AN: All right. I tried, I really tried to get this one out earlier. But I just started a temp job and it's been ten and eleven hour days (and six day weeks) since I began. So I finally got this chapter finished, but it's a little shorter than usual (sorry). I'm really hoping to be up to regular updates later this week or next week.
You probably got two alerts. That's because Igrew paranoid when I couldn't link to the chapter through my own alert email and decided to delete the chapter and re-submit it. Sorry.
Anyway, here's chapter thirty. I had to add something to the warning sign...just in case.
Caution: Beware of Cliffs and Major Plot Twists
Chapter Thirty: Thilator's Madness
Estel frowned. Thilator's name sounded familiar, but he could not remember why.
"So glad you remembered me," Thilator sneered. "Pull them apart," he snapped to the men.
Two of them came forward, Carmian and a younger man who resembled him. The younger man, who appeared to be a few years older than twenty, grabbed Estel by the arm and started to pull him away. Estel resisted, not wanting to be separated from his friend.
"Tell your friend to cooperate, Legolas," Thilator ordered, crouching before the prince again.
Legolas still seemed to be in shock at the elf's appearance. "You're still alive?"
Thilator laughed. "I have been living in exile. You see, Legolas, the last time we met I was a simply tutor...but I have learned to survive. It was hard. I had no place to call home, could not risk returning to any of the realms. Four hundred years..." his eyes suddenly flashed, and he grabbed Legolas by the collar of his tunic and hauled him up to his face. "For four hundred years I wandered," he growled. "Alone...homeless, friendless. Always planning my revenge and now I have you...four hundred years of waiting, and now I have you."
He pushed Legolas back, beginning to pace back and forth in the small cave. Estel's eyes widened. Now he remember who Thilator was...he had been one of the elves who tried to kill Legolas when he was younger.
"Do you know, Legolas," Thilator said, pacing. "I always pictured this day. I knew it would come...she always told me it would."
"She?" Legolas frowned in puzzlement, still trying to fight Carmian as the man tried to pull him further into the cave.
"Amarthwen."
Estel started at the name. He knew he had heard that one, many times. But wasn't she dead?
"She died, Thilator," Legolas said slowly. "She died nearly four hundred years ago."
"And you killed her!" Thilator roared, whirling around and lashing out at Legolas again. The prince managed to duck, just barely, as the tutor was too angry to notice he had missed. "You killed her!"
Legolas shook his head. "It was not me."
"You might have drawn the arrow yourself," Thilator said, suddenly calm again. "No, I have heard what happened. You might think yourself innocent, Legolas, but you are as guilty as the two who did kill her."
Estel grimaced inwardly. His head was spinning...he could remember some of what his brothers had told him when they returned from the Mirkwood tournament, but he was having trouble concentrating on what he knew.
"And she did nothing to deserve death," the dark-haired elf continued, his voice saddening. "Amarthwen was innocent."
"Thilator," Legolas struggled to his knees, beginning to stand but changing his mind when Thilator shot a glare in his direction. "Amarthwen was mad...she was trying to find revenge from an imagined fault, that is why she was killed."
"It was not imagined," Thilator snapped, whirling around. Estel barely kept himself from shrinking back against the wall...the dark-haired elf looked murderous. "And it was no mere fault...you took her away from her family, forced her to live in the palace and for what? For a brat-prince who was too selfish to notice how unhappy his nurse was?"
Estel winced a bit at the elf's words. Though he knew they were not true, having heard the tale of Amarthwen's madness from his brothers, he also knew they would still sting.
"You took away the only family I had," Thilator continued. "And then, just when she was finally happy again, you killed her."
"The only family you had?" Legolas asked, his voice colored with confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Amarthwen," Thilator explained through clenched teeth, "was my sister."
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"Lord Elrond?"
The elf-lord turned slowly to face the scout, though he could tell by the younger elf's tone that the news was not good. "You did not find them."
"Forgive me," the scout bowed deeply. "There was no sign of them to the north. Scouts are still combing the forest toward the west. The east..."
"They would not go that way," Elrond interrupted the scout. The eastern reaches of the valley drew too near the foothills of the Misty Mountains, and while the passes had been clear for a few years he knew neither Legolas nor Estel would have risked venturing into goblin territory. For that matter, there was no game in that direction, and far too many scouting patrols for the young human and elf to have disappeared so completely.
"My Lord?"
Elrond glanced up, frowning slightly at the unfamiliar elf that bowed before him.
"Palandil, Captain of Mirkwood," the elf said quickly. "I led the escort to Imladris."
"Of course," Elrond inclined his head. "You have heard that the prince is missing?"
Palandil nodded. "I have come to offer my assistance, and that of those in my company."
Lord Elrond frowned slightly. "We do not know that anything has happened to them."
"Forgive me, Lord Elrond," Palandil shook his head, dark brown hair flipping over one shoulder. "I may not know your foster-son, but I do not believe the prince would be this late unless something did happen. Not when he is a guest of your house."
"No," the elf-lord agreed quietly. "He would not." Elrond sighed. He should have forbidden them from going...it would have been a matter of one day for them to wait for the twins' return. "My older sons will be returning this evening...perhaps you could join their search?"
Palandil bowed again. "Thank you, Lord Elrond. You may rest assured, we will find them."
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"Your sister?" Legolas asked in shock. His mind was whirling...he had not seen any resemblance between Thilator and Amarthwen.
But now...seeing Thilator with the same light of madness in his eyes, he saw it.
They had the same ice-blue eyes.
"She was not my sister from birth," Thilator said suddenly, a bit nostalgically. "Our mothers were sisters, and Amarthwen was only an elfling when I was born. My father was killed in the war, and my mother died from grief. I was only eight. Barely more than an infant.
"I was raised by my aunt and uncle, and Amarthwen became my sister. After my aunt and uncle left, she was the only family I had," his eyes suddenly hardened, and he began pacing again.
Legolas shook his head, fighting down his shock. "If you had told us," he began, but was nearly slammed back into the wall as Thilator turned on him again.
"It would have done nothing," the dark-haired elf snarled, tightening his fists in Legolas' tunic.
He shoved the prince away and stalked back to the entrance to the cave. "I will return," he called, turning around to face Legolas again. "And you will pay dearly for the years my sister suffered."
Legolas was too stunned to reply. He had finally learned the reason behind Thilator's treachery...but why did one answer seem to lead to so many more questions?
Reviews? Flames? Tar and Feathers?
AN:If you were wondering, I've decided to go with a sequel instead of a fourth part. Anyway, I will try my honest best to get the next chapter up by the end of the week (and try to make it extra long to make up for this being so short). I may not be able to, but I promise I'll try.