I am back, I am back. And I should be finishing this story soon, seeing as finals are over and all. Might be a slight delay in the next chapter upload though, seeing as I'm in the middle of moving and am couch-surfing for the next two weeks. Oh joy and rapture.
This chapter ended up being longer than I thought, and is ANOTHER one written over the span of a few months. I really need to stop doing this, because every time I start writing again I have to go back and re-read the last couple of chapters to figure out where I left off. It helps with the continuity, you see.
As promised, Elrond's entourage took us as far as Esgaroth. The journey took less than half as long on horseback. Kili and I were tied in the saddle together on a gentle mare and the ride was fairly pleasant, though cold. I nearly forgot where we were going and our dark mission.
Someone had made arrangements for us to meet with a bargeman called Bard who would take us upriver to the Lonely Mountain. Bard had evidently aided the rest of the company and fought off the dragon which had been awakened. Though he still piloted a barge, he was now known as Bard the Bowman, and he was highly honored.
"You will show him all proper respect," Elrond instructed us. "I am told he is a gruff man, yet unaccustomed to his esteem. Nevertheless, he has agreed to help you. Be thankful for that."
"We will." I said. Kili merely cleared his throat in agreement. He was still very weak. I had my doubts about bringing him along. I'd wanted to ask Elrond if he'd consider taking Kili back with him, but I held my tongue lest he want to know a reason. The truth was that the Precious was now instructing me to do terrible things to my brother. Perhaps the elf lord would know more than I about the artifact I possessed, but I thought it better not to ask. He had helped us more than enough. I didn't want to burden him.
Bard the Bowman was agreeable enough, though he did speak with a hardened edge to his voice. He ushered us onto his boat with a hurried gesture, and we said our goodbyes and offered our thanks to Lord Elrond's company as we pushed off from the shore. There was an odd smell in the air—of salty, fishy sea and something else. An odor of burning, wet wood became stronger and stronger as we neared Esgaroth. However, it remained cold as ever as we approached what I was to see was the burnt ruins of Laketown.
"What happened here?" I asked.
"Smaug," answered Bard gruffly. "He swept down upon Esgaroth as he did Dale so many years ago. I shot the last black arrow at him, and killed him. But still the city burned, and I am now honorary master of a ruin."
I was taken aback. If the dragon had made it here, what remained of Erebor? Of the Company? I hoped we would not find them dead…
"Well…thank you for your assistance. It must be very difficult for you to manage as it is, without doing us this favor."
"Tis nothing, young prince. It's the least I can do…I suppose I owe Thorin Oakenshield a great favor,though he's caused not a small amount of trouble. It is thanks to him that I escaped arrest, and now have a better position in life."
"Did Thorin come this way?" I wondered.
"Aye, that he did. He and his lot—twelve in all. I had to sneak them into the city in barrels filled with fish." He gave a short laugh. "But let it not be said that the King under the Mountain is not a great diplomat." He said this last with a snort of contempt.
"I should hope he is," I said, countering his tone.
"Aye," agreed Kili, from where he sat on a crate.
Bard took me aside, towards the tiller where he steered. "I bear you no ill will. Though I must warn you, Prince Fili, I do not think favorably of Thorin at the moment. A group of our men was sent to aid the line of Durin in battle some weeks ago and have not returned. A dispute rose between Thorin and Dain Ironfoot over inheritance or some such, and Thorin denied his allies payment. He promised that, should the quest succeed, Esgaroth would once again flourish. Well, he drew back on his promise. Perhaps you can convince him, eh?"
It was not a friendly tone in which he spoke now. It became clear to me that he was only aiding us because he thought he might get something out of it. Why had I trusted him?
We traveled through the night. Kili and I huddled underneath blankets for warmth at the bow of the boat while Bard steered us onward. Kili was complaining of feeling chilled, and so I handed over all the coverings to him. The Mirkwood elves had taken our outer coats and most of our weapons. Elrond's guards had been good enough to retrieve my twin swords and Kili's bow and quiver—not that he'd be able to use it. We shivered in our thin, torn, dirty tunics, together in a heap on the wood floor of the boat, amid crates and nets and rope. I rolled over onto my back and tucked my hands behind my head for a pillow, and gazed up at the night sky. How far from home we were. How far from any sort of comfort. I wondered if Mother thought of us, or if she worried. I knew she worried for Thorin. That much was evident the day we'd left. She'd tried everything in her power to convince him to stay.
"But I must go, Sister. For the good of our people. It isn't right that they should have to live like this," he'd said. And he was right. We were all tired of being treated so harshly. But it was different for Thorin. He had been royalty once. In Ered Luin, he was the undisputed leader of our people—but commonly, he was a blacksmith. No Men recognized him for what he was. It irked him terribly.
"Fili?" Kili spoke, rousing me from my thoughts.
"Hm?"
"What if we get to Erebor and everyone is dead?"
"You know as well as I that that is very unlikely to happen."
"Come off it, Fili, you know as well as I that they're not invincible."
I shifted uncomfortably. He was right. "The Company is strong and willing. If any of them fall—even Thorin…" I hesitated, frowning at the thought, "there will be others left. I'm sure of it."
"And you will be king?" he asked, with the wonder of a child.
The Precious spoke then, with the same repetitive urgings to harm my brother. I had to fight to keep my expression calm. That voice was becoming so difficult to ignore now that I had begun to do its bidding—not much, only small things, but I still could not bring myself to do what it commanded most often. In truth, I would have liked to cast the damned ring over the side and let it sink to icy depths where no one would ever find it…but it was just so difficult to muster the courage. It almost seemed like murder.
"Fili, what is wrong with you?" Kili questioned. "You've been acting so strange lately."
"It's…" I began. No. I dare not tell him. "Nothing. I'm still recovering." And just like that, the subject was dropped.
"So, will you be king, then?" he repeated his earlier query.
"Well, I hope I shan't have to give the throne to Dain Ironfoot!" I laughed, trying to lighten the conversation.
"I'm serious, Fili. You are but a mere five summers older than me. What do you know about ruling?"
It was then that I realized how changed he had truly become. I'd seen hints and glimpses of the change in him, but this was almost too much for me to bear. I knew now that I had merely been a calming presence for him, there were things on his mind that I could only guess at, from what he told me when he was willing. He was frightened—as was I. But I had a problem on my hands bigger than he could imagine, one that would surely be the death of him if he knew.
Morning came, and with it, a sharp nudge in the side from Bard's boot. He threw large coats over us, and thrust tin plates of dried fish and bread into our hands.
"Eat quickly," he urged, with not so much as a pleasantry. "We'll be in Erebor soon. And I don't much like the smell of the air."
"What do you mean?" asked Kili.
"Living on the water, you get used to the smells—fish, salt—but this is an unusual scent."
He was right. A strange dampness hung in the air that was not from the chill. It was warm and smelled metallic and burning—like a forge, but different. And then it dawned on me. Blood. And fire. Immediately I was sickened. The dried fish turned in my stomach. I all but leaped from the boat into the icy water, but Bard held me back.
"It's no use, prince. We're not quite there yet." He settled me back on the crate I'd been using as a seat and handed me the plate again. "You should eat—both of you. It's best to keep your strength up, and Eru only knows when you'll eat again."
I obliged, though feeling so suddenly ill. Kili looked a bit green. I'm sure I did too. Bard went back to the tiller and steered us through the ice floes that were dwindling as we drew nearer the mountain. The smell became more and more intense until there was no fresh air left in our midst—only the pervading stench of blood, sweat, and steel.
We disembarked, with farewells and thanks to Bard, onto a well-trodden snowy bank. The last arrivals from Esgaroth had not been far ahead of us, then. Following the trail, the three of us emerged into a valley alongside the mountain that had once been the city of Dale. There were some people milling about the ruins, old doorways covered in cloth in an attempt to keep out the chill and make some sort of shelter. Smoke billowed from a ruined chimney here and there, but other than that there was no activity.
Traveling further into the valley, we saw it, Kili and I—a sight that made me fall to my knees in despair.
And after all that...they're finally in Erebor! Yay!
Or...not yay. Tragedy is still to come.
Now, my fearless readers, I leave you with this fantabulous cliffhanger. Will possibly upload next chapter when I'm not sleeping on somebody's kitchen floor...
Yeah. That's happening right now.
Anyway, reviewwww!