III

Leaving Greenwood

The scullery maids had lit a fire at the edge of one of the massive stoves and sat on stools around it, cradling cups of barley in their hands. In day-time the kitchen was brightly lit by many fires, hot and noisy and never empty; now shadows leapt from the low ceiling, and the dark shape of the great bread-stove across the room looked like a sleeping dragon.

"Are you sure you don't want anything, Legolas?" one of the maids asked. "We could find you something better if you don't want our barley."

Legolas sat on top of the stove and picked leaves and pine needles from a basket of sloe-berries. "I'll eat later anyway."

"You're nervous, dear. It'll feel better if you eat a bit."

Legolas looked into the basket and did not answer. Three frost-nights they'd had, and the sloes were ripe and juicy. He thought of sloe pies and sloe wine and wondered if there would be anything left when he came back. But it didn't matter much for either way he would miss sleigh-riding down the mountainssides and snow-ball wars on the courtyard and even the songs and games at Midwinter. He could not see why his parents had to be so cruel. Merilin wanted to go, so why did they not send her?

"I know", Cuguiel said. She was the youngest scullery maid, two years younger than Legolas, and they had always been friends. "There's only a little left of that rosemary bread. Do you want some?"

Legolas glanced at her and smiled faintly. He wasn't hungry even for rosemary bread, but he needed something else to think of than the journey. "I do."

Cuguiel took a stick from the fire and lit a tallow candle with it. Legolas followed her when she slipped from the stool and crossed the vast kitchen to the storerooms. When he went down to the kitchen it had still been dark outside. By every inch the Arien the sun-maia climbed the eastern sky, the departure would come closer.

Cuguiel pushed open a heavy door and climbed onto a barrel full of winter apples, while Legolas held the candle as high as he he could.

"They're up there but I can't reach them."

"Let me." Legolas was short for his age, but Cuguiel was even shorter.

"They're in that blue basket there."

"I have them."

Balancing on toe with one knee on a lower shelf, Legolas took down the basket and found what was left of the roseary bread. It still smelled fresh.

By the fire, the other maids suddenly gasped, and then they began to talk in excited voices.

"Legolas!" one of the called. "Your lady mother is here! Sit down, Your Grace, you can sit here, it's all right..."

"No, no, Síla, I wouldn't take your seat. I'm only looking for my son."

Cuguiel hastily swept the bread in a linen cloth. "Here. You can have it for breakfast instead."

"Will I see you before we go?"

"I don't know. After we're done with breakfast we'll have to start with lunch."

"If we don't see each other", Legolas said, "I'll miss you a lot. And... eat a lot of ginger bread for me in winter, will you?"

Cuguiel smiled and blinked hard. "I will then. And you must tell me everything about Rivendell when you come back."

"There you are", mother said when Legolas and Cuguiel walked out of the store room. She was only half dressed, in a plain woolen dress with her dark hair let out and curling down her back. "I hope you're not just here to eat sweets?"

All the maids hastily assured her that the queen needn't worry about that, because the prince was very helpful, but he was welcome to eat sweets, if he wanted, unless the queendidn't approve... It did happen that Legolas walked down to the kitchen for sweets, but most often it was to help Cuguiel to chop turnips or scrub the kitchen floor, or at least to keep her company while she did that. The kitchen was the best place to hide when he didn't want to be found, for no one ever thought to look for a prince there.

"I need you to to try out your new shoes, in case they need to be adjusted", mother said. "And there's a lot of things to prepare before you can leave. Are you ready to go?"

"Yes", Legolas said, though he had wanted to stay longer with Cuguiel.

They left the kitchen, the glow of the small fire fading in the tunnel behind them. They were only ones moving in the tunnels, and the wind of course, though the wind was rather at rest this morning and only barely managed to stir the tapestries on the rough stone walls. When they came up over ground they could see the forest through the arrows-slits on the nothern side, foggy and bluish in the silver-crisp twilight that had only just grown out of the dark.

"So", mother said after a while, "how do you feel about the journey now?"

Legolas demonstratively kicked on an empty bottle that someone had dropped on the floor. "I don't want to leave."

"Still not?"

"Never."

Mother sighed. "I know you have heard a lot about the noldor, a lot of bad things. That they are proud and arrogant, that they are vain and refuse to see their own faults. Do you know who more is proud and arrogant?"

"Who?"

"Your father", said mother with a gleam in her eyes. "He is too proud and arrogant for his own good, and he will never change. Yet we love him despite that, because he is not only that. And do you know who more is vain?"

Legolas shook his head.

"Your sister is vain", mother said. "And yet also one of the bravest and kindest elves I know. And do you want to know someone who refuses to see her own faults? I do."

"I don't understand."

"The noldor are different from us", mother said, "and they have done many bad things, and they brought a lot of sorrow to Middle Earth. But they are not wicked. At heart they are just like any other elf. They have their faults and their strengths, as do I, and your father, and Merilin, and you too. They are not bad folk, Legolas. And they will welcome you as their own, I'm sure."

They turned down the stair to the Hall of Trees and Legolas folded his arms across his chest. "I don't want them to welcome me."

"Oh, child..." She stopped and hunkered down before him, so her long dark hair touched the stone floor. For a while she was quiet. Then she took his hands in hers. "There is another reason we send you to Rivendell."

Something in her voice told Legolas that this was something she had not planned to say.

"You know that Greenwood suffers. You know not only because the hunters and foresters have told you, but because you have felt it. Is that not so?"

"It is."

"Tinuhen has not", mother said and looked sad. "He does not feel the forest like that. He is a sindar elf above anything, though sometimes he is even more like a noldor; he does not listen to the trees as you do, nor does the earth or the streams tell him much. Your brother may be wise and learned and very sophisticated, but he does not know Greenwood as you do. And yet he is the one we send to speak for Greenwood, because in every other way he is fit for it."

"What's sophisticated?"

"Oh - it's that you're very knowledgable and uh, fine, so to speak. Educated."

"And I'm not?"

"Did I say that?"

"Tinuhen did."

Mother smiled. "Well, perhaps you are not, but you are young. What I wanted to say, Legolas, is that Tinuhen needs to understand more about Greenwood than he ever will on his own. He must know what the trees say, what the earth feels. You must tell him that, Legolas. You must help him. Your father and I need you for that."

Legolas looked up at her, bewildered. He had never thought there was something he could do that someone else could not. Mother could have gone, or Merilin, or father; but they sent Legolas, and trusted him to do what had to be done.

"Then I won't fail you", he said. To his surprise, it came out all mature and grave.

"I know you won't." Mother straightened. "On the way, you'll meet the elves by the Forest Road. They'll be excited to have you among them, I'm sure, though they have not been in touch with us for years. Then Radagast will meet up with you and ride with you to Rivendell. It was long since you met Radagast, was it not?"

"Well, it was", Legolas said, and felt a bit better. "Will he stay with us there?"

"He will, at least until Midwinter. Gandalf should be there too."

"And then I'll come home?"

Mother smiled. "As soon as the High Pass thaws. Come along now. Let's get you those shoes, so you have a chance to walk them in a bit."

In the Hall of Fire, Legolas was seated to the left of Merilin, who sat to the left of mother. That placed him as far away from Tinuhen as possible, which meant his brother had to lean over the table to see anything he could complain about; and Tinuhen would never lean over the table, since that would look uncultivated. Figuring it was the last time for several weeks he would be that far from his brother's line of sight, Legolas enjoyed it as much as he could.

He sank back in his chair and cupped his hands around a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Down below the dais the warriors that would ride with them to Rivendell laughed and talked around the tables, passing each other jars of butter or pouring spoonfuls of raspberry jam over their porridge. They were clad in sturdy wool and hide, and their leather jerkins and rucksacks lay under the tables. Hethulin oiled her bow while her daughter smeared butter all over her face, and Maidh was counting his arrows.

"Why do we need so many warriors?" Legolas asked and blew on the chocolate.

"Because the road may be dangerous", mother replied. "When you ride on the Forest Road you will be close to the Shadow, close enough that the forest there will be affected by it. And in the mountains you may run into wolves - or worse."

"Which is why you shouldn't send a child", Merilin said sourly.

Mother sighed. "Merilin..."

"I know we've talked about this already, but..."

"You have already been to Rivendell", mother said.

"Tinuhen has also..."

"Merilin", father said, without looking up from the letter he was reading. "We have talked about this already. Tinuhen is the eldest, and we need you here."

Merilin glared at him, lifted her fox up from under the table and put it defiantly in her lap where it wasn't supposed to be during meals. For once no one said anything about it. Merilin was always the kindest, sweetest girl one could imagine, but she had so dearly wanted to go to Rivendell.

Tinuhen pushed his plate away. "What is the letter saying, father?"

"That we were right", father said with a sigh. "There has been travellers on the Forest Road, and the elves in the outer settlements say some of them has been asking strange questions. The road is guarded. Someone is expecting us to travel to Rivendell."

"Why?" Merilin asked. Legolas pretended he was not listening, in case they would send him away.

"You know why", mother said. "Someone does not want an alliance to form between the last elven realms of Middle Earth. They would drive a wedge between us and lord Elrond, and whatever happened to Tuiw almost let them succeed."

"Will they try to stop us?" Tinuhen asked. "Perhaps more warriors..."

"No more warriors", father said. "You will only draw attention to yourselves. No, we will do as we have discussed earlier. You will travel in disguise."

Legolas almost dropped the chocolate in his lap. "Whaa -"

"I see that you are listening", father said with a quick smile. "Good. You need to know this. When you set out today, you will not do it as the princes of Greenwood."

"Then how?"

"Beren will act as your leader - don't give me that, Tinuhen, he is older than you. You will ride as second in command, and if anyone asks - if you cannot avoid contact - you will not give your name away. The same goes for Legolas. I suggest Beren act as his father. It will not raise much question that the son of a commander follows him on a journey to learn."

Legolas leaned to Merilin and whispered: "If Beren is my father, Tinuhen can't boss with me so much."

"Perfect", Merilin said and blinked.

"You will need to dress accordingly", father said. "Yes, you too, Tinuhen."

"Goodness", Tinuhen said. "What is lord Elrond going to say when we show up at his door like - like a group of beggars... well, Legolas is going to fit in, anyway."

"Sweetheart", mother said with an edge to her voice.

"Well, he is", said Tinuhen and actually leaned over the table to give Legolas a stern look. "He cannot even sit straight."

"Can, too! Just because I don't want to..."

"I would like to hear you say that to lord Elrond!"

"I will say it if he asks!"

"You little beast!" Tinuhen snapped, but at that moment mother roared at him to hold his nasty tongue, and Legolas shrunk in his chair and kept quiet to. Mother wasn't often angry, but when she was, she turned into a dragon.

"You two", she said and looked from the eldest to the youngest of her children with eyes as cold as steel, "have goblins in your mouths. Keep them shut or they'll jump out on the table. Tinuhen, if you have finished your breakfast I suggest you leave until you remember your manners. And Legolas, you need to change."

"That is right", father said and sounded very tired. "Galion!"

"My lord?"

"Does Legolas has any plain winter wear, anything suitable for a journey that will not make him look a prince?"

"He has, my lord, if he hasn't grown out of it yet."

"He will need his formal clothes packed down."

"Come, my prince", Galion said. "Let us get you dressed before your father changes his mind yet again."

Legolas took his cup of hot chocolate and followed him from the room, trying to ignore Tinuhen's staring at his back.

"There", Galion said. "Now you look the son of a revered commander, though I don't know how Beren will explain your hair."

"I don't think anyone will ask", Legolas said and threw a glance in the mirror. To Cuguiel, the green tunic with its silver embroidery and the new shoes of softest leather would look splendid. Legolas was mostly glad to get rid of the high collared travel robe.

"Your father wanted you to wear your mail shirt", Galion said and began to neatly fold the discarded robe. "But the dwarves aren't done with it yet."

"If they don't hurry up it'll be too small for me when they finish."

"True that." Galion put the folded robe on the bed, absently smoothing out an almost invisible wrinkle on the cover. He walked over to the window and closed and secured the shutters. The paint was beginning to wear of. Legolas supposed Tinuhen would not want to fix it. You should've taken care of it better, he would say.

"It will feel strange not to have you around, little leaf", Galion said. "But Rivendell! What an adventure it will be."

"I bet it won't."

"Don't say that. It's a long journey, and I'm sure the noldor are pleasant enough when they're not singing sad songs or talking about the stars."

Legolas traced the carvings around the mantlepiece with his finger, and it struck him how familiar his room was and how strange it would be to sleep in another bed. The room had become more familiar to him than the telain in the forest had ever been. The blotches of melted candlewax on the floor below his nightstand, the place where the door creaked and the uneveness of the stone floor; all were things that Legolas had never thought about, but still come to love.

He bit his lip and felt the flutter of fear in his chest.

"Here, now", Galion said and swept him in his arms. "Don't worry so much. It'll be fine once you're on the road, and when it's time to go back, it will feel as though you've hardly been away. You're a brave young elf, Legolas. You have nothing to fear."

"I'm not, though", Legolas said. "I'm not brave at all."

Galion helped him on with his cloak and fastened the large silver brooch on the front. The cloak had been made specifically for the journey in pale green wool, with slits at the sides and a hood wide enough to hide a badger in. The lining was white deer fur. Mother had said that if Legolas ever needed to hide, he would turn the cloak inside-out, and he would be impossible to spot in snow.

"There", Galion said, "now you look like a true wood-elf." He paused, then bent down. "You may not know it yet, Legolas, but you are brave. Like your mother and father, you have greatness in you. And you will find it when you need it most."

At last, when the morning was nearing day, the elves who were going to Rivendell gathered around in the Hall of Trees, almost ready to go. They stood in a wide circle, thirty-nine elves in all, sweating by the fire in their warm woollen cloaks, but shivering in the air from the open doors. Tinuhen held a sort of speech that no one understood, but then he walked away and Beren told the elves to listen closely and laid his arm around Legolas shoulders.

"Now", he said, "here we are. We have a long and difficult journey ahead of us. We will ride in the early mornings and at dusk, and we will avoid other travellers on the roads if we can. As you have heard, neither the name Tinuhen nor the name Legolas must be spoken. An though it may seem we have a lot of time we must hurry. If we are unlucky the High Pass may be snowed shut, and we will have to head south for the Dimrill Stair instead."

"What's the Dimrill Stair?" Legolas asked.

"It is a pass to the south", Beren explained. "Close to the lost kingdom of Moria, where the dwarves lived."

"Ugh! I'm glad it's lost."

"Don't say that, my prince", said Beren very mildly. "It would have been a safer road had the dwarves still lived there."

"But less pleasant and more smelly", said Maidh and made everyone laugh.

Beren smiled and said: "Prince Tinuhen's errand in Rivendell is a very important one. Even I do not know all the details, but there is a hope that the lord of Rivendell might help us to quench the Shadow, or at least to find out what it is. It is very important that we arrive in time."

"What, does lord Elrond only grant audiences before Midwinter?" someone asked, and everyone laughed again.

"He will be so tired after all the wine that he cannot even leave his bed until New Years Eve", said Maidh. "And then there's more wine!"

"Have you no respect for the Peredhel?" Beren asked, which was a mistake. Now everyone joked that it was because lord Elrond was only half an elf he could not keep up with the others' drinking; and who knew, since Men were known to be flighty, if he didn't amuse himself with some dunedain lasses, now that lady Celebrían... but at that point Beren yelled at them to stop. He looked at Legolas meaningly, then sent Hethulin away because she laughed too much to breath.

"What I wanted to say", said Beren, "was that our journey will be harsh and we will have no time to quarrell or fight. We will need each other. I know you warriors might think you are the ones everyone else will depend on, but if we do get in battle, then you will need our healers just as much as they need you. And if one of the wagon's break, then we'll come nowhere without Naru. So if we are to get to Rivendell in time, if we are to save Greenwood, then we must do that together."

Legolas felt as if even the stone trees around them leaned forward to listen, and the smoke that billowed up and out through the windows brought Beren's words out for all of Greenwood to hear.

"When we set out today", Beren said, "we do it as one. We do it for our friends and loved ones, for our kin by the Forest Road, for every beast and bird and plant, for every tree in Greenwood the Great. And when things go against us, or when your comrades are trampling all over your nerves, that's what I want you to remember."

"You should have said that to Tinuhen too", Legolas said when they were leaving the Hall of Trees and walked down the stairs to the courtyard. "He'll be stomping on my nerves and all of me whenever he can."

"He better not", said Beren, but Legolas was not certain even the Guard's Captain could do something about it.

To the very last minute Legolas hoped that something would happen that forced them to stay, but no such thing happened. They gathered on the courtyard, horses and travellers and everyone else milling about and taking farewell. There was a fine haze of rain that made everything blurry and grey.

Two wagons they had, and in one space had been made between the barrells of food and sacks of hay for Laeros. Everyone fell silent when the healers came down the stairs with him. Very few people had seen him since he arrived earlier that autumn; he had been kept in the infirmary, and now they all saw why. Laeros did not look at any of them. His hair was growing out unevenly and his eyes looked too big for his head. The healers walked on either side of him, holding him upright, and he grasped for a hold of their tunics as if they were branches and he a leaf struggling against storm winds; it seemed impossible that those bony hands could hold so much strength. The healers tucked him inside the wagon and pulled the curtains to. Only when he was out of sight, did the other elves start talking again.

Mother hugged Legolas for what felt like a year and when he squirmed out of her arms, she hastily blinked away tears. Merilin said that Rivendell wasn't a bad place and Legolas was going to like it once he was there. Father said: "Take care, little leaf," and then it seemed he wanted to say something more, but he did not.

The travellers sat up on their horses and waved goodbye, one last time, to the Mountain and the Greenwood elves.

"Everyone ready?" rang Tinuhen's voice over the others.

"Ready!" the travellers called. Hethulin kissed her daughter one last time before she handed her to her father. Maidh's mother ran up with an extra tunic he had forgotten. Waving and cheering they rode out. They passed through the arch of the great Doors and over the churning stream. Trees like watchful giants stretched high over their heads, their branches entwined to a roof so far up they were but a blur in the haze of rain; the horses hoove's whispered over leaves and damp earth.

The forest closed around them, as if the Mountain had never been there.

Long after the last riders had passed over the bridge and faded into the shadows of the forest, Thranduil still stood on the stair and looked after them.

"This will be a trial for both our sons", Gwiwileth said.

"It will", Thranduil agreed. "And not only for them."

The sight of the riders cheering and laughing as they left, all so eager to be on their way, had filled him with a sense of forboding. They weren't warriors. They were hunters and hall-guards who knew the dangers of the forest, but little else; Beren was the only one who had fought in anything else than a skirmish.

Thranduil would have sent real warriors - but there were none. When the remains of the Greenwood host returned after the battle in the dark lands, neigh on three thousand years ago, they had thrown their weapons to the ground in dismay, and few had picked them up again. When the Sorcerer took abode in the southern part of the forest, they had fled; and they had fled everytime the Shadow had come too close. Always fled, never fought.

But the road to Rivendell went close to the Shadow and over treacherous mountains. It might demand more of the travellers than they were prepared for.

"Thranduil?" Gwiwileth slipped her arm around his waist. "Is aught wrong?"

She looked out the Doors, and Thranduil knew what she thought about. Could she feel the Shadow watching her across the vastness of the forest, the way he could? The Shadow some said was but a man, but whose presence Thranduil knew too well, too well...

No, he thought and yearned suddenly to call the travellers home, close the Gates and all windows and never look out again. No, Thranduil, do not think of the Dark One. Not him. He was vanquished.

"It is nothing", he said. The Mountain was safe. The Shadow may crawl into soil and root, seep into wind and water, but into the Mountain it would not come. No battle ram would break the magic gates. They would endure, come what may.

Come what may.

Huge thanks to tumblr user miss-elessar for proof-reading, and thank you all for reading, favouriting and commenting! It means a lot to hear from you!

The story has taken off - now is when the adventure begins. Please tell me what you think :)