A knock on the door woke me, and I slipped from the bed as smoothly as possible so I didn't wake Legolas. I wrapped a robe around myself and answered the door.
"Your majesty, we've got a problem." I frowned at the woman who stood before me.
"What?"
"We've just had...something...delivered. And it isn't pretty."
"What?" I asked.
"I suggest you get dressed. Meet me in the reception room in ten minutes."
I did as I was told, wryly admitting to myself that the Queen of Anorondor was taking the orders of a common guard, and met her in the reception room.
She stood to attention even as I sank into one of the chairs beside the small table.
"Please." I gestured. "Sit." She did, looking rather out of place in her boiled-leather armour. "Now what is it?"
"This morning four men stumbled into the country, carrying loads. They died soon after." I waited patiently for her to continue. "They had three burdens between them, a small wooden box made after the style of the desert nomads and two bodies."
"Who were they?" I interrupted. She shrugged.
"I don't know. I was hoping you could identify them. they were dressed richly. I think they're elves, although I have never met one before. But they look after the like in legends." I nodded.
"The box?" I asked.
"Contained these." The guard placed two glittering objects on the table, and my heart sank. It was the Mirkwood wedding ring and the gold sun pendant I had been wearing when the four of us embarked to retrieve Bria. "I thought I recognised them as yours, so..."
"They are mine." I answered. I looked up and met her gaze. "What of the box they came in?"
"I...did not think it suitable to show your majesty, especially this early in the morning."
"Why?"
"My lady, if you would come with me down to the morgue, I could tell you." I rose and followed her from the room. As we walked down the halls, I wondered at the room I had never realised was built.
"Well, lady. You did tell the planners to address the servants, because they would know what they required to do their jobs. One of the army surgeons requested the morgue."
"That would explain it then. What of the box?"
"Both elves were killed rather gruesomely, and messily. The smaller of the two had been disemboweled, and her ... intestines had been wrapped around the box." The guard was quiet for a moment. "I hope these people die a death that is long and painful." She said fiercely.
"Why?" I asked quietly.
"The smaller...she looked little older than the princess. And her face...I think she was alive when they cut her open." I felt sick.
&
We came to the morgue, and I shivered involuntarily. The morgue had been built deep under the palace, where it was cool.
"Lady, if I may be so bold..." one of the guards standing on duty outside the morgue handed me his cloak, and I smiled gratefully as I wrapped it around myself. Then I took the proffered candle and went down the stone steps into the cold, dark room. I excused the servants that stood around the room, then went to the stone table on which lay two bodies, draped over with grey cloth.
I sat the candle on the edge of the table, and taking a deep breath, pulled the sheet away from the face of the first corpse. I gasped, and took a few steps back. The candle fell to the floor and went out, leaving the room in pitch darkness. I took a deep steadying breath, then made palm- fire spring from my hand. Using the purple light I picked up the candle and relit it. I then let the palm-fire on my hand disappear.
I went to the next corpse, and steeling myself drew back the cloth. I was not surprised at the identity of the second corpse after discovering the identity of the first. I drew the cloth back a little further and saw that the guard's suspicions had been correct – she had been alive when they disemboweled her, and struggling, too, judging by the raggedness of it.
Carved onto the breastbone of both corpses was the same symbol I had found in the labyrinth the night Bria had disappeared. So the Ennuia were responsible. The signs looked like grim necklaces, black with dried blood. Then I flung the sheets over their cold faces, picked up the candle, and left the morgue.
Outside, the guards stood, waiting for me. I gave them the candle, then slumped against the wall.
"Your majesty? Are you alright?" one asked. I waved him back.
"Fine, just a little...I'm alright. But I need you to do something. Fetch Chian, the Haradrim I arrived with. I want to talk to him. And fetch Prince Legolas. Tell him the Queen wants to speak with him."
"Is that all?"
"Get me a glass of water, too, please." The guards nodded, and hurried off.
&
Chian came and went before Legolas arrived. He saw the bodies, saw the symbols, and interpreted the message for me.
"It's payback." He said. "We took the queen, so they kill a woman and child. It is not an unusual practise." He looked at me sternly. "My queen, if I could give advice...do not retaliate. Among the desert, this is seen as done. You took of them, they took of you, the matter is ended. All the tribes would see it so. Were you to retaliate back, they would all clump together and destroy you."
"They are that strong?"
"I have seen your armies, majesty, and your defenses. You would not hold back an army millions strong." My jaw dropped open at his reckoning of the numbers in the Harad army.
&
I was still thinking about it when Legolas arrived. He bowed, remembering the way in which I had sent for him. "Majesty." He said.
"Legolas." He looked at me askance at my tone, and I held out the candle to him and opened the door. He went through and I did not follow, only watched him from the door. He set the candle on the table and pulled the sheets back. The look on his face near enough ripped my heart out, and I slowly descended the steps, closing the door behind me. He stood at the by his dead daughter's head, murmuring in elvish as he stroked her hair then closed her eyes. Tears ran freely down my face as I hung back, unable to interrupt his ritual. He then repeated the gesture for his dead wife. He looked up at me, pale but composed.
"Why do you cry, Jané?" he asked. "I know you shared no good feelings with them."
I came forward and touched Isolde's pale hair with my fingertips. "There was no love lost between Mairra and myself, aye, its true. But Isolde..." Legolas came over and lifted my chin. I met his gaze. "I would have loved any child of yours, Legolas, by any woman."
"She reminded me of you." He said. "I don't know why. Sometimes it would be things she said, things you said when you were her age. Or a movement she made, or a look she took on when she didn't get her own way. It all reminded me of you, and I wondered how...someone like Mairra could give me a daughter so like you?"
I smiled briefly, and he bowed his head over Isolde's cold body. I started towards the door, then turned back just before the steps.
"I'll say this now, before I have another excuse not to. And I know its inappropriate. I should have married you, Legolas. And if I had another chance, I would not make the same mistake again." Then I fled from the morgue, berating myself all the way. What on earth was I thinking? His dead wife lying near enough in front of him and I say I'll marry him. I'm a bloody blithering idiot.
Later, in the library, I was putting books away when Legolas appeared before me. He was drawn, and pale under his desert-tan. "Did you mean it?" he demanded. I looked at him, taking in his appearance.
"I'm sorry, Legolas, I shouldn't....I shouldn't have said it." I muttered.
"Did you mean what you said?" he demanded again, insistently.
"Yes." I said quietly. "I made the mistake of saying no once, and I try not to repeat mistakes."
"Good." He said, equally quietly. "Because I'm going to hold you to that." I looked at him in surprise, and he smiled slightly, before he left the library.
Next chappie up. i know they arent very long, and i'm sorry, but i actually finished this story around march, and i'm trying to get it all up. we're coming to the end now, and you guys will just have to see what happens. there's at least one surprise there. (for everyone except haz, who beat it out of me last week, the bitch.)