. I spoke, staring out at the landscape, " I read often, when the weather was particularly bad. I find it a pleasure to read indoors during the rain. Well, I also read when the weather was good. There was an old willow tree outside of the castle that was perfect to read under during a sunny, warm day. Oh, I don't know. I did normal things. I rode, I played, I danced and laughed." I nodded towards the river. "I used to take long walks along the Anduin River just as we are doing now."
He was silent but I knew he was listening and considering. After a moment, I added,
"And I loved to play my harp. Especially, playing my harp."
I glanced up at his face, wondering if he had noticed the unintentional depth of emotion in my voice. Besides my family and my home, playing music was the thing I missed most about my old life. Part of my home, was playing the harp. My father had given one to me before I was even old enough to play, and ever since then it had been a passion of mine. I had learned to play before I had learned to read. Sometimes now I even dreamed that I was playing.
He met my glance before we both looked away, but I could not tell what he was thinking.
"And you, your highness?" I asked. "What did you do before? Before you were king of all this, I mean," I gestured widely the woods around us, "and were simply a lowly young prince?" I teased.
He smiled for a moment. I thought he was going to tell me, but then his face grew hard. "That was a long time ago." And that was all he would say about his youth. I wondered if he were picturing me, a young girl in Lebennin, running along the banks with my black hair wild behind me, or me, sitting the corner of a feast, preferring not to participate in the dancing or revelry, but sitting quietly in the corner of the hall with the other musicians, quietly strumming my harp, as I was trying to picture him now, as a young elf, traveling with is mother, or climbing the trees of his forest, before grief had given him hard lines around his eyes and mouth and evil had entered the forest that used to be known as Greenwood.
"You know why I had to speak to you." He finally said.
"I know." I knew he were thinking about what had happened last night; the men, the threats.
"I wished to know what you were thinking about all of this." He said.
I looked away and whispered, "I was thinking that maybe it would be better for all of us if I went with them and did as my cousin said."
He pulled our walk to an abrupt stop. "THAT! THAT is what I was afraid of! How can you say that? To have come so far and so long, only to go and basically give yourself up for dead to the man who murdered your parents? Do you have so little concern for life?"
He was hurting my arm, holding it so tightly in his, and with his other hand that he had reached over to cover mine with; but I scarcely noticed, entranced as I was with the severity in his cold blue eyes.
"It is because I have such value for life that I consider it! How can I risk the lives of you and your people by staying here in your halls when it could risk an attack or war?"
"You may think that you would be doing the selfless thing, but I assure you, my people would rather fight to death to protect an innocent, then let someone die for the chance of being safer. We are elves. And think about your brothers as well. Think about me."
I looked up at me. He moved his hands to each of my shoulders and stared into my eyes gravely, "I want you to promise me, promise me, that you won't try and return to your cousin."
When I didn't answer, he shook me once as he said again, "Promise me!"
"I promise." I whispered.
He let me go and we resumed our walk.
…
I found it both irritating and heartwarming how pointedly kind everyone was to me at dinner.
Except Coruven, who tried to bring up yesterday's events, to my dismay. I could have sworn that he saw how uncomfortable the subject made me and was doing it on purpose.
As I sat on the edge of my bed taking the pins out of my hair, there was a short knock at the door before the king opened it and stood in my doorway. He had long since removed the guards that used to stand outside of my room, and so it was just him now.
I stood up expectantly, but instead of coming into the room he extended his hand and asked me to come with him.
I took his hand and followed him down the hallway and away from the guest rooms of his halls. We passed waterfalls and crafts rooms until we came down to a quiet part of the halls.
At the end of the hallway we came up to a small staircase, which he led me up, at the end of which was a heavy wooden door with a rusty doorknob.
The King let go of my hand for a moment to twist the doorknob and push against the door. It opened with a creak and he held the door open for me to go inside. When I was inside he took a torch off of the wall in the hall and came inside lighting the room up.
"Oh." I said breathlessly.
Everything in the room was old, and I could tell could not have been used for at least hundreds of years. Everything in the room was covered in layer upon layer of dust and cobwebs, but underneath-underneath!-I could see that it was a music room. There were lutes and pipes, there were stringed instruments and wind instruments. There were instruments made of wood and instruments made of metal and sheets of music and a million different wonderful things. And at the center of the room there was a large golden harp.
"What is this?" I said turning to him. His face was flickering from the light of the torch.
He gazed around at the dusty room. "It was a wedding gift from Elrond. Hoping I think to spread some of the Rivendell art to Mirkwood. But it was never used." He looked back to me. "It's for you."
I looked at him with my mouth hanging open.
He almost smiled at me. "Someone might as well put it to good use. You could hardly call the players we have now musicians….and there should be music in Mirkwood."
"I do not know what to say, sir."
"Don't say anything. Just play."
