I made up pretty much every character seen in this chapter, but the world was made up by J. R. R. Tolkien. It probably belongs to whoever has last bought the rights from his estate. I'm playing in that world but making no money from doing so, so please don't sue!

Lathwinn raised her eyebrows at her four brothers. "Where is this 'other brother?'"

One of the twins answered his arms still crossed over his chest and expression hard. "He's gone on every patrol he can since Narkal was turned away."

Their brother in red rubbed his forehead with closed eyes his face turned away from the elleth as he added, "I believe he's hoping to find our betrayed older brother and beg his forgiveness."

One of the twin's stepped toward the elleth from the land of many rivers. "And since you have told us of our brother as he is with you now, and we have told you of his past with us, it is time for you to leave."

Sarnin straightened further. Her brows rose up her forehead. "You are banishing us as well ... at night?"

The eldest brother answered them. "No. You have spoken to us about our brother whom we have not been allowed to speak of in years, and we now know he is doing better than we could have dared hope. We thank you for that. Since you have done so, we must now help you leave before anyone else learns you have done this."

Lathwinn stepped closer to the door and stared at it. "I think it's too late for that."

The harp went silent. All the elves listened. Slight sounds of armor sliding against cloth and elven hands gripping weapons came from the direction of the quarters the silvans had been given in the fort and toward the room they occupied now. The ellon in red's face greyed. He waved a hand. The harpist began a different song. The ellon in red turned his face toward the elleth. He more mouthed than spoke the words "They will know what we were doing if he finds you here."

Lathwinn smirked and headed for the window. She brought out a thin white string and tied an end of it to a hook embedded in the wall near the window. She then threw the other end of the string out that window, grabbed it with both hands, and jumped out the window. Sarnin followed.

Then there was a banging at the ellon's door. The eldest brother strode over to and asked loudly through it what necessitated such knocking as the harp player ceased playing. An angry voice demanded on the other side if the Laegrim elleth were within. The ellon in red's frame relaxed a hair. He replied they were not.

The guard commanded he be allowed inside to see for himself. The elder brother turned to meet the gazes of his brothers. The harpist remained where he had been, but the twins now stood between their brother in red and the window and hook in the wall blocking the thin string from his sight. He smiled at them, still he only turned back to the door and asked why such an order needed to be carried out at all. Had their guests in green done something wrong? Why did they believe them to be within? Meanwhile one twin held a hand behind his back laying a fingertip against the string feeling the tension in it as it held the two elleth off the ground. When he felt it go lax, he drew back his hand, turned, pulled the string's loop off the hook in the wall and tossed it out the window. Only then did he turn back and nod to his brother in red. His elder brother then nodded in return turned toward the door and let the guards inside.

As the end of the string drifted down to them more slowly and lighter than a feather, the elleth looked up at it from there place on the walkway built into the wall. They could both hear the sounds of furniture scraping and tapestries being pulled aside sweeping against smooth walls as the search for them went on above. Then they also heard the slight sounds of cloth and armor coming around the circular path they stood on built against the wall of the citadel. Lathwinn snatched the string still hanging in the air letting its falling tail trail after her in the air after also taking the hand of her aunt and pulling her in the opposite direction the sounds of the approaching guard came from.

They nearly ran into another guard standing near where one walkway met another, before turning down that other to race to the fort's outer wall. The standing guard called out after them. Soon all the guards walking the fort's pathway encircling the citadel lined up alongside him.

The elleth picked up speed. The guards already walking atop the outer wall, raised their bows, and aimed arrows at the elleth. Sarnin's eyes widened. Shouts came from the archers asking if their arrows should be loosed. The elleth ran on.

Answers wavered from the guards behind them communicating uncertainty. Then they had reached the walkway the archers stoon on atop the fort's outer wall. Lathwinn rushed to the walkway's wall meant to keep elves guarding it from falling. She put a foot atop it, released her aunt's hand, and pulled the string's tail from the air into her fingertips. She put it in her teeth before grabbing an arrow from her quiver. She then tied the string to the arrow. Footsteps approached her and Sarnin's wide eyes watched a line of guards jogging toward them. "Lathwinn ..."

Her niece notched her arrow with the string tied to it and let fly. Its point embedded in a small crack in the nearest plateau wall across from them. Sarnin looked back to her niece to her now tying a loop of the string around a hook embedded in the guard-wall of the walkway. As she watched this, Sarnin heard a voice snap behind her.

"Wait!" She spun around to see the guard they'd nearly run into only a few strides away with other hard-faced guards lined up behind him. She swallowed while returning his gaze. His scowl deepened. "Why are you departing so and at night?"

Lathwinn turned a scowl of her own over her shoulder at the Noldo. "Why were your fellow guards of this fort banging on doors looking for us?"

The guard's glare fell into a frown. "We fear you and your aunt have broken a law."

Lathwinn took a few strides toward him leaving the taunt thin cord behind her and stepping between the guards and her aunt. The younger elleth placed her hands upon her hips while glaring. "Have we?"

He shook his head. "I do not know, but Caranthir wishes to know. So, you are supposed to be brought to him."

Without looking away from the Noldo, Lathwinn reached back and arm and gave Sarnin a slight shove toward the line stretching from fort to plateau wall. The older Laegrim elleth sprinted over the thin line like a squirrel over a thin branch. The guard's eyes widened. He shook his head. "Do you wish to part from Caranthir so Lathwinn the Great? At the least he will banish you for this."

"Better to be banished than dead!" Lathwinn turned and leapt away from him first to the top of the guard-wall and next onto the line before darting along it after her aunt who was already climbing away from it to the top of the plateau.

A guard behind and to the right of the one the elleth had argued with asked, "Shall we loose our arrows after them both?"

The commander replied. "I would do not do such without direct orders. She is right. Her people would not take well to us killing them and fighting a war on two fronts is not something I wish to cause, when Caranthir has not even demanded it of me."

Lathwinn reached the other side and climbed up after her aunt waiting with arm extended to pull her up. Once crouching beside her kin, Lathwinn pulled out a knife and cut the thread. Then both elleth stood and ran along the top of the plateau beneath the light of the stars and waning moon. The guards on the wall looked on and did nothing.

. . .

Caranthir glared at the four ellon lined up before him. His arms crossed over his chest, he flicked the gaze of his narrowed eyes from one neutral downcast and almost eerily similar face to the next. Then he spoke. "I do not know if any or all of you broke my laws tonight. And you are all too experienced and skilled soldiers to execute on strong suspicion alone. However, let it be known tonight Lathwinn and her kin are no longer welcome here. Nor are you to seek them out or speak to them again. I do not take kindly to guests fleeing me like I send flaming arrows after them after they seem to break my laws in my own fort."

What do you think now?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes