The War of Light and Shadow

By Freddie23

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Disclaimer: I own nothing Tolkien created.

A/N: Thanks so much for all your lovely reviews. I look forward to reading some more (hint, hint). Anyway, first I had better give you the chapter. So here it is. Chapter 40. Enjoy folks.

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Chapter 40 – Betrayal

Aragorn's head was spinning. For the past three long hours, he had been sat perched uncomfortably on the edge a cracked, upturned wooden crate listening to the Rohan Men arguing with the Rangers over all manner of issues. In fact, anything they could think of to disagree on was aired openly here in a large square-shaped room, bare of everything but storage boxes and boarded up windows that let the draughts in.

Actually, it had started off with such a promising and rather light-hearted discussion about their plans for their next move. However, as usual, Kinnale and Eomer had been on opposing sides and had not been afraid to make that fact know to all. It had all gone downhill from there.

The Rohan man had argued that it would be beneficial to the cause to rebuild Helm's Deep, repair the damage done by the brutal filth of Mordor and set up a permanent home right there. On the other hand, Kinnale wanted to get moving again as soon as possible, leaving behind only the injured until they were recovered enough to cross the lands to Bree, where eventually the Rangers of the North would return to their own families.

With two entirely different ideas, the room still remained divided despite fervent arguments for both sides. The Rangers staunchly stuck with Kinnale whilst the Rohirrim naturally took Eomer's side. So they had come to a stalemate and the whole meeting had degenerated into pointless bickering about where was best and who was best, followed by shouting out the opposite's faults, which was where they were now.

And, three hours in, there looked to be no end in sight.

OIOI

Searching through the hall that had been filled almost impossibly full with patients still recovering from injury in the wake of the battle of Helm's Deep took more time than Legolas had first anticipated when he'd considered venturing from the comfort of his relatively comfortable bed. And yet he stubbornly persisted. Healers roamed about the hall with far less urgency than the last time the Elf had come stumbling into this place held up by Kinnale, but no one paid him any heed as he searched, he was just another injured soldier searching for what had been lost.

In the end after a good while of checking through the rows of men, he found the patient he had been looking for right at the far side of the hall, respectfully concealed from the other occupants by a flimsy wood and fabric panelled screen, which, although battered and broken in places, at least afforded some small amount of privacy not enjoyed by the other wounded.

The small woman was laid on a mattress and swathed in blankets, sound asleep. Her pale face was just about visible from under the mass of covers. She looked cleaner than when last he had seen her, having obviously been looked after well since her rescue from Helm's Deep's filthy dungeons, and she seemed to be resting far more peacefully than he would have expected so soon after the end of her ordeal.

Legolas supposed that there was no point in disturbing Eowyn whilst she slept and would have left to come back another day had the walk from his room to the healing hall not so thoroughly exhausted him. As it was, he felt that he needed to sit down before he fell gracelessly to the floor and hurt himself further. The wound on his side was throbbing with pain by now, so he eased himself with great care to sit on the floor. Clearly someone – Eomer, most likely – came to sit at Eowyn's side with regularity as a cushion had been positioned next to her bed and now Legolas sat gratefully down on it, not bothering to conceal the wince of pain that flashed over his face given there was no one around to see it.

It took a moment for the dizziness to clear and for his breathing and heart rate to steady but once they had he opened his eyes and inhaled a careful breath. That breath caught momentarily in his throat, however, when he looked to Eowyn and saw sea-green eyes watching him with curiosity.

"You're awake!" Legolas exclaimed softly in surprise. Naturally, she made no other response than to blink wide eyes up at him. "Forgive me if I disturbed your rest."

"No." Her voice was still hoarse from lack of use over the years – or perhaps too much use in screaming he idly wondered - but at least she sounded calmer than when he had liberated her from Orkish custody. "You came to visit me." A smile tugged at the corners of her pale, cracked lips and her eyes softened from frightened to obviously pleased.

"Of course I did."

She moved her arm awkwardly so that it was outside the shield of blankets and took his hand, holding it as tight as her ailing strength would allow. "You were gone so long."

As he squeezed her frail hand back gently in reassurance, wondering at the protruding shapes of fine bones beneath papery skin, Legolas answered, "Your brother has been with you. I didn't like to disrupt the time you two had together."

Eowyn smiled softly again at this, her eyes lighting up at the mention of her loyal brother. "He is a wonderful man."

"Yes." So far, Legolas could not honestly say that he had been particularly friendly with Eomer but he could hardly contradict the commander's sister on this point when she had so recently been reunited with him. Besides, family stuck together and she would be loyal to her kin over him no matter what. And rightly so. "So, tell me, Eowyn – how are you feeling now?"

"Better." Another fleeting smile passed over her thin, cracked lips and she added, "Although I couldn't have felt much worse when you found me."

"And Eomer tells me that you will be perfectly fine after some rest."

"I hope so."

Legolas could tell that even this relatively short conversation had tired the woman as she tried to conceal a yawn and he knew that he should probably leave her alone to rest. The only trouble was that the walk from his room to this hall had also tired him and he wasn't sure if getting up was worth the supreme effort he knew it would take.

For a moment they stayed in rather awkward silence; Legolas willing his weakened body to move and Eowyn trying not to drift off the sleep as she wanted to. After a while, however, the woman lost her internal battle before Legolas won his and she fell back to sleep, much to Legolas' relief. He rubbed his pounding forehead with his hand, wishing now that he had never ventured out of his own bed, but with Aragorn and the attentive Rangers absent from his side he'd felt he had to take the opportunity to go check on how Eowyn was seeing as no one would tell him of her condition.

Legolas sat for longer than he had intended watching the young woman sleep. When he had finally gathered up enough strength, the Elf climbed wearily to his feet, biting his lip against the pain that flared suddenly in his side.

Thoroughly worn out, Legolas had envisaged going straight back to his room to sleep off this ill-advised venture. It didn't work out that way though. During his slow progress back, he got distracted by the sound of multiple loud voices echoing along the corridor. Sharp Elvish hearing easily picked out both Kinnale's and Eomer's voices amongst the yelling and he felt compelled to investigate, for this was undoubtedly the meeting Aragorn had left his side to attend several hours earlier. Protective instincts for the boy's well-being kicked in and, mingled with curiosity, that gave him the strength to walk the distance to the meeting room and he slipped inside to stand unnoticed in the darkness of a corner. Whatever the purpose of the meeting had initially been, it was clear that it had descended into anarchy at some point. Even Kinnale and Eomer had joined in the arguing, losing all sense of diplomacy in the process.

Legolas' eyes scanned the room, searching for Aragorn in the melee. He found the young man sat at the other side of the hall on a crate, head in his hands, as if he'd given up on his attempts to restore order and resigned himself to the fact that this would continue until both sides ran out of steam. It was a sad sight for Legolas to witness; seeing his ward so helpless.

One day Legolas hoped for Aragorn to be king, to rule over the united Men on Middle Earth. This was not the kind of leadership he had imagined for the heir to Gondor. Still, he supposed that this was the first time Aragorn had been involved in such a meeting so perhaps it was understandable that he was overwhelmed and flailing somewhat.

For a while, Legolas listened to the Men shouting at each other, in the midst of whatever argument had been ignited, unable to really pick out the core disagreement amidst the insults. However, soon he took pity on the obviously disheartened Aragorn and stepped away from his spot hidden by the wall and approached the boy.

Aragorn looked up in surprise at the familiarly gentle touch upon his slumped shoulder. "Legolas!" he exclaimed at finding his recovering guardian suddenly in the room with him, the last place he had expected Legolas to be right then.

Legolas did not reply but instead looked with steely eyes at the other Men in the hall. As he'd expected, at Aragorn's exclamation the shouting had died down and the Men were all looking towards the two of them in bemusement. With his hand remaining securely on the young king's shoulder, Legolas scanned the hall with an openly critical gaze. Even now, with all eyes on them, Legolas could feel Aragorn shrinking under the unwanted attention from his fellows. A quick glance down at the boy told Legolas that he was not willing to step up and address the waiting Men, so he did the future king's job instead.

"Fighting amongst ourselves will get us nowhere," the Elf warned them in a clear voice full of authority that Aragorn could only aspire to.

Eomer glanced about him then almost petulantly shot back, "We were not fighting."

Ignoring the scoff that came from Aragorn at his side, Legolas shook his head. "It certainly sounded like fighting to me."

"It was more of a…a discussion, I would say."

Kinnale rolled his eyes at the man but kept his silence when Legolas' withering gaze turned to him.

"Either way, it is unnecessary."

"How so?" Eomer demanded, folding his arms across his chest in a show of almost childish defiance.

For a change, Kinnale actually agreed with his fellow commander. "There are things that need serious discussion, Legolas, and what to do next is one such topic."

"No discussion is needed because that has already been decided."

Now Kinnale and Eomer exchanged curious glances with one another and then the Ranger asked of him almost uncertainly, "It has?"

Aragorn also looked up questioningly at his guardian but Legolas squeezed his shoulder a little, a reminder for him to hold his silence for the time being.

"Yes," replied the Elf with perfect calm.

Silence followed then, which Legolas allowed to remain unbroken. It was a good reprieve after all the yelling. At last the two men were united in something, albeit confusion. The hush was shattered after a full minute by a slightly irritated Kinnale asking, "What has been decided then?"

"We are leaving Helm's Deep at the earliest possible opportunity."

Stunned silence filled the room. This time, Eomer beat his Ranger counterpart to breaking it. "Leaving?" he bellowed incredulously at the Elf. His sentiment was backed up by murmurs of discontent from his fellow Rohirrim and a few of the Rangers as well. "You cannot be serious!"

"Perfectly serious."

The man barked out a shout of laughter then stressed, "We have only just regained the Deep! After years under Enemy control, the Men of Rohan have claimed back what is rightfully ours - a marvellous victory over the Shadow, I might add – and you want to just hand it back to Saruman's forces?"

Legolas was unmoved by Eomer's angry tone and calmly nodded as he responded with a simple, "Yes."

Eomer swore under his breath and turned his back to Legolas, his hands tightly fisted by his sides as if he struggled to keep them from knocking some sense into the infuriatingly thick-headed Elf.

His voice more reasonable, Kinnale spoke then, "Legolas, I am not sure this is the wisest course of action."

"It is the only course of action available to us now."

Holding up his hand to stop the increasingly volatile Eomer from exploding insults at the Elf, Kinnale asked, "How so?" Before Legolas could offer an explanation, however, the Ranger continued to rationalise, "Helm's Deep, despite its somewhat dilapidated state, is still an extraordinarily valuable asset to the forces of Light." He ignored Eomer bristling at his side at the slight against the fortress of the Rohirrim and continued to look calmly at Legolas. "It might be foolish to abandon such a great asset so readily."

Unable to contain himself any longer, Eomer put in angrily, "And need I remind you that forty-one Rohirrim and Rangers died taking this fortress back?"

"No," Legolas sighed, for the first time lowering his eyes sadly to the floor, "you need not remind me of the lives lost, Eomer, I feel them acutely."

Aragorn stood up at this, realising how weary Legolas suddenly sounded. Concerned at Legolas' obvious continuing weakness during his recovery, the young man took the Elf's arm and murmured, "Here, sit down," and moved Legolas to sit on the upturned crate he'd just vacated.

"Thank you," Legolas said softly as he sat. For a moment he was silent and the room followed his example, waiting for him to resume his reasoning. Only Eomer impatiently rapped his fingers on the hilt of his sword. "I know very well the sacrifices both sides have made for the ownership of Helm's Deep. And I appreciate your position, Eomer, but to stay here any longer than necessary would be ill-advised.

"Why?" the Rohan man blurted out incredulously before he could stop himself.

"Because our presence here will not go unnoticed in the Black Lands for long."

"You mean Sauron?" Aragorn asked thickly from Legolas' side, the fear now beginning to taint his voice as the reality of what they had accomplished here settled in upon being spoken out loud. So much had happened after the battle – Legolas being injured, people celebrating the taking of the Deep – that he hadn't had the time to consider the repercussions of their actions in Rohan.

"Such a bold move as attacking a fortress of the Shadow is bound to be noticed."

Pacing suddenly before the Elf, Eomer accused, "You insisted we not chase after those creatures that escaped the Keep! No matter what, they are now going to alert the Shadow of our presence."

"Yes."

"So, all this is your fault!"

"Yes," Legolas accepted easily, much to the surprise of all the gathered Men.

"What?" Eomer snapped, only momentarily broken from his stride at Legolas forthright confession of his guilt.

"It would not have mattered anyway. There is no way a united army of Men could have taken a stronghold of Shadow and gone entirely unnoticed by the Dark Lord."

"But…"

"Sauron will never allow your race to retain ownership of Helm's Deep. Staying here we will be easy targets for him and he will not hold back in his attack. With the threat of the rising of Men, Sauron will spare no force to rid himself of the uprising that has the potential to usurp him."

"Wait just a minute," Kinnale interrupted Legolas then. "You knew this would happen all along, didn't you?" Legolas looked to the ground again, guilt flitting momentarily across his face. "You knew that re-taking Helm's Deep would alert Mordor of our existence. You knew it the very moment someone mentioned the fortress back in Edoras."

"So now we are known to the Dark Lord!" Eomer yelled loudly in rage. "You've made us all targets!"

"Legolas, I don't understand. When we travelled together, just you two and the Rangers, you were so set on secrecy surrounding all out movements. Many times we hid from the Shadow spies. Why announce to the Shadow an alliance between the Rangers and Rohan before we can gather more forces to us in order to retake Gondor and restore the ancient bloodline?" Kinnale asked in confusion.

"How much longer do you think we could have travelled the lands undetected?"

"Longer had you not announced our presence here," Eomer interjected angrily.

"Had we continued on towards Gondor, Sauron's spies would have spotted us and engaged and chances are they would not have hesitated in slaughtering us all."

"Optimistic, isn't he?" Janor put in sarcastically from behind his commander.

"However, by taking the Deep, we have a major victory under our belt. This was no small feat. Sauron will recognise this. It is a show of strength."

"Aren't we also showing him our weaknesses?" Kinnale pointed out intelligently.

Legolas had to concede to this by nodding. "Yes, but we can no longer be perceived as being passive."

Still furious with the Elf, Eomer yelled loudly, "Passiveness has served us well so far. Don't you understand that we only want to be left alone now? We want to survive. And before you stepped in, we had a reasonable chance of doing just that!"

"Hey," Aragorn finally stepped in, "that's not fair."

"No? We were getting on just fine until you two came along."

"Really? Hiding in your Golden Hall is getting on fine, is it?" Aragorn snapped, not liking Eomer's tone when speaking to his guardian.

"You have no right…!"

Seeing the naturally hot-headed Eomer beginning his threatening advance towards them – even though he didn't believe for a second that the Rohan man would actually ever hurt any of them – Legolas stood up painfully, ready to intercept him if need be.

"If you insist on continuing to take this conversation down this particular route then I think we should end it," the Elf said with forced calm.

"Maybe we should, because it is bordering on lunacy at the moment," Kinnale spat from behind the broad Rohan man.

Realising now that talking was not going to get them anywhere and that his already depleted strength was rapidly draining from his shattered body, Legolas shook his head sadly, cast a quick glance in Aragorn's direction, then said, "To stay here more than a month would be tantamount to suicide. It is up to you two commanders to decide what is best for your respective forces but Aragorn and I will be leaving at the end of the week to put as much distance between us and this fortress as we possibly can. I strongly urge that you follow our example. Your combined forces would be of great help to us in our future quest."

"Excellent," Eomer muttered darkly under his breath, turning away from the Elf in exasperation. He could not understand how he could go from respecting Legolas above all others to finding him so thoroughly infuriating in just a matter of days.

Ignoring the Men, Legolas looked to Aragorn and said softly, "Walk with me back to my room." He did not particularly want Aragorn left alone in a roomful of Men angry at the comments of his close guardian; that would hardly be fair.

"Of course." The boy gratefully followed Legolas from the room, encouraged by the fleeting smile of encouragement and apology Janor shot him as they passed him by. Perhaps he was not entirely out of favour with the Men. They still had their allies despite the disagreements between the three divided sides.

As they slowly made their way through the halls, Legolas remained quiet, obviously lost deep in thought about what had just transpired. At his side, Aragorn was also thinking through everything that had just been said in his presence. The Men had not been happy with Legolas' plan for the next step nor how he had manipulated them into taking Helm's Deep from the Uruk-hai forces. In truth, Aragorn wasn't sure how he felt about it either. He'd never known Legolas to be quite so underhanded, he'd not been expecting that, especially when dealing with their allies. Also he couldn't help but think that from the look in Legolas' eyes when he had come towards him amidst the arguing that the Elf, the guardian he so wanted to make proud, was disappointed in him.

A quick glance towards the Elf told him nothing but Legolas was obviously in pain. He had paled even further during the short walk, his features set in a slight grimace.

Worried about his guardian, Aragorn discreetly took his arm. At the motion Legolas glanced his way but made no protest or comment, which was as good a confirmation as any that his assumption had been correct.

By the time they reached the room in which Legolas was staying, the Elf was grateful to be able to sink down onto his bed. The throbbing in his side had worsened and now his head also pounded at the exertion he'd placed his still recovering body under.

"Legolas?" Aragorn asked as soon as he'd closed the door on anyone who may have been listening.

"Yes?"

The Elf sounded weary and Aragorn hesitated a brief moment about confrontation whilst Legolas was not at his best before coming to the decision to press on regardless. "Did you mean what you said in there just now?"

"Which part exactly?"

So much Aragorn wanted to ask about Legolas' previous assertions but he settled upon addressing the most pressing issue first. "The part where you said we were leaving within a couple of days."

"Ah, that part," Legolas smiled in understanding, his eyes blinking lethargically.

"In case you haven't noticed, there are many wounded amongst the Rangers and Rohirrim; how do you intend to get them safely out of the Deep?"

"Those who are able to walk will pose no problem as we will take the easiest path slowly."

"And those who cannot?" Aragorn asked impatiently, shifting on his feet.

"You forget, child, that the Rohirrim possess horses."

Aragorn sighed heavily then and pointed out, "Not all of them will be able to travel, Legolas, even on the backs of horses and I am not a child."

"Then the able Men will have to bear them on litters." Legolas looked up at Aragorn then and smiled "Do not trouble yourself. Survival strengthens even the weakest Men to extraordinary deeds."

Still not happy with what was being proposed or Legolas' vague appreciation of their situation, Aragorn snapped, "Well, you make it sound so easy."

"You're upset with me?"

"Yes!"

"Why?" Legolas asked, clueless, a frown creasing his forehead.

Pacing across the room Aragorn let out at exasperated bark of a laugh. "Because you lied to everyone Legolas! You led these Men into danger on purpose when you knew fully the consequences. How can you justify the deaths of innocents simply to prove a point?"

"A point that sorely needed making," Legolas replied sternly.

"By sending good Men to their deaths?"

"By whatever means necessary. And let us not forget, Aragorn, that those Men who gave their lives did so voluntarily. They were soldiers fighting for a cause they believed in."

"Oh, so it's alright that you deceived them all, then. They were just army fodder."

Affronted by the accusation, Legolas shouted, "Of course their deaths were not welcomed. Every life is precious. I wish no one had to die in our pursuit of freedom," Legolas leaned forward carefully, wary of his injuries, voice still raised, "but that is the price of war and you are going to have to get used to it because there is going to be much more of it to come in the future and you are someday going to have to lead these Men on your own."

"Well, if it means doing what you did to them, then maybe I don't want to lead them!"

Getting to his feet painfully, Legolas warned him, "You might not have a choice! I might not always be here to make the difficult decisions for you!"

"Maybe that's for the best."

Silence followed for a long minute after this, thick and tense it swirled around them. At heart, both knew that the words had been spoken in the heat of the moment and meant little in reality and would be regretted greatly once calm had been restored. Such was the pattern of their relationship. Aragorn would later regret them once he had calmed down and would apologise and all would be forgiven. And yet, Aragorn's scathing words never failed to hurt Legolas. What power that boy held over him – at times it terrified him.

Knowing that a hot-headed Aragorn would be impossible to have a rational conversation with, Legolas ran his fingers through his hair and said wearily, "We should discuss this tomorrow."

"Why not now? Because you don't like what you're hearing? " Aragorn accused.

"No, Aragorn, because I am tired."

Surprisingly, Aragorn's anger was not immediately diminished by this as he thought it should have been and he snapped. "That's because instead of listening to all those who have been telling you to rest you go wandering around the halls! It's your own fault."

"Aragorn," Legolas warned gently, recognising that Aragorn was standing on the edge of saying something that he would majorly regret later, something that would be hard to forgive so easily. "Shouting at me is helping me, is it?"

"Maybe not but it's making me feel a whole lot better," Aragorn yelled back.

Legolas smiled slightly at this. "Well, that is what's important."

"What does that mean?"

"I think you should take a walk."

"Excuse me?"

"Go for a walk, cool off, then maybe when you have calmed down we can talk about this properly."

Even as he walked to the door, flinging it open, Aragorn shouted back at his guardian, "There is nothing more to discuss. Clearly you have made all the decisions for us both already. It's not like I have any input."

Slamming the door hard behind him, Aragorn left Legolas by himself again. His movements weary and increasingly pained, Legolas sat back down on the nest of blankets that consisted of his bed. Sitting mulling over what had occurred with the Men and Aragorn would do little good and yet Legolas could not help himself.

It was times like this, when he was so uncertain as to what course of action to take, that he felt the most lonely and his heart longed for the support of his betters. Going in search of the Rangers after departing from Imladris had in fact been an incredibly selfish act, for Aragorn still looked to him for the answers to their growing array of problems and he felt, even then, that he was consistently coming up short. Perhaps, hopefully, he had been so intent on searching out the Rangers of the North with the wish that their leader would take up his position as decision-maker and leader.

A seasoned commander he may have been, with more experience than all the Rangers put together but this was not the comparatively simple task of commanding the king's army in Mirkwood. Even then Legolas had looked to the higher officer – King Thranduil himself – to decide upon the strategy to keep the Woodland realm both safe and powerful.

Now, Legolas would have longed for his father's presence to take some of the pressure off.

As he laid back onto his mound of blankets serving as a bed, Legolas wondered whether perhaps a detour back to Rivendell might be prudent. Granted, Elrond was all but useless with his broken heart and mind but Erestor still had his wits about him. The Major Domo had not always been quite so passive, Legolas knew; he too was a great warrior, only one who despised the profession and had had very little cause to practice it as he hid away in Rivendell's empty shell in recent years. Although Legolas doubted that Erestor could be persuaded to leave Elrond behind and he was certain that even if the pitiable Elven lord could be pried away from his dead home then he would be little more than a hindrance on the road to Gondor and beyond. Legolas didn't think his fragile soul could take any more disappointment from those he venerated anyway and surely the only thing Elrond could not do was disappoint.

No, Legolas decided with a careful sigh, Imladris was not an option. He was, as ever, very much on his own.

To Be Continued…