I'm apologizing in advance for any spelling errors or inconsistencies in this chapter. I just moved since I'm starting university, and I don't have internet in my apartmet, so I'm using the library wifi which is really slow. I'm hoping to get internet access later this week.
XVIII
The Old One
It was afternoon and the market was closing when they left Netherford. The twins rode first up the river bank and onto the road, and the rangers followed in an disorderly line, with Echail and Tilwine somewhere in the middle - Tilwine was quickly befriending everyone, of course - and Scead riding beside Arahad, who rode with Legolas. Arahad was still keeping watch, and Legolas was glad that Echail was in front of him. He didn't want the older elf behind his back.
Of course, he wasn't sure Echail could be the traitor. Lord Elrond was much wiser than Legolas was, and he should have recognized a murderer when he saw one. But Echail was an elf, and maybe that made if different. Maybe lord Elrond had a reason to trust Echail. Maybe Echail had some kind of hold on him - like a debt that needed to be repaid - because lord Elrond had to have noticed that his valet wasn't the nicest of people, even though he took his job very seriously. Father would never have kept someone who was so mean, Legolas thought, unless there was something more to it.
But Echail would hardly dare to do anything with all the rangers and the twins around. So for as long as he never found Legolas alone again, it should be alright.
They rode swiftly without resting, but the sky flamed red when they drew near the ford. Again they crossed in single file, and as they were over twenty in the company it took a while. When half of them stood in the long tree-shadows on the opposite bank, a bird suddenly swooped down so low that those on the ice had to duck to escape his talons.
It was Quick-wing.
"Hey!" Legolas shouted. "What are you doing?"
Quick-wing wheeled around.
"Has flown", he said, out of breath, "has flown over mountains, and there were goblins, nasty, wicked goblins, yes! Elves must know!"
"Goblins? Where?"
"In cave close to valley, yes! Little elf must warn!"
"What is he saying?" Elladan asked as he drew up his horse beside Legolas.
"Goblins", Legolas said, frowning. "He's seen goblins near Rivendell. It's Quick-wing - he's Radagast's bird, and I think he's clever enough to know when there is danger and when there is not. How many goblins are there, Quick-wing?"
"Many!"
"Well, I guess he cannot count."
Elrohir made his way to them, grim in the deepening dusk. "There are a numer of caves near the valley. Most of them are small."
"But not all", said Elladan. "I do not like the sound of this. Glorfindel thought the goblins had long since left these parts. I wonder why they have come back."
"Does it matter?" Elrohir asked. "We will ride out and drive them away."
Elladan gritted his teeth. "It will be dark by the time the warriors are ready. We will be many and we must have torches - the goblins will know we are coming before we even know where they are, and what about their numbers? They will have the upper hand in every possible way."
"The quicker we get back, the better", Echail said. He had tugged Tilwine's cloak very close and his eyes were wide. Legolas had thought the chance of a battle would make him excited, but it seemed rather to have made him scared. "Glorfindel will know what to do."
Elrohir turned to him and looked ready to say something very mean, but Arahad spoke before him. "We must indeed warn Glorfindel, but he can do little more than us with the information we have. We cannot muster the warriors and ride into the mountains without knowing where we're going, or how many goblins we are up against. What we need..."
"...Is more information", Elladan said, nodding. "Yes, I believe you are right." He turned back to Legolas. "Ask the bird if he can take us to where the goblins are."
Wide-eyed, Legolas did. Quick-wing answered solemnly that he could, but they must be very careful.
When the others heard this they became quiet, turning to Elladan as if all had silently decided to let him decide. Elladan thought for a long while. Finally he said: "There isn't much time, and here's what we will do. Elrohir, I and a few more will follow Quick-wing, learn the goblins' location, if possible their numbers, and the best way to strike at them. We must go quickly and without anymore people than we need; we won't let outselves be seen. The rest of you will ride back to Rivendell as fast as you can and prepare the warriors. I suggest you send a swift rider ahead - Findel will do. You will not ride out until we have returned."
"If I may..." Tilwine said.
Elladan shook his head. "You are not a master of stealth, my friend. Arahad will go with us."
"Yes", Arahad said, "three will be more than enough."
"Four", said Elrohir.
"Four?"
Elrohir looked at his twin. "That is what you are planning, is it not? We need someone who understands the bird."
"It is my plan", said Elladan slowly, "though I do not like it."
"Nor do I, but what choice do we have? We will stay out of battle - and if anyone can sneak onto goblins unseen, it is him."
"Now wait a minute", Arahad said. "You don't mean - Elladan, you cannot..."
"Who are you talking about?" Hawn asked. The others seemed as confused as him. Legolas did not understand either - until Elladan looked down to meet his eyes.
They needed someone who understood Quick-wing.
The twins and Arahad went on arguing over his head, and Legolas did not know what to do. If something happend that only Quick-wing could see, and he could not tell Arahad and the twins, because there was no one there to answer - then they would be in great danger. But it was getting dark and cold, and looking for goblins in the mountains was so far beyond anything Legolas could have imagined, he could have thought it was a joke had it not been for the stern faces of the others. To follow the twins, to go into the mountains - he hardly understood what it would even mean.
The sun sunk behind the mountains, and the flaming red light went out. Legolas thought about Tuiw, about the arrows in his back, his snowy white hair spread out over the black moss - and about Laeros, who had been sent south with five other scouts, and returned alone and half-mad. Legolas did not want to end up like that; but what if the twins or Arahad did, just because he was afraid?
In the end his heart made the decision without counselling his head. Swallowing back sour gall, Legolas took a step forward and said: "You don't have to argue about it. I'll go with you."
They paused to look at him.
"I want to help", Legolas said. That, at least, was true. "You need me. You'll be in danger if I don't go with you."
"And you will be in danger if you do", said Arahad. "I cannot protect you from everything, not out there."
"I know", Legolas said. "I'm not expecting you to."
There was a long silence, broken only by the call of a tawny owl that made Tilwine jerk and a hare dash for cover in between the trees. Arahad looked at the twins, but no help came from them. Finally he sighed.
"Very well. Let us go. And may we all live to be murdered by Glorfindel when he learns we took an elfling along to look for goblins. You", he said to Legolas, "you stay close to me, and keep quiet, and do anything we tell you to do. Don't you stray as much as an inch from the rest of us - unless we tell you to run. Understand?"
They crossed the ford, left their horses to go home with the others, and followed Quick-wing away from the road and into the darkness between the trees. They had to walk slowly, for Arahad sank down halfway to his knees in the snow and the terrain was difficult even for elves. Still it was not long before they could not hear the others as they moved down the road, and soon they could not even see their torches if they looked back. The darkness grew deeper as they walked. The twins had their bows strung and kept watch so that Arahad could concentrate on walking through the snow. Legolas obediently went beside him, quiet as a mouse. When the moon rose over the mountains and the trees grew scarcer, they began to keep to the shadows as much as they could.
Quick-wing wanted them to go straight north-east, but Elrohir said there was a ravine in the way and they would have to go around it, so they went in a wide circle until the ravine opened before them in the undergrowth. At this place it was only a step across, but widened as it wound towards the mountains. It would have been easy to miss.
"Careful now", Elladan said, and took Legolas hand to help him over. "There may be loose stones on the edges."
"Do you know these lands?"
"Most of them. They are dangerous, though, even for us."
"This way now", said Elrohir, and they followed the ravine up and east, facing the mountains that stood black and massive against the darkening sky.
The trees became shrubbery and spiky grass, and the wind had blown the snown into dunes that left most of the ground bare. Still their progress was slow. They were unhidden now, and crept from shelter to shelter while Quick-wing kept a lookout from above. But they saw nothing but boulders and the black shapes of ravines, and heard nothing but the whirr of bats in the air and the howl of wind in the highlands. The cliffs rose steeply around them until they found themselves staring into another ravine.
Legolas threw a look over his shoulder. Below them among the foothills, mist filled the valleys, and the lowlands of the West were dark. Only the mountain peaks high above his head had some light left around them. It was very cold, and the wind was growing stronger.
"In here?" Elladan asked, gazing into the ravine under the mountains' shadow.
Legolas looked at Quick-wing. "In here."
The twins nocked arrows to their bows, and Arahad drew his sword. A path of trampled snow led into the ravine, and it was not hard to tell it was made by goblin feet. The darkening sky became a narrow strip of black above their heads when they went inside.
Quick-wing flew ahead. The elves and the man walked slowly and silently on, jumping at every sound, every flurry of snow the wind threw from the heights above them. When Quick-wing swept from the sky they all stopped dead in their tracks, but the sparrowhawk had only come to tell them it was not far, and they could see the cavern before the goblins could see them. They went on. The snow dampened their footfalls. They passed a narrow track that led almost straight up along the mountainsside; then the ravine widened, and they stood at the edge of an open area facing a gaping black hole. There they stopped.
"It is guarded", Elrohir whispered.
They all strained their eyes to see. Just inside the entrance something metallic shone in the evening light, and there was a shape slightly darker than the surroundings, like someone leaning to the stone wall. Legolas froze where he stood and could not move again. Before now it had all felt unreal, and he could almost have convinced himself they would never find the goblins and turn back home before something happened - but now they had found them, and there was no turning back.
Elladan put a hand on his arm and led him away. They retreated a few steps to be sure they were out of earshot.
"Well, we've found them", Elladan said. "But we cannot take them unawares as long as they have watches out - there is only one entrance, and only one way to it. And we do not know how many they are."
"No less than twenty, that is for sure", Arahad said, looking at the tracks leading up to the entrance.
"And no more than three hundred, or they would not get room in that cave", said Elladan grimly. "We do not know for how long they have been gathering - it snowed last night and older footprints would be covered."
"Then what do we do? There is no way to know, and we cannot storm the cave without knowing how many they are in there."
Quick-wing swept silently out of the air and landed beside Legolas.
"There is another way", Legolas translated his urgent whispers. "Another way in that the goblins do not know about."
There was a long silence. No one seemed to have thought about entering the cave.
When Arahad spoke, he sounded doubtful. "We can always check it out. It might prove useful for an attack."
They followed Quick-wing back down the ravine, and up the steep path to the side that they had passed earlier. It was not an easy way, and when they came to the top, finding themselves on a long slope reaching upwards for the mountains, they had to make their way slowly over a litter of rocks half-hidden under snow. The mountains towered above them and made the night-sky pitch-black.
The moonlight fell on a crack in the mountainsside, a gaping mouth that ate all light. They stopped.
"This is it", Legolas said. "Quick-wing says only the bats use it."
"Undoubtedly he is right", said Arahad. "It would be too narrow for any but the smallest of goblins. We cannot go in there."
So it was, but they still walked closer to look at it. Not that there was much to be seen. A few paces from the opening the rough stone-floor and the jarred walls vanished into the dark, and then it was all black. But when they stood in silence and listened, they could heard the faint sounds of voices and laughter, and there was a disctinct tang of fire-smoke in the air.
"This is it, then", said Arahad after a while. "We know they are there, but we cannot go insde. We should go back. Maybe Glorfindel can think of something."
"Glorfindel is not a wizard", Elladan said. "What do you expect him to do? We cannot take them by surprise, and we cannot know their numbers. Either we strike head on, with full force, and hope they do not outnumber us - or we do not."
"Then we must let them be. Watch their movements but leave them alone as long as - "
"Do not be ridiculous", Elrohir growled. "By dawn they may be gone. Should we let them live only because they have the advantage? Should we spare their miserable lives..."
"Elrohir, this is not about revenge - "
"Is it not?" Elladan snapped, and suddenly they were all back to how they'd begun - the twins dark-eyed and sullen, Arahad grim and hard-hearted - and Legolas saw what was happening. This was about the lady Celebrían. To the twins she was held captive in that cave, and they could still save her - but they must kill them all, let no one escape, or she'd die, and they'd be left alone again. Be it goblins or orcs or wargs; it was always revenge to them.
Legolas stared into the cave. It seemed like it wanted to eat him up, to reach out and get him. If he went in there, he would never get out again. But if he didn't, the twins would go in alone, and they'd go through the front door, for they could take no other way. And they'd be killed.
"Elladan", Legolas said. "There is a way to find out how many they are."
They stopped arguing. Elladan frowned. "Is there?"
"Yes", Legolas said, and hesitated. "The cave - it's not that small. I could go in."
"Don't be silly", Arahad said.
Legolas shook his head. "I'm not. I could do it. And I have to. Something... something bad is going to happen if we let them be, I'm sure of it. I won't be seen."
"If you think we're sending you down there alone..."
"I'm a wood-elf", Legolas said, and somehow his confidence grew with every word that brought him closer to the cave - as if he'd known all the time it would come to this, and now he was eager to get it over it. "A wood-elf of the Mountain. If I don't want to be seen, no one will see me. I swear."
"Legolas..."
"The child is right", Elrohir said. "He could go inside, get a grip of how many goblins there are, then get out again as soon as possible, and nothing would happen."
"I will not have it", Arahad said.
"Nor will I!" said Elladan. "There are limits, Elrohir. We can risk our own lives as much as we want, but we will not risk someone else's."
"But you do risk someone else's life!" Legolas cried. He looked at Arahad and willed him to understand. "The warriors, or if you don't send any the people of Netherford - or my brother, if he comes this way soon! Don't you see? It is the only way!"
Arahad closed his eyes for a moment, as if he was very tired. "You... you know how to move quietly in caves, don't you, Legolas?"
"I do."
"You know the danger of echo, and loose stones."
"Yes."
"This is madness", said Elladan.
"Of course it is", said Elrohir. "It always is."
Legolas looked up at him, saw the darkness in his eyes, the hundreds of battles he had fought and the thousands of lives he had taken. How many elves and rangers had he seen die? Elrohir let him go knowing Legolas may die in there.
Strangely, Legolas was no longer afraid.
He pulled the hood over his head, so that neither his hair nor his face would gleam in the dark, and buckled the long dagger that Arahad quietly gave him around his waist. Then he bent down and took a few cautious steps inside the tunnel to look around. The air was thick and stuffy, but there was the draught of hot air from a larger cave not too far in. The floor was littered with bat's droppings and dead insects and sloped gently down.
"I will be back as soon as I can", he said. "Wait for me here."
It became completely dark.
Legolas held up his hand in front of his eyes, but he could not see it. He tried to close his eyes. There was no difference. When he looked back, the opening was just a faint light that soon disappeared as the tunnel turned down and to the left, and he felt as though the mountain had swallowed him whole.
He kept one hand on the wall, feeling the rough structure of stone under a layer of dusty spider webs, and held the other out in front of him. Sometimes he felt loose stones under his feet, or the brittle bones of small animals. He had to step very carefully to not break them.
He came to think of bears, and things without names that hid in darkness.
The ceiling sank until Legolas brushed his head against it, then lower still so that he had to get to his hands and knees. The air had a foul taste. Now and then by some trick of the mountain, he could hear the goblins talking and the crackling of their fires, but he crept on and on for an eternity without seeming to come closer.
Suddenly the ceiling dropped even lower. Legolas had to lay down flat on his belly and he could still feel the stones against the back of his head. In the darkness he felt around with his hands, and the sudden tightness of the tunnel made his breath catch in his throat. There was no room. The walls on either side had crept closer without him noticing and now they closed around him like the jaws of a great monster. He could not see them, only feel them pressing in on him, sucking the air out of his lungs. For a long while Legolas could not move. If he went on, the tunnel would become narrower - that much he could feel - and perhaps it would get so narrow he could go no longer. There was no knowing if he would be able to back out again. If he got stuck, no one would know.
He lay there breathing heavily in the dark, and for each breath he felt the rocks press closer to his chest and panic rise like a tidal wave inside him. This was how Amdir the Archer had felt when he went inside the dragon's lair, and he saw the coil of smoke ahead, and the dragon spoke to him - that there was nothing more he wanted but to turn around, and this was the last chance to do so, but he could not do it. Not because of duty, or honour, or anything of the kind, but because there were people he knew and loved who needed him to go on. And though Amdir the Archer was just a character in a book of fairy tales, somehow the thought of him gave Legolas the courage he needed to think.
Breath shallowly, he thought. Breath shallowly and your chest won't expand so much. You'll be smaller.
Forcing himself to take small breaths, Legolas felt that he could move again, and his chest no longer pressed against the stone. But it made him dizzy, and he realised he must make up his mind: it was either go on or try to go back, and he had no time to lose. Like Amdir the Archer, Legolas chose to go on. He wriggled and twisted until he had one arm behind him and one stretched out in front, making his shoulders take up as little place as possible. Then he pulled himself into the passage. It was even narrower than he had thought. The dagger sheath was pressed painfully hard into his thigh, and he had to twist his head to the side to get room. For one frightening moment he truly thought that he was stuck, and panic rose in him again; he closed his eyes and grasped for something - anything - to hold on to with his one free arm, and he found a small jutting rock and held on to it like a drowning man holds onto a rope thrown his way. With an effort he wormed through scraping knees and elbows raw. The back of his head brushed against the rock, and he didn't think it hit too hard but a moment later he felt something warm dampen his hair.
But the tunnel widened now. Legolas crept on, terrified to stop, until at last the ceiling rose again and he could crawl to his knees again.
He sat trembling in the dark, so relieved he had come through he did not think about having to go back. Never before had he felt so grateful that he could breath deeply without feeling stone against his rib-cage. He brushed spider-webs out of his hair, then forced himself to move on. The goblin-voices were so close he could make out stray words. It was warm now - warm like the cellars of his home, when the fires burned upstairs. He was nearly there.
Legolas went on a few paces until he could drag himself to his feet. He unsheathed the dagger; better to have it ready if something showed up that he did not want to hear him. With one hand on the wall and the other on the wall he went on, and he was Amdir the Archer again, seeking the beast that had burnt his home.
Light glowed ahead, the red light of distant fires, and after the darkness Legolas was blinded. He huddled against he wall and moved so quietly even the breath of wind on the spider-webs and the humming of stone under his feet was louder than his footfalls. He was a shadow on the wall, a feather landing on snow.
Ahead of him the tunnel ended, and the hall beyond it was filled with faint fire-light.
And there in the dark - lo and behold! There was a shimmer of light. The dragon Urúan was only half sleeping. But Amdir the Archer did not stop...
He did not, and neither did Legolas. When Amdir nocked an arrow to his bow, Legolas swallowed, gripped the sword tighter, and crept closer.
The voices and lights came from below him. The tunnel ended on a ledge above the main cave - not high enough to be safe, and it looked like it would be possible to climb up, but there was no one immediately nearby. Legolas sank into a crouch at the end of the tunnel and listened.
There were many voices, cold raw ones like metal wheels scraping against each other, the laughter of crows and ravens. Shadows danced on the far wall; crooked twisted shapes fighting for tankards of ale and the best spots by the fires. He smelled roasting meat and sweat and metal. He heard leather creak and rusty chainmail clinking. Pressing close to the wall, Legolas crawled further out on the ledge. After the passage in the dark, he barely had the strength left to fear the goblins - they could not see him, not as long as he kept from the fire-light, and they would never hear him. He found a shadowed spot where he could look down.
There were many fires and far more than thirty goblins, as Elladan had feared. They had plenty of supplies, judging by the sacks and barrells heaped along the walls, and though their weapons and armour had seen better days they were well prepared for battle. In the middle of the cave, by the biggest fire, sat a large goblin with a tattered velvet cloak over his shoulders, and a long-sword strapped to his back. He tore greedy pieces of meat from a deer roasting on a spit and fat dribbled down on his fur-collar. Other goblins sat in a circle around him talking. It looked like a war council, and the one in the velvet cloak must be the leader.
Legolas had never seen goblins up close. They were uglier than he had thought anything could be; bald as newly hatched birds, crooked and twisted, with cruel laughs and gleaming adder eyes. And they were many. He counted five around the leader, some ten around the nearest fire, ten more around another, twelve around a third, seven around a fourth; there were many fires, and then all the goblins standing guard along the walls, and the small sneaky ones perching on boulders waiting for a chance to steal a scrap of meat from someone else. Legolas wondered how so many goblins could have gathered without anyone noticing. Glorfindel had not ridden out very often to scout after the twins returned, but it was near Midwinter and the elves had not let their guard down either.
And why were they here? Goblins did not gather in such numbers without reason, not this close to elves and Men. They were after something. It could not be Rivendell; the hidden valley was far too well protected. Perhaps it was Netherford and the Midwinter market - but Legolas had a feeling it was something else.
Tinuhen, he thought. It's Tinuhen they're after.
He had seen enough - it would be dangerous to linger. But just as he began to crawl back from the edge, silence fell in the hall. The goblin in the velvet cloak stood up.
Two new figures stood in the broader tunnel that Legolas guessed led to the opening. One was old and bent and leaned on the other's arm, and they were both cloaked. But they were not goblins. The way they moved and they way they were dressed, Legolas thought they were Men. Or elves.
The goblin in the velvet cloak bowed. "Old One", he said. "We did not expect..."
The older of the newcomers let go of his companion's arm and took a step halfway into the fire-light. Though he was bent and his movements slow, he did not look weak, and his voice was a whisper as powerful as thunder, and as soft as a snake's hiss. Legolas could not take his eyes from him. So this was the Old One that Quick-wing had warned him about, the one even Arahad had heard of. Legolas' body screamed at him to move away, but as long as the Old One spoke, he could not.
"Fools", the Old One said, and the goblins trembled at the displeasure in his voice. "You have been seen. I told you to watch out for the birds!"
"Seen? That's impossible!" said the goblins in the velvet cloak.
The Old One laughed, but it was not a fair sound. "Impossible or not it has happened. You have scouts at your gates, and the elves have already been warned. You must leave now while there is still time."
"But Old One, we are not all gathered..."
"You are large enough in number to take down twenty-five elves in an ambush."
"Surely", the goblin in the velvet cloak whispered, "but not without casualties. We would rather wait a while. Surely your lap dog can do something", he said, and pointed at the Old One's companion, who stood in the shadows as stiff as a cat when the dogs come too close. The other goblins yelled their agreement, and some moved closer. The companion grabbed the hilt of his sword but did not draw it; when he turned to face a goblin to his right, a lock of his hair, cut just by his shoulders, gleamed darkly in the firelight. He was not very tall, but he had the posture of a warrior, and now he threw his head as arrogantly as one.
Legolas, still entranced by the Old One's voice, stared down at him. He could not be certain, far from - but Echail would have had time to go back to Rivendell, then leave in the confusion while the warriors prepared for battle, and it could be him standing there under the cloak - he had the same body, and the same hair. And the Old One - Echail could have known where he was all the time, and just went to fetch him now that the goblins had been discovered. It made sense, for after all, how else would the twins and Arahad and Legolas have been seen?
Echail, or whoever it was, was about to answer when the Old One cut him off.
"Do not question me", he said to the goblin in the velvet cloak. "My servant has his own mission. You will leave now, like I said. Or do you think you know better than me?"
The goblin flinched. "Of course not, Old One! I only thought... of course not."
Satisfied, the Old One turned and left, taking his hooded companion with him. The goblin in the velvet cloak stood still for a moment, then barked out the order that everyone should pack up and prepare to leave. Grumbling and quarrelling the goblins did.
Legolas crawled backwards from the ledge, heart pounding. He'd heard enough, and now he and Arahad and the twins must get away quick before the goblins swarmed out of the cave - but he had seen him at last, the traitor. No wonder lord Elrond had not found him; the elf with the sword might be working inside Rivendell, but the real murderer, the one who gave the orders, was the Old One; and of course someone as powerful and cunning as the Old One had never to go into the House of Elrond. There was no longer any doubt that there was a threat, a plot against Greenwood.
And Tinuhen was in grave danger. As the fires one by one were stomped out behind him, Legolas slipped into the tunnel and broke into a silent run. Quick-wing must be sent back to warn Tinuhen and there was no time to lose. This time Legolas could not hesitate. If he had ever needed to be brave - if he had ever carried the lives of his friends on his shoulders - it was now.
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